“It’s all folk music, anyway.” — Lester Bangs
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Month: November 2016
Links: World industrial, the economics of EDM, the eyes have rhythm, fretless bass an octave up.
Have some more links, this time with a video.
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Links: Jon Langford and the Sisters of Mercy, J. G. Ballard’s house, your headphones are listening.
Jon Langford’s time as a part-time g*th, J. G. Ballard’s house is for sale again and your headphones can be used to spy on you.
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The Danse Society: goth rock roads not quite taken.
There’s still the sound of roads not taken since; something tantalisingly not quite right about it. (Your mileage may vary.)
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Attack of the 50 foot blockchain!
I have finished the raw first draft of the Bitcoin/blockchain book. Current word count 30,410 (or 35,546 if you include the footnotes). This was supposed to be a 15,000 word rant before lunchtime …
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The time has come to listen to Ethernet cables.
The sound with the Pearl becomes lighter and has less impact and detail compared to the Supra. Stereo image shrinks, but more obvious is a reduction in detail. Changing to Cinnamon with only one switch in my network produces a surprising result.
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Flying Nun revival and reissues, Roger Shepherd autobio.
Roger Shepherd, founder of Flying Nun Records, is now embarking upon a reissue programme. And has written an autobiography.
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A selection of early ’80s mopey post-punk aesthetic.
Selections from the early post-punk record collection. A Certain Ratio, C Cat Trance, Crispy Ambulance, Magazine, Section 25, Cabaret Voltaire. The aesthetic.
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Instrument links: acid house for web, make your own, use light, shut up’n keep playing yer guitar.
A web-based acid house creator, some Web Audio sound fonts, a light-based Arduino project and a plea to keep up your guitar playing.
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Reviews: Karlo, Moon Mask, Aseasita (2016).
Today, some pop and some electroclash.
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Reviews: Diversant:13, La Vogue vol. 1, Ambrasive, DrawnSword (2016).
’90s style industrial, early ’70s style songwriting, two dance non-reviews.
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What the death of What.CD fails to mean for all of humanity.
There’s a lot to be said in favour of massive copyright violation in the interests of cultural preservation, but “fixed targets are stable and sustainable in a world including the record companies” is not any of it.
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Gary Clail’s Tackhead Sound System: Tackhead Tape Time (1987).
“Hard Left” remains chilling and apposite. The fascists and quasi-fascists haven’t changed in thirty years.
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Links: High-resolution consumer audio, London for music sales, the worst Beach Boys album.
Audio snake oil, London still the centre of the universe, Summer in Paradise.
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Links: China’s top music site, 808 The Documentary, Shazam is listening.
Douban.com, a movie about a drum machine, software that grabs your microphone.
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Aestheticblogging.
aestheticblogging basically taught me to have feelings, that werent anger.
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Clock DVA: Resistance (1983).
But love, like life, will always stay.
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Cabaret Voltaire: Fool’s Game (Sluggin’ Fer Jesus part 3)/Gut Level (1983).
It’s been a busy day working on the book. So here’s some relaxing early ’80s Crépuscule industrial.
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Links: Floor-sweepings editions, Paul is Still Dead, Imogen Heap’s $133.20, a good industry report.
Fifty year old records, fifty year old conspiracy theories, one hundred and thirty-three twenty and an actually non-stupid music industry report.
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Synthpop: Mlale, Clintongore, Digital Logic (2016).
Some super-accessible pop, some more experimentally-leaning synthpop and more Digital Logic vaporwave.
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Nórdika: Blut; El Mundo que Creamos (2016).
A Mexican EBM-industrial synthpop artist with his album from earlier this year and his new single.
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Links: Burroughs on the presidency, American Pie, Blood on the Tracks.
A beautiful and apposite William S. Burroughs reading, and some classic rock faff.
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Of course audiophiles still want vacuum tube computer audio.
At last, a followup on the legendary AOpen AX4B-533 Tube computer motherboard from 2002, and your options for cheap glow-in-the-dark amplification in 2016.
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Industrial and post-punk reviews: Siva Six, Sirus, Holygram, Rendez-Vous (2016).
EBM and synthpop, plus guitar-based post-punk revival.
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Why Blockchain won’t save the music industry, and Imogen Heap wants to spyware you.
The blockchain book I’m writing; a couple of short excerpts from the music section I drafted about half of today.
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Recording links: a new vinyl process, Brexit and UK records, Pono no mo’.
Exploring new frontiers in obsolete technology, why Brexit will affect UK music precisely how you think it would, and the state of Neil Young’s Pono.
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Links: The Pop Group, the Birthday Party, Plastic Bertrand, Düsseldorf.
A new Pop Group album (and it’s good!), the last Birthday Party record, the truth about Plastic Bertrand and a book about Düsseldorf.
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30 gigabytes of lost cassettes from the ’80s underground.
The Internet Archive has thirty gigabytes of cassettes from the ’80s for your delight and horror, from the collection of CKLN-FM host Myke Dyer. The collection was first put on line in 2009 and was made available on archive.org late last year.
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Death in Rome: Max Martin did nothing wrong. And the touchier aspects of neofolk.
Death in Rome do neofolk covers of pop. And what’s neofolk? Well.
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65daysofstatic, Barcelona, October 24, 2016
It was pure serendipity that I found myself on the other side of the planet from my usual home at the same time that 65daysofstatic graced Barcelona to promote their new soundtrack album, No Man’s Sky. The venue, Razzmatazz, has a good reputation and deservedly so. It’s rough and ready, but sensibly designed allowing for generous audio and viewing spaces, good ventilation, and even reasonable drink prices.
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