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Vampires, Cowboys, Spacemen & Spooks - The Very Best Of Joe Meek's Instrumentals (2007)
Label:   
Length:  2:28:23
    Track Listing:
      CD 1:
      1.  
      		 The Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire    2:50
      2.  
      		 The Tornados - Ridin' The Wind    2:59
      3.  
      		 The Packabeats - Theme From The Traitors    2:33
      4.  
      		 The Spooks - The Spook Walks    1:49
      5.  
      		 The Fabulous Flee-Rekkers - Green Jeans    2:26
      6.  
      		 The Ambassadors - Surfin' Joe Brown    2:05
      7.  
      		 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Oo La La    1:59
      8.  
      		 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Moon Rocket    2:56
      9.  
      		 The Moontrekkers - Dance Legless, Russian    2:15
      10.  
      		 The Saints - Husky Team    2:01
      11.  
      		 The Outlaws - Swingin' Low    2:05
      12.  
      		 The Tornados - Life On Venus (German Version)    2:27
      13.  
      		 The Charles Blackwell Orchestra - Taboo    2:33
      14.  
      		 The Joe Meek Orchestra - Cry My Heart    2:55
      15.  
      		 The Thunderbolts - March Of The Spacemen    2:21
      16.  
      		 The Moontrekkers - Hatashiai (Japanese Sword Fight)    2:24
      17.  
      		 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Jackson's Jump    2:46
      18.  
      		 The Ramblers - Just For Chicks    2:14
      19.  
      		 The Original Checkmates - Union Pacific    2:43
      20.  
      		 Sounds Incorporated - Keep Moving    2:03
      21.  
      		 The Tornados - Robot Listen    2:39
      22.  
      		 Chris Williams & The Monsters - The Monster    2:15
      23.  
      		 The Stonehenge Men - Pinto    2:31
      24.  
      		 The Outlaws - Valley Of The Sioux    2:44
      25.  
      		 The Saxons - Saxon War Cry    2:05
      26.  
      		 Various - Exodus (Undubbed)    2:59
      27.  
      		 Chico Arnaz & His Latin American Orchestra - Yashmak    3:02
      28.  
      		 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Can Can 62    2:30
      29.  
      		 The Joe Meek Orchestra - The Kennedy March    2:34
      30.  
      		 The Tornados - Jungle Fever    2:13
      CD 2:
      1.  
      		 The Tornados - Telstar    3:11
      2.  
      		 The Flee-Rekkers - Sunday Date    2:54
      3.  
      		 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Totem Pole    2:12
      4.  
      		 The Outlaws - Ambush    2:24
      5.  
      		 The Thunderbolts - Lost Planet    3:03
      6.  
      		 Dave Rowland - Besame Mucho    2:29
      7.  
      		 The Tom Cats - Tom Tom Cat    2:34
      8.  
      		 The Tornados - Globetrotter Listen    2:40
      9.  
      		 The Ramblers - Dodge City    2:23
      10.  
      		 Chris & The Students - Lass Of Richmond Hill    1:59
      11.  
      		 The Ambassadors - Big Breaker    2:53
      12.  
      		 The Checkmates - West Point    2:25
      13.  
      		 The Saints - Wipeout    3:03
      14.  
      		 Sounds Incorporated - Order Of The Keys    2:36
      15.  
      		 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Reindeer Ride    2:42
      16.  
      		 The Joe Meek Orchestra - The Theme Of Freedom    2:45
      17.  
      		 The Stonehenge Men - Big Feet    2:19
      18.  
      		 The Tornados - Dragonfly Listen    1:46
      19.  
      		 The Moontrekkers - There's Something At The Bottom Of The Well    2:15
      20.  
      		 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Poet & Peasant    2:37
      21.  
      		 The Outlaws - Last Stage West    2:23
      22.  
      		 The Original Checkmates - The Spy    1:57
      23.  
      		 The Tornados - The Ice Cream Man Listen    1:51
      24.  
      		 The Packabeats - Evening In Paris    2:36
      25.  
      		 Chris & The Students - Kickin' Around    2:11
      26.  
      		 The Charles Blackwell Orchestra - Midnight In Luxembourg    2:22
      27.  
      		 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Christmas Stocking    2:25
      28.  
      		 The Dauphine Street Six - Shenandoah    3:00
      29.  
      		 Unknown - The Phantom Hussar    1:45
      30.  
      		 The Moontrekkers - Return Of The Vampire (The Bogey Man)    2:21
    Additional info: | top
      Label: Castle Records
      Catalog#: CMEDD1456
      Format: 2x CD, Mono
      Country: UK
      Released: April 2007
      Genre: Surf Rock, Psychedelic, Garage Rock, Rock
      Style: 50s, 60s

      If you are to buy only one compilation of early surf rock, this is it. Essential. Use it to soundtrack your low budget horror movie! British record producer Joe Meek was ahead of his time in his use of weird effects, unusual arrangements, and technological manipulation to achieve oddball sounds and atmosphere of proto-psychedelic quality. No one else in the 1960s, aside from Phil Spector, perhaps, had such a distinctive, idiosyncratic style of production. Vampires, Cowboys, Spacemen and Spooks: The Very Best of Joe Meek's Instrumentals provides the perfect introduction to Meek's sonic universe, which sounds like something between a beach party and a haunted house - in space. His landmark track for the Tornados, "Telstar," is included here.

      Not an artist in the traditional sense of the term (he couldn't play or sing at all) producer Joe Meek has nonetheless been belatedly recognized as an important, even inimitable, figure of early British rock & roll. Like Phil Spector, Meek developed idiosyncratic production techniques that, much more than the artists he worked with, stamped a vision of mad genius on his recordings. In Meek's case, this usually amounted to super-compressed sound, wavering sped-up vocals, ghostly backing violins and choruses, spooky echo and reverb, ticky-tack variable-speed piano, and all manners of Halloween and outer-space sound effects. The recordings were all the more remarkable for being produced not in a state-of-the-art studio, but in Meek's own bedroom-sized facility, located over a shop within the flat he rented.

      Tracklisting
      Disc 1 -
      1 The Moontrekkers - Night Of The Vampire
      2 The Tornados - Ridin' The Wind (UK version)
      3 The Packabeats - Theme From The Traitors
      4 The Spooks - The Spook Walks
      5 The Fabulous Flee-Rekkers - Green Jeans
      6 The Ambassadors - Surfin' Joe Brown
      7 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Oo La La
      8 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Moon Rocket
      9 The Moontrekkers - Dance Legless, Russian
      10 The Saints - Husky Team
      11 The Outlaws - Swingin' Low
      12 The Tornados - Life On Venus (German version)
      13 The Charles Blackwell Orchestra - Taboo
      14 The Joe Meek Orchestra - Cry My Heart
      15 The Thunderbolts - March Of The Spacemen
      16 The Moontrekkers - Hatashiai (Japanese Sword Fight)
      17 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Jackson's Jump
      18 The Ramblers - Just For Chicks
      19 The Original Checkmates - Union Pacific
      20 Sounds Incorporated - Keep Moving
      21 The Tornados - Robot Listen
      22 Chris Williams & The Monsters - The Monster
      23 The Stonehenge Men - Pinto
      24 The Outlaws - Valley Of The Sioux
      25 The Saxons - Saxon War Cry
      26 Various - Exodus (undubbed)
      27 Chico Arnaz & His Latin American Orchestra - Yashmak
      28 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Can Can 62
      29 The Joe Meek Orchestra - The Kennedy March
      30 The Tornados - Jungle Fever (stereo)

      Disc 2 -
      1 The Tornados - Telstar (stereo)
      2 The Flee-Rekkers - Sunday Date
      3 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Totem Pole
      4 The Outlaws - Ambush
      5 The Thunderbolts - Lost Planet
      6 Dave Rowland - Besame Mucho
      7 The Tom Cats - Tom Tom Cat
      8 The Tornados - Globetrotter Listen
      9 The Ramblers - Dodge City
      10 Chris & The Students - Lass Of Richmond Hill
      11 The Ambassadors - Big Breaker
      12 The Checkmates - West Point
      13 The Saints - Wipeout
      14 Sounds Incorporated - Order Of The Keys
      15 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Reindeer Ride
      16 The Joe Meek Orchestra - The Theme Of Freedom
      17 The Stonehenge Men - Big Feet
      18 The Tornados - Dragonfly Listen
      19 The Moontrekkers - There's Something At The Bottom Of The Well
      20 Peter Jay & The Jaywalkers - Poet & Peasant
      21 The Outlaws - Last Stage West
      22 The Original Checkmates - The Spy
      23 The Tornados - The Ice Cream Man Listen
      24 The Packabeats - Evening In Paris
      25 Chris & The Students - Kickin' Around
      26 The Charles Blackwell Orchestra - Midnight In Luxembourg
      27 Roger LaVern & The Microns - Christmas Stocking
      28 The Dauphine Street Six - Shenandoah
      29 Unknown Artist - The Phantom Hussar
      30 The Moontrekkers - Return Of The Vampire (The Bogey Man)
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