Wednesday, February 26, 2014

Albert Brooks: A Star Is Bought

 


Written and produced by Albert Brooks and Harry Shearer, this LP murders, buries, exhumes, and reanimates every gimmick in the history of radio. There are DJ tools for creating a personalized Albert Brooks-spoken station ID featuring any letter of the alphabet; a "Flying Saucer"-style cut-up record where all the sampled music is snipped out of hit songs that never existed; a patriotic monologue from the point of view of a deranged, anthropomorphized United States ("I used to be ONE HELL OF A WOMAN!!!"), a standup comic trading eights with a blues guitarist, and more, including a fake old-time-radio aircheck of the WWII-era network radio program "The Albert Brooks Show". I'm really sad this remains out of print, because it's killer funny and exquisitely well thought-out. And even if it is reissued, one thing you may never experience unless you procure an original vinyl copy is the fact that each LP had an autographed 8x10 glossy inside; the front cover had four holes in which to mount the photo; and the back cover was die-cut to unfold into an easel for convenient display on your desk or mantelpiece.

In the Beginning
Phone Call to Americans
Near the Beginning
Party from Outer Space
In the Middle
Phone Calls from Americans
An End in Sight
Love Song
The End of the First Beginning
A New Beginning
Promotional Gimmick
Call This Cut Three, Side Two
The Englishman-German-Jew Blues
The Beginning of the End
The Albert Brooks Show #112 (August 4, 1943)
The End

LP art & audio

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Camarata Contemporary Chamber Group: The Music of Erik Satie: The Velvet Gentleman




Hybrid classical/electronic performances of works by Satie, produced at the height of Moog madness. Nice arrangements and a great artifact of the psychedelic era. 

Trois Gymnopedies (1888): #III
Trois Gymnopedies (1888): #II
Trois Gymnopedies (1888): #I
Heures Seculaires et Instantanees (1914): Obstacles Venimeux
Heures Seculaires et Instantanees (1914): Crepuscule Matinal (de midi)
Heures Seculaires et Instantanees (1914): Affolements Grantiques
Avant-Dernieres Pensees (1915): Idylle
Avant-Dernieres Pensees (1915): Au bade
Avant-Dernieres Pensees (1915): Meditation
Passacaille (1906)
Trois Gnossienne (1890)
Trois Nocturnes (1919): I. Le Premier
Trois Nocturnes (1919): II. Le Deuxieme
Trois Nocturnes (1919): Ill. Le Troisieme
Embryons Desseches (1913): I. d’Holothurie
Embryons Desseches (1913): II. d’Edriophalma
Embryons Desseches (1913): III. de Podophthalma
Enfantillages Pittoresques: I. Petit prelude a la journee a la Enfantines
Peccadilles Importunes (1913): I. Etre jaloux de son camarde qui a une grosse tete
Peccadilles Importunes (1913): III. Profiter de ce qu’il a des cors aux pieds pour lui prendre son cerceau
Pieces Froides I
Pieces Froides II: Air de faire
Pieces Froides III (1897)

LP art & audio

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.

Andrew Kazdin & Thomas Z Shepard: Everything You Always Wanted to Hear on the Moog (But Were Afraid to Ask For)



A program of Spanish classics filtered through two guys and a Moog. Really sharp arrangements and tasty tone colors from producers Kazdin and Shepard, and dig the cover art by Tomi Ungerer.

Chabrier: España
Lecuona: Malagueña
Bizet: “Carmen”: Prelude to Act I; Habanera; Introduction to Act I (Les Toreadors)
Ravel: Bolero

LP art & audio 

DISCLAIMER: To the best of my knowledge, this work is out of print and not available for purchase in any format. If you are the artist and are planning a reissue, please let me know and I’ll remove it from the blog. Also please get in touch if you’ve lost your art &/or sound masters and would like to talk with me about my restoration work.