Milieu

24/03/2006

BeatPick

Filed under: General, Music, Resources — Alex @ 4:05 pm

BeatPick is a new digital distribution label based in London that sells Create Commons licensed music. The earnings are split with artists 50/50, and many artists on the label also use other distribution methods such as CDBaby. Therefore, BeatPick are trying to be a label, but in a fair way - both to the artist and consumer.

You might have seen the recent press Apple have got because French politicians disagree with the way their DRM (Digital Rights Management) restricts consumers to Apple’s iPods. Labels such as BeatPick (and Bleep) release music as MP3 with no DRM, allowing you to stick their commercial releases on your mobile phone, non-Apple MP3 player, or anything else.

The slight difference between BeatPick and Bleep is a little thing called Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5, a Creative Commons license. This means you are free to make non-commercial derivative works (remixes for your mates), play at parties, and copy as much as you like. You can burn CDs or put it on all your MP3-capable licenses, no strings attached. As long as you’re not making money off the work and you state who produced the work, you’re on the right side of the law.

Why is this a good thing? Well, if you have a modern mobile phone, you might have found music purchased on the iTunes Music Store doesn’t work with it, because of the DRM. Apple had to do this to keep the big labels happy. BeatPick is explicitly allowing you to do this kind of thing by applying the Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 2.5 license - to keep the people that really matter happy. Another reason this license is good is that if you’re producing work that uses a BeatPick artist’s music, such as a video, presentation or perhaps a flash animation - you don’t need to pay a license fee if the work is non-commerical. It seems a little ridiculous to make it illegal for children making presentations at school to pay for a license for the music used, but in theory in many cases they should. This license is very clearly saying, ‘yes! Why should we ask you for money if you’re not out to make money off our artists?’

An added bonus of labels like BeatPick is they have an aesthetic opinion. Most people simply don’t have time to surf archive.org for music - not that I’m in any way knocking archive.org, but labels sometimes exist as an efficient filter for talent. A cursory listen of the content on BeatPick featured artists demonstrating high production values, talent and originality. I’m currently listening to Stucco Skies, a blend of funk and rock that’s turning my Friday afternoon into an early weekend.

Since BeatPick is using Creative Commons to support artists, I’ll be covering them more in the future, reviewing artists that pique my interest. What really interested me was the way they’ve used a Creative Commons license to try and be fair to consumers and artists - many similar labels advertise the fact they are fair to artists, but BeatPick are legally committed to be fair to all.

21/03/2006

Creative Commons upheld in a European court

Filed under: General — Alex @ 1:56 pm

Photos licensed with the Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike license were used by a Dutch gossip magazine without permission. The owner of the photos, Adam Curry, sued them for copyright and privacy infringement.

The Dutch Court’s decision is especially noteworthy because it confirms that the conditions of a Creative Commons license automatically apply to the content licensed under it, and bind users of such content even without expressly agreeing to, or having knowledge of, the conditions of the license.

Read more on Groklaw.

20/03/2006

Out Records - The Winter Transmitter

Filed under: Downloads, General, Music, Resources — Alex @ 4:51 pm

Out Records, based in San Diego, are a none genre specific label with an interesting policy on MP3 releases. Depending on the artist’s wishes, they release albums as hard copies for a year, then make them available for download as MP3. I emailed them with some questions about their background:

We put out music we enjoy and feel fits the integrity of the label. More so we look for good people to work with. Talent is everywhere but finding artists with heart is what’s golden for us.

The name “Out” was coined after jazz musicians saying a music piece is a bit off or ‘out’, when refering to music is off a given scale. We enjoy everything from a well composed 12 note scale piece to strange off the wall sound collages and everything in between. There is no reason to stop at any one style.

One of Out Records’ recent releases that caught my attention is the compilation ‘The Winter Transmitter.’ This contains a collection of tracks which all fit into a coherent aesthetic junction of icy ambience. M. Mehdi’s You Always Run Away Why Not This Time Just Stay Away is one of the highlights, with elements of drone and electronica at work. The Solstice Signal, also featuring M. Mehdi (and The Ambient Ohm) is superb, and since this is performed live it seems to have an unusual and perhaps jazz-inspired quality that you don’t usually find in ambient records. You could fall asleep to it, put it on at a party at 2am, or even travel back in time to give it John Peel to play after a 30 minute Orb session.

Le Lune Rouge by Minuit is another delicious slice buried within this compilation, it leads into Outside My Kitchen Window, but it feels unique and very apt in the collection. Contempt For The Contemporary (another Mehdi track), aside from the connotations of the title, reminds me of our abstract ambient friends at Webbed Hand Records.

Eternal Recurrence by XIV does sound recursive, with a synthetic arpeggio of sorts cycling through several levels of evolution.

This compilation contains everything from electronica and ambience to disturbing soundscapes, and the excellent Untitled Track by Ignatius will leave you wanting more from Out. Since they said they’re releasing more MP3s in the future, check them out. You won’t find them on archive.org, so go and dig around on their site: http://www.outrecords.com/

14/03/2006

An interview with Scott Waddell

Filed under: General, Interviews, Music — Alex @ 11:52 am

I recently reviewed Scott Waddell’s music, and we’ve been emailing each other a little bit about what he does. He’s also worked with John Holowach, and is a good representation of the growing community of Creative Commons musicians out there.

How do you approach song writing and production?

I’m not sure, I don’t know a lick of music theory, I do everything by ear. One thing I think helps is that I make 99% of the samples I use, so that helps in the post production stage a bit. Usually when I start creating a track It’s based off of a single sound or loop, I rarely say, “Okay here is what I am going to do”. I do try to stay original, as great as Creative Commons is, it’s hard to stand out since there are a ton of great artists involved. At the end of it all, I’m just making something I would want to hear, if it makes another person feel something (other than disgust :P) the time was well spent.

Your track names are quite abstract. For example, what do 3501cn3t5i1 and 5ddn355r1n5 mean?

I figured most people would just look at them as say, “whatever”. I’ll spill it for you.

3501cn3t5i1 – It’s backwards “1i5t3nc1053” or “listenclose” There are a lot of voice samples in that track that are intentionally leveled down. One night I was bored and found a website that focused on EVP’s (ghosts talking). I made that track utilizing voices, that the people originally recording them, thought were dead.

5ddn355r1n5 – Which is “Sadness Rains” (I just noticed that I added an extra ‘5’ to the title, whoops.) The name came from the voice sample that I used that sweeps in before some of the major changes in the track. If you listen to that sample backwards it says something really happy, but backwards it sounded like it said “Sadness Rains”. For whatever reason, I thought that was really cool. :)

How do you know John Holowach?

John and I actually live in the same state although we have never meet in the real world. I met him through opsound when he, Vavrek, and RJ Marshel were retooling ‘Our lives Change’. I had been talking back and forth with those guys, giving them access to my music and then John started sampling, re-mixing, etc… which he featured on a couple of his records. We then got an offer to place one of our tracks (Practice remixed by John) on an Independent Film (Granito De Arena), which we agreed. From there its been an e-mail, Internet collaboration, friendship thing.

Recently, Tryad gave me access to all of their source material and I have been playing around with that. Those guys are great, they give you total freedom and are very honest about what works and what doesn’t. Hopefully soon you will be reviewing a new single by them that I have feature on. I honestly think it’s my best contribution to date.

Do you run the need-name site? What’s the background on that?

Yes, I do run that site. “nn” was created for friends, kind of like a club but without the tree house. It really is a site that doesn’t know what it wants to be. If you look at the front page you can see it’s focus jumps around a lot. I let the members dictate the direction for the most part. As far as the name, it was a total lack of creativity on my part. I dislike branding and I didn’t want the site to be pigeon holed easily. Most successful sites have a general theme and that is what makes them popular, mine doesn’t. (which would explain its lack of success, heh.)

08/03/2006

Wavespan LP by Wavespan

Filed under: Downloads, General, Music — Alex @ 5:49 pm

Wavespan LP, released by Wavespan on the illustrious Monotonik netlabel, instantly reminded me of my favourite 90s ambient tracks - yet veers off this course quite quickly into more modern territories. What will remind you of Orb and KLF classics is the use of witty and rare vocal samples, and ambient synth sounds, with dub as the core musical influence. Despite the obvious influences, don’t be fooled into thinking Wavespan is just a simile of greater things - it’s quite simply one of the best ambient releases on any netlabel to date.

At 11 minutes, with some great sampling and laid-back drums, On the Nature of Consciousnes is a great track to leave on loop at 2am on a Summer night. I feel warm just listening to it. There are samples of crickets and various outdoor recordings, mixed with a serene backdrop of subtle synths and occasional drums. What will make you remember this track is the vocal sample: “to be too conscious is an illness, a real thoroughgoing illness” (Fyodor Dostoevsky).

Single Bullet Theory contains samples from the Kennedy assassinations, and is a bit more up-beat than the first 3 tracks. The drums are nicely done, I don’t know if Wavespan has relied on off-the-shelf samples (rather than the hard graft of sourcing and chopping up samples), but they sound superb - it would be nice to take him for a pint and ask him!

Threshold gets a bit Radiophonic Workshop in places, but has some excellent distorted sounds - it’s basically feedback and saturated synths, surrounded by bubbling 70s analogue synths. It’s a good diversion from the dub-laden ambience of the other tracks, keeping things fresh by the time you hit Origin of Species.

Are you starting to see a pattern for an interest in 19th Century philosophy and science? Dostevsky, Origin of Species? Perhaps there is, but ultimately, Origin of Species sounds really cool. This is where Wavespan sounds more ‘modern’ than the other tracks, as I mentioned before. This is a nicely composed track as well, switching between themes and gradually coming to a climax at the end.

The last track, Re-Entry, uses some great effects programming, as Wavespan saturates synths, distorts them, then shows you what they looked like before. Perhaps it’s called Re-Entry because he’s leading you out of the warmth and depth of the EP back into the real world… which is looking rather cold and dark tonight. Perhaps I can get this set of inspiring and professionally produced MP3s on my MP3 player before I leave the office?

Download Wavespan LP now

06/03/2006

Icore in Sani Apophis by Splinter vs Stalin

Filed under: General, Music, Phonography — Alex @ 2:06 pm

Benekkea is a netlabel based in Italy, releasing all kinds of music, from ambient to noise. They’ve just had their 10th release, Icore in Sani Apophis by Splinter vs Stalin which encompasses analogue and digital noise, as well as the more guttural range of ambient textures and glitch aesthetics.

Most of these elements can be heard in Platone e le fragole…, the opening track. It’s a dark track, using feedback and glitched vocal sounds. The vocal processing and vinyl-like pops and cracks form something quite unique, with searing feedback in the middle. Interesting vocal sounds find their way into a few of these tracks, appearing again in the second track Giardini di Giganti, where we can make out a discussion of global catastrophe, amidst a drum beating like a heart that leads into sustained feedback.

As the name suggests, it’s as if there’s two personalities at work here. Each track is a split personality, whether it’s glitchy ambient vs feedback, or analogue distortion vs digital experimentation. Y i daai lei hung maau tiu contains most of these elements, typifying Splinter vs Stalin’s approach.

Necrocake in Norway is more subtle than the other tracks, with layers built up of various types of distortion and sustained noise. It gives way to field recordings at the end, and this transition comes as quite a surprise.

The beating of the drums at the start of Dugongo and the subdued cassette hiss makes way for an atmospheric track. After such a dense collection, it makes way for a natural departure. The label notes say this is the duo’s second album. And based on what I’ve heard here, I’d like to see where they take their glitch and noise laden compositions next.

03/03/2006

Scott Waddell

Filed under: Digital Art, Downloads, General, Music — Alex @ 12:56 pm

If you’ve come here from Cool Hunting - hello! Evan Orensten wrote a very kind post about Milieu, and I’m touched by his kindness. If you’re new to my weblog: I generally cover netlabel audio and culture, digital art and occasionally comment about (related or contemporary art) events in London. My primary drive is to encourage people to listen to artists who release work through copyleft/creative commons/open source licenses - and also into the public domain. These artists are working unbelievably hard, so I attempt to help their work get into the wild. Since music is one of my passions, I’m biased towards covering music.

Scott Waddell is a musician who releases work on his site and through Opsound. He also works with John Holowach, and you can read more about that in my review of Shape Of Impact by John Holowach. Waddell has a series of excellent tracks on his site, released under a Creative Commons license. There’s elements of old skool rave breaks, hip hop, and the kind of sample play you might have heard from John Holowach. Like Holowach, Waddell really loves his drum samples, so if you’re into laid back beats and sample-based music, you should check out his stuff.

Tally is the definitive, seminal Waddell track. Seriously, play this at your next party and keep it in your mp3 player. It consists of ambient synth sounds, solid drum loops and programming, nothing out of the ordinary - but everything is in just the right quantities. I suspect Waddell doesn’t realise just how good Tally is, but I consider it netaudio anthem.

I must ask Waddell about his track names, because I can’t figure out what 3501cn3t5i1 and 5^ddn355r^1n5 could possibly mean. Perhaps they relate to the album title somehow. Anyway, they’re both excellent tracks, using piano melodies and arpeggios. 5^ddn355r^1n5 sounds inspired by Japanese music to me, the intro reminds me of Ken Ishi a lot.

Away is another well-balanced track, using mysterious vocal sounds which impressed me. The guitars are good too, they give it a relaxed and natural feel, although the underlying construction of the music is presumably largely founded on samples and synths. Silo is a delicious and short ambient track, with pianos sparkling in the distance. Waddell gradually introduces lower notes, making the track feel as if it culminates towards the end.

Ambiii is another ambient piece, with very interesting bass synths and occasionally distorted bass percussion. Ambiv follows in a similar vein, but is totally focussed on piano sounds, arpeggios, repetitions, and then backwards twists of the piano notes. There’s very subtle use of vocals in Ambiv. The way Waddell holds back his use of the samples is impressive, it shows he has a good ear for composition. Practice is reminiscent of Tally, with a bit more freedom in the use of samples and processing.

If you like these tracks, also consider downloading more of Waddell’s work by searching archive.org.

02/03/2006

SG Sound Comp, released by Complementary Distribution

Filed under: Downloads, General, Music — Alex @ 11:34 am

The SG Sound Comp, released on Complementary Distribution is 5 tracks extended from a sample of sine waves playing the C major scale. I’ve seen a few projects similar to this over the last few years, on various netlabels and the Microsound community, but I’m not going to compare it to these. I’m not even going to talk about the techniques and technical innovation required to construct such radical deviance from the original sample - I’m going to merely consider the music itself.

Cabin, perhaps best described as a lowercase exercise in aesthetics and composition, explores silence and space with textures, lengthy sustained notes and effects. Sol gently builds the track out of a few atomic sounds, creating rhythm, basslines and melodies effortlessly. There’s a long fade in and out, adding to the atmosphere, and a slight despondency throughout.

Edge Plane is a collection of arpeggios, with form bubbling up through echoes as time progresses. It has almost Philip Glass qualities to it. Kamúb Zmpúl allows the track to deteriorate into noise towards the end. Consineousness is a little bit like 8bit chip tunes, where noise64 demonstrates both compositional flair and a sense of humour. Address Bus by Lava-Proof Boots seems an order more satirical than the other tracks, and again has a lo-fi 8bit feeling. The drum programming is particularly good in this track.

The compilation finishes with Worth It by Mystified, a more ambient and relaxed affair than the previous tracks.

01/03/2006

Statement of Purpose by Downliners Sekt

Filed under: Downloads, General, Music — Alex @ 2:37 pm

Statement of Purpose, a self-released album by Downliners Sekt, is 33 minutes of dramatic electronica with a hip hop underbelly. The opening track, Benz, opens with awesome beats and samples, and a solid bassline much reminiscent of the dark drum and bass of yore. Opening an album with a track like this is the Downliners Sekt clearly stating that they don’t mess around.

We bored as fuck with the music industry. We give our music away.

‘Statement Of Purpose’ is the result of many years of hard work, lack of sleep and underpaid jobs, in several cities in western Europe (including Portbou)

The sentiment continues with the attitude of their music. Disable uses some nicely sourced samples, detailing the possible destruction of a city. Weather Underground (Feat. Emma Louise Yohanan) has excellent vocals, and aesthetics on the right side of trip hop. La Nueva Escuela (Feat. Mucho Muchacho) introduces a different flavour of drum programming, almost sounding like a deeper, darker R&B track.

L.R.A.D (Feat. Evi Vine) uses distortion in a slick way, in fact this track is surprisngly well produced. It’s very much like Unkle, but without the cliches found in the Unkle-alikes out there. Some of these aesthetics and techniques are found in Manvantara, but it feels more like it has electronica at its roots than hip hop. Rewrite Your Memory and
The Pledge are both (puns/irony aside!) memorable tracks, and are again slickly produced, treading between different genres with little effort.

Disable (Part 2) leads us back into our record-industry-infested world. And as the dust settles after the Downliners Sekt’s awesome drum programming and basslines have faded out, you’d do well to click play and listen again.

You can get the album from:

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