What I Bought On My Holidays
by Andrew James Cosgriff
age 28 and a fair bit.

So I was in Singapore for ten days (see photos if you like), and despite buying all the following, I was actually pretty restrained. Honest.

Most of these I picked up 'cause they were cheap, or at least fairly cheap. Except for Technodon.

These two came from a shop called Gramophone, the day I arrived, and was let loose in Orchard Rd while Mavis went to the gym for an hour :

• Cabaret Voltaire : 1974-76

  Look. You buy these things for their historical significance, much like Throbbing Gristle's _20 Jazz Funk Greats_. Explaining to somebody why you'd buy it, and repeatedly listen to it for pleasure...well...anyway. Just trust me.

• Yellow Magic Orchestra : Technodelic

  I can justify this a bit more than Cabaret Voltaire, although my reasons for purchasing are one and the same. I do have this on vinyl already, though, back from when Dixon's Recycled (especially the Blackburn one, I recall) was a treasure trove of 70's and 80's electronica. I even found a Y.M.O. double live album once, on see-through red vinyl. But anyway, _Technodelic_'s quite a nice piece of work from 1981, when they were still doing interesting stuff, before they started looking like a over-made-up boy band (check the cover of the ironically named _Naughty Boys_).

From HMV's "2 for $40" sale (I think they were doing the same thing here ? I dunno, I never normally go there)

• The Beach Boys : Pet Sounds

  A piece of historical significance more of you can relate to, I suppose. This is the new (post-boxed-set) remastered one, with the entire album in mono, then again in remastered stereo.

• Lucinda Williams : Essence

  I shoulda had this already, I know. One of these days I'll correct my priorities.

• Mojave 3 : excuses for travellers

  I'd just picked up Out of Tune before I went away, and It Was Good(tm). So's this. A little country twang never hurt anybody, even an old shoegazer. Honest.

• various artists : Ghost Dog: the way of the samurai

  It was there, it was $20, and I figured if I was going to have some of this kind of stuff, then it wasn't a bad album to have. Or something like that.

• various artists : Down from the Mountain

  A live performance of stuff from (or like) what was in O Brother, Where Art Thou ?

  Have any of you USA folk gone and seen the new Cohen Brothers film, The Man Who Wasn't There ? Thoughts ?

• Talvin Singh : ok
• Talvin Singh : ha

More backtracking, I didn't expect to see the new one going cheap just yet. So far (I've listened to the first one on the way to work and back), pretty nice.

and from Tower Records in Suntec City Mall :

• Mekons : Original Sin
• Mekons : So good it hurts
• Mekons : I love Mekons
• Mekons : Retreat from Memphis
• Mekons : Where were you? Hen's Teeth and other lost fragments of unpopular culture Vol. 2

  5 Mekons albums I didn't have, in one shop ! It's too much to absorb in one go. Slow progress here.

• Yellow Magic Orchestra : Technodon

  From their 1993 reformation act. William S Burroughs even contributes a few soundbites, such as on the first track (the only one I've really gotten into so far). I'd been after this since it came out, I don't think it ever really made it out of Japan. Cost me $45 in Singapore, but I knew I'd never see it again...

(from various locations, mostly HMV)

• The very best of The Smiths (I think that's what it was called, there's so many compilations these days)
• Placebo : Black Market Music
• [...that recent Shirley Bassey remix album...]
• The David Arnold James Bond Project : _Shaken and Stirred_ (for $5 !)

  I got these for Mavis, because they're the sort of things she seemed to like, or I thought she should own, or whatever (plus I picked up a copy of 69 Love Songs

T-Shirt-wise, it was a bit grim (not much XL stuff) - I took a few chances on some large-sized t-shirts - one by a mob called "x-dreem" (I think), one by "fourskin" (lame name, nice shirt, although they didn't have my size in the one I really liked), and a few others. Er. I forget. Saw a nice "Paul Frank meets Shag" one, but wrong size. Blah.

Oh, and I got a new wallet.

Of course, I didn't spend all my time in Singapore buying CDs. I did actually go there to visit somebody in particular... :)