Various: Ocean of Sound

After a couple of later David Toop compilations (1, 2), I arrive back at the first. Unlike Haunted Weather, I didn't take notes when I read the Ocean of Sound book, so, sadly, I remember next to nothing about it.

I think this compilation may have been influential, as I can't remember many like it at the time, while there seem to have been quite a few since. The rise of the curator, the DJ, the filter and so on — though there also seems to be something Reithian in Toop's intent. There's also a little bit of showing off. It's like this compilation is saying, "Look what a wide-ranging and serious record collection I've got" (especially with all those ethnographic and environmental sound recordings). A bit of a vain and vacuous exercise — people who show off their collections are deeply suspect, if you ask me. And it doesn't make them look clever; it just makes them look like show-offs, wouldn't you say?

MusicBrainz entry for this album Wikipedia entry for this album Rate Your Music entry for this album Listen to disc 1 in part at Last.fm