Mingering Mike, Super Gold Greatest Hits

This delightful and highly inventive collection of lo-fi archival recordings is the result of a wonderful accident, one that's sent shock waves through both the soul music and the art worlds. The story goes like this: Back in 2004, a Washington, DC-based private investigator and soul aficionado named Dori Hadar went crate digging in a flea market and struck gold. Hadar discovered dozens of highly detailed, expressively-drawn R&B album covers from the late '60s and early '70s, with fake cardboard LPs inside them and, in some cases, even faked stickers affixed to the outside. They were by imaginary artists with names like Mingering Mike and the Big "D." One of them was a benefit album for sickle cell anemia; another was a tribute to Bruce Lee. After posting images and discussing his find on the Soul Strut website, Hadar knew he had to find the creator. Mingering Mike turned out to be a gentle recluse who declined much publicity; as it turned out, he didn't want to lose his two day jobs as a result of any notoriety. The music here is filled with bottomless joy and a true love for soul music and culture.

We're not joking about the fidelity issues. This stuff was recorded on cheap condenser mics using home equipment almost 40 years ago. Mingering Mike makes Daniel Johnston sound like ELO when it comes to sound quality. But none of the music is unlistenable by any means. "But All I Can Do Is Cry," for instance, actually exploits the funky equipment to its full potential. With a weirdly distorting handclap (I think?) that sounds like a broken drum machine, the song could be some forgotten union of Suicide and the Commotions. All of the album's beats are provided by proto-rap beat-boxing or the sound of an Afro-pick hitting a phone book. The sounds of trumpets, guitars and bass all come from vocals provided by Mike and his cousin, the Big "D." There are bizarre faux-African numbers ("Mandingo"), a lengthy dirge about getting buried alive ("Nail in My Coffin"), and love songs that follow the arc from infatuation to love ("There's Nothing Wrong With You Baby"). The immediate hit has to be "Coffee Cake" — a hilarious, 10-minute paean to the joys of coffee cake which makes superb New York School poetry when presented in written form ("The man said it was in this aisle/ Over in the sweets and bread section/ I haven't had it in a long time/ Tastes good with ice cream!"). If there is any justice in the world, the song will make it on to thousands of mixtapes. Adventurous music fiends will discover a brilliant populist hiding beneath Mingering Mike's mask. All you have to do is listen.

Be sure to visit Mingering Mike's homepage for more on his remarkable story and to get a look at his incredible art.

A hi-res version of the cover of Super Gold Greatest Hits is available here