2 new items...

Lee's track "Eileen" seems to be a big hit over at Vimeo... the song most recently appeared in Evan Burn's wonderful short documentary "The Junk King", which has received 20,000 views in just 2 days.

We're super-chuffed to be a part of the latest remix EP by Sweden's #1 pop band Acid House Kings! Lee did his best Phil Collins-esque production work - you can get it at iTunes, or stream it below to listen!

new album playlist: Beyond the Goal

Possible hockey lockout gotcha down?

Back in 2008, the Corporation that Broadcasts throughout Canada held a contest for a new hockey anthem to go with their very popular hockey TV show. They lost the original rights to the iconic and well-known theme, and so asked Canada to write a new one.

There were over 15,000 entries.. and most of them are lost to time, which I think is a shame and I would like to see them remembered and preserved.

The Corporation that Broadcasts throughout Canada took down the website a few years ago, but with a little help from the Internet Archive's Wayback Machine, I was able to look up original contest entries that were posted on the site.

However, they didn't store the mp3 and video files that people submitted on their own website. They used off-site storage... and the files are still there!

It's impossible to collect all the songs... each entry was given an ID number, but you don't know who the artist is, or what the song is called, unless you cross-reference it with the Wayback results... and they didn't capture every page, but I managed to create the following "album playlist" from what the Wayback gave me.

I actually collected a 'personal' CD worth of anthems, so I do have more songs than are listed here that I quite liked, but unfortunately I never saved the original ID numbers, so I can't find them now... and I cannot re-upload them without the permission of the songwriters. Most cases, all I have is a name and a city, which isn't very helpful in tracking them down, with the exception of a few.

So instead, I'm linking to the original files - you'll have to rename the file yourself if you want to save it (every file name gets tagged as "31").

It includes some well-known Canadian musicians like Gowan, Moe Berg from TPOH, Carly Paradis (who played piano on the "Moon" soundtrack), Myles Goodwin from April Wine, Steve Eggers from the Canadian pop/rock band The Nines, and many more you've never heard of.

Also included is Logan Aube's "Hockey Scores", which I highly recommend you read the story behind.

Get them before they go!

New release: Peter DiPhillips "Omphalos"

Presenting a debut release by Peter DiPhillips for Happy Puppy: Omphalos.

Peter, who also goes by the name slowdazzzle, creates dark and spacey electronic soundscapes highlighted with minimal but effective melodies... definitely of interest for fans of atmospheric soundtracks.

Many highlights, but we particularly enjoy the synthy-calm "Tranquillamente" trilogy at the end, which pretty much sounds like what its title implies.

You can find other releases of Peter's on his Soundcloud and Bandcamp pages, where he recently posted the sequel to this release, Omphalos II.

new release: Origami Repetika - Computer Time

After releasing his first single on Happy Puppy last year, Origami Repetika is back with his first mini-LP for us.

The man behind Origami Repetika is Adam Sigmund, who is a member of the Origami Republika collective, and now is also a member of the South Jersey SoundFont Collective (SJSFC).

There's lots of bright and sunny sounds in these bouncy tunes, and would probably do well if you were looking for chipmusic to exercise to - case in point, the song "Sunny Morning Exercise Club".

Share and enjoy.

Drones To Make Dinner By

Hello and yes, July is nearly over and we haven't done much. But things are in the tubes... two new releases coming very soon, and we're now taking submissions for the first in a hopefully-continuing series.

Now accepting submissions for a new series in compilations of original material, in the spirit of the "Music To.." or "Music For.." series of albums released in the 60s.

"Drones To Make Dinner By"!

Requirements:

1. Record an original drone track (or something drone-y sounding)... something that might be good for dinnertime. We're looking for new, previously-unreleased material.

2. No profanity or adult subject matter please.

3. You can make it as long or short as you like, but no longer than 10 minutes.

4. We like quality, so send either FLACs or MP3s encoded no lower than 192 kbps.

5. Upload it to dropbox, zippyshare, yousendit, etc and email me the link to happypuppyrecords@yahoo.com

6. Please include a short bio if yourself/band (3 lines max) and link(s) to the website you'd like people to visit to find out more about you.

7. Choose a CC license for your tracK ** VERY IMPORTANT ** It's not a demand, but we'd highly suggestion this one:

8. Deadline for submissions is September 30, 2012

Please note there is no guarantee your track will appear on the compilation, which will be posted on Happy Puppy Records and Free Music Archive for free download.

Any questions just email us! Thanks for your consideration.

New release: Maximilian Torsten - Namoon

Happy Puppy is proud to announce the re-release of a very rare LP from 1972 by unknown German electronic artist Maximilian Torsten.

Originally a privately-pressed vinyl record, Namoon is an ambient and minimalist sonic treat composed of two long songs, split up into movements. Recorded in his basement studio with home-made equipment, Max created the music during late-night sessions from 1970-72 inspired by his heroes Jon Appleton, Tangerine Dream, Silver Apples, early Kraftwerk and White Noise.

Less than 100 copies were made of Namoon, given to friends and family. Due to his extremely introverted nature, he never sent any copies to radio stations, magazine or record stores.

Fast-forward to 2010.... after meeting online in a forum dedicated to early 70s electronic music, Happy Puppy's owner Lee Rosevere shared original music back and forth with Max, introduced him to the world of netlabels. In turn, Max introduced Lee to Max's library of original unreleased albums - all recorded as a hobby - just gathering dust on his shelf.

Luckily, Max still had the original master tapes for Namoon, and thanks to him, we are able to make the remastered album available for free download on its 40th anniversary. It is our hope to bring you more of his music in the future.

new release: Dudley Whitemud sings Aqua's Aquarium

We're big fans of the program Amateur Hour, heard on CKUW out of Winnipeg, hosted by Kent Davies (you should consider a donation to their fine station).

A few months ago, Kent had Joe Stover on his program from Cuif Media, a underground collective of artists from Winnipeg in the late 90s to mid 2000's.

At the end of the show, they played one of the most popular items in the Cuif Media library: Dudley Whitemud Sings Selections From Aqua's Aquarium.

Since Happy Puppy's own Fudge had recorded a cover of "Barbie Girl" in surf style, we know that Aqua were capable of writing some really great melodies that could be heard past the dance-pop production.

So we were very curious to hear this album, featuring acoustic folk-country renditions of Aqua's debut album. After the broadcast, we contacted Kent and Cuif Media to see if we could re-release this album officially.

Big thanks to Kent who puts us in touch with Dudley (aka Brock Unger) and provided us with a copy of the album for release here on Happy Puppy, and also to Brock and Cuif Media for giving us permission. Free download!