Hotcha's Calypso Now Label

July 10, 2012

Years On Earth – rare collector’s item from VOD

Filed under: Bands,Catalogue — Tags: — Hotcha @ 8:10 pm

First things first: My blog went down, it’s now on a new server, but the database is not 100% restored, you may find incomplete posts – hope I can fix it.

In my mail today: Years On Earth’s vinyl debut, 30 years after their highly collectible cassettes came out. A wonderful item, this double LP with 7″ single. I’m no vinyl specialist, but to me it seems to be a work of extra quality. Heavy cardboard cover, heavy vinyl, plus an impressive band bio on an enclosed thick sheet – this has been made for eternity.
Vinyl On Demand: Years On Earth

And it’s limited to 500 numbered copies. Better be quick. You can get it for only 25 € directly from Vinyl On Demand.

I did not compare yet to the cassette releases, which I featured on this blog here a while ago (and which have been rereleased through Calypso Now, where they are still available) – but the vinyl sounds great. Certainly the best masters have been used, plus the vinyl mastering has been done by an industrial music specialist, Andres Peterson at ghostsounds.net.

The two LP use tracks from the three official releases of Years On Earth, plus almost an LP worth of bonus tracks (if you count in the 7″ EP), all recordings from the period.

I’m very happy that the tapes of Years On Earth are still available through my label, plus a later solo recording by Bob Roke, one half of the duo. You should get them all, the vinyl, the cassettes, as long as it’s still possible.

I’ve also posted my YOE-documentation earlier on this blog for you to read.

As we always used to say, Be There Or Be Square.

December 7, 2010

New Years On Earth tape

Filed under: Bands,Catalogue — Tags: , — Hotcha @ 12:00 pm

Some time ago I wrote here about Years On Earth from Northampton, a band that I was in touch with in ’84. I had two of their tapes in my label program, license releases, that is: YOE-2 ‘Site’, YOE-3 ‘Worlds Apart’. Read it here: http://www.calypsonow.ch/catalogue/bands/years-on-earth/.

When I reactivated my cassette label last september, Bob Roke from Years On Earth sent me by happy coincidence a solo work he had done in 2003 – he did not know then that I was back in business again. Of course I was thrilled, because I was badly looking for the whereabouts of the band. So of course I asked Bob if I could release the CD on cassette. And now it’s here for the taking:

The cassette is a C50 with 15 tracks, it’s a Calypso Now exclusive release, and it goes by the number YOE-4, thus continuing the band’s work. YOE-3 was ‘Worlds Apart’ from 1984, by the way.

Bob uses dark ambient electronics combined with natural sounds or field recordings, and he is still a master of the bedroom electronics. And I remember that YOE used to build part of their equipment themselves. You hear the Years On Earth heritage, of course, but you find less of their song structures here. What always amazes me, since their first recordings, are the high quality standards. No fillers, no fiddling around with the buttons, although it definitely goes under ‘industrial’. In short, a very good production, and a very special tape. The same goes for all the Years On Earth productions, and they are all rereleased by Calypso Now at the same time!

You can order the tapes online here at the Calypso Now Shop.

September 12, 2010

Rare cassettes only, NOW!

Filed under: Radioshow — Tags: , , — Hotcha @ 7:13 pm

I have this radio program running since I don’t know when, and I’ve broadcasted bizarre Schlager and entertainment from all over the world, from Hawaii to Bohemia, from 1920 to 1950 (and later). Now, for a change, you can hear there some cassettes from the 80’s I’ve uploaded, like the Klar!80 Sampler, plus the very rare vinyl compilation Color Supplement, with WeR7, also present with their ultrarare demo tape. Also on hand my all time faves, Years On Earth! Get it while it’s on – don’t come asking for it when it’s gone.

The broadcast is on my station laut.fm/latriperie. Vive l’andouillette!

December 6, 2009

Years On Earth

Filed under: Bands,Free MP3 Download — Tags: — Hotcha @ 2:00 pm

I came across Years On Earth in 1984, when they sent me their third tape asking for distribution. I liked it at once and wrote back asking for licence production, and they agreed at that, even sent their second tape with a handful of covers for distribution. As you can read in the file I enclose for your documentation, they sent 11 covers. Helas, it’s a shame that I still have a couple of these original copies here, proof how underestimated the band was at their time.

Today I have the impression there’s quite some fans of this period of homemade electronic music who are on the lookout for music from Years On Earth, and for more infos, of course. That’s why I’ve decided to upload some tracks from “Worlds Apart”, their third tape, and also the material they sent me, as well as the letters we’ve exchanged. I hope we’ll hear from them again some day. As for now, they seem to have been disappeared, and by reading their letters, this comes as no surprise – they weren’t that interested in exposure back then already.

So enjoy the music – you can also get their tapes from me, as long as I still have some of those covers (just a handful). As for the money after covering costs, by the way, it will all go into microcredits – i’m thinking about using kiva. The tapes sound so much better than it’s possible for an MP3, hope you kept your deck!

Years On Earth – Worlds Apart

[audio:Dreams Carry.mp3,Madness in Motion.mp3,On The Ice.mp3,Let The Power Fall.mp3]
Press the playback button

To download right-click

You can download all the printed material I have from them, it’s a PDF (3.5 MB) – right-click on this link here.

yoe review

November 19, 2009

Be there or be square

Filed under: Bands,Catalogue,Free MP3 Download — Tags: , — Hotcha @ 1:48 pm

Releasing and playing music since several decades, I never cared much about keeping track of the stuff I’ve done. As the title of this posting says, I subscribe to the punk motto ‘be there or be square’ – pity, if you’re born after the fact. No pity, though, if you’ve missed on it because you were lazy.

Now, this may sound quite preposterous – I mean, you could rightfully say: Well, if nobody cared, then it probably wasn’t worth it.

Check it out for yourself – this is a catalogue poster I printed around 1987/1988 – click on each page for bigger view.

catalogue poster pt. 1catalogue poster pt. 3catalogue poster pt. 2catalogue poster pt. 4catalogue poster pt. 5catalogue poster pt. 7catalogue poster pt. 6catalogue poster pt. 8

You sure are right, if you like your taste mainstream and middle-of-the-road. Because I’ve never cared much to live up to expectations. Call me the Taste Hero, or, if you like it really heroic, The Man Who Wouldn’t Give A Fuck.

You read me spitting out big sounds now, because today I came across traces of my work from the 80s in the internet. As a matter of fact, I for instance discovered a site where some of my Calypso Now releases are listed, some quite popular, like the split tape by The Ex/Svaetsox, Pay no more than 6 Fr (the tongue in cheek title referring to hip indie releases ‘for the working man’ in England in the Thatcherist 80’s). But I’ve also come across a real obscurity, like Big City Orchestra’s Hand Of Fear – they were always my favorites, by the way, and if you read their portrait, you’ll know why.

I’ve also found several sites who still keep the fire going, like Mutant Sounds, which I found researching Years On Earth; like Crud Crud on a more general level, where you keep falling over rare and strange sounds, a lot of tape-only productions, but also other stuff like belly dance rip-off singles; like Sweet Thunder which is full of surprises, check it out for yourself.


I was looking for the whereabouts of Years On Earth because I used to release two of their fantastic dark droning tapes, ‘Site’ and ‘Worlds Apart’, and I’ve always listened to them ‘in private’ as well. I will tell you more about them as soon as I can find the master tape for YOE3 in my piles of incredibly great, rare and half-forgotten stuff. But for today, I will give you just a listening of two tracks from their tape ‘Site’ from 1982 (YOE2). Bedroom electronics really well done.

Years On Earth – from their tape ‘Site’, 1982

[audio:and i dream.mp3,lost letters.mp3]

Ajust playback volume to 10 and press the play button!

To download right-click Years On Earth: And I Dream or Years On Earth: Lost Letters

Wordpress Classic Theme, gespielt à la Bruder Bernhard's Nackthalshuhn
Abzeichnen vom Bildschirm bei Angabe der Quelle (url) ausdrücklich erlaubt!!!