Man Chest Hair
British label Finders Keepers has been digging its grubby little paws in dusty record bins for years now, unearthing a vinyl trail of Technicolor sights and sounds that includes everything from Turkish protest songs to Czechoslovakian vampire movie soundtracks. Last year’s excellent Bollywood Bloodbath—which features B-horror movie scores from India—was more funky than frightening, and provided a dance-party soundtrack for 2011 and beyond (the grave). Their latest discoveries are assembled on—wait for it—Man Chest Hair, named for these previously unreleased testosterone-drunk gems plucked from the rock underground of Manchester, England, circa 1970s. And they are as fantastically bristly as the title. It’s a varied collection, too. Savoury Duck’s “Dragon Flight” and Spider Jive’s “Crocadilla” sound like they should be pumped through the speakers of a coke-fueled space disco, while Urbane Gorilla’s “Ten Days Gone” and Oscar’s “Good Lovin’ Woman” are earthier and a little greasier. But the best cut of the bunch is So On And So Forth’s “Sweet Wine,” a blown-out nugget picked deep from the shag. Needless to say, Man Chest Hair comes from a parallel universe—and these songs may actually put hair on your chest.