THE SHEEP RECORDS STORY #5: STEREOPHONIC SPACE SOUND UNLIMITED "PHANTOM RIDER" (1998)

Sheep Records was a Swiss underground label specialized in Garage-Rock, Surf, Lounge and other Rock'n'Roll oddities. Run by Christian Müller from Zürich, along with friends Andi Frick and Andreas Egi, it was active from 1996 to 2004 and published about 30 releases, mostly on 7" vinyl singles.



In October 2006, after about two years of hiatus, all the contents of the now defunct Sheep Records website were deleted from the Internet, and replaced with a blank page announcing that "Der Kebab ist gegessen" ("The kebab is eaten"), a last goodbye and a reference to the label's cataloguing system that included the prefix "kebab" for vinyl releases and "gigot" for CD releases.



The fifth Sheep Records release was a 7" by Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited. The single was limited to 800 copies - 500 on yellow vinyl and 300 on black vinyl - and was released in February 1998.

Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited are a Swiss instrumental band formed by Ernest Maeschi (former member of Hungry For What, Sozz and Midnight To Six) and Karen Diblitz (former member of Chin Chin and Midnight To Six).

They have released several albums on their own Dionysus Records label; they also used to run a record shop called Spooky Sound in Zürich, the shop still exists but I'm not sure if they still run it or if it has a new owner...

Even with six full-length albums (including a soundtrack for a movie about Swiss racecar driver Jo Siffert) under their belt, not much is known about this mysterious duo and not one single Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited photograph seems to exist... But that hasn’t stopped them from garnering a legion of fans who love all retro, surf, spy, Henry Mancini, John Barry and electronica from buying and loving the group's music.

Their work has been used in American television shows such as The Chris Isaak Show, and they have created film soundtracks featuring their distinctive sound.

Here's the original press-release written by the Sheep Records staff:

"After their great Mai Tai album "Plays Lost TV Themes" we are proud to present two new instrumentals of Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited. This single brings you "Phantom Rider" - an organ driven classic - plus "Spooky Shore" - a thrill-filled off-beat tune. Very spooky indeed! All this comes in a full color hardcover."





Here's the track list for this 7" single:

01. Phantom Rider (2:41)
02. Spooky Shore (3:05)

Both tracks were remastered from vinyl in May 2012 and are available in FLAC lossless format or high-quality 320 Kbps MP3 files, both formats include scans of the original item in PDF format. Please have a look at the comments for the download links.

More information about Sheep Records, and Stereophonic Space Sound Unlimited is available here:

http://www.surfnroll.de/interviews/sheep/sheep.html

http://www.discogs.com/artist/Stereophonic+Space+Sound+Unlimited

http://www.dionysusrecords.com/

http://www.recordjunkie.com/stores/view/609

http://blogcritics.org/music/article/review-stereophonic-space-sound-unlimited-jet/

http://www.popmatters.com/pm/review/stereophonicspacespectacular-jet

http://www.gravediggerslocal.com/tag/stereophonic-space-sound-unlimited/

http://showcase.thebluebus.nl/soundtrack-of-my-life/august-2007/stereophonic-space-sound-unlimited

http://mreliminator.blogspot.it/2012/05/stereophonic-space-sound-unlimited.html

The Sheep Records story will continue in the next months. All your inputs are more than welcome, if you want to get in touch please write to stereocandies [at] hotmail [dot] com or leave a comment in the box below, thank you!