Opinions on FAX Records and Pete Namlook

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.