Highlight some notable 90s-early 00s CD only acts that are that much less likely to get re-discovered by crate diggers

Probably a lot of goth stuff on CD only.

the apples.

a post WIN band that made 2 excellent singles but got dropped.
the album was very quietly released, and is available on cd.

I was going to suggest the Pop Ambient series from Kompakt, but looking on Discogs they were apparently also released as LPs, and they're widely available on iTunes.

The vast majority of stuff on Pete Namlook's FAX label was released on CD in limited quantities only, and to makes things more complicated Namlook is dead and Tetsu Inoue has vanished. Furthermore I have the impression the contracts for all those "Pete Namlook plus someone else" albums - there were loads - must be hard to work out. Some of them are on iTunes but only a minority.

I still have my copies of the four Virgin Brief History of Ambient compilations. They were CD only. I have the impression that most compilations from 1993-2005 if not more recently were CD-only, because CDs held more music and compilations aren't aimed at audiophiles. The problem is that very few compilations had an identity of their own (Ambient 4 at least had a bunch of rare tracks).

Er, Supersilent? Masses of albums, very few of them released on vinyl. Towering Inferno's Kaddish was only released on CD. An awful lot of artists championed by The Wire magazine were CD-only, because they were stark and unsentimental and of limited commercial appeal, and remain so.

But the artist I really wanted to champion was B*Witched. Neither of their two albums were released on vinyl. Neither of them have been re-released since 1999 / 2000 respectively (barring a one-off Japanese pressing of the first album in 2007). They are as dead as dead can be.

I mean, they were no good, but they were a cultural curiosity - an Irish theme pub girl band, the absolute epitome of the pre-war Blair years - and for a very brief period they were a major chart act. Also they're one of the few pop bands with integral punctuation.

In fact almost exactly the same could be said of Billie Piper's pop career. Her two albums also came out in 1999 and 2000, they were also CD-only, and they haven't been reprinted since then. Unless there's a resurgence of interest in bubblegum pop of the turn of the millennium their works will end up as thin layer of plastic in the fossil records.

You know, I can still spell millennium. Two Ls, two Ns. I assumed that skill would be of no use in the 2000s, but the rise of the word "millennial" has made it useful again.

Minmae were really cool! Vonsachiang!

I still have my copies of the four Virgin Brief History of Ambient compilations. They were CD only. I have the impression that most compilations from 1993-2005 if not more recently were CD-only, because CDs held more music and compilations aren't aimed at audiophiles. The problem is that very few compilations had an identity of their own (Ambient 4 at least had a bunch of rare tracks).

I have both the Macro Dub Infection compilations (also on Virgin), and all six volumes of the Electric Ladyland series (on Mille Plateaux). Those were all CD-only.

Am I the only one who remembers Mind Bomb? Or rather, mindbomb.

https://img.discogs.com/HiyuSHeeGyHuytN4vlWuGS1g01Q=/fit-in/280x280/filters:strip_icc():format(jpeg):mode_rgb():quality(90)/discogs-images/R-2232476-1271276739.jpeg.jpg

I have a Minmae 7". it's great. I saw them live once too and that was also good. I have a ton of this shit on 7"s that I never listen to

Oh man... totally forgot!

Cyann & Ben

Am I the only one who remembers Mind Bomb? Or rather, mindbomb

You are not alone. The lead single, however, was astoundingly shitty.

The Wind-Up Bird

Scott 4

Not the Walker album but rather the C&W/motorik outfit.

the 2nd ivy album

Sleepyhead’s best (IMO) releases — Communist Love Songs and Late Night Thinkin’ — were CD-only. (The band released a lot of other stuff on vinyl, though.)

I haven't heard those! Always liked Sleepyhead though.

Neither of Susanne Lewis’s Kissyfur albums (or her 2000 self-titled alb) were on vinyl; and looks like most of her Hail stuff w/ Bob Drake has also been CD-only.

xxp to myself -- just learned that Communist Love Songs was remastered & reissued on vinyl in 2018 (in a set with Starduster, an earlier LP):

https://www.drawingroomrecords.com/collections/all-products/products/future-exhibit-goes-here

Will rep for the two Containe albums - fantastic, edgy, compelling. If you like Versus, you'll love them.

The vast majority of stuff on Pete Namlook's FAX label was released on CD in limited quantities only, and to makes things more complicated Namlook is dead and Tetsu Inoue has vanished. Furthermore I have the impression the contracts for all those "Pete Namlook plus someone else" albums - there were loads - must be hard to work out. Some of them are on iTunes but only a minority.

Didn't Ambient World reissue some of those?

I think I have more Fax stuff on my wantlist than any other label

indeed.
i have already put my FAX cd collection into a specific box and told my lads NOT to hand these over to the local charity shop once my time is up.

that reminds me that a friend of mine had basically a full FAX CD collection left behind by her husband who sadly died in a really tragic way (suicide by cop). She asked me once if there was somewhere in particular she could auction it off for charity. but then I never heard what she did with it.

Bumping because I forgot this thread existed. Seeing younger collectors focusing more on CDs these days (was somewhat inevitable), therefore some regained hope for obscurity discovery

Screen Prints!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=naoG-ZEdVYw

i listen to this album quite a bit. suntan. on kimchee. 2003. good gaze. never on vinul. never reissued.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JaG-o2U9cbo

i like this too. on sonic unyon. 2003. cd only.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FzSG0I3tsdU