In an exciting development, the record label Boltfish has begun to produce its own netlabel. That is, a “proper” label with some three dozen releases to its credit since 2004 has recently released music intended for free download, and that MP3 is no anomaly; it’s described at the label’s website, boltfish.co.uk, as “the first in an occasional series of free downloads from Boltfish Recordings.” The release in question is a single — a scratchy, glitchy, beaming five-minute collaboration between Electricwest and Mise en Scene, billed as Electricwest vs. Mise en Scene and titled The Far Reaches (MP3). It’s not uncommon for record labels to release promotional MP3s, but spinning off a netlabel is a promising turn of events.
16kbps Bogdan Raczynski Album MP3s
The Poland-born musician Bogdan Raczynski fits right in on the Rephlex label — run by musician Aphex Twin — where he’s the house prankster in a house of pranksters. His songs have a brevity and goofiness that makes them stand apart. And his music often includes a tenderness that elevates the work well above mere goofiness. Using simple, Casio-style tones and rudimentary, four-four beats, his records can sound like a throwback, some sorta old-school video-game backing sounds — even when he adds modern-day elements like breakcore beats and jungle madness. But in fact, there’s a lot more melodic development at work than the glimmery surfaces might suggest.
This may not count as a prank, per se, but the entirety of his new album, Alright!, which came out in mid-November, is available officially for free download as ZIP file (ZIP) — the catch is, the files are all encoded at 16kbps. That’s in contrast with 128kbps for most commercial MP3s, which is still widely considered relatively poor quality. In an online announcement about the novel promotion, Raczynski describes the 16kbps as “horrendous” and adds: “Please note that these are very lo-fi mp3’s. I don’t want people thinking the actual CD will sound like I’ve filtered my music through a bucket of butter.” Still, it’s one thing to listen to a vocalist or a cellist compressed to 16kbps, and another to listen to music that sounds like it was composed in an era when the plinka-plinka of Pac-Man was state-of-the-art.
Nondenominational Holiday Drone MP3
Another bit of holiday-themed music for free download, in this case an eight-minute “holiday drone” by the OO-Ray, aka Ted Laderas. He bills this drone (MP3) as “nondenominational,” and I think that sums it up well — it’s removed from any specific cultural references, like the sampled holiday favorites torqued in the A Candle’s Golden Glow compilation I wrote about yesterday (disquiet.com), but still more than heavenly enough to suggest some sort of presumed spiritual context. Laderas builds his drones from his cello, though the instrument is looped and processed thoroughly beyond recognition.
It’s quite possible that drones such as this one register as seasonally appropriate because we absorb so much holiday music in public spaces, especially shopping malls, where it is filtered through walls, space, and other sounds — a filtering process that serves as a kind of realtime remix.
In any case, while we’re at it, here are two past entries of holiday-themed ambient MP3s: Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, disquiet.com; and remixes of the Peanuts Christmas music and of “Carol of the Bells,” disquiet.com.
Holiday MP3s for a Darkly Silent Night
Looking for something seasonal yet electronically mediated to fill your holiday playlist? Sort of like a yule log, but musical? Try the new compilation, A Candle’s Golden Glow, from the Dark Winter netlabel (darkwinter.com). Its 15 tracks are ambient, droning,
and entirely season-appropriate. Much of it would fit in well with Phil Kline’s Unsilent Night, the annual beatbox street-art ritual of overlapping atmospherics (unsilentnight.com, disquiet.com).
You can hear a familiar melody buried amid birdsong on Gurdonark‘s “Hark the Herald Angels Sing” (MP3), piped lightly above rhythmic static on Mikrodepresja‘s “Silent Night (nousarchive mix)” (MP3) and twisted gently in Ka-baalim‘s “Noel Melting” (MP3). Zenith‘s “Primordia Have Spoken” is a particularly beautiful and angelic haze (MP3). Get the the full set , compiled by Nathan Larson, at darkwinter.com. (I shot the above holiday image earlier this week in the Shimo-Kitazawa neighborhood of Tokyo.)
Quote of the Week: Sound Ecology
From the website of the organization Ear to the Earth, eartotheearth.org:
Modern ecologists may have reached a limit on how effectively they can convey messages to the public, and they may now need to draw upon the emotional vibrancy offered by the arts.
The purpose of Ear to Earth is “to engage the public in environmental issues through environmental sound and sound art.” (Found via intentionalaudio.com.)