Favourite compilations
 

Again, so many of them the list would be too long. Comps are cool because I have discovered a lot of bands on them:

The Girls Garage compilations, especially the first 2 volumes
Various - BBC RAdiophonic Workshop Vol. 1 - The Early Years 1963-1969
Various - The Best Of The London Based Sioux Label 1971-1974
Nuggets 1 & 2
Various - Primitive Finland
All the Ethiopiques ones that I have heard are awesome

Artificial Intelligence series.

The document series on dorobo
sweet relief
born to choose
outrios on atavistic
the fishtank series

Just about any Kent or Ace compilation is worth buying in my opinion. A current favourite:

And if a soundtrack counts, this is a pretty fine one:

The first two are fantastic compilations.

i quite liked the film morvern callar

The soundtrack is very good: VU, Holger Czukay, Can, Stereolab, Aphex Twin etc.

Those type of compilations are also good because they are generally cheap, easily available and educational. They might not always contain interesting stuff but that's hardly the point, is it?

What I like about Kent/Ace compilations is that almost always contain tracks no longer under copyright, but they make a point of paying the artists regardless (bless 'em).

But yes, they're still cheap and have stuff that I know nothing about and wouldn't be confident buying an entire album by a particular artist. The one I posted has 4 or 5 tracks which are just breathtaking.

That's exactly it. You go through a lot of tracks and then suddenly those 2 or 3 gems come up and you're floored. The good thing about compilations, samplers etc is that they are a kind of introduction to a band or label that you might like and investigate further. If I have a limited monthly budget for records I'll leave a tenner aside to buy whatever I can find in music exchanges, car boot sales, junk shops, charity shops etc.

Another old favourite. Note the misspelling of favourite (dumb Americans):







Back cover:

Dumb Americans: They can't even be bothered to write the name of the album on it so a red cross will do.

Can't see it?
God's Favorite Dog

alan lomax's two disc collection of 1930s prison songs
library of congress' collection of folk and blues songs

those trojan boxets
mf doom's special blends
no new york
funky 16 corners
tar'd and further'd
ethiopiques
fort worth teen scene
what's up matador?

I only own two compilations:

Rock Action Presents Vol. 1 and 1980 Forward (4AD Compilation) (I got the 4AD one for 2€)

Both are pretty good

I have that Rock Action one myself, that's what made me remember that I had a Part Chimp album on that British noise rock thread.

kranky put out another compilation, also called kompilation in 1998 that was really great, it had godspeed, low, windy & carl, dadamah, AMP, stars of the lid, roy montgomery, bowery electric, pan american, etc

The Leaf label samplers are also generally ok (Asa Chung & Junray, Manitoba, Pole, Murcof, Sutekh, Susumu Yokota, Rob Ellis, Four Tet, Rothko etc)

'streets' - a compilation released early in 1977, includes tracks by slaughter and the dogs, the art attacks, the nosebleeds, arthur comics, john cooper clarke, the exile, the drones, and many others.

awesome sleeve illustrations by savage pencil to top it off.