An Introduction

I first became interested in 4AD, a UK independent record label founded in 1980, towards the end of the '80's. I was falling in love with the music of Dead Can Dance, Clan of Xymox, Pixies, Bauhaus and The Birthday Party and was surprised when the 4AD label sampler "Lonely Is An Eyesore" came out in 1987 that all these bands were from the same label.

After visiting a Pre-Raphaelite exhibition of some American's collection of art, I came to thinking of all this musical art that 4AD have released that may one day drift into obscurity unless someone shows it as art. So now I'm on a crusade, to collect the first ten years of 4AD's releases and exhibit the collection on 4AD's 50th anniversary in 2030. This is a big task which will have some interesting twists and turns along the way.

Thursday, 17 March 2011

Here We Go Then

First of all I must apologise for my terrible grammar and spelling. I'm not too hot on correct English.

I'll give you a bit of background info on myself first if I may. I got into music as an early teen. My first love was synth pop. Ultravox, Gary Numan, Thompson Twins. Then at about 14 I started listening to Jean-Michel Jarre, Tangerine Dream, Kraftwerk and Tomita. This got me onto Prog Rock on the one side and strangely Goth on another.

I was very attracted to the Goth culture, the weird and even frightening way folk dressed and the way many goths loved the music wholeheartedly. The first Goth band I got into was The Cure. It was a new slant on the electronic music I was already listening to. I made regular trips to the library and borrowed records what I thought were other Goth bands like Cult, Sisters of Mercy, Mission. Then I borrowed three albums which started my love of 4AD. Treasure by Cocteau Twins, Dead Can Dance's first album and Medusa by Clan of Xymox. Medusa was an incredible album. Similar to the Cure, and similar to the electronic music of Jarre and Tangerine Dream.

In 1987 I bought a 4AD sampler album called Lonely Is An Eyesore. The wealth of music on this one compilation was incredible. On the album's inner sleeve was a full run down of all releases from 4AD up until 1987. Many were already deleted, which seemed such a shame. But I wondered how cool it would be to have all of those releases.

So this is what I hope to do. I have chosen only the first ten years as this will be a big enough task of it's own. I have listed 720 possible releases already and I'm still adding to this list constently. But I hope to add more detail to this blog over time.

The purpose of this blog is to track my progress towards many goals. Build a website, build a database, reach other enthusiasts, share excitement, and share plans of the big vision to exhibit in years to come. What would be very cool, would be to find a fellow collector that would like to collect the second decade and exhibit their collection along with my own.
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