As of Thursday Oct. 26, I'll be on the road with the Eyelash Carpets for their performance at the Voodoo festival. I'll be trying to make daily posts from New Orleans to the Agnostic Jihad blog. The subject matter of my posts will probably be all over the map, so I won't be putting them here.
There will definitely be some experimental-music related material, though. In fact, with any luck, I might be able to get some good pictures. After all, nothing captures the power of music quite like photography.
So, click through, or cut and paste. The first post is up already.
http://zenoizen.blogspot.com/
26 October 2006
Adventure blogging by Zeno Izen
13 October 2006
Share your experimental-music news with the world
On paper, this seems like it'll work. Let's take it to the real world and find out....
Here's what you do. If you've got some sort of experimental-music news that you'd like to announce, such as a new release, an upcoming event or tour or just about anything else you can think of, go to this page:
Experimental Music News
Click on the "post a new message" button and post your info. Be sure to write a good headline because this thing will be delivered mostly by RSS. After I post this, I plan to make a headline animator at feedburner.com and then to stick it on the sidebar of this page. You can also subscribe to the rss feed in your favorite newsreader.
With luck, this will be a useful feature to you all. And if you've got anything more complex to announce, be sure to email it to me at hollowtreesubmit@gmail.com
<-z>
Happy Birthday HTxMR!
I didn't even realize, but Sept. 26 represented the first full year that this blog has been running. I think I read somewhere that most blogs don't last more than a year. HTxMR has hardly been consistent, or even very good, for this first year, but I'm glad to have passed this milestone.
In this upcoming year, I hope to post more of what I consider "valuable" content. That would include things such as reviews, possibly some interviews, insightful discussion of the changes going on in the world of music, a deeper exploration of the idea of "experimental" music and of course lots of pointers to netlabels, podcasts, videos and so on.
More closer to us on the timeline... I'm working on a long "journaly" kind of post, to see how that kind of thing flies. I'll probably post that soon.
Probably more interesting to all of you is the Experimental News funnel/RSS feed that I've set up. Any old person can submit an announcement and it'll show up on the Hollow Tree page immediately.
I will give you the link and an explanation in a forthcoming post, hopefully within an hour or so.
<-z>
12 October 2006
No Other Radio
via email from Lob ov Instagon
--
--- ninah pixie <ninah@ubuibi.org> wrote:
> To: NO OTHER RADIO <ninah@ubuibi.org>
> Subject: 10/3 NO OTHER RADIO - playlist and audio
> archive
> From: ninah pixie <ninah@ubuibi.org>
> Date: Fri, 6 Oct 2006 03:18:47 -0700
>
> NOR 10/3: Playlist and audio archive
> Tuesday, October 3, 2006
>
> SPECIAL LIVE SPOTLIGHT: NORCAL NOISEFEST '06
>
> featuring performances by: THOMAS DIMUZIO & INSTAGON
> hosted by dAS (co-host Ninah Pixie)
>
> AUDIO ARCHIVE:
> http://157.22.130.4/data
>
> PLAYLIST:
> (artist / track / album / label)
>
> Wisteriax & Adja The Turkish Queen / lildiscs.com
>
> LIVE SET - INSTAGON
>
> Wisteriax / Static Voyage / wisteriax.com
>
> LIVE SET - THOMAS DIMUZIO
>
> 
> PHOTOS:
>
http://smg.photobucket.com
>
> 20Oct%203%202006/
>
>
..............................
> email: ninah@ubuibi.org
> blog: http://ollapodrida.net/blog
> bigCityOrchestre web: http://ubuibi.org
> women take back the noise: http://ubuibi.org/wtbtn
> no other radio network:
> http://nootherradio.blogspot
>
>
02 October 2006
Panospria, a good net label + liner notes in the personal-computer era
Panospria, a net label
A few weeks ago I received an email from Constantine of Panospria saying:
... hours later...
Now, as I sit back down, I'm suddenly listening to Aidan Baker "Eyes are Dark &" and "Encase/Enclose Me" from the Tense Surfaces release. The latter is a good old sonic acquarium, with loopy pianos swimming through kelpy scrolls of ripples and blips. The former is a 16 millimeter trip through the corridors of HeavenCorp while a robot assembly line works behind the scenes, in funky perpetual motion, manufacturing the thick, steamy clouds through which you trip.
I downloaded all of these releases as zip files from the Panospria website, but the albums are all hosted at archive.org so you can download single tracks or even stream them, but the music is available only as 192 Kbps mp3s.
Some thoughts about internet music distribution
I'm not entirely sure what the scope of features is over there at archive.org, but they certainly are shooting for technical transparency with their xml files and their multiple file formats and all that other yabbledy babble.
I understand that the output machinery for music is making a transition from stereos to home computers. That's certainly interesting and everything, but this so called ephemeralization process is making it hard for me to enjoy music anymore. Likely the most difficult thing about listening to music on a laptop computer, aside from finding good speakers for cheap, is figuring out what it is that you're currently listening to. That's why right-click information is so important. Ideally--which is to say, if I controlled all reality--everything from liner notes to video clips would be made available somehow by right-clicking on the filename.
Embedded features, if done correctly, could possibly even bring new life to the recording industry. Record companies could release single tracks so bogged down with bonus features that it would be a chore to duplicate the mp3. Any copy that wasn't factory direct would be an inferior product. Then the record company could payola a tune to the top of the charts and fetch three dollars a unit just like in the old days. Plus, as an added bonus, artists wouldn't have to release entire albums anymore, only "singles-plus" releases, saving boxcars full of cash for the recording industry.
None of these things will come to pass, though, because the recording industry is cursed. And when I say "cursed," I'm not being metaphorical. I have personally witnessed Dark Rites directed at recording industry symbols and personae. If said industry prefers to go down with a chip on its shoulder rather than crafting a creative response to the real situations before them, well then that's just what they get for messing with the Devil's music.
Meanwhile, in the real world, as a person who listens almost exclusively to music in the mp3 and ogg format, I'd like to ask all the musicians and netlabel captains out there to please tag your files as heavily as possible. Why? Mostly because it adds to the listening experience. Think of the last time you bought a CD with really good liner notes and the pleasure of immersion you experienced when you brought that CD home, put it on for the first time and listened to it while you read the package insert. If you can't remember such an experience, then you've missed out on one of the subtler glories of music appreciation. Music has always had a profound relationship to the Word. The one always amplifies the other in such a way as occurs between no two other forms. It would be a shame if the subform of the liner note disappeared just because music has managed to divorce itself from paper.
Of course, current tagging systems don't really allow for notes of any great length. The ID3 v2 system seems to allow only 150 characters or so in the comment field. Still, anytime I download music in a zip file, I'm always pleased to find some additional text or even some art included with the music. The packaged internet music release is still such a new concept that it doesn't even have a real name yet, so there's vast room for creativity.
-z
I downloaded a few net albums that day, and last night I downloaded a few more. After a lot of listening I've found a lot to like. Though a couple of things I heard seemed a little grumpy, there is quite a lot of good stuff on the Panospria label. There are some abstract noisy things on the label, some straight out disco and a lot of stuff in between. One specific thing that you might check out is Panospria's #12 release by Various. This is not a "various artists" compilation; Various is actually the name of a single musician. The release, titled "Pieces" consists of five well-made noise assemblages. The tracks are full of mildly-distorted squeals, digital rattles, shortwave buzzes, and other sounds that escape identification. The "music" all keeps within the area of listenable textures, only occasionally poking a toe into harsher territories."... we're in montreal, operating this net-label called panospria and also doing events since 2004. perhaps you'd like some music from our catalog, which ranges from noise and glitch to ambient and deep house.
here are some links for you to explore...
our net-label home page: http://www.panospria.com
blog and events information: http://www.myspace.com/panospria
reviews and streaming: http://www.archive.org/details/panospria"
... hours later...
Now, as I sit back down, I'm suddenly listening to Aidan Baker "Eyes are Dark &" and "Encase/Enclose Me" from the Tense Surfaces release. The latter is a good old sonic acquarium, with loopy pianos swimming through kelpy scrolls of ripples and blips. The former is a 16 millimeter trip through the corridors of HeavenCorp while a robot assembly line works behind the scenes, in funky perpetual motion, manufacturing the thick, steamy clouds through which you trip.
I downloaded all of these releases as zip files from the Panospria website, but the albums are all hosted at archive.org so you can download single tracks or even stream them, but the music is available only as 192 Kbps mp3s.
Some thoughts about internet music distribution
I'm not entirely sure what the scope of features is over there at archive.org, but they certainly are shooting for technical transparency with their xml files and their multiple file formats and all that other yabbledy babble.
I understand that the output machinery for music is making a transition from stereos to home computers. That's certainly interesting and everything, but this so called ephemeralization process is making it hard for me to enjoy music anymore. Likely the most difficult thing about listening to music on a laptop computer, aside from finding good speakers for cheap, is figuring out what it is that you're currently listening to. That's why right-click information is so important. Ideally--which is to say, if I controlled all reality--everything from liner notes to video clips would be made available somehow by right-clicking on the filename.
Embedded features, if done correctly, could possibly even bring new life to the recording industry. Record companies could release single tracks so bogged down with bonus features that it would be a chore to duplicate the mp3. Any copy that wasn't factory direct would be an inferior product. Then the record company could payola a tune to the top of the charts and fetch three dollars a unit just like in the old days. Plus, as an added bonus, artists wouldn't have to release entire albums anymore, only "singles-plus" releases, saving boxcars full of cash for the recording industry.
None of these things will come to pass, though, because the recording industry is cursed. And when I say "cursed," I'm not being metaphorical. I have personally witnessed Dark Rites directed at recording industry symbols and personae. If said industry prefers to go down with a chip on its shoulder rather than crafting a creative response to the real situations before them, well then that's just what they get for messing with the Devil's music.
Meanwhile, in the real world, as a person who listens almost exclusively to music in the mp3 and ogg format, I'd like to ask all the musicians and netlabel captains out there to please tag your files as heavily as possible. Why? Mostly because it adds to the listening experience. Think of the last time you bought a CD with really good liner notes and the pleasure of immersion you experienced when you brought that CD home, put it on for the first time and listened to it while you read the package insert. If you can't remember such an experience, then you've missed out on one of the subtler glories of music appreciation. Music has always had a profound relationship to the Word. The one always amplifies the other in such a way as occurs between no two other forms. It would be a shame if the subform of the liner note disappeared just because music has managed to divorce itself from paper.
Of course, current tagging systems don't really allow for notes of any great length. The ID3 v2 system seems to allow only 150 characters or so in the comment field. Still, anytime I download music in a zip file, I'm always pleased to find some additional text or even some art included with the music. The packaged internet music release is still such a new concept that it doesn't even have a real name yet, so there's vast room for creativity.
-z
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