KompilaTion KonTents

[FULIGIN%UMASS.BITNET@wiscvm.wisc.edu (Peter E. Lee)]

     The first KompilaTion tape is almost finished!  I have added my
entries, and once Joe Turner gets it and adds his, it will start circulating
for folks to listen to.
     It's an odd bird.  The first 5 entries follow IED's model (he was the
first contributor) of including snippets of a bunch of songs, rather than
any complete peices.  The idea there is to introduce people to as many
options as possible and let them find out more about the band if they like
the 'taste' that they hear.  Listening to the tape, I find that the
utility of this model varies with the size of the samples.  IED managed to
cram 66 (!) snatches of music into 10 minutes and 41 seconds.  To me, while
the collage effect was interesting, I couldn't really pick up enough about
a piece or artist in the roughly 6 seconds it was being played for to decide
which ones I wanted to explore further!  Also, while the other collages on
the tape contained snippets that were long enough to get me interested in
some of the pieces, I think I would have much preferred to hear just a few
songs all the way through by a few artists instead.  I really can't
picture listening to the first 6/7 of the tape more than about twice
through as is.
     Since I find whole songs more pleasing, especially for repeated
listening, I chose to put on four of those.  For those people contributing
who wish to avoid duplication, they were :
     The Entropics - "Comic Book Heroes"
     Roger Miller - "Jabberwocky"
     Severed Heads - "Harold and Cindy Hospital"
and  They Might Be Giants - "Youth Culture Killed My Dog"
     Because the number of sampled songs is well over 100, making the list
far too long to type, and because duplicating any of them would probably
bring out other aspects, I won't list them here.  As a taste though, the
bands represented include : David Sylvian, Scriabin, Janet Jackson, YMO,
Big Country, Prokofiev, Bob Weir, Lou Reed, Captain Beefheart, SPK,
Ladysmith Black Mambazo, Andy Partridge, OMD, Warren Zevon, Smithereens,
and the Buzzcocks - a very diverse lot indeed!  I hope that the samples
included will listeners to explore some artists who are new to them...
     In order to give people an impression of how the tapes are shaping up
and to avoid duplication (and lessen the 'fragmentation' effect of splitting
the tapes up), why doesn't each person who contributes to one of the tapes
post their list of additions to Love-Hounds?
     As for the status of the other tapes : The non-US tape has started
it's journey with Jeff Dalton in Scotland, the New England tape will start
when I get a letter from Dan Hall of New Hampshire and the second Southwest
US tape will start when Rob Rosen writes me a letter so I can give him the
addresses.  The California tape and the miscellaneous US locations tape
are both underway.
                                          Burning with optimism's flames
                                                        -Peter Lee
Fuligin%UMass.bitnet@wiscvm.wisc.edu