Realmente es muy emocionante para mi poder presentaros esta colección, que ya forma parte de las leyendas de los recopilatorios no comerciales, y es que con el auge de Internet, a principio de este siglo y la gran revolución de la música digital, muchos amantes de la música plasmaron sus inquietudes realizando sus trabajos y distribuyéndolos a través de la red, ya sea en foros, blogs o demas sitios.
Es el caso de estos "Oceanic Odissey", una vasta obra en doce volúmenes que el amigo Daniel realizó en 2005, dedicada a la música de nuestras antípodas, siendo de las mas antiguas que recuerdo y que conseguí dos años después gracias a ese grandísimo blog que fue "Chocoreve", y desde entonces para mi es una colección de culto.
Me fue fácil contactar con Daniel, el artifice de la colección, un afable y entusiasta neozelandes, que estuvo de acuerdo en su reposición y me envió un texto que creo es muy interesante. Os lo transcribo en inglés, así que los garrulicos que no sabemos inglés, como yo, nos toca tirar de "Translate", que se le va a hacer:
My mother and I enjoyed music. So when I got her a computer for her birthday it was a revelation. It was mainly for e mail but when we got beyond that (and the solitaire games) we searched the net for whatever interested us - music was foremost among them. And this lead to the birth of the Oceanic Odyssey story. I was searching out various forums on Psych and the RZ forum stood out. It connected close to my tastes and the generosity of the posters particularly impressed me. I was keen to hear all the great psychedelic music that I had missed out on as very little of it ever got out to New Zealand. As a schoolboy I never had the money to buy records anyhow. 
The record companies here would only manufacture records that they thought would sell and imports were tightly restricted. The stories of what record collectors had to do to bring in a few LPs through customs belong to an alien world that has changed dramatically with time. The fact was you would almost never find obscure psych in second hand Record stores because they so rarely got here in the first place. So my later years when I could afford records and spent a lot of time in the stores are notable for very few decent finds. 
As for the internet, it was a great time to get into the RZ community. I was thrilled to delve into this new world. It was like a visitor to the UK finding out there were other things to see beyond Buckingham Palace, The Tower of London and Stonehenge. At the time Stuart Robinson released free cdrs of obscure songs and that was the first time I had seen that. After this a number of us all began giving out free CDRS. It was a great time to hear new things. I also eagerly produced my CDRs. It is impossible for me to put a date on this, the original Forum is gone and both my computers have died taking most information with them. As a best estimate I am looking at the first ones out in early 2005.
I had a point of difference with the Oceanic Odysseys just as we would never hear the lesser known singers and groups from the UK and Europe, the Bands of New Zealand and Australia that coulored our early musical journey were all (with a few exceptions) unknown outside our shores. I spent a lot of time looking up humorous or interesting anecdotes about each group or the song, and put these into the liners. However this was very time consuming because the finding some gem of a story on some unknown group was just not worth the effort and these liners were dropped for the later items in the series
A bit of a extra was the birdsong. I was a amateur ornithologist and loved the birds and especially some of the amazing birdsong. This was a great frustration at the time as we do have some remarkable birdsong but so little of it was publically available. Some birds had became extinct without being recorded first and alternately a bird like the Kokako has different populations throughout the country with different songs (in fact to add to this the males and females can do duets) but there was only one actual recording of this bird available. So I had to fill out the series with some plain and less interesting song when I knew there was more out there. Than there were the extra tracks tacked at the end. 
Like little gifts which were varied with each batch to provide some form of uniqueness to your CDR. There was also bird related cover art which also had variations both minor and major to add to the individuality of each CDR. Some of the covers did crack me up and they were a lot of fun- and unlike the musical quality which decreased through the series as I added more filler, the art got better.
I started out with a series of 5 which covered vols 1-4 and the oddities. From memory I might have done 1 and 2 to start with and than the other 3. This was all psych based material - each volume featuring a different sub set of psych.
The later two batches looked at other musical forms and ended up with Volume 12 and psychedelia again. In between I did a few other Non OO CDRS like the Bee Gee Covers Female vocalists and other oddities. Volume 12 was to be the last of the series proper. But I actually did some other additional one off OOs in the style of Oddities which included south african tracks as well as newly acquired NZ and Australian psych but I was hesitant to extend the numbered series because I had the superstition about ending at 12.
The later two batches looked at other musical forms and ended up with Volume 12 and psychedelia again. In between I did a few other Non OO CDRS like the Bee Gee Covers Female vocalists and other oddities. Volume 12 was to be the last of the series proper. But I actually did some other additional one off OOs in the style of Oddities which included south african tracks as well as newly acquired NZ and Australian psych but I was hesitant to extend the numbered series because I had the superstition about ending at 12. 
If I had one regret it was that if I had done it even a year later the series would have been so much better. I came across a lot of quality psych items that could have replaced weaker tracks in the series and significantly improved the quality overall. But that is always the case. I have not done much collecting these last 5 years but now and then I do delve into the archives and really I do think I must get back to contributing to the forums again. My retirement is 5 years away and maybe then.
Realmente interesante, ahora entiendo los cantos de pájaros que aparecen en la colección. Bueno, os dejo con el track-list:
Vol. 1
01 - The Gremlins-The Coming Generation
02 - Larry's Rebels-Everybody's Girl
03 - The Chicks-Timothy
04 - Shane-Town Of Tuxley Toymaker
05 - The Twilights-Time & Motion Study Man
06 - The Rumour-Garden Of Your Smile
07 - The Masters Apprentices-Brigette
08 - The Masters Apprentices-Tired Of Just Wandering
09 - The Loved Ones-The Loverly Car
10 - Autumn-Lady Anne
11 - Vyt & The World-Dapper Dan
12 - Diana Lee - 98.6
13 - The Pleazers-That Lonely Feeling
14 - The Pleazers-Sand & Sea
15 - The Avengers-Waterpipe
16 - The Avengers-Everyone's Gonna Wonder
17 - Russell Morris-Rachel
18 - The Fourmyula-Nature
19 - Larry's Rebels-Let's Think Of Something
20 - Split Ends-For You
21 - Blerta-Dance All Around The World
22 - Puppy-Belinda
23 - The Allusions-Mr. Love
24 - The Twilights-Young Girl
25 - Mr. Lee Grant-Coalman
26 - The Clevedonaires-He's Ready
27 - Unknown-Track 27
28 - Unknown-Track 28
Vol. 2
01 - Pastoral Symphony - Love Machine
02 - The Avengers - The Days Of Pearly Spencer
03 - The Avengers - Daniel The Postman
04 - Iguana - California My Way
05 - Somebody's Image - Hide & Seek
06 - Simple Image - Grooviest Girl In The World
07 - Tymepiece - Bird On A Tree
08 - The Gremlins - Never Yoy Mind
09 - Alison Gros - Naturally
10 - Doug Parkinson In Focus - Than I Run
11 - The Questions - And Things Unsaid
12 - Split Enz - No Bother To Me
13 - Ahmed Dahman Band - Stage Door
14 - The Playboys - Sad
15 - The Twilights - Coming On Down
16 - Thre Easybeats - Falling Offthe Edge Of The World
17 - Top Shelf - Baby The World Really Turns
18 - Random Thoughts - The Trouble
19 - The Hi Revving Tongues - Tropic Of Crapicorn
20 - The Foumyula - Alice Is There
21 - Shane - St. Paul
22 - Plaster Scene - Love
23 - Masters Apprentices - Elevator Driver
24 - Larry's Rebels - Fantasy
25 - Marty Rhone - Village Tapestry
26 - Daisey Clover - Butterflies
27 - Unknown - Track 28
28 - Unknown - Track 29
Vol. 3
01 - Procession - Listen
02 - Terry Britten - Bargain Days
03 - The Allusions - Gypsy Woman
04 - Serenity - Devil Man
05 - The Valentines - Love Makes Sweet Music
06 - Abdullah's Regime - Sally I Do
07 - Brigade - As A Boy
08 - The Easybeats - In The Land Of Make Belive
09 - Tom Thumb - Ludgate Hill
10 - The Dave Miller Set - Mr. Guy Fawkes
11 - Human Instinct - Midday Sun
12 - The Wright Of Waye - Sun God
13 - Split Enz - Home Sweet Home
14 - Blerta - Freedom St. Marys
15 - Taman Shud - Stand In The Sunlight
16 - Taman Shud - Mr. Strange
17 - Dave Miller - The Loner
18 - Zoot - The Freak
19 - Mike Furber - Watch Me Burn
20 - Master's Apprentices - Titanic (Masterpiece)
21 - Unknown - Track 21
22 - Unknown - Track 22
Vol. 4
01 - Blerta - Bankman
02 - Elm Tree - Lonely Nights
03 - Serenity - Her Mind Holds You
04 - Doug Parkinson In Focus - I Had A Dream
05 - Space Farm - Space Farm
06 - Masters Apprentices - Captivating Voice
07 - Dave Miller - I Don't Belive
08 - Lotus - Lotus 1
09 - Russell Morris - The Real Thing
10 - The Cleves - You & Me
11 - Split Enz - Spellbound
12 - Human Instinct - Rainbow World
13 - Tymepiece - Nuts
14 - Inside Looking Out - H.M.S. Buffalo
15 - Taman Shud - Lady Sunshine
16 - Taman Shud - Goolutionites Theme, Part 2
17 - John Donoghue - Dahli Mohammed
18 - Spectrum - Mumbles I Wander Why
19 - Long Grass - Sunshine To Burn
20 - Unknown - Track 20
21 - Unknown - Track 21
22 - Unknown - Track 22
Debo reconocer que cuando conseguí esta colección practicamente no conocia casi a nadie, pero hoy en día ya controlo a unos cuantos, vamos, algo vamos aprendiendo.
Y para la degustación un tema de cada volumen:
The Fourmyula-NatureY para la degustación un tema de cada volumen:
The Playboys - Sad
The Dave Miller Set - Mr. Guy Fawkes
Long Grass - Sunshine To Burn
Pues ya tenéis faena, de aquí un par de semanas la segunda parte y el miercoles próximo ¡Tommentón!
Pasároslo bien.
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