iDEoLA – Tribal Opera – 1987

This album was a concept album by Mark Heard under the pseudonym iDEoLA. Mark stated that there was no big mystery to the name. He stated “It’s not supposed to be mysterious or anything; I just put a band together and right now I happen to be the only one in it.” Mark played all the instruments with the exception of some percussion samples. All in all it’s actually a really good album. It has a solid Pop sound and I particularly like the percussion segments. While it’s a huge departure from Mark’s usual work I wish he’d pursued this line of music as well as his usual.

Tracklist
1 – I Am An Emotional Man – 4:29
2 – Is It Any Wonder – 3:49
3 – Watching The Ship Go Down – 3:52
4 – Talk To Me – 3:48
5 – Go Ask The Dead Man – 3:51
6 – Love Is Bigger Than Life – 3:36
7 – How To Grow Up Big And Strong – 5:06
8 – Everybody Dances – 4:07
9 – Why Can’t We Just Say No – 4:23
10 – Hold Back Your Tears – 3:46

Credits
Artwork By – Tim Alderson
Drums [People Who Hit Things For Digital Samples & Wengi Drum Machine Introduction On “talk To Me”] – David Baker
Drums [People Who Hit Things For Digital Samples] – Dan Michaels, David McSparran, Doug Matthews, Steve Hindalong
Edited By [Digital Pcm 1630] – Tom Hall
Instruments [All], Lead Vocals, Backing Vocals – Ideola
Mastered By – Steve Hall
Mixed By – Mark Heard
Mixed By [Assistant] – Dan Reed, Jim Dineen, Steve Katayama
Photography – Stewart Ivester
Producer – Mark Heard
Recorded By – Mark Heard
Written-By – Mark Heard

Various – Adventures in the Land of Big Beats & Happy Feets – 1989

This has to be the worst sampler in the history of Christian music. It’s not the songs that are bad, they are great songs from great artists. It’s what they did with them that is the problem. Let me explain. This album is constructed as follows. The opening, ending, and all odd number songs are studio dance beats attributed to non existent bands. All of the even songs are well known songs by well known artists BUT they have been “remixed and extended”. Now first of all this album came out in 1989 and the secular music scene was done with cheesy two bit extended dance tracks. But for whatever reason Word Records chose at this late time to jump on a bandwagon that had already left the building. So here we go. Every song we have heard of before on this album is an “extended remix”. I use the term “extended remix” term loosely as these are without a doubt the worst remixes I have ever heard. So what we have here is the business idea of re releasing the same content over and over again only this time they pretended to dress it up as something new. What a disaster. OK listen to the album once and forget about it, that’s what I did.

Tracklist
1 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Prologue – 2:03
2 – Imperials – Fallin’ – 4:18
3 – Bunny Whop And The Hip Hop – Baow Baow Baow – 1:06
4 – Philip Bailey – Thank You – 5:29
5 – Randy McNally & The Road Dogz – Rappin’ Detail – 1:12
6 – Amy Grant – Wise Up – 6:28
7 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – No Bout Adoubt It – 1:11
8 – Steve Taylor – Svengali – 5:46
9 – Billy B. & The Beez Nees – Doutout – 0:57
10 – Kim Boyce – I Just Want To Celebrate – 5:16
11 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Tee Vee Whiz – 0:51
12 – Ideola – Jericho – 4:28
13 – The Nerf Wilson Ensemble – Gee Tee Vee – 1:12
14 – Russ Taff – I’ve Come Too Far – 5:39
15 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – 1:16
16 – Sheila Walsh – Ship Of Love – 7:00
17 – Snappo Schultz – BBBBBeatitudinal – Part II – 1:01
18 – Randy Stonehill Cold Rock The Groove – 4:35
19 – Rakim D. & The Garden Beats – Epilogue – 0:42

Credits
Art Direction, Design – Bradley Grose
Compilation Producer – Leon Mulczk
Coordinator [Cover] – Laurie Fink (2)
Executive-Producer – Tom Willett
Music By [Link Music By] – Lee Cahuenga (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)
Remix [Re-mixes], Edited By [Edits] – Lee Cahuenga
Written-By [Links Written By], Producer [Links Produced By] – Linx, Inc. (tracks: 1, 3, 5, 7, 9, 11, 13, 15, 17, 19)

Companies, etc.
Record Company – Word, Inc.
Phonographic Copyright (p) – Word, Inc.
Copyright (c) – Word, Inc.
Distributed By – Word Records Limited
Distributed By – Word (UK) Ltd.
Manufactured By – Word, Inc.