Hmm... interesting that nothing appears on the comp from Mr. Newman and CN1, ...Fish or Not To - especially when you factor in that This Mortal Coil covered two of his songs back in the day. I wonder if that was "compiler's choice" or if the rights to those albums have shifted somewhere. Is there ay indication in the book or CD notes?

Because otherwise, many of the picks on the comp really do represent some of the best that 4AD's artists had to offer. Almost any of the tracks on Not To would have fit in quite nicely, actually.

Just started reading this now (had to wait a couple of months to land one of the super special limited-to-1000-copies hardback editions, which includes the double CD 'greatest hits' package. It's a beautiful, beautiful thing, I can tell you) and it's terrific.

Very interesting to see just how integral Wire were to 4AD in the early days - there's even an acknowledgement from Ivo that the Cupol / Colin stuff might not have sold very much but it was important in lending the fledgeling label some credibility when many of the bands they were releasing records by tended to vanish off the face of the planet after one single.

Apart from that, who knew that a couple of the lads out of Rema Rema / Mass subsequently went on to form Renegade Soundwave?