With the release of BIGBANG’s new single, Still Life, I’ve been visiting the memory lane of music I listened to in college. Tonight, I dived into a compilation album released in 2012, by students of Yale University, Blueprints. This 12-track experimental album is full of wonderful indie and the odd electronic track — all ones I listened to on repeat in my 1997 BMW as I drove to College every day in my younger years.
Tonight as I began to listen to the 41-minute-long album, I started Googling each artist to see if anyone of them had a larger musical career. What I found out instead was this album nearly has been wiped completely from the internet. I couldn’t find a single reference that it ever existed…
Since I bought the album from iTunes back in 2012, I must have access to the archived files stored on a lost server at Apple. I tried to share the album or even visit the album’s purchase link but Apple informs me the album does not exist.
I started to wonder if there’s any existence of this album on the internet? I began by searching for the album + label name, and could only find references to a Star Trek ship. So I resorted to the label alone and found a forgotten Facebook page and to my surprise, their Bandcamp page! I thought I was in luck, the album had to be cataloged there, yet as I opened the link I only found disappointment. The last album to release on the label was in 2014 but it had me thinking… maybe I should reach out to the label. So typed away and sent them a message about how I had a copy of the album and explained how the album had a great impact on me 10 years ago in college.
So for the sake of documenting this album existed, below I’ve listed all the tracks and their respective artists and hopefully if we can get it contact with the 8 year lost label, maybe we can release the album for everyone to hear again.
1. Introduction - 17o1 Records
2. Color Wheels, Part I - Random Kids
3. Balloon - Keith Rubin
4. I Would - Lars Knudsen
5. Running Down - Anchorage
6. Goats - Stray Baloon
7. Livin the Dream - High Definition
8. K-Pop - Howly Dogs
9. By and By - A Streetcar Named Funk
10. Stranger - Furious George
11. What Happened to the Love - Hanoi
12 Postcard - Identity FoundIt is strange to think I might be one of the last few people in the world with access to this album. It’s even weirder to think I have the ability to ensure it doesn’t disappear from the internet. My next task will be to get it documented on Discogs when I get more free time. Oddly, none of the albums released by 17O1 are on Discogs, so if anyone has time maybe we can help the good fellas at Yale out.
It’s starting to hit me that I’m not considered young anymore. It’s a strange feeling knowing parts of me from 10 years ago are missing. It’s even stranger hearing your favorite K-pop group sing about their happy better younger days in their latest release. Seeing this Yale album lost to time made me start wondering what else is being lost in my life and is it worth preserving or should I start looking to the future and stop grasping at my fleeting youth. I also found out my best friend from college got married without telling me. I got married and didn’t tell him either. My wife’s uncle is dying of cancer. My brother is having a 3rd kid soon. The wife wants a kid. I still feel like I was just born and there is so much I want to accomplish first. I am on the fence about where I shall move next after my lease. I lost 2 years to covid quicker than any months before it arrived. Turning 30 has been strange and I’m not sure what I’m supposed to be doing. I could sure use a blueprint to help get me to the next stage of my life. — KITE0080
