Barton Smith – Reelizations 2
Santa Cruz’s Smiling C and celebrated selector Charles Balsey (curator of the excellent Club Meduse comps) team up for America Dream Reserve, an hour-long Casio-powered journey through lo-fi Americana, proto-disco, synth-washed lounge, and early drum machine-laden pop ballads. All 16 tracks here are absolute winners and perfectly encapsulate why we cherish private press. Like many crucial ’80s amateur recordings, the songs that make up ‘America Dream’ are incredibly heartfelt, almost to the point of endearingly goofy, with ambitious aims but frugal means. But it’s this uninhibited earnestness and eccentricity that makes the music so wonderfully fragile and compelling.
Recommended – Full Listen
Tags: Country / Drum Machine / Lounge / Pop
Tracklist:
A1 Micksun– Pagliocca (Sad Clown)
A2 Dunn– Vision
A3 Stan Barber– I Saw The Light In Your Eyes
A4 Bill Welsh– So Very Long
B1 Laura Michele– You Always Hurt The One You Love
B2 Perry & Lisa*– Eye Of The Tiger
B3 Marv & Dee*– Taking A Chance On Love
B4 Mark & Suzann Farmer– Waiting For The Dawn
C1 Victoria*– Bop Solo
C2 Stu Cisco– Night Out
C3 FX*– Things Are Not What They Seem
C4 Harley Toberman– Thoughts In Time
C5 Don Armstrong*, Victoria Garvey– Japanese Clouds
D2 David Marr (2)– This Time
D3 Ed & Pat Gibson– Ode To Bill-Joe Tucker
Credits:
Compiled By – Charles Bals, Henry Jones
Graphic Design – Asger Behncke Jacobsen, Rudy Guedj
Illustration – Charles Bals
Lacquer Cut By – Λ_*
Mastered By – Greg Reierson
