various artists - The Sound Gallery Volume One

There's a dude over at Twilight Zone who's been posting KPM 1000 Series records the past few weeks, and they're all top notch. Thus it was serendipitous that this week's entry in the Scamp chronicles is their first compilation, "The Sound Gallery Volume One". It draws from KPM's gigantic library music collection, while being filled out with sounds from EMI's Studio Two imprint and United Artists. For the uninitiated, go immediately to the Alan Hawkshaw and Mandingo tracks.

These are quintessentially 70s sounds, and if they inspire you to dress like Serpico, well, I can't be held responsible.

Discogs

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various artists - Music For TV Dinners

I wrote about the second "Music For TV Dinners" about a year ago. That one seemed to be pretty popular. And I came across a grip of 90s Esquivel! CDs at the local Half Price Books last weekend (owned 'em all already), which inspired me to revisit this first volume, which, oddly enough, I only snagged a copy of about two months ago.

But it was worth the wait, right? Allow me to apologize for not properly dating each track contained herein. You'll find some names in common between the two volumes; Laurie Johnson and Johnny Pearson are the two that I key on. This one surveys the KPM and APM library music catalogs, and, to me, it whets my appetite for space age, lounge, tiki, and other atomspherics that all faded away as synths, beats, and dissonance all filled the scoring space. It's the sound of the late 50s and early 60s, our themes for better living through technology!

It's a vibe, as the kids say. Beats the hell out of what's happening in the world right now.

Discogs

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various artists - Music For TV Dinners: The '60s

Back during COVID Year One, when I was just barely backing off the throttle of a post a day during the revival of this here blog, I made an ill-fated, poorly-executed decision to write about and share the entire Scamp Records catalog. Scamp was a Caroline imprint, executed in the mid to late 90s to reissue a bunch of EMI's easy listening catalog and exploit the lounge revival. I'd been coming across a few of them for super cheap, and thought "here's a fun topic to revisit."

(A brief explanation for my younger readers: somewhere in the early 90s, Gen X'ers rediscovered tiki bars, fruity drinks, and Esquivel in their quest to move on from R.E.M. and legitimize kitsch and camp. Some of it was thirsty as hell, but it opened the door to appreciate the fun parts of 50s and early 60s exotica culture. And there are definitely parts still worth appreciating.)

At any rate, even though I shit the bed following through (click the Scamp tag to see how well I did), I did continue acquiring Scamp titles, to the point where I'm just missing one release and one promo. I've almost done it, kind reader. I've bought a gaggle of CDs that have been out of print almost since I graduated high school. It's a high point in a low life. Some people share pictures of their kids; I'm stoked to share records that have been out of print for almost 30 years.

So here's "Music For TV Dinners: The '60s". It's library music from the incredibly deep Barry Music Co. catalog. The publishing was all held under EMI Music Publishing, hence it's available to be mined for this comp. Maybe you didn't know you needed a record of music that all sounds like it was the soundtrack to late 60s British television. Let me assure you, dear friend: you absolutely DO need this music.

Discogs

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various artists - The Sound Gallery Volume Two

Remember back when I said I was going to post all the Scamp reissues I owned? And then I did no such thing? And I became what is known affectionately the world around as "a liar"?

That was a good time.

Clearly, Rome was not built in a day, and lies cannot be rewound, only countered. Here's my piddling effort, a swing to make things right for your Monday. This is Volume Two of the two-volume Scamp series "The Sound Gallery". Why not Volume One first, you might ask? Well, Volume One lives on a hard drive that I cannot currently find. So Volume Two is what you get.

What you get here is a wealth of late 60s through mid 70s film scoring/library music/lounge music/songs for the swapping set. Were you born too young to throw your keys into a bowl at a party? Does the word "Eurosleaze" evoke clear images for you? Do you crash YouTube looking for four-episode ITV adventure series? Then this here is your soundtrack.

Discogs

Click here to download.