Arcania International On The Air!

Brent Hosier, owner of the Arcania International record label was featured on public radio station WVTF during "Morning Edition" today.

It was a pretty exciting time for all of us. We've been working with Brent for some time, trying to get some well-deserved attention to his releases.

Brent's a knowledgable record collector, and his compilations of 1960's garage band and soul records are pretty remarkable. Brent insists only using tracks that haven't been previously released on CD, which keeps the selections fresh-sounding. Further, he's pretty much limited his compilations to Virginia artists (with a few side trips).

Arcania International has two series running. The four volumes of "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things" focuses on garage and psych bands of the mid- to late-1960s. "Ol' Virginia Soul" collects soul and R&B tracks from (mostly) the Old Dominion on three CDs.

Some of the discs have fallen out of print, and that's where we've come in. DCD Records has reissued "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things, Vol. 1" and we're working on the others.

Check out the "Captive Audio" series at WVTF. You can even listen to the segment. And then -- if you're so inclined -- toodle on over to DCDRecords.com and buy a CD or two. We'll all be glad you did.

- Ralph

Podcast Episode #039 Posted

We just posted the 39th episode of the DCD Classical 'Cast. This time around, we look at the music for piano 4-hands. Both Laurel Records and the University of Wisconsin - Madison School of Music have some interesting releases using this somewhat unusual combination.

U of W's entry is a four-CD set tracing the career of Howard and Francis Karp. From this release we play a selection by Franz Schubert and another by Antonin Dvorak.

Laurel's release is a collection of 20th century music for piano 4-hands. Margret Elson and Elizabeth Swarthout play works by several American composers. On the podcast we play selections from Wallingford Riegger and Vincentg Persichetti.

It was a fun show to put together -- I hope you enjoy it!

- Ralph

New Podcast Episode Posted

I've just posted episode #38 of the DCD Classical Cast. The program features three different concertos. Since the nature of the podcast is to showcase recordings for sale at DCDRecords.com rather than offer complete musical programs (would that it were different), we tend to feature excerpts on the podcast.

In most cases I try to match the excerpted movement to a corresponding place in the podcast. In this program, for example, the opening piece is the first movement of Mozart's first piano concerto. The middle of the three selections is the second movement of Rachmaninoff's Second Piano Concerto, where it fills a similar role in the composition. And the final work is the finale to Bloch's Violin Concerto.

Does this kind of programming make the show flow better? I think so, but I'm alwasy open for suggestions. What do you think?

- Ralph

A Clutch of Concerti

Over the weekend I finished the voicetracking for the next episode of the DCD Classical 'Cast. The music for the podcast all comes from concerto recordings.

The plural form of the word "concerto" is "concerti," but what do you call a group of them? I'm not sure there's really a proper word for a collection of concerti. I went with "clutch," primarily for the alliteration.

We should have the completed episode posted later this week.

- Ralph

Aliens Psychos and Wild Things, Volume Fore

We recently added another title to our line of rock titles, thanks to Arcania International.

Arcania International's made Virginia the focus of their compilations. The first three volumes of "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things" featured music from the Old Dominion, ca. 1965 - 1969.

For the fourth volume, Arcania expanded their scope. "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things - Volume Fore" covers pych and garage bands from Virginia and its surrounding states. The resulting compilation contains some real gems. And just like the other volumes in the series, the songs in "Fore" are appearing in a collection for the first time.

Here's a small slab of psychedelic goodness from "Aliens, Psychos and Wild Things, Volume Fore."

Black Narcosis: The Land of Stone
Spontaneous Combustion: The Looking Glass of Time

Far out!

- Ralph