if there's a better compiler than Bob Stanley out there, I'd sure like to know...

I wish Movement 98 "Joy & Heartbreak" was on it, it would slot in perfectly

Fell from the Sun is so good. Just spent a pleasant Saturday morning listening & reading the sleevenotes (status: fully ascended Mojo dad) which have a nice 'Rock Family Trees: Chart Show edition' feel.

(Feeling old moment - realising we're twice as far away from this stuff as this stuff is from his 76 in the Shade comp.)

Two thirds through Let's Do It and the one big complaint I have so far is the lack of coverage of Latin music, which was surely very influential to this period (enough for Bing Crosby to record "South America, Take It Away"); so far the only references to it I've seen in there are a British bandleader claiming to have lived in Brazil and Duke Ellington recording a latin novelty song, which is shown as evidence that he was in a creative slump. Hoping he'll give Bossa Nova its due at least.

There's also a bit of a problem in making it about both US and UK pop. I get why he does it - UK pop is underexplored and a book solely about it would sell less - but it's really not fair, these huge developments in the US and then every time it goes back to Britain the scenario feels much the same as anywhere else in Europe (in fact I think histories of pre-Rock French and Italian Pop might have more juice!).

Excellent points, Daniel. I read it over the summer and if memory serves, there's a paragraph at the very beginning, possibly in the foreword, about how there was clearly a story to tell about non-English-speaking pop but for the purposes of the book he'd restricted himself (and his comprehensive research) to UK/US pop.

I think that's fair and certainly a book on all pop worldwide in the pre-rock era would be far too daunting, but it doesn't imo let him off the hook for the latin thing, as the influences of mambo, latin jazz and bossa nova to give just a few examples were huge on English speaking pop of that time.

New punk-era compilation, Winter of Discontent, about to drop:

https://acerecords.co.uk/winter-of-discontent

Post-punk rather than punk.

More goodness on the way: https://acerecords.co.uk/tribal-rites-of-the-new-saturday-night

That looks pretty solid!

Yeah, these things just keep getting better and better. Wonder if Ace has a Bob Stanley Plan you can sign up for.

Looks amazing.

Is there a site where all these Saint Etienne/Bob Stanley comps listed? It's tough to keep up!

Here you go: http://www.saintetiennedisco.com/index2.html

he's got a new Bee Gees bio out which sounds quite good

Various Artists
Latin Freestyle New York / Miami 1983 - 1992
Ace

Another stunning compilation compiled by Bob Stanley. Latin Freestyle was a dizzying, passionate, ultra- modern music. It was the aural equivalent of a can of thirst-quenching Quatro or a Spanish Harlem dance-off, and it became the electronically constructed bridge between disco and house. Freestyle grew out of the electro sound of the early 80s, combined clean staccato rhythms with morse code synth hooks, and topped them off with emotive, usually female, frequently Latina vocals. There was plenty more going on besides: proto- house piano lines, Cuban percussion, high emotion and synth hooks to die for. Put together and annotated by Bob Stanley (who also compiled the acclaimed The Daisy Age and Fell From The Sun), Latin Freestyle is the first compilation to cover the whole gamut of Freestyle from its early 80s breakthrough to its early 90s revival. So many classics... Lisa Lisa made the UK top ten with the 808 joy of ‘I Wonder If I Take You Home’. Stacey Q’s cosmically great ‘Two Of Hearts’ came out in 1986, while 1987 saw the likes of Company B’s ‘Fascinated’ and Exposé’s ‘Point Of No Return’ become huge UK club hits. Today, Freestyle is a scene with a solid collector’s market, and rarities like Janelle’s ‘Don’t Be Shy’ sell for hundreds of dollars. It’s a classic summer soundtrack, finally condensed in one Ace Records compilation – Latin Freestyle.

I approve. Some good choices in there. Interesting that he went with "Let's Go" by Nocera which is slightly less known than her "Summertime, Summertime," but I love both. He went with all female singers, which is a choice. There are two or three Cynthia tracks I'd pick before "Thief of Heart," but there are no losers here.

I would have a hard time choosing only that number of tracks for an all-encompassing freestyle comp, even going with just one track per artist.

Looking again at his 16 selections on this comp, I think my own freestyle comp would include exactly eight of those 16 tracks. And then I could come up with eight better ones.

Alfred to thread. I know he’s posted a best of freestyle list here.

How's the Bee Gees book?

I was kind of thinking "It's Bob! Maybe I've just not really got the Bee Gees and this might convince me otherwise?" but the excerpt in the Guardian didn't convince me to part with money.

I enjoyed the Bee Gees book a great deal, their story is unusual and interesting, sometimes bewildering and sometimes sad. I thought I knew a bit about the Bee Gees but didn't know the half of it. IT looks like a thick book but it skips along at a pace, there's a lot of Bee Gees to get through. I am pleased that he gives proper attention to the brothers' production work in the 80s.

Bob observes at the start that the Bee Gees have never really been a fashionable name to drop, haven't been the subject of much of a critical re-evaluation (compared to The Beach Boys or The Kinks, both of whom have had periods in and out of fashion). He doesn't ever really get to why he thinks that is, aside from a few observations about how they never really fitted in to the pop world, and often seemed to shy away from any kind of cutting edge. I'm quite glad the book doesn't give a direct answer to that question, but I'd pay to read Bob music on why the Bee Gees seem immune to being a cool name to drop.

Thanks Tim.

Thanks Tim.

London A To Z is great grey sky listening. The blurb on the John & Beverley Martyn track unpleasantly flippant if you've listened to the Andrew Hickey podcast ep on the artists tho.

A friend recently gifted me Tribal Rites on CD. It’s excellent, particularly the second half. As I’m currently working on a project with the veteran DJ Greg Wilson, I told him about it and he was v.excited by the track listing, particularly for the Sons Of Robin Stone track. So that’s a strong expert endorsement for you there!

Man I've been slack on catching up on the various comps in general. Had missed London A To Z for instance.

Meantime, the other day I'm shopping in Amoeba and I noticed these two comps from him that I had missed completely! (Which of course I bought immediately.)

https://acerecords.co.uk/folk-funk-beyond-the-arrangements-of-john-cameron

https://acerecords.co.uk/incident-at-a-free-festival-1

The latter one is in series with English Weather and Occasional Rain, this time being 1972.

Next up is a Cafe Exil sequel:

https://acerecords.co.uk/fantastic-voyage-1

Plus a really interesting one to me, a Lou Christie comp focusing on 1967. (I keep being very surprised at how Christie barely factors into wider 60s retrospections -- was he too much of a flash in the pan in the end?)

https://acerecords.co.uk/gypsy-bells-columbia-recordings-1967

Thanks for the head's up, Ned! I too have lost track of these comps, which is a shame because I almost invariably enjoy the hell out of them.

I own 76 In The Shade, Occasional Rain, Three Day Week, English Weather (my fave), Paris In the Spring, Tears of Technology, and State of the Union. Aside from this latest batch, are there any other crucial ones I'm missing, aside from Cafe Exil (which I can never seem to find)?

Having gotten them all I can't be truly objective but per the new John Cameron one, gotta give credit to his very interesting producer/arranger overview choices -- the Thom Bell and Norman Whitfield comps arguably work in more familiar territory but they're solid overviews (Bell's own thoughts in the liners are great), but the Robert Kirby one was really striking, a way to open up a view into a lot of 70s UK folk-and-related work I wouldn't have really assayed otherwise.

Meantime I've just now noticed that that 'A Taste Of' series he did for Sainsbury's, which I thought was vinyl only, did have at least some CD issues as well so I may have to start tracking those down.

They sure are coming in thick and fast these days. My hometown record store always has a great compilation section, and when I was just back for the holidays I picked up the Cameron and Free Festival ones, as well as Tribal Rites of the New Saturday Night. Still on the hunt for London A-Z and the Latin Freestyle one. Also got the new Bobby Gillespie weepy ballad comp, also on Ace.

Meantime I've just now noticed that that 'A Taste Of' series he did for Sainsbury's, which I thought was vinyl only, did have at least some CD issues as well so I may have to start tracking those down.

― Ned Raggett, Saturday, December 30, 2023 6:14 PM (three hours ago) bookmarkflaglink

Curious. I've never seen the CDs (and only fleetingly saw the vinyl) despite shopping in Sainsbury's regularly. I don't recall the track listings for the ones I saw being that interesting??

(I might be being unfair/grumpy in that assessment).

"Cafe Exil" is my favorite comp of the last number of years, such a great ride. Very excited about the sequel even if its tracks are far more familiar than CE.

The Sainsburys releases were basically "here's a basic ass selection with a few hidden gems snuck in", which is honestly very fair considering the target audience (it ain't us). Would still have picked them up if they had them at my local ofc.

Sounds a reasonable assessment.

"Fell From The Sun" is decent though shocked to discover that One Dove's Fallen wasn't as good as I remember (at least in the version on here).

Compiling some tracks recently [the ones on the Tarwater thread] and being a bit indecisive on the track-listing, I found myself wondering "What would Bob Stanley do??"

"Fantastic Voyage" is another top tier compilation, lives up to the title!

Here's the next one: Thom Bell - Didn't I Blow Your Mind? The Sound Of Philadelphia Soul 1969 - 1983

https://acerecords.co.uk/thom-bell-didnt-i-blow-your-mind-the-sound-of-philadelphia-soul-1969-1983

That’s…weird. He already did a Thom Bell comp a few years back! Hell it’s linked on that page. Is this a complementary set?

This is the sequel to “Ready Or Not”, Ace’s first acclaimed compilation of the late Thom Bell’s productions and arrangements.

Clarity!

Bob has been busy again. https://www.acerecords.co.uk/tomorrows-fashions-library-electronica-1972-1987

Bob has been busy again. https://www.acerecords.co.uk/tomorrows-fashions-library-electronica-1972-1987

I used to own hundreds upon hundreds of these albums. I sold a lot on eBay ages ago, but probably still own several hundred, and I still have CD-Rs of many of those I sold.

The one track on here I really love is John Cameron’s ‘Northern Lights’. For some reason it always evokes for me not the northern lights but gazing out on the River Thames at night, in the 1980s or early 1990s, at somewhere like Battersea. There’s an ominousness to it or a feeling of lost time, or something. That's what goes through my head anyway every time I listen to it.

A lot of the others have aspects to them that I like, but things I don’t like as well. Sometimes the drums and bass sound a bit like jazz funk, but a bit plodding, not sprightly. Then there are certain chord changes that I find annoying. You can hear the loosely prog rock background of some of these composers and the changes they use are not always to my taste.

And speaking of that comp, new Ace Records Podcast episode with Bob talking about it:

https://soundcloud.com/ace-records-ltd/the-ace-records-podcast-31-bob-stanley

Bought the Paul Williams Songbook comp w/o knowing that it is compiled and annotated by Stanley, so there's another one for completists.

Yeah, they come at you thick and fast. I picked up a Dusty Springfield comp some time ago, and sure enough, Bob Stanley.

The link I posted in 2018 is still updated.

Thanks! That is a well-annotated web page. Do you happen to know what the red asterisks indicate?

I do not. At first I thought it might indicate "out of print" but that's not the case.

Bob’s Patreon is excellent, a constant stream of quality content.

Always a bit surprised when ppl I'd considered Proper Famous (within the music world, not saying joe average would know him) have patreons but I guess that's where we're at now. Will def suscribe!

https://acerecords.co.uk/american-baroque-chamber-pop-and-beyond-1967-1971-1

"American Baroque - Chamber Pop And Beyond 1967 - 1971" - will be released: 31.01.2025.

The heyday of American baroque pop – or chamber pop - ran from 1966 to the turn of the seventies. It used string quartets, harpsichords and woodwinds to create a summer-into-autumn melancholy that was quite new, and quite far removed from rock’n’roll as Eddie Cochran would have known it. Baroque pop’s musicians often came from a folk background, with an affinity for acoustic instrumentation. Linda Ronstadt's first band the Stone Poneys had introduced the autoharp to their line-ups in 1965, while the likes of Bonnie Dobson and Nico experimented with a string quartet’s, searching for different, post-electric Dylan directions.

You can trace it back to the Left Banke who created a sound that was soft but insistently sad - where were the guitars? Their guitarist Rick Brand claimed their lyrics "were written as rather self-consciously beautiful musical whimsy, as you find in the latter 18th-century Romantic music, pre-Beethoven". They had a huge hit with ‘Walk Away Renee’ and effectively invented a genre before combusting after just one album. Splinter group Montage produced a very rare album and singer Steve Martin Caro an equally rare single - both are represented on “American Baroque”.

Though the baroque sound was quickly forced into a corner by the back-to-basics stance of power trios like Cream and Blue Cheer, many musicians weren’t yet ready to ditch cellos and harpsichords. Some groups like the Blades of Grass aimed their minor key melodies at an early or even pre-teen following. And others like Emmit Rhodes' Merry Go Round, H.P. Lovecraft and Appaloosa simply loved the feel of string quartets and woodwinds and continued to explore orchestral pop further, into the early seventies.

In doing so, they created this tapestry of delights. There was no single blueprint for the American baroque sound – it could be bordering on the gothic (Russ Giguere of the Association’s extraordinary ‘My Plan’) or as small and precise as a music box (Tom Northcott’s ‘Other Times’).

1. YOU'RE A VERY LOVELY WOMAN -
The Merry-Go-Round
2. I SHALL CALL HER MARY - The Montage
3. RAGGEDY ANN - John Randolph Marr
4. TULU ROGERS - Appaloosa
5. TURNAWAY - The Pleasure Fair
6. DIFFERENT DRUM –
The Stone Poneys featuring Linda Ronstadt
7. EMILY'S ILLNESS - Nora Guthrie
8. BAREFOOT GENTLEMAN - The Association
9. LAND OF SENSATIONS & DELIGHTS - J.K. & CO
10. BLUE JACK OF DIAMONDS - H.P. Lovecraft
11. TIME - Bonnie Dobson
12. SATIN SLIPPER - The Blades Of Grass
13. MY SILENT SYMPHONY - Chris & Peter Allen
14. MR WEBSTER - The Monkees
15. AGAIN AGAIN - Eternity's Children
16. MY PLAN - Russ Giguere
17. THE FAIREST OF THE SEASONS - Nico
18. OTHER TIMES - Tom Northcott
19. YOU LIED - The Neon Philharmonic
20. CLOSE TO CARMEL - The Fun & Games
21. HOME BEFORE DARK - Nora Guthrie
22. I HAVE BEEN ALONE - The Common People
23. TWO BY TWO (I'M LOSING YOU) - Steve Martin
24. LORELEI – Rosebud

Saw a listing for that the other day! Complement to the Tea & Symphony comps I'd guess. Got the Paul Williams, library electronica and New Jill Swing sets last week.