Various - The Buntingford Long Player Record

Three weeks ago, i'd never heard mention of The Buntingford Long Player Record and now here i sit, contemplating its desirous mythical status. So, how did we end up here and just what exactly is a 'Buntingford'? Well, it's actually a small market town in Hertfordshire, which is as good a place to start as any... It wasn't long after punk went supernova and nationwide in 1977 that things really started to become interesting, localised derivations of punk ideology manifesting in unusual and odd formations. One product of all this DIY energy was the emergence of the regional compilation phenomena, documents of short-lived musical communities united mostly by geography and intent - we've had plenty of examples in the shop down the years, each of varying content and interest: Bouquet of Steel (Sheffield), City Walls (Southampton), Waiting Room (Manchester), the Vaultage series (Brighton)++. For those with more than a passing interest in punk cultural history, The Buntingford... represents a holy grail of sorts, not unlike Wellington's Four Stars comp, a previously near-impossible to find collection featuring a dozen or so youths across seven bands and 13 songs. Stylistically, it runs between modpop, post-punk and second wave, and, again similar to Four Stars, a kind of proto-KBD. The results are understandably both spirited and rudimentary, a one-and-done clarion call for youth, friendship, community and, most crucially, possibility. After 1980 things would change pretty quickly once again (they always do), but the uneven magic captured here is eternal in its appeal, a snapshot of a broader historical moment, a window into lives you'd otherwise blink and miss. In some ways, then, i guess you might understand this as a folk musics of sorts, and there aint nothing as strange as folk, right? Issued by Zaius Tapes, the Tanzanian (!!) imprint responsible for that recent Negative Reaction repress, and just as crucial. Edition of 250.