Something/Everything

One of the hardest thing I personally have to deal with concerning a record label is receiving and responding to producers who are sending tracks to my record label, PlanetoidPark. The reason is that I know all the hard work they all are putting into their product, and are proud of it, and now I sit here and need to get back to them with some kind of information what I think about it all.

To be more diplomatic, most smaller labels operate with a certain style they have in mind, often not even thinking about the commercial success. I can’t speak of all of the underground electronic music labels, but in my case I’m always interested in distributing records that should be heard because they are different and interesting, not that they sound exactly like the latest big sound from London or Berlin.

So, if I get really good tracks, but they are let’s say hard house that this label is not really focusing on, I need to get back to the producer and tell something. I dreaded writing such letters before, because it’s not fun replying something back after all the hard work that was put into the production.

Anyway, a month ago or so, after a lot of internal debate, I came up with a very good solution — at least for me. I tell them that this is what our label is looking for, and if they are interested in sending more material, something like this would be great, and then I try to listen to their original material and give them pointers how the material would be more in tune with my label. Sometimes I also give them pointers to other labels that I think their music would have a better chance at. I avoid at all cost to sound negative — because music is heard differently by everyone, and judging it usually is futile.

So yes, if you are working on something really interesting and different, do send in material. Also expect that you might or might not get responses from various other labels, it really depends on so many parameters why some labels are not responding, but just don’t give up, there are so many labels out there, and if nothing else, it should not be hard to create your own label or net-label today. The trick is to differentiate the labels from each other, hence why we sometimes are indeed very picky for this purpose.

But a good and different sounding track should always be released, that’s my motto.

Something that is nice with a vacation is that you have finally time to go through that big pile of books that have been collected next to your bed. And nowadays it’s the same with podcasts you have not had time to listen to.

I’ve gone through half of the Sonic State Podcasts that I subscribed to months ago, and I like them. It’s a combination of three to five audio pundits talking about new audio gear, plugins, old nostalgia trips, and so on. Sometimes it goes into totally non-audio directions, but then I forgive them as in the next sentence they talk about something intriguing concerning audio gear and techniques.

So yes, if you have time, check them out, they are up to 51 episodes as I write, and they are each 20-30 minutes long, so it should not take so long to catch up.

Which made me think. I’m sure there’s a time and space for more similar audio-related discussion podcasts. Maybe there are more you recommend — if so leave a message. Otherwise, let’s say if someone had time to put together a similar kind of podcast, using Skype, and talking about DJ and dance-music production related topics, I’m sure that would also become a very good thing. If someone starts it, count me in as one of the ones you could use as one of the pundit wannabes.

OK, here’s another technique I tried out yesterday when composing possible tracks with Ableton Live. I had a section where I wanted pad-like melodies, but not the same one to avoid sounding boring.

So instead I took four different pad loops, and had each one playing just one bar, but all together it was four bars. This way it sounded really intriguing, like four different sections each playing their own part.

I think in orchestral music this is also used to emphasize parts, let’s say violins play a part, then the horns. But with loops and editing it’s really easy to do something similar.

OK, finally I have a DSL line I could use every day, so I could access the web, update this blog, and so on. It was not so hard to survive without high bandwidth Internet for seven days, but it was tough, too.

Above is a view from the cottage where I’m staying here in Western Finland just now, for another eight days. Nice, or what. I will later upload an image of my portable studio setup inside the cottage.

Like a writer, I’m trying to maintain a pace of having a quota of work done each day, like three kind of tracks, or three kinds of mixes, each day. Usually something is done, but it’s not exactly what I expected. That’s the problem with quotas. But at least it feels like I’m getting something done on this vacation, that and reading through a big pile of books that’s been collecting back home… Anyway, more soon.

Chopping Heads /with Tes by Funkstorung! Here’s the emusic entry. That’s where experimental hip-hop and rap should go, instead of the commercial bing/gold-chain stuff today.

Long time ago, on another planet, when I used to DJ in the early 80ies, it was common to play both fast disco tracks, early day electronic house music, as well as rap/hiphop. The hiphop tracks were not always below 100bpm, too, so the audience could dance. Those days are gone.

Actually, I will check out the new Beastie Boys album. The Mix-Up, that is arriving very shortly. They again play instruments on this record, instead of using samples. It’s even an instrumental only record… There’s a video of “The Gala Event” over at amazon.

Beastie Boys are nice, they are pushing the boundaries. I also saw that you could download their a capellas at their web site, very nice!

Anyway, I think even in a supposedly stagnated musical realm like rap music and hip hop, there’s always someone who will push the boundaries, and then that shows up on my own radar screen.