That retro lounge sound....

Ha! Just yesterday I picked up that Carioca on vinyl. I will have to give it a spin later.

 

Sound Gallery and In Flight are okay. But Sound Spectrum is the greatest Lounge Core CD.

 

not lounge music, but selections from pye's library, right? sound gallery comes from EMI's vault. also, same editors, I think?

 

Yep. It starts with most of the Get Carter soundtrack and then cool tracks like Heavy Water and the theme from Adam Faith's Birdy TV show. I've got another one of Pye stuff called The Lounge Core Project or something and, apart from an Avengers related track is pretty bad.

 

I wish someone would do one from Bruton's library. one of my favorites:

 

On the turntable:




Man, this one has incredible sound. All Command lps like this?

 

Lest we forget Tipsy:

 

Great thread here! But you guys missed giving a shout out to my all-time favorite Les Baxter LP!




Also recommended by me, although they kind of straddle the line between Cool Jazz and S.A.P... Bud Shank's two collaborations with an uncredited Chet Baker sitting in on flugelhorn. Magical Mystery in particular has some stunning passages, filled with absolute pathos from Chet amidst its psychedelic flourishes.

 

that record is tops. I'm glad someone else thinks so, too.

 

Sorry, I re-sized those covers before posting by clicking and dragging, but they seem to have reverted to their original size. Maybe one of the kinks they haven't worked out on XenForo yet?

 

That's great! I'm glad to finally meet someone who's heard of that album, let alone enjoys it!

It really is a fantastic record, particularly the Beatles covers. I guess my only question is why, on an album titled Magical Mystery that covers all the other songs on that EP, did they not try their hand at "The Magical Mystery Tour"? Oh well, I guess we'll never find out at this point.

 

The Bud Shank LP is deadly - although my copy is very noisy. Need to mint up.

 

Yay! A space-age bachelor pad music thread! \o/



Here's (some of) mine! I love this stuff!

 

Is that a Command Records box set??

 

Love this one... So beautiful and soothing.

 

Yes, it's an amazing thing, I've never seen another! It's a 5xLP 'not for resale' promo collection of Persuasive Percussion, Provocative Percussion, Bongos, Persuasive Percussion Vol III and Reeds And Percussion in a five-leaf kind of '78rpm album' style hard-back book thing (that offered little protection to the vinyl, so sadly not in the best condition, say VG+ or so. It sounds great though!). It's an American issue. I don't know anything more about it.

 

Command Records had such a brilliant output, both sonically and design-wise. I heard a story that the painter Josef Albers was a consultant for some of their early minimal jackets, although i'm not sure if that story is true or just wishful thinking.

Anyway, a well-timed thread as I just picked this up from the flea market yesterday:

A little Les Baxter never goes wrong on a weekend...

 

Yes, it's true and here they are:

http://www.minusspace.com/2009/12/josefalbers-minusspaceprojectspace/

 

Ha, this is funny. I remembered that story b/c some other flea market dealer there told me that story years ago. However, I completely forgot about that Minus Space gallery show - and I went to it.

Just one more reason to be lost in the space age ozone again....

 

Lovely record - my copy has a red background on the sleeve,

 

Some more albums of mine.



The Cop Show Themes clocks in at a mere 25 minutes without a second being wasted.
The Mystery Movie Theme immediately brings me back to watching 1970s TVMs late at night with my Dad [ABC Movie Of The Week-type stuff] - even though the theme belonged to a totally separate and unrelated NBC series. The one with the guy carrying the torch. Spooky!
The Streets Of San Francisco never sounded better with the funk being turned up to eleven and serious blowin' energy being burned.
"Don't do the crime if you can't do the time' intoned later seasons of Baretta. No lyrics here but the solemn warning is eerily evoked in a sparse arrangement of this groovy theme.
The Kojak / S.W.A.T. medley is pretty shimmering in its disco-like synth breakdowns while a decent if somewhat laidback take on The Rockford Files leads us nicely into a dramatic Hawaii Five-O.
Finally we come to the big one - Police Woman.
What a break! Sampled by Outkast, RZA and Jurassic 5 to name but a few, this is one ill tune and a worthy closer.
So good, you'll want to hit play all over again.




Hey! Let's Party was the first in a series of excellent boogaloo / Cuban rhythm LPs for Mongo Santamaria that spanned the 1967 - 1972 period.
Its brevity is welcome and all the tracks are lean funky workouts.
Highlights are many - the righteously sprightly Walk On By, a surprisingly tough version of the swing standard In The Mood and the full-on trumpet action of Baila Dance. And that's just the first side.
Flip it over and it's a groovy Satisfaction. One of the best versions I've heard.
Call Me is like two track in one - with alternating rhythms that collide perfectly. The meld of exuberant sax and molten brass that is Shotgun brings the album to a mighty close.




Chico Arnez: real name - Jackie Davis.
As the blurb on the back of sleeve states - throughout his recording career, Chico has been associated with the Latin-American sound. This album, from 1972, is probably his most consistent with some legendary session players making valuable contributions - notably Dave Bell on bass and Alf Bigden on drums.
The album is bookended by two spoken jingles which appear before Would I and after Delilah. They are not separate tracks but remain within the grooves of the respective numbers.
Would I is quite sleazy and reminds of that Day Today episode when a man is shown photographs of various ladies and is asked "which ones he'd like to hump".
A gritty Look Of Love follows before a note-perfect One Note Samba sweeps us of our feet. Hawaii Five-O may never have sounded better while Do You Know The Way To San Jose is more spirited than usual.
Now to my two favourites - a storming version of Fleetwood Mac's Oh Well concludes side one. The second half gets off to the best possible start with a groovy yet spiked-up Whole Lotta Love. Competent takes of Aquarius and Raindrops follow before the mellow magic of Night Train and Chico's own Sound Of Love.
A sweeping version of Delilah complete with Sylvia King's breathy vocals bring the LP to a satisfying finish.




After four LPs of varying quality, late 1968 saw Ray Davies make a sideways move to Morgan Records under the guise of The In-Keepers.
As the sleeve indicates the theme is definitely olde England in style and surprisingly the album became his strongest to date.
Jazzy harpsichord arrangements rule supreme and strongest cuts are the evocative The Old Lady Of Threadneedle Street, a parping Eighteenth Century Drawing Room XD and the frantic Stirrup Cup.
Matthew And Son also gets a decent makeover as does the Stones' Lady Jane - a suitably medieval choice of cover.
Elsewhere Sweeney Todd features some arresting drums and nice fuzz guitar while the album concludes with a knees-up (and not a surfer in sight) version of Squire John B.




The reverse of the sleeve states the following:
"The Electronic Concept Orchestra was formed to create a musical approach to pop and rock music that is as fresh as Walter Carlos' efforts in the classical area with Switched On Bach."
The resulting LP is an overall success even allowing for the fact that the moog synthesiser does not replace the concept of a full band but instead, forms part of the sound along with the other instruments.
A competent but unspectacular version of Aquarius gets things going. Given that so many LPs of that era include Aquarius it's almost taken for granted and is now seems like a 1950s jazz standard. Oh Happy Day is sprightly optimistic while Hey Jude is unexpectedly wigged-out.
Joni Mitchell's Both Sides Now is still full of longing despite the lack of vocals while Grazing In The Grass has a good groove with some energetic drumming.
Side 2 starts with a seriously funky cover of Traffic's Feelin' Alright. Wow. Then we're back to the Beatles with a pretty minimal Penny Lane. I like it. Next up is one you don't see too often - the downbeat Atlantis from Donovan. The Electronic Concept Orchestra play this one fairly straight and it retains its mystical other-worldly air.
My favourite track is Rock Me. It does exactly what it suggests and Steppenwolf would surely be proud. An overload of drums and percussion! The LP finishes with a spooky and sinister Windmills Of Your Mind which is almost like a drone. Ideal to listen to just before you drop off to sleep.

 

I don't get this...the thread is labeled, "Retro Lounge Sound", yet all these examples (except for one Combustible Edison) are all actual lounge records, circa the era. It ain't "retro" if it's actually an artifact from then.




Now playing on http://www.arielstream.com/]Ariel Stream[/URL]: Lenka - Heart Skips A Beat

 

It's really us who are retro, not the music, then.

 

We've made retrograde, in the shade