Mystery Records

I want to hear about the greatest mysteries in recorded music. Records which nobody has been able to identify, records which nobody has ever heard, records which may not even exist. Here are a few examples to start.

Inspired to start this by the blog post on Discogs last week, with the most expensive record ever sold - Scaramanga Silk's ‎– Choose Your Weapon - a CDR self-released in 2008, which sold for $41,095

Words used to describe Scaramanga Silk include “enigmatic” and “cloaked behind layers.” What we do know about this British DJ is that he has been dropping singles and EPs since 2008 and his first full-length, Designer Scribble, arrived on the Micro Spiral label in 2016. The release in the spotlight, Choose Your Weapon, is a promo gatefold self-released in 2008 with a 12-inch vinyl and a CD-Rom, both of which contain the title track, as well as “an art print by Immyart and a poem on an acetate,” according to the Database. Only 20 numbered copies exist.

“In order to best portray the overall message, it was delivered across the mediums of music, art, and poetry. By having these three channels, the aim was to allow each of the separate elements to operate independently but also as a collective whole,” Scaramanga Silk tells Discogs.

By several accounts, the release drew attention from collectors shortly after it dropped when it sold on eBay for $654. How that price tag sky-rocketed to over $40,000 remains a mystery. Not much information is listed in the Database; only five Discogs users want it and three have it. This wallet-emptying sale is the only time it has passed hands through our Marketplace. According to the specific item information, it was listed as a “mega-rare collectible. Unplayed, Mint Condition. Numbered 02 / 20. Contains info sheet, signed record, signed art print [plus CD].”

“The individual who made the purchase must have had some kind of special connection to the work too. There was a buzz around the record in 2008,” Scaramanga Silk explains. “It means a lot that Choose Your Weapon is so special to somebody.”

Here's a fun one. And not expensive:

https://threepillarsoflimbicfission.bandcamp.com/album/three-pillars-of-limbic-fission

The best example maybe is "Ready 'n' Steady" by D. A.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ready_%27n%27_Steady

Music historian Joel Whitburn, whose company Record Research Inc. specializes in researching the Billboard charts, has published various books containing chart data. He has collected tens of thousands of records, including all of the 45s ever to hit the Hot 100 or Bubbling Under charts—all except "Ready 'n' Steady".

In a 1995 interview, Whitburn said he had never actually seen or heard the record, but added, "We think—we think—that it's a girl's rock group from Chicago. Punk group, we think—1979. And we think that the Rascal label was out of a guy's home in Detroit." Whitburn had found a small ad for a Rascal label located in Detroit in a punk rock publication and had the address checked out; unfortunately, all that was found was a boarded-up vacant house.[4] The entry in Billboard shows "Ready 'n' Steady" had a catalog number of 102; if there was a Rascal 101 released, it remains unknown to collectors.

A female-fronted punk rock group from Chicago called DA! were active in the early 1980s. The band released a single and an EP on the Autumn Records label in 1981–82. This is presumably the band that Whitburn thought (as of the 1995 interview) could have recorded "Ready 'n' Steady" in 1979; the band has stated that they did not record the song.[5]

In the fourth edition of Whitburn's Bubbling Under the Hot 100 book, published in 2005, the entry for "D. A." was amended with a note stating, "The existence of this record and artist is in question", and quotes a price of $150 as its value; in 2009, Whitburn published his latest Top Pop Singles book, which includes both Hot 100 and Bubbling Under singles—but D. A. was not listed at all. In an interview with the website CelebrityAccess, Whitburn noted he still had not been able to find "Ready 'n' Steady" and said, "I don't think it exists".[6] Whitburn also thought that the song's listing on the chart could have been a copyright trap by Billboard.

but then it was actually found

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mdt_Aer-46Q

This is the alleged "Most Mysterious Song On The Internet"

This song was recorded from a German radio station called NDR between 1982 and 1984. Search (online) has been active since the early 2000s, when the song was made available online, and to this day no one has been able to give any accurate and correct information about the origin of the song. Facts like the band's nationality and exact year of recording are unknown, and to this day, we have not gotten any information about the whereabouts of the authors, or even the correct title of the song. Apparently there is no alternative online register/archive of this song, since the only source we have of this song is from the cassette tape that Darius recorded from the radio. Recently, a Reddit user found that in the chorus of this song, a synth called Yamaha DX7 was used, there's a preset called Syn-Lead 5, and it's exactly the same sound they used in the song, the Yamaha DX7 was released in 1983, so we may have a basis that the song was probably recorded in 1984, or late 1983.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zPGf4liO-KQ

One more. Hi Dave!

Back in 2014, the Roots and Traces blog (https://spurensicherung.blogspot.com​) uploaded this mystery track to their site where it has sat ever since, unidentified. It's a great find and surely can't have been the only work the group put out there... any help identifying this would be a huge relief to us both!

From the original website: "no year of recording or any other information can be found on the label or on the cover except for a telephone number and a note (name) reading something like "Maden." or "Madeu."

The music starts with a psychodeleric first strike but pretty soon it smoothes down to some sort of soft rock followed by a guitar solo and an even longer piano solo, very clean, very competent, like in the long versions of 'light my fire' but completely omitting the madness. after about eight minutes a kraut flute steps in and the end is marked by a kosmische organ sound, very obscure. i cut together side one and side two for a seamless experience of this strange platter. i guess it was recorded in 1972, but i can be proved completely wrong and everybody but me knows this is bruce springsteen or any other mediocre singer and songwriter. i hope you can help all of us."

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dh98TfcpCVc

following

yeah Ned's link is worth a listen for sure

the Robyn Nice stuff *kind of* fits in this category but he's more like Jandek in that it seems to be an open secret abt his identity

Robyn Nice C/D, S/D (a.k.a. Jim Collins, Terry, Tommy Roundtree, Arian Sample, Gary K, TSA, Boots, Snake & Remus, etc. etc. etc.)

xp CaAA that one doesn't count because it's clearly an acetate one-off "record your own disc" record, you can tell by the label

(placing it almost certainly in the early 50's but hey I could be wrong)

Bookmarked!

oh here's another one, I think?

https://www.discogs.com/Siamese-Temple-Ball-Siamese-Temple-Ball/master/1133659

This was a cool thread:

zero information albums

what was that pan-pipe led orchestral funk phantasmagoria we were agonizing about 10 years ago?
it wasn't shakuhachi.
pan pipes
flipin awesome

Identify this weird panpipe disco synth delay-soaked fusion thing for me please

ach, dropbox link dead- i'll have to upload it somehow when i get a mo - i remember doing a faux stereo spatialized version of it on an old drive

ok - i think this is an unmonkeyed with version:
http://www.mediafire.com/file/2hokuuk13o49iti/pan_pipe_disco_fusion_thing2.mp3/file