Releases Lost to Time

[k.p.g]

I am feeling inspired to start this topic based off of a scrolling session I had today through the Hospital Productions page on Discogs.  I started to notice that certain catalogue numbers were missing.  After some cross-referencing, I came to realize that these catalogue numbers were in fact assigned to releases on the label, but seemingly have no one who owns the tape that can log it online like "yes, this does in fact exist!"  Similar issues have come up when talking about releases on Deadline, where there is tell of a tape, but seemingly no one steps up to verify this.

Now, one could assume that some of them are bullshit, and that guys like Dom and Richard were making up releases to add to the lore of their respective worlds.  I am not one of those people though.  Instead, my mind started to wander and think, "could it be these releases are just lost to time?  The copies that did make it out there have ended up in the trash, in some musty storage unit, destroyed, etc.?"  So now we come into the point of this thread...

Releases lost to time; are there any noteworthy ones you have heard of?  Is there a story behind this white whale you have long coveted to hear?  Have you wondered if maybe asking in a forum about it would yield some stranger who says "yes, I have mine?"  I would like those questions to be answered here, as I find myself pretty fascinated by the idea of the releases we have lost simply over the course of noise's growth now.

[Theodore]

OK, my note is off-topic but related and maybe useful. Discogs has a bug when it comes to label's discographies, some releases arent displayed in the list although they are on Discogs. It's months like this ! And every now and then i notice they still haven't fixed it. Cant remember when it was last time, but not long ago.

On topic : Yes, forgotten / rare / lost stuff fascinates me too. Even if the music in it isnt top notch, it has an aura, a charm. Cant explain it. Maybe more as an object ? I probably have the only one remaining.

I cant bring names to memory now. But many times i see old tape labels with 2-3 releases known in the database, which all of them are interesting, and catalog numbers that indicate that many releases are not listed, are missing, forgotten. Makes me wonder. This is mostly a case of 90s labels, than 80s. Strange enough.

Edit : example : https://www.discogs.com/label/55175-B-Gore-Records . Catalog number up to 45, Discogs lists 25. Not sure if anything more is listed on Discogs and not displayed cause of the bug.

Edit 2 : https://www.discogs.com/forum/thread/1134380 , maybe fixed now ?

[Krigsverk]

Lost, but found and restored - old Crematorius recordings was just announced by Tesco:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W-_acX6zNx8 

[k.p.g]

Another release lost to time: the Black Leather Jesus disc meant for Release.  A bit different of a situation than what I proposed originally.  Disc was supposed to come out on Release, got shelved and then who knows what happened?  Apparently Richard doesn't even have a master for it sitting around anywhere. 

[tgg]

Fag Tapes looks to be another label with lots of "missing" releases- it closed in 2018 after its 500th release, though Discogs only catalogues around 450 of these.

I'd imagine it's the same deal with pretty much all of those ultra-prolific US imprints- e.g. about 20 years ago I remember seeing some distro list or other featuring an American Tapes release that purported to be a bootleg recording of a concert given by "special needs" people, then around about the same time, Volcanic Tongue were selling a Zac Davis/Maim & Disfigure tape featuring a chick taking it up the arse on the j-card. I've never been able to find either one since, on Discogs or otherwise.

I'm not a massive fan/collector of these labels, so can't say for sure that they're not actually documented somewhere, but those are two that have always stuck in my mind as far as potentially lost stuff is concerned.     

[k.p.g]

about 20 years ago I remember seeing some distro list or other featuring an American Tapes release that purported to be a bootleg recording of a concert given by "special needs" people

Never heard about this one.  Intriguing!

[tgg]

about 20 years ago I remember seeing some distro list or other featuring an American Tapes release that purported to be a bootleg recording of a concert given by "special needs" people

Never heard about this one.  Intriguing!

I think I've found it, finally- guess I wasn't looking too hard, as it's been on Discogs since its release!

https://www.discogs.com/release/1969109-Various-Special-Abilities-Live-Rolling

[Volcano Queen]

All those Coquette minidiscs and acetate 7"es.

Masonanism. 100x7", limited to one copy. Seriously, what the fuck? He made a boxset of a hundred 7"es? Will any of us ever hear this? Is the only copy even still around, or has it gotten destroyed in a fire or some shit and we don't even know? Probably the holy grail release that haunts me the most.

[burdizzo1]

I am feeling inspired to start this topic based off of a scrolling session I had today through the Hospital Productions page on Discogs.  I started to notice that certain catalogue numbers were missing.  After some cross-referencing, I came to realize that these catalogue numbers were in fact assigned to releases on the label, but seemingly have no one who owns the tape that can log it online like "yes, this does in fact exist!"  Similar issues have come up when talking about releases on Deadline, where there is tell of a tape, but seemingly no one steps up to verify this.

Just because it's not on discogs, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I find - and even more lately - that people aren't in as much of a rush to upload a release on discogs. It's a bit of a hassle to do it, and it's not as easy to do it anymore, so - y'know - why bother? And because a lot of these are in tiny editions, there's less of a chance that one of the, like, two dozen people could be arsed doing it.

[k.p.g]

Just because it's not on discogs, doesn't mean it doesn't exist. I find - and even more lately - that people aren't in as much of a rush to upload a release on discogs. It's a bit of a hassle to do it, and it's not as easy to do it anymore, so - y'know - why bother? And because a lot of these are in tiny editions, there's less of a chance that one of the, like, two dozen people could be arsed doing it.

You are completely correct! I don't expect people to upload everything they have to Discogs.  I guess the topic was looking more to highlight releases that are known to have existed at one point, whether on Discogs or not, but just have no one to confirm that they have a copy anywhere.  Discogs came up particularly when thinking of Hospital Productions, as I would imagine a label with such fanaticism would have dug these pieces up.  I mean hell, they log all the other edition of 5 Prurient tapes that the public are not supposed to know about. Hah.
But of course, this brings up another point in the creation of these releases - not all of the intended edition are made.  Dom said it himself in an interview with Noisextra before that back in the early days, just because something said "edition of 14" or whatever, doesn't mean all 14 were made if demand didn't necessitate it.  So there is always that factor to consider.

[FreakAnimalFinland]

Discogs listing in noise seems more meaningful that in some other genres. I don't know why exactly, but it seems like in mainstream music, there often is A LOT of releases that are not listed in discogs, while with noise and related, sometimes seemed as if there isn't releases small enough to be listed. Or it seems like it.

There are some even quite recent things that didn't make it to discogs, and feel like "forgotten". Its easier to notice when its something you're involved. Like, I have not checked out recently, but if you compare Grunt discography on discogs and on band website, I would think latter is more accurate, but even I can't guarantee every comp track is featured etc. Discogs seemed to be missing Grunt/Jukka Siikala split LP, which really does exists, but was just very small amount sold by Siikala. Old tapes like "Theories of Dream Machinist" (Worthless Human Flesh rec) were never listed at discogs as far as I know. I recall couple others too.

I do own a lot of things that are not at discogs. At some point I was thinking of podcast about Finnish obscurities, where would put snippets of examples of projects very few know or remember. Like how would be project with members of Sadio & Savage Gospel from the 90's sound like? That would not be me and Vekka... What a lot oddity even artists themselves no longer have!

Talking about Hospital prod, there are not only missing number that were not completed, but there are some double used numbers! This applies on early days when there was two guys doing things and I have couple of these early ones that are different releases than it says on discogs. But existence of them is known, at least by the maniac collectors like mr. Fusty C. Just appears that I am only known owner of some of these.