Opinions on FAX Records and Pete Namlook

I'm *very* glad I never got into a completist thing with him -- the only FAX stuff I picked up was pretty much the few Instinct represses, and of them I've kept only Silence, Air and Compilation II. A case where I like those and need have no more. (Then again I have an insane amount of Muslimgauze stuff so go figure.)

I still enjoy FAX and I'm not ashamed to say it. There are certainly some real turkeys in the catalog, and the releases can be maddeningly uneven, but the classic releases have held up really well, and you have to hand it to Namlook for keeping this thing going for over 10 years. I'm glad he finally found a decent graphic designer to create the cover art, some of those early Ambient World reissues were downright ugly.

Some of my favorites:

Fires of Ork II especially the track "Sky Lounge"
Ambiant Otaku
Organic Cloud
2350 Broadway III
bits of the Silence series
"Free and Flowers" from Time^2
Jochem Paap: Vrs Ambnt Pcs

didn't FAX release "octopus" (the charles edwards uzzell eight-sequencer thing)?? i remember hearing bits of it in 95 and thinking "this is really great" but i can hardly find any information on it on the internet right now.

sort of like a proto-black dice in their current incarnation, but softer and driftier.

At least some minimal info on Octopus and all the FAX releases is up at www.2350.org .

haven't listened to any in ages .. but i do recall dreamfish 1~+2 being faves, and the stuff with atom heart .. and i like the one with jonas sharp was kinda cool .. but one that i really enjoyed was Bedroom by Daniel Pemberton .. who now soundtracks loads of Channel4 programms ..

i never really like the charles s-e stuff .. too environmental ..

weirdly - out of the blue i received email from mixmaster morris yesterday ..

may be its time to dust the discs down ..

Outland (Namlook/Laswell) in 2009 sounds brilliant.
i would love to have a proper stereo set up and listen to one of the new 5.1 releases, anyone here had such a pleasure ?
also, seems that his releases no longer get distributed to shops and its all available direct from pete himself, or, is that just because my local town no longer has any decent record shops ?

i am inheriting a collection of these, maybe a full collection, under very tragic circumstances. not particularly looking forward to that, but honored I've been asked to have it.

So Peter Kuhlmann's sad demise has inspired me to explore the FAX discography in more detail. And bloody hell the Hawtin / Namlook collab is the dogs B's, specifically 'From Within I'. Was familiar with a couple of tracks already but the whole thing is decent.

What are parts 2 & 3 like in that series and are there any other Fax no brainers I should be checking out? This thread seems a little underdeveloped given the size of the discography (although I realise it can be pretty hit and miss).

10 years on from my year of FAX addiction, and i have decided to add all the discs to the digital archive.

having just upgraded my speakers, its great to have walls rumbling to these sounds again.

suits the end of world weather thats going on outside.

Interviewed Move D last year, we got talking about Pete Namlook/FAX...he started crying. Very touching moment.

oh my ...

one of my very first email exchanges way way back in the days before google/internet explorer was actually with pete ..

i think i even printed them out (exciting times to get words back from a music maker !) and still have them somewhere.

hang on .. not 10.

doh.

20.

fuck i am old.

and the ones i have heard tonight still sound amazing.

beyond 'dated' now as mentioned upthread.

Man, I'm still bummed out I sold the first Shades of Orion album ten years ago, when I was going through an anti-ambient phase. I'm still hoping that someday I'll find a copy for less than a ridiculous price.

i only have SOO2 tuomas, sorry.

never seen a copy of #1, in its original nor AW reissue form ..

I'm not surprised, it seems that the Namlook + Inoue collabs and the Inoue solo albums are among the most valued of early Fax. They reissued some of the Inoue records (Zenith, Electro Harmonix, Eulengasse, Ambiant Otaku) a couple of years ago, but not Shades of Orion, nor Organic Cloud. And since it seems Fax has folded with Namlook's demise, there are no new reissues coming, and those Ambient World re-releases have become quite pricey too.

I wonder what's the situation now with Fax's back catalogue now? If anyone could continue running Fax even as a strict reissue label, it'd be a huge service to fans. Seems like they were on their way of reissuing most of the classic stuff via AW before Namlook died.

figuring out what to do with the catalogue must be a seriously complicated issued.
i mean even his web domain from which he ran the label from has lapsed, which is very sad, as it had a good record of what was available.
i would suspect he still had racks and racks of unsold stock, so surely the family will want some way to help fans get access to them (must have been part of the probate service figuring out the value ?)
luckily i have a few of the original namlook/inoue collaborations (original press of ambiant otaku is one of my faves !).
and and thanks for reminding me, organic cloud was always top of my buy upon sight discs, and i never did succeed on that score.

i have that shades of orion somewhere. if i can find it i'll send a rip yr way.

that would be much appreciated. ta.

long forgotten archive dig :

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-150-123354-1289397681.jpeg

pre-FAX kuhlmann material.

time to add to the digital archive.

have no memory of what this is like.

suspect its somewhat new age (fingers x'd !)

ooops.

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-150-123354-1289397681.jpeg

4 days on and i cannot listen to anything else but FAX.

ear candy perfection

So, I've been checking out some later day FAX albums, and I came across this artist called Gate Zero, who released 3 albums for the label (in 2005, 2006, 2011), and they're all prety dope, especially the first one. They're kinda atypical for FAX, the tracks are mostly just 5 or 6 minutes long, and there's a heavier emphasis on the beats, which are more minimal techno/IDM than ambient... But the slow, pretty synth drones Namlook loved are alsp there, so it still kinda fits FAX. Anyway, I'd totally recommend these, and since they're not by a "name" FAX artist, you can still get them for relatively cheap.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uWooUGOCFws

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wVaZtxoMwjk

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=luP9TXDZGeM

Also, the covers for the first two albums are among the prettiest in the FAX catalogue:

http://www.israbox.com/uploads/posts/2011-02/1296888154_500.jpg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51xoyq1zR1L.jpg

The third one is... something else:

http://www.gatezero-music.de/images/ps08124.jpg

you see, i have no love for the later era artwork ..

sorry.

give me the black outer, and then circle/triangle art anyday.

I dunno, the original design concept was iconic, obviously, but some of the latter albums were still able to do some cool things with the circle motif + modern computer graphics. Like this one:

http://www.synthema.ru/uploads/posts/2011-05/1305131881_1.jpg

I think that's a very neat way of summarizing the album's theme in a simple image.

the inner goth in me still prefers the black groove of the originals ..

(however, i get what you are on about .. )

I was listening to Tetsu Inoue's Inland (another great late-period FAX album) from 2007, and was wondering why I haven't heard about any newer releases from him... But after a quick googling, it turns out that record was the last one he's released, and since that he's totally disappeared, with no one (at least outside Japan) being able to track him down. There's some info here, but it's scarce.

I hope everything is fine with him and he's just taking care of family or something (as suggested by one comment on the site I linked to), it'd be terribly sad if something bad's happened to him.

I mean, the stuff he released on FAX, both solo and collabs, is pretty much my favourite ambient music of all time, it'd be awful if both he and Namlook had passed away before their time... So hopefully he's okay, and just taking it easy somewhere.

As mentioned above, lately I've been digging into late period (mid-00s to 2012) FAX, and I thought I might write short reviews of the stuff I've listened here, if only to amuse myself and Mark E. :) TBH when Namlook, I hadn't listened to any for FAX releases for years, and while his demise was sad, I thought at that point both the label and his music were well past their prime... But it turns out there are a lot of gems among the latter day catalogue, it's just that they seemed to have been ignored because FAX hadn't been a trendy label since the 90s.

Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue - 2350 Broadway 4 (2007)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-882897-1180633249_zps3fb164f4.jpeg

Before this album came out, Tetsu Inoue had left FAX years ago, and in the intervening years he'd relesed the sort glitchy, experimental digital ambient that was popular at the turn of the millennium. The records from this era that I've heard haven't really convinced me, it doesn't seem Inoue's strengths fit the glitch/click & cut approach well. Then he returned to FAX for a couple of records, and it's nice to hear his collab with Namlook sounds more like their 90s albums than what Inoue had been doing between. If you've listened to something like "Shades of Orion 2", you know what you're going to get here: glacially moving but incredibly warm and harmonious set of drones. There aren't any beats, no techno riffs or anything, just soft and slow ambience. This set really benefits from the 5.1. surround sound Namlook started to experiment with in 2006 (all his albums from that year on include both a 5.1. DTS disc and regular stereo CD), as the music makes you feel like being inside a cosmic womb. If you liked what these guys had done in the past, then this is a very fine return to form.

ha !

fully suspected there would be gems, but after the gold rush of 94-96, i never found anywhere that stocked FAX.

i assumed that pete has retreated from the 'industry' and was selling his material all by himself.

( and for financial reasons, i needed to break the habit )

of course, should i ever see any cd in the racks (new or otherwise), i would now purchase without a second thought.

Most of the releases from FAX's last years can still be found for a reasonable price (between 15 and 30 euros) in places like Amazon and Discogs.com. They eventually started to print only 300 copies of each album, probably because no one except for hardcore aficionados was following the label at that point. I assume Namlook's death (and the realization than none of this stuff will be reissued by Ambient World or anyone else in the foreseeable future) raised the interest in the latter day releases, but like I said, most of it is still available for decent prices. (Sadly that doesn't apply to "2350 Broadway 4"; the Namlook/Inoue collabs are among the most popular of FAX releases, so this one's long sold out too.)

Tetsu Inoue - Inland (2007)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-978540-1187190834_zps710fcf01.jpeg

After "2350 Broadway 4", it's not really surprising that "Inland" also sounds closer to Tetsu Inoue's 90s FAX releases like "Ambiant Otaku" than to the more experimental stuff he had made since leaving the label. This is still very much drone music, though the drones develop more than on the Namlook collab, and there are hints of melody and some well-placed snaps and crackles to be heard too. Overall the mood is quite content and blissful, I guess the title of the album could be a metaphor for home or some kind of inner peace? Like I mentioned above, apparently this was the last thing Inoue released before he completely disappeared. If it turns out to be his testament, well, it's a memorable, serene statement, though obviously I hope he'll one day return to music-making.

The original printing of "Inland" was sold out, but it was reissued by Ambient World in 2012, so this one still easy to acquire.

Thomas P. Heckmann - The Lost Tales, Vol I, Vol II, Vol III (2008, 2013)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-1280054-1309378918_zpsa7132894.jpeg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/R-1382965-1309380029_zps35b0f66b.jpeg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/S03cover_zps70c272e1.jpg

Thomas P. Heckmann is the guy behind pseudonyms like Skydiver, Age, and Drax, who's released techno, trance and ambient since the early 90s. Lost Tales Vol I and II are his only albums on FAX, and they're are simply collections of his unreleased tracks that Namlook decided to release for whatever reason. They're great stuff, though! The tracks on them are generally more dancey and trancey than what FAX was putting out around this time, but that's probably because at least some of the tracks date back to the 90s. Heckmann is a bit of a gearhead and synth-collector (as evidenced by this awesome video, where he shows you his studio and the ridiculous amount of vintage gear he has there), so there's loads sci-fi synthesizer freakouts there too.

Vol III was supposed to come out on FAX too, but that didn't happen because of Namlook's death. It was eventually released by Carpe Sonum, which is kind of a continuation label for FAX, as they're mostly putting out stuff by FAX-related artists, including records like this one that were originally supposed be released by Namlook. I'm glad Vol. III finally found its way to the world, because it's probably the best of the three, with some huge intergalactic analog synths that you just gotta love. It also has a beautiful little tune dedicated to Namlook, titled "Ode to a Friend".

you got these on cd ?

jealous.

(resistance still in tact ..)

and while i said i did not like the nu-era cover styles, i was wrong.
these are great.
still not sure re the white covers though.

There was a period at the turn of the millennium when, after discarding the classic circle motif, the FAX releases had a pretty awful graphics, like this:

http://s.pixogs.com/image/R-51535-1289210308.jpeg

But at some point they got a new designer called Andre Ruello, who I thought had a good sense of integrating the strong graphic profile of FAX's past into some cool new designs. Besides the Gate Zero covers I already posted, these are my favourite covers by him:

http://3.bp.blogspot.com/_JkhjwI7_bKs/TKd-FC7EpUI/AAAAAAAAB18/rCHfIsYN_24/s1600/4394974248_a7fec034a6.jpg.jpeg

http://ecx.images-amazon.com/images/I/51z4l1PgD8L.jpg

re air : ouch !

re pearl ii : yes

saw an anthony rother cd in the bins a few months back and let it go ..

i knew i had heard his name from somewhere ..

ahhhh ..

(not this, but a full on electroclash release)

Namlook & Spyra - Virtual Vices V (2006)

http://userserve-ak.last.fm/serve/500/81726055/Virtual+Vices+V+Folder.jpg

This one deviates quite a lot from the FAX norm in that it has loads of "real" instruments played by Namlook and Wolfram Spyra, there are even electric guitar solos! As a result the album often tends to sound more like fusion jazz or instrumental rock than ambient/techno... And I like fusion jazz in general, but the truth is that Namlook and Spyra aren't virtuosic enough as instrumentalists for their solos to impress me, and the sound on this album is too mannered and safe in general for this kind organic-electronic hybrid to go beyond what others have done better since the 1970s. This is not a bad album but it doesn't stand out in any way, so I couldn't be arsed to check out the other entries in the Virtual Vices series (there are 6 in total). The surround sound wasn't used particularly well on the record either, there isn't much of a difference between listening to it in 5.1. and in stereo.

Pete Namlook - Music for Urban Meditation I, II, III, IV (2004, 2007, 2009, 2012)

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/41W3UA8UbjL_zps9452facb.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/41W3UA8UbjL_zps9452facb.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/51zyE2BikEL_zps963021e9.jpghttp://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/1334670477_music-for-urban-meditation-iv_zps6704b5d5.jpg

In his final years Namlook had two rolling solo album series, Pearl and Music for Urban Meditation. The latter one is recommended for dedicated ambient listeners only. There's no beats or melodies, and even the sweet cosmic synth sounds Namlook was best known are mostly absent. What you've got is all-encompassing, glacially moving drones, and that's it, pretty much. This kind of music is meant to envelop your full field of hearing, so playing the surround disc (the first album in the series is a regular stereo CD, but the other three include a 5.1 disc with it) works really well here. The title is a bit misleading, or maybe ironic, as this is not the sort of new age ambient you could use for meditating. (Unless Namlook meant the title to be read as "meditating on something"; in this case, the city.) As the track titles suggest, this is the music of cityscapes, and it can get pretty gloomy and harsh, even oppressing, though there's beauty there too. It's kinda hard to try to judge or analyze music like this, it's such a monolith: either it works for you, or it doesn't. To me it does, but it certainly isn't Sunday afternoon comfort music like many other Namlook ambient albums, you have to be in adventurous mood to put these records on.

Sorry, I posted one image twice there, it was meant to be this:

http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v655/lixnixn/419bn-3qjCL_zpsfc835da6.jpg

how bloody brilliant is this ..

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xwWETY5Vr2M

i.e. pete namlook + move d doing fax ambient with some jazz extras.

ahh, the hiss and crackle of synths being stretched to their limits.

such a wonderful sound.

so, was FAX one of the last big supporters of analogue synths before digital became the standard ?

The two first Koolfang albums are pretty awesome, some of the Move D/Namlook collab albums get a bit boring and samey (which I guess is not suprising considering they did 23 of them within 14 years), but the jazz aspect makes the Koolfang project a bit different. This track from the second album is my particular favourite, love the synth bass:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iJEyGMOnhLk

Namlook was actually a professional jazz guitarist before he started making electronic music... When he does guitar solos on some of the ambient/trance albums, it's a bit distracting because I don't feel that kind of soloing is something that fits them, but the jazz nature of this albums makes it sit better.

Along those lines there's also Kooler, a collab between Namlook and trumpeter Robert Sattler (with some sweet sax action by Rebucatt Cacciatore, who also plays on those Koolgang albums), which is probably the most "pure" jazz album FAX ever released. It's basically just gentle ambient drones on top of which Sattler, Cacciatore, and Namlook improvise; the music wouldn't feel out of place on an ECM record, by someone like Lester Bowie, for example.

Btw, the discussion on FAX covers upthread inspired me to do this list, the Top 20 ugliest FAX and Ambient World album covers, maybe you might find it amusing:

http://www.discogs.com/lists/Top-20-ugliest-FAX-and-Ambient-World-album-covers/216699

tuomas : you are a good person for keeping this groove ongoing.
i had no idea that pete and david had made so many koolfang albums !
i only have the first one.
and i love it.
it's a proper sunday morning hangover soundtrack.
i actually like the jazz aspect of it.
i find it's a nice extra layer to the fax sound.

i had no idea that pete and david had made so many koolfang albums !

No, what I meant is that they released 23 techno/ambient albums as Move D/Namlook, and those are the ones that often sound kinda samey. They only released 3 albums as Koolfang, and those are bit different (hence the different name for this project) because of the jazz approach. If you like Jambient you should definitely get the second album ("Gig in the Sky") too, it's just as good. And for some reason it isn't that sought for in the used FAX albums market, so it's pretty easy to find a cheap copy, mine cost like 10 euros.

Good news! Apparently the rights of the FAX albums have begun to revert back to the artists, or at least some of them have managed to make a deal with Namlook's estate. So the entire Dark Side of the Moog series will be released as three box sets, with one bonus disc included in each box:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Side-Moog-Vol-1-4/dp/B018EHR7GK

(The bonus disc in the first box is just a reissue of the "Evolution of the Dark Side of the Moog" comp, a seamless mix of tracks from the first ten albums, but the next two boxes will apparently have some exclusive material as a bonus.)

The two solo discs by Lorenzo Montanà have also been reissued as one set:

http://www.amazon.co.uk/Black-Ivy-Serpe-Lorenzo-Montana/dp/B016BSR9PS

Montanà was one of the new discoveries on FAX during its last few years, and these albums are well recommended. They have shorter, more beat-oriented tracks than your typical FAX albums, with a nice old-school "home listening techno" sound, a la early Warp Records.

oh my.
this is brilliant.
perfect timing as this will make a perfect birthday treat for me.
ta for the tip off tuomas.
(question : where do you find this stuff out ?)

There's a Discogs board devoted to FAX, that's the best place to hear news about reissues and new albums by FAX-related artists:

http://www.discogs.com/group/520

ta muchly.
have ordered the KS boxset.
looking forward to getting that.

https://www.thefuture.fm/mixes/42050/dandy-jack/dandy-soundwal-mix

I love this Namlook tribute that Martin Schopf (Dandy Jack) made. Anyone know what the song that starts after ~8 minutes is called?

Also can't stop listening to these:

http://www.discogs.com/Move-D-Namlook-Move-D-Namlook-XIV-Raumland-Montage/release/1115640
Especially Montage III
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d--S3QIQ_Eo

http://www.discogs.com/Move-D-Namlook-Move-D-Namlook-X-Let-The-Circle-Not-Be-Broken/release/630506

The Raumland albums are cool, but man oh man do those weird stretched vocal samples that Namlook and Move D use on their latter-day collaborations get irritating after a while. (Thankfully they're less prominent on the Raumland albums than on some of the earlier ones) At first I thought it was Move D's idea to use those vocals, because they don't appear on Namlook's other albums of the era, but they don't appear on Move D's own albums either! So apparently they were something Namlook and Move D considered to be signature sound of this particulat project; why they thought this would be a good idea, I don't understand.

> those weird stretched vocal samples

Montage IV on Raumland Montage (linked above) has these. I like them in the one track but a whole album would be tiresome.

Thanks for mentioning Lorenzo Montanà upthread. I'm really enjoying Black Ivy.

"[...] a nice old-school "home listening techno" sound, a la early Warp Records."

Perfect endorsement :)

The Lorenzo Montanà is available via Bandcamp too if you'd rather avoid Amazon.

https://psychonavigation.bandcamp.com/album/lorenzo-montan-black-ivy-serpe

This Montanà dude has been pretty active lately, Psychonavigation also released a 3CD comp of his albums on that label from 2014 and 2015 (the first two were only available as CDR's previously), which is pretty dope as well:

http://www.discogs.com/Lorenzo-Montana-Trilogy/release/7350754

Plus he also released another album on Carpe Sonum (which is sort of a FAX legacy label, it's run by FAX's former US distributor, and it's released several albums that were supposed to come out on FAX itself, before Namlook died) last year...

http://www.discogs.com/Lorenzo-Montan%C3%A0-Haemus/release/5798100

And a more ambient-oriented album on the ...txt label this year:

http://www.discogs.com/Lorenzo-Montan%C3%A0-Nihil/release/7687373

He has a pretty recognizable style, if you dug the albums he made with Namlook (under the name Labyrinth), none of these differ from those that much, but it's all solid.

And speaking of FAX legacy labels, the No., a label run by Atom Heart and former Namlook collaborator Material Object has released some cool stuff too lately, focusing on the more experimental and dronier side of ambient music.

Basically, after Namlook's death and the end of FAX, there's been a sort of a diaspora, with former FAX artists and FAX-influenced producers releasing new material on Carpe Sonum, Psychonavigation, ...txt, and No., with some folks like Montanà having albums out several of these labels. So it's nice that even though the label itself is gone, FAX-style ambient still lives on.

Dunno where else to post this, but At the San Francisco Tape Center's annual festival next month, a piece by Tetau Inoue is going to be performed. I don't think he's going to be there, though, just got my hopes up for a second that he's back.

liking the look of the No Ware label.
very tempted to get the compilation mix cd ..

https://firesofork.bandcamp.com

More reissues! Geir Jenssen has put both Fires of Ork albums he did with Namlook on sale on Bandcamp. These are nice albums, especially the first one; it's more beat-heavy than what you might except from these guys, but if you like the early trancey FAX tunes and the technoish tune on Patashnik, this should be right up your alley. The second albums is a bit more uneven, but the first three tunes are all dope, especially Sky Lounge, which is one my favourite ambient tunes of all time.

With all these reissues coming out, it seems Namlook's estate and other FAX artists have indeed come to some kind of settlement on rereleasing the music. which is great thing for all those people who don't to buy ridiculous amounts of money for the original CDs.

Sadly, Tetsu Inoue is still missing, so it remains unclear whether his FAX albums will ever be reissued again... Which is unfortunate, because they are among the best pure ambient stuff FAX ever released, and also among the most expensive these days. Luckily I have all of them, but music that good should be available for everyone.

ta muchly.
have ordered the KS boxset.
looking forward to getting that.

― mark e, Wednesday, December 9, 2015 10:46 AM (1 month ago)

hmmm .. here we go.
received email from amazon : delayed.

well, the amazon auto-rip arrived earlier this week, and the boxset has been dispatched.

lets hope this is the beginning of other FAX material getting another chance to be picked up at decent prices.

MiG seem to be up to their old tricks and have split some of the tracks in completely arbitrary places meaning that listening to them on shuffle is painful. were the originals like this? first disc is 10 tracks almost exactly 5 minutes long each... (the Schulze 'La Vie Electronique' discs were the same, hard track breaks where chapter marks would've been better)

The originals are like that too... Almost all FAX albums that actually consist of one seamless tune are divided into separate, even-length (usually 5 minutes) tracks, titled "Part I/II/III/IV/etc", regardless of whether the track change happens in a "logical" place

I guess this was done for listener convenience, back then you didn't have CD players that would remember where you stopped the record and resume at that point, so it'd be easier to skip to the right track rather than to fast forward one hour-long track. Anyway, these albums are meant to be listened as a whole, so I don't see why you would play them on shuffle?

> so I don't see why you would play them on shuffle?

but what if this is the first time you've heard them and they are listed as 10 tracks and you don't know any different?

cd players have supported chapter marks since there were cd players. these are SOFT markers. the cd will appear as one track but you can select sections using the chapters.

Anyway, it seems Schultze/MiG managed to acquire from Namlook's estate not just the copyright for the music, but for the graphic design too, as the bonus disc has the exact same CD booklet as the original Ambient World compilation, with only the new label information and a "RIP Pete Namlook" text added to it. But since they were able to use the original design for that CD, I don't understand why they couldn't use the original graphics for the other albums in the box? The new design isn't bad (I especially like the space graphics on the box itself, it's neat how they continue seamlessly from the front cover to the spine to the back cover), but it isn't as elegant as the classic FAX circle motif used in the originals.

(xpost)

but what if this is the first time you've heard them and they are listed as 10 tracks and you don't know any different?

I dunno about you, but when I listen to an album for the first time, I don't play it on shuffle. Ambient albums in particular typically have a intentional flow to them that a shuffle would disrupt.

cd players have supported chapter marks since there were cd players. these are SOFT markers. the cd will appear as one track but you can select sections using the chapters.

Some players in the 1990s supported them, but not all. My first Discman certainly didn't. I still remember when I got a fancier player and discovered the existence of the chapter marks on some of my records, I had no idea they were a thing that exists.

second boxset of DSOTM up for pre-order !

email from amazon...

The items listed below will actually be dispatched sooner than we had originally
expected based on the new release date:

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook "The Dark Side Of The Moog Vol. 5-8"
Previous estimated arrival date: April 23 2016 - April 26 2016
New estimated arrival date: March 21 2016 - March 23 2016

(haven't really listened to first box yet!)

Listening to the first box has confirmed what I already thought based on the few DSotM albums I owned before: this Schulze guy is not really among the greatest of Namlook collaborators. Most of the albums seem to be just some one-take synth noodling interspersed with occasional generic trance beats. Okay, synth noodling is obviously the point of the whole series, but it's not the sort of cool and cosmic noodling you hear on some other Namlook collabs, like the albums done with Move D. I guess I'll still buy the rest of the boxes because they're cheap and there might be some occasional gems hidden in them, but there's loads of better FAX albums that would benefit from getting reissued.

Been listening a lot to the Dr Atmo and Oliver Lieb collab 'Music To Films' which is great. Anyone know if there's any truth in the rumour that Namlook was a bit jealous of it so it didn't get as wide a release as some FAX output?

Yeah, it's a cool album. Never heard that rumour, but AFAIK there were 1000 copies pressed, just like with all the other FAX albums of that era. All FAX albums are limited releases, at first with 500 copies, then 1000, then it rose all the way to 3000, until during the latter years, with less interest in the label (and CDs in general) it shrunk to 300. Most popular FAX albums were reissued as unlimited pressings on Ambient World, and it's true that Music to Films never got a reissue, so maybe that's the source of the rumour? Though many other albums were never reissued on AW either, some of which as sought-after as MtF is these days.

Bit of googling turned this up:

http://www.ambientmusicguide.com/pages/L/lieb.php

The superb Music To Films is a cosmic mixture of ambient trance, robotic minimalism and panoramic melodies based on an unusual concept. Lieb and collaborator Dr Atmo conceived it as an "alternative soundtrack" to the wordless documentary film Koyaanisqatsi which was originally scored by Philip Glass. Despite its outstanding quality, Music To Films was never re-released after its initial small run and it quickly became one of the label's rarest CD releases. Why? According to Dr Atmo in a 2013 interview for the blog NMLK, Fax Records owner Pete Namlook was to blame. "Mixmaster Morris called the Music to Films idea a 'one million dollar project'. This made Pete very jealous. I knew that a few licensing requests were not answered for that album. Sad but true."

Yeah, the fact that Music to Films wasn't reissued on Ambient World is kinda suspect. Oliver Lieb has a lot of fans outside the usual FAX devotee group, so certainly there would've been some demand for a reissue... And most FAX albums made by artists with such crossover appeal, such as Jochem Paap, Anthony Rother, and Richie Hawtin, were eventually reissued on AW. So AtF lacking from the list is suspicious.

I think there might've been some general falling out between Namlook and Dr. Atmo? He was involved in many of the early FAX projects (the first two Silence albums, Sad World, I.F., Gamma, The Whole Traffic...), but after 1995 he didn't do anything for the label anymore. In that same interview, Atmo hints at something happening between the two of them:

Q: Did you keep in touch with Pete through the years?

A: Not much. The reasons are private and after years I can say partially my fault too for sure. He helped me a lot but he got lot from my side also. He should rest in peace and it was very sad to hear that bad news.

It's worth noting that, besides MtF, none of the other Atmo projects on FAX were reissued either. (Except for Silence, which was a collaboration with Namlook.) The two I.F. albums go for even crazier prices than Music to Films on the used CDs market, which is why I've never managed to land a copy of them.

Anyway, since Music to Films is supposed to be an alternate soundtrack to Koyaanisqatsi, have you ever tried syncing it to the movie? There are even instructions in the CD sleeve on where you should start playing it during the opening credits, but I've never bothered to try it.

We’re writing to let you know that the following items have been unexpectedly
delayed:

Klaus Schulze & Pete Namlook "The Dark Side Of The Moog Vol. 5-8"
Estimated arrival date: March 30 2016 - April 01 2016

yeah, i got that advise as well.
much to my amazement i have seen copies of the first boxset in Fopp/HMV.

Perhaps the falling out between Dr Atmo and Namlook may have been to do with Atmo's plagiarism? I understand that his Man Made Motion was a direct copy of Tetsu Inoue's Slow and Low. I haven't heard Slow and Low so can't confirm.

Oh wow, I hadn't heard about that before, but it appears to be true. Such a weird story, how could the think he wouldn't get caught?

Anyway, Atmo stopped recording for FAX after 1995, and Man Made Motion only came out in 1999, so if there was some falling out, that couldn't have been the original reason.

well, i have to say volume 5 is absolutely gorgeous.
suspect the added bass booms from bill laswell help a lot.

make it stop!

https://www.amazon.co.uk/Dark-Side-Moog-Vol-9-11/dp/B01BU3080W/

second boxset was a lot more interesting than the first.
the live set was verging on an orb album.
loved it.
wasn't going to bother getting more, but i believe that the third boxset is the last one.
so, gotta collect them all ..

I thought there were 12 but that, it turned out, was just me wanting it neat.

Will the 5.1 version of XI work on my old pro-logic system? It won't be 5.1 but will it be better than 2.0?

(I think the list I saw must've had the evolution disk as 12th entry)

sorry, no idea re 5.1 set ups.
i am just getting the final boxset .. cos.
simple as that.

Yeah, it's a no-brainer.

I wonder what's next? If anything

Drum and bass.

It also appears to be recorded live in parts - there's clapping on it. Processed clapping but definitely applause and someone saying thank you.

Oh, it says as much in the booklet (only vol 8). There's also an advert for the third box...

indeed - recorded live.

http://www.klaus-schulze.com/disco/3991da.htm

and yeah, the d-n-b section took me by surprise as well.

I remember reading some interview where Namlook said it was Schulze who wanted to bring the contemporary dance music sound into TDSotM, Namlook would've been fine with just some old-school synth jamming. Though Namlook himself wasn't averse to trying to follow current electronic music trends, IIRC he even made a full drum'n'bassy album in the 90s with one of his collaborators? And some of his early 00s material is trying to sorta imitate the electrocrash sound, though not very succesfully, I would say.

Haha that's exactly how I imagine those recent collaborative recordings of Jean-Michel Jarre with various younger producers go...they come to Jarre's studio all excited how they're finally going to patch analogue synths with the master, and instead the first thing Jarre asks is: "alors, were do I pute ze dubstep wobble?".

third and final boxset of DSOTM arrived this weekend.
volume 9 is sounding rather good.
glad i decided to get the full set now.

Reissue of Zenith (Carlos Vivanco, Tetsu Inoue) on Psychonavigation Records.

Hmmm.

https://www.discogs.com/group/thread/718249

Sadly, that Zenith screwup wasn't just a solitary case, Psychonavigation Records is also planning to reissue Peter Benisch's "Waiting for Snow" against the direct wishes of the artist:

https://www.discogs.com/group/thread/725019

I guess, given the rarity of many FAX releases, it'd be inevitable some vultures would gather around its corpse, but this is still very sad. On top of that, it seems Psychonavigation hasn't paid any royalties to many of the other artists whose records they've released. So at this point I'd recommend boycotting the whole label. Since the rights of FAX albums now seem to have reverted back to the artists, hopefully we're going to see some well done and legit reissues in the future, like the Dark Side of the Moog boxes.

Of course that won't be happening Tetsu Inoue's albums anytime soon, with him still missing... It's sad that the circumstances have made it impossible for his records to be reissued legitimately, but I still wouldn't buy a bootleg that only benefit scammers like Psychonavigation and not his family (or whoever it is to whom the royalties should go).

very strange

https://www.discogs.com/group/thread/728417

The whole Psychonavigation debacle just keeps getting more ridiculous, the label owner has now started a new label called "Where Ambient Lives", apparently under a false name. This is seemingly to distance the new label from the justified bad rep he's gotten from releasing albums without the artist's permission and not paying any royalties.

mickchillage about 17 hours ago

As a previous artist of Keith Reid aka Keith Downey aka John Williams etc via his Psychonavigation imprint, I can confidently state that all criticism are fair game at this stage. He doesn't pay any royalties or supply any statements, tells artists he makes no money and their CD's haven't sold, so why is he still in business after all these years? Seeing your passionate hard work end up in one of his bargain bin €1.00 sales is an absolute insult too any artist!

He gets abusive when you disagree with artwork, formats and packaging, therefore not respecting the artists vision often bullying to get his own way, referring to artists as "Muppets" in nasty threatening emails. Peter Benisch recently fell into a nasty situation with a re-release of "Waiting For Snow" and was forced to expose the situation on social media.

These are not isolated incidents, many people have messaged me privately or have spoken openly on social media about their similar experiences, so there is a solid pattern here sadly.

Lets not forget about the Re-issue of Tetsu Inoue's Zenith Collab, how did he obtain the rights when Tetsu's closest musical friends have not made contact with him for years? When asked about this, Keith has replied "Mind your own business" or "Its a private matter" so no respect for potential consumers of his product or those who are either passed away or missing ?

Kicking a dead horse it may be but if Keith was a different sort of guy with some kind of moral compass and integrity he could have redeemed his character and label but instead he chooses to continue with more ways to try and cheat consumers and artist with false identities and labels.

If you ask me he's like an ugly wart on our small and precious scene that just wont go away.

Spent the last few weeks listening to a bunch of these records, some highlights observations:

Dark Side of the Moog series is hit or miss. I find myself more interested in the bits that are more purely Klaus (or Klaus-inspired, as I gather Namlook would've been perfectly happy doing retreads of the 70s records and Schulze wanted to fold in more electro stuff).

Electro Harmonix by Tetsu Inoue and Jonah Sharp -- really nice synth textures for about an hour.

Wechselspannung I + II by Jonah Sharp and Namlook are good ones -- I gather Sharp played a ton of analog synths and Namlook chopped them up on his sampler and turned them into the rhythms. These records probably fit my vision of what I wanted FAX to be: analog squiggles and spacey textures absent dance or house dogma that often drags me uncomfortably into 1994.

To that end, I also really found myself liking the Richie Hawtin From Within records. I was expecting these to be far more dance-y than they are based on Hawtin's rep. But they're surprisingly spacey and enjoyable.

I totally agree on you with all those points. The From Within albums aren't like any Hawtin solo material that I've heard, and yet (according to Namlook) he was more responsible for the synths and Namlook for the beats, not the other way around, as you'd expect.

The DSotM is really overrated within the FAX catalogue, mostly it just sounds like two guys randomly noodling with synths in Namlook's studio (which most likely is exactly how they were done) with not much rhyme or reason, and the bits with the beats (which were indeed there on Schulze's insistence, as Namlook would've been happy to just do old school space music) are dated. Some of Namlook's solo records on FAX are better at capturing the spirit of 1970s synth music than the ones he did with an actual '70s synth legend.

If you liked the Wechselspannung albums, you should check out the two Alien Community albums by Namlook and Sharp too. They're largely in the same mold, but more spacey and less electro.

Agree as well, those mentioned were among the ones I returned to most. I'd say most of Wechselspannung is kind of redundant - just skip to part 5 (I think) for the pretty gated melody, the beats are clunky. Sharp does a similar thing in Floating Sync on Electro Harmonix. Actually I never felt Wechselspannung 2 or the Alien Communities were particularly essential. From Within is very nice, Homeward Bound in particular obvs.

These are all 'entry level' Fax but for a reason. See also Dreamfish and Silence.

If you want to check out a classic period FAX album where the samples and beats are treated in a more unique and interesting fashion, I'd recommend Modula Green's Shellground. The fact that it's not by any of the "name" FAX artists also means you can get a used copy for relatively cheap, but IMO it's on the same level as any of the better known albums from the golden age of 1993–1995.

so, a week ago i broke 2 ribs in my back and have been housebound ever since.
the only viable soundtrack to such a situation = a lot of FAX.
so, today after months of promising myself i would do it, i tidied up my digital FAX collection making it a lot more simple to find my FAX stuff via Sonos (and realised that i had never digitised From Within 2 !).
and yeah, while they may be overrated by those that picked up all the DSoTM releases at the time, i didn't.
hence they have become a big part of this weeks needs.

i found out last night that air II has aged very badly

will give dreamfish a try tonight

other than a track on the Ambient Cookbook i never heard any of the AIR releases.
suspect you will think dreamfish hasn't aged well, but since i picked up Thief by Tangerine Dream last week, i have been in the mood for synth music, so its all hitting the spot for me.

air has a lot of uh "ethno percussion" and didgeridoo jamz

and didgeridoo jamz

ouch.

none of those on either DF releases, just lots synth washes and twinkly bleepy arpeggios

yeah i seem to recall he said air (or at least air ii) was his attempt to blend ambient + world music

i have had the first dreamfish for years now but rarely break it out ... when i am in the mood for mixmaster morris i usually break out "global chillage" instead

i love GC.
speaking of MMM.
he has just released a new album.
his first in quite a while :
https://www.discogs.com/The-Irresistible-Force-Kira-Kira/master/1235636

i used to have (20 years ago, when i was in college) a reflective global chillage poster on my bedroom wall (basically a blown-up 2' x 2' version of the cover on thick cardstock)

don't recall where i got it or where it ended up :-(

its holographic coverart is very much of its time.

'School of Fish' off the first Dreamfish is one of my favourite Fax tracks period. There's some surprisingly deep sub bass lurking in its depths. The rest of the record doesn't quite live up to that high.

There's some surprisingly deep sub bass lurking in its depths.

indeed, as i found earlier.
i only ever listened to my FAX collection via low spec kit before today.
was lovely to experience the sound in a far more appropiate manner at last.

http://daily.redbullmusicacademy.com/2018/11/fax-pete-namlook?fbclid=IwAR3KmyMrPjtbxri6lWJ-i7VK6ca5UTYeyLjjUpXHM4SWigepDJJ9CfxTFZQ
bookmarked for reading

enjoyed that.
ta for the pointer.

yes, good stuff

Great read, thanks Willem

..
I had no idea re DSOTM XI !
and yet I have the boxsets.
its very JMJ-esque with a lot more beats than the rest of the collabs.
ta for the nudge Tuomas.

Yeah, apparently they were gonna stop at X, but decided to do XI after all. It's pretty nice, like I said in the other thread, DSotM is not among my favourite FAX series (especially when they try to sound "contemporary" with all those d'n'b beats etc, which apparently was Schulze's idea, not Namlook's), but the final album is cool.

I've always felt a wave of melancholy when I think of Fax. The label passed me by during its heyday. Now Pete Namlook is dead, Tetsu Inoue appears to have vanished from the face of the early, presumably dead, the label is defunct, not just defunct but destroyed in such a way that most of the master tapes have been chucked out and no-one owns the rights any more. jeffery up the page back in 2005 points out the CDs go for high prices on the used market, and that's still the case. I'm sure you can get reissues, but just like the Vivien Meyer industry they're all vultures selling something they didn't help create.

And the music. It was the future in the late 1990s but now we live in the actual future most of it sounds very much of its time. There's a great internet ambient radio station called Sleepbot, and a fantastic podcast called Low Light Mixes - that's how I hear 90% of music - and they occasionally play tracks from Fax records, and they're good! The label's output appears to have been consistently good. It sounds very old-fashioned, even the later stuff like Inland, but because it was mostly minimal it hasn't dated all that badly. But there's still something wistful about futuristic music that wasn't really futuristic after all.

I didn't realise until recently that 2350 Broadway was an actual building. Bretton Hall, which at one time was apparently an artists' collective:
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bretton_Hall_(Manhattan)

"In the early 1980s, an organization called Artists Assistance Services rented out apartments in the Bretton Hall to people in the arts, with the unusual proviso that they would have to share the use of the space with a "cultural activity" such as a karate class."

I wonder if Namlook etc benefited from this, or if it had stopped long before the 1990s. A quick google reveals that Wikipedia's source is an article in New York magazine from May 1985. "One of the things that seems most unfair about Upper West Side gentrification is that the people who paved the way for it, the musicians and artists who made it chic, are now among the ones being forced out by higher prices."

Apparently rents were really high in New York in 1985 and landlords weren't afraid to use underhand methods to drive the poorer tenants out. But that was 1985, I imagine things are a lot better now. Let's hope it doesn't happen here in Britain!

Meanwhile I am off to light the candle I use for heating in my unheated and in fact roof-less bedsit.

Hi, nice post. I hope you find some warmth.

As far as I know, Tetsu is still alive and well!

There were a bunch of these in Flashback in Islington this afternoon. No obvious bargains though.

and they occasionally play tracks from Fax records, and they're good! The label's output appears to have been consistently good. It sounds very old-fashioned, even the later stuff like Inland, but because it was mostly minimal it hasn't dated all that badly

great post.
this to the power of xxxx.
welcome to the FAX family Ashley.
better late than never.

the label is defunct, not just defunct but destroyed in such a way that most of the master tapes have been chucked out and no-one owns the rights any more. jeffery up the page back in 2005 points out the CDs go for high prices on the used market, and that's still the case. I'm sure you can get reissues, but just like the Vivien Meyer industry they're all vultures selling something they didn't help create.

I'm sure the rights for Namlook's solo recordings are owned by his daughter, but it doesn't seem she's interested in reissuing those. And the rights of collaborations and non-Namlook albums seem to have reverted back to the other artists, who are free to reissue them as they see fit. AFAIK the only vulture who's tried to take advantage of this state of things is Keith Downey and his psychonavigation label, as discussed above. But besides that, all the other reissues (DSotM, Fires of Ork, Lorenzo Montana, Labyrinth, etc.) are either released by the artists himself, or with their permission.

The biggest problem are really the Inoue albums, as he still seems to be missing, or at least no one is able to contact him, so obviously they can't ask for his permission to reissue them either.

I didn't realise until recently that 2350 Broadway was an actual building. Bretton Hall, which at one time was apparently an artists' collective:

2350 Broadway was the address where Inoue lived in Manhattan. AFAIK all those albums were recorded there, just like the 62 Eulengasse was named after Namlook's home address at the time, where he and Inoue recorded that album.

As far as I know, Tetsu is still alive and well!

Do you have any recent knowledge of his whereabouts? Because as discussed here, his colleagues and label owners have been trying to contact him for years, with no results, so I'm sure they'd be happy for any info you can provide. (His supposed disappearance was even mentioned by Namlook in the liner notes of one of those Ambient Gardener comps, where he speculates Inoue might have died in the 2011 tsunami.)

Has Pete's daughter said anything about the label since his death? I hadn't heard she "chucked the master tapes" -- tho it's not like third generation tapes are all that exist. These were CDs, after all, and pristine recordings would be pretty easily salvaged from existing CDs.

The Inoue records are what I've been listening to these last few weeks -- Electro Harmonix, Shades of Orion 1/2/3, Organic Cloud, Ambiant Otaku, 2350 Broadway I & II, Second Nature. I prefer my FAX when it's super spacey. Would be great if he's okay but I haven't heard anything other than the tsunami rumors either.

Also, this is a great thread (seemingly?) started by Namlook himself on Discogs a few years before he died trying to get the pulse of fans as to what should come next. He explains in some depth what had changed business-wise since the label's heyday and perhaps why things had petered out: https://www.discogs.com/group/thread/629833

I had the impression that MMM didn't know about the Dreamfish reissue until well after it was released so I don't know what that suggests about its status.

which Dreamfish reissue, the rising high edition ?
or has it been reissued since that version ?

No I meant the one that's on Bandcamp but actually I see it originally came out on that label in 2001.

ahh .. was just wondering.
I once saw DF 1, the original FAX cd in Vigin in Leeds and left it cos I had the RH edition.
needless to say, I have never seen it out in the wild since.

I didn't know about the new 2001/2016 reissue of Dreamfish, but since it has the cover art of the '90s Rising High edition, I assume Rising High must've licensed it to that label (Avatar Records), unless they're violating RH's copyright really blatantly? And the original RH edition of Dreamfish certainly was a legit release, didn't RH license it from FAX because Morris was signed to them? (Just like Apollo licensed Fires of Ork, because they were Biosphere's label at the time.)

But yeah, depending on what kind of deal Avatar Records has with RH, it's certainly possible MMM wasn't informed of the Bandcamp release. Though of course that doesn't mean it's a bootleg like those Psychonavigation reissues; they should've been courteous enough to get his approval, but it's perfectly possible they're license contract doesn't necessitate that.

Has Pete's daughter said anything about the label since his death? I hadn't heard she "chucked the master tapes" -- tho it's not like third generation tapes are all that exist. These were CDs, after all, and pristine recordings would be pretty easily salvaged from existing CDs.

No, as far as I know Fabia Kuhlmann hasn't given any statements regarding the label, reissues, or the master tapes. When I said she doesn't seem to be interested in any sort of reissue project, I was merely speculating based on the fact that legit reissues of several FAX collab projects and non-Namlook albums have come out in the last couple of years, but there's been no reissues of Namlook solo records, not even on Bandcamp or anything. I can sort of understand it tho, FAX was (by design) a label with a small, cultish following, and most of the reissues have been of projects with artists (such as Klaus Schulze or Biosphere) who have a larger output and fandom outside FAX, so they have better sales prospects too.

And you're right about the master tape issue, so unless someone wants to remaster them (which Namlook was against, he felt FAX albums sound just fine as they are, and I agree), it shouldn't be a problem using the CDs as a master. Apparently this was exactly what was done with those bootlegs on Psychonavigation Records.

Circling back the past few days to the From Within records, which are available on Hawtin's Soundcloud page. I love how spacey these are ... at times they feel a little like the Orb at their least tongue-in-cheek.

Also, was listening to the second disc of 2350 Broadway I on the drive in to visit a client today ... you can really hear what Uwe Schmidt and Bill Laswell were saying in that Red Bull piece about how Namlook refused to do much in the way of editing or re-recording. There are literally a few points on there were Namlook or Inoue just drop some sound into the mix that distorts horribly and rings forever with that 25-second reverb they're using -- which almost certainly suggests that these records were really just long jams.

Yeah, there's an interview with Move D where he says that he used to go Namlook's house in the countryside, where they did some jamming for a weekend, and Namlook then released the results as the next Move D/Namlook album or two. He also felt they should've rerecorded and edited some of the material, but I guess then we wouldn't have gotten 26 duo albums by the pair. :)

I guess Namlook's background as a jazz guitarist made him feel that releasing the results of jam sessions as such captured something that would've been diminished by further tinkering? It's certainly an uncommon approach in post-80s electronic music, but IMO it works well on some of the long-form, drifting mood pieces, such as on Shades of Orion 2 and 3, and on the best of the Move D/Namlook and Inoue/Namlook material. OTOH, Dark Side of the Moog and some of Namlook's solo albums show that it can also result in fairly boring noodling.

Also, I seem to recall a MMM interview from back in the day, where he says the first Dreamfish album was done in a day?

It's certainly an uncommon approach in post-80s electronic music, but IMO it works well on some of the long-form, drifting mood pieces, such as on Shades of Orion 2 and 3, and on the best of the Move D/Namlook and Inoue/Namlook material.

I was revisiting to Move D/Namlook's Space & Time because of the ambient poll, and yeah, it definitely works here:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_UPurIZ3FHk

Does anyone know what the differences are between the two Fax Compilations and the first volume of The Ambient Cookbook? I assumed they were exactly the same but in a recent Discogs discussion some people were saying it's a different sequence and, on some tracks, an entirely different edit or mix.

sorry, only have the cookbook so have no idea.

Discogs suggests they’re the same.

'94 to '95 was certainly a special time, as the Fax +49-69/450464 label had more or less shifted its attention from trance records to full on ambient albums.
The American sub-label FAX USA had released FAX Compilation in '94 and then FAX Compilation II in '95, and together the two compilations have identically sequenced tracks as listed here for The Ambient Cookbook.

If anyone cares, I think I have located the source of the confusion: a few artist names differ despite the tracks being identical. "Astralbohrer" is credited to David Reeves on Fax Compilation II but to Otras on the Cookbook. "Talk" is credited on Fax Compilation II to A Day In The Park while the Cookbook credits this same track to The Whole Traffic. And tracks 3 & 4 on Fax Compilation 1 appear to be reversed on the Cookbook. Sorry if this is pedantic, but I can see why this would be confusing.

There's a lot of confusion with the proper artist names on FAX releases, because with the majority of the original CDs, the artist name was the same as the project name, so the two Otras albums were by Otras (not by David Reeves), the Ambient Otaku album was by Ambient Otaku (not Tetsu Inoue); this artist name convention was confirmed by Namlook. However, with some releases there was a separate artist name and album name; for example, Slow and Low, the third Tetsu Inoue album for FAX, was released as Tetsu Inoue. You can check which case is which by looking at the CD spine: if it has only the album name, then the artist name is also the same (minus the album number in multi-album series), but if it has a separate artist name besides the album, then that's the one to use. And to make matters even more confusing, all of the Ambient World reissues put separate artist names on the cover instead of just the project name: so, for example, with the original FAX releases of the 2350 Broadway albums the artist name is 2350 Broadway, but with the Ambient World reissues the artist name is Pete Namlook & Tetsu Inoue. As you can imagine, this has created a big mess on how the albums are credited on Discogs; I've corrected the proper names for CDs, that I own, but some of the names on Discogs are still incorrect.

Wot's uh the deal?

https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music
https://airmusik.bandcamp.com/
https://silencemusik.bandcamp.com/

Hmm...wonder who's behind this? Never heard of Silent State. Glad this stuff is getting out there, in any case

yeah, i picked up on all this stuff this week as well.
from what i have gathered, no-one seems to know re the legit nature of it.
the AIR stuff has been remastered which kind of indicates it has been given the all clear, but who knows.

I'm pretty sure Pete had a daughter, maybe she's involved?

I almost revived this thread last week. When I mistakenly asked Siri to look up 2350 Broadway on Spotify, I noticed that a bunch of Namlook is on there ... is that a recent development?

absolutely.
would like to hope that there is a level of legitimacy of it.
Petes legacy totally needs to be given the TLC it deserves.

xpost.

NTI : this seems to be a very recent development from what i can tell.

I've never really gotten into Namlook - partly because his discography is so bewildering. Looking through the stuff on Spotify and wondering which, like, three things I could start with?

The Ambient Cookbook : a 4 cd collection of the classic early era.
from that collection you will know where to go next.
i.e. all of it.

the two "ambient" things are 'name your own price' on bandcamp and look good and varied

damn, so they are.
well there you go VP.
dive in!

Yikes. Wow. Well, here goes...

My favorite label.

It seems like they had the Dreamfish releasees available but the page has been taken down, so I guess things aren't entirely straightforward with rights, although that's to be expected and the first one is still available on Bandcamp from another label in Israel.

The Silent State Recordings label details naming one Nils Wortmann were entered on Discogs by a shop in Frankfurt.

Really wish more of this was on Spotify.

Well, there’s definitely more of it than I remembered the last time I checked. But it’s a little hard to figure out how much as Spotify doesn’t seem to like when I put “Fax +49-69/450464” in the label search function.

Still, there are a couple of playlists that pop up that give an idea:

https://open.spotify.com/user/s1ckh4nds/playlist/6SJGjTq2cr70mhVqOi9XMl?si=SKMHLwQHSjCkRrAsSDHPUQ

https://open.spotify.com/user/tschak-uk/playlist/32sgvAYsygAL85u0ldSAQ8?si=iqj_lTDQTHGOZIwdwEcN4Q

Really wish more of this was on Spotify.

― groovypanda, Saturday, November 13, 2021 8:24 AM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music
https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music
https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music
https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music
https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music

I was looking for pictures of Pete's studio and came across this interview with Daniel Pemberton. I remember seeing this young kid around those ambient parties, Morris kind of took him under his wing as he says.

https://nmlkfax.blogspot.com/2013/06/daniel-pemberton-interviewed.html

there was a point where it seemed around 50% of all BBC output was composed by Daniel Pemberton.

yeah, i still does me in to think that the daniel pemberton FAX album was made in his bedroom when he was 16.
and it still sounds brilliant.
once of my faves.

actually, in that article i think the 'kevin' he mentions is strictly kev/dj food.

It is, funny he says "this guy called Kevin", although I suppose he was at the time. The first (I think) of those Fish parties was in the Dulwich flat*, later they were in various squatted spaces around Brixton.

* it was Kev, Dave and this guy called Mario who were all still students I think. Dave's art is on things like Morris's 'It's Tomorrow Already' album (and his partner set up the Clear label). Chantal had moved in a bit later, maybe before or around the time of that party I guess.

Now I think about it there was definitely talk of getting Pete Namlook over to play but unless I've a complete memory hole it never happened. Probably hard to get him to spend that much time away from the studio.

still not sure re the legit nature of this new reissue label.
however, all of the seasons releases are now 'name your price' for a limited time.
(something to do re petes birthday apparently .. )
have had spring/autumn and summer for years, was never able to source winter,
so yeah, i am grabbing it ...

https://namlook.bandcamp.com/music

just received word that the fella behind this label has been given the all clear from the Namlook estate.

(i am still not 100% convinced given the complexity of the labels releases to be honest, but hey, grab what you can while its there !)

Dreamfish I and II are back up for €5.

Not on Fax but there is supposed to be a reissue of Mixmaster Morris & Jonah Sharp (+ Haruomi Hosono)'s Quiet Logic album at some point. The opening track is somewhere in the region of School Of Fish and Sharp's Regenz stuff with David Moufang. Which is a very good place to be.

Flying High has supposedly been picked up by WRWTFWW as well.