With all the hustle and bustle of a new year, not not so new, I missed that Boris Blank released an album in February.
Taking a deep dive into ambient waters, Resonance comprises a dozen pieces of music surfacing from a commission for the FORTYSEVEN thermal wellness spa in Switzerland, designed by Mario Botta and situated in Baden on the River Limmat. Somewhere that's likely to be beyond my reach but at least Boris' music can help me get there in my imagination.
Having been immersed in the music of Mixmaster Morris / The Irresistible Force recently, and regularly dipping into Richard Norris' continuing Music For Healing series, Boris' work flows naturally from this and is a welcome pool of calm in a sea of chaos, to paraphrase one of my previous mixtape titles.
Four songs from Resonance have been released with videos so far, the most recent last Friday. In reverse chronological order by release, here are Elements Of Life, Angel Base, Defying Gravity and Resonance.
The Second Rodeo EP by Emily Breeze was released in full this weekend, with a great video for lead song 1997.
Previous release The Beatniks is up next, followed by We Were Lovers.
Rounding off the EP is a barnstorming version of Graceland by Paul Simon, which was also the set closer to Emily Breeze's superb gig at The Fleece in Bristol, which I raved about back in February.
But don't just take my word for it, Emily has posted performances of 1997 and Graceland from that very gig on the band's YouTube page. It's every bit as good as I remember. In fact, look closely and you may spot me in the crowd, having a great time.
Emily has indicated that the 4 songs will appear on a bigger, physical release later in the year. In the meantime, get down with the digital.
Last Sunday's post about The Woodentops and the chasm between the cost of creating music and it's monetary value in a world of instant gratification provoked a lot of visits, interest and reflection.
A week on and I'm surprised and delighted to say that the eagerly anticipated album, Fruits Of The Deep, is suddenly here with us. Since receiving the mailing list announcement on Saturday afternoon, I've only had time for a few looped listens to the album so far but...wow, it's fantastic.
Thirteen songs, fifty three minutes and thirty six seconds, with a bonus fourteenth track taking the album into an hour of varied and wonderful sounds. As Rolo McGinty notes in the album release mailshot,
It is like any album form the Woodentops, a scattershot of different ideas, originality and stretching as much as possible the idea of a rock and roll band, from songs to the cinematic.
The opening quintet of Liquid Thinking, the singles Dream On and Ride A Cloud, then Too Good To Stay and Lately set the tone, indie pop par excellence bathed in the Balearic sunshine. You're hopefully familiar with the two singles by now, so you'll be right to sense that this 5-song set is an incredibly strong opening statement.
The cinematic adjective feels particularly apt when describing Hotel and City Wakes, both feeling like they're excerpts from a film, where things have become somewhat unhinged and unsettling for one of the lead characters. Hotel contains (to paraphrase Rolo) a "sad robot" vocal. City Wakes is an instrumental with deep bass horn from Jeff Miller, and Rolo's nighttime field recordings of trains rattling on tracks at the back of his home and the glass clatter of empties being tipped into the recycling bin at the local pub.
It's worth mentioning at this point that the Bandcamp page for Fruits Of The Deep also includes lyrics and sleeve notes which provide a brief insight into the origins, inspiration and recording of the songs. It's been a decade since The Woodentops' 'comeback' album Granular Tales, though elements of the songs on this album stretch back even further.
I Can Take It was developed and completed following a period where Rolo was studio neighbours with Richard Thomas, though the lyrics scribbled down by a 16 year old Rolo after a
week in jail. The accusation was false and the appeal was a success, but the words capture the period between the two.
Singing as a man
words written as boy [...]
It fed my resilience
You achieved nothing that day
when you put me away
I can take it
The closing song of the album is The Fishermen Leave At Dusk. In the accompanying notes, Rolo writes "I do not think I will ever write anything better than this" and you may be forgiven for thinking, "What? But what about [insert list of classic Woodentops songs here]?!"
But you know what? Rolo knows what he's talking about. He goes on to describe The Fishermen Leave At Dusk as "not a quick pop tune, its a more a movie with the visual content in your imagination" which is far better than anything I can come up with to describe it.
The song reflects on Rolo's long stay trip in the Paradise Beach cabanas in Tangalle, Sri Lanka. There he got to know the locals: the very young people in the lace
works along the shore; a man with a book autographed by Rick Stein, proclaiming his tiny seafood stall offers "the best hot seafood sauce in the world".
This would have been late 2004 as shortly after Rolo left, Indonesia was devastated by an earthquake and consequent tsunami that resulted in the deaths of nearly a quarter of a million people. Rolo's lyrics reflect on the people he'd met and the horrific though that, if they were going about their business that day, they will not have escaped.
It's a heart-wrenching eight minutes, swirling acoustic strums, found sounds, ringing keyboards and sad sax flowing in and out of the song. It's incredible.
The bonus track is also eight minutes, an instrumental called Bathyscaphe which as the title suggests is inspired by the deep sea submersible ("that magnificent machine") used to explore that alien world within our own world, still full of mystery, uncharted territory and life that evolved, survived and thrived in an environment that we could not without a thick metal shell around us, with oxygen pumped in, carbon dioxide pumped out and pressure regulated to keep us alive.
Bathyscaphe is driven by "drum hits" from Simon Goodchild and split into two sections (or "dives" as described in the notes) with a brief moment of calm separating the two. Rolo does everything else, including "razor blades to get between the wire wind of the strings" and it's an - excuse the pun - immersive experience. Fitting then, that this version is the stereo mix, with a Dolby Atmos total immersion mix of Bathyscaphe coming soon.
All of this as a digital purchase for a tenner. If you hear the album, you'll know that it's worth more.
I'm holding off my purchase for a little bit longer, partly because I don't get paid until the end of the month but also so that I can buy Fruits Of The Deep on Bandcamp Friday (3rd May). I know that this will impact on the album's first week sales performance, but I'd rather that as much of the money I pay gets to the artist as possible.
On which note, there was a helpful reminder on the back of last week's post to avoid using PayPal if you can. Whilst Bandcamp waive their fees on the titular Friday, PayPal do not!
I think I say this every year, but 2024 has been a brilliant year for new music so far and the addition of an album by The Woodentops has just made it so much better.
A special Dubhed selection today, featuring The The live in concert, 1989 to 2018.
Fellow blogosphere traveller Strictly Rockers reached out on Friday to say hello, a familiar name not least for his impressive run of Imaginary Compilations over at The Vinyl Villain. In fact, his debut ICA inspired one of my first ICA contributions a few years later and the format of today's selection.
We both grew up in Bristol, have never knowingly met but likely were at the same gigs, pubs and record shops in our callow youth. In the very full Venn diagram overlap which is our music collection, you'll find The The.
I've previously posted a mixtape that I recorded in 1989 and a late-period The The compilation but never a live selection. I've only seen The The live in concert once, a relatively intimate gig at the University of Bristol's Anson Rooms in 2000. As this selection will demonstrate, regardless of the band performing with Matt Johnson, The The live is an exciting proposition.
I already had quite a few live songs from various singles, a collection that's been added to considerably in the last couple of years by The Comeback Special album and ongoing series of Official Bootlegs, available via The The's official website.
So, the real challenge was keeping this selection under 100 songs and twenty-odd hours! I'd (over) ambitiously aimed for 10, failed spectacularly and ended up with 16 and even then there are glaring omissions. However, I think I've largely managed to stitch the sequence into a largely seamless set and I had a lot of fun doing it. I hope you get the same enjoyment from listening to it...!
1) Dogs Of Lust (Live @ Palladium, Köln, Germany, 16th December 2000)
2) Sweet Bird Of Truth (Live @ Sony Music Studios, New York, 6th May 1993)
3) Flesh & Bones (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 5th July 2018)
4) The Sinking Feeling (Live @ Royal Albert Hall, London, 12th July 1990)
Today I'm in the mood for rap, rhymes and beats. Spanning 1986 to 2023, ten blistering tracks covering old school greats, stone cold classics, genre-mashing, effing and jeffing and a chunk of words and music that I've only discovered in the last few years. And enough spare tape on the C90 to add your own favourites to the mixtape.
1) I Don't Know Nothin 'Bout Daisies: Definition Of Sound (1991)
2) Dedicated To The City (Album Version): Subsonic 2 (1991)
3) Moment Of Clarity: Jay-Z (2003)
4) Summer Nights: Statik ft. Tom Paddington, Ears & Scorcher (2007)
5) GOB (David Andrew Sitek Remix): Dels ft. Jack Davey (2011)
6) Bite Back: Algiers ft. Billy Woods & Backxwash (2023)
7) Kids...: A Tribe Called Quest ft. André 3000 (2016)
8) Rollin Stone (Live @ Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6Music): Little Simz (2021)
9) Paul Revere (Vocal) (Remix By Rick Rubin): Beastie Boys (1986)
10) Brain Washed Follower (Single Version): De La Soul (1989)
1986: It's The New Style EP: 9
1989: Me Myself And I EP: 10
1991: Include Me Out: 2
1991: Wear Your Love Like Heaven EP: 1
2003: The Black Album: 3
2007: Love Music, Hate Racism (NME promo CD+MP3): 4
2011: GOB EP: 5
2016: We Got It From Here... Thank You 4 Your Service: 7
2021: Live, Mary Anne Hobbs, BBC 6Music, 15 June 2021: 8
Rollin Stone (BBC6 'Clean' Version) by Little Simz
I was in São Paulo Eatin' palm hearts and I couldn't believe my surroundings (no) True, I got the Ends in me, listenin' to Headie Gettin' gassed in the mountains (yeah) No time for the thirst trap, I'm quenched I drink from a different fountain (sip) Hard food when I serve that All these likkle fish get fried and your yam get pounded (pounded yam)
Mm, might be a brat for a bit
Want my farm and I want my chicks Want my suit tailored by Gucci First-class to Shibuya for the sushi Give me my cheques and give me my plaques Want breakdowns and I want my stats, pronto (now, now)
Yеah, yeah, God flow Make you wanna dance all day likе Alfonso (move your body) Wanna talk about P's, wanna talk about wage,
but can you do the job though? (can you?) I can't vouch for a man that ain't got the talent and business combo (no) It's all a sport, flow on archery, don't get hit with the crossbow
Stayed to myself, been true to the core (stay to myself, man, I stay to myself) I was always the illest, there's never been no cure (no medication) Callin' shots like I call in favours, facts (true) My fellas got me if I ever need that
Still, there's things I'm faced with Stormz' ain't lyin', man, these fools audacious (yeah) Might demonstrate frustration Tryna' keep cool, but I'm losin' patience (ayy) Hmm, no cap, we hate snakes and we hate rats You can have opinions, just don't mislead the youth in your raps
(please, please, please, please, please)
Mummy handled business, Papa was a rollin' stone I'm a mix of both, there ain't no snitch-boy in my bones Coming for this dough like say it's pizza You can't get in Italia, Fashion Week, huh Shut down Milan down to Rome
Lookin' like the future, got you fearin' the unknown I got stories regardin' your chick I won't disclose Picture perfect, nothing picture perfect here, I know All illusion, why the world confusing? I don't know
You can't diss me three-time, pull up behind, you'll never see I I'm probably the reason why your bosses has had to resign They all follow my step, read about me like I'm Eli I just book a flight only to land and have some me-time Let me be, I'm (let me be, I'm) Takin' time out, hold my spot, go through your time now (hey)
Huh, pull up at your spot, they're throwin' roses at my feet, yeah, yeah What do you mean? In the presence of a queen Bad, say that she wanna know what's underneath I could show you things in private, know I hate to cause a scene, yeah
Range black just to match the colour of my skin Last year, pen was crazy, this year tougher with the ink (yeah) Know the people miss me, they like, "Where the hell you been?" (yeah) Counted all my losses, manifested all my wins (yeah)
Can't believe it's Simbi here that's had you listenin' Well, that chick for now, you didn't know she had a twin (yeah) I've been in my zone, movin' lowkey in Berlin, ah You can get the smoke, yeah yeah, das ist kein Problem, ah Where do I begin? ah You might just find out real soon, go through your time now
Rollin' stone Rollin' stone Rollin' stone Rollin' stone
Regretfully, I had to pass on the opportunity to see Boo Hewerdine play at the Chapel Arts Centre in Bath last Thursday. To console myself, I've found a couple of live performances, an appearance on The Tube and one (home) video.
First up is Boo's full set for the Celtic Connections festival in January 2015. Filmed at the CCA (Centre for Contemporary Arts) in Glasgow for the BBC, Boo plays four songs - Patience Of Angels, It's A Small World (written the night before), Dragonflies, Bible Pages and Funny Bones - linked with his dry wit and amusing asides. A lovely way to spend (less than) 20 minutes.
Here's another setlist perennial, Honey Be Good, written and recorded by Boo when he was fronting The Bible. The song originally appeared on The Bible's second album Eureka in 1988. This performance is from the Acoustic Roots festival in Dalton, Lancashire on 15th May 2019.
I'd got on board with The Bible from the start, back when they had an exclamation mark and released their first couple of singles and debut album on Norwich-based Backs Records. The first single I bought was their second single, on shiny black vinyl in a silver sleeve, a tribute to Mahalia Jackson, who at age 15 I'd never heard of before.
That was enough for me to buy the album Walking The Ghost Back Home, which I thought was great. One of those weird dilemmas as a schoolkid though, loving the band but not wishing to add 'The Bible' to the names scrawled over my bag and school books. I'm guessing contemporary fans of The Church may have had the same problem...
To close, here's a relatively recent (2021) video of Boo performing the song It's A Beautiful Night in front of the window of his home in Glasgow and sporting a rather magnificent beard.
The Chapel Arts Centre in Bath seems to be a favoured venue for Boo when he's out and about on tour, so I'm hoping I'll be able to catch him next time around...
Happy birthday to Liz Phair, born 17th April 1967.
I'm not going to pretend I know much about Liz's music at all. A friend of mine in Brisbane used to send me mixtapes with music that I otherwise wouldn't have picked up: Smashing Pumpkins, Spiderbait, Foo Fighters, Regurgitator, Rage Against The Machine, you get the idea.
Tucked away on one early compilation in the mid-90s was Liz Phair, my introduction to her music and astonishing debut Exit In Guyville, 18 songs of blistering, brutal honesty.
A couple of years before the release of Exit In Guyville on Matador, Liz had recorded a trio of cassettes as Girly-Sound, 12-13 songs on each, which did the rounds and established Liz as a singer/songwriter to be reckoned with.
This is the Girly-Sound version of Fuck And Run, the song that my friend introduced me to all those years ago.
The Girly-Sound cassettes were restored and remastered for a 25th anniversary release of Exit In Guyville in 2018. I've only just discovered this whilst writing the post, but it's an incentive to track a copy down and upgrade from my CD, purchased secondhand many, many moons ago.
Liz followed up Exit In Guyville in 1994 with Whip-Smart. Whilst a few of the Girly-Sound songs were refreshed and re-recorded for this album, it's mostly all-new songs. I haven't heard Whip-Smart and am only familiar with a couple of songs, including this one.
And that's kind of where the trail went cold for me, although Liz continued to record and release music through the 1990s and early 2000s.
After 2010's Funstyle, there was no more until the Exit In Guyville anniversary release in 2018 and live dates stirred those creative juices and an album emerged in 2021.
I've only heard the singles from Soberish: Spanish Doors, which opens this post and provides it's title, The Game and Hey Lou. The latter is a take on Lou Reed from the perspective of his partner Laurie Anderson and accompanied by an eye-catching video. I clearly missed a trick by not including this one when I accidentally posted a mini-run of music videos featuring puppets with large heads a few weeks ago.
If nothing else, Liz's birthday celebration has been a helpful reminder that I really should listen to Soberish in it's entirety and investigate her back catalogue. Suggestions and recommendations from the blogging community will be gratefully received.
To close, I also found this rather wonderful performance by Liz and band of somebody else's song, namely Bitter Sweet Symphony by The Verve, from a concert in Los Angeles, October 2022.
Liz is joined onstage by Lisa Loeb, who I only know from that one song from 1994's Reality Bites movie. In the subsequent three decades, Lisa appears to have had a pretty full-on and varied career whilst also seemingly to have achieved all this whilst in cryogenic suspension.
It's a lovely raucous version of the song, although my ringing ears struggled to make out Lisa's singing and playing at all, and I'm glad I stumbled across it.
Have a good one, Liz, looking forward to (re)discovering your music. Better late than never!
Driving home late from what felt like a particularly long day at work, Gorky's Zygotic Mynci shuffled onto the stereo.
In my mind it happened simultaneously though I know that it didn't really, but I saw a beautiful rainbow against the deep grey sky to my left, so sharply defined that I could see the rainbow's end dropping into the green field behind a row of houses. I was tempted to stop and take a photo but I drove on, knowing that I'd never adequately capture the beauty of that moment.
Listening to Gorky's Zygotic Mynci frequently provokes the same feeling, of experiencing something beautiful yet fleeting, seemingly tangible yet ephemeral.
Whilst I'd been listening to Hush The Warmth on the way home, for today's post I've gone for Stood On Gold, a single from their 2001 album How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart. Richard James assumes songwriting and lead vocal duties for this one and it's so beautiful it makes my heart ache.
Trawling my collection, I've realised that whilst I've got a fair few Gorky's Zygotic Mynci songs, they're all from compilations, cover mounted CDs, singles and the like. In fact, I don't own any of their studio albums.
I've found that How I Long To Feel That Summer In My Heart is available on Bandcamp, along with preceding albums The Blue Trees (2000) and Spanish Dance Troupe (1999). Added to the shopping list!
Have you seen her smile? Doesn't it just make you want to cry? And inside it's breaking me for you someday.
In her eyes I've seen a life that's went before But those past tears Don't matter much when we're alone
We were stood on gold Just weren't told We grow old
All in time And all in time I've seen before I just can't hold her And now I know her deep black eyes
I need your sweet, sweet love I need it in my heart I know I've taken And to give to you I can find so hard
We were stood on gold Just weren't told We grow old
And now I realize you've gone away I'm hoping you'll come back to me someday A light's been shining on for you This light's been shining on for you
After yesterday's hefty reflection on buying music, some actual shopping with Daniel Pemberton via a brisk return to What's In My Bag?
These days, Daniel is a world-renowned composer and songwriter for film and TV, not least the animated Spider-Man trilogy Into The Spider-Verse (2018), Across The Spider-Verse (2023) and Beyond The Spider-Verse (currently in development).
Daniel's selections are unsurprisingly albums and artists that have been a source of inspiration, then and now, and makes for an interesting shopping list:
Accelerator (1992) & Lifeforms (1994): The Future Sound Of London
The Story Of Moondog (1957) & Moondog (1969): Moondog
Ommadawn (1975) & Crises (1983): Mike Oldfield
Oxygene (1976) & Zoolook (1984) & Rendez-vous (1986): Jean Michel-Jarre
Direct (1988): Vangelis
The Isaac Hayes Movement (1970): Isaac Hayes
Bongo Rock (1973): Incredible Bongo Band
Mary, Queen Of Scots OST (1971): John Barry
Oppenheimer OST (2023): Ludwig Göransson
Passion: Music for 'The Last Temptation Of Christ' (1989): Peter Gabriel
The Pavilion Of Dreams (1978): Harold Budd
As you can see from the stack that Daniel's pulling from, there's a whole bunch of other stuff that the 15-minute show doesn't get to. He's an entertaining and engaging guest and this is one of my favourite episodes seen so far.
In January 2023, I posted about the song Wimborne by MLO and in particular the stunning 25+ minute remix that Daniel provided for the Wimborne Revisited single, marvelling that he was only 16 years old at the time. I have no hesitation in posting the YouTube link again.
When I say 'single', Wimborne Revisited runs to six tracks and nearly 80 minutes of music: two mixes by MLO aka Jon Tye and Peter Smith (which combined just about add up to the same running timeas Daniel's!), plus Spacetime Continuum aka Jonah Sharp, Wagon Christ aka Luke Vibert and Starfungus aka Brian Douglas. You can enjoy the entire Wimborne Revisited EP/album here.
Earlier this month, The Woodentops released the single, Dream On, another hint at the forthcoming - and eagerly anticipated - album Fruits Of The Deep. Swiss Adam reviewed the single and the accompanying pair of remixes (by Balearic Ultras and mainman Rolo McGinty himself) on Bagging Area this week and he's spot on in describing the music as "full of the promise of spring/summer" and, more succinctly, "lovely stuff".
I didn't get to see The Woodentops on their recent run of live dates (though Adam did and you can read about it here) but I have been overjoyed that they have been releasing new music and, more, have an album's worth of new material to release into the world.
Much as I loved Dream On and it's accompanying remixes, I didn't buy
any of them last Bandcamp Friday. As it happens, I didn't buy anything
last Bandcamp Friday, but more on that later. As I commented on Adam's
post last Thursday,
I’m loving the music, but finding the £3.50 per track price tag a stretch too far for my budget, sadly.
to which Adam replied,
Yep, I know. I winced too.
What I wasn't expecting (and I'm guessing Adam wasn't either) is that Rolo had read the post and followed up on our comments with his own.
Hello Khayem.
its an awkward balance.I think maybe 3 pounds is right?
1 pound is ridiculous. these tracks cost about a grand each to make.
I don't mix from home usually but even if I do its days of full on work ,
People in general are used to listening then, well they've heard it, can return but don't need to buy, or, move to Spotify. How the hell can we make quality recordings if we know its going to earn 100 quid.
Perhaps on this, the price is not right?
I'm finding my way in this now cottage industry . But a dj who plays it on radio or in a club is earning a few hundred or more and a radio show is surviving on the quality of music it plays.
Thanks for your comment, I needed to read that, I was uncertain of the price.
Why don't you drop me a line and I'll send you something.
I know I'm biased. I've loved The Woodentops since I was a teen, and I've admired Rolo's musical ventures with the band, as a solo electronic artist and his collaborations, recently with Andres Y Xavi. But even so, what a considerate and kind response.
I have replied and it's also given me food for thought about my feelings about the value (and devaluing) of music and my role as part of the problem and how I can continue to change my attitiude and approach. In really basic terms, I want the artists whose music I enjoy to be able to continue to create and perform music, but I also want new artists to have a viable way of emerging and being seen and heard.
If you've read this blog previously, you'll have already guessed that whilst I've had a lifelong passion and appreciation for music, I’m very clearly a consumer not a creator.
I’ve never had the talent, the drive, the passion to create music, apart from a brief blip in my teens when I had a secondhand keyboard and my friend Stuart had a guitar and between us, we wrote some terribly po-faced lyrics and tried to make music. The fact that I could barely get beyond the opening riff of Just Can't Get Enough by Depeche Mode probably tells you all you need to know.
Yet there are thousands, millions, of people who do, seemingly in the face of overwhelming odds (and increasingly so) to be able to afford to do so. Actually making a living from music - whether your own or performing someone else's in a covers band - seems to be an impossible dream.
Despite the thousands and thousands of words that I've posted on this blog alone, I don’t have a personal insight or perspective to truly understand the blood, sweat, tears, the time, the hours, the cost that goes into creating and releasing music.
What I try to do is make sure that whatever money I’m privileged and lucky enough to spend benefits the people making it as much as possible. So, these days my spend is predominantly digital (Bandcamp Fridays or artist subscriptions only though) or vinyl (I’m a member of Last Night From Glasgow and also occasionally buy direct from artists) or by going to gigs (which I couldn’t do for years, but I’ve tried to make up for in the last few years, post-lockdown).
As a consumer of music, I recognise that I’m part of the problem. This is nothing new, but it seems more keenly felt these days that I am part of a population that wants - more, feels entitled to - instant gratification, having everything right now and for free or next to nothing.
Rolo's comments about the rough cost of producing each version of Dream On hit home, not least because I suspect that even this will still not be a true reflection of the hours and the other direct and indirect costs.
Also, I have no idea of what the reach of individual artists are. I always hope that there are thousands of people like me that buy music regularly, whether physical and/or digital formats, but the artists themselves will have first hand knowledge of how much - and how long - it will take to break even. And let's face it, breaking even is not a given or take several years. I'm thinking particularly of that obscure remix from 2014 that I've discovered on a Bandcamp Friday and paid £1 for. Is that even helping by that point?
It's also made me think about where I buy and what I'm 'prepared' to pay. I'm lucky enough that I've managed to be employed for pretty much all my working life to date, have a home and a family and can afford to indulge in my passion for music (although Mrs. K could reasonably comment that I spend too much!).
My music buying habits are almost unrecognisable from my teens and 20s, where I used to spend hours in record shops, buying new or secondhand vinyl and CDs, relying on the music press to give me a nod to new music from established and upcoming artists.
These days, it's pretty much all online, but I try to make sure that whatever money I’m fortunate enough to spend benefits the people making it as much as possible. The majority of my music purchases are digital and Bandcamp is the biggest source of these. That said, I only buy on Bandcamp Fridays, where fees are waived and artists get more money. The 'but' is that, acknowledging Rolo's comment above, I've frequently bought 'name your price' tracks or albums at a price that would work out at less than £1 per track.
I’m also in my second year as a subscriber to Last Night From Glasgow, which means that I get a set number of vinyl releases through the year from artists on their label. I also buy digital or physical releases direct from artists' official websites. I've been going to a lot more gigs, though I'm mindful that in terms of bar and merch stall spend, I'm making very little contribution there, neither of which necessarily benefits the artist significantly but will impact on the viability of the venue hosting gigs. In a recent BBC News item, the owner of The Fleece in Bristol acknowledged that tribute bands and club nights on Fridays and Saturdays sell more tickets and generate more bar spend, effectively subsidising the tours and new artists that perform there during the week.
I occasionally use Bandcamp or YouTube to ‘try before I buy’ but I don't use Spotify or other streaming platforms, and I think it's common knowledge how disgraceful their payment model is, which generates an obscene amount of profit for the owners and shareholders and fuck all if you're an independent artist trying to reach out to a wider audience.
James Blake made headlines recently when he announced that he had found a 'solution' to the problem of streaming revenues and has gone into partnership with Vault to launch a new way for fans to access unreleased music and engage directly with him.
Tom Vek is less convinced by this model and said so in The Guardian, though he has created his own solution - Supercollector - to add to the mix.
I follow Trevor Jackson on Twitter and saw that he added to the conversation, with some interesting responses.
Trevor also commented on Richard D. James aka Aphex Twin aka user18081971's act of making unreleased music available for free download via Soundcloud. He got quite a strong response to those comments, not least from RDJ fans but also those who pointed out previous acts by U2 and Radiohead, the latter 'pay what you want' model being adopted by Bandcamp.
Although I mentioned earlier that I only shop on Bandcamp Fridays, I also acknowledged that whilst I've never paid zero for 'name your price' music, the purchase price for a song or album has worked out at less than £1 per track. That's on me for thinking more about the end product, i.e. a digital copy as opposed to a tangible vinyl or CD copy that I can hold in my hand, without thinking enough about the cost of getting the music there in the first place.
There are exceptions: I subscribe to a couple of artists via Bandcamp which means that they receive a set amount of money from me every month and I get digital copies of new music when they release it. As it also includes access to the artists' full digital discography, then I think it's fair to say that the subscriber gets way over and above in terms of value for money.
In a similar vein to Rolo's comments, I follow the music of Catherine Anne Davies aka The Anchoress. Whilst I haven't taken the leap with her (or anyone, for that matter) and supported her via Patreon, I've been quite comfortable with paying the £2 per track for the run of cover versions that she's released over the past couple of years. When 10 of these were subsequently collected and (re)released as the brilliant Versions album in physical and digital formats, I didn't feel 'ripped off' because I'd effectively paid £20 for a collection of songs that were now retailing for half that for a digital copy. I thought instead that each month, I made a small contribution to Catherine's cash flow, that hopefully meant that she could pay bills, eat food, care for her family and make music.
I was mortified to think that Rolo may have read my comment about the Dream On single and thought I was saying that the music is overpriced or not worth it. I know in the past I have commented on the pricing of digital music.
On this occasion, I just couldn’t afford £10.50 for 3 songs and ending up buying nothing at all last Bandcamp Friday as I didn’t have any ‘spare’ money.
Much as I’d love to buy Dream On straight away, in reality I may get one or both remixes next month, and then the album the month after that (or later, depending on the release date). And that's okay.
I grew up in the 1970s and 1980s, the latter a great time to be a teen, a music lover and a record collector, not least for discovering The Woodentops.
I lived through the Thatcher government, the bedding in of the 'greed is good' culture and the lack of empathy and compassion for others. You don't need me to tell you that in 2024 it feels like nothing’s changed. The internet has opened up the world for artists to reach a potential global audience in ways that were unimaginable 40-50 years ago, but it has also been a contributor to reducing the value of music.
Rolo asked in his reply, Perhaps on this, the price is not right?
It costs more than £3.00 or £3.50 to get a bog standard cup of coffee from a high street chain these days. I get so much more from a song, a remix, an album that I think it’s worth it. It may mean that I have to wait longer to buy in many cases, but pre-ordering or adding music to a shopping list to buy when I can
afford to is okay. If anything, it’s a reminder of that teenage me,
saving money from my Saturday or holiday jobs so I could go into town to
buy some vinyl.
Simply put some things are worth waiting - and saving up - for.
I realise that my financial contribution to enabling
people to make music and sharing it is relatively small and thinly spread. But it's right that I'm constantly reflecting on what and how my spend goes to best benefit artists trying to reconcile creativity and cashflow. It will be a sorry world if
that the capacity for music to thrive and survive diminishes further.
Thanks for bearing with me, this was a marathon compared to my usual blog sprints but something I felt that I had to express as best I could. I've just let the words flow and haven't gone back to edit this post, so my apologies also for typos, repetition or just plain nonsense at times!
I'm going to end as I began with The Woodentops and Ride A Cloud, their marvellous single from last year. It too is available on Bandcamp with a trio of wonderful remixes. And I've just discovered whilst writing this post that they have also made a brilliant video.
