Innovative Communication

Know what this is?



Probably not. I don't blame you though, you would have to have VERY specific taste in music to know that this is the logo for "Innovative Communication". The electronic music label was founded in 1978 by the pioneer Klaus Schulze and Michael Haentjes. It was based in Germany and I only became aware of it in about 87, 88 after a trip to a record shop in a town near my home. The Longplayer was a small independent store at the top of Tunbridge Wells high street. The truly enlightened muso would only ever go to The Longplayer, there WAS an OurPrice in the town center at the time but puhleeeeas!

It was during one of my regular rummaging trips there that I came across an album in the "electronic" section, next to the likes of "Tangerine Dream" and such.

"Hmmmm" I thought. It was a rather stark cover compared to all the other items for sale, but I loved weird electronic stuff and had a shelf full of "Tangerine Dream" and "Jean Michel Jarre" albums at home.

I decided to dive in. I bought it and took it round to a friends house and popped it into the Cd player. I have to say that I was very surprised! I was expecting a more avant garde kind of sound but this was almost pop like. I wasn't sure about it at first but the more I listened to it the more I fell for it's rather weird charm.

I went back to shop a few weeks later and they didn't have any more "IC" releases, but the woman behind the counter told me that you could get them by mail order from a company called "The Magnum Music Group". I got the address and sent off for a catalogue. A few weeks later it arrived and strange and wonderful thing it was too. From what I can recall it seemed to consist ONLY of these strange German electronic music Cd's and re-releases of old blues albums.

I should explain that mail order was a complicated business at the time. Internet shopping? That was sci-fi mate. I didn't have a cheque book so the only way I could send money by post was with postal orders. You go to the post office buy, say, £10 in postal orders and then send THEM through the post with the order. It was all a bit of a faff.

On top of that there was really no way to tell if the album you were going to get was any good. The catalogue would have a photo of the cover and a brief description of the album's contents and a bio of the artist. So I was pretty much fumbling around in the dark. I would save up some money, go get the postal orders and then trawl through the catalogue trying to make up my mind what to get.

As a result, over time, I got some really REALLY awful stuff. However, for every highly suspect album there was a real gem. The gems I have kept to this day. Just as well as the label went belly up and many of the titles are now very rare and going on eBay and amazon for (in some cases) £90 or over.

As I said, some of it was awful, but some of it was also inspired. The stuff I liked, and have kept, tends to be the more ambient, esoteric stuff that hasn't aged as badly as some of the more pop sounding efforts. Even some of the more awful albums managed to have at least 1 or 2 good tracks.



God.... These covers take me back.

Some of the artists have moved on to greater things. But many, I suspect, have vanished into obscurity.

Now and then I go and search the net to see if there are any being sold on eBay and the like, and occasionally I pick one up for a bargain price. And yes.... sometimes they are still awful.