CHBB - CHBB [SSLP07] (1981)

Just picked up from a local record store an early copy of the often-cited "holy grail" of Minimal Synth/Industrial/EBM, barely anyone could get their hands on the original tapes and it only took 43 years for the whole thing to be properly reissued – with extra tracks that didn't even see the light of day until now!

https://chbb.bandcamp.com/album/chbb

Officially out on 21 June 2024

  Quote

CHBB was a project by Beate Bartel and Chris Haas that developed from their collaboration in 1981, while working on the self-titled album 'Liaisons Dangereuses‘. They released their music only on four limited cassettes.

This compilation presents the complete works of CHBB, including all recordings from their original cassettes alongside previously unreleased tracks produced by both artists.

wow that sounds pretty great

Four cassette-only releases remastered to vinyl, some of this is really good, they were somewhat ahead of what bands like The Human League, Suicide, and Ministry were doing in 1981. I'm guessing they might have been using a Fairlight CMI to do the sampling?

I would've expected a CMI Fairlight to be readily apparent in any photos, so it seems like everything was sequenced and recorded to tape.

Cool stuff, never heard of this before!

yeah tracks up so far on this are pretty cool. 100% new to my ears, curious to give the whole thing a listen once it's all out.

  On 6/23/2024 at 1:58 PM, oscillik said:

I would've expected a CMI Fairlight to be readily apparent in any photos, so it seems like everything was sequenced and recorded to tape.

Cool stuff, never heard of this before!

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Had posted about it here:

Crazy that tracks like "Voyage au bout de la nuit" were just sitting there for 40+ years, not to mention how essential some of the OG tracks always have been!

  On 6/23/2024 at 12:21 PM, Rubin Farr said:

Four cassette-only releases remastered to vinyl, some of this is really good, they were somewhat ahead of what bands like The Human League, Suicide, and Ministry were doing in 1981. I'm guessing they might have been using a Fairlight CMI to do the sampling?

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Unlikely. The Fairlight was more than $27,000 in 1981. Over a $100,000 in today's money. Only the real big hitters, (in terms of sales) would have had access to it.

Notably, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jean-Michel Jarre, Duran Duran and Thomas Dolby.

  On 6/26/2024 at 8:57 PM, fumi said:

Unlikely. The Fairlight was more than $27,000 in 1981. Over a $100,000 in today's money. Only the real big hitters, (in terms of sales) would have had access to it.

Notably, Peter Gabriel, Kate Bush, Stevie Wonder, Herbie Hancock, Jean-Michel Jarre, Duran Duran and Thomas Dolby.

Ministry got a Fairlight unit in 1985

  On 6/27/2024 at 12:09 AM, Rubin Farr said:

Ministry got a Fairlight unit in 1985

I was talking about 1981. Dozens of bands/artists had access to it by 1985 because they would go and record in a studio that had bought one.