What record, which record, when? – Words with Andy Votel
Originally, this was supposed to be a straight-up interview. I’d ask vintage vinyl aficiando Andy Votel all about his upcoming DJ set in Limerick, what its like to run three record labels simultaneously and generally see where his head is at. Then one evening when I was chewing on a biscuit and conjuring ideas, I decided I’d test the man’s musical responses to various hypothetical social settings that may arise. I’d ask him what records would he play in the specified situations and surely he’d answer with some witty retort about some equally bizarre and obscure record.
Bulls eye.
For the uninitiated, Andy Votel Votel is as close to a one-man music business as you could wish to get. A solo artist in his own right, he also produces, remixes, designs, DJs and runs a number of blissfully eclectic record labels.
Votel grew up in the north west of England and developed a broad taste for music, specializing in all things psychedelic, from Can to Serge Gainsbourg. He released some records on Grand Central and started the legendary Twisted Nerve label back in the late 90s along with Bad Drawn Boy. Things got mental busy from there on in.
But probably the reason most people will know Andy Votel is for his record collection. And damn, kid – Andy Votel got records for days. His Music To Make Girls Cry and Songs In The Key Of Death mixes are testament to that, spawning a generation of diggers to start looking in ever more obscure places and countries. He’s scoured a world of second hand shops on his international record raid, a quest to unearth the forgotten foreign dancefloor gems from the days long past. And it’s these lost musical documents that end up being discovered by a new generation of heads, thanks to the immense amount of folk, psych, and prog diamonds that have been reissued by Votel via his Finders Keepers and B-Music labels.
Basically, if anyone was qualified to provide suitable soundtracks to these scenarios, Votel is your boy.
Andrew, what record would you reach for if you were…
(a) In the frontline of a battlefield?
“Mother Sky by Can would be a real adrenalin booster. Depends on the choice of weapon really – bare fists or swords would require something less metronomic. Battle Of The Locusts by Aphrodites Child – it would be a short battle.”
(b) Dj-ing at an Irish pikey wedding?
“I reckon The Headcoatees version of Teenage Kicks might protect me from a teenage kickin’.”
(c) Entering a Mexican lucha libre wrestling ring?
“Some heavy South American psych should fit the bill. Maybe Meshkalina by Traffic Sound from Peru – its about the joys of hallucinating on cactus juice and has the imortal line “We were having fun even though we were dying” which would be apt.”
(d) After winning the national Bingo tournament in Blackpool?
“A top cabaret organ standard… it’d have to be ‘Caravan’ by Rodway Leyland Duo as featured on a recent B-Music compilation. They were the pride of the Manchester working man’s club circuit in the early 60’s and professed to be “The Smallest Big-Band In The World”. The drummer must have been a closet up-rocker cause the beats on this little gem are 100% b-boy y’all.
Or maybe ‘The Big Payback’ would be more appropriate.”
(e) Stuck in a pub in Manchester and the aliens had just arrived?
“Something off Finders Keepers new Jean-Pierre Masseira compilation – he was a cosmic record producer from France who was obsessed with outer-space… he was the French Joe Meek… and in every photo you see of him, he’s downing a bottle of wine. Maybe mix that with Only When I’m Drunk by The Alkoholics. Word!”
Andy Votel will be bringing his wild wonky DJ skills to the Rowing Club on Sarsfield Bridge, March 13th. Expect Japanese choreography records, space-age Turkish protest songs, Czechoslovakian vampire soundtracks, Welsh rare-beats and bubblegum folk all slapped up in a wigged-out wash of exquisite foreign breakbeat mayhem. Support comes from the Kerrynini men and Jeremy Murphy (every djs’ favourite dj). Keeping with the sprit on the night of rediscovering and presenting nuggets from the past, Cheebah’s heroic Paul Tarpey has sifted digitally through a stack of old video tapes to find psych-related visual confrontations that will be strung together for a projected loop edit channelling a 60s to 80s vibe where the sprit of the ufo club meets the style of early Human League projections’
www.myspace.com/andyvotel
d OO bs
Read More Tags: Andy Votel, B-Music, Finders Keepers, Grand Central, Jeremy, Kerrynini, Twisted Nerve
