Various Artists - DREAMBOX_1 (10x Cassette Box Set)

[Rubin Farr]

 

 

Comes in custom made black box with specially designed foam insert to house all 10 cassettes. Lid of box has foil printed DREAM logo and DREAMBOX_1. Also includes DREAM logo sticker inside box.

 

 

https://dreamcatalogue.bandcamp.com/album/dreambox-1

[ganus]

75 pounds!? nah. thats $100 usd, not including shipping... Wayyy not worth it.

[Rubin Farr]

Yeah I noticed that.

[schafseckel]

was excited till i saw that price...

[purlieu]

HKE has mentioned a few times that he wants to give the entire Dream Catalogue discography a physical release, and this looks to be how he's going to achieve it:

Dreambox_1

 

 

 

10 DREAMS 

1 BOX 

 

DREAMBOX_1 is the first boxset we have ever put out, containing a selection of 10 albums from Dream Catalogue's history, with 10 of the most requested albums we have ever been asked to publish on cassette. 

 

All these albums have never had physical product releases prior to this, making this a special one-of-a-kind collector's item for those who follow the label and others who might be interested to dive into the first year of Dream Catalogue. 

 

 

-- 

 

PRE-ORDER INFO 

 

We have placed an initial order of 200 boxes, but are leaving orders open ended to gauge potential interest. Open orders will close on Friday 23rd September and limited quantity will be set from then on, making this a one-time limited edition item that will not be repressed again. 

 

Please note that the first 200 orders will be dispatched as soon as the boxes come in, which we are hopeful will be early October, while it may take a month or two longer for any later orders to be dispatched. 

 

Due to the special nature of this item, all shipping costs are for tracked, signed and insured postage only. A tracking code will be mailed to you when the item is dispatched. 

 

 

-- 

 

CASSETTES INCLUDED 

 

 

The ten cassettes included in the box set are as follows: 

 

[DREAM_1] Hong Kong Express - 浪漫的夢想 

 

[DREAM_4] t e l e p a t h テレパシー能力者 and Vincent Remember - Interstellar Love 

 

[DREAM_5] 식료품groceries - 슈퍼마켓Yes! We're Open 

 

[DREAM_25] 死夢VANITY - f a n t a s y 真夜中のアパート 

 

[DREAM_51] Pyravid - Googleplex Bionetwork 

 

[DREAM_56] DARKPYRAMID - A Heart Full Of Love 

 

[DREAM_67] サイバー '98 - DIGITΛL FORΞST 

 

[DREAM_72] チェスマスター - The Games We Play 

 

[DREAM_74] 信仰 and 地球 - 新しいエデンジャングル 

 

[DREAM_81] Kobayashi Yamato - 商業的な仕事 1993-2004

 

If I actually had a load of cash I'd be stoked about this, but at £75 it's just out of my price range at the minute, especially considering I only actually want three or four of these. If it was a tad cheaper I'd probably buy it and then sell off the ones I don't want.

[KovalainenFanBoy]

http://forum.watmm.com/topic/91422-various-artists-dreambox-1-10x-cassette-box-set/

[purlieu]

Whoops.

[apriorion]

You know, I've been really digging Dream Catalogue stuff lately (and yes, I agree about that pricetag--far out of my range), especially 2814. But I really don't understand this idea that Vaporwave is some distinct genre. I also used to be all about FSOL back in the day, and I totally get "Lifeforms" or "ISDN" vibes from this stuff. Maybe I'm missing something. 

[purlieu]

A lot of Dream Catalogue - certainly the last 18 months of releases, and a lot before then - don't have much in common with vaporwave really: it was where the label started, but it's moved on since then. Almost all the actual vaporwave has been taken off the DC Bandcamp because of sample clearance issues. 

 

Here's some early DC vaporwave that gives an idea of the genre's sound:

[oscillik]

£7.50 each cassette - that's about average for cassette releases. Nothing wrong with the price.

[joshuatxuk]

But I really don't understand this idea that Vaporwave is some distinct genre. I also used to be all about FSOL back in the day, and I totally get "Lifeforms" or "ISDN" vibes from this stuff. Maybe I'm missing something. 

 

It made sense in the onset - this very distinct offshoot from a few other genres - chillwave, hypnagogic pop especially, that as wikipedia describes is "characterized by a nostalgic or surrealist fascination with entertainment, technology and advertising of the 1980s and 1990s, and forms of both corporate and popular music such as smooth jazz and elevator music"

 

now it's just a microcosm of the electronic music scene as a community with all of it's subgenres, memes, etc. and for better or worse Dream Catalogue was instrumental in that change. TBH a lot of what is "vaporwave" is re-appropriated or bastardized aesthetics from other genres and resembles very little of the ethos, style, and general scope of the original scene. It was accelerationist to the point of coming full circle - kids playing around with pluderphonics started inadvertently rehashing 80s and 90s electronic music hence the FSOL similarities.

[purlieu]

£7.50 each cassette - that's about average for cassette releases. Nothing wrong with the price.

 

It works out fine per-tape, but it's a lot of money to shell out in one go.

The reissue available on Bleep is £113.99 which is fucking ridiculous.

[Rubin Farr]

In stock at blerp:

 

https://bleep.com/release/82577-various-artists-dreambox1?utm_source=Twitter&utm_medium=Post&utm_campaign=Various%20Artists%20DREAMBOX_1

[Culture]

150$

what the fuck

[Lada Laika]

150$

what the fuck

maybe it comes in a plexiglass case

[oscillik]

150$

what the fuck

Another person expecting a multi-buy discount.

[Culture]

 

150$

what the fuck

Another person expecting a multi-buy discount.

 

 And you think that 150$ is reasonable price for this comp?

[oscillik]

 

 

150$

what the fuck

Another person expecting a multi-buy discount.

 

 And you think that 150$ is reasonable price for this comp?

 

If you don't like the marked up price that Bleep are selling it for, why didn't you buy it direct from the label when it was at $95?

[purlieu]

 

150$

what the fuck

Another person expecting a multi-buy discount.

 

 

On the whole, things tend to be cheaper when you buy them in bulk, rather than more expensive. NOT THIS TIME.

[doublename]

This time there's a box with some foam in it.

[oscillik]

 

 

150$

what the fuck

Another person expecting a multi-buy discount.

 

 

On the whole, things tend to be cheaper when you buy them in bulk, rather than more expensive. NOT THIS TIME.

 

That happens with food, and commodities. Can you give examples where this has applied to the release of music, film, or TV shows, especially where it's the first time the media has been released on the format?

 

If I seem inordinately invested in this discussion, it's only because I despair sometimes with the attitude from so called "music lovers". I'll concede that Bleep are taking the piss by marking up the price, but then again when have they not? However, quite a few people here seem to have a problem with the original price as it was available directly from the label.

 

As I've said already, £7.50 per tape is not a bad price at all. This is a small independent label. The original price is not unreasonable at all. A lot of the griping with the original price just seems to be watmms complaining because they can't/won't pony up the reasonable asking price of a compilation, but they want the music anyway, and feel entitled to it. It's almost like people think this label is rolling in money (they're not). 

 

Similar griping occurs when an artist or label decides to release music on a particular format, or during Record Store Day (don't get me wrong - I fucking hate RSD with a passion). People start crying because something is only available on vinyl, and griping that it's not available digitally.

 

The way I see it - if the label had priced it lower, that would've meant there would be more opportunistic cunts selling for ridiculous prices on the second hand market, and less of these actually in the hands of fans and music lovers. This is meant to be a special collectors item, after all.

 

I just think it's a bit unreasonable to gripe because an independent label is putting out a special collectors item for a reasonable price, when shitheads like The Vinyl Factory continually pump out special collectors items that literally rape people's wallets.

 

I honestly don't think Dream Catalogue are trying to fleece anyone here. This seems to me to be a sincere gesture to satiate the requests of some hardcore fans of the label with something special.

 

Bleep can eat a dick for their mark-up on the price.

[purlieu]

Bleep can eat a dick for their mark-up on the price.

 

 

Yeah sorry this is pretty much my point. Obviously you expect some mark-up, but not 50%. 

 

I suppose also as someone who's lived well below the poverty barrier, I do get a bit annoyed with items which are only obtainable by rich fans. I know it's the label / artist's right to do it, and a lot of people are going to buy it regardless, but it all seems a bit elitist at times. Just a symptom of the record industry in general these days, but it's still a shame.

 

Really, I just want that telepath/corp split. I'm just going to make a CD of it on Kunaki I think.

[oscillik]

 

Bleep can eat a dick for their mark-up on the price.

 

 

Yeah sorry this is pretty much my point. Obviously you expect some mark-up, but not 50%. 

 

I suppose also as someone who's lived well below the poverty barrier, I do get a bit annoyed with items which are only obtainable by rich fans. I know it's the label / artist's right to do it, and a lot of people are going to buy it regardless, but it all seems a bit elitist at times. Just a symptom of the record industry in general these days, but it's still a shame.

 

Really, I just want that telepath/corp split. I'm just going to make a CD of it on Kunaki I think.

 

 

I'm currently in a really bad financial position right now (been jobless since Nov, and my bank account is in overdraft. literally eating bread and butter for meals). I know what it's like to live below the poverty line.

 

Yet I still believe £75 is a very reasonable price for this compilation.

 

I just think it's borderline satiric to talk about elitism here - I mean, we're talking about music released on cassette tape. In 2017. If you have a cassette player in order to play this stuff on in the first place, I'd say you're part of this elite simply because it's not common to have a cassette deck.

 

Maybe Dream Catalogue could've pleased more people by releasing the cassettes individually, at the respective £7.50 pricing each. I dunno, maybe that could've introducing a multitude of logistical and economic issues on their part (remember this is an indie label). I've not worked in 'the industry' but I've been fortunate enough to know quite a few people who are involved. I'm not gonna drop names because that's tacky as fuck, but I know that independent labels certainly don't have it easy and certainly aren't rolling in cash. Of all the people I do know, they ALL do it for the love of the medium and the artform. It's difficult to break even, at all.

 

I don't know anyone involved in Dream Catalogue, but I would go so far as to say that I don't believe they've released these tapes in this way to say fuck you. I just think they wanted to put out a nice comprehensive box set, and they did it in the way that made sense to them. Even the way they did the ordering process, it seems like they were trying to find a balance between limiting their losses (by setting a small run) but allowing for more interest if it happened.

[purlieu]

Yet I still believe £75 is a very reasonable price for this compilation.

 

I just think it's borderline satiric to talk about elitism here - I mean, we're talking about music released on cassette tape. In 2017. If you have a cassette player in order to play this stuff on in the first place, I'd say you're part of this elite simply because it's not common to have a cassette deck.

 

 

£75 is absolutely fine as a price for this set in terms of what you're getting, I'm not arguing with that at all. Just that it immediately excludes fans without a reasonable amount of disposable income.

 

I know HKE, and he's definitely not doing it to screw fans over - although I've spoken to him about it and he agrees that a smaller box would be a good idea if they do another one. In general I really like the way he runs DC. His vinyl prices speak for themselves. My comment was actually more of a general one I suppose, aimed a lot of of physical releases which are hugely overpriced. Record Store Day is one source; The Vinyl Factory is another, as you say. Unfortunately with physical sales in general dropping each year, it can be the only way to guarantee sales or profit a lot of the time, so I get why it's more prevalent than ever. And there's always the digital option for most things. It just sometimes feels like people are taking the piss - the worst one I can think of was Rick Smith from Underworld releasing a special CD only available at one of Karl Hyde's exhibitions at a gallery in Japan. They didn't sell out of a CDs, so it went on the underworldlive shop coupled with a catalogue from the gallery at £60. No copy without the catalogue, no download, just that. Just felt really disappointed with that, it screamed of "rich fans only". Ah well.

 

It's interesting how you perceive cassettes. I've been buying them for years, one of the main reasons being they're so cheap. Prices have gone up a bit lately, but for a long time they survived in experimental music scenes because they were about the most affordable format you could put music out on. Back before the international postage costs rocketed a couple of years ago I used to buy new batches of four tapes from US labels for little more than the price of a CD, lots of them home-dubbed DIY things. Seemed like the absolute antithesis of the kind of elitism I was complaining about.

[oscillik]

 

Yet I still believe £75 is a very reasonable price for this compilation.

 

I just think it's borderline satiric to talk about elitism here - I mean, we're talking about music released on cassette tape. In 2017. If you have a cassette player in order to play this stuff on in the first place, I'd say you're part of this elite simply because it's not common to have a cassette deck.

 

 

£75 is absolutely fine as a price for this set in terms of what you're getting, I'm not arguing with that at all. Just that it immediately excludes fans without a reasonable amount of disposable income.

 

I know HKE, and he's definitely not doing it to screw fans over - although I've spoken to him about it and he agrees that a smaller box would be a good idea if they do another one. In general I really like the way he runs DC. His vinyl prices speak for themselves. My comment was actually more of a general one I suppose, aimed a lot of of physical releases which are hugely overpriced. Record Store Day is one source; The Vinyl Factory is another, as you say. Unfortunately with physical sales in general dropping each year, it can be the only way to guarantee sales or profit a lot of the time, so I get why it's more prevalent than ever. And there's always the digital option for most things. It just sometimes feels like people are taking the piss - the worst one I can think of was Rick Smith from Underworld releasing a special CD only available at one of Karl Hyde's exhibitions at a gallery in Japan. They didn't sell out of a CDs, so it went on the underworldlive shop coupled with a catalogue from the gallery at £60. No copy without the catalogue, no download, just that. Just felt really disappointed with that, it screamed of "rich fans only". Ah well.

 

It's interesting how you perceive cassettes. I've been buying them for years, one of the main reasons being they're so cheap. Prices have gone up a bit lately, but for a long time they survived in experimental music scenes because they were about the most affordable format you could put music out on. Back before the international postage costs rocketed a couple of years ago I used to buy new batches of four tapes from US labels for little more than the price of a CD, lots of them home-dubbed DIY things. Seemed like the absolute antithesis of the kind of elitism I was complaining about.

 

 

I don't think we're arguing, I think we're having a pretty considered discussion, and it's kinda welcome here. It's been a while for me.

 

Value should be considered by both parties (buyer and seller), I'm getting the idea that we both see eye to eye on that. It's how commerce works, right? If I have something that you want, it is incumbent on me to offer to sell it to you, at a price that would be considered by most to be reasonable, and a price that reflects the quality of the product. But pricing (where commerce is concerned) does have an alternative function other than simply being the 'cost' of an item - it's also a way to exclude access to goods. Or maybe, more accurately, it's a way to 'stem the flood'.

 

This is probably going to come off as badly explained, but look at what happened with the Nintendo NES Classic thing. They priced it at $60, I believe. And everyone went crazy for it for a combination of reasons, including but not limited to the cost and the nostalgia. Had they priced it higher, then that likely would've had an effect on how quickly it sold out. I'm not sure if I'm making my point here, and I've sat here for a bit trying to get that bit straight. Sorry if I'm rambling a bit here.

 

I figured you might have had some kind of contact with people who're with labels and distribution and so on, sounds like I was right. It's always cool to be able to have that kind of dialogue with someone in a label! And while it does indeed sound like it could be a good idea to do smaller box sets in future, it wouldn't be a good idea to re-run this one since it was billed as a one-time-only thing (there's a vinyl label that pulls this kind of bait-n-switch all the time, the one that did the audiophile Blade Runner pressing comes to mind - Audio Fidelity). Totally agree with you about RSD and The Vinyl Factory. Record Store Day has gotten me so riled up these past few years that I've got serious judgements about artists who participate in it, since it's pretty clear what RSD has become now. I didn't know about that Rick Smith CD. It's one thing to bundle the CD with a catalogue for sale online (at a reasonable price, mind you). It's another thing to try to hawk it online like that after you've already tried and failed to do it at an exhibition. Do you know how much it was supposed to be going for at the exhibition?

 

I love cassettes, I've been gathering a small collection for years myself (I have all the ICASEA tapes, bought direct from label, for example). But when I said it's elitist to buy into cassettes, I simply meant from the perspective of it being a niche playback format. My perception is that the majority of people here do not have a cassette deck, and many of the people I know and hang around with in the Liverpool electronic music scene do not have the means to playback cassettes. I will admit that this is a massive assumption on my part though. I might actually set up a poll, just for calibration of my own assumption. I'm curious to see if cassettes are as niche as I think they are, or if my thoughts on it are stuck 8 or 10 years in the past.

 

This is cool to discuss, thanks for reading my ramblings and coming back with measured and much more comprehensible responses!