The Heavy One 2004

The Heavy One 2004

One of two - The Wierd One will follow in due course.

While Jez Hildred was going slightly goth cosmic prog, James Cooke was going slightly goth orchestral metal.

It was a crazy time for us all. I'm willing to bet this compilation happened after I banged on at length about the awesomeness of Evanescence and Lacuna Coil at one of Andy and Sue Hobson's wonderful barbecue events.

You'll notice he's featuring a lot of content from the same albums without actually copying the whole album. In our student house (1985-87) James used to be infamous for buying what was then a new record, playing it non-stop for a month then getting fed up with it and never playing it again. 

Perhaps including half albums on compilations was some kind of internal compensator that he developed to manage album length obsessional behaviour.

You'll notice that unlike Adrian and myself, James and Jez never ever run out of inlay card space to write tracks, probably because all their tracks are 20 mins long. 

I wonder if he's become a massive Hans Zimmer fan like myself

Metallica - Star Wars Imperial March

Apocalyptica - Enter Sandman

Van Der Graaf Generator - Theme One

Metallica - Astronomy

Apocalyptica - From Out of Nowhere

Rob Duggan - Will you follow me

Within Temptation - See Who I am

Within Temptation - Stand My Ground

Within Temptation - Aquarious

Within Temptation - Jane Doe

Juno Reactor - Navras

Apocalyptica - Faraway Vol.2

Dixie Dregs - Kashmir

Chalice - Memorial embers

'Nine of Swords' 1990

Nine of Swords 1990

This was loathed by everyone, me included. There are actually tracks on this that I like, or liked, until they appeared on this tape, now I hate them.

Side A
Kings X - Over My Head
Kings X - King Is Coming
Neneh Cherry - Buffalo Stance
David Bowie - Fame 90
The Stranglers - 96 Tears
The B-52s - Roam
Neneh Cherry - Manchilde
The Damned - Billy Bad Breaks
Living Color - Open Letter to a Landlord

Side B
Bryan Adams - Run to You
Then Jericho - The Motive (Living Without You)
Public Enemy ft. Ice Cube & Big Daddy Kane - Burn Hollywood Burn
The Damned - Video Nasty
Billy Idol - Endless Sleep
Cowboy Junkies - Sweet Jane
Georgia Sattelites - Nights of Mystery
The Stranglers - Golden Brown
Aerosmith - She's On Fire
Zodiac Mindwarp - Whore of Babylon
(on other side of inlay card)
Blondie - Rapture
Faith No More - RnR

I'd just walked out of a dream first job because of mental and emotional exhaustion, and this compilation was created in the first flush of freedom and apparent maturity.
For much of the content here I blame the job I thought I'd escaped to - the mainstream record store in St Albans at the time, which seemed to think it was a luxury car showroom when it was actually a market stall shoving homogenized overpriced crap out as fast as it could. Within six months I'd be working the night warehouse shift at Tescos - which wasn't a dream job.
Our Price went bust years before amazon and music downloads affected the rest of the industry. In retrospect Our Price wouldn’t have survived 6 months competition from Tesco, never mind Amazon. Our Price operated in an era when the music industry would happily charge you £16.99 for a plastic cassette tape which could disintegrate on the way home from the store. Consider this next time someone is giving you a guilt trip about downloading.

The empowered 'grown-up' in St Albans who had was in the process of removing me from her life was a big Neneh Cherry fan and much of the rest of the selection reaks of approval seeking and self pity. First two songs by forgotten rock band Kings X included I think because they were on on the only vinyl single I ever bought. I never went on to listen to the album, probably too expensive to buy! Listening to the guitar sound on 'Over My Head' I can kind of see why I liked the single (though it sounded better in the record shop). I was in the process of graduating toward a more raw sound as seen by the last track. Faith No More is still my favourite band - and I was introduced to them (and Public Enemy, & Living Color) by the great workmates who I'd just left in London to work in the mainstream record shop.

Looking back I wasn't fitting in with the urban working class crowd, and I wasn't really fitting in with the suburban proto-Yuppies either.
I'm my own thing now :-)

Compilation 02/04 Pt1

Compilation 02/04 Pt1

This is from Jez Hildred. Jez is originally from Lincolnshire, near a place called Cubbit or Cobbit or Curbit or Kermit. He's now in San Francisco and may be a US citizen. 

This is relevant because this means the '02/4' could either be

Feb 2004

or

April 2002

depending on if he was using British or American date format.

I really would not have cared at all about this, and I suspect you might not either, but after 20 years of technical writing this bothers me.

This is exceptionally moody, probably a lot like me at the time. I think his partner Brooke had just staged some sort of intervention to get him away a Grateful Dead cult and he's managed to sneak a good Dead cover on this knowing I can't stand them.

Musically Jez was starting to follow in the slipstream of godspeed you black emperor, and the first track, Comets on Fire, seems like Proto-Goat.

His later compilations, as we will see, are even more 'out there'

'A- Nothing' seems very out place and I'm sure was just included for my benefit

Comets on Fire - Beneath The Ice Age

Trashmen - Surfin' Bird

Barry Adamson - Something Wicked This Way Comes

DJ Shadow - Dark Days

Roy Budd - Get Carter

Bella - Katsimbalis

A - Nothing

Iron Butterfly - In a Gadda Da Vida

Janes Addiction - Ripple (Grateful Dead cover)

Pink Floyd - Come in No51, Your Time is Up

SparkleHorse with Tom Yorke - Wish You Where Here

Henry Rollins - The Virtues Of Black Sabbath

As my own comps from this era will show, I was pretty low at this time and this, certainly the last track, is a booster

Neurotic Ink Sampler For Parracombe 1996

Neurotic Ink Sampler For Parracombe 1996

In about 1996, after another tough relationship break up in St. Albans, I moved to Exmoor. Everyone thought I was mad.

I was mad.

"Please send me stuff to stop me going mad" I said to everyone I was leaving behind.

I went mad anyway.

This is one of the red cross food parcels from that time, from Aidrian Barbour, with I suspect some help from his soon to be wife Noelle 

(who somehow got stuff like Prince and TheThe played in a shop, Forbidden Planet, which was otherwise hitting the customers with Ministry, the Butthole Surfers and Slayer).

Aidrian had just seen Flaming Lips at I think Reading Festival, and had become a major disciple. The band must owe him two decades back pay for promo duties.

I'm not sure if he'd seen North Devon before suggesting the Sepultura track, the music video (linked below) does suggest a familiarity with the area.

Side A

1 The Cranberries - I Don't Need

2 The Prodigy - Breath

3 White Zombie - Electrical Head Pt2

4 Bjork - HyperBallad

5 The Eels - Novocaine For The Soul

6 Sinead O'connor - Mandinka

7 Fun Lovin' Criminals - Scooby Snacks

8 Flaming Lips - Lightening Strikes The Postman

Side B

1 Sepultura - Ratamahatta

2 Pearl Jam - Who You Are

3 Hard Corps - Back In Black

4 Porno For Pyros - Kimberly Austin

5 Frente! - Open Up Your heart and let the sun shine in 

6 Skunk Anansie - Twisted

7 Counting Crows - Monkey 

8 Collapsed Lung - Ballad Night

9 Kirsty McColl - Perfect Day

'Strength' Compilation, Autumn 1987

 'Strength' Compilation 1987

Usually my comps were named by pulling out a random Tarot card from my Aquarian deck.

I notice here from 30 years later, not having opened my Tarot deck for at least 15 years, that I seem to be pulling out a lot or major arcana.*

This was a random process and less consequential cards do pop up later.

Heavy influence from co-workers at Forbidden Planet in this tale, Sinnead was a complete goddess in that company. Her debut, The Lion and the Cobra, is still a classic. Slayer.. again, direct from FP Oxford Street. though they would have crucified me for including U2, one decent tune pulled from an embarrassing album. 

Interesting to see Clannad in there which was a major fave for me in the summer before I moved to college. 

The Primitives is all St Albans friends, way too cool for me at the time.

I was a stout defender of Tin Machine from the start and have been copping flak for it for 30 years.

That Who song, Eminence Front, was very hard to defend from the fashionable but has since been used as a a tv theme as it's a brilliant goove. It's from a pretty bad album though (1982's It's Hard) and you can see a lot of strategy for these tapes was rescuing good tunes from albums you couldn't face listening to in full.

(This explains the U2)

I could not explain The Police - Deathwish until I heard it. From distant memory it's a great album as well.

Side A

1 U2 - God Part II

2 The Who - Eminence Front 

3 The Damned - Anything

4 The Police - Deathwish

5 Aerosmith - I'm Down

8 Sinead O'connor - Just Call Me Joe

9 Billy Idol - Rock On

10 The Stranglers - No More Heroes

Side B

1 Tin Machine - Under the Gods

2 Tone Loc - Funky Cold Medina

3 Clannad - I See Red

4 The Stranglers - Ghost Train
5  Hawkwind - Quark, Strangeness and Charm

6The Primitives - Stop Killing Me
7 BoomTown Rats - Rat Trap
8 Slayer - South of Heaven

9 Motorhead - Orgasmatron

10 Dead Kennedys - California Uber Alles

 *Reversed does indicate it was upside down when drawn but I think I started disregarding reversed meanings quiet early on as this medieval method of motivation is negative enough as it is

UPDATE

That original tracklist scrubbed out at the top is
Bau Haus - In The Flat Field
Kate Bush - Wuthering Heights
Grace Jones - Walking In The Rain

which probably I realised was too dark for general consumption
- this wouldn't bother me in later years

'Justice' Compilation 1988

 'Justice' Compilation 1988

Usually my comps were named by pulling out a random Tarot card from my Aquarian deck.

Content reflects 2nd retail job at Our Price St Alban's (after quitting Forbidden Planet Oxford street). Some influence from fellow St Albans biker types as well :-)

Looks like I'd been watching Miami Vice as two things are from the Miami Vice soundtrack.

Blistering Repo Man theme screams Scala Cinema Club and was my first exposure to Iggy Pop.

It's certainly pre internet as the cracking first tune was an unknown in the days when you couldn't just 'look things up'

Side A

1 Russ Ballard - Voices

2 Iggy Pop - Theme from Repo Man

3 Aerosmith and Run DMC - Walk this Way

4 Stranglers - All Of The Day and All Of the Night

5 INXS - Good Time Tonight

6 AC/DC - Rock N Roll Aint Noise Polution

7 Kate Bush - Violin

8 The Cult - Bad Fun

9 Zodiac Mindwarp - Lager Woman From Hell

10 Faith No More - We Care a Lot

11 David Bowie and Queen - Under Pressure

Side B

1 Billy Idol - World Forgotten Boy

2 ELO - Don't Bring Me Down

3 AC/DC - She's Got The Jack

4 The B52s - Lava

5 Glen Frey - Dirty Laundry

6 Bau Haus - St Vitus Dance

7 Tom Leher - Poisoning Pigeons in The Park

8 The Who - Baba O'Riley

9 Deep Purple - Space Trucking

10 Siouxsie and The Banshees - Peekaboo

Intro - 30 years of MixTapes

Music Compilations 1987-2017

30 years of MixTapes



I've never thrown away a mixtape I've made for myself or been given by others. They are too special. 

At times when I was too low or too high or too busy to write they were my creative output. Friends responded in the same way.

And here the are, presented in mainly chronological order. Compilations of mine were usually titled by pulling a random card from my Tarot pack. I still have that deck as well and I will post the card with them.

My main blog here  is currently in hiatus after a bit of a meltdown, I am still writing for it, just not posting at the moment.