RIF MOUNTAIN RECORDS

Label overview from HOBBY HORSE to RIF MOUNTAIN RECORDS

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Erstellt: 29.01.2011
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THE EARLY HOBBY HORSE YEARS

In June 2006, STEVEN COLLINS started making music as THE OWL SERVICE. To release his music, he started a label named HOBBY HORSE RECORDS. Over the summer Steven worked on what was to become his first release as THE OWL SERVICE, the "Wake The Vaulted Echo" EP. DOM COOPER, a fellow musician, had a band named THE STRAW BEAR BAND and contacted Steven to ask if he wanted to help his band with their "Eccentric Heart" project. Steven started working on arranging new songs for THE STRAW BEAR BAND and Dom provided a vocal take for the song "The Two Magicians", the last thing that was missing from THE OWL SERVICE EP, which saw its release soon after.

Besides a love of traditional music, THE OWL SERVICE also takes a great interest in classic British TV and films. For starters, they share their name with a '60s TV series which is in turn based on ALAN GARNER's book by the same name. Furthermore, their second release was another EP called "Cine". It contained covers of songs from soundtracks of some classical/cult movies ("Psychomania", "Girl on a Motorcycle" and "The Wicker Man"). This EP, which was made hastily and was limited to a mere 50 copies, was reissued by STATIC CARAVAN in 2007 under the title "Cine (The Director's Cut)" and contained an extra track, this time from the movie "Die Screaming Marianne".

Early HOBBY HORSE RECORDS releases were all very limited handmade CD-R releases by THE OWL SERVICE, although a now deleted digital release of remixed/reworked material from their first EP was also freely available for a while. While Steven, with the help of NANCY WALLACE, JO LEPINE, DOM COOPER and a few others was working on the first full length album of THE OWL SERVICE, HOBBY HORSE released "From the Sea to the Stars", THE STRAW BEAR BANDS's first album on CD. It's the oldest release that's still available today. The album is not part of the aforementioned "Eccentric Heart" project though. Instead it consists of reworked older recordings from 2005/2006.

THE OWL SERVICE's full length "A Garland of Song" was released later that year and was once again a handmade CD-R release. In the liner notes, Steven says the original goal was to simply provide a traditionals album. What we get instead is an excellent mixture of traditional songs, some instrumental and more psychedelic tracks composed by STEVEN COLLINS. Also present is another collaboration with THE STRAW BEAR BAND. THE OWL SERVICE's ambitious approach is shown further down in the liner notes, where Steven writes: "I set out to make the most exciting English folk album since 'Liege and Lief' – I'll leave it up to you to decide if I achieved that".

November of 2007 saw another important change in the history of THE OWL SERVICE: for the first time, they would perform live. To celebrate this the rehearsals, which nicely document the transition from studio project to live band, were made available as "Chime Hours - Live in a Room" and could only be purchased on the day of the performance itself.

HOBBY HORSE RECORDS would release two more of these very limited editions in 2007. The first one was the "Bonus Tracks" EP by THE OWL SERVICE, which was limited to a mere ten copies (but was also available freely to people who purchased "A Garland Of Song" through the now defunct WOVEN WHEAT WHISPERS digital download service). The second one was a compilation created for the HOBBY HORSE 'Midwinter Special' which took place in the legendary Cecil Sharp House in London. These kind of releases, issued at significant occasions, would always be part of the label. For 2008, HOBBY HORSE had the ambitious plan to release the HOBBY HORSE "Singles Collection". It would consist of five lathe cut 7" singles by various artists and each single would be released on significant date throughout the first half of the year. Unfortunate production problems delayed the project considerably. The first single was released in September 2008 and only four of the five singles have been released to date.