Happy V-Day everyone! Getting down to the funky sounds of Sesame Street this morni
 

Happy V-Day everyone!

Getting down to the funky sounds of Sesame Street this morning.

A few stand-out recordings instantly come to mind -

For starters, here's everyone's favorite jazz-funk segment - "Pinball Number Count" from 1976, sung by none other than The Pointer Sisters.



Surprisingly, the track didn't see a proper vinyl release until 2003 when DJ Food released it as the B-Side to "C is for Cookie" on the Ninja Tune label.

http://i.imgur.com/0C9NMVI.jpg?w=470

Next up is The Year of Roosevelt Franklin - Columbia C 30387 released in 1970 (and once more four years later as My Name is Roosevelt Franklin.) This LP is highly-sought after by DJs in search of funky samples of Roosevelt scatting his A-B-Cs.

https://i.imgur.com/x6Poyd6.jpg?w=470

http://i.imgur.com/k1T8fS3.jpg?w=470



But I'll end with a favorite of mine which has been filed away in the dusty Forgotten Memories of Sesame Street section of our culture's collective consciousness - an early children's synth pop video and the only hit offered by purple post-punk rocker, "Billy Idle."

http://i.imgur.com/aK4zY55.jpg?w=470



Keep it funky everyone.

Oh yes - and before everyone says it - there are two other unforgettable Sesame moments which must be mentioned -

Brilliant! That certainly brought back some fond childhood memories, though in fairness my favourite ever Sesame Street tune has to be this...

Awesome Trollheart! Here's my copy of the original LP!

http://i.imgur.com/oJPoAJ4.jpg

Sesame Street scared me.

Die Welt ist Klang: A Tribute to Pete Namlook
 

I had a quiet evening to myself, and I took advantage of the free time and finally sat down to explore Klaus Schulze and Pete Namlook's Dark Side of the Moog 12-disc series.

Each of the track titles play off of classics from Pink Floyd's catalog, such as "Wish You Were There," "A Saucerful of Ambience," "Obscured by Klaus," and "Careful with the AKS, Peter."



From Dark Side of the Moog I moved on to Pete Namlook's solo efforts on his record label - Germany's Fax +49-69/450464 (and yes, that was his fax number.) Nearly 450 releases premiered on the label from 1992 until his death in November of 2012, and additional research revealed that Namlook, himself was performing with the ~40 artists and under various monikers which comprised the label's catalog. FAX earned a reputation for ahead-of-the-curve, timeless electronic ambient music, which still sounds fresh today.

Unfortunately, Namlook released only 500–1000 copies of the majority of the titles on his label. There is a holy grail of the label - an incredible 17 LP retrospective of FAX's finest work called the Final Vinyl Collector's Box Set. Devastatingly, there were only 25 copies produced worldwide. The set was meant to be officially released, but at that time Fax changed to a non-vinyl distributor and so the boxsets have never been officially distributed. The last copy to surface sold for $550 in 2010.

http://i.imgur.com/t5ixmHF.jpg

While scouring the web for more information, I cued up what I had of Namlook in my library, beginning with his 4CD set performing as "Air" from 1993-1996, which was released as a box set in '97, and then on to 2003's Ten Years of Silence - a 5CD set of his tribal ambient work as Silence. These two series are excellent highlights of the FAX label.



For newcomers to the label (or to the genre as a whole,) I would highly recommend two retrospective compilations titled The Ambient Cookbook volumes I and II.

The first was a 4-disc box set from 1995 which highlighted various artists from the FAX archive. The second volume, released in 2002, introduced four more discs demonstrating how the ambient genre had evolved over the decade.

If you're exploring Fax +49-69/450464 Records for the first time, these collections are an excellent place to begin.

https://i.imgur.com/jljhIGW.jpg


After the untimely passing of Pete Namlook in 2012, Carpe Sonum Records was formed by EAR/Rational Music, (the North American distributor of FAX and related labels) and issued a handsome limited edition 8-disc box set celebrating his music. The first four discs showcase tracks from FAX artist alumni. The remaining four discs feature exclusive recordings submitted by fans of the label.

Released in two limited runs in 2013, the box set has since sold out. However I am excited to announce that Carpe Sonum is now accepting donations and pre-orders for a reissue of the set AND are considering a 10LP special edition! All sales proceeds will go to Namlook's family.


You can subscribe to their mailing list for updates, contribute your own tracks to the project, or simply offer a financial contribution to help make the release happen. Visit Carpe Sonum for more information!

I'm excited to see that you are regularly updating this journal since this journal was one I was really excited to see pop up in my new posts. Also, I may have to check out that Dark Side of the Moog album that you mentioned, it sounds awesome from the sample you posted.

Thanks Ki. I'd originally intended to post once a week but I'm just having too much fun. Three more LPs arrived in the post today and as long as they keep landing I'll keep posting.

As for The Dark Side of the Moog series, there are were 11 volumes released between 1994 and 2008, and a retrospective called The Evolution Of The Dark Side Of The Moog on the Ambient World FAX sublabel in 2002, which is probably the best introduction to the series.

http://i.imgur.com/2vZMPTu.jpg

Tom Waits - Orphans and other Grails
 

I consider myself a very lucky man. It is a great fortune to discover something you truly enjoy, (in my case the music of Tom Waits), but it is a winning lotto ticket to be able to amass an absurd collection of his finest works for your own library.

An enormous box arrived in the post today containing most of the titles missing from my Tom Waits collection, most notably one of my elusive grails - a mint, unplayed copy of the massive Orphans - Brawlers, Bawlers & Bastards 7LP set. This monumental box set contains 62 "orphaned" selections which never made it on to his major album releases. The six tracks on the final disc are exclusive to the vinyl release, and I can't wait to drink them in.

Tom Waits - Orphans 7LP set, the Record Store Day 7 inch, Lowside of the Road: A Life of Tom Waits, and the Under Review DVD

Don't think for a second that these are merely disused cutting-room-floor tracks which were omitted with good reason - every song from this incredible collection is just as fantastic as any of his best-loved hits, from the gritty gospel blues Tom delivers on "Lord I've Been Changed" to the back-porch foot stomper, "Buzz Fledderjohn" to the relentless rhythms of "2:19." This is one of the proudest additions to my library in my entire history as a record collector.

The set is accompanied by an oversize book, and each 180g disc is housed in a newsprint sleeve jam-packed with antique-typewritten factoids a la "News of the Weird."

It's sets like this which remind me why I haven't given up on physical media in exchange for the incredible convenience and portability of digital. As a man with nearly 13,000 albums I wholly embrace high-bitrate lossless audio for its many accolades, but damn, nothing comes close to the experience of dropping the needle on one of these LPs and spending hours poring over the liner notes and companion book.

My outstanding fortune relating to Tom Waits began when I walked into The Bop Shop in Rochester, NY and learned that the owner had just purchased a nearly-complete Tom Waits collection. Each disc had been purchased upon release, played once to rip digitally, and carefully shelved by its owner. I didn't hesitate for a single second and bought the whole lot on the spot.


And to make my evening ever BETTER - I've now added Blood Money, Alice, and Mule Variations to my Tom collection.

Thanks, Tom for all your wonderfully weird music. You are indeed one of a kind.

Holy shit that is an INCREDIBLE Waits collection you have there dude. Just...wow. All I can say is that I am extremely jealous and you should be very proud to own such a complete treasure of amazing music. Thank you for sharing!