Why you should know about Sixto Rodriguez.

In our current climate of economic downturn, in which all industry is suffering, the hardest hit areas are undoubtedly those which have hitherto relied on the general public’s expendable cash. Our luxuries are now being transformed into superfluous attributes as the cost of food, rent, fuel and prostitutes continue to skyrocket. Anything based in the area of services and entertainment is in a state of metamorphosis, the desperation is evident in the high street windows. The despondent and meek complaints of those in positions of servitude whose hours have been greatly reduced due to pressures from management who are under pressures from banks who are desperately attempting to rekindle some of the vast amounts of cash that they have lost in the last 18 months, is a clear indication of the limitations our system is facing.

Venues are taking fewer risks with concerts, only “sure thing” acts or cheap localised talent seems to be appearing, there are less releases, with record labels slowing their output to maintain higher profit margins in the staggering, wounded leviathan that is the music industry.

In short, peoples money is running out, we are realising that we are being exploited in so many aspects of our lives and so are simply spending less money. So it is a rare thing to actually see an upcoming release that I will be marching (well, buying online – it’s cheaper y’know) with my hard earned bundled into my greasy lobster shaped fist to actually purchase an album.

Re-releases generally appear under a suspicious air of desperation or greed (U2, the remaining skeletal, dead horse flogging members of the Doors) or due to the death of an artist. It was a great surprise to see that “Cold Fact” by Sixto Rodriguez is now out on general release on 12/9/08 from Light in the Attic Records.

If you are thinking “Who in the name of the good lord Satan is Sixto Rodriguez?” and well you may be, unless you are a South African of a certain age, for he seems to have gained little popularity elsewhere, aside form select parts of the States. Ok, so the title track “Sugar Man” appeared on a David Holmes album about a decade ago, but in saying that, it was a David Holmes album and so it is doubtful that anyone remembers / gives a rat’s ass.

Sixto’s sound is a wailing melancholic voice of despair set against a late sixties wash of psychedelic orchestration. Disappearing from public life for many years, the few releases that he did produce seemed to follow him into obscurity. A stronghold of fans and aging rejected hippies kept his music circulating and finally, what was recently only available on vinyl and a really terrible cd transfer from the early nineties has been cleaned up and is being made available for you to buy and listen to and realise that this truly is one of the great forgotten albums of all time.

Sexual inadequacy, narcotic dependency, Janis Joplin, Self-Loathing and Anti-Establishment rants are all themes usually credited to Leonard Cohen, Bob Dylan and The Velvet Underground. Rodriguez is the link between all three. In the 29 minutes of Cold Fact he delivers with surprising sincerity, an unarguably unique and beautiful body of work.

I will not pick through each track, giving my own shoddy interpretations, acquire it, explore it and learn to love it; you will be all the more grateful for this. As a friend of mine said to me a few years ago, when we realised that we both had a shared affinity for Rodriguez:

“I’d love to meet the bitch who broke his heart.”

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