Jim O'Rourke - Old News



In 2011, Editions Mego started to launch an "Old News" series of double LPs which started at Volume 5 and is currently up to Volume 8. The first four Old News releases are a bit of a mystery. As far as I know, the first four were all tour releases.

The first Old News was sold on the Diskaholics Anonymous Trio tour of Japan in early 2002 whilst the second was sold on Mirror’s tour of Japan in late 2002. Volume Four was sold on a Japanese tour in 2005. I would assume that Volume Three was also sold on a tour of Japan but I have never even heard a rumour of it!

Whilst I may never get to hear Volumes 3 and 4...here's the first two.

Old 1

Old 2

11 comments:

  1. This is an amazing surprise. Thanks for these! Didn't even know about them - thought Mego's starting at #5 was an arbitrary thing. Do you have any idea about the provenance of these tracks?

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  2. Unfortunately, I don't have much more info than what is posted. I've been sitting on 1 and 2 for years. And then Mego released starting at 5...and that really threw me...I thought there were only 2!?

    The only source I have ever found is http://tisue.net/orourke/ but it won't really answer your question.

    Hopefully, somebody here will be able to fill in some blanks...

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  3. I already have seen these two on soulseek and it always intrigued me the absense of 3 and 4... so, here we wait for a future chance to listen to those tracks.

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  4. Thanks for the link. No immediate answer to my original question. However, info for vol.4 indicates that it may contain Jim's original 'remix' of the '007 and Counting' theme from 'Diamonds Are Forever'. I heard this many years ago on Radio 3's 'Mixing It', which claimed the source was a 'no label CD'. In fact, I have this track on cassette, but no means of digitising it... a shame, as it's a track I love...

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  5. Oh, and the last track on vol.1 appears to come from the 'Not Alone' comp on Jnana. Called 'Naoru' (Japanese for 'heal' or 'get better').

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  6. That is some seriously impressive knowledge!!!

    To be able to nail vol 4 which neither of us have heard to a "mixing it" session from many years ago...

    Mixing It is a treasure trove...bit of an "unknown" gem of a show...can't think of any other radio shows that serve the same purpose tbh.

    And...of course...it's Naoru. I had to go and find where I had the compilation [I keep running out of room and have to pack things away]. Sounds like the version on 1 is an earlier working, both tracks sound different and are equally beautiful. Definately Naoru tho'...

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  7. Great to listen to this extremely limited music. Thank you.

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  8. Mixing It was the greatest. I still find myself (re)discovering stuff I heard on there years ago.

    I actually have a bunch of episodes on cassette, from the late '90s. Also a Boredoms sesh from 1995, which I've not heard nor seen anywhere else...

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  9. Speaking on Naoru, I was watching Love Liza the other day and 'Naoru' is in it, so that means that piece dates back to at least 2002. Not sure if that helps in piecing things together, but that's just something I observed.

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  10. A little more info here: http://launch.groups.yahoo.com/group/jim-orourkelist/message/1770

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  11. Just finished the 1st CD....Wow, this is seriously beautiful stuff, thanks for the treats!

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