Bassline Mix

I’ll keep it short, a bit like the mix. I glide through 13 tracks in 40 minutes. I’m about to give up on classifying my mixes, since I’ve been overusing the terms ‘electronica’ and ‘ambient’ over the past 3 years. This mix contains some glitch, dubby techno, electronica, dubstep… what do they all have in common. Bassline. Enjoy the mix and please leave comments below.
Big thanks to Basil for his amazing photo – more beautiful photography can be found on his website skanvas.basdriver.nl

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MP3 version:
Podcast by Warren Daly – Bassline Mix May 2012

Tracklisting – Aritst – Track – Label

1. Warren Daly – unnamed souls – Invisible Agent Records
2. Al-B – La Deuda Eterna – Static Disco
3. DML – fluid – Grünfeld
4. Mr. Bitterness – beat down – Bandcamp
5. Richard Savani – Loveless (Original Mix) -  BPM:120
6. toaster – i think everyone is gone – Invisible Agent Records
7. unknown – unknown (I’m working on finding out…)
8. B-Mus – ocean ground (zzzzra remix) – sublimeporte
9. Warren Daly – ocean – Invisible Agent Records
10. Sb-six – only you – IDMForums Netlabel
11. random walker – radio arctic – Deep In Dub
12. Jiggawatt – circus of mind – IDMForums Netlabel
13. paranerd – slumber lovers – one

Rebecca Salvadori has made a video for the Danseizure track ‘No Ideas but in Things’, featuring the voice of Ryan Van Winkle.

Sleep inducing podcast

Dedicated to the insomniacs, restless sleepers, and the sleep lovers of the world. This podcast was mixed at my home studio ‘on the fly’ and induced sleep to 100% of the audience. (Okay,there was only 2 people listening, but none the less it sounds impressive and the results speak for themselves). It’s a one hour chilled-out podcast featuring music from a range of talented artists signed to the best Netlabels in the World.

Recommendations & shares

A recent share on Twitter by @vuzhmusic allowed me to discover the AudioTong Netlabel and the layered and distorted guitar loops by Zubik. Darren Harper never ceases to amaze me, he captures so much light and positive energy in his production. As always I included more releases from BFW Recordings and FeedBackLoop, they truly are connoisseurs of fine music. Don’t forget about Ambienteer who has recently launched his 30th album, congratulations again James. The new Future Sequence compilation entitled Sequence3 is amazing and will most certainly feature heavily in my future mixes, another noteworthy Netlabel. Last but not least, Drew Miller a.k.a The Northern Hemisphere helps me fade out of the mix. I am looking forward to including tracks from his (5th) upcoming album. Exciting times. Enjoy the mix and be sure to leave a comment below. Thank to Alex Leonard for his fantastic photo for the cover artwork.

Stay informed

I regularly post Netlabel links and other goodies on Twitter. Alternatively join me on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. You can download all our podcasts here.

Download

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MP3 version:
Podcast by Warren Daly – Soundscape mix April 2012

Tracklisting – Aritst – Track – Label

1. Zubik – Engine 3 – AudioTong
2. Darren Harper – Wind Thru Glass – Bandcamp
3. piper ben – Speed Of Sound – BFW Recordings
4. Meteer – Codex Tempera Magnificat – BFW Recordings
5. Meteer – Phenomenographic Aluminum Scan  – BFW Recordings
6. ambienteer – early bird – Ambienteer
7. IXE-13 – You Die You Dead – Future Sequence
8. Ambienteer – ice cycles – Ambienteer
9. BpOlar – Yemanja – FeedbackLoop
10. Artificial Memory Trace – Centralon - Impulsive Habitat
11. The Northern Hemisphere – Goodnight – Invisible Agent Records

Several years ago I decided to move to the other side of the planet. Before I departed my biggest issue was what I would do with my sizable record collection. Luckily for me I have a very generous friend (Steve, thank you) who is taking care of my collection while am I away. I recorded and compressed some of my records, allowing me to bring parts of my collection with me. The lack of record shops in South East Asia and the sweltering heat hampers lugging around 20 kilos of Technics, so it was a ‘no brainer’ to go fully digital, or so I thought.

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Over the past 2 decades a whole range of new hardware and software has been readily available to the audiophile, with ever-increasing features at even more affordable prices. All these shiny boxes with flashing lights and inbuilt wizardry would make our lives easier, music production better. Some even make you a cup of coffee. A far cry from the days of 2 turntables and a simple 2 channel mixer. It is now, as I stare at an Ableton recovery prompt, last night it was a locked up Torq session, constant “driver issues”, incompatible formats and corrupted files, I fondly remember my vinyl collection.

What I miss most about my Vinyl collection

Obviously I miss listening and mixing on a trusty pair of Technics 1210s, but I miss the artwork and other details too. Inspecting the cover, the colorful and sometimes crazy artwork. Staring at the patterns of the ‘cut’, and of course reviewing the center stickers. Most importantly, scanning the inner bleed meticulously, searching for a message from the cutting engineer. The higher quality pressing have a tiny scrawl, not a blemish, an import mark in the run out, ‘NILZ – THE EXCHANGE’. After seeing this a smile of reassurance is sure to follow. The cutting engineers handle the delicate stages of vinyl production, from cutting voltages, bass responses and much more. Recently I was sad to read that Nilesh Patel passed away in late Decemeber 2011. Nilz was one of the finest cutting engineers ever, may he rest in peace.

Macs Technics ‘just work’

All this reminiscing brings me to my second favorite past-time of all, having a go at Apple users. Apple users often make idiotic statements such as ‘I use a Mac because they just work’. Sorry, but Technics owners got there before you. A record player doesn’t have to ‘boot’, there are no ‘updates’ to run, no hard-drive failures and no proprietary connectors. Technics just work, and I miss them a lot. Instead of spending hours chatting about and listening to music in the local independent record shops, I find my time consumed by endless searches of forums for bug fixes, driver updates and the nightmare of connecting equipment to firewire and USB ports in a convoluted sequence. But I guess that’s the price of progress.

You can enjoy all our Invisible Agent vinyl releases here on your new fangled digital device. Good luck

We’re delighted to introduce our 3rd album of 2012. An ambient album by Toaster entitled “Buy both and feel deceived”

Toaster a.k.a Todd Elliott masterfully produces ambient electronic sound-scapes using a variety of techniques. Todd draws influences from a wide range of genres and artists including Scanner, Autechre, Throbbing Gristle and Pink Floyd to name but a few. His techniques are constantly evolving allowing him to organically create new themes and melodies, enveloping the listener with lush and warm ambient textures.

We welcome Todd Elliott to our talented roster of artists and look forward to releasing another chilled out album by ‘Toaster’ later in 2012.

BUY NOW

What to buy this release at another store?

Purchase this release

Toaster a.k.a Todd Elliott masterfully produces ambient electronic sound-scapes using a variety of techniques. Todd draws influences from a wide range of genres and artists including Scanner, Autechre, Throbbing Gristle and Pink Floyd to name but a few.  His techniques are constantly evolving allowing him to organically create new themes and melodies, enveloping the listener with lush and warm ambient textures.

We welcome Todd Elliott to our talented roster of artists and look forward to releasing another album by ‘Toaster’ later in 2012.

BUY NOW

What to buy this release at another store?

Purchase this release

I thoroughly enjoyed blending these amazing ambient tracks. So much talent and so many excellent Netlabels. Big shout out to Ambienteer, FeedbackLoop, Bing Satellites, and all the Invisible Agent Afflatus contributors. New finds include Dragons Eye Records and Dalot. Enjoy the mix.

Stay informed

I regularly post Netlabel links and other goodies on Twitter. Alternatively join me on Facebook or subscribe to our RSS feed. You can download all our podcasts here.

Talented and dedicated musicians want you to enjoy their fantastic music, please share the love and check out each artist at their website below and give them the support they deserve. All the tracks are Netaudio and some are Creative commons. Happy listening.

Download

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MP3 version: Podcast by Warren Daly – Ambient mix March 2012

Tracklisting

Scoddy – a dog tries to dance – Invisible Agent Afflatus
Bing Satellites – Soothing Image 47 – Bing Satellites
Ambienteer – nodar (extended version) – Ambienteer
i8u – apophis – Dragons Eye Records
The Northern Hemisphere – Glacier Harbor (and the way it sings) – Invisible Agent
Warren Daly – The secrets of meditation – Invisible Agent Afflatus
Scoddy – a dog tries to dance – Invisible Agent Afflatus
Cinchel – fire.fly.flash.flood – FeedbackLoop
Yann Novak – A Broken Field II – Dragons Eye Records
Mick Chillage – Countdown to disaster – Bandcamp
Ambienteer – collection of strange victories – Bandcamp / Ambienteer
Toaster – Are you going to kiss me – Invisible Agent
Dalot – Haiku 10 – Bandcamp / Dalot
Spectra Ciera – Underpass – Feedbackloop
Ambienteer – ecclesia – Bandcamp / Ambienteer
Bing Satellites – Soothing Image 42 – Bing Satellites
The Northern Hemisphere – Planets, and How They Formed Our Lives – Invisible Agent

Everybody knows the power of words is tremendous, and writing a controversial post increases traffic. A perfect example of this is Phillip Mlynar’s recent article in SF Weekly with an award-winning title “Instrumental Hip-Hop Sucks. Ban It Forever“. I chuckled when I first read the title and knew it was going to cause a stir. I am selective about the sites where I read users comments, mainly for my sanity. However, I must confess I did have a peek and not surprisingly Mlynar hit a few nerves. One reader suggests he should go and kill himself, which also made me chuckle. Phillip Mlyner’s plan is working perfectly.

Phillip Mlynar sucks. Ban him forever

I’m not going to de-construct the article and offer a rebuttal point by point, that’s already been done. I don’t like Enya’s music, but it won’t make me write articles stating New Age music is hippy drivel and must be destroyed. It might increase our readership, what do you think?

Where is the joy and excitement in listening to three minutes of plodding drum beats overlaid with a short sample that repeats but goes nowhere – Phillip Mlynar on Instrumental Hip Hop

You could say this about Dubstep or other genres, I’ve heard similar sweeping statements being spat out about Techno for years. One could also say that Phillip Mylnar doesn’t know what he is talking about, is blindly opinionated or is mastering his link baiting skills. Let’s avoid a flame war, Mylnar reviews music and he’s entitled to his opinion. On this occasion he might have hammed it with his attention grabbing tabloid headline but he has certainly provoked worthwhile discussions about instrumental Hip Hop.

A perfect Opportunity

More music and less taking, it’s time to explore some great Instrumental Hip Hop. There are gems waiting for you on the Fwonk, Dusted Wax and Dystopiaq Netlabels. I recommend you take a listen to releases on each label. Some of the tracks are included in my Agentcast mixes. Please post links to IHH in the comments that you think deserves a mention.

Maybe Phillip was betting his inflammatory remarks were of a Rush Limbaugh magnitude. After all, if China can ban Lady Gaga and Katy Perry for ‘being vulgar’, surely Obama can ban Instrumental Hop Hop. Happy listening and don’t take Phillip Mlynar so seriously.

Minimal investment and the greediness of digital distributors are making artists worse off than ever before, according to David Lowery who spoke at this years SF MusicTech Summit. The Cracker and Camper van Beethoven founder focused on gross revenues and expenses, exposing what percentage the distributor takes and what the artist receives. Lowery calls iTunes parasites and is adamant that the ‘old deals’ with the major record labels were better deals for the artists. But I’d like to know how digital downloads stack up against CDs in terms of value for money for the fans.

Don’t thank Steve Jobs

Some folk credit Steve Jobs for revolutionizing the music industry because he offered 99 cent tracks on iTunes. I’d like to point out that Apple wanted to increase sales of iPods and used psychological price setting in order to fill them with content. While Apple was seemingly revolutionizing the music industry, you’ll actually have to thank Wal-Mart for pushing the cost of music down. In October 2004, Rolling Stone had an article about Wal-Mart’s push for $10 CDs. Wal-Mart had pushed for lower CD costs years before iTunes entered the market. Apple generates over $4 billion in net sales each year. So why aren’t digital downloads 49 cents?

Who are the real losers?

Music consumers are getting ripped off. The average number of tracks on a single sided audio CD is 12.54. The average price of a CD is $15.99, therefore each track costs somewhere in the region of $1.25. Today the cost of CDs is hovering around the $10 mark, and in some cases even less. At $10, individual tracks cost 77 cents. Play.com has CDs for under $8, driving the cost down to about 60 cents per track. So why are digital download stores charging 99 cents a track?

CDs are better value for money

Let’s say I rip a $10 CD, I can store my files in high quality WAV or FLAC format. I have a physical object hopefully with a fancy color front and back cover. Sometimes a booklet is included with lyrics and artwork. I would have to pay (13 x 99 cents) $12.87 on iTunes to download the same album. Paying $2.87 more to get less.

In many situations, the files you download are much lower quality then ripping the CD. Many digital download stores still sell low bit-rate MP3 files at 99 cents a pop. Some stores still employ cumbersome DRM mechanisms and WAV files, if they’re available can be priced as high as $2 each. The cost to download the same album is $20, twice as much as the CD. It’s not like me to stand up for the big 4, but how are they offering better value for money than the ‘new model’ digital download stores?

Are digital download stores too expensive?

David Lowery says the ‘new model’ is adversely affecting artists, but don’t forget, it’s really bad value for the fans. I still think it’s a good idea for labels to use iTunes. Many fans are willing to pay extra for the convenience of using iTunes, that’s their decision.

If you want to use a digital download store and ensure the maximum amount of the purchase goes to the artists, purchase music on Bandcamp. Bandcamp offers HQ downloads and many labels sell albums on Bandcamp at prices where the individual tracks work out at less then 50 cents each. You pay less, there’s no DRM, the artist gets paid more and the label has more resources to expose more artists.

I’m interested in find out what you think. Are digital downloads too expensive? How much do you think is a fair price to pay for downloading music?

We have a big announcement, a cause for celebration. James Fahy a.k.a Ambienteer seems to think a little announcement would suffice. I’m sorry James but that won’t fly with us at Invisible Agent HQ. Ambienteer recently put out his 30th release and we think know this is a monumental occasion. Such frequent and high quality output is something that fellow artists should aspire too. Myself included.

Ambienteer’s 30th release

James composes the most wonderful ambient music. If you like ambient, abstract soundscapes and experimental drones then you need to get these collections downloaded. Not only is James a talent musician who gives away all his work for free but he is also a talented photographer.

Highly recommended listening. If you have a chance please choose to buy a release.