http://soundcloud.com/rooflight/doors-of-perception-indian
This is a compilation of 'Library' or 'Lounge' music. Call it whatever, it's mostly a combination of orchestra bass and drums, from a time when there were comedy duo's
and programmes about amusingly shaped vegetables on the cathode ray TV screen, and people wore some pretty funky clobber!
These tracks were made (mostly) primarily for use in TV, movie and commercials. They were recorded by music publishing companies with weird names like KPM, Chappell, Bruton, De Wolfe,
Conroy and so on. They were pressed on to vinyl in stupidly small runs of around 500 per record and ended up in radio (national, hospital, university) film studios and TV stations all over the place from the early 50's up to the mid 80's. Many of the people who wrote the music were skilled session players and arrangers with CV's as long as your arm, having worked for some of the top names in the music world.
Now these companies are still around and still doing their thing, although they no longer press vinyl. The march of digital only releases has seen the end of the vinyl versions of these
tracks.
Most of these types of records ended up in skips, landfill and charity shops towards the beginning of the 80's (I know because I went into those skips and charity shops back then, 'reclaiming' and buying those strange records, they were the only one's I could afford!) . The change of technology for recording, writing and producing music, made this particular genre unfashionable at the time, as the focus was on more electronic based music. Now these records that were sold for pennies in charity shops and thrown away, are hugely collectable, not least for the amazing playing but for the sheer range of music they contained, everything from Reggae, Soul, Disco, Easy Listening, Funk, Electronica and so on.
Here's a chance to hear music played as it was intended, arranged and recorded by orchestra's and bands, playing together in studio's, often only playing the song through a few times before
recording the final take.
Studio space now is horrendously expensive if an orchestra is involved, going back a few decades it was cheaper, but it was still expensive so everything was done quickly as possible to cut down costs.
All this considered, what this casual compilation of music shows is that the sound of string orchestra in full flight with a healthy injection of bass and drums, funk, swing, mellowness and melancholy, is a wonderful thing to behold.
There's Piano, Bossa, Disco, Flutes, Female Vocals, Horns, Harps and lots of distant strings in this. There have been a fair few well known compilations of this kind of stuff over the years, probably the most well known being the 'Sound Gallery' comps.
It is very much of it's time, yet still sounds contemporary today. The sign of good solid writing and musicianship. And I tried to deliberately avoid what some people consider the more 'cheesy' sound (although that's another story).
I've only scratched the surface, this is a selection of relaxed 'summery' music from the late 60's to the late 70's. I had to leave a lot out for time reasons, maybe there'll be another one some time.
There are also some well known musician names and tracks in there, the underrated and hugely talented Dudley Moore, Johnny Harris and Keith Mansfield alongside Nelson Riddle, Antonio Jobim, Vangelis and Barry Gray (you'll recognize the 'UFO' theme when you hear it!). There's also some more obscure one's like Basil Kirchen and Tony Osbourne, Duncan Lamont and John Schroeder.
I'd recommend playing this loud in the car, or prefferably on headphones/Ipod's and the like, so you get the full benefit. Some of might remind you of being a kid again, some of it is
VERY chilled, but whatever it is it's all really, really good. I'll up a track list soon as well.
Come on in, the water's lovely!
P.S, if you did enjoy it (and I sincerely hope you did) please feel free to leave a comment. It might give me a kick up the backside to do another more obscure one at some point.
I'll put a link to the website where this is going very soon so a high quality WAV download can be yours (it's a BIG file, 1.5GB) or you can have an MP3. Until next time.........
'The Appartment' Duncan Lamont
'Double Take' James Clarke
'Love Beat Of The City' Les Baxter
'Metropolis Now!' Steve Grey
'Half Forgotten Daydreams; John Cameron
'Interlude' Johnny Harris
'Footprints On The Moon' Johnny Harris
'Industrial Highway' Basil Kirchen
'Brass Buy Lightly' Neil Richardson
'Sunny Speed' John Cameron/Alan Hawkshaw
'The Millionaire' Dudley Moore
'Soul Sleeper' Astra Nova Orchestra
'Tallyman' Big John Sullivan and his Sitar
'First Light' Percy Faith
'International Flight' David Snell
'End Titles' from 'The Missuori Breaks' John Williams
'Children's Games' Antonio Carlos Jobim
'Paisley Window Pane' Wendy And Bonnie
'Girl On The Beach' James Clarke
'U.F.O end titles' Barry Gray
'Soul Street' Tony Osbourne's Three Brass Buttons
'Sort Of Soul' Birds And Brass
'Joy' Alan Hawkshaw/Alan Parker
'Picture Of You' John Schroeder
'Happy Flutes' John Scott
'Meandering' Nelson Riddle
Outro-
Vangelis- 'Les Animaux Apocalypse'
