Various Artists, All Heat: A Love Letter to Great Compilations

A love letter to curated collections and the people who make them.

Seventy-five years ago, Folkways Records began issuing a series of themed albums that corralled recordings made by various regional artists onto single long-playing (LP) records. LPs had arrived two years prior; their advent extended the duration of each side from four minutes to more than twenty. Thirty years later, the notion had evolved, as seen below in this Los Angeles punk collection from 1980.

Before LPs, record companies released curated sets of 78 rpm records, which came in heavy, art-book-sized bound volumes. Newfangled single album compilations were much easier to make and sell and were quickly adopted as a bankable way to make money off old titles as part of greatest hits packages.

A lot of labels of the time embraced the notion of the compilation as a sales tool. Folkways Records was a whole another animal, though, and approached the idea with a certain artfulness. Exotic Dances, from 1950, mixed sides from India, Burma, Spain, Japan, the Crimea, Armenia, Argentina, Equatorial Africa and elsewhere. Despite oceans separating them, the musical connections were apparent.

Drawn from field recordings, the “exotic” of the title is an anachronistic way to describe what’s within — but what’s within does remain exotic in another sense today. It’s a portal to the pre-record-industry sound of musicians letting loose in wildly distinctive ways. Exotic Dances was also a portent. That same year, Asch commissioned writer-producer Fred Ramsey to compile a multi-volume set called Jazz. It told the story of the music’s birth, and informed the conversation for years to come.

In 1952, Harry Smith worked with Asch to release the profound series of compilations called The Anthology of American Folk Music. Widely cited as the Big Bang of curated compilations, it made connections that helped steer discussions on race, music, class, and inspiration. The best compilations, like the Douglas Mcgowan-curated I Am the Center: Private Issue New Age Music in America, 1950-1990, succeed at this, and along the way they reframe ideas on genre and taste — and upend the collectors market.

Like mixtapes, a hot comp creates a world and then fills it with sound. Strut Records, the essential UK label, has made a business of curated compilations. One of the greats is Disco Not Disco, which tells the story of New York post-disco sounds from the early 1980s; fans of LCD Soundsystem will be floored by this comp.

Producing various artists collections is a headache that involves getting signed licensing agreements from the rights holders to each track, convincing these rights holders to commit to long-term deals that allows for repressing, and securing digital rights to get the comp onto streaming services. Strut’s sister label Soul Jazz has released some sick reggae and dub comps.

Despite these licensing hurdles, the scene is thriving. As ISC NYC’s Dane Majors wrote of comps a few years back, “With listeners’ growing interest in obscure music, comps have evolved into brilliantly curated reissues featuring sounds that were lost, obscured by the times or simply unheard. Music that we can only now fully appreciate.”

In fact, today at In Sheep’s Clothing NYC, we’ll be going deep on eight classics of the genre from our collection. Featuring projects by respected labels including Efficient Space, Light in the Attic, Soundway, and more, the afternoon dedicated listening session — we do it at appropriate volume and request quiet enjoyment — will feature sides from the following releases:

Sky Girl by Julien Dechery & DJ Sundae (Efficient Space). Private press folk pop and new wave.

For Love of You Vol. 1 (Dreamhouse). Lovers rock covers of songs by Mtume, the Gap Band, Lowrell, Prince, Bobby Caldwell, and others.

Pacific Breeze: Japanese City Pop, AOR & Boogie 1976-1986 (Light in the Attic). Influential selection of smooth Japanese sounds.

Jura Soundsytem Presents Transmission Three (Island of Jura). A beautiful convergence of reggae, dub, ambient house, downtempo and leftfield disco.

Pyramid Pieces 1 by James Pianta (The Roundtable). Australian modern jazz from the late 1960s and ’70s.

American Dream Reserve by Charles Bals and Henry Jones. A collection of “lo-fi drumcomputer folk, disco-pop-lounge, haunting ballads, obscure vanity pressings, and synthesized string ensembles.”

Welcome To Paradise ’89​-‘​93 (Vol. 2) by Young Marco (Safe Trip). This comp details “the activities of a secretive group of Italian audio scientists between 1989 and ’93. These scientists of sound were responsible for developing a loved-up musical toxicant known colloquially as “dream house”.

Ritmo Fantasiá by Trujillo (Soundway). A collection compiling “the forgotten corners of the 1980s and early 90s Spanish music scene. Veering through early bleep and hip house, electro, boogie, Iberian pop and much more, it has broad appeal to both Balearic heads and diggers alike.”

Details:

In Sheep’s Clothing NYC’s Dedicated Listening Session: Compilations
Where: 350 Hudson St (enter on King), New York City
When: Monday, Dec. 4, 2-5 pm EST