Age of Individualism
SMOA, 197?

The coolest, funnest and weirdest discovery of recent years unearthed by local master digger Chris Veltri. For fetishists of DIY basement electro funk or real people expression, this is tough to beat. This is disco/funk with a philosophical new age message, voiced partly through a ventriloquist dummy. No shit. A 2 LP set with fat, pulsating, DIY analog beats on 4 side-long cuts and killer production that completely envelopes and penetrates the listener. The (33RPM) disc one is where it's at with "The Individual You", a spoken/sung philosophical synth wave/disco "message" number and flip side "T,J.'s Disco Philosophy" with unreal dialogue between Jones and his alter-ego ventriloquist dummy T.J. Hustler. Disc two is 45RPM with cuts "Foxy lady" and "Cycle of Life", both super-jankety tracks with similar sound but will appeal mostly to those who've ventured deep into, and been lost in, the DIY funk jungle. 'Nother crazy angle to this find is that this is the same Tim Jones from the Vietnam vet group Mysterious Minds and pressed on the same SMOA label. I'm not a fan of that album, sound doesn't do it for me, but man, I wish this Jones guy had done more solo stuff. The packaging here is the clincher - a total jerry-rigged affair that looks more like a linoleum sampler book than an album cover. Two oversized blank white textured pieces of cardboard are bound by yarn on "spine" side. Title and artist credits are screen printed in gold on front and attached to the album binder is a 3" folded single sheet pamphlet [click to read]. Both discs are bound inside with punch-holed plastic inner sleeves. Needless to say, the project flopped and no further recordings were ever offered. T.J. was tracked, has zero copies and claims only 50-100 were ever pressed. Sound samples coming soon and I hear this is getting comped as well.