Big fan of Sixties labels who did those sort of "introduction for the general listener" compilations of musique concrete and electronic composers: Turnabout, Nonesuch, Vox's Candide imprint, major-label subdivisions like Columbia's Music of Our Time...But I don't think I've got any of these beauties put out by Limelight, a division of Mercury that was originally focused on jazz but abruptly switched to electronic and avant-garde music circa 1967.
Quite a few seem to have been licensed from Philips in Europe, often off the illustrious Prospective 21e Siècle series.
Limelight also signed up a few acid rock and progressive groups, like the synthadelic Fifty Foot Hose
Never heard of this lot
And the first album by Beaver / Krause - Ragnarok - misleadingly heralded on the front as "Electronic Funk" - which nonetheless suggests that conceptually if not sonically they are the godfathers of techno. (Or if not them, then the publicity / A&R people at Limelight).
Limelight also put out some world-y releases not unlike the Nonesuch Explorer series.
I covet the full set - but especially this label sampler:
This one though I could probably skip to be honest....
[most of these images half-inched from Degenerate Art Stream blog]
My god, these are incredible; never seen most of them before.
ReplyDeleteIt seems incredible now to contemplate a time when major record companies were big and magnanimous enough organisations to put resources aside for... this sort of thing.
Also, it's weird to note that some of the LP covers you've posted ('Images Fantastiques' and 'Le Voyage' in particular) look very contemporary again all of a sudden. With those solid circles overlapping the artwork and the fonts within them etc, I initially assumed they were newly repackaged 'boutique' reissues when skimming through the post.
And finally, a copy of that Fifty Foot Hose record is currently on the wall in my favourite local record shop. £100. I can't say I'm not tempted, but... (whistles through teeth).
Fifty Foot Hose is being reissued this month on vinyl - probably not that cheap, given the prices new vinyl commands but should be a good distance south of 100 quid! Just interviewed the guy behind the electronics element, Cork - fascinating story.
ReplyDeleteThe sleeves do look fantastic and as you say not as dated or trapped-in-era as you'd expect. I particularly dig the second of those Ragas record, Streams of Light, with the prisms - it's quite 21st Century / digital, even a bit vaporwave, but with a blurry opalescent quality that is more pleasing to the eye.
ReplyDeleteOM-effing-G! And ditto on the 'Streams of Light'. I've got 'Song of the Second Moon' but only the CD re-release (Omni, 2012)
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