American Analog Set - Trespassers in the stereo field website

I’m rather thrilled that American Analog set have emerged from a long hibernation with a new album, that has been ordered. While I’m waiting for it to arrive I’ll reminisce about my past history with them…

Trespassers in the stereo field (2000)

At some point in the late 1990s I was introduced to American Analog Set by fans on the Galaxie 500 Mailing List - I hunted down all the releases I could - which at the time was three rather great albums and the Bliss Out EP (that I kind of loved even more). During my scouring of the Internet for information it became clear that Amanset were sorely under-represented in the fan website stakes… so, as that was my thing I felt an urge to remedy that.

So at some point either at the end of 1999 or early in 2000 Trespassers in the stereo field was born, with the following reason printed proudly on the front page.

It just made me sad that there didn’t appear to be a web site dedicated to such a good band - so I built one. My knowledge of American Analog Set has been gleaned from the following sources…

• the three albums and one ep I own
• the very VERY limited sleeve notes they contain
• the few reviews and interviews I’ve managed to find on the Internet

Trespassers in the stereo field archived at Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org/), 6th June 2000

The news page was even less ambitious “if I had any news about the band this is where it would go”.

Over the next three or four years the page expanded somewhat, both in content and width, but I never got as fully involved in the world of Amanset as I was (and still am) in the world of Galaxie 500, so the pages became a little neglected - mostly because my time was being used elsewhere, but also because I wasn’t getting a huge amount of engagemnent from other fans - this would have been down to me rather than them! Also, the gaps were being filled elsewhere, other websites started to appear - including an official one - that made it harder for me to commit.

American Analog Set cassettes

In May 2002, I was already considering closing the site but decided that the band were still not that well served on the Internet so I persisted. In July, the band played at 93 Feet East in London and I went along, the only time I saw them live, I met up with a couple of folk who had contacted me through the website, didn’t talk to the band… and that was that. My pal did record the show but I can’t find the recording, I was also sent a recording from another UK date, but can’t find that either.

I have found a couple of casettes I was sent, one with a couple of live shows from 2000; and one with what’s described as “New work 2001” and has the following message inside:

I have no -idea- about track titles for these. The cd Kenny gave me had no label or titles or anything. Apart from a slightly different mix of “Only Living Boy Around” this is all new work. Be fore warned : This is, as Kenny puts it, the “rock ‘n’ roll” album. Hee Hee Hee.

Cassete inlay, 2001

I sadly can’t remember who sent me this - they filled up the other side with synth-pop band Vitesse’s Chelsea 27099 album which I’ll admit to not having listened to for 20+ years! I currently don’t have a working cassette deck so the Amanset New work will have to remain a mystery!

On the 5th November 2004 I declared the site dead, and in March 2005 made one last post pointing users at a new fansite Amansetnews archived at Wayback Machine (https://web.archive.org), 4th April 2005 and Amanset’s official site, and finally mothballed the site… and eventually took it down.

Trespassers in the stereo field (2005)

I have to admit here that I drifted away from the band, and on occasional revisits found them more difficult to love than I had, I think I had changed, the greatness was still there, I just didn’t seem to have the patience to commit to them like I had in those early flushes. I’m older now and the love is still there, I think I just needed them to remind me, and maybe this new album has… although it hasn’t arrived yet!