(Written by Terry Reeves)
Terry Reeves: Lead Vocal
Hans-Michael Albers:  All instruments, arrangement & production

Whenever we send Hans the demo of a new song, one of the most enticing parts of the process is that we never know what is going to come winging it’s way back from Hamburg.  We never try and steer him in any particular direction because we have total faith that whatever he sends will  be much, much better than anything we’d had in mind.

Quite often, once a week or two has passed and he’s had the chance to expand on his thinking, he’ll send another version, totally different from the first but always something equally as brilliant, causing both Tel and myself to ponder which one to post.   A quandary of the very best kind.  

Chris O is a multi-faceted musician who seems at home within any genre but there’s no doubt she is best known for her mastery of The Blues, hence the demo leaning very firmly in that direction…or so we thought  However, on hearing it for the first time, Hans heard something very different.  His thoughts focused on a simple piano / voice ballad, something we were certainly not expecting but which totally blew us away.

By the end of that weekend though, along too came the blues version, a delicious groove to which I couldn’t wait to add some drums and as those who’ve already heard it will know, that’s the one we eventually posted.  Nevertheless, the indelible mark imprinted on my sensibilities by the unplugged mix simply refused to go away.  Even though it’s precisely the same vocal, the pared-back accompaniment pushes it’s heart and it’s power to the fore and I felt that it deserved to be heard.  So that’s the reason we’re posting ‘The Love of Mrs. O’, phase two…

In closing, despite our retirement from active involvement here on SC, Cripple Club wanted to send each and every one of you our sincere thanks for continuing to support our work.  Your generosity of spirit and kind words always mean so much to the three of us.  (Gary Reeves)

I met a brave woman by the name of Mrs O
Playing ‘The Blues’ flying high sometimes flying low
Guitars and Banjos pitching..always acoustic 
Singing and sharing a love affair with music

The Love Of Mrs O

No distance too far, mile by mile growing warm
Confidence of written word believing in art-form
Marriage strings and voice harmonising sounds
The love of freedom scales tightly in bounds

The Love Of Mrs O

Concerts of brave, pulse to a time
Ensemble in waves, helping the climb
Brothers of blues, traveller of love
Live music choose, to fit like a glove

The Love Of Mrs O

Mrs O keeps soaring magnum opus in her hands
Song of friendship for a man from many bands
Expanse of cumulus clouds, filming for all to see
Never hiding from the challenge in the Nebulosity

The Love Of Mrs O

Up and down across the world finding a closeness
No discrimination of any kind, love is always best
From ‘The Beatles’ land to a Sydney education 
Fondness for Mrs O, giving a continuous ovation

The Love Of Mrs O

THE LOVE OF MRS. O (UNPLUGGED) - CRIPPLE CLUB

Republika Hrvatska - Na Putu Smo

Winner of the week: 🥇46

Croatia is a democratic constitutional state in the transition zone between Central and Eastern Europe and Southeastern Europe.

Croatia's territory extends across a continental landlock, partly located in the Pannonian Plain, connected to a Mediterranean coastal and hinterland stretching along the eastern Adriatic Sea, traversed by the Dinaric Mountains, which serve as a watershed between the Adriatic Sea and the Danube Sea. Croatia's capital is Zagreb, the largest city ahead of Split, Rijeka, and Osijek. In addition to the titular nation of the Croats, national minorities are also part of the country's population, of which the Serbian minority is the largest.

Croatia's economy is heavily dependent on tourism, with tourism revenue accounting for 19.2% of its gross domestic product in 2019. Croatia is a member of the United Nations, the European Union, NATO, the OSCE, and the World Trade Organization. Croatia has been part of the Schengen Area and the Eurozone since 2023.

Croatia - Na Putu Smo

Croatia 🥇 - Na Putu Smo

Lefatshe la Botswana - Re Tsamaya

Botswana is a landlocked country in southern Africa. It borders South Africa to the southeast and south, Namibia to the west and north, and Zambia and Zimbabwe to the northeast.

Botswana was a colony (“protectorate”) of the United Kingdom from 1885 until its independence in 1966 under the name Bechuanaland. The United Nations Development Program now lists Botswana as one of the countries with high levels of human development.

Since 2012, Botswana has been the most democratic country on the African mainland according to the Democracy Index. In addition, the country has the lowest susceptibility to corruption since it was first recorded in the corruption perception index in 1998. In both indices it also outperforms many western industrialized countries, such as Italy and most Eastern and Southeast European countries, every year.

Botswana - Re Tsamaya

Untergrund (Joe Bin Hood Version)

Burkina Faso - Laafi Laafi

Burkina Faso (translated as "Land of the Upright Man,") it is a landlocked West African country located south of the Niger River and bordering Mali, Niger, Benin, Togo, Ghana, and the Ivory Coast. The country gained its independence on August 5, 1960. Until August 4, 1984, it used the name Republic of Upper Volta (French: République de Haute-Volta), which it received during its time as a French colony. The pan-Africanist-socialist President Thomas Sankara, who seized power in a coup in 1983 after a period of political instability, had the country renamed.

The administrative and cultural capital of the country, which has a population of around 20.1 million, is the centrally located city of Ouagadougou. The predominantly flat, landlocked country, with parts of the greater Sudanese and Sahel region, is characterized by a tropical climate and diverse savannah landscapes. About half of Burkinabe people belong to the politically dominant Mossi ethnic group, who lived in several strictly hierarchically organized kingdoms until colonized by France at the end of the 19th century. Around 60 indigenous languages ​​are spoken in Burkina Faso. Islam is the most widely practiced religion alongside traditional beliefs. Burkina Faso has long been one of the poorest countries in the world, but after the revolution, it was characterized for a long time by a certain stability and peaceful coexistence between the ethnic groups represented in the population. Regularly recurring droughts often cause great hardship for the population, who mainly live as farmers.

Following a coup against the incumbent government under elected President Roch Marc Kaboré on January 24, 2022, the military led by Paul-Henri Sandaogo Damiba seized power in Burkina Faso. On September 30, 2022, Damiba was overthrown by rival military officers under Captain Ibrahim Traoré, who are sympathetic to Russia. Parts of the country are under the control of jihadists belonging to the terrorist organizations Islamic State or al-Qaeda.

Burkina Faso - Laafi Laafi

Cast of Characters:
Didier Burli-- @didierburli — acoustic guitar, main vocals, composition
Llanpsych–@llanpsych –Tez– Fender Stratocaster electric guitar, mix, and production
K2 and the Three [and the Four]--@k2andthe3, @k2-kara –Ken–drums, percussion 
Entheogenic Psychonaught (Josh Clary)– @josh-clary-1 –Josh – Roland Phantom organ, Roland piano, Paul Reed Smith cutom SE electric guiar, Warwick four string fretless bass, vocal harmonies
TexMex Shaman– @texmex-shaman –Stephen– Tom Anderson custom T model electric guitar

This song began with Didier coming up with it on his acoustic guitar. However, when he first sent it to Josh, he had played electric guitar, bass, keys, and drums on it, because he is a very talented multi-intrumentalist. This song passes the stool test, though, which is the question of whether it sounds good with someone just sitting on a stool with a guitar, playing and singing it. So, when we asked him to give us a version that we could add to, it was already a great song that he sent us with just him singing over his acoustic guitar. 
  Tez was the first one up on this one, adding the fiery fills throughout, as well as the co-solo at the end. Ken entered the fray next, adding his rock solid, dynamic drums. Once the drums were down giving him something to play against, Josh added his fretless bass to the song. Being very excited about this one, he also added piano, organ, and eventually the lead guitar solo at the end. He also went in and added all the vocal harmonies throughout. Stephen then brought up the rear with some really cool textural guitar throughout. 
  Once we had it in the bag, we asked Tez to produce and mix it for us, which he did in his usual expert fashion. 
  This is our first song with Didier, but we hope it's just the beginning of his new inclusion into the Eclectic Collective family. He has a lot of great music on his page, which is worth checking out, too. We hope you enjoy listening to this song as much as we enjoyed creating it.
Original lyrics by Didier Burli:
I wish I could stay awake but I need to sleep
Thunder is on it's way but I don't hear it
I don't fear the ghouls, and I don't fear the creeps
And with this dancing zombie, I don't know what to do with it
And I just get too much information....
in the middle of the night, when everything is silent....

(chorus) And the noise rises up
From all those things, that mankind does, that makes you want throw up

(chorus) And the noise rises up
From all those things, that mankind does that makes you want dream of

(chorus) And the noise rises up
From all those things that makes you scared of

(chorus) And the noise rises up
From all those things that mankind lost

And I just get too much information....
in the middle of the night, when everything is silent....

The Noise Rises Up-Didier/Eclectic Collective

Liner Notes by the editors:

Little is known about the band that has created this song. Most of this little information can be gleaned from the website of FMT, whom a previous SHELLF LIFE release can be attributed to. We caution that  we do not know if any or all of this information is outdated: https://furicomusicteam.blogspot.com/p/shellf-life-interview.html Unfortunately, the Furico Team was not available for commentary, since they are launching quite a different kind of historic project on kitchen label.  

Some questionable facts regarding STRANGELOVE’S BRAIN’s release are related in quite a verbose and unreliable way tinged with judgemental interpretation and interspersed with pseudointellectual preconceptions here:   https://soundcloud.com/sonic-textures/shellf-life-paraphernalia-and-parerga-2025 (German original, as far as we can discern). According to that ‚account‘, the recording of STRANGELOVE’S BRAIN was found on a self-burnt disc (ha, that ancient Nero joke!) in a forgotten chest. The poem used in this recording is the only item that can be traced to an author (jo richter) who was kind enough to allow us to reprint here. Obviously, the references to the war-inflicted tragedies of Hiroshima and Nagasaki make it of  special importance at this moment in history, not only because of current tensions, but also because those two catastrophies happened about 80 years ago in August 1945. We therefore decided to release the two versions known thus far as a vinyl single to the general public, accompanied by an image attributed to the same author as the poem.


Strangelove's Brain

another pensive pariah
spotted on the outskirts
of Hyperbolea, Parolia
avant, avant, sempre vorwärts

keeping the obvious captive
locked in a by a reverse smirk
another dementia denier
Hiroshima, where shadows lurk

and the moon keeps rising, rising
every other day, socializing
with singed hands on bare rocks

iron out unseemly locks
to keep face, straight, straight
little boys take progress' bait

B: Strangelove's Brain (brain, blood and bone mix)

Recorded in Modesto, Ca.   Featuring Gibson ES-335 Electric Guitar solo. Hammond B3 Electric Organ solo. Soprano Saxophone solo. Steinway Brothers Acoustic Piano Rhythm. Acoustic Bass. Hammond B3 Electric Organ Rhythm with Bass Peddles. Drums Full kit set. Percussion Wood-Block, Shaker, Ago go Bells, Brushes.

Untergrund (Joe Bin Hood Version)

Joe Bin Hood

Related tracks