Love International and Test Pressing commemorate yet another cracking festival with the latest instalment in their collaborative compilation series for their LIXTP label. For The Sound Of Love International #006 they’ve chosen Jay Donaldson aka Palms Trax as their selector. He’s a regular at Love International.
The Berlin-based DJ, known for his eclectic sets and long-running NTS show "Cooking With Palms Trax," delivers a diverse selection of tracks gathered from his global journeys.
The album opens with Linda Waterfall’s Clarity. A fabulous flight of late 1970s spiritual jazz-influenced folk from the late Seattle-based singer / songwriter, who released her debut on Windham Hill.
Sebastian’s Follow My Heart is a soulful soft rocker, a sax-y seduction theme.
On Did It Have To Be Me, glorious gospel choir-like backing lifts Frank E. Jeffries Jr.’s cool croon, and the spirits of anyone lucky enough to be listening.
Two tracks travel from `90s South Africa. El Pedro’s La Luna is a pumping piece of S.A. bubblegum. Novidade’s Masingita features great guitar picking and warm, welcoming group vocals.
Dieta Berliner & Jean Baptiste’s Paula & Kaspar transports us back to Berlin and forwards to 2012. A B-side secret weapon from Dieta’s short-lived Pakalolo City Records.
Culled from a cult Canadian 45 Angelo Mallia’s Hideaway is cute, catchy tumbling TR-808- driven synth-pop.
A piece of plugged-in Belgian `80s prog-rock, Zardoz’s brilliant Brasilia Drums pits its titular percussion against big cosmic synths, and segues into a new age-y journey.
Danish keyboard virtuoso Gert Thrue shows off his chops on I Play The Body Electronic. Feeding everything through psychedelic phasing effects, and overdubbing some fab Fender Rhodes
In Trance 95 might be one of the better known acts here, since the Athens-based duo’s work has been collected on Veronica Vasicka’s Minimal Wave, and in the 2010s they also supported Depeche Mode. Their 1991 single, Warm Nights Driving On Wet Streets, is chunky chill out room gear.
Frenchman Alain Salvati is behind Flayer’s Wanna Get Back Your Love, which first appeared in 1983, oddly on an Italian 12. Rediscovered at the turn of the millennium it’s become a bona fide modern Balearic anthem.
The closing cut, Jeancky’s Variations Sur Protestation, kind of brings the album, musically, full circle. Returning to the late `70s with campfire congas, bongos, and gentle acoustic strumming.
The majority of the tracks included were self-released / privately pressed and in many cases the often mysterious artists’ only recorded outings. So, in putting this together Palms Trax has unearthed hidden gems, creating a magical, floor-filling journey through music.
Available as Double LP on 12" Vinyl.
