Various Artists
Goosebumps: 25 Years of Marina Records
Marina
THE National Museum of Scotland is likely tired of folk pointing out omissions from its Rip It Up celebration of Scottish pop exhibition, but the debt owed to a small label in Hamburg is another.
The enthusiasm of Marina Records founders Stefan Kassel and Frank Lahnemann for the work of post-punk and post-Postcard musicians from Glasgow, Edinburgh and Bellshill has made their back catalogue the finest repository of Scottish music, and this two-disc collection contains many previously unreleased gems alongside gems from as far back as 1994, and now-forgotten Glasgow funk sextet Gazelle.
There are some fine funky gems from their native land as well, but Scottish attention will focus on rare cuts by Malcolm Ross (of Josef K and Orange Juice), Paul Haig (Josef K), James Kirk (Orange Juice), Chris Thomson (Friends Again and The Bathers) and Grahame Skinner (Hipsway).
The set also boasts plenty of examples of the hugely underrated song-writing and production talents of David Scott of The Pearlfishers, including two cuts from Beach Boys tribute album Caroline Now by Norman Blake, of Teenage Fanclub, and the late, great Alex Chilton (Box Tops, Big Star).
There was a shared aesthetic between much of what came out on Marina and what was going on in Scotland, but you’d have to say that the German label often has the edge with their packaging, and this handsome double is no exception.
Keith Bruce
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