IDM Mailing Archive

4th world communication JSEO@us.oracle.com wrote:

quoted 7 lines Somewhat unrelated, but Zenon's emails reminded me of what LTJ Bukem said

>Somewhat unrelated, but Zenon's emails reminded me of what LTJ Bukem said >about the Black Dog - how they used to put out great stuff when they first >started out and were "really" underground - and how there was no more soul in >their music once they became slightly more mainstream, i.e. (Bukem seemed to >imply) they were signed to a slightly more visible label (could he mean... >Warp?). Imagine what a bag full of dogfart they'd put out if they were signed >to Geffen instead of Warp, eh? I don't think so.

I don't think so either , Bukem lost a lot of respect with his move in uk distribution from the people who have supported him over the last 3 years to one of the biggestcompanies in the uk , presumably to get his product into the chain stores , he willnow have the pressure of having to conform to somebody else's deadlines,salestargets etc , I think musically as well the style he has pioneered has hit a dead end,every half wit under the sun is now putting half arsed breakbeats on their tracks. The number of releases we hear a week with 'tired breaks' is rising all the time. As for his Black Dog comment, anybody who knows what Ken Downie & co. have done , will have a good laugh at that , Black Dog did it on their own terms,period!

quoted 3 lines Question:

>Question: >There are three singles coming up from the Headz 2 comp on MoWax. Are the >tracks on the 3 EPs on the comp itself? i.e. are they worth buying?

3 singles coming out are: headz techno - urban tribe - covert action (aka carl craig/sherard ingram) reissue of old retroactive track lo fi sensibilities - covert feaver (aka steve paton/4th wave) headz hip hop- zimbabwe legit - doin damage (dj shadow mix) dj krush - kemuri (pt.2) headz drum n bass- peshay - the real thing dillinja - in the mood street date ( supposidly) 16.09.96 Are they worth buying is a different question , it would be better if Lavelle picked up some unknown artists instead of simply flashing his cheque book about , I find myself sceptical of the proliferation of remix releases , it seems to herald the 'advent of the jaded elementz'. The current mo wax releases might bring the artists to attention of people who simply would not otherwise have heard their material , but there are scores of labels who just get ignnored in the meantime , buying product just because it is on a certain label is still the rule of the thumb these days - point in case Mark Broom's Sympletic release on Warp , if the same music had been on Ifach,Pure Plastic it would have sold a tenth of what the Warp release has , it must be hard for these small labels to be endlessly doing the groundwork for somebody else to cash in on. 4th world records uk http://ourworld.compuserve.com/homepages/4thworld

On Wed, 11 Sep 1996 07:26:35 -0400, you wrote:

quoted 8 lines The current mo wax releases might bring the artists to

>The current mo wax releases might bring the artists to >attention of people who simply would not otherwise have heard >their material , but there are scores of labels who just get ignnored >in the meantime , buying product just because it is on a certain >label is still the rule of the thumb these days - point in case Mark >Broom's Sympletic release on Warp , if the same music had >been on Ifach,Pure Plastic it would have sold a tenth of what the >Warp release has ,

This is totally untrue. Singles like this for whatever reason sell in small numbers whatever label it's on.

quoted 2 lines it must be hard for these small labels to be

>it must be hard for these small labels to be >endlessly doing the groundwork for somebody else to cash in on.

Hmm, this was a bad example as it was Mark who came to us with this release and it's Mark who helps run those labels.

4th world communication wrote:

quoted 9 lines The current Mo' Wax releases might bring the artists to

> The current Mo' Wax releases might bring the artists to > attention of people who simply would not otherwise have heard > their material, but there are scores of labels who just get ignored > in the meantime, buying product just because it is on a certain > label is still the rule of the thumb these days - point in case: Mark > Broom's Sympletic release on Warp, if the same music had > been on Ifach, or Pure Plastic it would have sold a tenth of what the > Warp release has, it must be hard for these small labels to be > endlessly doing the groundwork for somebody else to cash in on.

Well, I hate to state the obvious, but "get used to it mate". The simple fact is that as long as we live in an age of "faceless Techno bastards", the most readily identifiable characteristic one has when facing row after row of endless bins in the shop filled with names we've never heard of is, in fact, the record label. Whenever I go into a Techno-specialist store here in Los Angeles, I see literally thousands of records in the shop. Even if they have turntables, I can only listen to a few handfuls at most ... before you know it, I've been there a couple of hours, I've probably broken out in sweat and my back is killing me. (Not to mention getting yelled at by someone who'd rather be home *making* music instead of watching me pick through other people's ... ) So you tell me, then - you're in my shoes, standing in that store - do I go over to that Pure Plastic bin (if they even had one) and grab a random record by someone I don't know, and hope I get lucky playing Music Roulette? Or do I go over to that Reload section and grab one I haven't seen before, because I know from experience that I really like that label's stuff? This is a no brainer, folks. I've given this issue a lot of thought lately because of my wife's music. Her attitude is either to go to a local label (like City of Angels) because it's closeby (ever deal with robbing, thieving overseas labels? Oh, sorry, I'll leave Kk Records out of this) and because she has friends (Q/Uberzone) that are on it; or go to some label that might have music that's of a similar ilk (e.g., Miami's Isophlex) because someone recommended it. In some cases you might even be able to combine the two; I suspect Jon Drukman's arrangement with Mephisto might qualify (local to artist, similar artistic aesthetic) here, although how worldwide their distribution is is unknown. Whereas my attitude is to go to the labels that *have* that recognition factor if at all possible; people who might not otherwise buy the record because they don't know the name would buy it because of the *label* and might end up enjoying it. Heaven knows I've done this often enough myself ... - Greg