Listen: That’s What I Want / The Square Set ThatsWhatIWant.mp3

Nice thing about collecting records, you always find something you didn’t know you needed. Thankfully that never ends. This record is an example.

Apparently, pretty sought after by mod jazz collectors, I stumbled on it via an eBay listing back in 2007. I have a daily search set up for UK A labels. So one day, there it was, listed for auction and on UK Decca, which is a favorite. Luckily, the dealer posted an mp3 too. I checked it out and was immediately interested. I wasn’t prepared for the closing price though, about $200, and therefore got horribly outbid.

Had been searching ever since, waiting for another copy to be listed. Nothing.

Luckily, I finally found my copy, sitting there in a pile of 50p demo singles during a crack of dawn troll of Portobello Road junk dealers a few Saturdays ago while in London. Minor miracle indeed.

Still don’t know much about these guys. I think they’re from South Africa, and like the track’s retro psych style, their charm was all about sounding quite out of date, even in their time.

Although released in ’71, it has a perfect mid 60′s jazz organ sound, not sounding unlike Manfred Mann, if they’d attempted a Flamingo Club all nighter styled single. It’s since become a party staple.