El Senor Ciuf Ciuf

El Senor Ciuf Ciuf (Italian for a child's name for a steam train - chuff chuff) presents an intriguing proposition. The music is equal parts house music and Beach Boys style harmonies, all mixed up into a intriguing brew that brings Jamie Liddell, early Aphex Twin and the Flaming Lips in minds.

I Think I Saw A Dead Person Walking Yesterday is the best track from his debut EP, and much like Good Vibrations, it creates a series of mood-scenes, loosely connected with a common theme. It's stupendous.

You can download the entire EP, As Seen From Above released free over the intertubes by those pleasant people at 12rec.

I thought the EP was spoiled by the interminably long track The Unspeakable Chant Of A Collapsing Universe, which is nine-minutes of monotonous industrial techno-noise that sits at odds with the rest of the album. But that may be the entire point.

Pop Shopping

Pop Shopping is a compilation from the classic label Crippled Dick Hot Wax. This compilation of German TV commercial jingles from the 60s and 70s celebrates forgotten music. Its English language equivalent would feature the Shake And Vac theme.

Amongst the pop nuggets on here are a bizarre calypso (in German of course) for Nescafe coffee, a rocking tune for Grand Prix racing at the Nurburgring, and various ditties for hand cream, chocolates, cars, blenders and all other manner of mod cons.

Swinging Nordwest is the funkiest track on this album, a rather groovy number for Nordwest Shoes. You can almost imagine the advert to this great track (I was thinking go-go dancers in miniskirts while the camera zooms in and out rapidly). There is also an instrumental version on the album.