Opinions on FAX Records and Pete Namlook

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.