I was recently trying to guesstimate the recording sequence of BN non-album tracks circa 1979-1985, and someone asked about doing something similar with Noise Candy. I responded too casually that I found pretty much all 1992-2000 BN of a piece - a mega Noise Candy that I might designate as my desert island BN decade, if I could choose only one. However, after reviewing the recording date information on that decade, I saw that Noise Candy is credited as having been recorded 1990-2000, but “the bulk of it hailing from” Atom Shop’s moment (1996-1997). If I knew that the Atom Shop moment yielded four our five hours of home recordings, I’d forgotten. So, I gathered recording date info from the post-Demonstrations of Affection period, and I find the artistic/recording arc question pretty intriguing. You don’t reach the full-on, beat poet/retro-Americana/trip-hop/jazz-inflection/insane-analogue-sampling-looping until Atom Shop (1996-1997). Seeds/samples are apparent on Magnificent Dream People, After the Satellite Sings, etc., but it’s not there yet as emphatically as it is on Atom Shop through Noise Candy. My Secret Studio: rec. 1988-1992 Weird Critters/Magnificent Dream People: rec. 1992-1995 Practically Wired: released 1995 (studio album) After the Satellite Sings: rec. Winter 1995 (studio album) Atom Shop: rec. 1996-1997 Whistling While the World Turns: released June 2000 Caliban: made semi-public August 2001 Noise Candy: rec. 1990 to 2000, “with the bulk of it hailing from the Atom Shop sessions.” The above releases document Nelson clearing the vaults of his analogue recordings, prior to receiving his first digital setup in January 2001 and commencing “Whimsy.” What does this have to do with trying to figure out which Noise Candy tracks date from the Atom Shop moment, or before it, or after it? I have no idea. But I kind of want to puzzle it out with my ears.

I'm currently obsessed with the Kid Jensen version of this song, which is new to me this week. YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GRJzwFanf6A The single version was recorded in Autumn 1979 (per sleeve notes), which is just a few months after the "Quit Dreaming" sessions (February-June, 1979). The Jensen version was broadcast in June 1981, which puts it inside the date-span of "The Love That Whirls" sessions ("between Spring and Autumn, 1981). And it sounds EXACTLY like TLTW moment. Glorious. The definitive take, IMO. (Sadly, though this version was released on "The Practice of Everyday Life" box set, current digital purchase versions of that set don't include it or the other radio broadcasts that made up the final disc. Licensing limitations have been a curse for BN and his back catalogue, and I really sympathize.)

As my previous, recent posts indicate, I’m attempting to do something like a chronological sort of stray tracks from early (1979-1985) solo Bill - first by release date but then by when undated tracks might have been recorded, based on compositional style and home studio sonics. The wildest wildcard of them all is the fourth ABM fan club release from November 1983: The World and His Wife Dream Car Romantics Dancing Music You can listen to “The World and His Wife” and “Dancing Music”on Bandcamp right now: https://billnelson.bandcamp.com/album/transcorder November 1983 is a full year after “Chimera” was recorded. And yet, ABM 4’s tracks sound exactly like the “Quit Dreaming” moment of 1979. Even ignoring the variant of “Living in My Limousine” (obvious backward connection), the other two tracks have exactly the songwriting/vocal delivery/arrangement/new-wave style of Quit Dreaming, and identical instrument sounds. They are supposedly pure home studio recordings, but I cannot square their sound or style with other 1979-1983 home recordings. If I were a Bill Nelson betting super-fan (I am), I would hypothesize that ABM 4 was derived from leftovers from the Quit Dreaming Mobile Unit/John Leckie sessions, but without the professional studio mixing/mastering that was applied to the album and the officially released outtakes/b-sides: White Sound, Mr. Magnetism Himself, and Atom Man Loves Radium Girl. I cannot imagine a situation in which Nelson would have written and recorded songs in this throwback style, post-Chimera. If he had, he surely would have announced it with intention. And I can’t find any other Nelson pure home recordings (1979-1983) that sound like ABM 4. I’m tempted to hypothesize that Nelson possessed unmastered QD Mobile Unit/Leckie outtake recordings from 1979 and released them later, without noting the connection, because some corporate entity with an original stake in them might have objected. Takeaway: I’m keeping ABM 4 (1983) attached to Quit Dreaming (1979) until someone presents evidence/testimony that I shouldn’t.

I read through the revived "Practical Dreamers" tour (1981) thread with great interest. I'm not up to date on the circulating, unofficial, live Bill Nelson tapes (bootlegs), but my old holdings contain quite a few early ones that are great or at least fascinating/pleasing. Numerous artists have pursued monetizing unofficial recordings. Zappa did it decades ago ("beat the boots"), Joy Division has released quite a few audience recordings, Gang of Four cleared the decks a couple of years ago (on Spotify at least), and I've bought a few Pere Ubu bootlegs directly from Pere Ubu (via Bandcamp). Of the early solo Nelson material, I would call out the Leicester show from the Invisibility Exhibition (2/26/83). The sonics of the recording are great, and it is a magnificent demonstration of Bill, Ian, and tapes. I've been a super-fan of "Trial by Intimacy" since it was released, and I'd say that "Chamber of Dreams" is the least interesting of the four albums in it, because it is backing tracks without the intended live guitar and sax parts added. Everything else in the box is a finished home recording. The Leicester "Invisibility Exhibition" tape is a revelation in this context. Of all the BN live bootlegs I have, it's the tape I'd say should absolutely be made available to all Nelson fans. The later London tape, and possibly tapes I've never heard, can provide additional tracks. I wonder if Bill has tapes of every performance and if there could be a definitive/complete "bootleg series" release of The Invisibility Exhibition.

Went down a wormhole trying to organize early non-album tracks into something like chronological groups. Did research as possible and then put on headphones and used my ears to try to parse the home recordings via tech, recording quality, and to some extent songwriting. (Has all this already been sorted?) BILL NELSON: A Thought Experiment About Imaginary Releases of Stray Tracks, 1979-1982 What if Bill Nelson had been able to release his new music at the speed of creation, rather than being in a situation where the recordings trickled out in a way that obscured their approximate chronology? It seems impossible to accurately reconstruct that chronology, but song credits and the sonic evidence get you pretty close. Red Noise 12-inch • Instantly Yours • Wonder Toys that Last Forever • Ideal Homes • Acquitted by Mirrors Quit Dreaming-Adjacent Single #1(Leckie/Mobile Unit = album outtakes) • White Sound • Mr. Magnetism Himself • Atom Man Loves Radium Girl Quit Dreaming-Adjacent Single #2 (Presumably pure home recordings, but robust!) • The World and His Wife • Dancing Music • Dream Car Romantics Home Recordings Part 1 (35 minutes) These feature Nelson’s original “rhythm unit” - the most technologically naive recordings. All surely tracks he had ready at the time of recording “Quit Dreaming.” • Touch & Glow • Turn to Fiction • Hers is a Lush Situation • Dada Guitare • Rooms with Brittle Views • Shadowland • Be My Dynamo • All My Wives Were Iron • The Beat that Can’t Go Wrong Today • Sleepcycle • King of the Cowboys Home Recordings Part 2 (43 minutes) New tech appears in the home recordings, and the recording sonics improve. Some tunes lean earlier, while many usher in sounds and songwriting impulses of “The Love That Whirls” period and possibly a bit later (c. “Chimera”). Side one is a strong pop music gambit. Side One: Vocal Tracks (22 minutes) • Dancing in the Wind • When the Birds Return • Love Without Fear • Indiscretion • Love in the Abstract Side Two: Instrumental Tracks (21 minutes) • Birds of Tin • Junc Sculpture • Daily Bells • Carnival • Rhythm Unit • Konnie Buys a Kodak • Tony Goes to Tokyo • Spring  Love That Whirls-Adjacent Studio Tracks (30 minutes) A more generous version of the “Flaming Desire and Other Passions” mini-LP. “Hard Facts” is apparently a home recording and sounds so good that it might be latest track in this list. Eros Arriving (single version) Haunting in My Head Flesh He and Sleep Were Brothers The Passion The Burning Question Hard Facts from the Fiction Department What Happens Next? “Dancing on a Knife’s Edge” is the only dangling track before the BN stray tracks obviously move on to new pastures. I’d say it’s a “Chimera” or “Holy Ghost” adjacent track.

I’ve found myself once again (40+ years in) swimming in the earliest BN solo period. By which I mean the era of a possible second Red Noise album/Quit Dreaming, ahead of early harbingers of “The Love That Whirls,” like the “Eros Arriving” double single. In the “Quit Dreaming” notes, BN indicates that the album contained about 1/3 of the songs/recordings logged during that brief episode. That statement seems inclusive of both the mobile unit recordings that became “Quit Dreaming” and the entirely home recordings that went onto singles and ABM fan club releases. The “Transcorder” notes indicate that everything on the ABM singles was a home recording, w/o mobile unit support. (I always wondered about the status of “World and His Wife/Dream Car Romantics/Dancing Music.”) So… as a geek… I’m curious to know the full list of tracks that were recorded with Leckie and the mobile unit, as opposed to being unadulterated home recordings. As far as I can discern, that list of mobile unit “outtakes” only includes three songs: White Sound Atom Man Loves Radium Girl Mr. Magnetism Himself Am I missing anything? Would it be reasonable, in an open universe of BN sub-curation, to regard these tracks as the most appropriate “bonus tracks” for “Quit Dreaming?” Not suggesting they “fit” the album, but merely that they were recorded in the same situation.

In addition to the Christmas singles (free downloads), are there more Bill Nelson songs that directly reference the winter holidays or pick up on traditional holiday music? Also curious about how many songs (with lyrics) are set in wintery scenes, like "Frosty Lawns (Snowballs & Oranges)."

The four tracks on this 2009 album that obviously belong together are a fabulous update of the beat-less, sampled-vocal, semi-ambient soundscapes of earlier periods (e.g. Trial by Intimacy, Orchestra Arcana, Chance Encounters, Console) - but blown out into outré epics with complicated plots: This is Like a Galaxy (7:04) Yes and No (8:36) Matérialisation Phenomena (11:01) The Departure of the 20th Century (16:24) Together, these tracks total 43 minutes – a perfect Bill Nelson LP, unlike any other music he created in this period. Hypnotic, trippy, non-song adventures. Headphone music. Shifting sonic sands of meditative psychedelia - patient, full of surprises, and sometimes menacing. Two tracks interrupt this experience: The title track (more than 15 minutes) is a vocal performance that collages Dreamsville forum members’ submitted lyrics (mine included). It is a nice souvenir, but it has no business being on this album. “When the Invisible Circus Comes to Town” is a fun guitar/rhythm track from the period, but it also has no business being on this album. If you’re not already intimate with this album – or if it has been a while – I recommend you isolate the four tracks that make the singular statement and play them several times. If forced to add tracks to the core-four of "Non-Stop Mystery Action," I might choose the pure instrumentals "The Raindrop Collector" (And We Fell Into a Dream, 2007) and "All Alone in a Boat of His Own" (Neptune's Galaxy, 2006).