SKY RECORDS COLLECTION 1 - VARIOUS ARTISTS

Sky Records Kollektion 01:
Various Artists (compiled by Tim Gane):
Bureau B:
CD:
Out Sept 22:

★★★★★★★★★☆

Ridiculously over-looked by much of the music-press during the '70s and '80s yet responsible (directly or indirectly) for the blueprint of many a bedroom-hipster's electronic miasma during the past few years, Germany's Sky Records has a catalogue that easily rivals much of Kraftwerk or Tangerine Dream.

This compilation has been assembled by Tim Gane, a man who isn't adverse to recreating Krautrock or psychedelia with his much-loved Stereolab project of old and rightfully issued by Bureau B who, in the past few years, have been busy releasing and reissuing plenty of old and new work by many of the artists on this CD. Kollektion is a series of CDs compiled by devotees of the electronica scene, this being the first of (hopefully) many volumes.

Bearing in mind much of this material appeared in the '70s and '80s, Sky Records Kollektion 01 is like a greatest hits for the recently influenced  or progressive / post-punk influential. From the short opening instrumental-pop jingle of Asmus Tietchens' Wein Aus Wien (early OMD), the steam-hammer dub beats of Dieter Moebius and Gerd Beerbohm's relentless Doppelschnitt (edited down from 20 minutes - early Pil) and Michel Rother's motorik Feuerland (very Fuck Buttons) through to the trippy Himmelblau by the late Wolfgang Reichmann and the spaced-out simplicity of Moebius' Rattenwiesel, you can hear various comparables throughout.

It isn't all electronica a-go-go - Gunter Schickert's In Der Zeit wouldn't sound amiss on a Wye Oak or Savaging Spires bootleg and Eno Moebius and Roedelius' The Belldog clearly influenced Eno's recent collab with Underworld's Karl Hyde somewhere along the way.

To dismiss any of Sky Records key early-to-mid period would be churlish - any self-respecting music-geek will be frothing at the mouth to get this. And you get the impression that there will be many more Sky-related compilations very soon (there's a Roedelius 'Kollektion' due soon).