Crate Digger’s Gold: Stoymu Yamashta – Go

 Leave it to the Maple Grove vinyl garage sale to blow your mind with an amazing find.  I am digging through the crates this past Saturday morning and I come across this little gem. What caught my eye was Steve Winwood.   I had never head of Stoymu or the super group Go.  But the combination of Winwood and the Island label was enough for me to plunk down a $1 (and 39 other dollars at the annual buck clearance sale).

So what did I find?  An atmospheric space jam featuring the vocals of Steve Winwood and a then fairly obscure Al Di Meloa on guitar. So who the heck is Stomu? His wikipedia page is pretty thin,  but he appeared to be well-connected in the 60s and 70 in both classical and pop music and then disappeared to become a monk (Buddhist I assume).  A virtuoso percussionist was his calling card.

The music is adventurous, but accessible in a Pink Floyd sort of way.  The point here is the Maple Grove garage sale is filled with gems for $1.  For a dollar you can roll the dice and hope for the best.  My winnings were a near mint condition vinyl album that rocks my socks off.  This is classic mid-70’s music business excess – I am sure a fortune was spent on this album with little or no chance of making it in the marketplace.  The cocaine  bill was probably bigger than most current day indie-rock release budgets.  Oh the beauty of the old music industry excesses.