Camera - Systeme Solare 12" EP

2013 Bureau B, MS 977196 BB139

A1: Skylla
A2: Meteor
B1: Skylla (Remix by Solyst)
B2: Meteor (Remix by Alvin B. Clay)

This white vinyl 12" EP by Camera is the other Record Store Day 2013 release from Bureau B that I referred to in my recent review of that label's other three releases for RSD 2013.

Camera are a German band producing modern-day "krautrock" or "space rock" styled instrumental music. The trio behind the Camera - Franz Baargmann on guitar, Tim Brockmann on keyboards, and Michael Drummer on drums (with a name like that he must have felt compelled to take up that particular instrument) - have been making such a big impression on the "kosmische" music scene that a certain Mr Michael Rother (Kraftwerk, Neu!, Harmonia) has joined them on stage on several occasions. Their debut album Radiate! was released in 2012 by Bureau B and offers a fantastic slice of the genre; I'd recommend it to anyone keen on progressive instrumental rock.

This EP, however, was recorded at session in February 2013 and sees the trio joined by bassist Shaun Mulrooney who is credited on the Radiate! album only as "Invisible Man", so I'm guessing he's just an occasional band member.

"Skylla" offers much promise opening with a Tangerine Dream-like analogue synth pattern and then delivers magnificently as an insistent drum beat kicks in and is joined by bubbling synthesiser melodies intertwining around one another whilst a plaintive lead motif (not sure if it's another synth or else an EBow guitar or similar) provides a sense of melancholy amidst the maelstrom. The track rushes to a climax with grinding guitar added to the mix before the whole thing rapidly dissolves away to nothing.

"Meteor" effectively gives us more of the same, but ratcheted up a notch. With an arpeggiated synth groove, crashing drums and guitars it feels like the band are going for it at full throttle. Guitar feedback squeals give the track a very "live" feel; I can't help but think if ever The Jesus & Mary Chain decided to produce a kosmische song it would sound something like this.

On side two we get the same two tracks again, but this time in remixed versions. "Skylla (Remix by Solyst)" brings in a new bass motif and moves with a much more relaxed pace than the original track. It's also more atmospheric with emphasised percussion sounds and a new plucked string melody line. This time the whole track dissolves in a minor cacophony of radio interference and static.

"Meteor (Remix by Alvin B. Clay)" offers a more predictable "thud thud thud thud" four-to-the-floor dancefloor filler style, and probably features much less of the original source material than the first remix on this EP. It's a bit of a stomper but somehow manages to retain the atmosphere and urgency of the original.

Although this was a Record Store Day 2013 release limited to 700 copies, Bureau B still have a few copies available via their website. If synth-based instrumental kosmische music is your thing, snap one up soonest!

Bureau B's Record Store Day 2013 12" EP releases

LLOYD COLE & HANS-JOACHIM ROEDELIUS - NNNNeonLLLLights
ROEDELIUS SCHNEIDER - Well Sustained / Schlummer
2013, Bureau B, MS976516 BB135

QLUSTER - Am Horizont
SCHNEIDER TM Bimanual Complexity (Gebrüder Teichmann Togo Mix)
2013, Bureau B, MS976526 BB136

JUNIOR ELECTRONICS - Mr. Mercator
MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS & JUNIOR ELECTRONICS - Herrlichkeit (Ken Charlton) / MOEBIUS & TIETCHENS - Tiefland
2013, Bureau B, MS976536 BB137

Bureau B is a German record label specialising in largely instrumental, electronic, experimental and avant garde music. Some of it you might want to call "krautrock", just so as to give it a label, but that rather lazy umbrella term doesn't necessarily seem to fit all the styles of music, especially more introspective instrumental ambient works where the "rock" element is quite irrelevant.

For Record Store Day 2013, Bureau B released a trio of double A-side 12" EPs, all similarly packaged in sleeves bearing the same design (note the subtle changes in colour between the different releases) and with the records being pressed on white vinyl. (I've said it before already, what IS it with white vinyl? Surely, the most boring of vinyl colours, outside of traditional black.)

Moving quickly onto the first of these three EPs. Put all thoughts of the similarly titled Kraftwerk song out of your head, "NNNNeonLLLLights" is an original composition, an outtake from the recording sessions for the Lloyd Cole and Hans-Joachim Roedelius collaboration Selected Studies Vol. 1. It's a minimalistic semi-ambient piece with background electronics overlaid with tuned percussion (marimba or xylophone or something similar) giving the track an oriental flavour. Roedelius must be one of the most prolific musicians in the avant garde, and he appears also on the other side of this record teamed up with Stefan Schneider as Roedelius Schneider. The first of their two pieces here, "Well Sustained" features more tuned percussion, and various electronic sounds and effects over a simple electronic pulse of a bassline. Gradually a melody emerges as various sounds drift in and out of the mix. I think there's even a guitar in there somewhere. All in all it's quite a hypnotic brew. "Schlummer" is of similar construction although with acoustic instruments such as piano being more prominent, and perhaps, I fancy, a little acoustic guitar being strummed too. The layers build up over a simple walking bassline to create a musical tapestry.

The second of these Record Store Day releases from Bureau B is the longest clocking in at 21 minutes (that's half an album). On one side we have "Am Horizont" by Qluster. A distinct entity apart from Kluster and Cluster, Qluster with a Q is Hans-Joachim Roedelius (him again!) and Onnen Bock. "Am Horizont" is a slowly developing but quite sumptuous piece beginning with an electric piano motif overlaid with various electronic and percussive sounds coming in and out of the mix. It's a very atmospheric and laid back piece; it's so relaxing that it is almost soporific, but I mean that in a good way; it's quite a beautiful piece of music. The other side of this disc is Gebrüder Teichmann's remix of Schneider TM's "Bimanual Complexity". On first listen this is quite a strange piece. While still minimalistic it's more lively than the piece of the other side of the record with a drum machine beat overlaid with a variety of strange and bizarre electronic sounds and samples. The original track is taken from the Schneider TM (a.k.a. Dirk Dresselhaus) album Construction Sounds. According to  Bureau B, "The album is what results when a delicate musician has to live amidst Berlin's construction noise for eight years, during the time when the former working class district of Prenzlauer Berg was transformed into a neighborhood for higher-income earners. Dresselhaus recorded the sounds and patterns produced by the construction workers and combined these moments with the electronic recordings that he made during this period..." With that little piece of knowledge, all the sounds of drills, breaking glass, power tools, assorted bangs and crashes, etc, make sense.

The third of these records features Junior Electronics on one side. Junior Electronics is in reality Joe Watson, a musician and sound engineer from Brighton in the UK, best known for his keyboard duties with Stereolab. The music here is quite different from the other pieces on this series of Bureau B Record Store Day releases and is quite poppy in nature. Not only is it not German, but here we have vocals too. "Mr. Mercator" is a jolly little romp of a tune. It's a piano-led piece, with a traditional sounding bass and drums in the background, along with the requisite electronics, of course. The other track on this side of the record, "Herrlichkeit (Ken Charlton)", is a Moebius & Tietchens piece that has been reworked by Junior Electronics inasmuch as he has put vocals onto it. Thankfully it is quite brief. I don't know who "Ken Charlton" is, and I feel like I am not being included on the artist's in-joke. This is easily the most throw-away piece on these three discs and is probably best forgotten. Onto the other side of this record and we have Moebius & Tietchens' "Tiefland", a track which takes a while to get started and appears initially to be a series of sound effects. Although a simple rhythm of sorts emerges from the random bleeps and bloops the piece doesn't really progress much beyond being a series of sound effects. Apparently it was an album out-take. It may have been better left on the cutting room floor.

So, to sum up, without a doubt the best of the bunch is the Qluster/Schneider TM disc; this is the one that I have had on the most frequent rotation. The disc featuring Roedelius Schneider is also well worth a spin or two, but less so on the Lloyd Cole & Hans-Joachim Roedelius side. As for the Junior Electronics/Moebius & Tietchens disc, you should probably give that one a miss.

Although these were Record Store Day 2013 releases, each limited to 500 copies, Tapete Records still have some left in stock at the time of writing, if any of them take your fancy.

P.S., there WAS actually a fourth Bureau B white vinyl 12" release for Record Store Day, but it was a separate entity from these three releases - it was by a single artist on both sides of the record and had its own cover art rather than the generic Bureau B design as on the above three records. However, I'm going to deal with this other record in a separate blog post.

The Cars picture disc singles

The Cars - My Best Friend's Girl b/w Moving In Stereo
1978, Elektra Records, K 12301

As above - removed from PVC sleeve - notice the discolouration
to the parts of the record which were exposed to the light

As above - the B-side of the record and a rather uninspired image, basically an oversized record label

The Cars - Just What I Needed b/w I'm In Touch With Your World
1979, Elektra Records, K 12312

The Cars - Let's Go b/w That's It
1979, Elektra Records, K 12371 P

The Cars - Double Life b/w Got A Lot On My Head
1979, Elektra Records, K 12385(P)

The Cars - Shake It Up b/w Cruiser
1982, Elektra Records, K12583P (1st version)

The Cars - Shake It Up b/w Cruiser
1982, Elektra Records, K12583P (2nd version)

My first ever picture disc record purchase was "Just What I Needed" by The Cars (the blue one), purchased in 1979. A friend at school talked me into buying his copy of their first single, "My Best Friend's Girl" which was also on a picture disc featuring the same design in a different colour scheme. The way he explained it to me was that they'd be more valuable as a pair. Of course, after that I had to buy subsequent Cars picture disc singles as they became available, just to complete the set.

The final two picture discs - those featuring the orange and pink cars - are actually the same single released in 1982. For some reason Elektra records had decided to release it in two colour versions. Probably so people like me who'd been trying to collect them all would have to buy two copies of the same record. The content of the records - and the catalogue number - are identical.

The whole set of 7" Cars picture discs ... I think...

I always quite liked the simplicity of the design. It was quite clever how a letter "A" was incorporated into the car's design to denote the A-side of the record, and also that the exhaust output was the record's centre hole. However, I always thought they copped-out on the flip-side of the disc as it could have had another image but Elektra Records just opted for a giant label on the b-side of each record in the series. One thing I've only just tonight noticed is that the sides of each record are referred to not as A-side/B-side or Side 1/Side 2 but as the "off side" and "near side" - a motoring metaphor that I'd not picked up on before.

However, to get finally to the reason I've compiled this blog post, what I'd like to know is: Do I have a complete set of these Cars picture disc singles or were there other releases also featuring this design?

The Cars - Since You're Gone b/w Best Friend's Girl / Let's Go - 12" single
1982, Elektra Records, K 13177PT (side A)

The Cars - Since You're Gone b/w Best Friend's Girl / Let's Go - 12" single
1982, Elektra Records, K 13177PT (side B)

I do also have a 12" picture disc single by The Cars, "Since You're Gone" backed with previous singles "Best Friend's Girl" and "Let's Go", but this release departs from the car design as seen on the 7" singles.

Note that the first single, "My Best Friend's Girl" has suffered from some discolouration over the years, and that the PVC sleeves haven't always survived too well.

If anyone has any further info, please leave a comment below.