Label Obsessions
In the late 1980s, post-REM and pre-Nirvana, I was obsessed with American 'underground' music. I bought everything on the SST and Homestead labels. A then-colleague was similarly fixated on 4AD, purchasing every release across multiple formats. I suspect that more recently formed imprints like Domino and Warp have equally dogged disciples, just as I imagine there are people who own everything released on Harvest or adorned with Phonogram's Spiral Vertigo label.
These days my approach to buying music is a little less, shall we say, unhealthy, but I still feel the occasional flush of excitement when I think a label is doing something new or interesting. This week it's Sublime Frequencies, who've released a series of often brilliant, limited edition, non-barcoded albums featuring everything from Burmese short-wave radio broadcasts to Syrian folk-pop, more often than not mastered from ancient cassettes recovered from flea markets. It's enthralling stuff, honest.
Anybody else care to own up to a label obsession?
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Vertigo
I never owned anything like all the albums on the label. However standing over the turntable watching that logo swirl was something many of us did in the early 70's.
ECM
Everything about it was quality. The artwork, the high production values, the crystal clear sound, and most of all, the wondeful musicians like Jarrett, Corea, Metheny, Garbarek and many more.
Vertigo bits and pieces
First of all, I forbid anyone to mention the Vertigo label without mentioning the wonderful, timeless music of Cressida. They made two albums which got nowhere more than 30 years ago, and yet there are still people who wonder what became of them, and their Asylum album cover even made it to the Word album cover atlas.
I didn't have them all, but some other Vertigo greats I did have were Juicy Lucy, Jade Warrior (still on the go today), May Blitz and Colosseum.
Artists appearing, sometimes briefly, on the label in their early days include Rod Stewart, Uriah Heep (shuffles feet, embarassed), Status Quo (more shuffles), Magna Carta, Black Sabbath, and (also still on the go) Dr. Strangely Strange before they moved to Island.
Early cover designs were striking to say the least, and usually done by one Marcus O'Keef (aka Keef).
Similar to what someone says elsewhere about Island, you really could just run your eye over the spines of the album covers in the spine, pick out the Vertigo ones, and be pretty confident they'd be good.
In those days, there was a special coolness about being obscure, and sadly, being on the Vertigo label usually ensured you stayed that way, as their promotion was apparently non-existent to woeful.
As if to demonstrate the scope for obsession, there's a dedicated website at http://www.vertigoswirl.com/
I agree with almost all of your assertions, 'spesh Cressida.
However.
"you really could just run your eye over the spines of the album covers in the spine, pick out the Vertigo ones, and be pretty confident they'd be good"
I give you "Electric City" by Bob Downes Open Music.
Bought because it was Vertigo and 50p in a sale. Kept because is was so rare I knew it was worth 100 times that. Good though? Sadly not! Ye Gods.
Apple
My first LP purchases included Abbey Road and Let It Be, and lead to an obsession with all things Fab. Over the years I picked up most of the UK album and singles releases. A lot of it is rather dated, and quite frankly unlistenable. Although there is the odd gem - anyone remember Chris Hodge's 'We're On Our Way'? Thought not.
Still if anyone out there has a copy of the officially unreleased Delaney & Bonnie LP (that's SAPCOR 7) give me a shout.
sapcor 7
i have a copy and i am willin to sell but only for book price £800 if you are interested contact me at electricmilesdavis@yahoo.co.uk
I tend to find...
...most anything released on Island Records in the 60s and 70s is worth listening to. I like those box-sets Universal put out celebrating labels like Island, Vertigo and Deram.
Another close equivalent today is a label like Transgressive, which has a cult following too.
Talking about Apple, how about that experimental label Zapple? I once had George Harrison's 'Electronic Sound' on that label and it was crap! The Beatles were knocking out some vanity projects back then...
Electronic Sound
I just hope you got a good price for it...
Yeah...
...it wasn't in great condition and seemed to have been played a few times, which was surprising considering how unlistenable it was! Got £25 for it though which wasn't bad, considering.
Electronic Sound?
£75 easy these days. £500 for Lennon's Wedding Alum - the ultimate in vanity publishing.
Not an obsession...
...well, nearly; but I've spent much of the last five months delving into vast chunks of the FAME back catalogue, as well as much Atlantic and Chess stuff recorded at FAME itself. There's one hell of a box set right there.
If it ain't Stiff...
...it ain't worth a f*ck.
The Famous Charisma Label
Although I do not obsessively collect all releases on this very English label I do have a fair few. Created and controlled by Tony Stratton-Smith, a former sports journalist and manager of The Nice and the Bonzos, The bands were picked because he simply liked the music. Genesis, Lindisfarne, Van Der Graaf Generator, Audience and Monty Python, to name but a few.
Who else would sponsor a horse race with the Charisma Gold Cup at Kempton Park?
http://themarqueeclub.net/tony-stratton-smith
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Charisma_Records
http://www.charismalabel.com/
The label that has me intrigued nowadays is Trunk Records. Music For Biscuits is a labour of love.
http://www.trunkrecords.com/intro.shtml
Glitterhouse
While I do have an awful lot of Domino, Sub-Pop and, to a lesser extent, Anticon albums in my collection, I never bought into any of these labels as brands. It was more a case of their tastes coinciding rather neatly with my own. That said, I do really miss those postcards that Domino used to send out in the pre-internet days of publicity. Even after a big clear-out a few years ago, I’ve still got loads of them.
My great unconditional love affair with a record label was a five year, cross-channel romance with Glitterhouse - a German-based operation with esoteric links to Sub-Pop in the US. It all started in the early 1990s, when they were releasing a lot of what I would describe as Cornball Alternative Country - David Munyon, Gary Heffern and Larry Barrett, all American songwriters as far as I know. David Munyon’s song - Me and this Old Suitcase is a classic of the Alt Cornball genre, telling the story of a hobo and his suitcase as they travel across Canada and the US and thereafter into purgatory.
Glitterhouse also cultivated home-grown talent, the most unusual being The Hitchin’ Post - a trio of country music-loving Germans, whose concept of America was informed by just about every cliché in the book (in their song Death Valley Junction they advise you to “take a soda pop and a homemade pie”).
The road of excess that is Label-Binging, while in itself a fine and noble pursuit, is also one that requires a large disposable income. Now that I’m on the social, I no longer wield that kind of indiscriminate spending power.
Cooking Vinyl
When they first started they had a diverse roster, a hotch potch of really rather wonderful stuff, between Jackie Leven, still a stalwart of theirs, thru' to Edward II and the Red Hot Polkas, Oyster Band and Michelle Shocked. They put out fabulous cheapo samplers and has a CV "club" whereby, for an annual sub you could get 20% or so off their LPs, so confident were they of appeal to the, um, enthusiasts of their style. A bit like early Stiff, with a folkier demographic.
Economics dictate a slightly less appealing ship, but they still get to license some good one-offs.
loads
my brother did the SST and Homestead thing (a little) - firehose ahoy, innit. I went crazy for el (would be goods, king of luxembourg, louis phillipe, all that), then, during my time in record shops, collected Acid Jazz, Mo Wax, Dorado, Talking Loud, Soul Static Sound, Metalheadz, Good Looking and all that lot... Still got them all too.
*is sad*
Never Mind The Labels
What about the sleeves?
http://crossedcombs.typepad.com/recordenvelope/
Is it any wonder
the kids today get into designer pumps, mobile phones or limited edition smarties. They don't have the record labels, sleeves, inner bags, bootleg LPs and promo singles to collect like we had in our day.
Aye.
Also to be read on a vinyl album package
was the text scratched on the vinyl between the tracks and the label, often with the name of the person who mastered it, but sometimes with more.
I feel a new thread coming on...
Porkys prime cuts......
.
Wax Trax
It all ended in tears, sort of, but for a few shining years in the 80's and early 90's they had some great "industrial dance" bands on their label ( Ministry, Front 242, REvCo, Coil, Clock DVA).
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Wax_Trax!