I got up at 10am. This is highly unusual for me on a Sunday. Anyway, I’m listening to some old CDs…

Compilation: 'The Joe Meek Collection - Intergalactic Instros' (CD; Diamond; 1960-1966)
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This is a highly unusual compilation of murky instrumentals produced by home studio wizard Joe Meek in the early 60s. Some of the tracks are super-cool twangy, spooky masterpieces, but more often the tracks have more of a 50s edge, perhaps reflecting Meek's obsession with Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochrane. Probably the best tracks on here are 'Night of the Vampire' by the Moontrekkers and 'the spook walks' by the Spooks. Both are dirty, swampy spacey sounding early 60s instrumentals which capture a very cool sound. Alas, most of the other tracks aren't exactly to my taste. There are some nice touches, but somehow they are slightly too much like hard work to listen to... One incredibly interesting bonus on the disc is the original demo of Joe Meek humming the tune to 'telstar' over a backing track, with loads of echo. He loses his way a few times. It is pretty cool.

Compilation - Jean-Jacques Perrey: 'EVA' (CD; Ace/BGP; 1967-1970)
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I find J-J Perrey's moog /cut up tape stuff interesting, but I couldn't listen to it every day, and don't feel the need to buy any more than this 1-disc compilation. It opens with 'EVA', an anthemic, repetitive masterpiece, extra familiar to anyone in the UK due to its use in several TV adverts. The rest of the disc is slightly mixed. Almost every track starts off with some cool effects, but occasionally the choice of material (famous pop hits of the day - e.g. Winchester Cathedral) means that the songs end up sounding like generic cheesy Moog album interpretations. I get more out of the originals, of which there are several - e.g. 'Mister James Bond', 'Soul City'. Interestingly, this and several other tunes are co-written with Andy Badale who is no other than Angelo Badalamenti, who collaborated with David Lynch on several film scores which I'm very keen on. Several of the tracks sound very familiar due to their having been sampled - e.g. 'one note samba' by Stereolab on their 'transient random...' album, and 'cat in the night' by (I think) De la Soul. The track 'Moog Indigo' is a definite highlight - just as silly as many of the other tracks, but with a very groovy beat (there were a lot of groovy beats around in 1970 it seems) which seems to elevate it. Tacked onto the end of the CD are 2 Fatboy Slim remixes of EVA. These really don't do much for him. While I don't have a problem with the guy, these add nothing to the song - other than a lot of echo and distortion.

At the end of the day, this is a prety amazing disc.