A Future in Noise

AFIN Music Blog Directory

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 09 Nov 2009 20:33:00 +0000

Things have been a bit quiet around here at A Future in Noise lately. Or, well, in blogland-terms rather, where posts every-other-day are the norm and if there's nothing new for a week people start to wonder whether something has gone horribly wrong! Aside from being in the process of heading off to the Bay Area and setting up a record label (Vulpiano Records - but more on that after it fully launches!), I've also just finished cooking up something especially for you:

AFIN Blog Directory for Music Submissions

This is a directory of 300+ hand(mouse?)-picked music blogs and magazine-style websites that accept music submissions for review, for the use of independent musicians and labels to help them reach more ears, as well as anyone looking for more music blogs to check out. It was published with Issuu, which is a lovely magazine-style publishing engine for your documents, PDFs, Open Office files, and whatnot - highly recommended!

Also included is a brief summary of tips for those submitting music as well as owners of music/sites blogs to make this process as friendly and simple as possible for maximum effectiveness. While containing many of the blogs listed at MOG, Hype Machine, and Elbows, it also consists of many outside of those directories and specifically only those that invite submissions via e-mail, post, or SoundCloud. This is Version 4.0 - some trial versions were sent out and made available to a limited extent elsewhere a few months ago, though this is the first that's gone totally "live" - if you have any suggestions for music blogs not in the directory that allow for submissions to be sent in, let me know in the comments or via e-mail: marilynroxie@gmail.com This is still in some ways an experimental version, and will be more exhaustive in scope in the next full update of it, likely winter/spring 2010.

I hope this is useful to artists/labels and anyone checking it out has fun browsing around - feedback would be lovely!

E.K. Wimmer - The Invisible Audience + Interview

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 31 Oct 2009 01:56:00 +0000

E.K. Wimmer is one of my top favorite artists to be featured here at AFIN, and also an all-around nice, cool, multi-talented fellow. His last album, What Was Once Veduta is Now Found was reviewed favorably here in January, as well as the single from this album "Puppets and Ninjas". His incredible new album The Invisible Audience was just released and I got a chance to interview E.K. about it - read on below!

A Future in Noise: What were the musical and non-musical inspirations behind the making of The Invisible Audience?

E.K: Musical: The usual suspects (The Cure, Bowie and Siouxsie). The real influences on this record were T-Rex - Electric Warrior, Brian Eno - Taking Tiger Mountain (by Strategy), Sparks - Angst In My Pants, John Frusciante - Curtains, Neko Case - Middle Cyclone, Christian Death - All the Love All the Hate Part 1, The Glove - Blue Sunshine, Kylie Minogue - X, Alice Cooper - Billion Dollar Babies, P.J. Harvey - White Chalk and a trillion more. I love discussing influences because I have a ton and any musician that says otherwise is full of it!
Non-Musical: Nature, the past, my wife, the Oregon coast, depression, phony people, playing shows, my daughter and more nature.

AFIN: Since you had done soundtrack music previously, do you use the same creative process for your recent solo albums? (keeping specific scenes in mind, etc.)
E.K.: Definitely. I tend to always write songs that are self-contained, but are somehow connected like scenes in a film. The actual creative process is very similar between film scores and my albums. I sit down with a guitar or piano and write the structure of the song. I then take that demo and decide how I want to record it. The first track on the album, All These Things, for example, was originally a rock opera demo with strings and whatnot that I was working on for a feature-length film. I decided to completely change the sound, add new vocals and make it into more of a radio-friendly pop song (at least it’s pop in my mind, ha!) I once read that Wes Anderson makes a mix tape of songs he wants on the soundtracks to his films and then sometimes writes scenes around them. I feel the same way. I’m a director at heart so all my songs usually have a video in my mind to accompany them.

AFIN: There seems to me to be a distinct difference in the vibe of The Invisible Audience as compared to What was once Veduta is now found, like a lighter, airier almost nostalgic feeling in the new album. Was this intentional? How did this come about?

E.K.: Well the most obvious thing between the two is how they came about. What was once Veduta was a collection of songs recorded over several years. The Invisible Audience was written within a year. I released What was once Veduta in 2008, but the most recent song on the album was recorded around 2004-2005. The Invisible Audience is really four to five years removed from the sound of my last record. It’s also the first solo album I’ve ever released (including Veduta) that is not electronic. No drum machines or programming at all on the new record. It’s the first time I’ve released an album that has live drums throughout. It’s also the first album with someone other than me contributing and I think this gives it a dramatically different vibe. Each song is it’s own thing. I just wrote songs how I wanted, when I wanted rather than trying to fit into a genre like I had in the past. As far as the airier, more nostalgic vibe, I think it’s just not so depressing! My music usually makes people want to jump off a bridge; it’s so depressing, but this album is lighter (apart from the last track I guess). The production quality was very intentional. I’m influenced by people like John Frusciante. I think his solo work is insanely overlooked. He strips everything down and just presents a great song. You hear the shuffling of instruments, breathing, etc. I’ve always liked the lo-fi sound because it takes on a life of it’s own.

AFIN: I enjoy the album as a whole, but I think the most interesting track is The Drawers of Nature - what's the story behind this song and it's meaning?

E.K.: It’s funny that you singled out that track over the others because it probably has the most involved story, so brace yourself! It was written in 2004 when I was living in Missoula, MT. It’s the only song on the album that wasn’t written in this past year, but I knew it would fit. I was in a band called Binocular with Paul and Sarah Copoc of the band Two Year Touqe. I was also doing my solo stuff (under the name Veduta) at the time. I played bass and shared the lead vocal role in Binocular. We did really fun indie-rock songs that covered topics like financial aid vampires, my van named Grandpa Whiscuit and the actor Jack Nance. I wrote this one demo and showed it to the band. It was way too dark for Binocular, but we practiced it anyway. It became known as The Bass Song because our cello player switched to bass for the track. We recorded the song, which never had any vocals, and that was pretty much it for the next five years. We never used it because it was more Veduta than Binocuar; it didn’t fit. So five years later I was in Denver working on my new album and I came across the instrumental Bass Song on my computer. I decided to record live drums, re-record my guitar part and finally write some lyrics. Back when we practiced as Binocular the drummer and I used to hum vocal parts, but never wrote anything so I went off that. The lyrics are a story in and of themselves. They are based on a poem I wrote about a short film I did, ha ha, how pretentious! It’s about a stop-motion film depicting items from nature (leaves, rocks, etc.) appearing in each drawer of a triangle dresser (the same dresser that appears in many of my paintings). Anyway, I recorded my parts and then asked my wife Maria to do the back up vocals in the chorus. The end result was a collaboration with Paul Copoc on electric guitar, Sarah Copoc on Bass, Maria Rose doing back ups and myself performing acoustic guitar, drums and lead/back up vocals. I’m very pleased with the end result. I feel the song finally found it’s home and we can all move on. Wow, sorry for that long-winded answer!

AFIN: A new decade is coming: how do you feel the climate of the music industry might change in the 2010s? Any tips for independent musicians/artists out there?

E.K.: I like the constant strain on big record companies to keep up with independent music. I love seeing strange new acts poping up on their own minor label and then watching the big guns try to copy it. It keeps things fresh. I don’t see that changing anytime soon. As far as tips, I always say just do what you feel you should be doing. Don’t let trends in sound or style dictate your direction. If you try and mimic what’s hot right now it’ll be cold by the time your stuff gets heard or seen. Be influenced, but use that inspiration to do your own thing. Don’t get caught up in record sales, painting sales, etc. Just create and let your artistic projects do the rest. Money might follow and it might not, but you can’t let that gauge your relevance in the artistic community.

AFIN: Are there any new directions or plans you have in mind for taking your music in the future? How about art-wise?

E.K.: Well the plan with this new record from the beginning was for it to be the last for a while. I’ve been releasing albums for almost a decade. I’ve reached the Brian Eno phase in my career where I record what I want with no intention of touring, selling merchandise and boosting album sales. Just because I made the album doesn’t mean I have to play shows to support it. Maybe people will hear it, maybe they won't. It’s just another project I finished, but I put everything I have into it. I’m ready to really focus in on film scores and other collaborations. I’m working on my first feature film as a director and I’ve also been directing a lot of music videos (yours included). I’ve been laying low art wise. I’ve been doing some photography, but not a lot of painting. I haven’t had any shows recently; I should get on that! I guess I consider film to be art so I maybe I haven’t been laying low. I’ve got a lot of stuff lined up and I’m really excited to see where it takes me.

Planet Wimmer | E.K. Wimmer on MySpace Music | YouTube Channel

Julian Casablancas - Phrazes for the Young

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 26 Oct 2009 06:36:00 +0000

I feel as if I have been waiting for this forever. The last Strokes album, First Impressions of Earth, came out in 2006, and came off as uneven and awkward, leaving me significantly less than satisfied. Not that I wanted them to keep being the garage rock revivalists of Is This It (2001), undoubtedly one of the most important albums of the 2000s, but the spark seemed to have been slowly slipping since Room on Fire, despite a handful of standout tunes from album #2 ("What Ever Happened?", "Reptilia", "12:51") and #3 ("You Only Live Once", "Juicebox", "Ask Me Anything"). In the meantime, rhythm guitarist Albert Hammond Jr. went on to release two lovely solo albums, Yours to Keep (2006) and ¿Cómo Te Llama? (2008), and more recently Julian Casablancas collaborated with Pharrell Williams and Santigold on "My Drive Thru" for the 100th anniversary of Converse's Chuck Taylor shoes and an announcement of the Strokes starting to work on material for their 4th studio album.

Here we have Julian Casablancas' solo album Phrazes for the Young. Based on the press-hype around the album and the fact that Casablancas has been again looking like the picture of cool for this generation, it's refreshing to hear that the sound meets, and exceeds, expectations.

Phrazes only contains 8 songs, each is 4 minutes+, making a distinct change from the short punch of many Strokes tracks - in fact, you wouldn't mistake this for a Strokes album at all. These are meandering, textured pieces. and while there is very much an 80s-inspired vibe here (read: The Cars), this album is yet another 2009 example of the trend towards unashamedly embracing both retro and futuristic-sounding electronics. The accusation that Casablancas' voice sounds "flat" and "deflated" (NYU News) is utterly bizarre; he sounds alive again, and, importantly, like he had fun making this album, with the danceable, near-tropical and joyous lead single "11th Dimension" as the perfect initial signal of this. Not that all is happy and poppy here; there is also that cocky sarcasm that had been characteristic of his previous work that creeps in now and again ("Yes, I know I'm going to hell in a leather jacket" - "Out of the Blue") and a definite darkness that dominates my favorite tracks here, the insistent, pulsating "River of Brakelights" and downright groovy "Tourist". The production, by Jason Lader and Bright Eyes/Monsters of Folk artist Mike Mogis, is slick and pretty overall, even shining through on otherwise average tracks like "Left & Right in the Dark" and "4 Chords of the Apocalypse". "Ludlow St." and "Glass" balance the album out with exceptionally gorgeous instrumentation and a dash of sadness.

First Impressions of Earth was a rocket heading towards Earth set to crash, and by contrast, as the opening effect of first track "Out of the Blue" clearly indicates, Phrazes for the Young is a UFO swirling around in space!

Whitney Ballen

noreply@blogger.com (Jonathan C.) — Sat, 24 Oct 2009 21:00:00 +0000

Whitney Ballen's music is magic.

The first time listening was one of those moments that reality snaps in an inaudible high frequency pitch before your eyes and all that's left are these surreal, extra-real songs.

If you're curious, it's something like simple but effective acoustic guitar and drums with her high voice that has a quality something like tape and wax and reverb. Folk/pop music with a good deal of attention put towards arrangements and lyrics. Clearly not just thrown together like so many others.

What's suprising is the variety presented in the 6 songs of her Myspace page. Little Secrets is a pretty straight-forward pop song while California State showcases a more soulful influence. In Mollases her tiny voice melts with dreamy imagery:

"You're melting over the sea, in a wild
forest like me, you're melting over the moon,
and now your face has gone away"

This Seattle, Washington artist is a bit reclusive (going to Myspace.com/whitneyballen will take you to a page whose main user's name is "jkjkjkjk"). It doesn't appear that she has released any new records or played a great deal of shows in recent memory. But she has a knack for organizing and releasing material when she so desires: in May she released a compilation of local artists called POP425 featuring her track Little Secrets as covered on TheStranger.com.

Sadly it appears Whitney Ballen, for the moment, falls into the category of "artist I wish would release more music but is busy doing other things." Hopefully she'll be compelled to record some more gems of the Pacific Northwest for us soon.

http://www.myspace.com/whitneyballen1
http://poshhill.blogspot.com/

Independent Music Discoveries, Issue #24

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Fri, 23 Oct 2009 08:22:00 +0000

*UPDATE*

The Royal Chains (Issue # 10) - Pop / Rock - New York, USA
Featured some months ago in regards to their free album Umbrella, the Royal Chains have a fabulous new single out: "Wolf". The sound is noticeably cleaner and more focused than that heard on their debut album (though I do love that for it's grittiness too), summery and catchy as ever!
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Francois Peglau - Pop / Rock - Loreto, Peru

Easily one of the most enjoyable music submissions I've ever gotten here (I've said that line before, haven't I? I mean it whenever I say it!), Francois Pelgau is an exceptionally talented Peruvian musician offering his album for free stream and download on Last.fm. "I'll never be Alain Delon" ("a sort of parody/homage to the French new wave") and "One minute to midnight dream (so sad)" are lovely highlights here, poppy and delicate and ethereal. Very highly recommended! Plus he's got the aim of having a music video for each of his songs - watch the video for "I'll never be Alain Delon" at AFIN Music Videos!

Middle Distance Runner - Soul / Rock / Jungle - Washington DC, United States

Another fine Engine Room Recordings artist (I did a label feature on ERR a few months back), Middle Distance Runner have just released their new albun The Sun & Earth. With a Wilco-esque aesthetic of blending in countrified-folk in unexpected ways (which you can hear in "The Fury"), the band also toss in an unexpected moodiness, and even a bit of beat-psychedelia (check out the stop-animation video for "The Unbeliever", directed by Maxwell Sorenson).

The Black Hollies - Rock / Other / Rock - New Jersey, USA

Speaking of beat-psychedelia, that is the very world Jersey City's Black Hollies live in. The selection of 45rpm singles that "get played very much during the group's "Relax and Absorb" time" give a good clue to their sound (Small Faces, Wimple Winch, and Marvelettes to name a few - I wouldn't be surprised if these guys were familiar with the Pebbles compilations, either). Softly Towards the Light is their third studio album release, recorded to reflect their live sound. Take a listen to "Gloomy Monday Morning"!

AFIN Music Videos Hits 1,000 + Britpop Forum Affiliation!

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 21:12:00 +0000

I am proud to announce today that our sister site, A Future in Noise Music Videos, has hit 1,000 unique videos posted. This is powered by Tumblr, functional as a channel due to the RANDOM button, with an assortment of embedded music videos from the 50s, 60s, 70s, 80s, 90s, and 00s, posted daily. Started in July, it's already the #2 Tumblr tagged as "video" and we have over 100 followers. If you are a user on Tumblr, you can follow us; otherwise you can simply visit or subscribe via RSS here. Along with the regular daily posts, I have a stash of spooky video picks lined up specifically for October 30th and 31st that you won't want to miss!
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A Future in Noise has just begun an affiliation with the newly launched Britpop Forum: "a forum celebrating all of the bands from that era. We have categories for Blur, Oasis, Pulp, Manic Street Preachers, & Suede." Apart from having a truly fantastic layout and design, the admins and members are nice, lovely people. If Damon Albarn picspams, Pulp macros, and Britpop-era music discussions are up your alley, then get in there and join up and help this community grow - I'm a member, too!

Weekend Listens: Echo & the Bunnymen, The Flaming Lips, Remix Corner

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 19 Oct 2009 00:39:00 +0000

Echo & the Bunnymen are one of my favorite bands of all-time; I have loved them since I was a kid, from hearing my mom play their albums regularly. As with most of their then-contemporaries that have stuck around through the years, this band have mellowed-out in their sound significantly over time. They have also had to deal with the loss of drummer Pete de Freitas in 1989 and in September 2009 keyboardist Jake Brockman, both from motorcycle accidents. There has been much resurgence of interest in this band as well as a crop of new fans (post-"The Killing Moon" being included Donnie Darko, plus news this year of a copy of Ocean Rain getting sent up into space). With The Fountain as their 11th studio album, Echo & the Bunnymen, while certainly sounding more 'mature', have at the same time lost much of what made them exciting previously. Though The Independent claims "the Mac is back and he and fellow Bunnyman Will Sergeant have not sounded this fired up since Ocean Rain in 1984", I find The Guardian's "most accessible offering in a long time" closer to the truth. This is not at all a bad album - in fact, it makes for quite an enjoyable listen, and tracks like "Think I Need It Too" and "Life of 1,000 Crimes" are just as good as any solid Echo track of the past, taking earlier catchy poppiness to greater heights all the while. My trouble with The Fountain is too many of the tracks sound similar to each other and there is not that element of randomness, and poetic power, that was key to their great 80s albums. This album shares more in common with Ian McCulloch's solo works, especially Candleland, which is, again, not exactly a bad thing, but I can't help but be a tad disappointed.

Now THIS is an album. The Flaming Lips are one of the most important bands in my musical life, attached to memories of early concerts, being invited to visit them on Halloween as a kid (I have a picture to prove it!), and in most recent years getting a written response from Wayne Coyne on A Christmas on Mars postcard. As much as I've enjoyed the band's 2000s works, I was waiting for a new album from them to come along and blow me away as before and, well, Embryonic is it! From the opener "Convinced of the Hex", you ought to know that you are in for something special. This is probably the darkest work in the Flaming Lips' canon yet, their previous sarcasm and, dare I say, whimsy turning into something gloomier, and at times, more sinister. The production on this is gorgeous, another welcome sign in 2009 that the whole loudness war nonsense is hopefully coming to a close. Embryonic is fantastic through-and-through, though track highlights include the somber "Evil", mystically groovy "See the Leaves", "I Can Be a Frog" (which recalls their 90s work to a certain extent), and ending track "Watching the Planets", easily one of their most epic moments ever. The Flaming Lips haven't stopped their work with one of the best albums of 2009 either - they're already at work on another project: covering Pink Floyd's Dark Side of the Moon in full!

Remix Corner: This is a new, and likely regular, section here at A Future in Noise. I've started to get more and more remixes in my inbox and I think there ought to be a proper space to highlight the best and promote them! More next week...check this out for now:
Jay-Z Feat. Alicia Keys - Empire State Of Mind (Mikey Mic Remix): Better than the original, and quite danceable too! You can also visit the newly launched MikeyMic.com and follow him on Twitter.

Starter Guide: Baroque Pop

dainty@daintyrecords.co.uk (Fulmar Austen) — Sun, 11 Oct 2009 14:41:00 +0000

What is it?

Baroque Pop (aka Baroque Psych – let’s call it BP) is Garage Psych’s rather elegant and refined cousin. Where the latter is all overdriven guitars, shoutyness and acid drenched solos, BP - with its frilly sleeves and paisley cravat, augments the basic rock band with the strains of chamber string quartet, a sprinkling of harpsichord and the swoon of an oboe. These songs are usually a ‘good trip’ with shades of folksy pastoralism and dreamy, thoughtful lyrics. True BP, to my mind, whilst it may have a sunny summer folkfulness, the grandeur of a processional canon and all manner of phases, delays, and reverse loops is first and foremost pop music. Many of the genre’s finest examples are 3 minute symphonies so richly layered that they avail themselves to many, many repeat listens.

Origins:
The broad church of psychedelia emerged from rhythm ‘n’ blues - already a hotchpotch of American soul, rock ‘n’ roll and British skiffle. In the mid-sixties pop music began to absorb a range of cultural, historical and intellectual influences, splurging in many directions. BP was one such sub-genre, briefly flowering into some of the most ornate pop ever crafted, before pretentiousness and pomposity mutated it into 70’s prog. Circa ‘66 musicians like George Harrison and Brian Jones began experimenting with traditional instruments - from sitars to dulcimers – forever changing the staple ingredients of rock music. New technology such as multi-tracking and tape effects also played a role, perhaps most memorably in the form of early synthesizers like the Mellotron which could be made to sound like flutes and celesta (and made all the more magical because they didn’t quite sound like the instruments they imitated). Oh yeah, and people starting taking drugs apparently…

Proto-Baroque Pop
The Rolling Stones – whilst not the first band to spring to mind regarding BP, may have started the ball rolling (no pun intended) in 1966 with ‘Lady Jane’; its chivalrous lyrics and prominent dulcimer making it redolent of Tudor courtiers. The Beatles’ ‘Eleanor Rigby’, with its driving Italianate string arrangement, also redefined the parameters of pop. Procul Harum’s 1967 smash ‘A Whiter Shade of Pale’, with its Hammond organ riffing directly on Bach’s ‘Air on the G String’, cemented the association with Baroque music. Although BP’s association with the actual Baroque period was rather a loose one, only borne out by the flourish of a harpsichord or oboe and the tendency for bands to wear - somewhat anachronistically - ‘psyched out’ lace ruffles and embroidered waistcoats. Although the whole idea started the great pop tradition of the ‘arbitrary historical reference point’, re-emerging with the New Romantics.

UK artists
The Beatles would go on to lend further credibility to the genre with their Sgt. Pepper era work, in particular the shimmering harpsichord sound on the opening bars of 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' (apparently produced with a Lowrey organ). In the later sixties the Stones would move more towards the rootsy down-home rock ‘n’ roll that we largely associate with them, although not without leaving us the important additions to the BP genre, notable the fluty 'Ruby Tuesday' and the full blown multicoloured psychedelia of 'She’s a Rainbow'.

The Kinks, like most British R ’n’ B acts of sixties, moved from their heavy (almost proto-punk) early singles into a mellower territory characterised by ‘Waterloo Sunset’ etc, but they didn’t lose their quintessential Englishness and Ray Davies’ knack of well observed social commentary. ‘Autumn Almanac’ is a rich symphony with many mini-movements that, despite the grandeur of its arrangement, chooses to observe the minutia of small minded everyday British life. Rather like the Beatles' 'Penny Lane' only about a million times better.

The Pink Floyd – that most inconsistent of bands - should also be mentioned for Barrett’s perfectly turned out psych-pop such as 'See Emily Play' and the brilliantly dippy folk-psych of tracks like 'Flaming' and 'The Scarecrow' from their first LP (If only they had continued in this vein instead of going all 'Interstellar Overdrive' on us). However, for me it is the late Richard Wright’s early contributions the Floyd catalogue that scream BP, with their light, sophisticated arrangements and introverted lyrics, from ‘Summer of ’68’ (1970) back through ‘See Saw’, ‘Remember a Day’ and - my personal favourite - the sad and delightful ‘Paintbox’.

On The Zombies’ masterwork Odessey and Oracle the zenith of UKBP is possibly realised in the song ‘Hung Up on a Dream’, a 3 minute mini-epic with tempo shifts, duetting ‘baroque’ arpeggios, vocal harmonies and the theme of the song itself – at once mournful, florid and dreamy.

However my favourite UKBP group is undoubtedly Nirvana with their rich, lavish arrangements, swooning string sections and quirky unconventionality that is nonetheless determinedly enjoyable, especially in their exhilarating hit ‘Rainbow Chaser’. I have already covered Nirvana in my recent article so I won’t go on here.

Meanwhile other significant UK examples might include those on the Immediate label, in particular Vashti Bunyan’s early (pre-Diamond Day) singles such as ‘Winter Is Blue’ and Billy Nicholls ‘Would You Believe’. Meanwhile BP found chart success with several ‘one hit wonder’ bands such as Honeybus with ‘I Can’t Let Maggie Go’ (1968). The song is pleasant enough if a little sluggish and unmemorable… as with The Flying Machine’s ‘Smile a Little Smile for Me’ – it’s lovely, but it doesn’t really take me anywhere. There are, of course, many others, but most stray off the track, Grapefruit or the Plastic Penny possibly being too rock, The Pentangle and The Incredible String Band being too folky or, in the case of ISB, just too eccentric.

Kaleidoscope (not too be confused with the contemporaneous US band of the same name) encapsulated the very essence of BP, particularly in tracks such as ‘If You So Wish’ and ‘Black Fjord’ from 1969’s Faintly Blowing. However with Faintly Blowing you sense yourself teetering dangerously on the brink of progressive rock. However prog never really took hold in the same way in the US and so perhaps it was across the pond that BP was able to achieve its ultimate expression…

US artists
BP exploded in the US in the late sixties, perhaps partly due to the success of the soppy psych sounds of the Byrds. The much loved Love certainly hit the mark pretty well, and perfectly so in the song ‘Andmoregain’. Also the Beach Boys, once they’d tired of all that energetic ‘surfing’ material and settled into a fruitful experimental period, occasionally touched on the BP sound with tracks like 'Cabin Essence' that would have an enduring legacy.

Probably the most often cited example of BP is The Left Banke. ‘Walk Away Renée’ in addition to being a perfect enough pop song that even a Motown band had a hit with it (The Four Tops) also has the quintessential BP arrangement. The chamber quartet and harpsichord intro, the flute instrumental break, soft vocal harmonies and just enough backbeat to keep it running along smoothly, and all in at less than 3 minutes. They are deservedly high ranking and prominent figures in the realm of BP. Their follow up single ‘Pretty Ballerina’, with its oboe and pizzicato middle eight, is perhaps one of the genres more haunting moments.

Rather like Northern Soul, behind the well known and loved giants of psych are many thousands of forgotten groups, often having released only one single. Despite their complete and utter obscurity, these songs are often far from inferior. No wonder enthusiasts will fork out stupid money for original singles. Thankfully though, for those lacking the money and dedication of collectors, some nice people have compiled them for us on, famously on the Nuggets and Pebbles compilations. For BP fans in particular I would like to recommend the Fading Yellow series, in particular Volume 7. This album contains rare, mostly American psych tracks from around 68-70 and some of the finest examples of baroque psych I have ever heard including the awe-inspiring 'The North Wind Blew South' by Philamore Lincoln (who I have already discussed in more detail here). I have to mention, amongst many stand-put tracks - Richard Twice’s ‘If I Knew Your Were The One’, The New Wave’s ‘Little Dreams’ and Lee Michaels' early Floyd-esque ‘My Friends’. Although hideously obscure these songs, for me, represent a sweet, pungent and sadly overlooked final flowing of the BP genre.

Legacy
Mystical lyrics, storytelling, mock historicism, classical references – surely these are all the ingredients of the very worst of 1970s progressive rock? Well yes, and for all of its wonder and glory BP must take some responsibility for this much despised genre. The 70s progists though, interestingly mirroring the situation in Hollywood cinema of the same era, were working largely without company constraints - which can be both a good and a bad thing. As a result they tended draw everything out over an entire LP-side to the point that, unless you were a total and complete geeky hippy, you just couldn’t dig it. Because in the late sixties bands were largely still concentrating on singles, all the majesty of an entire prog album was condensed into 3 stirring and joyful minutes.

In the later 70s glam and pub rock cast its eye back to the 50s in search of something more primal and then of course punk changed the landscape completely. The subsequent New Romantics, whilst owing little musically to BP (or indeed the Romantic era!), certainly echoed a similar tradition of pop pretention. It wasn’t until the late 80s that BP became fashionable again through the rather unlikely vehicle of jangle pop and twee that somehow, despite basic lo-fi production, managed to evoke a similar atmosphere and provided part of the soundtrack to Britain’s so called ‘second summer of love’.

The early nineties was as obsessed with 60s psyche as the current generation is with 80s electro, finding its way into the charts with shoegaze, baggy and dance acts all paying homage. At the turn of the millennium Jim O’Rourke’s unsurpassed, unrivalled and unique dual masterpieces Eureka and Insignificance demonstrate, not so much a debt to as a love of the genre, particularly the later Beach Boys work. Also the so called ‘chamber pop’ of Scottish bands including Belle and Sebastian and Camera Obscura or even the sometimes grandiose Delgados harks back to the spirit and sophistication of 60s baroque pop.

Recently the reverberant echoes of BP can be heard amongst diverse modern acts such as Fleet Foxes, Joanna Newsome, Headless Heroes, Rose Elinor Dougall and The Phenomenal Handclap Band. I also think the use arbitrary historical reference points and elaborately ostentatious arrangements lives on, possibly in the form of Florence and the Machine who may be amongst the pioneers of an ensuing New Victorian movement judging by the video to ‘Rabbit Heart (Raise It Up)’– possibly one of the most invigorating and cathartic pop songs since Kate Bush’s ‘Running Up That Hill’. Baroque Rock-on!

Please suggest any other Baroque Pop gems in the comments!

Independent Music Discoveries, Issue #23

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 10 Oct 2009 04:55:00 +0000

*UPDATE*

The Forcefield Kids (Issue #5) - Hip-Hop / Alternative / Electronica / Northeast, UK
Due out November 2nd, the Forcefield Kids (Stain(ed) Art bringing the raps and Sleepy on beats) are releasing a new 5-track EP Harmony & Discord. Their socially-conscious delivery, sounding current with, and better than much of what's out there in the genre, in my opinion, modern hip-hop/rap, while retaining a distinct Britishness and blending it all together in a chill, lo-fi electronic atmosphere. "No Signal" is my favorite track here - grab it now!

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EDH - Electronica / Pop / Experimental - France
I became familiar with the Matte Black Editions label through my dealings with Dead Times, and was recently introduced to another recent offering on the label, EDH (Emmanuelle de Héricourt). EDH's New York Tracks 2001-2002 is available both for free and for purchase, is described as sometimes recalling the sounds of Nico, Lisa Germano, and The Cure, which isn't all that far off - in the midst of the free-form electronic expression and experimentation there is something haunting in the vocals and minimal synth-esque spacing, and yet still not altogether cold with spirited presentation overall. New York Tracks makes for an entertaining journey, with many of the tracks being one or two minutes long, brief punches of sound that beg for re-listening to properly digest. "Anyways" is a chief highlight here, though I'd highly recommend this entire compilation of tracks . Another favorite, "The Mirror of Your Soul", took me by surprise completely since the drumbeat in the back is exactly the same as a Casio keyboard I've had and played since I was 4 years old! As cool as New York Tracks is to listen to, I have high hopes for whatever EDH is cooking up in the future.

Rival Consoles - Electro / IDM / Techno - London, England
Rival Consoles (Ryan Lee West, who has also worked with The National, Björk, and Nico Muhly) is known as a "purveyor of intelligent dance music", which happens to be oddly fitting. "1985" from his debut album IO easily conjures up images dance clubs and quite possibly outer space, building up to a rather addictive chunky electronic sound - not a dull moment here, good stuff! DANCE!

Natural Snow Buildings - Shadow Kingdom

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Tue, 06 Oct 2009 05:20:00 +0000

French duo Natural Snow Buildings, Mehdi Ameziane / TwinSisterMoon and Solange Gularte / Isengrind, are a band I have spoken highly of previously, be it in Under the Radar 2009 and 15 Brilliant Out-of-Print Albums, and also in a guest-post artist feature on SleepWalking Mag about. They've just put out Shadow Kingdom a triple-LP/double CD on Blackest Rainbow. Following that SleepWalking Mag piece I'd done, the band were kind enough to mail along a copy of Shadow Kingdom to me, along with accompanying comic book (see beautiful scans at By Chance Upon Waking)! Knowledge of this band thus far appears to spread by word-of-mouth, on-line and off, keeping things very cool and old-school with limited edition album releases and elaborate art work. This year alone has seen a cavalcade of releases from them, more than any other contemporary artist in one year that I can think of!: Daughters of Darkness (5-cassettes), Daughters of Darkness V, TwinSisterMoon's The Hollow Mountain album and Bride of the Spirits EP, Isengrind's Journey of the 7 Stars, and most recently Shadow Kingdom.

Shadow Kingdom starts with "The Fall of the Shadow Kingdom", a grandiose, 24 minute track evoking the a similar sparkle to that of the title track from Daughters of Darkness, such a deep, entracing drone that the time seems to zip by. It is also evident that something new has happened with their recording technique, as it all sounds clearer than ever and subtle sounds seem to be more evident. "Gorgon" is a soft, lovely track, leaning into the more folk-oriented material found in TwinSisterMoon's solo work - I still hesitate to use the genre label of 'folk', because despite the acoustic guitar and certain folky motifs, this is still very ethereal work we're dealing with. The three song suite, and one of my favorite sections of the whole album "The Fear They May Come Back / Childrens of the Seventh Circle / The Dark Road" makes the transition from a delicate, melodic piano with drone-hum to a spaced-out interlude to a quiet, guitar-oriented outro, a peaceful, yet icy feeling throughout. "Cauled Ones and Birth Rugs" brings the mood up to a somewhat sunnier place, even becoming festive towards the end; upon listening to this point, I'd hope you'd be getting to know what I mean by what I've said before about the group's music seeming to have a "near-spiritual" effect! "Salty Tongue" carries on the lighter mood, ending with acoustics and vocals. "Go Away, Disappear" turns the tide towards more melancholy shores, and is another stand-out here amongst an overall fantastic album, and proves yet again how powerfully emotive Natural Snow Buildings can be. "Os Deus Cannibais" ranks on the same level of intensity of the first track here, delving into spookier territory - it's another long one (around 13 minutes), yet every second is used wisely! "The Faceless" is another dreamy acoustic track, also serving to break up the sheer force of the more strongly drone-based songs, leading into the spacey, haunting "The Crystal Bird", which concludes the first disc.

Disc two begins with "Sunbone", a gentle, breezy opener that serves as a buffer for a colossal three song suite, "Ghthonian Odyssey/Hell's Foundations/A Birth Mark Like A Scar"; this track more than any other blurs the line in one's mind as to whether this could be music from a strange, exotic land or another planet altogether! "From Their Body at Will" continues off into the astral plane, rolling along in its mellow way. "The Desolated/Vampires Introduced To Fear/Slayer March" finds the listener trekking on further still into the unknown, the unexpected twists of instrumentation and the layering (always a strong point for Natural Snow Buildings) still catching me off guard even as I'm listening again. "The Vein of Invisibility" is another rejuvenating breather placed between the all-consuming drone, as the next track, "Porridge Stick Into The Fire And Dust In The Direction Of The Sun" is quite seriously chilling, reminiscent of The Slayer of the King of Hell, but taken up an extra notch. "A Burial at Sea" ties-up Shadow Kingdom in a glorious, befittingly atmospheric way.

Listening to Natural Snow Buildings' discography, one album after another, has been a curious experience. With as prolific as they have been, it is quite evident how much the quality and depth of the material is enhanced with each release - something magical clearly occurred at the point of their most-heralded work thus far, The Dance of the Moon and the Sun and further still in The Snowbringer Cult, though I personally am still rather partial to Daughters of Darkness because it was the first of theirs that I had heard, based on a recommendation, and was utterly blown away by. Shadow Kingdom is absolutely a topmost favorite, of theirs and for this year overall! This will be considered a very important work in the Natual Snow Buildings canon, not only for the fantastic music contained within but also for being a very fine example of where you can hear just how much these two put their souls into the music. One of the most singularly excellent bands of the 2000s and responsible for some of my favorite music in general, what I have said before holds truer than ever: "here is a band that brings awareness to the process and delight of music creation itself, through their intricate, yet earthy, soundscapes, in hours upon hours of truly enjoyable music listening".

Interview with Calvin Markus from Dead Times

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 05 Oct 2009 02:10:00 +0000

Calvin Markus, from Dead Times (a band which has been previously featured here, and one of my favorites of the 2000s - see also the reviews on Midnight Glass and Voidism, Vol. 1 + Graves House split cassette), took the time to answer some interview questions for A Future in Noise. I think that Dead Times is making some of the most cool and important music (as well as art works, literature, and film!) of any band around right now, independent and otherwise, so I would strongly put forth to the reader that this is a band to keep an eye and ear out for now and the future. On to the interview!:

A Future in Noise: When and how was Dead Times formed?

Calvin Markus (Dead Times): Dead Times was formed sometime in 2008. I was walking home from somewhere and Travis called me and asked if I wanted to start a project. We both came from radically different bands, genre wise. He played drums in an indie/folk band. I played guitar and sang in a metal/rock/punk/odd-time/I don’t know band. We started this project knowing we didn’t want it to be like anything we had done before, we really didn’t want to become “just another band” or even worse “just another local band”. So we became an on-going project, not necessarily a band. I’m hesitant to call us band because a band sounds so official, so relationship based, so planned and structured. We want to be free and loose, natural and comfortable.

AFIN: When did "voidism" become integrated into your work? What are the concept's origins and principles?
CM: Well, the initial creation of Voidism came at the early stages of A Loose Portrait of Body, which was a book of experimental poetry, illustrations and music that we released ourselves. The book covered, very subjectively, the collapse of the ego, of form, of structure and the pervasion of emptiness. Writing it was one of those times where I felt incredibly connected to an obscure source of creativity, like I was tuning into some cosmic frequency. Voidism’s principles and origins, on the surface level, are something close to that. Tuning into that stillness and transferring it into art. Defining the movement concretely isn’t simple. A set definition would be to put Voidism in a cage, it would tie it down, there would be no room for growth. Outside of it’s philosophical atmosphere, Voidism is simply about bringing important artists and musicians together to try and create refreshing, intriguing and powerful work. Dead Times and Voidism are both important artistic outlets in my life, both projects flow throughout one another.

AFIN: How did the Voidism art and music compilation come about?
CM: A small group of individuals, including myself, established it in July. It was the first volume of hopefully many, many more.

AFIN: What's the artistic and musical inspiration behind your upcoming Black Pine Circle EP?
CM: There was no particular or deliberate inspiration for these songs. They happened naturally. We write and record songs very fast. They fit together well. They’re best friends and deserved an EP.

AFIN: What are some of the biggest inspirations for the work of Dead Times, art-wise, literature-wise, and music-wise?
CM: That’s a good question. I think my biggest inspiration for anything artistic I do is the feeling that I should be doing all of these projects. By that I mean, if I don’t finish or actualize all of the ideas I have then my emotional welfare is severely threatened. Ideas are loud. They don’t sit quietly in obscure corners of my mind, they demand my attention. There’s definitely bands, musicians, filmmakers and so on that inspire what Dead Times does but they aren’t the sole reason for our endeavors. I have a really specific taste for art forms and to try and capture these aesthetics, to create things that I believe in and truly like is definitely inspiring. I read a quote in high school on a tacky poster hanging in some classroom that read something along the lines of “write the book you’ve always wanted to read”. I now realize that I have subconsciously (or consciously) integrated that attitude into all of my creativity.

AFIN: Any contemporary 2000s artists'/musicians' work that you admire?
CM: Absolutely. To name a few: Black Eyes, Daughters, Past Lives, and Justin Timberlake.

AFIN: Where do you see Dead Times headed in the future?
CM: In reality, I have no idea where we’ll be in the future because I never thought we’d even get to the level we’re at now. Doors are always opening. Opportunities are always arising. These doors ceaselessly opening and closing can get a bit obnoxious, can lead you to feel like you’re merely wandering around with no direction. Dead Times isn’t just another door in this seemingly endless metaphorical hallway. Dead Times is a hole torn through the roof. You have to learn how to hold hands with disappointment, turn loss into gain, find success through failure, and work with what you have at the best of your potential. This is musical enlightenment. The future is bright as long as you hold the light.
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Look out for the new Dead Times release Black Pine Circle EP on October 30th on Matte Black Editions!
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Dead Times on MySpace Music | on Last.fm (lots of free downloadables - check out "Mirrors in Reverse" and "Wet Static / Elliot Sellers")
Tumblr: Dead Times | Voidism

Independent Music Discoveries, Issue #22

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 03 Oct 2009 00:15:00 +0000

Untied States - Other - Georgia, USA
I keep doing a double-take every time I see the band name - note the Untied, though that is surely the point! I tend to raise an eyebrow at bands that put their genre as 'Other', but this is one case where a group is concocting something unique. With their description reading "a barrage of driving samples, interlaced melodic sheets of guitars, and just-enough disciplined noise", Untied States are perhaps best-described as what a shoegaze band forced to play garage rock might sound like, though even that is too-narrow pigeonholing for what this band are really up to, which is quite unique to themselves; as remarked by Ohmpark: "it is so mindbogglingly unlike anything else". Their forthcoming album Instant Everything, Constant Nothing is due out 10/19/2009 (their fourth LP), makes for enjoyable, and somehow challenging, listening. My favorite track here is frantic, near-tribal "Take Time For Always". Instant Everything... bears repeated listening - look for it on the Best of '09 list here later this year!

We are the Willows - Indie / Folk / Pop - Minnesota, USA
We are the Willows' (Peter Miller, from Red Fox Grey Fox) A Collection of Sounds and Something Like the Plague is a fragile work of art, the music delicately crafted and airy. The songs flow into each other with a dreamlike sweetness - it's impressive indeed that something sounding so far removed from technology and cluttered modernity like this can be made in 2009. Recommended track: "Knots & Nots That Are Tied and Tangled". I'm impressed!

The Sky Drops - Indie / Psychedelic / Shoegaze - Delaware, USA
The Sky Drops, described as a "gaze-grunge duo", have recently released their debut LP Bourgeois Beat. The Sky Drops are proficient in creating dreamy soundscapes, fitting in well with this week's post. There's something of a 60s-vibe about and and effortless cool - take a listen to
"Truth Is" and you'll hear what I mean.

Gig Review: Manic Street Preachers w/ Nico Vega, 9/24/09 at the Fillmore SF

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Fri, 25 Sep 2009 16:45:00 +0000

Well, this is the first gig I've been to since starting A Future in Noise, making this is the very first gig review as well! This is the most biased piece of music journalism you are likely to read here because I do deeply love the Manic Street Preachers and all.

I went to see them at the Fillmore in San Francisco yesterday...seeing as they haven't been here in 10 years! That and being encouraged by the recent setlists (archived at Forever Delayed) being wonderful, with an eclectic mix from past and present releases, I knew it would be a show I could not afford to miss. Also, I had my heart set on meeting Nicky Wire - I bought him a bouquet of pink roses beforehand and attached a little note.

It wasn't that crowded when I got there, so I was able to sidle up right to the front ahead of time. I hadn't been too familiar with the opening act, Nico Vega, but after watching their live show - wow! Aja has such a powerful, raw presentation in her voice (and near-tribal dancing!), while Rich (the guitarist) and Dan (the drummer) madly tear away through instrumentation. One never knows what to expect from an opening act, and I thought I would be in the position of just waiting for it to end, but I really enjoyed them and will have to check out their studio / EP releases now!

It felt like such a long haul before the Manics came out, with the instruments and sound being tested, the Journal For Plague Lovers banner slowly rising up and replacing Nico Vega's glowing insignia on the back of the stage wall, and the expected accoutrements appeared; the Welsh flag, a row of tiger plushies, and Nicky's feather-boa-ed mic stand. Needless to say, I felt very, very nervous indeed! And then they came out.

I felt like my heart was going to leap out of me since not only was Nicky wearing that lovely sailor hat (as has been his custom lately), but a black suit as well. Genius! Oh, the music? Right then - they opened with "Motorcycle Emptiness", their usual opener lately, which was simply surreal to hear and see being played so close to me, as I suppose is always the case with any song you've listened to over and over again in your own time. James Dean Bradfield's voice sounded even more powerful in person, and seeing and hearing him up-close confirms that he truly is one of the unsung guitar greats - his hopping around stage, kicking out like a bit of a madman is fun to watch too! Sean Moore was hiding behind his drumkit (as usual), so I didn't get that great of a look at what he was up to. Nearly every poignant musical moment was punctuated by synchronized leaps and steps from Nicky!

They played twenty one songs (setlist at the bottom of the article), with my personal highlights of note being the tracks they played from Journal For Plague Lovers ("Peeled Apples" - the bassline is even more scrumptious live! - "Jackie Collins Existential Question Time", "This Joke Sport Severed", and "Me and Stephen Hawking"), opener ("Motorcycle Emptiness") and closer ("A Design For Life" - not really a favorite track before, but everything sounded better live), an unexpected acoustic "The Masses Against the Classes", and "You Love Us" (the track the audience seemed the most excited about). The crowd sung along to most of the songs, particularly as the night went on, and the band looked like they were having a lot of fun up there, sharing occasional anecdotes before songs, happy to be in the States after so long!

After it was over, I had to track down Nicky...their tour bus was right outside the front of the venue, so I waited there with my cousin (who was patient enough to come along with me and deal with my temporary insanity!). After awhile, my cousin said, "The guy in the sailor hat is over there.”, but I didn’t hear her. Then she had to say it again, and I stammered, “…WHAT?!", plowing through the crowd until there wasn't any more room to do so. I waited as others got their picture with him and had him sign items they'd brought along. I had my pink rose bouquet with me, and when I was right in front of him said, "These are for you, Nicky!". I think he said, and my cousin will back me up on this, "Oh those are lovely! Thanks - cheers, babe.” After that I have no idea what I said or did, getting my picture I'd brought along signed, and my photo taken with him (he put his hand on my back and shoulders - I thought I would tear apart into shreds!), and just saying, "Thank you so much!". I certainly hung around until he was gone, just looking at him in that sailor hat, be-jeweled eyes, and hearing him talk so close by was addling my head to a great extent. JDB and Sean had disappeared by this point, so I'd missed my chance with them, but Nicky was my top priority so - mission accomplished!

The Manics are a band that have so much history attached to them, and to feel like you're part of it just for a little while is a special thing indeed. It was a truly fantastic gig experience - if they pop up in your area, you must see them!

More photos here!:

http://s880.photobucket.com/albums/ac4/VISIONBLURRED/Manic%20Street%20Preachers/

---Setlist---

1. Motorcycle Emptiness

2. No Surface All Feeling
3. Peeled Apples
4. Your Love Alone Is Not Enough
5. La Tristessa Durera
6. Jackie Collins Existential Question Time
7. Let Robeson Sing
8. Faster
9. Everything Must Go
10. This Joke Sport Severed
11. From Despair To Where
12. If You Tolerate This Your Children Will Be Next
13. This Is Yesterday (acoustic)
14. The Masses Against the Classes (acoustic)
15. Send Away The Tigers
16. You Stole The Sun
17. All Or Nothing (Small Faces cover) / Motown Junk
18. Me And Stephen Hawking
19. Little Baby Nothing
20. You Love Us
21. A Design For Life

A New Weird World?

dainty@daintyrecords.co.uk (Fulmar Austen) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 16:33:00 +0000

Some free lo-fi pop from around the globe ...

Earlier in 2009 I was involved in putting together the virtual compilation album Crumby Lovers: A New Weird UK Sampler (Yeah yeah, we know can you please just STOP going on about it?). Well, anyway, it featured tracks that were a kind of quirky lo-fi pop that may or may not necessarily have done justice to the (now a little hackneyed) term ‘new weird’ but, honestly, I don’t really care. Anyway, that album was restricted to UK based acts and in this article I’d like to share some of the other amazing acts, broadly in that category (I said BROADLY) that I also discovered from around the world:

Papa Topo (Spain)
In the song Cancion Para Jordi: The clunk of the tape recorder and some scrabbling around implies that this is going to be pure lo-fi, a suspicion consolidated further by the tinkle of what sounds like a toy xylophone and the fragile vocals of the youthful Adrià Arbona. But what’s that? A casio organ? And a piano? As the track gradually builds through its lilting verse-chous refrain it elaborates its lo-fi premise and the colourful music box orchestra transports the listener to distant place, brimming with innocence and sadness until, suddenly, we’re back again with just Adrià’s fading vocal and the hissing of tape... Their myspace suggests that they seem to be going places since I first stumbled upon them and sadly this track isn’t free a download anymore, so here’s another one that is: Oso Panda

Jeffrey Martin (Illinois, USA)
The song His Heart Can’t Freeze imparts a rare sense of melancholy that is wholly uncontrived. You often here the phrases like “raw, honest stripped-down song-writing” and it’s usually rubbish, but with Jeffrey Martin’s songs you feel that this description can genuinely be applied. He does not seem concerned about who his audience is or what they might think, the songs just exist on their own terms. And because of this I find the music has reached my heart in a way that I wouldn’t have expected.

Le Fils des Trois Mousquetaires (Belgium)
Marilyn has already sung the praises of this lo-fi Belgian with talent to spare and cover art to die for in her article here. Sixt is, for me, ninety-six seconds of awesome.

Alex Roc and the Penitents (Spain)
A “homemade folk band” whose first release, Big White Room, was apparently “recorded in a 3 m2 room in Budapest”. You gotta love it for that alone. Love is Gonna Make Us is my favourite.

Rum Tum Tiddles (France)
Based in France but with an English singer, We Could Be Pirates is acoustic lo-fi with a chorus promoting popping plosives to an extreme level. In keeping with its theme, it has a shanty-pop feel that, whilst very ‘twee’, is just short of annoying. Instead it manages to evoke a quirky charm that perfectly sustains its two and half minutes.

David McAfee (Pennsylvania, USA)
I don’t know much about David McAfee, except that I like him. His MySpace states “My only good song is called 'the lion', and perhaps soon I'll write more like it.” Well here’s hoping. It’s not true though, I like his ‘quiet songs’, but The Lion is certainly a stand-out piece and I entreat you to listen.

Well, I hope you enjoy. There are probably lots more artists like this, so please recommend them. Oh, and what’s that I hear you say? It would be great to put these artists on another virtual compilation album? Well, if they (and some friends) agree to it I’d certainly love to.

Keeping Watch on the Music Business: Copyright and Copyleft

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Thu, 24 Sep 2009 05:55:00 +0000

This week's topic is inspired by a comment from Kris (TLNOYL) on last week's post, and his reference to this article on Wired: Free! Why $0.00 is the Future of Business. There are numerous issues involved in music and copyright and Creative Commons/copyleft that they can't all be covered here, but here's three of the big-time important ones and corresponding articles for reference so you can read up on these matters - please don't hesitate to comment on any of these points, and add your own remarks and ideas for solutions!

- The Seminal - Copyright vs. Copyleft: Joh Padgett interestingly refers to copyright as "the foundation on which the entire music business exists", and points out that exclusive rights to music were established as early as the 15th century! Music publishing copyright has an important role - they show who is responsible for having created a work (or at least who gets paid for it) and provide the means for obtaining legitimate permission to re-publish such works elsewhere (be it sheet music or obtaining the rights for using a song in a film or TV commercial). But, as any downloader knows or anyone confused at how to go move through the tangled web of obtaining permission or protecting their works, copyright is not always so cut-and-dry, or even beneficial. Enter copyleft. From the Wikipedia:

"Copyleft is a form of licensing and can be used to modify copyrights for works such as computer software, documents, music and art. In general, copyright law allows an author to prohibit others from reproducing, adapting, or distributing copies of the author's work. In contrast, an author may, through a copyleft licensing scheme, give every person who receives a copy of a work permission to reproduce, adapt or distribute the work as long as any resulting copies or adaptations are also bound by the same copyleft licensing scheme. A widely used and originating copyleft license is the GNU General Public License. Creative Commons provides a similar license called ShareAlike."

Putting copyleft into practice has already allowed for much creative blossoming to occur, in that it has made it fairly easy to identify what the rights are concerning a track, as in the case of Creative Commons designations an artist can choose from indicating "no derivatives", "non-commercial only", "share alike", and so on. Of course, CC licensing isn't always what an artist is going to want to choose for their works, but if they're wanting them to be more easily accessible to the public and modified, it provides a stunningly effective solution. Also curious to note is CC's emphasis on how a work is allowed to be used, whereas the focus on copyright has tended to be on how to prevent others from using it, unless they get the proper permission. CC simplifies how one would obtain permission, which usually pares the process down to merely linking back and/or naming the source. It can also lead to a pleasant surprise as well - I recently discovered, upon typing "Marilyn Roxie" in on YouTube, that, because my music is Creative Commons Attribution/Non-Commercial licensed, someone had used a track of mine in a surreal short film they'd made called Box (and, naturally, attributed it back to me)! CC is also a remixer's paradise - see also ccMixter! Getting your works licensed via Creative Commons is free and can be done right on-line; if you'd like to give this a try for any of your works, you can check out your options over here: http://creativecommons.org/choose/

- New Music Strategies - How long should music copyright be?: While many readers are more likely to first think of copyrights lasting 50+ years, Andrew Dubber suggests that "the ideal term of both recording rights and composer’s rights is five years." This may seem like a crazy idea at first, as some of the arguments for lengthy copyright terms include that it protects works from entering the public domain and enables musicians to be rewarded from their works for a longer period of time, but considering the positives of a renewable, 5-year copyright length: they could be easily renewable, "Inactivity at the five year mark will lead to the default position of public domain - not the default position (as is currently the case) of ‘you can’t use this’.", and would allow out-of-print, commercially unavailable works to thrive out in the open where people can hear them, and not be restricted to the frequently frowned-upon domain of underground music blogs and torrents, and most importantly they could allow "for far more music (coming) into the public sphere for the good of culture, and provide opportunities for enterprise." Being that the on-line music community has changed so much in the way that people listen to and obtain music, it's only the natural course of progress that laws and the way music is considered from a business perspective to shift to reflect this, and take advantage of the positives.

- RIAA - Piracy: Online and On the Street: The RIAA have a fairly scary run-down of the negative repercussions of sharing music, continuing to enforce the idea that sharing digital files is the same as stealing physical copies and blowing out-of-proportion the actual amount in damages caused. I don't mean to slight the RIAA, really - protecting artist's and recording company's rights is an important, and essential service, and the spiral has just continued right on downwards with the general assumption that they are an "evil" organization - admittedly, their actions have made music fans, downloaders or not, distrust them perhaps as much as they frown upon those who would share music without permission. Cash penalties for sharing copyrighted works are well in excess of what is reasonable (they say: "Criminal penalties can run up to 5 years in prison and/or $250,000 in fines, even if you didn’t do it for monetary or financial or commercial gain.", though cases so far typically have settled for a few thousand), though, encouragingly, the RIAA and other copyrighted-works defenders have largely shifted their focus away from downloaders (perhaps because there are simply too many to track them all down) and to the uploaders of files. P2P network sharers have been dealt the biggest blows, whereas blog uploaders are often simply asked to remove the offending item (Web Sheriff, anyone?). Oh, hang on. Wait a minute. Doesn't that sound like a more logical step? Just asking for the album to be removed if someone is bothered by it being uploaded? The reason why P2P is dealt with the way it has been is because the uploads are available to a massive amount of users and typically much more material is uploaded by each individual, while on blogs, uploads are more scattered and varied according to the poster's taste - I have a personal aversion to P2P and have never used it myself, though the technology is interesting: more info on this at the Electronic Frontier Foundation's A Better Way Forward: Voluntary Collective Licensing of Music File Sharing.

This all wraps back around to the concepts of copyright and copyleft - a new way will have to be sought out in order for listeners to get the music they want (the future seems to point to cheaper, easier, and more of it) and laws about copyright and creative protection being revised and being enforced (sensibly!). The solution is right in front of us, but reaching it must involve cooperation from all of the parties concerned.

(Top-left artwork by zio_fablo)

SYNTHSTRUMENTALS

dainty@daintyrecords.co.uk (Fulmar Austen) — Tue, 22 Sep 2009 16:35:00 +0000

A virtual mixtape of new wave instrumentals from the post punk/new romantic era.

Sometimes amazingly great synth pop bands like Japan and even Duran Duran would put out some quite interesting instrumental (or nearly instrumental) tracks as b-sides or album fillers – here are some of them alongside some lesser known vocal free wonders. No doubt there are loads of notably absent tracks that I’ve either forgotten or am yet to discover … so please post anything I’ve overlooked!

Cabaret Voltaire: Theme From Earthshaker
Album: Micro-ph onies (1984)
Your starter for 10.

Duran Duran: Tel Aviv
Album: Duran Duran (1981)
An atmospheric track that closed their debut LP that I guess would be unlikely to crop up on your 'Best Of' compilation.

Throbbing Gristle: Walkabout
Album: 20 Jazz Funk Greats (1979)
Not necessarily what you’d expect from TG, although I guess you can only expect the unexpected from them... they’re so naughty.

John Ellis: Photostadt

Single: Babies in Jars/Photostadt (1980)

Some weird track I have on a 7” at home that is actually excellent if you like that kind of thing. I think you can get it on the bootleg series ‘New Wave Complex’.

Fad Gadget: Arch of the Aorta
Album: Fireside Favourites (1980)
Wow – doesn’t sound like anything else of its time. A kind of weird synthy dark industrial proto-post-rock affair that brought Fad’s debut album Fireside Favourites to a close. If you like this see also his early (non-instrumental) single Ricky's Hand - one of the first few releases on the Mute label. Fad Gadget’s real name was Frank Tovey. He’s dead now.

David Bowie: Crystal Japan

Single: Japanese issue single Crystal Japan/Alabama Song (1980)

On Low and Heroes bowie notched up quite a few instrumentals which were without doubt a big influence on many of the tracks listed here … but that was in the seventies… This is one of the few instrumental from the post-Berlin Scary Monsters era before he went rubbish forever more Amen... (sigh).

Gary Numan: Airlane

Album: The Pleasure Principle (1979)

Kind of appropriate, given that he can fly an aeroplane and everything. Looking back, it sounds quite prog. Also check out ‘Asylum’, the B-side to Cars.

Japan: The Experience of Swimming
Single: Gentlemen Take Polaroids double 7” (1980)
Oh Japan, time has vindicated them to the lofty heights they deserve and now it’s plain for all to see that they really were head and shoulders above most of their synth-drenched contemporaries – and here’s one reason why. If you think you could get into Japan’s instrumentals see also The Tenant, A Foreign Place, Life Without Buildings, The Width of a Room, Oil on Canvas, Voices Raised in Welcome, Hands Held in Prayer and Temple of Dawn.

Colourbox: Just Give ‘em Whiskey
Album: Colourbox (1984)
Odd collaborative album from 4AD with a big pop sensibility and production values second to none (and one of my favourite album covers ever after Kimono My House)

John Foxx: Glimmer
Single: No-One Driving/Glimmer
Beautifully minimal sequenced synth piece, rivalling a Japan instrumental in its evocation of a kind of misconstrued continental glamour… a bonus track on reissues of Metamatic nowadays.
Also check out ‘Film One’.

Soft Cell: ....So

Single: What! / …So (1982)

All the fun of Soft Cell only without you know who…

Orchestral Manoeuvres in the Dark: Architecture & Morality
Album: Architecture & Morality (1981)
The title track from the album of the same name. I’m sure I once read a mean critic’s disparaging remark that OMD based their entire career on the Bowie track A New Career in a New Town… OMD spent a lot of time getting dissed in the 80s backlash but those bad old days are over now and the 80s are great again!

Mick Karn: Weather the Windmill

Album: Titles (1982)

Showcasing the innovative and original approach to the bass guitar by the extraordinarily talented Mick Karn on his first post-Japan solo LP Titles. There’s a couple of instrumentals on there but this is my favourite.

Simple Minds: Soundtrack For Every Heaven
Single: Someone Somewhere (In Summertime) 12” (1982)
Of course before simple minds became a byword for bland stadium rock and sub-U2 pomposity and when ‘The Breakfast Club’ wasn’t even a gleam in their eye they began life as Johnny and the Self Abusers, graduating to deliberately inaccessible post-punk/industrial experimentalists. However the eventual transition phase to the mainstream produced arguaby their best album Sons and Fascination and, in the instrumental stakes, this track.

Blitz: Teletron
Single: Telecommunications/Teletron (1983)
The b-side to Telecommunications. Some indecipherable vocals here so possibly a disqualification… nice industrial post-punk track with synth stylings though. When I originally posted this article I warned readers not to confuse this Blitz with the Oi! band of the name, but as was kindly pointed out they are - amazingly - one and the same band (thanks mogadonia!).

China Crisis: Jean Walks In Fresh Fields
Album: Difficult Shapes and Passive Rythms, Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain (1982)
Spine tingling instrumental sketch. China Crisis became a laughing stock of 80s badness for a long time but they were occasionally stunning.

What's on the Horizon

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 21 Sep 2009 23:20:00 +0000

Hello all you fabulous AFIN readers! Just putting a notice out there that I will be away for about a week (headed off to the Bay Area, and seeing the Manic Street Preachers on Thursday!). Meanwhile, there are a couple of fabulous contributor posts forthcoming - look out for them in the next few days! Also in the coming weeks are interviews with Dead Times and E.K. Wimmer, Independent Music Discoveries resumed, more Keeping Watch on the Music Business posts, and some top-secret goodies I'm at work on that I'm not at liberty to discuss just yet. Keep tuning in!

Movie - Closer to the Sun (Visions of the Winter Remix)

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 19 Sep 2009 01:23:00 +0000

Hey there, AFIN readers! Here's a fantastic remix to tide you over until next week's full-length Independent Music Discoveries post: New York band Movie's "Closer to the Sun" (White Whales, was reviewed favorably here a couple months ago) remixed by the tentatively-named Visions of Winter:

Download - "Closer to the Sun (Visions of the Winter Remix)"

New Music Video: Jordan Galland - "Everyone Else is Boring"

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:20:00 +0000

Jordan Galland, who was featured here in June, along with his new album Airbrush (one of the best I've heard this year; available via CDBaby), has recently premiered the music video for "Everyone Else is Boring" (my favorite track from the album)! This stop-animation video fits the track perfectly, combining a surreal swirl of collage art with photos of Galland by Francois Hugon; the description should catch your interest:

"Inspired by Surrealists like Marcel Duchamp, the video follows a slumbering Jordan on a journey beginning in the comfort of a nuclear-family style home and winding through an idyllic park photograph, 1950’s postcard settings, cavernous supernatural hideouts, Victorian parlors and more. Methods of transportation: flight, a purple horse with wings, a Godard-esque spaceship and massive bumblebee with the face of a beautiful woman."

Check it out below!:

Oh yeah, and he's multi-talented, too - he's got a movie he's directed, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are Undead, coming out this autumn!

Jordan Galland - Official Site | on MySpace Music

Just Wondering

iankemp90@gmail.com (Ian) — Tue, 15 Sep 2009 22:09:00 +0000

We're a few months away from the end of the decade, which I'm sure means a LOT of end-of-decade lists should start appearing soon (on sites apart from Pitchfork). Off the top of my head, I would probably include records by Radiohead, System of a Down, Yeah Yeah Yeahs, M.I.A., Kanye West (despite his being a gigantic tit) and Animal Collective on my list. What would you include on yours?

Great Underrated Bands #2

dainty@daintyrecords.co.uk (Fulmar Austen) — Sun, 13 Sep 2009 15:30:00 +0000

Inspired by Marilyn’s recent article on the same theme I thought I’d have a go in the hope that this might become a regular feature on AFIN. It’s a difficult question… there’s so much music and so many obscure artists that one might like to mention for sake of namedropping them but, in all honestly, their minor cult status is perhaps ultimately proportionate to their contribution to pop music. Then there are very well known and popular acts that are perhaps ‘misunderstood’. And overrated bands? Don’t even get me started… Anyway, here are eight more that, if you’re not already an avid fan, you might like to check out.

Brett Smiley

I would have included Jobriath here, the genuinely gay glam rocker who never quite achieved the highs that were hoped for him and who sadly died in the 80s. However Morrissey has already done a great deal to resurrect his legacy. For glam fans though Brett Smiley is, in sense, the next Jobriath. A camp glam wannabe that never was. Only a teenager when he was pushed into the limelight, Smiley was another of Andrew Loog Oldham’s many follies after the Stones (a list that also includes Billy Nicholls and Vashti Bunyan – the latter now relinquished from obscurity by a mobile phone ad), this time trying to cash in on the glam thing. But Brett is so camp, so fey and, unlike most glam rockers, genuinely pretty that maybe he was ahead of his time. I can’t help thinking that maybe he would have fared better in the New Romantic era…. To get a full sense of what I’m talking about you have to see his British television debut on the Russel Harty Show. Anyway, his reissued album Breathlessly Brett whilst not consistently astounding does contain some excellent songs if you like that kind of trampy, campy, overblown glam and his vocal style is always unique. Fact fans may like to note that, after commercial failure in the pop world, Brett played a cameo in the film American Gigolo. Also note Johnny Thunders sounds just like him on his brilliant 1984 album Hurt Me.

Philamore Lincoln
Driving through the English countryside late on a warm summers night with the radio on full, tired but in a slightly dream like state, the most breathtaking piece of orchestrated psyche transported me still further into the warm majesty of the night. This, the announcer told me, was ‘The North Wind Blew South’ by Headless Heroes. Needless to say I had to find this music which was, I discovered, an excellent album of covers called The Silence of Love which is well worth checking out. The song in question, it transpired, was by an obscure psyche singer/songwriter/arranger with the amazing name of Philamore Lincoln. When I was finally able to track down the original, I realised that the Copeland-esque string section like a janty psychedelic barn dance, the harmonies, the atmosphere – are all there in the original. I then managed to get hold of his one and only album The North Wind Blew South (1970) and his brand of gentle breathy psyche, dreamy but not at all ‘druggy’, very much appealed to me. The album also contains the track Temma Harbour which I had known and loved for a long time as a Mary Hopkin song, not realising it was one of his (kind of assumed Paul McCartney had written it!). Incidentally the CD is pretty much unavailable (in the UK) so I’m hoping for a reissue at some stage.

Urusei Yatsura Some of that 90s indie rock is now seeming so old it has a kind of retro feel already. Urusei Yatsura were a Scottish indie band extant from 1993 – 2001 and (rather inaccessibly) named after a Manga series roughly translating as ‘Those Obnoxious Aliens'. Maybe they weren’t the most original, I can't help feeling that Pixies must have been a massive influence, but they did rock and, if nothing else, their biggest (and best) single “Hello Tiger” has all the elements of great indie power pop song that the whole family can enjoy.

Duncan Browne
Probably already adored by many a middle aged folky hippie type (but who cares about them anyway, right kids !?) Duncan Browne, and in particular his 1968 album Give Me, Take You possibly deserves some reappraisal outside the hippie sphere because it has a number of unique qualities. The songs are, on the one hand, folky and acoustic but they also contain ambitious orchestrations, harmonies and multi-tracking that are rather ahead of their time. It brings with it shades of the ‘baroque psyche’ sound, but it doesn’t belong to that category either. The song structures are very innovative and un-formulaic, at times almost more in the chanson tradition rather than the British folk revival. His lyrics, unusually for the time perhaps, explore introspective themes, personal relationships and childhood memories. It's of its time, but also timeless.

Nirvana
No no, not that silly Cobain nonsense, the other Nirvana who never quite made the big-time in swinging London in the late sixties. Okay they are already adored by psych-enthusiasts but I do believe their appeal could be wider as, to my ears, their first two albums The Story of Simon Simopath (1967) and All of Us (1968) secure their reputation as more than ‘just another obscure psyche band’. First of all the whole set up is strange. Two slightly shy guys, one Irish and one Greek, with no proper band… they don’t fit the usual sixties story of art college drop-outs and, perhaps because of this, their music seems to come from ‘another place’ - and all beautifully condensed into short and fulsome pop songs, each a self-contained epic. I cannot say enough how highly I regard songs like Satellite Jockey, Pentecost Hotel, Tiny Goddess, The Touchables (written as a theme for a swinging UK film – check out opening credits here), In The Courtyard of the Stars and, possibly their best known song, Rainbow Chaser. After being dropped by Island they did another album Black Flower (aka To Markos III) that didn’t receive a full release at the time. It has its moments (and familiar moments for DJ Shadow fans) but I think, to be honest, their heyday had passed. Like other bands that were ‘good in the sixties’ like The Who and The Kinks they continued through the 70s but no one took any notice. The timeless genius of their early work however is something that I hope will continue to gain stature.

Yachts (aka The Yachts)
Liverpool based New Wave group who rose up on the swell of punk before crashing on the rocks of obscurity. It’s difficult to determine whether they belong to a punk, pub rock or power pop tradition and possibly it doesn’t matter. Whilst I’m not suggesting that Yachts should have been massive, I truly believe a great many more people could enjoy their unique brand of maritime pop, especially the stand-out singles “Suffice to Say” and, my personal favourite, “Yachting Type”. In terms of the basic sound I think of them as a kind of less unpleasant version of the Stranglers. Band member Henry Priestman went on to navigate his way to chart success in the 80s with The Christians.

Help She Can’t Swim
A particular kind of art-school hipster punk which I would perhaps ordinarily consider annoyingly vacuous and pretentious. In the case of HSCS however I get a real sense of disenchantment and rage – although I do find myself occassionally reminded of the Sonic Youth album Sister. There also some nice pop interludes, some killer riffs and the loud screamy bits are perfect for blowing the cobbles out of your hair. They disbanded last year apparently. If nothing else I would urge you to check out the track Hospital Drama - a power pop treasure from beginning to end.

China Crisis
I love the band Japan. I love them and have loved them for quite a long time now. No one else really liked them when I started liking them, except perhaps those who’d liked them first time around. Now I’m delighted (and a little bit smug and vindicated) that their reputation has been elevated to the status it deserves and hence they do not need to be mentioned in this article (but you just have mentioned them!?). So do China Crisis deserve the same reappraisal as Japan? Not sure, but nonetheless underrated they are, particularly their first two albums Difficult Shapes and Passive Rhythms, Some People Think It’s Fun To Entertain (1982) and Working With Fire and Steel - Possible Pop Songs Volume Two (1983) – if only for the titles alone. For ages they were seen as epitome of everything that was awful and pretentious about 80s pop music, but given that nearly every facet of what made pretentious eighties music ‘awful’ is now en-vogue once more surely the uptight soul, the mechanistic funk and general political-and-yet-also-not-political façade and the pseudo world-music of China Crisis would appeal more than ever? Back handed compliments aside however, I really do love them. The music is genuinely uplifting and they can also do hauntingly melancholy in the case of the stand-out song “Here Comes a Raincloud” which is one of the most heart meltingly sad-yet-redemptive songs that I know of.

Independent Music Discoveries, Issue #21

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 12 Sep 2009 04:45:00 +0000

Another installment in our continuing series - recommend your indie favorites in the comments!

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*UPDATES ON PAST ARTISTS FEATURED!*

Mojo Method - Psychedelic / Other / Rock - Louisiana, USA
Mojo Method, which I previously described as "decidedly avant-garde", have recently released their new EP Everything, Ever (Up Until this Point) on Bandcamp! These songs, including the previously featured "Sphinx vs. Cobra", solidify this band as one of the most promising independent artists I've encountered yet. These guys bring a genuine, carefree spirit to their music, not to mention a powerful punch of musicality, that makes for immensely enjoyable listening. Check out "Camouflage", and you'll hear what I mean!

Mr. Dream - Rock / Alternatve - New York, USA
Described in a past issue as having "a dash of old-school punk and some insanely catchy tunes ", Mr. Dream's latest release Mr. Dream Goes To Jail finds this group honing their sound, and turning out the particularly great
"Lawnmower Man". Watch out for these guys!

Oh Ne - German Pop / Experimental / Psychedelic - Dützen/Unterlübbe/Todtenhausen, Germany
Truly one of my favorite independent bands out there, Oh Ne are a German group (also part of the music blog RAMIN TON) that have newly released the album Netzeband Glitzerwelt (streamable in full on Last.fm), which combines some tracks from their previous output. This is, seriously, one of the best, most creative albums that I've heard in 2009, with its blend, and transcendence, of genres like minimal synth, chip-tune, space rock, and prog rock. Recommended: "Eine Millionen Dollar in Senf" and "Islandia 2"

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JAEGER - Electro / Alternative / Indie - USA
Hil Jaeger is a multi-talented producer/dj/musician who is "exploring the union of electronic landscapes and human voice". It certainly sounds that way, hearing
"No Echo", with a powerful chorus of voices everywhere, and spinning glittery electro-sounds all around. JAEGER's "Re Re Reckoner" is easily one of the best Radiohead remixes I've heard, a entire re-invention of the track.

ARMS - Indie / Shoegaze / Melodramatic Popular Song - New York, USA
Todd Goldstein's (guitarist from Harlem Shakes) solo project ARMS has a rather peaceful, breezy sound all around, as you can hear on "Kids Aflame", title track to the album to be released in the US on October 27th. Ukuleles, ahoy!

The Red Channels - Folk Rock/ Soul / Trance - Oklahoma, USA
While they've drawn comparisons with 4AD artists, Blonde Redhead, and Mazzy Star, and the duo The Red Channels (Ryan M. Block and Elaina Azar) do craft some spooky, shoegazy sounds, there is certainly a unique presence of a peculiar, carnivalesque atmosphere, and a strange beauty throughout. Take a listen to "Waltz", from their new album Ghetto Cooking, and let yourself get carried away along with the mystery...

Keeping Watch on the Music Business: The Digital and Physical Copy and New Promotional Techniques

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Thu, 10 Sep 2009 05:30:00 +0000

What do I know about making money from music? After all, I've given all of my own compositions away for free so far. That being said, I have been an avid purchaser of music for many years and grew up in a household loaded with records, tapes, and CDs, so I'd like to think I know a little something about what entices someone into wanting to own an album, physically as well as digitally.

We're living in a time where practically every album you could want can be found in a few minutes' time via music blogs (or more frowned-upon downloading sources), totally free, not necessarily resulting in the downloader doing anything to support the artist later on. Despite the fact that 'pirates' tend to purchase more music anyway (covered in my previous Keeping Watch on the Music Business piece: File-Sharing, You, and Them), and probably attend more gigs as well, I think it's a safe bet that these are albums that are being bought because: 1) they're currently unavailable to download anywhere, 2) they contain some extras that cannot be had in digital form, 3) someone feels duty-bound to support the artist/label monetarily.

If you've spent a few minutes or more at A Future in Noise in the past, it's probably clear that the whole team are digital format enthusiasts. That thousands of songs can be stored on a hard-drive, and a cassette-sized iPod, is something that amazes me still. Music blogs are becoming less of an underground phenomenon and more of a central force in the digital promotion of new music. Whether you've put out everything for free or have it purchasable digitally (perhaps even physical copies as well), this is your best bet to get your content out there and be heard.

If you're an independent artist that has just released a new digital album, one of the first things you should do is carefully select music blogs to send a message to them about it. I'm not talking press release blasts, either (see Are You Still Blasting Out Press Releases... on Music Think Tank for why this can be a waste of time). It has to at least appear personal, and hopefully you have indeed put some time into exploring what music their site focuses on. To draw from my own experience: when I was promoting New Limerent Object, I first sent it out to music bloggers I had networked with previously, as in commenting on their posts, e-mailing them previously about how I enjoyed their articles, or located on Last.fm and discussed music matters with. You likely have more immediate, article-writing connections than you realize! When sending your new album along to a blog you've never contacted before, be sure that it is not a shot in the dark - you can quite easily locate sites that would be more receptive to your music by visiting Google Blogsearch and looking up artists that you enjoy or find similar to your own style of music, and browsing through the blogs that come up. Another method is to look through blogs at Hype Machine, Elbo.ws, and the MOG Music Network and contact your favorites. Since I've received hundreds of press releases and personal music submission e-mails since starting A Future in Noise, I'd like to take a moment to offer some tips to any artist, label, or PR representative looking to contact music blogs for promotional purposes...and get results!:

- Generic PR blasts are not impressive, the exception being if they're about an artist I already know that I like and the message comes off more as a news briefing than an unexpected annoyance. Same goes for being added without permission to an artist or label's mailing list that I've never been in contact with previously! Even if you are using the same basic format for the content of your press release, particularly if you're planning on sending it around to dozens, maybe even hundreds of sites, it helps immensely if you add a personal touch to it, particularly at the beginning - as an example: "Hello (blogger's name) - I've been reading (name of blog), and I really enjoyed your post on (band x) and thought you might enjoy my music too." Despite my name, Marilyn Roxie, being plastered all over everything I'm involved with, I've gotten more than one music submission that un-jokingly began with "Dear Sir or Madam"!

- Thinking about including a .ZIP or .RAR as an attachment...? Stop! Danger, danger! It's more convenient for you, as well as who you're submitting your album to, if you upload your file to a 'non-expiring' site like Drop.io, Megaupload, or Mediafire (as opposed to Sendspace, which will kill a link that goes without being downloaded for too long), after which you get one single link that you can point everyone to, instead of having to upload it and wait each time you're sending it out, so it can be downloaded at someone's leisure. If you have more time on your hands to upload higher-quality bitrate files and customize a landing site for the would-be downloader or purchaser, Bandcamp is a good option as well. Including mp3s as attachments doesn't bother me, though it is probably still better to use an external link instead, which Mediafire and Soundcloud are handy for.

- Make it clear whether you want your entire album to be shared or whether they have your permission to post streams and/or downloads. I've had to ask many of the artists that have sent me their music if it is okay if I post a download or two or if they'd rather a stream instead, since it wasn't specified in their original message. Including "Please feel free to share a track from this album as an mp3" ("a track or two", "the album", or other variants) in your message will take out some of the guesswork for the recipient of your message, and is likely to encourage them to pay attention and listen in the first place. Even if you're serious about selling physical copies, you will absolutely gain more fans by offering at least some of your material for free. This is essential. Never forget it!

- See also bigMETHOD's article on The Golden Rules of Blog PR: 12 Music Bloggers Set It Straight for more tips. Meanwhile, or preferably before a craze of blog submissions, make sure you set about establishing yourself in on-line music/social-networks (see also my article on Independent Musicians' Tips at SleepWalking Mag) - it's all about spreading the word.

Alright, so you've informed people about your material, but how do you get them to then buy your album? For the starting artist, I think scarcity and exclusive content are key. Nine Inch Nails' Trent Reznor made an excellent post in July on his thoughts on what to do as a new / unknown artist, which included points about how important it is to give your music away from the get-go, offer limited and special editions ("make them by hand, sign them, make them unique, make them something YOU would want to have as a fan"), get your music on iTunes and Amazon, provide merchandise, and offer files in a variety of bitrates and formats.

Since the music business has changed so rapidly in the wake of the on-line music community, new ways have got to be sought out to keep the commercial aspect exciting. Making merchandise is as easy as getting a free Zazzle account, which allows you to offer nicely made custom clothing, accessories, mugs, posters and more with your own uploaded designs. Think of how you might be able to tie your other talents into promoting your band and allowing for purchasable items as well - are you an artist? Set up a DeviantArt shop (small one time fee)! Place emphasis on your album art, and have large-size versions available as prints. Do you make short films? Make sure fans of your music know where to see what you've done on YouTube or Vimeo or purchase DVDs! Many users seem to not be as savvy about how to find and download video content for free as they are with music, plus it takes up considerably more space, so consider the video component of your music as a viable product option, sold separately or as a bonus with your album. Make sure any additional efforts involving other media types supplement the music, instead of distract from it!

Getting fans to purchase digital mp3s is as simple as the right kind of promotion (and the general music fan prefers individual tracks), and Amazon and iTunes are the first destinations of many, but what's the real incentive to buy whole albums digitally, instead of physically? For starters, iTunes' new iTunes LP digital store addition "provides music listeners with an expanded media experience similar to buying an LP record, with the music featured along side album art and photography, liner notes and other material" (thanks to alvareo on Tumblr for the heads-up on this!). Fans appreciate extras like high-res cover art and insert images, maybe even a PDF booklet, or a password that allows them to access otherwise hidden content on your website. Get creative and think: what would you like to see your favorite bands release along with their new albums (or what have they done already)?

Moving on to physical copies, I honestly don't believe that they will ever die out entirely. Holding an album in your hands, owning it is quite another thing from downloading. Apart from cheap physical copies to sell at gigs and on-line (keep it under $15, and $10 if you can manage it), homemade, limited copies, as well as standard releases with extras similar to those I suggested for digital downloads earlier, also add to fan excitement.

It's no surprise that vinyl is on the upswing; see also Wired: Vinyl May Be Final Nail in CD's Coffin and RIAA Admits Vinyl Sales Are Climbing. For many in their 20s and younger, vinyl records have a sort of retro-cool appeal, and seem like a more substantial item to possess than the mere tracks on your computer or mp3 player, accompanied by a JPEG image. Record Store Day is a lovely global effort to get people out to support their local record stores and rediscover (or in the case of many younger listeners, discover for the first time) the joy of hunting and browsing around a shop and conversing with fellow music fanatics, elements that are sadly missing from the realm of the digital store...at the moment. I envision a future where there's a digital storefront with a Gaia Online-esque interface that involves using a customizable avatar, chatting up with clerks and other customers in real-time, and looking through virtual record racks all around, divided up by artist name and genre!

In conclusion, people have strong feelings about purchasing music - they're more likely to do it if they feel attached enough to the artist/label to make a financial contribution, as well as if they're getting something extra out of it that's not possible to acquire otherwise. You wouldn't buy just anything, right? I'm aware that many artists might be resistant to the idea of having their music as 'a product', preferring it to remain free, but as someone who has allowed listening, making, and writing about music become the greater portion of their life's work, I feel that there gets to be a point where you might want your efforts to be appreciated to a greater extent, and seen, and held, and made real! In the challenging atmosphere of the music industry, this can appear tricky at times, yet all the while there are more new options and opportunities to be creative with making music available to the public than ever before.

Weekend Listens: Memory Tapes and Dennis Diken with Bell Sound

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Mon, 07 Sep 2009 04:25:00 +0000

Memory Tapes - Seek Magic
Memory Tapes is the fusion of Dayve Hawk's ("just some dude in southern New Jersey"; previously of Hail Social) previous musical output as Weird Tapes (psychedelic and trippy) and Memory Cassette (electro-poppier). Seek Magic, now available for vinyl pre-order and released on September 29th, makes for a strangely pleasant listening experience, evoking an unusual blend of both naturey, even oceanic, and danceable images and sensations. "Bicycle" is a beautiful, cinematic highlight here, while the melancholy, sparkly "Green Knight" is my personal favorite. Lovely to listen to as a soundtrack to your daily activities, as well as to put on in times of...chillin'. Hawk is on his way to becoming one of the electronic greats!
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Dennis Diken with Bell Sound - Late Music
Dennis Diken, drummer for New Jersey group the Smithereens since 1980, has collaborated with Pete DiBella, along with guests Andy Paley, The Honeys, Jason Falkner, and Wondermints members, on Late Music, due out on September 29th as a Cryptovision (where you van stream 5 of this album's tracks) issue via Select-o-Hits. The comments in the press release are telling, as Diken said "There are melodies and lyric ideas that I just can’t get out of my head and some of them have been lodged there since I was five or six years old!", and as this release coincides with the re-launch of Cryptovision, company chief Dave Amels said: “The goal of the new Cryptovision Records is to both reissue selections from the 1980s catalog in digital form and to release really great new music . . .music rooted in the deep American pop and rock ‘n’ roll traditions.” Late Music is a celebration of all the most funnest sunshiney bits of classic-era pop-rock, especially with "The Sun's Gonna Shine in the Morning" and the dreamy, Beach Boys-esque "No One's Listening" and "Fall into Your Arms". My personal favorite "Don't Let Me Sleep Too Long", with proto-garage and beat elements, not to mention ridiculous catchiness that makes this an exceptional track even without the context of nostalgia and joy of making music that surrounds Late Music. I didn't think they made 'em like this anymore, but I'm glad that they do - pick it up!

Independent Music Discoveries, Issue #20

marilynroxie@gmail.com (Marilyn Roxie) — Sat, 05 Sep 2009 01:50:00 +0000

Another Friday, another fresh round of independent talent! See also back issues in our continuing series, and as always, feel free to recommend your favorite indie artists in the comments.

Captain Polaroid - Alternative / Indie / Pop - Midlands, UK
Captain Polaroid is one of the many fine folks I've encountered because of the Manic Street Preachers forum Forever Delayed. While that band's presence and that of his other influences, including Pavement, McCarthy, R.E.M., and The Wedding Present, can be felt, the Captain is capable of skipping through genres from track-to-track, through the punky "Dust Will Settle on This Lifeless Town", to soft acoustic laments ("Wintertime Ending"), and jangle-poppy goodness ("A Cure For Every Ailment"; all the aforementioned appeared on Other Short Stories and Better Works of Fiction, 2007) It's easy to hear a true enjoyment of the creation of music itself here, from the seamless flow through musical styles to the quirky, lo-fi sound overall. His latest EP Point and Click can be downloaded from Filthy Little Angels, and his works are purchasable over at Big Cartel as well. A must-listen!

Mirror Pal - Other / Ambient / Alternative - Florida, USA
This isn't straight-up shoegaze, despite some curious guitar work and ambient soundscapes, but the same descriptors apply there as here: lush, melodious, ethereal, dreamy. Mirror Pal are a group presenting a soulful sort of rock with unexpected instrumental touches - have a listen to "What About Plan B", and you'll hear what I mean!

Never Dreamed Night Freeze Sandwich - Various Artists/Genres - Various Countries
French label La Bulle Sonore Records has released a various artists compilation entitled Never Dreamed Night Freeze Sandwich, which is indie-electro-pop and immense fun to listen to - check out the medleys of what's included on the album here!: http://www.myspace.com/nightfreezesandwich Nearly all of the artists here were new to me, including Dondolo, Katsen, and Bal Pare. You can buy this lovely road trip (or party!)-worthy compilation at Big Cartel!

Samuel Stewart - Rock - California, USA / England, UK
Son of Dave Stewart (Eurythmics), and producer of his brother Django James and the Midnight Squires' The Giving Tree, Samuel Stewart is set to release his first EP The Beginner. There are bits of his style, theatrical and emotionally-wrought, that remind me of an artist I featured earlier this year, Jordan Galland, as well as Patrick Wolf. Check out EP title track "The Beginner" - Sam is one to watch!