Wow, what a great project. Well done. I’ve ripped a portion of original 1980s Nelson vinyl, and I don’t always prefer it to a later digital option. Double b-side 7-inches aren’t very dynamic, while other single and 12-tracks tracks are clearly more dynamic than “Two Fold,” etc. I’ve thought that “Quit Dreaming” sounded kind of shitty since I bought it upon release. (I found the Acquitted By Mirrors fan-club CD anthology to be rather brutally re-EQed in places, so I’ll bet your rips are more satisfactory.) I’m a big fan of the recent Red Noise multi-track remix. I have high hopes for a “Quit Dreaming” with more precision and air than any previous version. Cherry Red seems diligent in their sourcing and mastering (not brick-walled), so this release’s take on all the b-sides/home-recordings/etc. could come straight from original tapes. (At least some of them, and I’d assume original vinyl would be the second choice source.) Anyway, I love what you’ve done, and it will always be the most authentic document of what Bill Nelson sounded like in the pre-CD era. I’ve been playing the singles/12-inches a lot lately, all the pops on my copies long-ago memorized. I recently bought a pristine copy of the “Scala” 12-inch, and I’ve cranked that numerous times!

This is everything I hoped for: Multi-track remixes that include World and His Wife and Dancing Music, all the singles material brought into some kind of sonic uniformity (more robust than Two-Fold, I expect - but from what sources?), plus the radio sessions. Unclear why "Dream Car Romantics (in Death's Garage Antics)" is excluded, but that's okay. Ordered and optimistic.

Excellent point, Steve. The Red Noise remix renders the original obsolete IMHO.

From an audio standpoint, I hope the Cherry Red release is truly comprehensive for the micro-era, including the relevant tracks from Transcorder. The Red Noise box was thorough, assimilating every RN recording, including Quit Dreaming's "Disposable." I would want the QD set to include absolutely everything that happened between Red Noise and the run-up to Love That Whirls. Capture the chronological moment; don't dance around other releases. The 2005 Quit Dreaming was remastered by an absolute pro, and it's not compressed in the contemporary style. "2024 remaster" is not going to motivate my purchase. Everything from that moment in one place, sounding the same, will motivate my purchase.

From the latest Dreamsville email newsletter: "There are whispers in the hills that the good people at Esoteric Recordings have put together a nice collection for a re-mastered Quit Dreaming And Get On The Beam box set...keep your eyes peeled for more news about this over the coming weeks!" The timing makes sense, as I finally tracked down a 2005 Quit Dreaming CD a few weeks ago. 🙄

“Fontana,” lead track of “Caliban & The Chrome Harmonium,” the piano/keyboard instrumental album recorded circa 1992-2000. (mp3 attached) “Caliban” originally released to only a few (literally) individuals, later to become more accessible. Given Nelson’s volume of productivity, I tend to carve off the tracks I want to hear all the time and to disrespect albums as wholes. “Caliban” is an album I would never disturb, reduce, or redistribute. Utterly coherent and absolutely different from any other Nelson creation. A complete embrace of minimally-adorned, transfixing melodies, delivered with great feeling and nuance by Nelson as keyboardist. “Caliban” is so playful and so moving in its frequent turns, and it is as ambitiously “naked” as Nelson ever allowed himself to be, arguably. I hold it close and play it frequently, end to end.

I love the discography section of Dreamsville. Discogs.com is also very good for Nelson.

Amazing, Simon. Noise Candy!

Very full of Bill Nelson music, as are my household and car lately!

I don't think BN was committing commercial suicide at this time. I think he was "on the beam." It's not like the 1980s were looking for Be Bop Deluxe music, and what would cynically commercial BN music have been in 1980, if he'd chosen that path? Indeed, I'd say his choices, though artistically motivated, could have been even more successful than they were (he was charting). It's probably partly down to individual-song-luck and exact timing that there's not a BN song from the early '80s on the US's "greatest songs from the '70s, '80s, and beyond" radio stations. The right remix and a DJ at a major dance club in NYC. A video that dominated MTV for three months, etc.

I use Sound Studio and get good results. I was recently lamenting the heavy mid-range emphasis of the second half of "Two-Fold Aspect of Everything," so I ripped some of those tracks from the original vinyl singles and experimented on them. I was particularly pleased by the result for "Touch & Glow," on which I elevated the bass line and the ganky rhythm guitar.

The post brought the 2005 remaster of "Quit Dreaming" today. As advertised, it sounds much better than my original LP and 1980s CD edition. Very, very pleased. My only quibble is the omission of "Atom Man Loves Radium Girl," which is a legit outtake from the Leckie/Mobile Unit sessions that resulted in the album. Several people have mentioned a hope for a Quit Dreaming reissue/box on this forum lately, and it's a good question what it should include. I would hope for a very generous offering with all tracks matching sonically. The 2005 edition of "The Love That Whirls" will arrive later this week. Can't wait (but will have to).

Alec, I'm curious about what the comparable mysteries are about the "Noise Candy" moment. Add in "Atom Shop," "Weird Critters," "Magnificent Dream People," and the unique tracks from "Whistling While the World Turns" & "What Now, What Next?" - and I think you've got a pretty seamless compendium of a very coherent (extended) Bill Nelson home studio episode, circa 1995-2000. Essentially, between After the Satellite Sings"/"Practically Wired" and "Whimsy." (Quite possibly contemporary with the first two, or even preceding them by a bit, but wholly subsequent to what came before - e.g. Secret Studio era.) TBH, it's probably the stretch I'd choose for my desert island, if I could only choose one. It's all of a piece to me, allowing for a separation of the pop vocals from the instrumentals/found vocal tracks. I long ago created something like "Console Vol. 2," which I may prefer to "Console" proper. But that's mixtaping, rather than perceiving dividing lines within the overall "Noise Candy" period of home recordings.

I've attempted a more objective/evidenced chronology... Sorting Solo Bill Nelson 1979-1985 * This is an esoteric document, neither a sessionography nor a discography - but rather a mixture of the two. * The goal is to establish a chronology for all the known songs of this period - which is impossible, because recording dates aren’t known for many of them, and release dates may or may not reflect the recentness of the compositions/recordings. * So, I have logged songs by the earliest date that I can determine they existed - recording session dates, when that information is available, and initial release date, when that’s all we know for sure. (Kid Jensen sessions are ambiguous, since they used home recordings. If any of them were live sessions, I can’t find that information.) * At the very least, this is an objective baseline for pondering further refinement of chronology, using our ears. * Please alert me to errors and omissions. 1978 (and early 1979) Final Red Noise recordings, plus earlier b-sides. Included here because two tracks first appeared on solo BN singles: * Instantly Yours * Wonder Toys that Last Forever * Ideal Homes * Acquitted by Mirrors * (Disposable, included on Quit Dreaming) 1979 February-June  Quit Dreaming recorded with John Leckie and the Mobile Unit. I suspect that February is covering Disposable, which was played by Red Noise, still active at that time. * Album tracks * White Sound * Mr. Magnetism Himself * Atom Man Loves Radium Girl 1980 November From Brussels with Love compilation released: * The Shadow Garden (would later appear on Ritual Echo) 1981 February  Single released: * Rooms with Brittle Views * Dada Guitare 1981 February or March John Peel broadcast (home recordings): * Konnie Buys A Kodak * The Art Of Vision * Boom Year Ahead * Afterlife 1981 March-August  Home recordings used as b-sides on Quit Dreaming singles: * Be My Dynamo * All My Wives Were Iron * Birds of Tin * Love in the Abstract * Turn to Fiction * Hers is a Lush Situation 1981 May  * Quit Dreaming released * Sounding the Ritual Echo released 1981 May  The Nottingham live tape includes Sleepcycle and several tracks with unknown titles. 1981 June Kid Jensen broadcast: * Rooms With Brittle Views * Stay Young * Sleep Cycle * Jazz (Richard Jobson vocals) 1981 “between spring and winter” The Love That Whirls Sessions: * Album tracks * Eros Arriving (single version) * Haunting in My Head * Flesh * He and Sleep Were Brothers * The Passion * The Burning Question * Five tracks that would eventually appear on “Savage Gestures for Charms Sake (released December 1983). 1981 November * Tony Goes to Tokyo released * Das Kabinett released (commissioned in early 1981) 1982 April ABM 1 released:  * Konny Buys a Kodak * When the Birds Return * The Beat that Can’t Go Wrong Today 1982 June * The Love That Whirls released (see session, above, for related b-sides) * La Belle et la Bete released (recorded in early 1982) 1982 July Kid Jensen broadcast: * A Dip In The Swimming Pool Reactor * M1 (Still Under Construction) * Zen 1982 Autumn * Chimera recorded 1982 October  ABM 2 released:  * King of the Cowboys * Shadowland * Carnival * Spring 1982 November  Single release (previously unreleased home recordings included on the Permanent Flame 7-inch box, issued separately in 1983):  * Touch & Glow * Dancing in the Wind * Love without Fear 1983 January  Kid Jensen broadcast of four tracks, three of which would appear on ABM 3, released May 1983: * Dancing on a Knife’s Edge * Indiscretion * Contemplation * Time Tracking 1983 February-March The Invisibility Exhibition live performances, featuring many tracks that would appear on Chamber of Dreams (released in early 1985), a few untitled numbers, and an instrumental version of Indiscretion. 1983 May Chimera released 1983 November  ABM 4 released: * World and His Wife * Dream Car Romantics * Dancing Music 1983 December Savage Gestures for Charm’s Sake released. Five songs taken from TLTW sessions, one from earlier. 1984 May  ABM 5 released: * Hard Facts from the Fiction Department * Daily Bells * Rhythm Unit * Junc Sculpture 1984 December  ABM 6 released (“Giants of the Perpetual Wurlitzer”).  * The Strangest Things, The Strangest Times * Phantom Gardens* * French Promenade * Golden Mile * West Deep* * Threnodia* * Later re-released on Chance Encounters. 1985 January Trial by Intimacy released 1985 February Two-Fold Aspect of Everything Released 1985 June  Sex, Psyche, Etc. 12-inch released (Orchestra Arcana)

I appreciate that, Mike! I'll keep pecking at it. Aligning known studio recording dates, radio sessions, appearances of some tracks on live recordings, and release dates will probably sort this further. (As well as adding songs missing from my original list.)

Mike, thanks for the radio sessions lead, which demonstrates more errors in my groupings/chronology. Is it safe to assume that these are the versions of songs we know (E.G., that the "Rooms with Brittle Views" single is from the '81 Jenson session)? And if this is the same "Jazz" I know, I've always wrongly thought it was from considerably later... I am obviously not much of a BN scholar!

Ed, thanks for that lead on the Kid Jenson material (15 January, 1983)! This definitely warrants some corrections to the list/groupings. The date makes sense, as an instrumental version of "Indiscretion" featured in the February-March 1983 Invisibility Exhibition shows. I'd never heard of (let alone heard) "Time Tracking," so you've just given me a new song to listen to. Wild.

Here's a track from the Leicester "Invisibility Exhibition" tape (2/26/83) that isn't represented on any album. Informally known as "Amateur Astronomer."

My take with mysteries: So much confusion So much to know All is illusion So let it flow Everything’s changing For me and for you All is ? Yet nothing is true And the buddha said, put on your buddha head Hold on now Hold on to me Girl’s gots me spinning Heart in my mouth Am I coming or going Am I man or am I mouse ? me this time Around and around Stars in the heavens Snow on the ground And the buddha said, put on your buddha head And the buddha said, put on your buddha head (girl?)

Violating the single-track principle here, but I'm currently enjoying all the Noise Candy-adjacent tracks that are unique to "What's Now/What's Next?" and "Whistling While the World Turns." Totaling an hour, they split about evenly between vocals and instrumentals/found vocals, and there are many all-timers in there. Circa 1993-2001 - what an amazing period! (Post editor seems to be refusing my upload of a playlist screenshot.)