OFF: Black Sun Ensemble

[Douglas Pearson]

On Tue, 20 Mar 2001 23:33:54 -0000, ANDREW GARIBALDI
<andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:
>tell me more  - I hate not having the whole story,

Well, I'm not sure I know the whole story, but thinking that the Reckless
s/t album was the first BSE album is a common misconception that
(hopefully) this new CD reissue will alleviate.  Lots of people bought the
Reckless s/t album thinking it was their debut, as they'd never seen
the "real" first one due to its obscurity.

The first LP (the one just reissued on Camera Obscura) was a very limited
(500 copies?) private pressing that got thoroughly *raved* about by the
notable publications of the day (Forced Exposure, Bucketfull of Brains
[back in the Nigel Cross days], The Bob [which sorta mutated into
Magnet] ... the same folks that also clued me into the early Frond LP's on
Woronzow).  I believe the band also did a couple of cassette releases at
the time, but I'd have to check some of those old 'zines to verify the
accuracy of that assertion.

For whatever reason, when Reckless signed Black Sun Ensemble, instead of
reissuing the debut album, they had the band *re-record* it.  But of course
it's not an exact re-recording and is not as good as the "real" (private
press) debut.  And, for whatever reason, Reckless further confused matters
by making it *another* self-titled album.

Reckless, the label, has not existed for many years, so all their material
is technically "out-of-print", but they had fairly large production runs,
so their releases are not that uncommon (although some, like the early
Bevis Frond stuff, is pretty in-demand).  The Reckless store in San
Francisco closed shortly after Amoeba opened up down the street (anyone
who's been *inside* Amoeba will understand why!); I have no idea what's up
with the other stores of that name.

Hope this helps clear the mystery a bit ...

    -Doug
     ceres at sirius.com

P.S. Andy - CD's are going out to you today!

>----- Original Message -----
>> On 20 Mar 2001, at 17:42, Douglas Pearson wrote:
>>
>> > On Tue, 20 Mar 2001 21:49:48 -0000, ANDREW GARIBALDI
>> > <andygee at DIAL.PIPEX.COM> wrote:
>> > >The very first album was on Reckless Records as vinyl and
>> > >this is the cD of it
>> >
>> > BZZZZT!  Nope.  The first album and the self-titled album on Reckless
>> > are similar, but are definitely NOT the same album!  The "real" first
>> > album, as reissued on Camera Obscura is definitely superior.