Custom Compilations from the Dawn of the Digital Era

[Teasing the Korean]

In the early days of CD-Rs, music obsessives created some really fascinating compilations, many of which contained some incredibly rare stuff.  Some of the ones I've heard are very well curated, with a consistent aesthetic throughout but enough variety to keep you guessing.  

I feel like these represent a valuable shapshot in time, certainly the first time some of this music was ever digitized and subsequently shared with others.  And the digitization meant, in theory at least, that fidelity was not lost as copies were made.  

As late as 2021, Shazam doesn't recognize a lot of this stuff, or if it does, it recognizes an electronica or hip hop record that sampled the original.

These compilations are a reminder that listeners are sometimes the best archivists.  

  

[mjzee]

4 minutes ago, Teasing the Korean said:

In the early days of CD-Rs, music obsessives created some really fascinating compilations, many of which contained some incredibly rare stuff.  Some of the ones I've heard are very well curated, with a consistent aesthetic throughout but enough variety to keep you guessing.  

I feel like these represent a valuable shapshot in time, certainly the first time some of this music was ever digitized and subsequently shared with others.  And the digitization meant, in theory at least, that fidelity was not lost as copies were made.  

As late as 2021, Shazam doesn't recognize a lot of this stuff, or if it does, it recognizes an electronica or hip hop record that sampled the original.

These compilations are a reminder that listeners are sometimes the best archivists.  

  

Can you post some of the playlists here?

[JSngry]

What was the one of "Black Rock"...something like Hot Exhaust and Chains, something like that, a biker themed package. Clem/Moms hipped me to that one. I wondered/still wonder where the hell all THAT came from, but there it was.