Is this the same Bob Stanley? He's a member of St. Etienne and wrote this article for the Guardian about an obscure movie doc about 60s London...
― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Sunday, 12 November 2006 18:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― curmudgeon (DC Steve), Sunday, 12 November 2006 18:58 (seventeen years ago) link
this looks good too:
http://www.amazon.co.uk/Its-So-Fine-Pye-Girls/dp/tracks/B0009HL0OO/ref=dp_tracks_all_1/202-3189635-6772613#disc_1
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 12 November 2006 19:11 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Sunday, 12 November 2006 19:12 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Sunday, 12 November 2006 22:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Sunday, 12 November 2006 23:03 (seventeen years ago) link
― Arthurgh! A Music War (Arthur), Sunday, 12 November 2006 23:08 (seventeen years ago) link
― Ned Raggett (Ned), Sunday, 12 November 2006 23:15 (seventeen years ago) link
Think harder. Folk Is Not a Four Letter Word, Prog Is Not a Four Letter Word, Vertigo Mixed, Welsh Rare Beat, Songs in the Key of Death, Music to Watch Girls Cry: unbeatable run there.
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Monday, 13 November 2006 00:15 (seventeen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Monday, 13 November 2006 00:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― Arthurgh! A Music War (Arthur), Monday, 13 November 2006 01:09 (seventeen years ago) link
ps hiya arthur!
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 13 November 2006 01:10 (seventeen years ago) link
I have to say, though, that the Finders Keepers releases I own do not get into the rotation as much as, say, The Trip or Velvet Tinmine...
― hank (hank s), Monday, 13 November 2006 14:01 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Monday, 13 November 2006 15:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Monday, 13 November 2006 15:25 (seventeen years ago) link
Mind you, I'm glad they do. The St Et The Trip comp is exceptional (will somebody tell me more about Mandy More?) and the Selda album which Votel's recently reissued is a thing of wonder.
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 13 November 2006 15:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 13 November 2006 15:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:08 (seventeen years ago) link
Can't tell you anything about her, but here's a few titbits online about her LP:
- from a Q&A with Bob Stanley @ saintetienne.com:
"Ember Glance asks who the hell is Mandy More. Well, her mindblowing If Not By Fire appeared on The Trip. It's from an album called But That Is Me on Philips in 1972 (which includes a great cover of God Only Knows, an almost impossible feat!). I know she did a few equally intriguing non album singles including Coffee Cups which is very proto Kate Bush. Most of the album is, too."
- review @ the vinylvulture.co.uk forum:
"Mandy More – But that is me, Philips 1972A beautiful and moving album, one I know nothing about. On playing it through I discovered that ‘If Not by Fire’ was familiar – featured on St Etienne’s Trip compilation. This is one of the 2 tracks which features some great electronic / moogy effects (freaking out at the end) and is mighty fine. But the album is so not a 1-tracker, it is one of those perfectly formed complete albums. A little like Melanie’s earlier LPs, but IMHO so much better. Mandy More has a great voice and the arrangements are gloriously baroque – strings, harp, layers of voices, piano – and great songs too. Highlights, if I must pick them are: ‘But That is Me’ (almost a single – catchy uplifting song), ‘Listen Babe’ (gentle grooving number), ‘Come to me Jesus’ (lush complex orchestral, with a great twisting and swelling ending); ‘If I smiled on Saturdays’ (catchy uptempo number featuring congas and melodica). For me the best is the closing number – a fantastic cover of ‘God only Knows’ – the moog comes back (or it might be guitar through effects) and the drums are funky even has a harmonica solo from Mandy! Produced by a certain Tony Hall, if that means anything to anyone.... Find this album if you can, you need it!"
― zebedee (zebedee), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:31 (seventeen years ago) link
related to xposts: can anybody tell me more about Esther Williams (not the swimmer who turned up on the cover of the first Blur LP, but the soul singer whose "Last Night Changed It All" appears on The Trip)?
― hank (hank s), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:40 (seventeen years ago) link
I liked that Folk Is Not A Four Letter Word comp Votel did, and the welsh one he did with Gruff Rhys, but thought the prog one was just dreadful. Though I'd probably have dug the song selection if I was out at a club and those were the records a dj was playing. It didn't work so well as an at home listening experience for me.
― bastowe (bastowe), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:54 (seventeen years ago) link
― mark grout (mark grout), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:55 (seventeen years ago) link
― scott seward (scott seward), Monday, 13 November 2006 16:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Matos-Webster Dictionary (M Matos), Monday, 13 November 2006 19:50 (seventeen years ago) link
those 2cd Virgin compilations were so beautiful.... i'm the only fan of "monster, robot and bugmen" compiled by simon hopkins and "jazz satellites" by kevin martin )and "kosmic kuruschi monster (vol.1, sigh....))? wish kevin martin would/could compile more...
― minerva estassi (minerva estassi), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:28 (seventeen years ago) link
― hank (hank s), Monday, 13 November 2006 21:34 (seventeen years ago) link
Was going to say a similar thing but wanted to articulate *how* and not sure i can right now.
― dh (djh), Monday, 13 November 2006 22:24 (seventeen years ago) link
― Nedpoleon (NedBeauman), Monday, 13 November 2006 23:42 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 01:33 (seventeen years ago) link
I've been waiting for eons for Vol. 2. Jazz Satellites Vol. 1 was a life-changer. Some key person at Virgin must've got sacked, because it seems like all those amazing comps stopped issuing forth about 5 years ago.
Check out this lineup for the unreleased second volume: http://wlt4.home.mindspring.com/adventures/articles/satellites.htm
― Dave Segal (Da ve Segal), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 03:22 (seventeen years ago) link
talking of wire/tony harrington compiled comps, the wire 3cd box on Mute i think is really good, but have never seen reviewed or talked about. Check the tracklist: http://www.discogs.com/release/125213
― minerva estassi (minerva estassi), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 03:53 (seventeen years ago) link
Anyway bored that downloading will actually be a pain for little (or big) records companies that will decide so that to issue comps, and the problems about it (licensing), it's no long useful and profitable (even if of unavailable music).
― minerva estassi (minerva estassi), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 04:10 (seventeen years ago) link
― Dr. C (Dr. C), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 09:06 (seventeen years ago) link
― hank (hank s), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:19 (seventeen years ago) link
The Garbarek-Coltrane-23 Skidoo-Melle stretch on Jazz Satellites is one of my favorite sequences.
― Pamplaxico Polancobon (Andy_K), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 14:35 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tyler W (tylerw), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:17 (seventeen years ago) link
― Marcello Carlin (nostudium), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:26 (seventeen years ago) link
― Tyler W (tylerw), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 15:48 (seventeen years ago) link
― Michael F Gill (Michael F Gill), Tuesday, 14 November 2006 17:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― So Ho La (So Ho La), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 01:40 (seventeen years ago) link
― opalescent arcs (Da ve Segal), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 01:44 (seventeen years ago) link
― hank (hank s), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:21 (seventeen years ago) link
― everything (everything), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:29 (seventeen years ago) link
― Fritz Wollner (Fritz), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:43 (seventeen years ago) link
― calvin johnson has ruined rock for an entire generation (orion), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:56 (seventeen years ago) link
― electric sound of jim [and why not] (electricsound), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 02:57 (seventeen years ago) link
― Raw Patrick (Raw Patrick), Wednesday, 15 November 2006 09:28 (seventeen years ago) link
big list of comps here:http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/compile.html
― Brio, Friday, 8 May 2009 15:12 (fifteen years ago) link
Fell from the Sun is so good. Just spent a pleasant Saturday morning listening & reading the sleevenotes (status: fully ascended Mojo dad) which have a nice 'Rock Family Trees: Chart Show edition' feel.
(Feeling old moment - realising we're twice as far away from this stuff as this stuff is from his 76 in the Shade comp.)
― woof, Saturday, 2 July 2022 12:57 (two years ago) link
Two thirds through Let's Do It and the one big complaint I have so far is the lack of coverage of Latin music, which was surely very influential to this period (enough for Bing Crosby to record "South America, Take It Away"); so far the only references to it I've seen in there are a British bandleader claiming to have lived in Brazil and Duke Ellington recording a latin novelty song, which is shown as evidence that he was in a creative slump. Hoping he'll give Bossa Nova its due at least.
There's also a bit of a problem in making it about both US and UK pop. I get why he does it - UK pop is underexplored and a book solely about it would sell less - but it's really not fair, these huge developments in the US and then every time it goes back to Britain the scenario feels much the same as anywhere else in Europe (in fact I think histories of pre-Rock French and Italian Pop might have more juice!).
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 7 October 2022 11:01 (one year ago) link
Excellent points, Daniel. I read it over the summer and if memory serves, there's a paragraph at the very beginning, possibly in the foreword, about how there was clearly a story to tell about non-English-speaking pop but for the purposes of the book he'd restricted himself (and his comprehensive research) to UK/US pop.
― giraffe, Friday, 7 October 2022 12:54 (one year ago) link
I think that's fair and certainly a book on all pop worldwide in the pre-rock era would be far too daunting, but it doesn't imo let him off the hook for the latin thing, as the influences of mambo, latin jazz and bossa nova to give just a few examples were huge on English speaking pop of that time.
― Daniel_Rf, Friday, 7 October 2022 13:50 (one year ago) link
New punk-era compilation, Winter of Discontent, about to drop:
https://acerecords.co.uk/winter-of-discontent
― lord of the rongs (anagram), Thursday, 5 January 2023 11:09 (one year ago) link
Post-punk rather than punk.
― Aw naw, no' an Antonioni wan oan noo an' aw (Tom D.), Thursday, 5 January 2023 12:17 (one year ago) link
More goodness on the way: https://acerecords.co.uk/tribal-rites-of-the-new-saturday-night
― giraffe, Monday, 22 May 2023 12:12 (one year ago) link
That looks pretty solid!
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 22 May 2023 15:13 (one year ago) link
Yeah, these things just keep getting better and better. Wonder if Ace has a Bob Stanley Plan you can sign up for.
― henry s, Monday, 22 May 2023 15:57 (one year ago) link
Looks amazing.
Is there a site where all these Saint Etienne/Bob Stanley comps listed? It's tough to keep up!
― omar little, Monday, 22 May 2023 15:59 (one year ago) link
Here you go: http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/index2.html
― Tim, Monday, 22 May 2023 20:57 (one year ago) link
he's got a new Bee Gees bio out which sounds quite good
― Number None, Tuesday, 20 June 2023 14:44 (one year ago) link
Various ArtistsLatin Freestyle New York / Miami 1983 - 1992Ace
Another stunning compilation compiled by Bob Stanley. Latin Freestyle was a dizzying, passionate, ultra- modern music. It was the aural equivalent of a can of thirst-quenching Quatro or a Spanish Harlem dance-off, and it became the electronically constructed bridge between disco and house. Freestyle grew out of the electro sound of the early 80s, combined clean staccato rhythms with morse code synth hooks, and topped them off with emotive, usually female, frequently Latina vocals. There was plenty more going on besides: proto- house piano lines, Cuban percussion, high emotion and synth hooks to die for. Put together and annotated by Bob Stanley (who also compiled the acclaimed The Daisy Age and Fell From The Sun), Latin Freestyle is the first compilation to cover the whole gamut of Freestyle from its early 80s breakthrough to its early 90s revival. So many classics... Lisa Lisa made the UK top ten with the 808 joy of ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’. Stacey Q’s cosmically great ‘Two Of Hearts’ came out in 1986, while 1987 saw the likes of Company B’s ‘Fascinated’ and Exposé’s ‘Point Of No Return’ become huge UK club hits. Today, Freestyle is a scene with a solid collector’s market, and rarities like Janelle’s ‘Don’t Be Shy’ sell for hundreds of dollars. It’s a classic summer soundtrack, finally condensed in one Ace Records compilation – Latin Freestyle.
― Thus Sang Freud, Saturday, 22 July 2023 11:15 (one year ago) link
I approve. Some good choices in there. Interesting that he went with "Let's Go" by Nocera which is slightly less known than her "Summertime, Summertime," but I love both. He went with all female singers, which is a choice. There are two or three Cynthia tracks I'd pick before "Thief of Heart," but there are no losers here.
I would have a hard time choosing only that number of tracks for an all-encompassing freestyle comp, even going with just one track per artist.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 13:53 (one year ago) link
Looking again at his 16 selections on this comp, I think my own freestyle comp would include exactly eight of those 16 tracks. And then I could come up with eight better ones.
Alfred to thread. I know he’s posted a best of freestyle list here.
― Josefa, Saturday, 22 July 2023 18:01 (one year ago) link
How's the Bee Gees book?
I was kind of thinking "It's Bob! Maybe I've just not really got the Bee Gees and this might convince me otherwise?" but the excerpt in the Guardian didn't convince me to part with money.
― djh, Sunday, 23 July 2023 19:46 (one year ago) link
I enjoyed the Bee Gees book a great deal, their story is unusual and interesting, sometimes bewildering and sometimes sad. I thought I knew a bit about the Bee Gees but didn't know the half of it. IT looks like a thick book but it skips along at a pace, there's a lot of Bee Gees to get through. I am pleased that he gives proper attention to the brothers' production work in the 80s.
Bob observes at the start that the Bee Gees have never really been a fashionable name to drop, haven't been the subject of much of a critical re-evaluation (compared to The Beach Boys or The Kinks, both of whom have had periods in and out of fashion). He doesn't ever really get to why he thinks that is, aside from a few observations about how they never really fitted in to the pop world, and often seemed to shy away from any kind of cutting edge. I'm quite glad the book doesn't give a direct answer to that question, but I'd pay to read Bob music on why the Bee Gees seem immune to being a cool name to drop.
― Tim, Monday, 24 July 2023 16:04 (one year ago) link
Thanks Tim.
― djh, Monday, 24 July 2023 20:17 (one year ago) link
London A To Z is great grey sky listening. The blurb on the John & Beverley Martyn track unpleasantly flippant if you've listened to the Andrew Hickey podcast ep on the artists tho.
― Daniel_Rf, Tuesday, 21 November 2023 13:47 (ten months ago) link
A friend recently gifted me Tribal Rites on CD. It’s excellent, particularly the second half. As I’m currently working on a project with the veteran DJ Greg Wilson, I told him about it and he was v.excited by the track listing, particularly for the Sons Of Robin Stone track. So that’s a strong expert endorsement for you there!
― mike t-diva, Tuesday, 21 November 2023 14:08 (ten months ago) link
Man I've been slack on catching up on the various comps in general. Had missed London A To Z for instance.
Meantime, the other day I'm shopping in Amoeba and I noticed these two comps from him that I had missed completely! (Which of course I bought immediately.)
https://acerecords.co.uk/folk-funk-beyond-the-arrangements-of-john-cameron
https://acerecords.co.uk/incident-at-a-free-festival-1
The latter one is in series with English Weather and Occasional Rain, this time being 1972.
Next up is a Cafe Exil sequel:
https://acerecords.co.uk/fantastic-voyage-1
Plus a really interesting one to me, a Lou Christie comp focusing on 1967. (I keep being very surprised at how Christie barely factors into wider 60s retrospections -- was he too much of a flash in the pan in the end?)
https://acerecords.co.uk/gypsy-bells-columbia-recordings-1967
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 December 2023 17:33 (eight months ago) link
Thanks for the head's up, Ned! I too have lost track of these comps, which is a shame because I almost invariably enjoy the hell out of them.
I own 76 In The Shade, Occasional Rain, Three Day Week, English Weather (my fave), Paris In the Spring, Tears of Technology, and State of the Union. Aside from this latest batch, are there any other crucial ones I'm missing, aside from Cafe Exil (which I can never seem to find)?
― Paul Ponzi, Saturday, 30 December 2023 18:01 (eight months ago) link
Having gotten them all I can't be truly objective but per the new John Cameron one, gotta give credit to his very interesting producer/arranger overview choices -- the Thom Bell and Norman Whitfield comps arguably work in more familiar territory but they're solid overviews (Bell's own thoughts in the liners are great), but the Robert Kirby one was really striking, a way to open up a view into a lot of 70s UK folk-and-related work I wouldn't have really assayed otherwise.
Meantime I've just now noticed that that 'A Taste Of' series he did for Sainsbury's, which I thought was vinyl only, did have at least some CD issues as well so I may have to start tracking those down.
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, 30 December 2023 18:14 (eight months ago) link
They sure are coming in thick and fast these days. My hometown record store always has a great compilation section, and when I was just back for the holidays I picked up the Cameron and Free Festival ones, as well as Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. Still on the hunt for London A-Z and the Latin Freestyle one. Also got the new Bobby Gillespie weepy ballad comp, also on Ace.
― henry s, Saturday, 30 December 2023 19:28 (eight months ago) link
― Ned Raggett, Saturday, December 30, 2023 6:14 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink Curious. I've never seen the CDs (and only fleetingly saw the vinyl) despite shopping in Sainsbury's regularly. I don't recall the track listings for the ones I saw being that interesting??
― djh, Saturday, 30 December 2023 22:11 (eight months ago) link
(I might be being unfair/grumpy in that assessment).
― djh, Saturday, 30 December 2023 22:12 (eight months ago) link
"Cafe Exil" is my favorite comp of the last number of years, such a great ride. Very excited about the sequel even if its tracks are far more familiar than CE.
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Saturday, 30 December 2023 23:00 (eight months ago) link
The Sainsburys releases were basically "here's a basic ass selection with a few hidden gems snuck in", which is honestly very fair considering the target audience (it ain't us). Would still have picked them up if they had them at my local ofc.
― Daniel_Rf, Sunday, 31 December 2023 12:04 (eight months ago) link
Sounds a reasonable assessment.
― djh, Sunday, 31 December 2023 12:13 (eight months ago) link
"Fell From The Sun" is decent though shocked to discover that One Dove's Fallen wasn't as good as I remember (at least in the version on here).
― djh, Tuesday, 9 January 2024 20:08 (eight months ago) link
Compiling some tracks recently [the ones on the Tarwater thread] and being a bit indecisive on the track-listing, I found myself wondering "What would Bob Stanley do??"
― djh, Monday, 12 February 2024 21:51 (seven months ago) link
"Fantastic Voyage" is another top tier compilation, lives up to the title!
― Gerald McBoing-Boing, Tuesday, 13 February 2024 00:05 (seven months ago) link
Here's the next one: Thom Bell - Didn't I Blow Your Mind? The Sound Of Philadelphia Soul 1969 - 1983
https://acerecords.co.uk/thom-bell-didnt-i-blow-your-mind-the-sound-of-philadelphia-soul-1969-1983
― mike t-diva, Thursday, 18 April 2024 13:53 (five months ago) link
That’s…weird. He already did a Thom Bell comp a few years back! Hell it’s linked on that page. Is this a complementary set?
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 April 2024 14:10 (five months ago) link
This is the sequel to “Ready Or Not”, Ace’s first acclaimed compilation of the late Thom Bell’s productions and arrangements.
― an icon of a worried-looking, long-haired, bespectacled man (C. Grisso/McCain), Thursday, 18 April 2024 14:20 (five months ago) link
Clarity!
― Ned Raggett, Thursday, 18 April 2024 19:56 (five months ago) link
Bob has been busy again. https://www.acerecords.co.uk/tomorrows-fashions-library-electronica-1972-1987
― giraffe, Thursday, 2 May 2024 09:11 (four months ago) link
I used to own hundreds upon hundreds of these albums. I sold a lot on eBay ages ago, but probably still own several hundred, and I still have CD-Rs of many of those I sold.
The one track on here I really love is John Cameron’s ‘Northern Lights’. For some reason it always evokes for me not the northern lights but gazing out on the River Thames at night, in the 1980s or early 1990s, at somewhere like Battersea. There’s an ominousness to it or a feeling of lost time, or something. That's what goes through my head anyway every time I listen to it.
A lot of the others have aspects to them that I like, but things I don’t like as well. Sometimes the drums and bass sound a bit like jazz funk, but a bit plodding, not sprightly. Then there are certain chord changes that I find annoying. You can hear the loosely prog rock background of some of these composers and the changes they use are not always to my taste.
― dubmill, Thursday, 2 May 2024 13:25 (four months ago) link
And speaking of that comp, new Ace Records Podcast episode with Bob talking about it:
https://soundcloud.com/ace-records-ltd/the-ace-records-podcast-31-bob-stanley
― Ned Raggett, Monday, 8 July 2024 17:14 (two months ago) link