The Weekend Set: Live Library DJ Sets

[Greta]

Cool set Retro.
And thanks for the fresh Stretch.

[[(Sub)]]

I think that Chinatown Kid is one of the best set you do !
Love it

[Fuzi]

Loving this Chinatown mix, and a number of well crafted songs I never knew existed.
Thks!!!

[Retronic]

The Weekend Set #29 |
As I typed out the track list for this one I saw there were no obvious 'hits' and it feels like doing this one was the most like my experience making compilations in 2010 on the Retro-Teque blog.  I realise I've being aiming for a balance with some 'better' or 'known' tracks so it was more appealing perhaps but this one was just literally pulling off handfuls of LPs, so about five or six here and there and looking for names and descriptions that looked appealing, checking the record for something that sounded decent and chucking anything good in the box.  That's absolutely how I used to make comps before; nowadays so much is stuff is known I was more influenced in what I chose.
Reality is on YT most people won't listen for more than a couple of minutes or will flick through.  My hope with these is for people to have it playing in the background (and not watch it), while they're making their breakfast or tea 

01 – Impression – Paul Dunlap
02 – Dynamovement No.2 – Roger Roger
03 – Checkpoint – Cy Payne
04 – Astral City – Pete Willsher/Tony Kelly
05 – Swoop – Graham Preskett
06 – Walk The White Line – Peter Reno/Reg Tilsley
07 – Undertone – Frank Ricotti/Tony Hymas/Stan Sulzmann
08 – Going Down Great – Paul Keogh
09 – The AV Conception 1 – Geoff Bastow/Jim Harbourg
10 – Sparks – Peter Reno/Barry Stoller
11 – Jungle Juice – Karl Jenkins/Mike Ratledge
12 – Cyborg - Pete Willsher/Tony Kelly
13 – Icebreaker – Nino Nardini
14 – Groover – Ian Langley
15 – Come To My Party – Norman Candler
16 – Electric Rainbow – Brian Bennett
17 – Good Vibrations – Keith Mansfield
18 – Commercial Life #7 – Neil Amsterdam
19 – Perpetual Beat – Jean-Paul Desvernois
20 – Movin’ Along – Dave Richmond
21 – Tip Top Tap – Frank Sterling
22 – Power Surge – Mike Vickers
23 – Intimations – Midas Touch

[tonyc1971]

Sone good ones in here.  To be honest, I tend to listen all the way through.  I don't proclaim to know much about library music apart from tracks that stand out and make me want to listen again.  This is the main reason I got into library music.  It was the compilations from the music used on test cards etc here in the UK.  Also, when your blog came on board some years ago, again those compilations were great.  So wish I'd downloaded more as when I lost the majority of my rips with the hard drive crash I lost your compilations.  For me, I listen to tracks within your compilation and tap the old toe too.  Probably not my go to tracks, but always on the look out to discover some gems that people like yourself share who know far more about this genre than I ever will.  So, as I type this and look at uploading some albums I've got this in the background.  I'm sure I'll be on the hunt for the rest of the albums some of your tracks feature on as like with others, I've become more of a completist.  Or, hoarder.  My hard drive cries stop as it's running out of room.  Time to buy another one me thinks... 

Update, as  point, Hubble Bubble to me isn't a stand out album (to me)  and if I heard Astral City a few years ago with what sound like a guy yawning / roaring in the background, I would have skipped it, but today found it strangely appealing.

[Retronic]

Should of gotten that on your Christmas list Tony- the bigger ones aren't cheap though.  It's great to appreciate the music for what it is and not because it's on a £600 LP!

[Retronic]

And those old comps were all 128kbps so heavily compressed- all I knew how to do at the time.
Someone asked me about them earlier so have this to hand

[tonyc1971]

Straight away looking at the folders, I instantly recognise loads of them.  Funny isn't it that back when you compiled them and saved as 128kbps, this is what I was doing with my album rips.  Of course, Over 15 years ago, HDD costs for 500gb and above were out of my budget really so compromised on audio quality over disk space.  Just wish I had the time to rip more back then before I had to sell them all.

It was some of the 'Prisoner' and 'Sweeney' comps that got me and real ear worms as I was big fans of the shows when I was earlier, so good to hear the music featured in their programmes.  Also good were the 'bopper' compilations too. 

[Retronic]

You had a stack of Brutons didn't you quite early- didn't you have a catalogue binder as well?  I still haven't found one of those.

[tonyc1971]

You had a stack of Brutons didn't you quite early- didn't you have a catalogue binder as well?  I still haven't found one of those.

Yeah, almost a full run.  Had the earlier Bruton binder, which from memory you could take out the pages and then had the later one with more albums just before their CD run kicked off.  I had the Parry one as well.  I sold the Bruton one off separately.  If I'd have known you better back then, I would definitely have passed them on to you !  Can't for the life of me remember who had my collection but his eyes couldn't have got wider.  I think he was a member of Vinyl Vulture/VG+  He had my expedit unit too.  That was a great buy too !

[nidostar]

And those old comps were all 128kbps so heavily compressed- all I knew how to do at the time.
Someone asked me about them earlier so have this to hand

At the time it was all we needed in the absence of any resource like LMT. I still have 36 of those compilations. But at the time with limited hard drive capacity I weeded out those tracks which I'd already got on other albums. And since there were no listings with the downloads I have no idea which tracks they were. I just know that I have them somewhere in my rapidly-growing collection!

[stackjackson]

The Weekend Set #29 |
... My hope with these is for people to have it playing in the background (and not watch it), while they're making their breakfast or tea 

Thumbs up, Retro. But sometimes I do watch, usually to see if I can ID the LP and guess the track that's coming up

[Your Pal Doug]

There was a 3rd Sounds of Now?
I'm digging the 1st track retro.

[kpmhill]

And those old comps were all 128kbps so heavily compressed- all I knew how to do at the time. Someone asked me about them earlier so have this to hand.

You know, I'd guess that for most people listening at a background volume, the 128kbps files would actually be fine. I wouldn't underestimate their value- so much of which is of course in the selection, rather than from painstaking visual examination of the audio spectrums.

I'd also guess that we're not far away from AI tools that do a good repair of compression artifacts. "Repair" may be too optimistic a term, given the limitations of these tools, but listenability might be improved.

[Retronic]

#30 | Gnarls Barkley Sample Special

01 – Hocus Pokus – Walter Murphy
02 – Mono Ski – Keith Mansfield
03 – Rubber Solution – Lee Mason
04 – Devils Anvil – Eddie Warner
05 – Junior Jet Set – Keith Mansfield
06 – Chicano Chaser – Ian Langley
07 – Tropicola – Nino Nardini
08 – The Gentle Flute – Cy Payne
09 – A Touch Of Class – Kevin Peek
10 – Last Man Standing – Gianfranco & Gian Piero Reverberi
11 – Half Forgotten Daydreams – John Cameron
12 – Nicolas Flagello – Goin’ Down to Freedom’s Land