The (seemingly) lost art of the humble v/a album

[Tokage 5930]

Where in the fresh hell did they go? 

 

One of my absolute favorite aspects of exploring niche genres is stumbling upon some random compilation albums featuring bands that maybe released only a couple songs total in their entire life span. It's pretty much the easiest way to stumble upon both the true hidden gems within a genre and the absolute worst it has to offer, sometimes right next to each other. Speaking broadly, the psychedelic, (post-)punk, industrial and minimal synth scenes all have a tremendous number of absolutely great v/a albums catering to different niches and local scenes, with new ones coming out even to this day.

 I remember from my early days in the VK scene back in the mid-2000s is that it felt like there was always some  compilation album or split cd coming out every few month or so. Many of them seem to have been tied to magazines, live venues or live events, but there were also the occasional tribute albums here and there, as well as crossovers that seemed to be done just for the hell of it. Some of those compilations were absolute fucking bangers too (never forget those Tokyo Guerilla ones my dudes........)

Sadly it kinda feels like over the past decade the stream of v/a albums just kind of dried up. I can't really remember any notable ones being released that WEREN'T tribute albums for instance. Part of me wants to blame this lack of non-tribute compilations on the fact that streaming and downloading music is so much easier these days than back in the day, and as such the need for these officially sanctioned mixtapes to create exposure just isn't as high as it used to be, and I'm sure the fact that several VK publications and live venues have bitten the dust in the past couple of years must have a role in it as well. 

I'm just left here hoping that maybe some day some OG VK nerd will step it up and create the weeb counterpart to those 'Nuggets: Original Artyfacts From the First Psychedelic Era' comps

 

tl;dr: this thread is dedicated to v/a albums, both ones connected specifically to the vk scene and japanese music in general. what are some of your favorites? which ones were absolute godawful abominations in your eyes? where did all the compilation albums go?

 

[Zeus 7997]

I always wondered if live distributed split singles took the place of V/A albums from a promotion aspect.

[Tokage 5930]

I feel like maybe live dist. releases in general have kind of taken the place of v/a albums in general. Maybe it's just me  remembering things completely wrongly and practicing some hella historical revisionism right here, but i feel like live distributed/live only releases weren't even THAT much of a thing throughout most of the 2000s, were they?

[Zeus 7997]

Live distributed singles have been a thing since the beginning of time. I can even make the argument that it's how the first bands got started. A prominent example of older live distributed demo tapes would be La:Sadie's. Many of their early demo tapes are essentially the same six songs. We don't really think of it that way because that's how it was done before the internet. V/A albums strike me as a relic of the past, when fans needed a way to scope out talent quickly and bands needed good exposure. The right song on a compilation album could score them a record deal. They were essentially middle men in the equation, and the explosion of internet has turned music consumption into a more direct affair. There is simply no money in compilation albums of unknown prospects when there are recommendation algorithms that can scan my taste and recommend hundreds of similar, better bands in an instant. Why buy an album of twelve tracks when I can stream their single on YouTube and see if I like it or not? They were cool but there isn't a compelling reason for them to exist. The single format is also more flexible and as we saw with DEZERT x MUCC  there is room to do fun things, like cover each others songs or to write songs for the other band to play. Those are good enough reasons for me at least.

 

[StriderSubzero 53]

2 hours ago, Zeus said:

Live distributed singles have been a thing since the beginning of time. I can even make the argument that it's how the first bands got started. A prominent example of older live distributed demo tapes would be La:Sadie's. Many of their early demo tapes are essentially the same six songs. We don't really think of it that way because that's how it was done before the internet. V/A albums strike me as a relic of the past, when fans needed a way to scope out talent quickly and bands needed good exposure. The right song on a compilation album could score them a record deal. They were essentially middle men in the equation, and the explosion of internet has turned music consumption into a more direct affair. There is simply no money in compilation albums of unknown prospects when there are recommendation algorithms that can scan my taste and recommend hundreds of similar, better bands in an instant. Why buy an album of twelve tracks when I can stream their single on YouTube and see if I like it or not? They were cool but there isn't a compelling reason for them to exist. The single format is also more flexible and as we saw with DEZERT x MUCC  there is room to do fun things, like cover each others songs or to write songs for the other band to play. Those are good enough reasons for me at least.

 

 

Yeah, this makes sense. The only advantage I can think of really is that being on a compilation album could almost be a "stamp of quality," whereas the wild west of Soundcloud etc. and Myspace before it meant that you could stumble on music of wildly disparate quality. That can be overwhelming to some people too, that might just want a curated playlist by a page they already trust (which could be done digitally).

Edited May 29, 2019 by StriderSubzero

[nekkichi 6043]

I have no clue about non-vk stuff, but a lot of labels that used to do these kind of VA compilations in the first place went out of business years ago, with their former acts either majoring or disbanding and retiring from music, and major bands no longer do split releases anyway.

[chemicalpictures 1888]

I feel digital releases and youtube kinda helped killing VAs. We don't know how the negotiations between recording labels and bands used to be, who paid for what, I believe bands feel like they can save costs and manage promotion better by themselves online

 

not to say about songs rights, I've heard about some songs skipping releases because they were somehow attached to a VA, so...

Edited May 30, 2019 by chemicalpictures

[Zeus 7997]

16 hours ago, chemicalpictures said:

not to say about songs rights, I've heard about some songs skipping releases because they were attached somehow attached to a VA, so... 

Can you elaborate on this?

[chemicalpictures 1888]

6 hours ago, Zeus said:

Can you elaborate on this?

 

It's a recurrent argument I've seen people talk about now and then during these years that the negotiations are different depending on if the songs are new or old, if they are exclusive and so on

 

which I believe do make sense, but I don't know if that's really true

[saishuu 3220]

Cure's 2004 "Japanesque Rock Collectionz" was amazing. So were those CANNONBALL V.A.s from mid 00's and those Loop Ash collections (LOOP OF LIFE?). SHOCK WAVE's "CROSS GATE 2006" was a big favorite of mine as well. I miss browsing various V.A. albums looking for new music back then and I also wish we had more of those coming out these days. It's a shame we barely get anything anymore.

[Paraph 826]

it was all about High Style Paradox 1 tbh