Library Music

[BlodwynPig]

A thread for Library Music (following on from a recent Joel Vandroogenbroeck thread).

Just discovered this guy - Harry Forbes. Fucking hell - more nostalgia in these two pieces of music than the whole of the Boards of Canada discography.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ROgMgri7okI&feature=related

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=703e9Lux8oc&feature=related

[monkfromhavana]

My brothers well into all this stuff, all of the KPM library tunes. I love it to, stuff by the likes of Brian Bennett, Alan Hawkshaw etc. Aamzing how some f their tunes are the dirtiest blaxploitation funk, but made by very serious looking white middles class, middle aged dudes.

[Neomod]

My Nirvana

It has Hawkshaw, Keith Mansfield and others on it and all the tracks can be played in their entirety.

http://www1.playkpmmusic.com/pages/category_search/browse.cfm?libraryId=6

[BlodwynPig]

Cheers Neomod. I have listened to Hawkshaw and KPM for quite a while but was not a big library music boffin. I then discovered these Parry ones and was blown away. Probably impossible to get original copies (or astronomically expensive), so thank god for other means.

[momatt]

You are ridiculous.  I just dug up some KPM library LPs only yesterday.  Also found a load of DeWolfe LPs, but they were labelled pastoral/orchestral, so put them back.

Found this cheap.  Not incredible, but pretty decent for early eighties jazz.  A bit like Weather Report or something like that.
http://www.discogs.com/Keith-Mansfield-Terry-Cox-Blue-Perspectives/release/1748899

KPM / Keith Mansfield put out a lot of crap as well, especially in the eighties, so you've got to be careful.  But I'll always respect the man who made Tom Jones sound this funky:
http://www.discogs.com/Tom-Jones-Looking-Out-My-Window-A-Minute-Of-Your-Time/release/562954

As for the good stuff, it's all about the Timing label for me.  I've got about half of these releases.  Some incredible heavy soundtrack funk.  Completing the collection would cost hundreds though unfortunately.
http://www.discogs.com/label/timing

I like the first two releases on this label too, nice cover-art:
http://www.discogs.com/label/Shepherds+Bush+Library+Music

I shall click on your links later, expecting greatness.

[BlodwynPig]

The mighty Yan Tregger :)

Be warned, those links above are not Funk Library, but Electronic Library. Don't want you resenting your future self (which, I can say, you don't).

[Petey Pate]

Can't let this slip by this thread, one of the most familiar pieces of library music.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UcCHRW8G9yY

[monkfromhavana]

This is from my man Brian Bennett. Starts off on a proto-techno tip before sliding into the funk

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G5BUuF3DPls

[riotinlagos]

Jonny Trunk's documentary about library music (broadcast on radio 4 last year) is well worth a listen:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01061hr

Sven Libaek's Solar Flares is special http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XbewKB1GcPE, and I just discovered Mort Garson's Plantasia (not strictly library music, but apparently given out free with a mattress purchase from Sears in 1976) from the same Youtube account and it sounds amazing. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RR3bq00A_Zw

[lazyhour]

Most people would agree that the 80s saw the end of the golden age of library music, but there were definitely some gems hidden away (as evidenced already by links in this thread). The Outer Church just recently put up an incredible mix of 80s library music, compiled by London record label Public Information. Some of it is honestly gobsmacking. Ya gots ta download it.

http://theoriginalouterchurch.tumblr.com/post/33420239615/london-based-label-public-information-concerns

[Neomod]

Jonny Trunk's documentary about library music (broadcast on radio 4 last year) is well worth a listen:http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01061hr

Ooh Ta. I've got a couple of his compilations (The Bosworth Archive, Music for Biscuits) so this should be interesting.

Has anyone read his book?



It was a hundred odd quid the last time I looked.

[momatt]

The mighty Yan Tregger :)

Be warned, those links above are not Funk Library, but Electronic Library. Don't want you resenting your future self (which, I can say, you don't).

I like electronic library music too, as you should know.

Not just Yan, but Jacky Giordano is on most of the Timing LPs, under multiiple pseudonyms.  Stephane Grappelli is also on a few of the Timing releases too.

Jacky Giordano is particularly awesome and covers both electronica and funk.  Later made mad disco under the Black Devil Disco Club name (with Bernard Fevre).  Not sure if Jacky's still about.

This LP from DeWolfe is bloody great, lovely electro-acoustic business:
http://www.discogs.com/Paradox-Solid-State/release/1740006

The collection of Ren & Stimpy music I posted in another thread is mostly library music, but from an earlier era.
Impossible to hear it without grinning from ear to ear.

[KLG-7A]

Classics:

Andy Clark - World Beater
Trevor Bastow - Gold Award (cover)

Or just listen to the wonderful Businessfunk.

[Brundle-Fly]

I was after this track since I was a nipper. Got an mp3 a few years back. Brass Monkey by John Cameron.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UfyfY7PI3pg

[Gradual Decline]

One of my favourite Library LP's here, well worth tracking down.

Another classic - Brian Bennett - Holy Mackeral

[Brundle-Fly]

Ooh Ta. I've got a couple of his compilations (The Bosworth Archive, Music for Biscuits) so this should be interesting.

Has anyone read his book?



It was a hundred odd quid the last time I looked.

Is it really? Bloody hell, I was only filing it away on the book shelf this evening! It comes with a nice CD but it's just pictures of mainly unremarkable album sleeve art.

[23 Daves]

One of my favourite library tracks is "Fool In Love (b)" by Bob Morgan - a combination of sinister electronic library wibbling and reggae, which for me is a total win.  It's the first track here:

http://youtu.be/FvuNb8V8hHE

A bloody good album as well, actually, it took me years to find a copy at a reasonable price but I was thrilled when I did.  Dennis Bovell is on Side Two!

His most famous track is "Marguerite" which was used on "Take Hart", you can still get copies of this turning up on seven inch now and then (I just sold one I found in a charity shop a few weeks back):

http://youtu.be/svxJRTsRVtk

[monkfromhavana]

 My dad worked for GEC for most of his life, and had some minimal contact with some in house promotional film that featured music by a guy called Ken Freeman along with some other guy, from an album called "Hand Played By Robots". It was released on the EMI library if i remember and was bloody brilliant. he used to play it every sunday morning when i was a nipper, in amongst the Jarre, the Vangelis, and the Tomita.

If anyone has this audio, point me in the right direction eh?

[BlodwynPig]

This is the closest I could find (george fenton, the other guy on the handplayed by robots album) - the only track with Ken Freeman (space shuttle) is unfortunately free of audio on youtube

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Hok5c0bXxBY&feature=related

[thenoise]

I was excited to hear the music from Vic and Bob's 'British Information Board' films in 'the Smell of ...' pop up in a couple of films in the BFI's British Transport Films dvd collection.

[Brundle-Fly]

Before the internet, the problem with collecting old library LPs was the good ones were very rare, bloody expensive,  generally packaged in exactly the same non-descript sleeves and there was usually only a couple of good tracks on any given album. For the love of Johnny Hawksworth, I had to wade through hours of dreck to find hidden gems. That is why I am forever grateful to this role call of men who stood up to the mark nearly twenty years ago by DJ-ing, recommending, re-issuing and compiling all this stuff.

Martin Green, The Kaminsky Brothers, Andy Lewis, Paul Tunkin and Nori of Blow Up, Jonny Trunk, Andy Votel, Saint Etienne, Tim Gane, Gerald Long  (Jazzman), Gareth Cherrystones, Finders Keepers, Barry 7, Luke Vibert and more recently, Jarvis Cocker.

Now, it's the blogspotters who have taken the mantle and were spoilt for choice but I still treasure my vinyl library collection.

[23 Daves]

My dad worked for GEC for most of his life, and had some minimal contact with some in house promotional film that featured music by a guy called Ken Freeman along with some other guy, from an album called "Hand Played By Robots". It was released on the EMI library if i remember and was bloody brilliant. he used to play it every sunday morning when i was a nipper, in amongst the Jarre, the Vangelis, and the Tomita.

If anyone has this audio, point me in the right direction eh?

Oh balls.  I used to own this one in digital form, but I've a feeling it might have been wiped during an old hard drive crash.  I'll double-check the flash drive I used for transferring files when I get indoors, but don't get your hopes up too high.

(EDIT - Sorry, there's no sign of it.  I did originally download it from a library music blog, but now that's gone too.  But the fact it was online once means that it may very well materialise as a torrent or download again eventually). 

[Neomod]

Still a few library blogs out there.

http://funkyfrolic.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/KPM

http://pornotrond.blogspot.co.uk/

[momatt]

The Outer Church just recently put up an incredible mix of 80s library music, compiled by London record label Public Information. Some of it is honestly gobsmacking. Ya gots ta download it.

You're not wrong!  This is fantastic so far, thanks for the link.  It is freaking me out a bit.

Anyone mentioned this Parry compilation by Public Information?  Very nice indeed.
http://publicinformation.bandcamp.com/album/tomorrows-achievements-parry-music-library-1976-86
Soundcloud sampler:
http://soundcloud.com/public-information/parry-music-tomorrows-achievements

This kind of music makes me wish I was a TV producer, so I could use all this great stuff for it's original purpose.  Difficult to think what type of program a lot of the more mental stuff would be used for though; it sounds ridiculously progressive even now.

[monkfromhavana]

Oh balls.  I used to own this one in digital form, but I've a feeling it might have been wiped during an old hard drive crash.  I'll double-check the flash drive I used for transferring files when I get indoors, but don't get your hopes up too high.

(EDIT - Sorry, there's no sign of it.  I did originally download it from a library music blog, but now that's gone too.  But the fact it was online once means that it may very well materialise as a torrent or download again eventually).

Cheers for looking. I only remember it once a year, have a search, then forget about it for another 12 months.

[Petey Pate]

This sounds fantastic.  Does anyone here own it?

http://librarymusicrarities.blogspot.co.uk/2012/03/guess-whats-coming-soon.html

[Epic Bisto]

Apparently, Bennett, Hawkshaw et al reunited for an evening of KPM Library tracks last year. There's some videos of it on youtube.

Anyways, I've been a big fan of the KPM/Bruton back catalogue, there's some seriously funky gems out there, such as this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3s-fSBfWMe4

John Cameron and Alan Parker (who did the wah-wah guitar stuff on Bowie's "1984") made a particular stellar Afro Rock LP:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cTHN35nlz8Y
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zgFQmPo5tyU - sadly not the full version.
Proper dirty, funky stuff.

[23 Daves]

Michael Jackson eventually took over ownership of Bruton in 1982, and I've often liked to think (though I have bugger all proof) that he sat and listened to some of these at home as well. You assume this stuff is completely niche and it had no high-profile support, but the reality is somewhat different.

[BlodwynPig]

Ridiculously good - Alan Hawkshaw: Beach Journey

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Tqh_3IdjDk

[BlodwynPig]

Brian Bennett. Just discovered his solo works.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVWHrjeA1yY