Minimal Wave Records

Hi all,
end of August finally available: ANNA 032.2010     TRANSPARENT ILLUSION     Still Human     LP/CD
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THE QUEST FOR THE ‘HOLY GRAIL’…

TRANSPARENT ILLUSION was the brainchild of Roy Young (a pseudonym), hailing from Haverhill, Suffolk, UK. Equipped with just one synthesiser and a drum kit, he entered Octopus Studios, located in Stowupland, Suffolk, and run by Dave Hoser, in 1980/81 to record the ultimate minimal electronic music album. Roy’s music is nothing but rather unique, there were not many bands around that created a similar sound, except maybe for Neural Circus that are coming to mind. Once again, Roy is a pristine example that limitation can be the perfect source for a massive amount of creativity: the rather raw sound is based solely on his Korg MS-10 synthesiser which was monophonic, of course. Anyway, Roy seemed to have a great imagination as even though the tracks are mostly very short they are far from being poor in textures, with brilliant analogue synth sounds all through (bass, monophonic lead synths, effects, synthetic percussion). Engineer Dave Hoser is said to have helped in the performance, thus it can be concluded that, as a team at least, they truly mastered the MS-10. While the lyrics are a testimony of an angst-ridden teenager living in the Thatcherian-Britain-Cold War era (“This cage is barred – I’m trapped inside”, “I just recede – I dream I’m you”, “Dead bodies decaying – all over the town”, “There’s no way out of this nightmare”), the music, to some surprise, is coming up with many uplifting moments in terms of unexpected melodic parts. So, over the recent years, some people have described “Still Human” as being the ‘Holy Grail’ of minimal electronic music, while others say it is totally overrated. From own experience, it can be said that the album needs its time and a good amount of attention to be understood. Also, to be frank, it must not really be classified at all, as - as mentioned above - it is rather an unique electronic music album, that simply has been too much unavailable for too long in an official form. The original vinyl album “Still Human” and the single “Vortex” were released on Roy’s own label Vex Records but only a few copies managed to sell. TRANSPARENT ILLUSION and Vex Records then vanished into obscurity, but the album and single were remembered by a select few. The value of these rare records continued to rise and over the last years four-digit prices were asked and paid if ever a copy had popped up. People not only tried hard to find those records, many also tried hard to track down the mysterious Roy Young. Nobody managed to succeed – until one day in 2009. It wasn’t an overnight success – and that’s why Anna Logue Records refer to the ‘Holy Grail’ in terms of the true quest that was undertaken to find Roy – but Jochen Lange had persevered for more than two years. Public directories and government records were thoroughly checked and letters were sent …
… and received when finally the TRANSPARENT ILLUSION materialized: the highly anticipated letter from Roy himself! The quest was over, the myth became a reality. The result of this chain of events is now in your hands.

The man – alive and … Still Human!

The album has been carefully remastered from an original vinyl copy by Stefan Bornhorst (aka The Silicon Scientist). Two original demo recordings from 1980 have been added: “Concepts” and “Vortex”, which were taken off the original master tape by courtesy of Nicolas Delbarre and Dave Hoser. The artwork was accurately adapted from the original album by Steve Lippert.
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Record features:
- 12” vinyls, 180 grams, 33 1/3 rpm,
- 100 copies on transparent clear vinyl
- 100 copies on transparent orange vinyl
- 300 copies on black vinyl
- limited edition of a total of 500 copies
- high quality pressing made in the Netherlands
- 12 remastered tracks for performance from vinyl
- 2 previously unreleased tracks
- full colour sleeve and labels
- b&w colour disco lyrics inner sleeve
- full colour DIN A2 poster
- transparent record sleeve for sleeve protection
- handnumbered postcard
- sticker

CD features:
- high quality CD manufacturing made in Germany
- limited edition of 500 copies
- 14 remastered tracks for performance from CD
- different CD label artwork
- lyrics provided in the booklet
- handnumbered postcard
- sticker

Audio preview (low quality):
http://soundcloud.com/user6171973/transparent-illusion-still-human-album-mix
http://www.myspace.com/annaloguerecords

Discogs entry LP:
http://www.discogs.com/Transparent-Illusion-Still-Human/release/2357260

Discogs entry CD:
http://www.discogs.com/Transparent-Illusion-Still-Human/release/2385155
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You can (and are actually adviced to) pre-order your copy now. When ordering the vinyl version, please specifiy vinyl colour. The transparent clear and transparent orange vinyl editions will be available directly from Anna Logue Records only. Distributors will thus carry the black vinyl version.
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And please make sure to check out our new web site dedicated to our Hundegnadenhof Zemitz e.V. / Pet Sanctuary for Senior Dogs Zemitz (automatic translation to English language available, but sometimes it is rather more funny than correct). I regard it as relevant to post this here as Anna Logue Records (and thus your money!) has been and is still funding it:

http://hundegnadenhof-zemitz.de

Currently, we do depend on donations, so if you feel like wanting to support us, you can do so by donating via bank transfer (within Germany, or otherwise IBAN/BIC) or PayPal. Please see web site for details. Thank you!
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Marc,

I can not believe that you bad mouthed the All the Madmen release on this forum and the way it is being sold, and posted this the very same day on the same forum.

The transparent clear and transparent orange vinyl editions will be available directly from Anna Logue Records only.

I am totally dumbfounded by the complete hypocrisy displayed. It is unreal.

What do others think of that.  I would like to know.

Stephen

You’re probably tired of arguing with the same people, so I’m joining the forum to answer this one.

I don’t see any double standards, really! He’s not creating an artificial rarity, he’s pressing a relatively large edition, 500 CDs and 300 black vinyl records that will be available everywhere. And then, there are 200 coloured vinyl copies for the hardcore fans, available directly from him. That’s perfectly normal and the way things should be; nearly all records come in a special collectors’ edition these days.

The way I understand it, you are pressing only 100 copies, selling only 80, spread across the special edition 20 copies and the regular edition 60 copies. Since 20 and 60 are fewer than 100, he can criticize you without hypocrisy. Then, you’re doing 20 special-special copies, for band members and helpers only; he isn’t; again, he can criticize you without hypocrisy.

As for the sales method, Anna Logue records are easy to get, just order them, or buy them in a store that carries Anna Logue product. You are selling only through ebay and only one copy at a time ... that’s inconvenient, and you want it to be inconvenient, that’s the whole point! He can criticize you for creating an artificial shortage without any hypocrisy.

I can imagine you’re disappointed, you just wanted to put out a record, and you get criticized by everyone, but learn from Anna Logue! Press enough records, don’t create artificial rarities (the All The Madmen cassette is okay, but the sound quality is a little bit rough on the ears - say, 200-250 copies, maybe) and sell them cheaply and conveniently, don’t create artificial shortages.

No, I don’t think he’s hypocritical at all. I do, however, think he has the right to be hypocritical, he’s got Transparent Illusion and you’ve got All the Madmen; no one minds paying an arm and a leg and hopping through a few loops to get Transparent Illusion, it’s Transparent Illusion! It’s Number 1! But there are many bands on the popularity level and quality level of All the Madmen. If you want us to buy All the Madmen, you’re just going to have to make it easier, they’re not worth the kind of money and effort you’re demanding. Don’t waste five dollars plus on materials for hand-designing each sleeve!

And, oh, Anna, congratulations on reissuing THE minimal synth record!

What is important is that this release is finally available again for all the people that are hardly searching for it. Collector’s edition are an usual way, as this kind of records are referring mostly to collectors anyway.

thank you for the work, Marc

[quote author=“obscure”]
The transparent clear and transparent orange vinyl editions will be available directly from Anna Logue Records only.

Stephen, what I am/we are doing with Anna should always make sense. If you would own some the releases you would know. The coloured vinyls are not at all a collector’s edition. The main reason for their manufacturing was the matching of the band name (TRANSPARENT ILLUSION) with the possibility of making TRANSPARENT vinyl records. i would not have done this with any other band.

Also some of the “distributors” felt a bit bad about my decision to sell them through the Anna shop only. The reason for doing so is the following: in the five and a half years of running the labelI have tried so hard to find distributors, I mean real distributors, not the the other labels, small shops and mail orders. I always failed. From my own frustration and facing the facts, all the small labels HAD to establish small mail orders, too. Otherwise we wouldn’t have survived, and here’s to answer another question of yours, yes, of course, we do trades here and there, yes we people do that, it is only reasonable. To cut a long story short: Anna has now an (unplanned) large amount of customers that are super friendly and loyal, that kept on buying at Anna’s over all those years. Getting those coloured vinyl editions now is A THANK YOU to them and nothing else! I do not want them to go through through middleman and get more expensive. I know all of my customers and I will feel happy to provide them with a special release. I am not sure if I made it clear enough, but that is the story behind it.

Btw, I do not know who Bjakk is, but thanks for your support, and yes, I am sick of all this.

Anna, my lovely girl, now why on earth do you allow this to have such an impact on you?

You’re doing a fantastic job, people all over the world love your label and the effort you put into it, and you get all frustrated because of some lonely little boy with a god-complex who’s even living in a far-away country?

Know what? Stop dating him, lose the omega male and go for an alpha one.

Seriously, I’m completely fascinated with the attention he still gets and I think collectors should really take this as an oppurtinity to question themselves what their degree of obsession is if they are prepared to deliberately fall for the likes of obscure.

I mean, there’s a million gazillion releases out there and many of us have more media than they could listen to non-stop in a year or two.

Furthermore, there’s tons of other collectors you can trade with, there’s music portals etc. etc.

Where I am leading at, what’s the importance of one obscure release against the collection you already have? Will your collection be moved to the basement and you will only be listening to that one single record?

Even if there was such a thing, it’s not that a “complete” minimal synth collection will make the Pearly Gates pop open wide for you when your time has come, the stuff’s there to be enjoyed here on earth.

Having said that, the whole thing might become a different ballgame of course if young and fit minimal synth groupies started popping up in large number anythime soon…:wink:

[quote author=“falck”]Anna, my lovely girl, now why on earth do you allow this to have such an impact on you?

You’re doing a fantastic job, people all over the world love your label and the effort you put into it, and you get all frustrated because of some lonely little boy with a god-complex who’s even living in a far-away country?

Know what? Stop dating him, lose the omega male and go for an alpha one.

Seriously, I’m completely fascinated with the attention he still gets and I think collectors should really take this as an oppurtinity to question themselves what their degree of obsession is if they are prepared to deliberately fall for the likes of obscure.

I mean, there’s a million gazillion releases out there and many of us have more media than they could listen to non-stop in a year or two.

Furthermore, there’s tons of other collectors you can trade with, there’s music portals etc. etc.

Where I am leading at, what’s the importance of one obscure release against the collection you already have? Will your collection be moved to the basement and you will only be listening to that one single record?

Even if there was such a thing, it’s not that a “complete” minimal synth collection will make the Pearly Gates pop open wide for you when your time has come, the stuff’s there to be enjoyed here on earth.

Having said that, the whole thing might become a different ballgame of course if young and fit minimal synth groupies started popping up in large number anythime soon…:wink:

don’t worry all groupies are with me!

Anna Logue Records was flooded with orders so that a whole week of vacation was spent solely on working down the orders list while neither a newsletter could be sent out nor the web site could be be updated yet, and now it happened already: the vinyl version has sold out. So, is Anna happy now? Yes! Is Anna sad now? Yes! It’s a mad world, isn’t it?!

The record may/shall be still available from:

Atmosfera Abrupta (ES)
Dark Entries (US)
Das Drehmoment (D)
Genetic Music (D)
Hörsturz (D)
Indietective (D)
Kernkrach (D)
Mannequin (IT)
Minimal Wave (US)
NLW (D)
Vinyl-on-Demand (D)
Walhalla (BE)
Wool-E-Shop (BE)

And now the only thing that can make Anna any happier
is when she will post on the minimal wave forum the
$5000 to $7000 receipt of a donation to her favourite animal shelter
with all the money she just used Roy ......  to make.

p.s. Marc, I’m still waiting on that email thanking me for posting the Dave Hoser interview.  It still hasn’t arrived yet ?!

And guess what Anna there are two more U.K. bands that sound
like Transparent Illusion, and Neural Circus !

Stephen
obscure identities

Hey sexy Anna,

Now wouldn’t this be the perfect moment to tell someone they should stop being a hater, and start being a happy consumer?  8)

I’d say if Young Stephen ain’t got the orange and transparent vinyl edition, he ain’t no minimal synth collector, oh no…

**waste of energy**

[quote author=“falck”]Hey sexy Anna,

Now wouldn’t this be the perfect moment to tell someone they should stop being a hater, and start being a happy consumer?  8)

I’d say if Young Stephen ain’t got the orange and transparent vinyl edition, he ain’t no minimal synth collector, oh no…

And the regular CD and black vinyl edition.

Congratulations Anna!

[quote author=“AirCrashBureau”][quote author=“falck”]Hey sexy Anna,

Now wouldn’t this be the perfect moment to tell someone they should stop being a hater, and start being a happy consumer?  8)

I’d say if Young Stephen ain’t got the orange and transparent vinyl edition, he ain’t no minimal synth collector, oh no…

And the regular CD and black vinyl edition.

Nope, because Stephen only buys original stuff and no re-releases, if I well understood. :wink:

And a big thanks to you for disarming my booby-trap, minicold.  8)

You deprived us of a wonderful post here, but hey, you can’t have it all, now can you…  :wink: