Sounds From Innerspace (Redux)

[innerspaceboy]

Author's note: I published articles about ambient and experimental music and vinyl record collecting for the past 13 years on WordPress at The Innerspace Connection and mirrored the content in BBCode form across a few forums from 2010 to the present. This culminated in the publication of a book collecting the best articles from that era titled, The Ghost of Madame Curie: Writings From Innerspace Labs.

After publishing the book last summer, I felt it was time to move onto other things and have been in a state of limbo ever since.

I was delighted this afternoon to find myself inspired by my latest album-listen and penned my first article since the book's publication. I don't know how often that will happen, as I've mostly retired from rare vinyl collecting, but I enjoyed writing the new article so it seemed fitting to share it here with the new community.

So here goes nothing...

[innerspaceboy]

An Ambient Triumph - Fred Again.. and Brian Eno's New LP, Secret Life

Dearest readers, I am excited to offer this small write-up to you in the spring of 2023 as it marks my first emergence from my post-book-publication hiatus. I really felt like I'd said all I had to say about music, and the act of publishing gave me pause to contemplate the vastly-transformed landscape of how the world consumes and engages music in the 21st century and how it left me feeling "old and in the way."

However, upon hearing the latest collaborative effort from my hero, the great Brian Eno, I felt that familiar compulsion to return to my desk and start writing once more to share the joy of my discovery. How fitting that this stimulus came from the same artist who inspired my life-long passion for the ambient music genre at a young age - that he, more than 20 years later, would continue to be a wellspring of creative force within me to reach out to my readers once again.

Eno's representation in my archive demonstrates my commitment to his catalogue. In addition to the dozens of art prints, books, lithographs, 412 digital releases, and other miscellanea I've acquired, I've successfully built a sizable library of most major releases issued in the vinyl format by the artist. My library to date comprises 49 of his best-loved works totaling 77 discs of content, including the highly sought-after Music For Installations 9LP limited edition box set. After resolving to retire (mostly) from record collecting, I've yet to claim vinyl editions of his releases from 2022 forward, however the consistent quality of those works often gives me moments of reconsideration. Perhaps a few exceptions for my hero's occasional releases are in order.

At the age of 74, Mr. Eno has shown no sign of slowing down, himself. In 2021, he and his brother Roger Eno premiered their first-ever performance together at the Odeon of Herodes Atticus, an ancient theatre of the Acropolis as part of the Athens Epidaurus Festival. Then in 2022, he released the brilliant and critically-lauded album, FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE, featuring his vocals as primary focus across an entire album for the first time since 2005's Another Day On Earth. His work continued in 2023, with a special limited instrumental edition of FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE titled, Forever Voiceless for Record Store Day. And on May 5, 2023, Eno released an all-new collaborative album titled Secret Life with the young producer "Fred Again.."

Frederick John Philip Gibson, (born 19 July 1993) known professionally as Fred again.. or simply FRED, is a British record producer, singer, songwriter, multi-instrumentalist, and DJ. The new album is not the first time the two composers have met. At age 16, Gibson joined an a cappella group at Brian Eno's studio in London, who was his family's neighbour at the time. And in 2014, he collaborated as co-producer and songwriter with Eno and Karl Hyde on their two project albums Someday World and High Life. This was particularly interesting as Gibson exhibits a similar approach to that of Hyde's notable work with Underworld where his use of vocals is that of rhythmic device rather than communicating directly through language, as most-famously demonstrated in their anthem, "Born Slippy .NUXX."

While Gibson may likely be the youngest collaborator of Eno's to date, he is no novice to the musical world. Gibson won Producer of the Year at the Brit Awards 2020 - the youngest producer to ever win the title. And another fun bit of trivia - his artist name came from a line in the live action movie "Scooby-Doo" where Fred, (in the voice of Daphne) says: "I'm Fred Again..".

In addition to Gibson's own album catalogue, he collaborated with Four Tet and Skrillex on the track "Baby again.." released on the USB EP in 2022, played several shows with both artists in 2023, and performed with them for the closing set at Coachella. There are notable parallels in Gibson and Four Tet's album production techniques and their penchant for glitchy-yet-organic lowercase-styled sonic effects, particularly with their manipulation of vocals and minimalist percussion. Secret Life was released on Four Tet's own label, Text Records, and Four Tet called it "the most beautiful album of 2023."

Throughout his long, illustrious career, Eno has been famously committed to never making the same album twice. And the ambient genre is a dangerous and notorious field where a composer could easily get comfortable embracing the "less-is-more" aesthetic and philosophy resulting in pleasant but well-tread, familiar territory. However, his new collaboration with Fred Again.. maintains his consistent track record of pioneering and refreshingly-contemporary content. Fred lends his unique voice (both artistically and literally), and his modern mastery of album production to Eno's refined veteran technique and the result is purely inspiring.

Secret Life is a work of lush and ethereal ambient pop in the spirit of the finest post-minimal works. Gibson's vocal contributions were a surprise for an ambient record, but are employed sparingly to evoke emotion and masterfully-processed such that they in no way detract from the ambience. From the delicate and longing evocations of the album's stand-out lyrical track, "Secret" to the sparsely minimalist but soulful fragmented vocal crooning of "Chest," Secret Life is a fragile and textural album-wide soundscape of yearning.

RYM user foxtrot_stowaway poetically summarizes the nature of the album saying, "It's incredibly beautiful but also full of these massive, aching pangs of nostalgia/regret. It is epically life affirming but also epically devastating." This is most-evident in the chiefly-lyrical track "Secret," with its slowly-unfolding lo-fi lyrics:

"I miss you so much... but you're not out of sight... cause I'm still... breathing... in my secret life... hold on, hold on, my brother... my sister, hold on tight... finally found my whole life... So I've been marchin' 'til the mornin', marchin' through the night... moving cross the borders... of my secret life... of my secret life."

This is an album that, much in its spirited thematic romanticism, stretches time, itself. It's a newfound favourite post-minimalist work, approaching the accolades of Max Richter's epic 8-and-a-half-hour Sleep album from 2015. The triumph here is Secret Life's low-fidelity execution of marrying the dissonance between fractured and fragmented microtonal cut-up music and soothingly warm, organic mellow ambience. Secret Life easily charts among my top releases of 2023.

[Toy Revolver]

fantastic stuff isb

you are really next level

[innerspaceboy]

fantastic stuff isb

you are really next level

Thanks so much for taking the time to read my ramblings! It was a joy to write.

[innerspaceboy]

Four-Volume Glossy Hardcover Print Edition From Innerspace Labs!

Friends,

Today marks one of the proudest moments of my life. It took an incredible amount of work, but I now possess a four-volume full-color glossy set of hardcover books comprising twelve years of my research and writing in the field of music. Due to its 1,716-page length, the work was previously only available digitally, but after reading a Ray Bradbury quote where he said, "Everyone must leave something behind when he dies," I was inspired to tackle all the challenges necessary to realize my vision for a physical edition of my life's efforts for my bookshelf.

And there's a fun easter egg - when the volumes are side by side the spines form an image!

This project has had quite a history of challenges. I first conceived the project on March 26, 2022 when I began wondering whether I could automate or batch process the extraction of twelve years' worth of my articles from WordPress. I found a script utility to do that and was able to perform the complete extraction during the one-week free trial of the application resulting in several hundred doc files.

Then I had to research what software in the Linux environment could be used to merge them and to manage the formatting of the publication. It took further free and open source script utilities to batch process the uniform formatting of the work, removing hyperlink metadata tagged to every entry, batch scaling and placing the image content, re-formatting the page and text areas, etc.

The resulting manuscript was over 3,000 pages long, and researching Amazon's publication limitations I was unable to submit the work as an ebook on their platform due to its size. So I turned to Google and was able to publish a PDF of the work and on July 6, 2022 my book was live on the Google Play Store.

Fast-forward to July 20, 2023, when I encountered the aforementioned Ray Bradbury quote from Fahrenheit 451 which I'll include in its entirety below:

Everyone must leave something behind when he dies, my grandfather said. A child or a book or a painting or a house or a wall built or a pair of shoes made. Or a garden planted. Something your hand touched some way so your soul has somewhere to go when you die, and when people look at that tree or that flower you planted, you're there.

It doesn't matter what you do, he said, so long as you change something from the way it was before you touched it into something that's like you after you take your hands away. The difference between the man who just cuts lawns and a real gardener is in the touching, he said. The lawn-cutter might just as well not have been there at all; the gardener will be there a lifetime."

― Ray Bradbury

This inspired me to reconsider my project to see if there was any possibility of a print edition set. Revisiting Amazon's Kindle documentation I discovered that I'd been looking at the incorrect column in their pricing structure table the year prior, and that I could order what is termed an 'Author Copy' at the print cost without the mark-up. This gave me a glimmer of hope!

I encountered several additional challenges over the subsequent nine days. First I found that Amazon's hardcovers are only available in fixed standard sizes so I'd have to reformat my book. Unfortunately many of the changes I had made when finalizing the manuscript were performed on PDF outputs of the working documents, which presented enormous challenges to reformat them to another document size while adhering to Amazon's margin specs. And this was all the more difficult as I was working in a Linux environment without Adobe applications like the full version of Acrobat or InDesign.

Then I had to split the book into four nearly-equal volumes to comply with Amazon's maximum page count for hardcover print production. That's when I learned that differing page counts per volume would require slight variations in their respective cover spread templates due to the varying spine dimensions accommodating those page counts, so I carefully worked my way to the end of chapters at about each quarter of the manuscript and added one or two blank pages where necessary to get all four volumes to identical page counts. This way I could employ a single cover template for all four volumes and just incorporate a Roman numeral denotation on each cover and spine for its corresponding volume.

Uploading the manuscript drafts to Amazon I discovered there was another critical element to print design which wasn't present in the digital edition - namely that of the gutter measurement. The page content must be offset just a bit to the right on odd-numbered pages and to the left on even-numbered pages to accommodate the page area lost to the stitching of the binding, and that dimension is conditional to the total number of pages and spine width. Normally one would simply key in a gutter measurement value in their desktop publishing software and the application would automatically adjust all pages appropriately. But again, I was working with a fixed PDF export of the manuscript and in a Linux environment so this was an incredible challenge. After a day of dedicated research I found a magnificently powerful command line based script utility to perform the task of offsetting the even and odd pages of the nearly 2,000-pages of PDFs in mere seconds' time. It took a bit of experimentation with the syntax, but I worked it out and the revised upload to Amazon appeared with the content perfectly centered on each page!

Once I had the body pages rescaled and reformatted, I queried my graphic designer who had conceived the brilliant cover layout for my ebook the year prior to see whether or not he'd be able to rework that original artwork to comply with the specifications for Amazon's hardcover spread template. In only a few days' time he created four visually-impactful layouts consistent with the thematic elements of my content and at an unbeatable price. And as I mentioned - he had the fantastic idea of incorporating abstract imagery of a CD, cassette, and LP into an image which spans the spines of the four volumes when they are placed side by side. I couldn't have been happier with his work!

The evening of July 27, 2023 I finalized and submitted the project to Amazon and created a series page to tie the titles together. According to their terms, I had to wait for the volumes to be published and live on their site before I could order my Author Copy set, after which I could unpublish and mark the project as complete.

But there was yet another challenge when the bots Amazon employs to automate the initial stage of review rejected my work stating that some text on the cover was difficult to read. I immediately contacted Amazon author support by phone and explained that the gritty, abstract design elements of the cover are intended to look that way. They submitted my request to their technical support team and confirmed that they could manually approve the work. That was such a relief!

After a grueling anticipatory wait of just over 48 hours, they were live on Amazon and six days later my Author Copies of the four volumes comprising The Ghost of Madame Curie: Writings From Innerspace Labs arrived intact. Here they are. Thank you to everyone who encouraged me and shared their creative inspirations along the way. This is a milestone achievement of my lifetime.

[innerspaceboy]

23 Seconds to Eternity - The New KLF Video Collection DVD

It's a special day at Innerspace Labs. Just arrived is The KLF's new 23 Seconds to Eternity (Dual Format Edition) DVD/Blu-ray collection. One of the most successful, subversively creative and enigmatic electronic bands of the early 90s, this is the first-ever official compilation of The KLF's films.

News of the collection was published August 23, 2023 when The British Library acquired The Acetate, the only physical copy of a new, reconstructed version of the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's debut album 1987 (What the F**k Is Going On?). TBL announced that, "for one week only, the recording would be available for everyone to listen to in our free Sound Gallery, starting from 11:23 on 23 August 2023, and from 30 August 2023, the album will be accessible within the Library's Reading Rooms in perpetuity for research, inspiration and enjoyment. The Acetate is the only physical copy of 1987 (What the F**k Was Going On?), officially credited to The Ice Kream Van (unpublished by KLF Communications, London 2023)." TBL also noted that "The Acetate and all surviving KLF Communications master tapes donated by K2 Plant Hire Ltd will be archived as The KLF Kollection. All unpublished items will be catalogued under the collection number C2023."

Two official statements were included in the announcement -

The KLF have issued the following statement from the Ice Kream Van: "As a lifetime, card carrying and founding member of The KLF Re-Enactment Society, I felt it my duty to not only 're-enact' The Justified Ancients of Mu Mu's album 1987 (Blah, Blah, Blah?) but present it to the world in a way far superior than their original version...That said, I am very aware, even if they are not aware that I am aware, that my aging Ice Kream Men, have 'pirated' a copy of my re-enactment' and have had an acetate cut of it and have 'donated' their pirated copy to the British Library for those that visit such places. Yours forever... The Ice Kream Van."

Karoline Engelhardt, Curator of Popular Music Recordings at the British Library, said: "This is a very special year in the history of the British Library as it marks our 50th anniversary. The Sound Archive became part of the British Library only a decade later and, from the beginning, its mission was to preserve the nation's sound heritage in all its creative facets. The KLF Kollection is another exciting piece of popular music history that will now be available to explore at the British Library for generations to come."

This was thrilling news for fans the world over, but there was more excitement in store with the announcement of the DVD/Blu-ray set. The KLF produced some of the most original videos and short films of their era and fans can now enjoy them all in 23 Seconds To Eternity, released on limited-edition BFI Blu-ray and DVD (Dual Format Edition) on 6 November. The BFI will also be screening the collected films and videos on the big screen when BFI Southbank presents a special release day launch screening followed by a Q&A with producer/director Bill Butt on 6 November. Further UK cinema screenings are to be announced. This release is the first ever compilation of KLF Communication's films and includes previously unreleased material along with an illustrated booklet.

BFI's Shop page for the release offers the following details:

Produced and directed by Bill Butt in collaboration with Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond in their various guises as The JAMs, The KLF and The Timelords, 23 Seconds to Eternity takes viewers on a film journey through the collected music videos and short features including The White Room (1989), The Rites of Mu (1991), narrated by Martin Sheen and the previously unreleased Krash (1992). Also included are the world famous music videos for the hit singles 3 A.M. Eternal, What Time is Love? and Justified & Ancient.

This release is the first ever compilation of KLF Communication's films and this release will feature an array of special features and an illustrated booklet featuring rare and previously unseen material.

And from the BFI announcement article:

23 Seconds to Eternity includes the film The White Room (1989), an 'ambient road movie' following American police car Ford Timelord and Jimmy Cauty (Rockman Rock) and Bill Drummond (King Boy D) on a journey cross-country in search of the 'White Room'. Remastered and regraded from the only existing film print, The White Room features a new soundtrack specially recorded for this Blu-ray/DVD release. 23 Seconds to Eternity also features a newly restored version of The Rites of Mu (1991), a 29-minute feature narrated by Martin Sheen, documenting a summer solstice event organised by The KLF on the Scottish island of Jura in 1991, plus the previously unreleased short Krash (1992), edited in 2022, a record of the final and violent destruction of Ford Timelord. The soundtrack to Krash is a track from The Black Room, the unreleased album by the Justified Ancients of Mu Mu.

The DVD set comprises the following:

23 Seconds to Eternity running order and special features

• Doctorin' the Tardis (1988)
• The White Room (1989) (44 mins, 45 seconds)
• Kylie Said to Jason (1989)
• Stadium House Trilogy (1991)
• Rites of Mu, Martin Sheen narration (1991) (29 mins 21 Seconds) newly restored
• It's Grim Up North (1991)
• America: What Time Is Love? (1992)
• Justified & Ancient (1991)
• KRASH (1992) (4 mins, 23 seconds) previously unreleased

Confirmed extras/booklet copy to include:

• KLF: Unfinished (1992, 30 mins): making of documentary including optional commentary by director Robert Milton Wallace
• Interview with Bill Butt by Mick Houghton (2023): the producer and director discusses the making of 23 Seconds to Eternity
• This Is Not What The KLF Is About (1991, 15 mins): a short film shot and edited by Jimmy Cauty capturing the making of Stadium House Trilogy, newly remastered by Rich Osborn
• 23 Seconds to Eternity theatrical trailer (2023, 2 mins)
• KRASH trailer (1 min)
• The White Room trailer (1 min)
• Stills gallery
• Limited edition includes an illustrated booklet with new writing by Mick Houghton and the BFI's William Fowler, Bill Butt's filmography, an introduction to The White Room, and rare images from the personal collections of Bill Butt and Mick Houghton

This is an incredibly exciting archival release for fans and an essential addition to any KLF collection.

[innerspaceboy]

The Complete Obscure Records Collection (10LP Deluxe Box + 80-page Book) Arrives at Innerspace Labs!

I am beside myself with joy to report this latest news from Innerspace Labs.

My faithful readers have long-understood that I am a committed Brian Eno enthusiast. To date, my digital Eno library comprises 412 unique releases including a wide array of non-commercial recordings not available officially at any price. And the physical portion of my Eno library includes all major official vinyl releases and vinyl box sets, all major books published by or about the man, and miscellaneous artifacts like the Oblique Strategies deck, films, and a variety of framed limited edition lithographs.

As one might imagine, it is becoming quite difficult to incorporate yet-unacquired objects into this substantial archive. Though Eno, himself at the age of 75 continues to release new material of a quality consistent with his finest vintage efforts.

That's why this latest acquisition is so exciting. First, for those not already familiar with Eno's experimental record label of the 1970s, Obscure Records was a U.K. record label which existed from 1975 to 1978. It was created and curated by Brian Eno. Ten albums were issued in the series. Most have detailed liner notes on their back covers, analyzing the compositions and providing a biography of the composer, in a format typical of classical music albums, and much of the material can be regarded as 20th-century classical music. The label provided a venue for experimental music.

On 4 November 2023 I happened to Google the phrase, "Obscure Records Complete Vinyl" on a whim trying to locate a photo from anyone who might have had the rare privilege of assembling a complete library of the elusive and oft-expensive releases. Tragically, the majority of the titles on the label have remained out of print and difficult to find for decades.

As my incredible fortune would have it, the top search result was from Soundohm Records - an international online mail order company that professes to "maintain a large inventory of several thousands of titles, specialized in Electronic/Avantgarde music and Sound Art..." and "rare, out-of-print and sometime impossible-to-find artists' records, multiples and limited gallery editions."

My eyes widened as I beheld the release page. I had inadvertently stumbled upon an announcement of an upcoming 10LP deluxe box set titled, The Complete Obscure Records Collection, with a release date of 24 November!

The release is issued by Dialogo Records, an Italian imprint which has showed a remarkable dedication to the history of experimental music via reissues of seminal artifacts from the Cramps catalog, and important albums by Piero Umiliani, Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Enrico Rava, and others.

I've archived the release summary from Soundohm's pre-order page in the event that it is taken down after the release date:

** Limited Collector Edition of 1.000 copies. Includes hand-numbered certificate, 10 LPs in faithful replicas of the original covers and polylined inner sleeves, a 80-page LP-sized book in English, all housed in a custom lavish linen box. ** In a very special Soundohm exclusive, we're thrilled to announce pre-orders for the first ever box set gathering the entire ten album collection of Brian Eno's Obscure Records, originally issued between 1975 and 1978. Containing the debut releases of Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, John Adams, David Toop, Max Eastley, Harold Budd, Christopher Hobbs, Jan Steele, and Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, in addition to important works by John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White, not to mention Eno's seminal "Discreet Music", the label's output collectively amounts to a monument in the history of minimalist experimental music that has captivated audiences since it first appeared - a rare bridge between the avant-garde and popular realms. This remarkable collection, coming as a deluxe box set designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano, and issued by Dialogo in CD and vinyl editions completely remastered by Andrea Marutti - both including a book filled with rare photos, archival material and texts by, among others, Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, and Tom Recchion - marks the first time this seminal series has received a complete repress on any format, with a number of the albums within having never been reissued on vinyl and/or CD since their original release. You can't get any better than this, simply a dream come true.

Over the last few years, the Italian imprint, Dialogo, has showed a remarkable dedication to the history of experimental music via reissues of seminal artefacts from the Cramps catalog, and important albums by Piero Umiliani, Ennio Morricone, Bruno Nicolai, Enrico Rava, and others. This initiative now takes on a towering scale with the first ever box set gathering the entire ten album collection of Brian Eno's Obscure Records, originally issued between 1975 and 1978. A truly groundbreaking body of recordings - many of which have remained out of print and difficult to find for decades - it contains some of the most important, influential, and enduring music to emerge during the second half of the 20th Century, which collectively reconfigured the terms of minimalism and laid the groundwork for the emerging movement of ambient music over its short, three year run.

Issued in both CD and vinyl editions of 1000 copies, with the later accompanied by a hand-numbered certificate, each box set contains all of Obscure's albums, completely remastered by Andrea Marutti and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as an 80/130-page book (respectively, LP/CD) with texts / contributions by Gavin Bryars, Bradford Bailey, David Toop, Max Eastley, Richard Bernas, Tom Recchion, Carlo Boccadoro, Walter Rovere and Bruno Stucchi, and rare photos, including several by Roberto Masotti, this historic collection marks the first time such a seminal series has received a complete repress. Stunningly produced with the full collaboration of all the artists or their estates, this is easily one of the most exciting, important and hotly anticipated releases of the year.

One of the great anomalies and triumphs of 20th Century recording, Obscure Records was initially conceived by Brian Eno as a vehicle for the work of his yet to be recorded friend, Gavin Bryars, before taking on grander ambitions. Having left Roxy Music in 1973 and launched his own solo career, during this period Eno had become immersed in London's thriving experimental music scene - occasionally playing with Cornelius Cardew's Scratch Orchestra and Portsmouth Sinfonia - cultivating a deep connection with the avant-garde that had begun in his student years, finding a deep sympathy with his own ideas and approaches among the artists he encountered there. Among these were Bryars, Christopher Hobbs, David Toop, and Max Eastley, who, in addition to Eno and a lone American, John Adams, would contribute the first suite of works: Gavin Bryars' "The Sinking of the Titanic", Christopher Hobbs, John Adams, and Gavin Bryars' "Ensemble Pieces", Brian Eno's "Discreet Music", David Toop and Max Eastley's "New and Rediscovered Musical Instrument" - released by Obscure in 1975.

Backed, manufactured ,and distributed Island Records, working under the curatorial direction of Eno, Bryars, and Michael Nyman (then primary known as a writer), Obscure would rapidly emerge as a rare example of a record label entirely committed to the radical ideas of the artists it involved, releasing two more suites of albums in 1976 and 1978 - containing the debut recordings of Nyman, Jan Steele, Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra, and Harold Budd, in addition to important works by Eno, John Cage, Tom Phillips, and John White, before Eno followed the path toward ambient music and moved to New York.

When viewed collectively, the Obscure catalog - which, in addition to the aforementioned four LPs, contains Jan Steele and John Cage's "Voices and Instruments" (1976), Michael Nyman's "Decay Music" (1976) Simon Jeffes / The Penguin Café Orchestra's "Music from The Penguin Café" (1976), John White and Gavin Bryars' "Machine Music" (1978), Tom Phillips, Gavin Bryars, and Fred Orton's "Irma" (1978) and Harold Budd's "The Pavilion of Dreams" ‎(1978) - reveals a remarkable, and previously unexplored counterpoint - bridging the United Kingdom and the American West Coast - to the dominant threads of minimal and experimental music, centred in New York that had long dominated the public consciousness.

Equally as noteworthy was the belief, rubbing below the label's directives, that experimental music should be accessible and available to listeners of popular music, encountering Eno, Bryars, and Nyman setting out to bridge the gap. While it achieved this more than most of contemporaries, it would take decades for the full impact and influence of Obscure's ten albums to unfold, eventually giving way to numerous discreet practices within experimental music embraced by successive generations of composers. Despite this, the majority of the label's output has been unavailable on vinyl for years, with a number of releases having never received a CD reissue.

Illuminating the remarkable, and largely otherwise undocumented, creative ferment within and between the British and American scenes of experimental music during the mid to late 1970s, Dialogo's incredible "The Complete Obscure Records Collection" deluxe box set designed by Bruno Stucchi / dinamomilano - made in full collaboration with all of the composers or their estates - contains the entire ten album output of the label, completely remastered and housed in faithful replicas of their original covers and liner notes, as well as an 80/130-page book (respectively, LP/CD).

This historic collection marks the first time the seminal Obscure catalogue has received a complete repress on both vinyl and CD; simply a dream come true.

I hesitated ever-so briefly about this discovery. I had significantly reduced my spending on vinyl over the last several years, resolving only to invest in exceptional rare specimens befitting of my Archive. After some carefully-considered research into the label and the release details, I drafted a comparative list of rationale for and against the purchase, enumerating how sound an investment of this nature would be.

Paramount among the benefits were several convincing arguments in favour of the purchase, including:

- It's something I've always wanted but could never afford to collect individually
- It serendipitously manifested the moment I searched for it
- I do so adore lavish limited edition box sets
- The release includes an 80-page companion book exclusive to the set
- It is truly archival, precisely what my library embraces
- It's a long-elusive Eno artifact and I specialize in Eno treasures
- Eno is my hero and this is his brainchild
- All 10 discs are remastered and mint new LPs, far better than buying them all used
- It's an experimental music holy grail, perfectly-suited for my Archive
- It's limited to just 1,000 copies. Once it sells out, I will never have this opportunity again at this price

Also noteworthy is that all of the albums are newly-remastered, many were only previously available as their elusive original pressings, and that the original album covers and insert artwork have been maintained. That was something missing from the former Cluster and Kraftwerk box sets where hyper-minimalist design replaced the classic original layouts.

I decided that it was too perfect an opportunity to pass us and pre-ordered it on the spot. It arrived safely and I am so proud to add this artifact to my collection. So many iconic composers are here - Eno, Gavin Bryars, Michael Nyman, Simon Jeffes, Harold Budd, John Cage, David Toop... it's a critical work of music history which deserves a place on my shelves.

I choose to invest in history.

[innerspaceboy]

Downupright - We're Doomed We're Dancing: Sixty Apocalypses

Back in 2019 I published a feature on Buffalo, NY musician Bill Boulden's Pieces—A Thousand Albums At The End Of America. I'm excited to share news of his latest and largest project to date - a massive and impressive undertaking titled, We're Doomed We're Dancing: Sixty Apocalypses. The album depicts the world's end through the guise of no fewer than sixty different genres of music, each encapsulated in a sixty-second sonic vignette.

Bill released the project under his artist moniker, Downupright. The project was crowdfunded through Kickstarter back in 2022 and gained recognition as one of Kickstarter's "Projects to Watch." The result is thoroughly satisfying and a musical experience quite unlike any other.

Released on all major music platforms on April 4, 2024, We're Doomed We're Dancing is a tour-de-force of musical deftness. It's frankly astonishing how much musical prowess and impact they've packed into every sixty second slice of the album.

And contrary to my expectation, the transitions were fluid and seamless, while the pure range is staggering. I'd approached the project with some skepticism, thinking, surely this is a gimmick-heavy endeavor, expecting pure novelty. I couldn't have been more wrong. I was floored by how potent each individual track was. I consistently found myself turning the volume up and eagerly anticipating each new installment, not one of which failed to impress.

It was equally arresting how seamlessly the album functions as a single cohesive work, despite the vast array of genres it comprises. And the album's high production value rewards headphone listening.

Each sixty-second track is of a quality wholly-faithful to its respective genre. This is in no way a pastiche. This exemplifies the incredible range of the artist. From atonal chorale to black metal, swing to dubstep, Satie-esque piano interlude to campy call center hold music, and everything in between. There are even hints at style-parodies of contemporary figures of rock and hip-hop to evoke a smile from the listener.

Undoubtedly, the amount of work and attention to detail it takes to cater the faithful production to the style of each genre is simply amazing. To use the cinematic catch-phrase, We're Doomed We're Dancing is "white-knuckled apocalyptic thrill ride" of genre-spanning adeptness. Don't miss it!

[innerspaceboy]

'Eno' the Original Motion Picture Soundtrack!

Newly arrived is the official soundtrack to the generative film 'Eno' by filmmaker Gary Hustwit - a definitive documentary about visionary musician and artist, Brian Eno.

Huswit has produced some fantastic features in the past, including his full-length documentary on the typeface Helvetica, and his 2018 film, Rams, a documentary portrait of Dieter Rams, one of the most influential designers alive, and a rumination on consumerism, sustainability, and the future of design. The musical components of his films are consistently of quality. Helvetica featured music by pioneering electronic artists like The Album Leaf, Caribou, El Ten Eleven, and Four Tet, and the Rams score was provided by Eno, himself.

The new 'Eno' experimental documentary had its World Premiere at the 2024 Sundance Film Festival and made its UK premiere at London's Barbican on April 20. The film is unique in that it uses AI to mix the film and ensure that no two screenings are the same.

The film's soundtrack comprises 17 career spanning tracks and 3 previously unreleased songs.

From the official release page at Brian-Eno.net:

For the past 50 years, Brian Eno has been at the forefront of musical creativity, technology, and artistic innovation. The hugely influential British musician, producer, activist, visual artist and self-described "sonic landscaper" began his career as an original member of the legendary Roxy Music in the early 1970s. He left the band to release a series of solo records and later pioneered the genre of ambient music with his 1978 album Ambient 1: Music for Airports. As a producer, Brian Eno has helped define and reinvent the sound of some of the most important artists in music, including David Bowie, U2, Talking Heads, Coldplay, and dozens of others. He also composed what may be the most heard piece of music in the world: the startup sound for Microsoft Windows. Undeniably, Eno has changed the way modern music is made.

Rich with access to hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage and unreleased music, Gary Hustwit's forthcoming documentary Eno employs groundbreaking technology to accomplish something that's never been done before: a feature film that's never the same twice. Hustwit and creative technologist Brendan Dawes have developed bespoke generative software designed to sequence scenes and create transitions out of Hustwit's original interviews with Eno, and Eno's rich archive of hundreds of hours of never-before-seen footage, and unreleased music. Each screening of Eno is unique, presenting different scenes, order, music, and meant to be experienced live. The generative and infinitely iterative quality of Eno poetically resonates with the artist's own creative practice, his methods of using technology to compose music, and his endless deep dive into the mercurial essence of creativity.

Hustwit's collaboration with Eno first began in 2017, when Eno created an original score for Hustwit's film Rams, about the German designer Dieter Rams. Says Hustwit, "Much of Brian's career has been about enabling creativity in himself and others, through his role as a producer but also through his collaborations on projects like the Oblique Strategies cards or the music app Bloom. I think of Eno as an art film about creativity, with the output of Brian's 50-year career as its raw material. What I'm trying to do is to create a cinematic experience that's as innovative as Brian's approach to music and art."

Further remarks were posted to the official enoshop.co.uk site which notes the following:

The hugely influential musician, producer, visual artist and activist is the subject of a new career spanning documentary that is uniquely generative: a film that's different every time it's screened. Compiled from hundreds of hours of video footage, music and interviews, the film explores Eno's music, art and ideas, giving the viewer intimate personal insights into his creative processes.

Accompanying this groundbreaking new film is a soundtrack that serves as a companion audio journey touching on Eno's output throughout his rich career. The 17 tracks included on the album which is released on April 19th, feature work from early solo outings such as 1974's 'Taking Tiger Mountain' and 75's 'Another Green World', acclaimed collaborations with the likes of David Byrne, John Cale, Cluster and more recently, Fred again... all the way through to music from his latest album, 'FOREVERANDEVERNOMORE', and his 2021 appearance at the Acropolis in Athens with brother, Roger.

Whilst it would take a very extensive box set to fully cover Eno's work over the past 50 years - including his ambient pieces for which he is known, some of which are album length, various other notable collaborations, the All Saints, Warp and Opal years, this release has managed to fit music from 14 different albums throughout his entire recording career. Within it are 3 previously unreleased recordings, and the first, 'Lighthouse #429' is released today. This instrumental track is taken from Eno's Sonos radio station, 'The Lighthouse', where the programming exclusively delves into his extensive archive spanning his career. 'Lighthouse #429' is the first track to have had a public release from the station.

On Eno's creative process - "Picasso once said: 'Inspiration exists, but it has to find you working'. I don't wait to be inspired: I start working and (if I'm lucky) I become 'inspired'. And if I'm not lucky I keep at it until my luck changes. I'm obstinate and confident that I will get somewhere in the end if I keep at it."

"This is what you get when a music doc that isn't a greatest-hits collection but a life on shuffle mode," Rolling Stone's David Fear wrote in a review of the film after viewing a screening at Sundance in January.

Tracklist:

1. Brian Eno - All I Remember *Previously Unreleased*
2. Brian Eno with Daniel Lanois and Roger Eno - The Secret Place
3. Brian Eno & Fred Again - Cmon
4. Brian Eno & Cluster - Ho Renomo
5. Brian Eno - Sky Saw
6. Brian Eno & John Cale - Spinning Away
7. Brian Eno & Tom Rogerson - Motion In Field
8. Brian Eno - There Were Bells
9. Brian Eno - Third Uncle
10. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Everything That Happen
11. Brian Eno - Stiff
12. Brian Eno with Leo Abrahams and Jon Hopkins - Emerald & Lime
13. Brian Eno - Hardly Me
14. Brian Eno & David Byrne - Regiment
15. Brian Eno - Fractal Zoom
16. Brian Eno - Lighthouse #429 *Previously Unreleased*
17. Brian Eno & Roger Eno - By This River (Live At The Acropolis) *Previously Unreleased.

Formats:  Vinyl LP

Label:  UMC

Check out one of the previously-unreleased selection, "Lighthouse #429" from the soundtrack.

[innerspaceboy]

George Winston - Complete Solo Piano Recordings 1972 - 1996 7CD Box Set with Booklet.

Given my predilection for 20th century classical, ambient, and drone music I seldom have the opportunity to experience my favorite artists performing live as few visit the States, (or in many cases they stopped breathing many years ago). So in 2019 when I learned that contemporary instrumentalist George Winston, legend and icon of Ackerman's Windham Hill record label was offering a concert performance in my fair city I simply couldn't pass up the opportunity.

Winston was 70 years old and suffering from several severe health conditions including thyroid cancer, skin cancer, and myelodysplastic syndrome, so I didn't know how many shows he would have left in him so it was my only opportunity to see one of my favorite instrumentalists perform live. It was a lovely performance. Winston passed away in 2023.



I have his first four albums on vinyl. His fifth full-length release, Summer was pressed in a small run due to the new popularity of the compact disc format, so that album commands higher prices on the used market.

The set comprises his complete solo piano recordings produced between 1972 and 1996, which are his seven core albums, including Winston's most famous triple-platinum album, December. A slightly expanded CD set was later issued, but this edition contains all of Winston's essential works. (I only wish the original set included his 1999 album, Plains, if only for "Dubuque.")

On August 30, 2024, the latest George Winston studio album, entitled Eastern Montana will be released as the first in a new series of posthumous albums by the late artist.

[innerspaceboy]

Exploring the Inspiration for Bush of Ghosts

I came upon a remark in an article on Holger Czukay of the immeasurably influential German band, Can's solo releases which called attention to his Movies LP, citing it as a clear inspiration for David Byrne and Brian Eno's groundbreaking 1981 collaboration, My Life In the Bush of Ghosts. Ghosts is one of my favorite LPs so I had to give Movies a listen. The influence is instantly evident within minutes of the opening track, and is only reinforced by the record's long-form cuts.

Movies (1979) is an explorative surrealist sound collage experiment comprising frenetic polyrhythms, otherworldly alienesque tonalities, and dissonant multidimensional atmospheric micromelodies. The album was Czukay's follow-up to his 1969 effort, Canaxis. Canaxis was the only studio album by the Technical Space Composer's Crew, though on later issues, the artist credit was changed to Holger Czukay and Rolf Dammers.

Mark Prendergast of Record Collector describes Canaxis as "an experimental album of taped sound collages, mixing various field recordings with electronic tones", a direction he noticed Czukay digressed from to be bassist with Can. Music and Musicians wrote that Canaxis is the result of Czukay – a pupil of Stockhausen's – working with found sounds and musique concrète in collaboration with Rolf Dammers, adding that the "tape segments and multiple editing" utilised in the piece were based on the concepts of Pierre Henry and Pierre Schaeffer, who "are credited with its invention in Paris during the late 40s."

The Independent labeled Movies a "cult classic," writing that "Czukay paved the way for later projects, such as David Byrne and Brian Eno's My Life in the Bush of Ghosts."

In 2011 David Sylvian remarked, "I believe Holger more or less invented the art of sampling on Canaxis and brought it to a state of near perfection on Movies. He has always claimed this accolade belonged to Stockhausen as Hymnen was his source of inspiration, but I personally don`t agree with him. He brought sampling to the forefront with elan, humour and an amazingly unorthodox technical proficiency. Persian Love remains a touchstone for all who venture into this territory."

After decades of collecting, it's all the more satisfying when discoveries like these surface in my listening exploration. Thank you, Holger for the inspiration.

[innerspaceboy]

The New Media Hoarder - THE media frontend for data hoarders and media lovers!

I've serendipitously struck upon a phenomenally powerful new media library management application which revolutionizes how I engage my library. Just days ago, the free and Open Source utility called Media Hoarder announced its expansion from support of film to incorporate full support of TV series with the freshly released v1.4.0.

The Hacker News site, ycombinator reported news of the new release earlier this week.

The application pulls the complete closing credit information from every single film or episode, and can dynamically search your library instantly populating matching results across your entire collection for any datapoint. That includes everything from the director to the cinematographer to the costume designer and, well, key grip if you want.

More impressively still, it populates searchable keywords for any plot point, like "blood spatter," "shot in the back," "car accident," or "thief..." and can combine these properties for deep searches of particular languages, production companies, and directors for films with matching thematic elements.

You can also view all data from IMDB, Letterboxd, and Moviechat from within the application, so you can sort and browse by ratings, view cast member biographic information, and watch trailers for your media, all without leaving the app.



The developer published a video Feature Tour of the original version:

This 15-minute feature-packed guided tour includes demonstrations of batch filters such as:

- 4k movies on the local hard drive with Italian subtitles and an 80+ Metacritic score
- horror/sci-fi movies which I've not yet seen or rated without nudity and moderate intense scenes
- movies with Robert De Niro and by Martin Scorsese for ages 17 and up
- and Disney animation movies of the 1990s



And just six days ago they published a 3-minute demo of the new TV show support here:

One most-exciting feature of the new television support is that Media Hoarder displays a heatmap of all episodes for every series based on web-compiled review data.



You can also dynamically sort your media by any combination of criteria, down to the finest detail, and the menus are fully-customizable so you can focus on the properties most relevant to your collection. Shows can be primarily sorted by title, IMDB rating, your own personal rating, release year, or by the dates added or accessed in your library.

Media Hoarder supports navigation of both local and server-based content, and you can toggle source folders off and on if that aids you in finding what you're after more quickly. The developer notes that even the most complex searches can be achieved instantly with an average of just two mouse clicks.

This is exciting news for those of us with extensive libraries, and the fact that it is free and Open Source is just icing on the content cake.

Explore the application yourself from their official site at https://media.hoarder.software. The application is available on all x64 platforms and is touted as THE media frontend for data hoarders and media lovers.

Enjoy!

[innerspaceboy]

Mr. Scruff – "Get a Move On"

I felt like showcasing a less-mentioned gem of my collection today. Mr. Scruff's "Get a Move On" 12" LP (cat #ZEN 1280) is a downtempo electro swing classic from 1999. It famously samples the 20th century avant-garde master Moondog's "Lament I, Bird's Lament" (1969), elements of Rubberlegs Williams' "That's the Blues" (1946), and vocals from T-Bone Walker's "Hypin' Woman Blues" (1949). I have an original pressing of Moondog's 1969 self-titled LP with "Bird's Lament" along with his other major releases.

In 2003, the music video for "Get a Move On" was featured on Cartoon Network's late night anime block, Toonami, and was used in a Lincoln Navigator advert at around the same time. Mr. Scruff also gained some attention when his track, "Kalimba" was included in the Windows 7 media player sample music alongside artists like David Byrne and Beethoven from the prior Windows XP package.

On June 7, 2017, I ceremoniously set the hook to "Get a Move On" as my standard incoming call ringtone and alarm tone on my cell phone, bumping James Brown's epic "Funky Drummer" break from the spot which it had held on every phone I'd owned since 2003. The single is an indispensable future-jazz staple and a favorite from the Ninja Tune Records label.

Here's the official music video which uses the 3:26 radio edit of the 7:32 full-length cut and which features Mr. Scruff's unique and instantly recognizable iconic artwork:

[innerspaceboy]

Underworld's 11th Studio album 'Strawberry Hotel'

25 October, 2024 marks the official release of Strawberry Hotel, Underworld's 11th Studio album. It is the group's first studio album in five years, following on from the release of Drift Series 1 back in 2019.

I received an exclusive pre-release private stream just before 3AM Eastern Time on October 24, the day before the official release. I couldn't resist the opportunity so I got out of bed and dove straight in to survey the album.

I'll provide a track-for-track review in the form of a stream-of-consciousness journal which I composed concurrently with my first-listen to the album, much in the spirit of how frontman Karl Hyde composes his ever-abstract lyricism.

Strawberry Hotel is issued as a double vinyl gatefold, 180gsm black heavy-weight LP cut at half speed.

Our introduction from underworldlive.com:

Welcome to Strawberry Hotel.

Here, gleaming tensile techno forms clean, straight lines while scratchy acoustic guitars scuff up edges to produce ghostly audio. Poetry is snatched from the overhead, removed from the overheard; words borrowed from the ether are spun into dizzying new shapes, sometimes reappearing in new settings, twisted back to front, side to side. Each track a very different room - some soundtracked by little more than metronomic kick drum and robotic voice, others deep in layer upon layer of melody and euphoric noise - and each room unmistakably, uniquely Underworld. The only advice from Underworld's Rick Smith and Karl Hyde upon entering: "Please don't shuffle."

"Black Poppies" opens the album. A delicate swarm of choral-treated vocals beckons the listener with a warm welcome crooning, "you are... you are beautiful." Underworld is back.

Next up, in the entrancing "denver luna," Karl playfully touches upon a host of lyrical snippets from the past 40 years of Underworld. Just a few of these include, "the animal, telephone, moon in the water, satellite, down in the tube hole, snake, the weeds, the train, blue and the blue, silver, horn, velveteen, stonеwash, laughin', kiss, in your head..." Many listeners heralded the track as a triumphant masterpiece harkening to the band's Mk2 era, drawing parallels to their timeless anthems like "Dark and Long," "Pearls Girl," "Rez / Cowgirl" and "Born Slippy.nuxx." This is unequivocally a goosebump-inspiring stand-out highlight of the album.

The instrumental "Techno Shinkansen" continues the warm, invitational groove. There is a heightened energy here, but it's simultaneously suitable for bedroom headphone techno.

A YouTuber reflecting on the single pre-album release of "and the colour red" concisely described Underworld's latest work as "minimal techno drowned in poetry." This is a description befitting of the duo's continued evolution of 45 years together.

"Sweet Lands Experience" maintains the pulsating rhythms and steady pacing consistent through the first side of disc one. Karl's ever-present abstract poetry inspires curiosity as to where he divines his lyricism. The tonalities are at once gritty and ethereal.

"Lewis In Pomona" is gentler, opening with the lyric, "I feel the wind on my skin and it feels good..." The deep, heavily-sustained keyboard tonalities continue through this track, establishing a consistent melodic theme across the album thus far. Toward the end of the song things get heavier and darker, though Karl maintains a positive lyrical tone. "...and it feels good... ...follow the line... to the rising sun."

"Hilo Sky" introduces a slight touch of abstract but detectable distorted guitar elements from Karl into the mix, which is usually dominated by Rick's keyboard treatments. It feels like a continuation of "Lewis," which is most welcome.

The track transitions seamlessly into "Burst Of Laughter." Karl sings, "Do you ever feel like you're alone? Do you ever feel like you are breaking? Don't make it complicated. I am waiting..." We all have, Karl. And we're so glad you've returned at last! We've missed you.

"King Of Haarlem" is playfully lo-fi, with a consistent pulsing bass tone and choral keyboards in the upper range, expertly tied together by Karl's vocals. It's notably unusual and quirky, but a fun addition to the record. It's enjoyable when the duo takes a break from being too self-serious. I have a hunch that Karl had fun with this one.

"Ottavia" is minimally musical, and opens with female spoken-word vocals which for any fan is immediately reminiscent of "Two Months Off." It's captivating trying to follow the reason or rhyme of her idiosyncratic poetry. As the track progresses, the rhythm and bass take over for a delightfully infectious groove before returning the mic and focus to our faithful female speaker.

"denver luna (acapella)" reprises the hit from earlier in the record, this time with the instruments stripped away, the choral-treated lyrics laid bare to echo and reverberate endlessly in the listener's headphones. It's stunningly beautiful.

"Gene Pool" opens with a playful toy-esque piano melody accompanied by a more mature bass sequence to ground it. They dance together elegantly and get your head nodding. Reverse-sustained echoes compliment the melody and the piece feels like an interlude between the heavier selections from the record. Karl steps in with a few vocals in the second half of the track. A blissful trademark-Underworld climax ensues before a gentle conclusion and smiles are instantly inspired.

"Oh Thorn!" swells strings and reverberated echoes at the outset, a well-established structure of the album, before Karl begins reciting familiar lyrics from "King Of Haarlem." It's a brief track before transitioning into "Iron Bones."

"Iron Bones" is slower-paced. It opens bare with half-sung female lyrics before the bass is introduced. Karl joins in on vocals after a few bars making for a thoughtful and reflectively-meditative track. It's nice to have these contemplative songs between the bangers. That's what makes Underworld such a powerful duo.

"Stick Man Test" is the instrumental album-closer. It begins surprisingly with untreated acoustic guitar plucking and strumming, calling to memory the subtle and delicate "Santiago Cuatro" from their album, Barbara Barbara Barbara, We Face A Shining Future (2016). Moments later, the guitar is mirrored and delayed slightly across the speakers giving it greater dimension and space to breathe. The track is notably brief, but spends just enough time to ease and usher the listener into the conclusion of an elegantly refined album.

The three singles from the record, "Black Poppies," "denver luna," and "and the colour red" are definite highlights, but as the duo humbly requests, "please don't shuffle." This is an album best-enjoyed from start to finish, uninterrupted.

Underworld are experts and transcending genre and breaking-free of the standard tropes of electronic music, ever since their Mk2 days where they were labeled, "progressive house" to hint that there is something more going on here than your standard four-on-the-floor bangers.

Thank you, Underworld. Strawberry Hotel is an inviting and long-awaited return to form while introducing evolutionary elements of your continued progression as one of the greatest electronic artists of the era.

...

Strawberry Hotel tracklisting:

Side A:
Black Poppies
denver luna
Techno Shinkansen
and the colour red

Side B:
Sweet Lands Experience
Lewis In Pomona
Hilo Sky
Burst Of Laughter

Side C:
King Of Haarlem
Ottavia
denver luna (acapella)

Side D:
Gene Pool
Oh Thorn!
Iron Bones
Stick Man Test

Format:  Vinyl LP
Label:  Smith Hyde Productions