I found some mysterious 313-related items in my local record shop that I thought some of you guys might be interested in and might be able to shed some light on.
One is a 12" with a plain red label with "TB-606 EP" handwritten on it (this is presumably a combination of "TR-606" and "TB-303", or a mistake). There are 6 tracks I think of rather good, techno made entirely with a 303 and a 606. I guess what it most reminds me of is some of the early Rephlex stuff like Universal Indicator. But what's interesting is that the guy assures me that it's a test-pressing done by the R & S label, although he doesn't know who's responsible for the music. I can find no evidence of any such thing being ever released by R & S, so is he wrong or is this something that never made it to a full release, do you think? Slightly more straightforward are two early Metroplex releases. One is an unmarked white label bearing the handwritten legend 'Metroplex', and it certainly sounds like something that would genuinely be a Metroplex release. It also says "Olly" on it - but I think that's just the guy who owned it - and has "Passion Records" stamped on it, which I assume is the shop that originally sold it. The other is a copy of Shake's "5% Solution" on Metroplex, also featuring 3 other tracks: "Mindless Entertainment", "Day of Reckoning", and "My Name Is Binky". Can anyone advise me as to whether this is at all rare or valuable? If not, it's still a very nice, and frankly insane-sounding, release. Thanks in advance if anyone can supply any information! I'd particularly like to find what the so-called R & S thing might be. Robin Howells
