Random Thoughts

OK, OK, this is the final post in this blog series for sure, and I mean it this time.

Is this a record label sampler? Well, yes and no. As far as I can tell, all the tracks here had been previously released by Island Records, and most of these acts were signed to Island Records.

But of course, Island Records didn’t just do reggae — they had a lot of prog and pop artists, too, and they’re not anywhere to be seen here.

I think for something to count as a “record label sampler”, the main idea should be to get people to buy the artists represented, and not sell the compilation itself, so to speak. And I think this was one of those; i.e., sold cheaply to boost sales of the “real” albums, but I’m not quite sure.

In any case, as an album, it’s great. It was released in 1974, and one of my older sisters had this album, so I listened to a lot as a child. And then I started listening to it again in 2017, and I see that I’ve listened to it 46 (!) times since then. That’s once every other month, for those of you without a University maths education.

There’s not a single bad track here — it’s all spiffy. It’s all “lighter” reggae music, I guess (I’m no expert) — the music has a very intimate, almost cosy feel to it. And the sequencing is perfect.

 03:08 Zap Pow - This Is Reggae Music
 04:43 The Wailers - I Shot The Sheriff
 02:55 Joe Higgs - The World Is Upside Down
 02:53 Jimmy Cliff - Hey Mr. Yesterday
 04:55 The Maytals - Funky Kingston
 03:14 Lorna Bennett - Breakfast In Bed
 03:44 The Maytals - Louie, Louie
 02:59 Owen Grey - Guava Jelly
 03:29 The Heptones - Book Of Rules
 04:08 The Wailers - Concrete Jungle

Full album:

Individual tracks:

This blog post is part of the Record Label Samplers series.

The late 90s/early 00s witnessed the breakthrough of the minimal electronic/glitch/clicks+cuts genre. Well, for some values of “breakthrough”: I think you had a perfume ad that used music by Oval? And that was probably it, commercially.

But! Raster-Noton (along with Touch) dropped a lot of music associated with the genre, and this record sampler almost perfectly encapsulates what was so fascinating about it all.

While I think there’s an audience crossover with noise, the music here is distinctly different from that genre. It’s not abrasive, but instead thoughtful and (dare I say it) pretty.

Archiv für Ton und Nichtton (one half of the label, sort of) was a perfect name for the thing, and look at the packaging: Anti static bags. Eh? Eh?

I guess Alva Noto is the most famous performer here (perhaps through his many collaborations with Ryuichi Sakamoto), along with Ryoji Ikeda… And of course William Basinski these days.

But this sampler feels like more than just a random sampler — it got the flow of a “real” album. It’s also a snapshot of a particular time in history. I used to listen to it all the time, but then I sorta forgot.

And it also worked well as a sampler in that it made me buy albums from almost all of the acts featured.

 03:45 ø+Noto - Mikro Makro
 05:56 Pixel - Scrapple from the Apple
 04:14 Senking - Lift
 04:38 Coh - Silence is Golden
 08:40 Robert Lippock - Close
 06:35 W. Basinski - Shortwave Music
 05:21 Lima - Versions
 00:51 Signal - Lines
 05:17 Cyclo - C7
 00:12 Ryoji Ikeda - 0'12''32
 00:12 Rjoji Ikeda - 0'12''34
 00:39 Signal - Waves
 03:22 Byetone - Oacis
 04:31 M. Akiyama - Arteial
 04:29 Komet - Band
 04:25 Noto - Time Dot
 05:54 Signal - Spiral
 04:55 Noto - Mm

Full album here, and some individual tracks:

This blog post is part of the Record Label Samplers series.