V.A. Oceanic Odyssey, Complete Collection, Part One, Vols 1 - 4

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.  

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-Nature

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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