Sheep Records was a Swiss underground label specialized in Garage-Rock, Surf, Lounge and other Rock'n'Roll oddities. Run by Christian Müller from Zürich, along with friends Andi Frick and Andreas Egi, it was active from 1996 to 2004 and published about 30 releases, mostly on 7" vinyl singles.
In october 2006, after about two years of hiatus, all the contents of the now defunct Sheep Records website were deleted from the Internet, and replaced with a blank page announcing that "Der Kebab ist gegessen" ("The kebab is eaten"), a last goodbye and a reference to the label's cataloguing system that included the prefix "kebab" for vinyl releases and "gigot" for CD releases.
The sixteenth Sheep Records release was another great single by The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. This 7" is limited to 300 copies on orange vinyl and 200 copies on black vinyl, for a total of 500 copies; it was released in November 2000.
On Side A we find "Burnout For Davie" which, according to the short Sheep Records press-release «is the theme tune for the swiss TV series '5 Kugeln für Tschanun'»... Uhm, I wasn't able to find any information about it on the Internet: is it meant to be an imaginary TV series? Who knows... Anyway, I guess I enjoyed "Holy Smoke", the track on Side B, more than "Burnout..."... Is it because in the depth of my mind I still think that somehow it is inspired by the Iron Maiden track of the same name? Once again, who knows... As the label puts it, «Psychedelic, laid back... Simply the coolest Hammond instros. This time produced by themselves.»
Here's the track list and the personnel/credits list for this 7" single as they appear on the back cover:
01. Burnout For Davie (4:23)
02. Holy Smoke (4:15)
Guitar: Gerry Germann
Bass: Rolf Keller
Organ: Mario Janser
Drums: Stefan Saurer
Recorded at the Portable Studios by Prof. Fate and his secret machine of massmanipulation.
All songs written by The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E.
Cover by Rolf Keller.
The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have recently opened a page on Bandcamp and are currently offering their albums for download: if you enjoy their music please support them!
Here's the group official biography as it appears on their own website:
The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. (Winterthur, Switzerland) rush out of the speakers, straight through your living room, into your ears and move your pulse. The sound is fit for street races with perfectly tuned cars and at home in NASA promotional films. The rough edges and instrumental action sound echoes the space-rock-bands and soundtracks of the 70s. The catchy beat of Drums, Congas and Bass join the wild Hammond organ and fuzzy Guitar to mash-up the scenes.
"The Living Eye" is the third record of the S.P.E.C.T.R.E.'s and released on American label Hammondbeat Records. "The Living Eye" is more indulgent, more psychedelic, and hits the beat harder than the previous records. The songs "Purple Pill People" and "Black Tank", along with earlier productions, have been released on internationally revered labels like Acid Jazz Records (UK).
The Men from S.P.E.C.T.R.E. have toured Italy, Spain, UK, Germany, Belgium, France, and Switzerland. The Swiss quintet will be on stage with "The Living Eye" ...heading for lots of trouble.
The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E., 1998
More information about Sheep Records and The Men From S.P.E.C.T.R.E. is available here:
http://www.surfnroll.de/interviews/sheep/sheep.html
http://www.men-from-spectre.org
http://menfromspectre.bandcamp.com/
http://www.myspace.com/menfromspectre
http://www.youtube.com/results?search_query=%22men+from+s.p.e.c.t.r.e.%22
The Sheep Records story will continue in the next months. All your inputs are more than welcome, if you want to get in touch please write to stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!
