by Peter

In the 1980's and 1990's Ed Kuepper kept producing albums like if he was baking breads. Two albums a year seems to be just the tip of the iceberg. The fans knew he had more material. Some of that was released as mailorder only. "I Was a Mail Order Bridegroom" was one of those released that way. See another post I made earlier.

Exotic Mail Order Moods is another of those mailorder only albums, only 3000 released. It's a strange albums with a sort of folk rock songs and weird electronics. As the fans already knew, Kuepper has a love for covering other peoples work. On this album it's no different. Two version of Stagolee are here available next to an amazing version of Sam Hall (much better, darker then for example Johnny Cash' version).

Kuepper goes back to his childhood, I guess with David Bowie's The Man Who Sold The World but looks in his own backyard (Australia) too: Nick Cave's Cindy.

Probably the best song on the album is When I First Came To This Land, remember Kuepper is from German background. (Kuepper would later cover ozzie country star Slim Dusty's Camooweal in a spectacular hard rocking Neil Young & Crazy Horse version -play VERY loud.... which I uploaded as a single song, it was released as a single and on the Reflections of a Golden Eye compilation)

Lit Up By Sexual Gymnastics The Like Of Which Are Not Encountered Outside Of Plain Wrappers paved the road for his electronic albums Blue House and Starstruck (another mailorder only original that seemed to end up in stores later on).

It's really too bad Ed Kuepper has not released anything after 2000's Smile... Pacific.... but he seems to do some shows every once in a while and last year a heavy triple cd was released with an overview of his work though contained no extra tracks.

Anyway, have fun with this even for Ed Kuepper quite strange album.


Ed Kuepper - Exotic Mail Order Moods (1995)












Peter