Creative Sounds, Ltd.

Creative Sounds Ltd. is a label that specializes in budget line reissues with minimal packaging. The label has at various times been located in Philadelphia, PA, Albuquerque, NM , and Sedona, AZ. The quality of their releases are dodgy and sometimes of questionable legality. The company is most known for their reissues of both the early Black Sabbath and Deep Purple catalogs. The company is also known for its 1980's reissue of John Lennon & Yoko Ono's "Two Virgins" album, made from a transfer from LP. The Black Sabbath issues were issued under the NEMS banner and supposedly licenced from form Sabbath manager Patrick Meehan (who retained the rights to the first 5 album and the 1980 "Live At Last" LP.) Their notorious releases of the first 3 Deep Purple albums were made from poor transfers made from vinyl LP's ande were issued under the "Tetragrammaton" label (which went bankrupt in 1970.) It is unsure if Creative Sounds licensed the Tetragrammaton trademark or not. Some Creative Sounds products were later issued under the "Blues Journey", "Rock Classics" label and "Power Sound 2001". Many releases state "Courtesy of Dorchester Holding" and "Courtesy of Red Dog Express" notice. Some of their products (ie: the 3 Deep Purple albums) were issued and distributed in Canada, manufactured and distributed by Montreal based label Franco FD Inc. Some of their products were manufactured in Europe. Releases listed as being made in Holland, Germany or elsewhere confusingly gave buyers the indication that these were imports. The label was owned by John LaMonte.