Rescued From The Fire: Dom Sum
An ongoing series in which we ask artists the record they’d risk life and limb to save from a burning inferno
This time, Dominic Flannigan aka Dom Sum from LuckyMe drops knowledge on his favorite piece of music. The weather is still a bit nippy in these parts, so hopefully this post will remind us all of what's in store...
VARIOUS ARTISTS - 100% SUMMER MIX '96
"I walk without flinching through the burning cathedral of the summer. My bank of wild grass is majestic and full of music. It is a fire that solitude presses against my lips." - Violette Leduc, 1970
What could I not replace? That's really the question here, right? What single physical thing is endowed with meaning for me? It's really fucking hard these days 'cause I've systematically let go of all these records and, frankly, I never really attached meaning to the items themselves. More the memory of the music and the colours of the sleeve, if it was special, where I bought it or where I first heard it. But seldom the actual 'thing'.
I've not digitised my collection - nor do I think I could ever find internet rips of the 1000+ CD-R underground hip hop mixtapes I bought from rappers like Creature and Vordul Mega at shows over the years - but like, I so completely consumed music for so long that I don't pine after the physical thing now. They are just kind of a drag to me. An anchor in my otherwise minimal, digital life. If I had to tack it down though, there's one record I guess I'd miss.
It was the second CD I ever bought and it's called 100% Summer: a fuckin' terrible Telstar compilation which features the B-52s, DJ Jazzy Jeff & The Fresh Prince, Ace of Base, 10cc, Aswad and Dawn Penn. It just reminds me so much of making compilation tapes for friends and going cycling round town, each with our own Walkmans and these shitty self-made tapes of pop music. We'd hand-make the covers and share them. I remember one I gave to my best friend with a cover of Cadbury Cream Egg wrappers that basically had this compilation spliced with tracks from the Turtles OST and Technohead's "I Wanna Be A Hippy".
I look at this CD cover and it's just pure childhood to me.
