Barker, Barker, & Rieflin Ambient Album Circa 86?

Was reading up on the Wax Trax documentary and found this. Anyone have any idea what this is? She doesn’t mention Al, but I recall something about this posted here months ago where that Ministry lineup each did some ambient thing.

CA) You put out the the single by Front 242 and a 12-inch by Cocksure. Any plans to release more?

SKILLICORN) We have some stuff that we’ve been talking about but it has to make sense. There’s a really long-lost ambient record that Paul Barker and Bill Rieflin and Roland Barker put out. It’s really old, like from 1986. So we have that and we might reissue some other stuff but again, it has to make sense.

https://thechicagoambassador.wordpress.com/2017/03/29/the-film-about-chicagos-legendary-wax-trax-records-almost-complete-a-conversation-with-the-filmmakers-days-before-the-first-glimpse/

That’s the “Box Set” project, which was supposed to come out as Wax 019.

There’s a total of 4 tracks, and each member of the 1986 Ministry lineup contributed a track (Al/Paul/Roland/Bill). Each track takes up a side of vinyl, so it would have been a 2LP set.

Something turned up not that long ago, either a bootleg or a discovered test pressing, but hasn’t been available since.
Here’s some sound clips from the four tracks:

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/m-nistry-experimental-album-double-u-ey/542778-01/

It’s nice to hear that they’re thinking about releasing it.

That’s the “Box Set” project, which was supposed to come out as Wax 019.

There’s a total of 4 tracks, and each member of the 1986 Ministry lineup contributed a track (Al/Paul/Roland/Bill). Each track takes up a side of vinyl, so it would have been a 2LP set.

Something turned up not that long ago, either a bootleg or a discovered test pressing, but hasn’t been available since.
Here’s some sound clips from the four tracks:

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/m-nistry-experimental-album-double-u-ey/542778-01/

It’s nice to hear that they’re thinking about releasing it.

Right on, thanks! That’s what I thought, but as they don’t mention Al I want sure if this was some Blackouts offshoot that slipped under my radar.

No prob.

It’s very unlikely that Al was absent. The third track sounds like a mellow spawn of Halloween and I See Red. Al’s name is written all over it.

What the hell does “It has to make sense” mean?
This ain’t the Great American Novel, there’s no need for a coherent narrative flow, it’s archival music. Get the proper legal permissions and put that shit up on Bandcamp for fuck’s sake.

What the hell does “It has to make sense” mean?
This ain’t the Great American Novel, there’s no need for a coherent narrative flow, it’s archival music. Get the proper legal permissions and put that shit up on Bandcamp for fuck’s sake.

I wondered if that went back to the lack of mention of Al, just calling it a Barker and Rieflin thing.

Was this a Ministry release or a side-project?

That’s the “Box Set” project, which was supposed to come out as Wax 019.

There’s a total of 4 tracks, and each member of the 1986 Ministry lineup contributed a track (Al/Paul/Roland/Bill). Each track takes up a side of vinyl, so it would have been a 2LP set.

Something turned up not that long ago, either a bootleg or a discovered test pressing, but hasn’t been available since.
Here’s some sound clips from the four tracks:

https://www.juno.co.uk/products/m-nistry-experimental-album-double-u-ey/542778-01/

It’s nice to hear that they’re thinking about releasing it.

awesome info i’ve never heard anything about this, we even get samples. thank you!

^No prob, happy to help!

I wondered if that went back to the lack of mention of Al, just calling it a Barker and Rieflin thing.

Was this a Ministry release or a side-project?

It’s a side project called “Box Set”. The band was originally called “Crucial” but they changed it. This one almost made it to release, as it was advertised back in the day in Al’s side project roster. Al even talked about it a couple times in interviews. No idea why it got pulled.

What the hell does “It has to make sense” mean?
This ain’t the Great American Novel, there’s no need for a coherent narrative flow, it’s archival music. Get the proper legal permissions and put that shit up on Bandcamp for fuck’s sake.

I took that as a budget limitation. It’s not like they have a huge vault of funds, so they probably need to do some thinking about the sales prospects before spending money releasing an ambient album from 30 years ago.

And there were 4 tracks, each a solo effort from a member of the band. So one of the tracks was Al. No telling if they’d just drop off his track based on his relationship with the rest of the folks involved.

^No prob, happy to help!

[reply]
I wondered if that went back to the lack of mention of Al, just calling it a Barker and Rieflin thing.

Was this a Ministry release or a side-project?

It’s a side project called “Box Set”. The band was originally called “Crucial” but they changed it. This one almost made it to release, as it was advertised back in the day in Al’s side project roster. Al even talked about it a couple times in interviews. No idea why it got pulled.[/reply]

Like the band name was “Box Set?” That sucks.

Like the band name was “Box Set?” That sucks.

Yeah, not the best choice, considering it would confuse buyers. Maybe that was their intention?

[reply]
Like the band name was “Box Set?” That sucks.

Yeah, not the best choice, considering it would confuse buyers. Maybe that was their intention?[/reply]

The weird thing is, I don’t even remember “box sets” as we now know 'em (meaning 4 or more compact discs bundled together in one package) being much of a “thing” until the '90s. I still remember hanging out with my uncle after he had scored the first Led Zeppelin box set of CDs and thinking what a novel concept this was. Maybe there were others before that; I just remember 1990 or so being when the “box set” hype really began to gather steam.

There is of course the possibility that the name chosen has nothing to do with music at all. But yeah it still is clunky and could fit easily into our past “band names for bands” thread.

What’s even more dumb is calling 4 songs a box set.