S/D: Captured Tracks

It's about time we had this thread, isn't it? Myself, I'm not hugely familiar with their stuff, but I love the Craft Spells and Soft Moon LPs, and gotta figure the Blank Dogs stuff is worthwhile, if not hugely essential. I'm pretty indifferent to what I've heard of Beach Fossils (Lord, that name...) and probably a few other things that I'm forgetting right now.

http://www.capturedtracks.com/releases.php

What else is worth hearing?

This makes a handy reference, also:

http://www.discogs.com/label/Captured+Tracks

good: The Beets.
bad: most of the rest.

Search: Blank Dogs, The Beets, the Minks singles, Blouse, The Jameses
Destroy: the rest of the Minks record

so are Minks basically like the Soft Moon, but not as consistent?

http://lovetopost.blogspot.com/2010/03/cake-parties-you-have-been-exposed-in.html funny article about the guy in craft spells

so are Minks basically like the Soft Moon, but not as consistent?

I can't really compare them to Soft Moon because I get more of a gothy 80s vibe than the more post-punk Soft Moon approach, I just find Minks to be maddeningly inconsistent. "Cemetery Rain" and "Ophelia" are fantastic pop songs, but so much of the rest of the debut album is mired in this dour mess.

http://lovetopost.blogspot.com/2010/03/cake-parties-you-have-been-exposed-in.html funny article about the guy in craft spells

loooooooool O_O

the Wild Nothing album, both Beach Fossils records (fuq the haters), the last Tim Cohen album, and ESPECIALLY the AIAS album are all emphatically worth anyone's time

Oh yeah totally forgot Wild Nothing! The EP is great too. Aias is prety good, yeah. I need to get that recent Tim Cohen stuff.

I love the Bitters EP. And the Mayfair Set. Kinda haven't kept up with this label.

Oh yeah and Soft Moon.

minks are nothing like soft moon, don't see why anyone would think this unless they were on some lol indie strawmanning trip imo

love this label. i'd say search it all except some of the v v early stuff (repairs are shit, didn't think much of silk flowers, and i don't rate a lot of the earlier blank dogs stuff though the recent album is great)

they are striking a really good balance between releasing singles/albums which is a sign of a great label in my eyes (cf creation records when they were still good)

the recent stuff has all been really strong too - new dignan porch EP is way better than their album, tim cohen's new stuff is a+, the blouse and widowspeak 45s took a while to click with me but i love them now, and the craft spells album is a real grower and is on its way to becoming one of my faves of the year

Destroy: the rest of the Minks record

even kusmi? that track craps all over the singles

the wake tribute 45 is entertaining, in that it sounds like beach fossils and wild nothing always do, and nothing like the wake at all

even kusmi? that track craps all over the singles

I like "Kusmi" too and one or two others, but at least half the record is boring and tuneless. Which is more frustrating because you know they are capable of great moments.

I can't really get behind any Blank Dogs stuff (most of it is crap) except for their first ep on Sacred Bones. The Bitters, Teenage Panzerkorps, Soft Moon, Oh Sees, and the Jameses 7" are the only ones I like of the bunch. I'm not really a fan of the label. meh

just checked the label site and was surprised by the amount of stuff I haven't heard. for now I will rep the Frank(just Frank), Soft Moon and Wetdog LPs and will plan a Rdio binge for tomorrow.

and yeah, I didn't care for the Minks record after absolutely loving Funeral Song.

my thoughts on Craft Spells here btw

jeff & jane hudson reissue is pretty interesting and not half bad

also gives soft metals (who are doing a whole album for CT yayyy) a likeminded release on the label

odd how the catwalk 'yay recordings' is being billed as the first digital release of the tracks when they have been available from the yay bandcamp for months

teenage panzerkorps are releasing/have released some really incredible music this year as tpk & also sideproject horrid red, think theyre also playing live for the first time i think. one of my favourite bands these days. definitely them & soft moon are the best captured tracks releases, xeno & oaklander is v v pretty too. admittedly something kind of lame & dinky abt this label but i like some of their releases a lot

admittedly something kind of lame & dinky abt this label

nfi what you mean by this?

as i said i like some of it a lot but at its worst the aesthetic woodsist & them do has got a shamelessly murky & noncommital shyguy quality that i dont like. when the songwriting/playing isnt strong it can be pretty limp & awful. ganglians mayfair set veronica falls dum dum girls; iirc all sucked for this reason 2 me. dont want to sound like im rigid & dogmatic abt this, like i love the mantles single & the craft spells youtube i heard & other murky pop of this ilk

the very early stuff i can see, but i think they've come a long way since then. sure the anonymous indie bloke vocals can be tiresome but i think they're doing less and less of that sort of thing as they go on

ya i can believe that. wish i could be more of a h8r but i can't

hoop dreams single is ace. digging the factory/postcard vibe

first track floating around from the soft metals album is adorbs too

soft metals album out, total cracker, definitely top five of '11 for me

LE version looks so gorgeous - I mean, their alternate sleeves are usually pretty boss but this one's above and beyond even by their lofty standards:

http://i.imgur.com/lZmRA.jpg

i don't think i've ever purchased something so fast

lol i was in the basement with keegan screening those sleeves a few days ago.

by which i mean, he was screening them, and i was with him. hanging out. </suzy>

aw i want an ian screened LP

I really like the AIAS LE sleeve too

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_qNYb8mkRagI/TLctbkD3EMI/AAAAAAAABXw/ppm3AxAcFYM/s1600/AIAS.jpg

the Widowspeak album isn't as good as the Soft Metals one, but it's still quite lovely. feels like it occupies the precise midpoint between the Feelies' second album and Mazzy Star.

i loved loved loved the two widowspeak 7"s that came out this year and 'harsh realm' in particular deserves a lot of prais but i can see a full length maybe running dry

also good to see the soft metals album getting praised here its a total keeper imo

yeah i can't get enough of the soft metals lp

widowspeak lp arrived today, liked the singles so far so am going in with fairly high expectations, please nobody else ever cover 'wicked game' though please, that was unpleasant

the new blouse and soft moon tracks sound so fucking good i am beyond excited

between those and the cosmetics album i think they've got the rest of the year sealed up

thieves like us repress (?) is really really good, pulses and gleams and all that

between those and the cosmetics album i think they've got the rest of the year sealed up

is the cosmetics album ever coming out? it was announced for release in spring or early summer, and then . . . .

was wondering about that. the band seem to have gone very quiet...

months after it's announced release date, captured-tracks tweeted some cryptic line like, "coming soon, promise. . ." with a link to a cosmetics video. but after that, they've "gone very quiet" again.

"...we can't hear a single"

that can't be it. for one thing, this is captured-tracks; i'm sure they aren't expecting any song here to break big, even in the indie-ish markets. for another thing, the cosmetics songs are really catchy.

i'd guess the issue is the band, not the label.

Ha I was joking, yeah they're probably in some mix and remix rabbit hole...

the grabbel & the final cut single is so good

man i always forget the cosmetics trax are esp the ones that sound like the persian chick from idib

so mac demarco pretty much sucks right?

Judging by the DIIV performances on Pitchfork right now they're awful live and I'll avoid that and just stick with the record.

CT embarking on a flying nun reissue program i see

http://pitchfork.com/news/49042-captured-tracks-and-flying-nun-partner-for-expansive-reissue-series/

awesome, i will buy a lot of that

Gonna buy the SHIT outta that stuff!

About fnunning time!

BTW the Blissed Out Fatalists record on the new CT sublabel Body Double? Great. Like early J&MC and the Fall and some American noise rock style.

Looking forward for this as well. Look Blue Go Purple better be on the reissue list.

Isn't Flying Nun already reissuing much of their older titles already? Either way I am excited to see the results of this.

FN are shit at reissuing their own stuff as far as i'm concerned

that bird-dog was out of print for so long is testament to that

Widowspeak's 2013 album Almanac hasn't been discussed on ILM yet. My first impressions are that its a big jump in production clarity, and a lesser step in songcraft, up from the debut.

Worth checking out for fans of Beach House, Speck Mountain, Trespassers William etc.

Kind of surprised there hasn't been more talk about that one, actually. Listening to it again right now and it's definitely one of the year's early stand-outs for me. They manage to take a pretty simple formula but vary it up enough to keep things really interesting. The real star, for me, is Robert Earl Thomas and his guitar lines. Just love the way they slink into so many of these songs and steal them away. My only, relatively minor, complaint is the way they stick a little too close to the Almanac theme with the lyrics, sometimes this turns into a game of "spot the folk adage!".

bona drag reissue is kinda fun, reminds me of a trashier dolly mixture in parts

bona dish obv

lol bona drag

yeah i like this a lot. p snappy lookin too

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/86811529/Bona+Dish+l.jpg

the singles from the upcoming lps (minks, holograms, medicine) are encouragingly good. the soft metals single is a major disappointment though, it's like they've gone backwards. also they *really* need to be paired with a sympathetic producer

I really thought that was Brian Peppers up there for a second.

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v707/sorts/Picture_2_zpse95a3daf.png

I need to hear that release.

This label has to have the worst distribution of any label going.

how so

We can't order their stuff for our store and the other store across town can't, either. They seemed to briefly run through one of the main one-stops but now that seems to be done.

is it as bad for the other secretly canadian distro stuff?

According to their website in the US they go through ADA, which just makes it odder as most of the ADA stuff is easy to get. Oh well.

oic

You can't get it through AEC?

Nah, we use a different one-stop and a few random smaller distros (mostly punk or garage oriented).

AEC kind of sucks but I think at least a few titles from CT are order-able through them.

quite like this Minks album but in its own way it is perhaps one of the most ridiculous things I've heard all year

the new one?

the two tracks i've heard from it so far are nice though neither seem any great improvement on the previous stuff

it feels like a musical adaption of a photostory from an early 80s magazine for British teenage girls

listening to the minks now, i really like it, it doesn't have anything quite as ace as 'kusmi' from the last one but it's nice, makes a change from how disappointing i found the new soft metals one

really getting into the saada bonaire reissue. the pop stuff is fun and interesting. some of the more leftfield tracks in it out-NNF NNF except twenty years earlier

it's probably going to get lost amongst all the perfect pussy hype but the axxa/abraxas album is quite lovely pop

perfect pussy (god i hate that name) is an odd signing for captured tracks. doesn't seem to match the label's fairly distinctive aesthetic. but it's interesting! and captured tracks is a great label.

How would you define the captured aesthetic?

dark, reverb and echo-heavy post-punk that sounds like it was recorded in a cave. they're a throwback to late-70s and 80s labels that established their own scene, like factory and 4AD. to be fair, there's a fair bit of diversity on this label, like wild-nothings, who don't sound much like the other c/t acts, but even the label owners seem to acknowledge that there's an artistic aesthetic at the label.

this overlong video kind of gets at it, i think.

haha this quote, from the label owner:

music people are horrible, horrible people. all of them. myself included. the worst. take the weirdest people that burnt all their bridges from high school, who never really matured, and were never cool. and now create a social hierarchy for them while they're in their late 20s to their early 40s. we're setting up the worst high school ever, except it's old people. you know? it's terrible.

lol

+1 to the love for Axxa/Abraxas upthread; it really is quite a wonderful little collection of psyche-pop songs. I had a massive Olivia Tremor Control moment over the weekend and this album really complements it nicely, albeit in an exponentially less challenging manner.

also dammit Captured Tracks why u only release the Cosmetics album as a RSD release, I really want to give you money for that god damned record

^i was lucky enough to get this via their drip.fm (probably the only thing that made it worthwhile tbh). surely they'll have spares, all the RSD types only want mac demarco rarities amirite

does anyone know if the Bored Games reissue is going to be around post-RSD?

So I just realized that I had no idea the owner is a dude I know from college and was even briefly housemates with. Had heard a bit of Mac DeMarco and Wild Nothing but hadn't otherwise really checked out the label. Listening to a bunch of stuff on shuffle on a Spotify playlist and the label definitely has I'd say not just an aesthetic, but a sound, the way Stax does.

it does say something that both mac demarco and perfect pussy can both "fit" on the label while being as far apart musically and politically as indie bands can really be

I haven't heard a thing by mac demarco but I see his name like a dozen times a week and I've decided he's some fratty awfulness that I don't get. am I wrong? I based my assumption entirely on his name, which I find is a fair thing to do.

lol bc his name sounds like "mac miller" I know I had the same thing. It's not at all fratty.

I think the name and his love of stupid little hats put me off.

Curious about new/upcoming Donovan Blanc album--advance single's pretty A. Pink-y (and very firmly in the CT wheelhouse), but has enough of its own thing going on/is a strong enough song IMO to pique my interest.

finally a new chris cohen album! http://www.capturedtracks.com/shop/ct-related-releases/_ct-release/ct-247-chris-cohen-as-if-apart-lpcdcassette-pre-order/

!

BREAKING: Alex Calder dropped form @capturedtracks due to " an allegation of sexual assault". https://t.co/M39rxSVt42

— jesse d-s (@jesseds) October 13, 2017

captured tracks just released an entire "lost" album saâda bonaire album from the early 90s:

Until recently, it was thought that we had heard all there was to hear from Saâda Bonaire. The German studio project’s 1980s recordings had been compiled on the now cult-classic double LP Saâda Bonaire, released by Captured Tracks in 2013. Though the group had continued working until 1994, founder Ralph “von” Richthoven had firmly stated that all of their post-1986 work was lost: “I threw away most of my work; I didn’t see any reason to hold onto it anymore.” A visit to a relative’s house, however, turned up a pleasant surprise: Richthoven stumbled across a battered cassette tape labeled Saâda Bonaire ‘91. Released now for the first time ever, 1992 compiles the band’s long-lost early nineties material. Produced between Bremen and New York City, the 12 songs presented here capture the group's attempts at steering their trademark fusion sound (reggae, afro-funk, Eastern music, and sultry German female vocals) into uncharted nu jazz, trip-hop, and house territories.
Following the release of their 1984 single “You Could Be More As You Are” and a subsequent A&R debacle with EMI, the group went on an indefinite hiatus in 1985. Vocalist Claudia Hossfeld had left the group, and Richthoven and vocalist Stephanie Lange were navigating a recent breakup. “In order to cope, I just kept myself as busy as possible,” Richthoven explains. “I had a full-time day job doing social and cultural work for the city. In the evenings I produced music in the Dub City Studio.” It was during this time that he met a local jazz guitarist named Mike Ellington. Inspired by the new dance music emerging from the UK and the States, the two decided to give the project another shot in 1990. Lange agreed to reprise her role as vocalist, as did many of the local Turkish-Kurdish musicians who’d performed on the 1980s recordings. There were new additions as well: Ellington as co-producer, Andrea Ebert as vocalist, and North Irish folk singer Paul Lindsay as lyrical contributor. Between 1991 and 1994, this new incarnation of Saâda Bonaire recorded more than a dozen songs in Ellington’s recording studio, charmingly housed inside the sex shop owned by his family.
It’s no surprise, given both the time lapse and the fluid nature of the project, that these recordings differ sonically from the 1980s material. 1992 finds Saâda Bonaire folding new influences from the time (house, hip-hop, rap) into their eclectic sonic universe. Ebert’s soulful voice –the result of a church choir background and an early love of American soul and jazz music– offset Lange’s laid-back, more German-sounding vocals. “Some magic came out in the air when we were there, singing together,” Lange recalls. “We encouraged and supported each other.” This unique interplay bolstered the band’s new direction - evident in their inspired takes on James Brown’s “Woman” and Syreeta Wright and Stevie Wonder’s “To Know You Is To Love You”. The American influence was also made literal via contributions by renowned DJ Matthias Heillbronn and rapper Jimmy Lee Patterson, both of whom lent some stardust to the tracks at François Kevorkian's Axis Studios in NYC.

https://saadabonaire.bandcamp.com/album/1992