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

Anyway, to answer your question, Jon Savage's latest collection 1972-1976 is one I'm currently on. It might be because it's the only correct reissue of the Faust polydor 7" of "So Far", um, so far.

Waltz Darling doesn't fit genre-wise but the BPM and the era work just about

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OOGX-x9UlLs

New from Ace Records: ‘Chocktaw Ridge’, compiled by Bob with Martin Green
https://acerecords.co.uk/choctaw-ridge-new-fables-from-the-american-south-1968-1973

Best songs from Elvis' 60s movies. That's what a colleague of mine reckons will be a Bob Stanley compilation project in the future.

Followed by the best songs from Cliff Richard movies.

Lol

A guy's gotta pay the rent.

remembered the 98bpm chat earlier this week and the mention of a compilation being put together.
well, it has just been announced :

https://acerecords.co.uk/fell-from-the-sun-1

He has an Oh Brother I haven't heard yet too. JUst getting the John Leckie one starting at the moment.

So that new comp is about out -- meantime Bob had a few separate single-artist/producer comps out over the past few months as well:

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/the-more-things-change-film-tv-studio-work-1968-1973

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/looks-like-stormy-weather-1969-1975

https://www.acerecords.co.uk/psychedelic-soul-produced-by-norman-whitfield

Loving 'Fell from the Sun' and adding more tracks to it. It's like a bit like a sequel to this all-time great "Volume 1" comp that never had a volume 2:
https://i.discogs.com/gxfEk4ZuG1E1cB4JfwPdaPZKsWIf5PHjNTBCsIvByOE/rs:fit/g:sm/q:90/h:599/w:600/czM6Ly9kaXNjb2dz/LWRhdGFiYXNlLWlt/YWdlcy9SLTE0NDUz/NS0xMTc3NTg5OTU2/LmpwZWc.jpeg
https://www.discogs.com/release/144535-Various-Classic-Balearic-Mastercuts-Volume-1

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!