Some private press Australian AOR up on the archive now.
Pulled this out of a five dollar bin and was struck by the cover photo taken on Sydney's Pyrmont bridge.
Rare to see a true self-funded release just sitting around with such little information. There's no release date and Claire isn't even credited with a last name!
A number of working musicians featured who also played on bits and pieces for Australian groups in the 70s and 80s, but really there's nothing particularly notable about this release apart from it's obscurity and this tune.
Room In My Heart is undoubtedly the standout track here. While others are pretty run of the mill op shop pop, it has beautiful balaeric charm and is a real underground earworm.
Another reminder than you never know what might be hiding on a record that hasn't had the appreciation it deserves.
Stoked to present to you guys my mix for the incredible Space'd Ensemble crew!
A collection of a bunch of the records I have been playing at home, on radio and at bars, it's feels really lovely to be given the trust and freedom by Space'd to be able to put it all together for 120 odd minutes.
There's a bit of everything that I hold dear, 80s rock. Street Soul bargain bin bits, dancehall and ragga dusties and of course, house music.
In that spirit hopefully this mix works for a lot of places. A long drive, drinks with friends, a slow morning with the cryptic or cooking up a storm. Any time you can find to listen means a lot to me!
Click the photo below:
Also Melbourne crew come down and support local this record store day @ Skydiver!
Feeling in over my head to be on this incredible lineup.
I noticed that the only CD they had been credited was on a compilation for Australian music retailer Sanity, compiled by DJ Andy Glitre.
John McCall again featured on this remix and I wondered, was he something of a third member of the group?
Furthermore, almost all of the other tracks on the Rhythm Method compilation had previously been released elsewhere. Why put this track only out on such a strange commercial compilation?
Intrigued, but equally confused and bereft of information, I tracked down a copy of the CD and reached out to Robert Goodge to find out about the story of Moisture Rich Foundation.
Goodge said that Moisture Rich Foundation was one of the many projects he and Main undertook once Gavin Callander moved interstate and Filthy Lucre ended.
"John McCall was what you could call a session player," Goodge wrote, "we got him in to do some solos on stuff..the group was really just Paul and myself."
He said they produced a bunch of stuff together, some of which they sold to Groovilcious and Strictly Rhythm in New York.
"Andy Glitre lived in [Melbourne] for a while and Paul and him were good friends," Goodge wrote.
"I knew him from his Sydney days [because] I used to play up there a lot in I'm Talking and we often played the nightclubs."
"He just asked if we had something he could use," Goodge continued.
"He gave us $90 and said 'thats it you don't get a royalty or anything,' but then it just sank without a trace."
"We were probably the only people who made any money off it anyhow."
I asked if the two of them set out to make particularly deep house, something which was rare with Australian releases at the time.
"No we were just trying to do music, no creative goals in particular other than do something that people liked," Goodge replied.
"We liked dubby stuff, Paul was really into a lot of underground stuff, so we weren't trying to be commercial which made it hard [because] the OZ music biz didn't want anything like that.
"Australia back then was very isolated if you were trying to do anything out of the ordinary."
Moods (McCalls 'N' All Mix) is definitely out of the ordinary for Australian house music of 1999. There's mellow ambient pads and layered quasi-latin percussion, before we get to some squelching acid and McCall's solo that is front and centre on the original mix.
It's deep, unhurried house music which seems to carry that sentiment that Goodge and Main were just out to create something people liked.
Hopefully by featuring it on the channel it can find the audience it truly deserves!
