eno's obscure label S/D

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i've picked up a couple of lps that Eno released
on his 70s label Obscure Records, but don't know
much about the label. how long did the label last?
how many releases? which ones are good? and have
they ever been rereleased on CD as the ones i have
(eno - discrete, john cage/jan steele) are very
ambient so thirty years buildup of crackles kinda
spoils the atmosphere somewhat......

― joni, Monday, 23 December 2002 14:09 (twenty-three years ago)

Gavin Bryars' "Sinking Of The Titanic" (Obscure No. 1) was reissued by Point Music if I'm not mistaken, around 1996. "Discreet Music" is still widely avail. through EG+/Sky from what I've seen. Enoweb has the Obscure discography.

― Chris Ott (Chris Ott), Monday, 23 December 2002 15:59 (twenty-three years ago)

Eno has managed to be involved with so many great projects over the years. Sometimes his collaborators complain that he takes more credit than he deserves, but so often the recordings he is involved with somehow are the better ones.

I'll second the Gavin Bryars recording (and prefer the original version of "Jesus' Blood" to the one with the add-on from Tom Waits).

I've never really gotten into Harold Budd.

Haven't heard Discrete Music for years, but it's somewhere on my list of things to buy.

I don't know the Christopher Hobbs/John Adams/Gavin Bryars disc, but I bet I would like it. I think I have heard some nice process-oriented minimalist stuff by Hobbs which I liked, but then I tend to like that sort of stuff.

It looks like most of what he released on this lable is in approximately the same vein.

― Rockist Scientist, Monday, 23 December 2002 16:40 (twenty-three years ago)

The Cage/Steele record is awfully good--I mean, Robert Wyatt singing a Cage setting of James Joyce, how could it go wrong?

― Douglas, Monday, 23 December 2002 16:52 (twenty-three years ago)

eight years pass...

o come on and doooooooo the bathospheeeeere

― 69, Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:29 (fifteen years ago)

I'd say the Cage/Steele one is the essential one ... it's totally amazing.

― cenotaph, Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:35 (fifteen years ago)

i havent heard IRMA, nyman, ensemble pieces, or machine music. based on the six i have heard,

toop/eastley = budd > cage/steele = penguin cafe > titanic >>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>>> discreet music

― 69, Thursday, 23 June 2011 21:41 (fifteen years ago)

69 you have not fully grokked the glory that is "Discreet Music", you take that back!

― sleeve, Thursday, 23 June 2011 23:23 (fifteen years ago)

'do the bathosphere' is genius, he is right about that

great title for a song too

on the back of the LP, toop says that it's 'dance music'

― geeta, Thursday, 23 June 2011 23:28 (fifteen years ago)

oh come and on and do the bathosphere
oh come and on and do the bathosphere
you know you could do the bathosphere
if you would only hear
hear the bathosphere
so open up your ears to the bathosphere

i mean come on, these are great lyrics

― geeta, Friday, 24 June 2011 15:25 (fifteen years ago)

one year passes...

http://www.ubu.com/sound/obscure.html

At last, I'll hear Irma and Ensemble Pieces and Decay Music!

― rods & cones (doo dah), Saturday, 14 July 2012 13:19 (thirteen years ago)

the first of these i heard was the penguin café one and i vibe that a lot harder than i do anything else, i think

― thomp, Saturday, 14 July 2012 13:23 (thirteen years ago)

The John Cage side of Cage/Steele is possibly my favourite side of a record in existence.
McCrimmon Will Never Return from Ensemble Pieces a close second.

Irma is the only one I've not been able to track down on vinyl.
I love all 10 records but the ones that have been played least are Machine Music, Toop / Eastley & Sinking Of The Titanic.

― Oblique Strategies, Saturday, 14 July 2012 14:39 (thirteen years ago)

McCrimmon Will Never Return from Ensemble Pieces a close second.

Suggest you track down Dick Gaughan's "No More Forever" album for "MacCrimmon's Lament", what a tearjerker

― SomeTwat from Tring (Tom D.), Saturday, 14 July 2012 14:46 (thirteen years ago)

pavilion of dreams is sublime. is it not available on CD?

― tylerw, Saturday, 14 July 2012 16:21 (thirteen years ago)

I think you can still get it from Forced Exposure:
http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/budd.harold.html

― rods & cones (doo dah), Saturday, 14 July 2012 16:29 (thirteen years ago)

ah ok. i need to get all of those.

― tylerw, Saturday, 14 July 2012 16:31 (thirteen years ago)

eleven years pass...

https://www.soundohm.com/product/obscure-box-vinyl

― lord of the rongs (anagram), Thursday, 12 October 2023 21:29 (two years ago)

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