VA – Tomorrow’s Fashions Library Electronica 1972-1987 – Ace UK 2LP

Nothing said new or modern or futuristic quite like a synthesiser in the 70s and 80s. If you were shooting an advert and you wanted your product or your company to appear forward-thinking and ahead of the game, then you would want something electronic, something out of the ordinary. When TV producers and advertising directors started searching for music that sounded like “Tubular Bells” – and then Tomita, and later Jean Michel Jarre – music libraries such De Wolfe, Bruton, Parry and Chappell had to have the tracks readily available.

Compiled by Bob Stanley, “Tomorrow’s Fashions” varies from advertising jingles and TV themes to space exploration and gorgeous, beatless ambience. Though it’s 40-to-50 years old there’s a real freshness to this music. Older jazz players Brian Bennett, John Cameron, Alan Hawkshaw and others seized the chance to operate a synth; younger pups including John Saunders and Monica Beale were simply intrigued by the new technology being wheeled into the studios. There’s a tangible sense of adventure.

“Tomorrow’s Fashions’” brand of electronica anticipated new age and ambient music. It also had both a direct and indirect influence on pop – the early Human League and the future sounds of Warp Records are all over this collection. Electronic library tracks have been sampled by everyone from MF Doom to Kendrick Lamar.

One person’s primitive and experimental is another person’s space-age lullaby. This was music made in the shadows – in Soho’s secretive music library studios – that has now become desirable and influential. The chances are chunks of it will be sampled and used on hit records that have yet to be written. If the musicians’ aim was to soundtrack tomorrow’s fashions, they couldn’t have got it more right.

tracklist:
A01 Simon Park – Coaster 2:35
A02 Wozo – Rippling Reeds 3:04
A03 Sam Spence – Leaving 2:17
A04 John Cameron – Northern Lights 1 2:07
A05 Peter Reno – Spaghetti Junction 2:54
A06 Rubba – Space Walk 2:33
A07 Paul Hart – Prospect 3:10
B01 Geoff Bastow – Tomorrow’s Fashions 5:14
B02 Brian Wade – Blue Movies 2:45
B03 Trevor Bastow – Videodisc 2:38
B04 Astral Sounds – Interface 1:54
B05 Brian Chatton – Starways 2:11
B06 Unit 9 – Optics 3:56
B07 Wozo – Atomic Station 1:38
C01 Adrian Baker – Future Prospect 2:12
C02 Warren Bennett – Planned Production 4:41
C03 Tektron – Future Perspectives 3:17
C04 Chameleon – Waterfall 2:55
C05 James Asher – Telecom 3:38
C06 Soul City Orchestra – Eagle 1:58
C07 Alan Hawkshaw – Astral Plain 4:01
D01 Paul Williams – Drifting In Time 1:23
D02 Brian Bennett – Earth Born 3:28
D03 Harry Forbes – Soft Waves 1:12
D04 Astral Sounds – Topaz 1:54
D05 Alan Hawkshaw – Eternity 4:16
D06 John Cameron – Infinity 2:05
D07 Andy Grossart & Paul Williams – Morning Dew 1:59