Of all the oldee tymey things I do, the oldeest tymiest is probably that I buy compilation albums:
I seem to have 982 of them now. I buy them when I see somebody do a themed collection of music that I’m interested in but not that familiar with (say, Belgian Dark Wave), or to if somebody does a compilation that has a couple bands I love (then perhaps the rest will be new, exciting discoveries?), or just because it’s by Soul Jazz Records, because they have good taste.
These days, it would make sense to just seek out playlists instead, but I don’t use Spotify or any other streaming services, so nope.
The most maligned compilation type is the dreaded “Record Label Sampler”. These are designed to give people an impression of what’s going on at a record label at a specific time, and most record labels have their share of awful bands as well as good bands. Usually little care is taken in selection (just the biggest hit from each artist), sequencing or artwork. The thing is just an ephemeral promotional tool, seemingly designed to be thrown away.
But there’s some that transcend that format, and I thought it might be nice to talk about them a bit. So this is going to be an approximately seven part blog series where I feature some record label samplers that I thing are really good.
Good record label samplers are pretty rare. You need to have a record label that’s small and focused enough that the sampler works as an album and doesn’t feel like a random sequence of unrelated tracks, and there aren’t that many of those.
Nerdy rules: These have to be actual record label samplers — that is, not retrospectives done later, and not albums that collect tracks released by other record companies first.
This is a true record label sampler: It has everybody (or virtually everybody) who was working with Crammed Discs at the time, and it’s all tracks that have been released before, and it’s priced to sell. It’s 100% a promotional tool, but since Crammed Disks had an amazing roster at the time, it’s an amazing album.
There’s just something about the sequencing that’s just totally on point. Side one starts stridently with The Honeymoon Killers and ends with the wistfully naive Happy Holiday by Hermine. Then side two picks up with When It’s War by the mysterious People in Control and then just continues with one odd, intriguing track after another, and then ending in a chill dubbed out track by Family Fodder.
I had this album when I was 16, and I played it to death. Most of the albums the tracks were sourced from weren’t available at all for me, so it took me a decade to find them all, and, yes, they were (almost) all fantastic.
So as a promotional tool it worked perfectly (for this consumer, at least), but it’s also just a wonderful album in itself.
03:17 The Honeymoon Killers - Subtitled Remix 03:06 Band Apart - The Lesson 03:30 Minimal Compact - Babylonian Tower 03:51 Nadjam - Kullish Cahared 02:44 Hermine - Happy Holiday 03:20 People in Control - When It's War 06:07 Zazou, Bikaye, CY1 - Dju ya feza 04:16 Des Airs - Lovely Lady of the Roses 02:29 Benjamin Lew, Steven Brown - Dans les jardins 02:52 Family Fodder - The Big Dig
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f4wNB1X00oc
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uiHnrf4WESI
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MWYHHqT51H0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dob_vIglcmE
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HfIFpCDEDG0
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KIOIJfqZxtA
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=POObNpRsa1U
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RbF9i9DKzfk
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=06ZeraF1IQI