Various Artists

- New Untouchables Present Le Beat Bespoke 8 - Detour Records

Eighth volume in the ongoing series of Le Beat Bespoke compilations, as with all its predecessors, it’s been collated by New Untouchables’ own Dr Robert. Twenty tracks, all tried and tested dance floor destroyers at New Untouchables’ long-running Mousetrap club nights over the past few years or so. Lifted from unissued master tapes, obscure acetates, seriously hard to find 45s, equally rare album tracks and even alternative edits and remixes, predominantly but not exclusively all 60s recordings ( one or two being first released in the early 70s). Blending psyche, freakbeat, fuzz, garage punk and mod beat grooves, arguably volume 8 is the best Le Beat Bespoke collection so far, all killer and no filler. Nothing less is expected from Dr Robert, who remixed the opening track. Painted Air was originally limited to 300 singles from Texan acid punk outfit Remaining Few. The slow down, speed up structure of the original 45 has been remixed and edited into dance floor dynamite, which also sets the bar high for the accompanying killer tunes, such as The Seeds whose 1969 album track, Just Let Go, has been tailored to suit (edited) dance floor action. Unissued until recently is another slab of Texas garage punk, the sleazy ‘n’ sinister unrelenting Seasons from Neal Ford and The Fanatics. Another that has instant appeal outside of a dark basement scenario Is Tomorrow’s Sunlight, featured on the mega rare 1971 album, but was also a 45 release from Ohio’s Estes Bros. How It Used To Be, released by Oedipus And The Mothers in 1967, is 60s Texas psyche-punk at its rawest and rarest. Previously commercially unissued anywhere until this collection is LA-based Lenny Roberts’ storming slice of 60s garage Searchin’, which is chronologically followed by Dean Carter’s holler ‘n’ respond-type pounding stomper Love’s A Workin’. Then there’s the mid-60s mod beat gem, Getting The Blues, an album-only cut from The Gents Inc., originally on the German Falcon label. With a nod and a wink towards the Small Faces comes Sally I Do from New Zealand freakbeat outfit Abdullah’s Regime, released in 1968. The Difference, hailing from Norway, also drew inspiration from The Small Faces, if their obscure B side from 1968, Outside, is any indicator. Reissued as Mousetrap anniversary single in 2017, The Lost Soul, soul-inspired Secret Of Mine originally from 1967 is rightly an anthem at Mousetrap and panEuropean mod events everywhere. Closing this superb collection of winners is the psyche-stomp album track I Want You, released in 1965 by Tony and Terri. A scorching collection of tunes already tried and tested as dance floor packers in their own right, also a taster for New Untouchables regular Mousetrap club nights as well as other happenings such as Le Beat Bespoke weekenders.