IDM Mailing Archive

Aaron Gregory posited something that made me think:

quoted 6 lines DOWNPOUR (oh so aptly titled aren't they! - you'll see ...) come forth with

> DOWNPOUR (oh so aptly titled aren't they! - you'll see ...) come forth with > the third release on Drop Beat Records. A FAR cry from the greyness and silky > smoothness of Kristian's effort, this 5-tracker presents a rather (at many > times) SCARY (want proof? Strap on the sample from track 4, "The Bitterest > Man in the Living Room") affair! Simply put, this MUST be the closest thing > to PANACEA I have heard on an American label WITHOUT question.

("Widespread DISEMANATION of this IMPORTANT INFORMATION is ENCOURAGED!" LOL) This got me wondering ... Most of us on this list have probably heard Panacea ... or heard about Panacea ... but hardly anyone has heard about Downpour ... or, indeed, WILL hear about Downpour ... or the other stuff on Drop Beat ... (outside of this august body, of course) My first thought was "Well, obviously, because Panacea's on Mille Plateaux" (I think???). That led me down the parse tree to the leaf that thinks about how the "famous" labels - at least, the ones most pertinent to this list - are almost all UK labels, with a smattering of a few others on the Continent. For the most part, US labels aren't even players in the "Well-known-on-the- IDM-tip" scene. Yes, we can make exceptions ... let's ignore Detroit for the moment ... and labels like Nervous and Strictly Rhythm that are certainly "well-known" but are more on the House tip ... but even if we talk about US Techno labels in general (i.e., not just Experimental/IDM ones, like Plug Research/Isophlux/Schematic/Side Effekts/etc.) ... we're Not A Player. I guess I have this vague feeling that it'll always be this way. And I'm not quite sure why. I could point to Sahko's raised presence above water, and I think the canonical example at this point of a label not from England rising up out of the stew with high visibility is Dot/(.). I think a few years ago, you could have said that Exist Dance were qualifiers in this realm, but of course then Mike Kandel promptly submerged to let his freak flag grow erm fly :-) Note that I'm not saying this situation reflects even the slightest on our US home-grown labels, it's just an observation that it seems somewhat ironic because in the mainstream music world, obviously the American conglomerate labels tend to dominate, and in our little universe that's completely tipped on its head. (This somehow vaguely relates to a post I made in a galaxy long, long ago about deciding what labels to send one's music to, since label identification in this realm is far stronger than artist identification. At least until the artist is well-known to some extent.) Erm, it's almost 3:25 AM and I'm babbling. I'll shut up now ... - Greg

[Talk about US labels snipped]

quoted 2 lines I guess I have this vague feeling that it'll always be this way. And I'm

> I guess I have this vague feeling that it'll always be this way. And I'm > not quite sure why. I could point to Sahko's raised presence above water,

Well, it's funny, and I've whined about this before, but Sähkö (Sahko for all you non-umlaut people) are not really "prophets in their own country". Here in Finland virtually no-one knows them, but they've been lucky to get some international coverage, some distribution and word-of-mouth, but all it needed was to get out of their own country to get someone to actually acknowledge them. Because (sorry about this in advance) generally, PEOPLE IN FINLAND DON'T GIVE A FLYING FUCK (whew, had to get this off my heart...). So, if you come from some middle-of-nowhere place like this, don't depend on your "own" people to support you. Get contacts (places like this list and Net in general are good for that), try to work the distribution, send promos to all the "right" people and so on, is all I can say... Here's my inflation 0.05... transmission from the pHinnWeb Bunker over, ekku the maintainer of pHinnWeb - everything u ever wanted to know about Finnish electronica scene but were too afraid of the reindeer trerra@uta.fi | http://www.uta.fi/~trerra | http://www.sci.fi/~phinnweb

Greg Earle writes:

quoted 4 lines I think a few

> I think a few > years ago, you could have said that Exist Dance were qualifiers in this > realm, but of course then Mike Kandel promptly submerged to let his freak flag > grow erm fly :-)

running a label is a drag and i think a lot of people in the states just do it to get visibility that (hopefully) leads to a buy out or at least a licensing deal. i know that i am planning on starting one very very soon now as i have 3 full length releases worth of stuff ready to go and no outlet. with luck i will get bought out within a year or two. a while ago i heard that tom chasteen was going to take back exist dance and re-release some of the old stuff but so far that hasn't happened. too bad.

quoted 5 lines Note that I'm not saying this situation reflects even the slightest on our

> Note that I'm not saying this situation reflects even the slightest on our > US home-grown labels, it's just an observation that it seems somewhat ironic > because in the mainstream music world, obviously the American conglomerate > labels tend to dominate, and in our little universe that's completely tipped > on its head.

it's REAL hard to get into the distribution chain in the US. that is what cripples a lot of smaller labels. getting bought by someone who's already in is about the only way to insure wide visibility. i don't imagine i'm going to make a lot of money with my label but i think breaking even is a realistic goal.

quoted 4 lines (This somehow vaguely relates to a post I made in a galaxy long, long ago

> (This somehow vaguely relates to a post I made in a galaxy long, long ago > about deciding what labels to send one's music to, since label identification > in this realm is far stronger than artist identification. At least until > the artist is well-known to some extent.)

hmmm, i don't necessarily agree... maybe in our own little trainspotter realm that is true. i actually hope you're right, cos all the stuff on my label will be under various aliases.... :) -- Jon Drukman jsd@gamespot.com SpotMedia Communications ...I was an infinitely hot and dense dot...

quoted 16 lines Aaron Gregory posited something that made me think:

> Aaron Gregory posited something that made me think: > > DOWNPOUR (oh so aptly titled aren't they! - you'll see ...) come forth with > > the third release on Drop Beat Records. A FAR cry from the greyness and silky > > smoothness of Kristian's effort, this 5-tracker presents a rather (at many > > times) SCARY (want proof? Strap on the sample from track 4, "The Bitterest > > Man in the Living Room") affair! Simply put, this MUST be the closest thing > > to PANACEA I have heard on an American label WITHOUT question. > > ("Widespread DISEMANATION of this IMPORTANT INFORMATION is ENCOURAGED!" LOL) > > This got me wondering ... > > Most of us on this list have probably heard Panacea ... or heard about > Panacea ... but hardly anyone has heard about Downpour ... or, indeed, WILL > hear about Downpour ... or the other stuff on Drop Beat ... (outside of > this august body, of course)

Dropbeat (especially **Downpour**) whup Panaceas ass in my correct opinion. I cant really see any parallel between the two, downpour are far more sophisticated and interesting and dont use shitty rave stabs.. i reckonz these boys are gonna keep us all on our toes with their future releases.... them and Spymania of course. ;| -- k.F "I tried unloading banana trains and for while I had a job collecting horses hooves for a sausage skin and glue manufacturer. They also gave me a job after that, throwing cows heads into a bone crushing machine.I soon realised that these jobs weren't really what I wanted to do." -Lol Coxhill Quote.

quoted 5 lines For the most part, US labels aren't even players in the "Well-known-on-the-

> > For the most part, US labels aren't even players in the "Well-known-on-the- > > IDM-tip" scene. > > i've been thinking about starting a label recently but i don't know the > first thing about it which is i think a good sign :)

so sign me already. -- k.F "I tried unloading banana trains and for while I had a job collecting horses hooves for a sausage skin and glue manufacturer. They also gave me a job after that, throwing cows heads into a bone crushing machine.I soon realised that these jobs weren't really what I wanted to do." -Lol Coxhill Quote.