Maybe I’m Dreaming is the latest collection selected by Mikey Young (Total Control, Eddy Current Suppression Ring) and Keith Abrahamsson (Founder and Head of A&R at Anthology Recordings), the mangled minds behind the beloved Follow the Sun, Sad About the Times, and …Still Sad compilations. The twenty tracks of Dreaming make a conscious, and unconscious, detour from its predecessors, sourced entirely from private press releases, spanning new decades and production modes within homespun folk, soft rock, and otherwise 70s and 80s FM radio adjacent music. The magic of Dreaming is the untold story of the artists behind these songs; those who missed the big time, but whose song craft and unrequited care hit the right notes, both high and low.

Where Follow the Sun and Sad About the Times introduced us to the fame chasing, ambition crashing crooners who missed their shot in the mainstream, Dreaming delves deeper into the isolated wilds — a private world where production quirks, late-night tape hiss, and one-man studio dreams were not necessarily a choice but the hand that was dealt. With the parameters set to "private press only,” Young and Abrahamsson follow a circuitous trail of invention and emotion, documenting a spirit that’s more homespun, sometimes lonelier, and often a little weirder. The guitars still strum, but the keyboards’ hum is more prevalent and precious; wistful harmonies brush up against lo-fi drum machines; a bittersweet fog lingering over even the brightest melodies.

As with their previous collaborations, Young and Abrahamsson weren’t interested in constructing a museum or drafting a historical survey. Dreaming is a sentimental mixtape, assembled late at night when the mind wanders and old memories blur with imagined futures, those within reach and those far too mysterious to ever encounter. Songs were unearthed in personal collections, deep YouTube burrows, dilapidated web archives, and the dim corners of Discogs, with many selections tied not only to intuition but to personal connection. Some tracks arrived via friends — Kelley Stoltz, a frequent guide for Young, tipped him off to both Peter Kraemer’s lost gem “Let the Light Slip” and Awakening’s revelatory closer — adding an unseen but deeply felt thread of camaraderie to the compilation.

The journey takes in a wide, strange sweep: The Watson Brothers Band's “Just Whistle” opens the collection with a sigh and a shrug, a song that feels like it’s been waiting for decades to be heard again. Jim Huxley’s “Tessa on a Magazine,” rediscovered after a long and winding search by Young, shimmers with a distinctly Australian melancholia. The heartbreak of Rick Penta's “My Story Changes” and Twice As Nice’s delicate “Thoughts of You” float easily alongside the more buoyant, radio-dream sheen of Barracuda’s Baby “I Love You” and MAK’s sunshine-dappled “That's Life.”

Widening the aperture to the late 70s and early 80s allows for a deeper exploration into evolving production techniques and musical technologies. The Squad’s “D.L.M.H.I.M.A.” and Christoph Spendel Group’s “Forever” crackle with the kind of bedroom synth warmth that could only come from the analog age, while the soulful, yearning undercurrent of Awakening’s “Gotta Do Somethin / Might As Well Cultivate” caps the collection with a call for action — or maybe just acceptance – in an accidental Brian Eno Here Come the Warm Jets parroting.

While Dreaming moves away from the "sad man with guitar" archetype that hovered over its predecessors, it remains tethered to a familiar emotional gravity — a balance of longing and lightness that defines this corner of the musical universe. Each track shuffles gently between resignation and hope, sadness and serenity, as if the artists themselves were chasing a dream just beyond reach, recording not for fame but for the simple act of getting it, that primal, creative itch, out into the world.

The result is a collection that feels both ephemeral and eternal. A flicker caught in amber. A transmission from the other side of the night; a place where the angels and demons mingle, sharing shots and lines with those that enter their parlor. Dreaming is an invitation to drift a little while longer, eyes half-closed, into that liminal space between memory and imagination. Maybe you're dreaming. Maybe you're awake. Maybe it doesn’t matter.

TRACK LISTING

Side A
A1. The Watson Brothers Band - Just Whistle
A2. Jim Huxley - Tessa On A Magazine
A3. Rick Penta - My Story Changes
A4. MAK - That's Life
A5. Palm Pizazz! - Silent Letter
A6. Twice As Nice - Thoughts Of You

Side B
B1. Barracuda - Baby I Love You
B2. Elderberry Jak - Forrest On The Mountain
B3. Dennis - Walk With Me
B4. Jim Ware - Green Eyed Gypsy
B5. John Lyle - Oh My Wind

Side C
C1. Peter Kraemer - Let The Light Slip
C2. Brian Freel - Nightrider
C3. Michael Moore - Holland
C4. Clete Stallbaumer - John's Song
C5. Ronnie White - The Jump

Side D
D1. David Owens - Take Off Your Armour
D2. The Squad - D.L.M.H.I.M.A.
D3. Christoph Spendel Group - Forever
D4. Awakening - Gotta Do Somethin / Might As Well Cultivate

Blacklips Bar: Androgyns and Deviants — Industrial Romance for Bruised and Battered Angels, 1992–1995 is a compilation combining original recordings and select DJ tracks from the vaults of Blacklips Performance Cult, a collective of underground performers, artists and drag queens who took to NYC’s Pyramid Club stage every Monday night at 1 am to perform original plays. The broad spectrum of emotional expression, ferocity, humour and transgression evident in these collected recordings are a further indication of the group’s oeuvre.

In 1992, ANOHNI founded Blacklips Performance Cult with collaborators Johanna Constantine and Psychotic Eve. Originally intended as a cabaret and DJ night, the constellation of people drawn to Blacklips soon melded into a late night ensemble in which members took turns writing scripts that were then performed by the group. Blacklips continued a tradition of urban queer subcultural resistance embodied within the writings of Jean Genet, John Rechy, and the post-punk feminist Terence Sellers. Inspired by Lotte Lenya, Candy Darling, and Leigh Bowery, Greta Garbo and Sister Dimension, performers took the stage primarily to entertain and address each other, while entertaining late-night thrill seekers.

Staging collectively conceived plays set Blacklips apart from other expressions of creativity in nightlife of the era, aligning the group with predecessors such as The Cockettes, Angels of Light, Bloolips and Theater of the Ridiculous. Blacklips members built sets from garbage and industrial refuse that they found in the streets of the East Village, in homage to Jack Smith and the aesthetics of post apocalyptic punk. The group staged spectacles that were alternately surreal, slapstick, emotional and absurd. This weekly laboratory also served as the first showcase for ANOHNI’s music. Some plays included gory revisions of Jack the Ripper and Frankenstein. Offerings such as Clayworld functioned as intergalactic morality plays.

Satirical appropriations of Josef von Sternberg’s The Blue Angel, Adrian Brook’s The Glass Arcade, and Boys in the Band, feasted on a century of queer culture. Plays such as Death! and The Funeral of Fiona Blue often ended with “a pile of dead bodies” on stage, reflecting the impact AIDS was having on the downtown scene.

Androgyns and Deviants places you squarely within the shiny black brick walls of the main dance floor at the Pyramid, bathed in shards of light from the disco ball, waiting for the show to begin amongst a gaggle of stragglers, queens, and voyeurs. A montage of sound bites, original recordings, and Blacklips DJ favorites emanate a sense of Blacklips bar’s joie de vivre. Remastered original recordings by ANOHNI, including an unreleased version of “Rapture,” as well as the never before released composition “The Yellowing Angel” suggest the feeling of suspension that would sometimes interrupt the hysteria.

Also included on the Androgyns and Deviants compilation are DJ tracks by artists including New York legend Joey Arias in his incarnation as BIllie Holiday, LA death rock founder Rozz WIlliams, avant-garde icon Diamanda Galás, UK punk pioneer Dave Vanian, underground actress Edith Massey, London surrealist Leigh Bowery and his band Minty, and the fictional characters Meng and Ecker, a pair of transsexual menaces who wrought nightmares across an anarchic landscape, the brainchild of Manchester publishing house, Savoy. Studio recordings by Blacklips stars add depth to the mix, including "Your Cigarette” by Blacklips duo coke, James F. Murphy’s hardcore camp bonanza “Satan’s ‘Lil’ Lamb”, Sissy Fitt’s “Sister Morphine” and Ebony Jet’s soulful rendition of Lou Reed’s “Satellite of Love”.

Dialogue, sound effects and ambient textures counter the raging gender panic of Princess Tinymeat’s “Angels in Pain” and Divine’s defiant Hi-NRG anthem “You Think You’re A Man”. This cacophony of passion, stark violence, beauty, heartbreak and maniacal humour suggests a lost world in which you might once have wandered into a bar on Avenue A late at night and paid $5 to see The Revenge of Blacklips, The Ghosts of the Pyramid, The Shysters, Death, CHOP!, or What a Lovely Day to Control The World, catching a glimpse of one of the final expressions of queer subculture in NYC prior to the advent of the internet and social media. .

TRACK LISTING

DISC 1
SIDE A
1. Shoot Yer Load - Meng & Ecker
2. Good Morning Heartache - Joey Arias
3. Punks, Get Off The Grass - Edith Massey
4. Ladies And Gentlemen - ANOHNI (as Precious Liar)
5. Satan's Lil' Lamb - James F. Murphy
6. Janet Vampire - ANOHNI And Pearls
7. Stairs - Uncertain Journey - Christian Death
8. Disrupt Their Lives - Vito Russo (with Gary Reynolds)
9. Rapture - ANOHNI (as Fiona Blue)
SIDE B
1. Double-Barrel Prayer - Diamanda Galás
2. Sister Morphine - Sissy Fitt
3. Natasha - Tammy Taste Test
4. You Think You're A Man - Divine
5. So Disgraceful - Marilyn And The Movie Stars

DISC 2
SIDE C
1. Satellite Of Love - Ebony Jet
2. Fuck You - Dean And The Weenies
3. People Are Small - ANOHNI (as Justin Grey)
4. Angels In Pain - Princess Tinymeat
5. Your Cigarette - Coke
6. Tenterhook - Dave Vanian
7. Suspecting Mrs. Shyster - Sissy Fitt (as Carol TooGood)
8. The Yellowing Angel - ANOHNI Featuring Johanna Constantine
SIDE D
1. 13 Ways To Die - Dr. Clark Render
2. Useless Man - Minty
3. My Final Moments - Kabuki Starshine
4. Golden Showers - Meng & Ecker
5. Love Letters - ANOHNI (as Fiona Blue)
6. Blacklips - ANOHNI (as Precious Liar)