various | the may queen in july

this is the best tape compilation i did, and i never bloody released it. i spent 2 years compiling it, was very excited about it, but then its completion coincided with the collapse of my tiny empire in 2000. oof.

anyway, at 2 x c60 it's a monster - 42 tracks in all - and it's basically dedicated to four-track pop, so expect lots of hiss along with the tunes.

and there really are plenty of tunes to be had here, from:

::: charlie mcalister
::: father
::: southern charm pageant
::: remora
::: crayola summer
::: inca eyeball
::: girlboy girl
::: mad planets
::: courtis
::: werewolves on hashish
::: in tundra
::: tegan fraid (age 3)
::: hood
::: caleb fraid
::: 50holehead
::: jalopy
::: michelle glaw
::: fink
::: plundershop
::: warser gate
::: smirkworthy
::: elk
::: catkins of jazz
::: food
::: november 1959
::: frank peck
::: will simmons
::: drekka
::: i hail taxis
::: cocker spaniels
::: ring
::: mandorris
::: crosseyed
::: my place in space
::: shy rights movement
::: swingset
::: wagstaff
::: princeton reverbs colonnial
::: george willard
::: fernando

2 x c60 nearly released by kylie productions in 2000.

part 1.
part 2.

father | night classes

as promised, here's a third father tape, and the last one i have, and indeed the last one i know about. anyone know if there were others?

the eagle-eared will spot a few duplicate tracks on this one to the other two, though slightly different versions.

quality.

at some point i'll rip the 555 7", though i suspect someone else has beaten me to it.

tape released by cakehole in 1996(?).

get.

father | dancing major

only just getting round to posting this one because for a long time i couldn't figure out the tracklisting, but finally i've realised where i was going wrong and now it's all sorted. give this a listen and you may understand my confusion.

anyway, i released this one, and very proud of that i am too. father were brilliant. if you've got the 555 7" of the same title then you should know what to expect: brilliant pop songs poking through a thick layer of hiss and warped time signatures.

sadly i did this rip a long time ago and it's only at 128k, but then somehow that seems appropriate anyway.

i've got some more father stuff, including the night classes tape and one or two tracks destined for a compilation that never made it. on their way.

tape released by kylie productions in 1995.

get.

various | the condition of muzak

the beauty of the tape compilation is that you had 90 minutes to stuff it with whatever you fancied. sure that means there's normally a fair amount of crap to wade through till you find the oysters, but so often the oysters aren't where you'd expect.

cakehole was one of the better tape labels, one that seemed to actually have some kind of quality threshold. and this comp was their fiftieth release, a kind of "state of the label" release if you will. and if the title is anything to go by, then clearly we need to redefine our expectations of what is actually music.

::: cakehole - intro
::: rarb terb - even steven's
::: realm in dreams - as the scalpel cuts
::: hood - worrying about getting old
::: father - sex & ten
::: bleekmen - h-bomb versus a-bomb
::: they have stayed too long in the forest - sulky nectar
::: eastnmoor ambient group - extract
::: strip - mary 1
::: gary & the cro-magnons - untitled i
::: i hail taxis - me nag nug's a-naggerin'
::: stewart walden - song from the back of ian's record collection
::: children at play - the swollen testicles of jesus christ
::: splendid palatial retreat - difficult 2nd novel (a rock opera)
::: crayola summer - monkey island
::: the mike hunt set - living off the fat of tape hiss
::: children at play - wok noise
::: kostas d'lary - caruso '95
::: bovine over sussex ne - rok & choc
::: father - frog balloon
::: the starfire lounge - redwood yard
::: scooter - all these people
::: gary & the cro-magnons - untitled ii
::: stonebody - freak not born
::: rosa lee state - clip twist (holding one's breath mix)
::: johnnie mitchell - contact
::: drug masturbation - oh yoko (ono is the nigger of the world)
::: bleekmen - fluffer
::: orange sunshine - the truth about carrots
::: i hail taxis - you've made your bed
::: geoffrey sick - improvisation for xaphoon & tape xaphoon
::: peter buckley - a long time ago
::: culver - lectchin
::: vileda - night birds
::: novemberer - census '66 (appropriate music no. 1)
::: stewart bloody walden - snare hater

tape released by cakehole in ???

side 1.
side 2.

father | nature boy

father are best known for the "dancing major" 7" they released on 555. when i say best known, i mean amongst about 50 or so people. father never bothered the brit awards judges.

which is a shame, as they had pop chops a-plenty. but they also did all their recording using a cheap tape deck - none of this fancy 4-track business for them. clearly inspired by the off-the-cuff pop genius of guided by voices, they came across as a band for whom this songwriting business was thoroughly effortless, an exercise in pure, rackety joy, the noise an end in itself and not a career-building occupation.

they released a handful of tapes and that solitary 7". digitising the tapes is a bugger because there are so many bloody songs, the sequence of which doesn't necessarily correlate to what's written on the insert. but i think i've got this one right.

so sit back and enjoy the sound of a group of friends having a brilliant time.

tape released by no-fi home recordings in 1995.

i wouldn't mind some cake right now.

various | our salvation is in hand

following on from abridged perversion is this gem of a compilation, stuffed to the gills with lo-fi 4-track songs from the days when people still had 4-tracks. makes me nostalgic for the days of cutting out tape inlays and gluing labels and stuffing jiffy bags full of flyers. in other words the days before the internet came along and stole our innocence.

features my favourite mountain goats song ever, alpha omega. theme park was a great label too.

released in 1995 on theme park.

::: paul nini - down to the floor
::: the bruces - beginning to see the red light fade
::: father - teach us
::: the mountain goats - alpha omega
::: bucknalls - travelsick
::: simon joyner - sorrow floats
::: neil mcclury - untitled
::: national heroes - untitled
::: the losers - she never promised
::: paste - 68x8
::: matthew hattie hein & wham o - new house basement
::: franklin bruno - cat scratch fever
::: steve lindstrom - me and the weatherman
::: m-ways - the last deep mine
::: fungoboat - radio city
::: spacehopper - spoken for
::: mark s - stephen
::: the post - the joy of spring
::: brown tower - bacterial home
::: nick jackman - fucked up & free
::: trewavas - who needs me?
::: yak & - my own fiefdom
::: party of one - hit the north 3
::: the mountain goats - hand ball
::: john davis - waiting for my wife
::: hood - art without precedent or tradition

hit me up. *re-upped at 320mbps*