the-shamen-bw

S2 Translation: An Early Work of Protein Music

One of my hobbies is musical archaeology: sifting through the archives in search of obscure, overlooked tracks from a bygone era. This virtual crate digging occasionally turns up intriguing results, including one recent find by The Shamen, a popular late 1980s/early 1990s electronica act unjustly known for some rather cheesy hit songs. Unbeknownst to me, they burst their own…

va-ektoplazm-greatest-trips

The Making of Ektoplazm’s Greatest Trips

I prepared this post to provide some insight into the making of Ektoplazm’s Greatest Trips, a “best of” compilation highlighting some of the finest music I’ve had the pleasure of distributing via Ektoplazm, the free music portal I launched in the mid-2000s. The site grew from humble beginnings to become a major focal point for psychedelic trance culture…

In front of the Dodge Fountain at Movement 2011

New Music Digest: Spring 2011

The seasons turn and spring has come to Canada once again. As is my custom, I have annotated a list of thought-provoking articles about the state of the music industry. If you would like to learn a little more about what the future might hold, read on. Everything popular is wrong: Making it in electronic music, despite democratization is…

Some Advice About Unsolicited Demos

Most label owners are overwhelmed with demos. Speaking as someone who has, at times, attempted to actually get to every demo arriving in my inbox, the vast majority are not worth looking into, and I don’t blame any label owner who ignores unsolicited demos—sorting through what might be worthwhile to release is actually a full-time job known as A&R…

BitTorrent Is Not a Universal Solution

One of the most common suggestions I receive from Ektoplazm visitors is to open a BitTorrent tracker for free music, ostensibly to decrease hosting costs. There are a number of problems with this suggestion, however, and given how frequently it is mentioned, I figure a full post might be helpful to explain why BitTorrent is not a universal…

Winter Containment Unit

New Music Digest: Winter 2011

Every season I try to gather up some of the more interesting music-related articles I’ve been reading to share and discuss. Much of this comes from subscribing to various “music 2.0” blogs, though I will admit to feeling uninspired by much of what I have found in the last few months. Is the movement running out of ideas? Not exactly.

Metal Shavings

New Music Digest: Fall 2010

Continuing my quarterly habit of rounding up some of the more informative and thought-provoking content in the new music literature… First off, Cory Doctorow shares his views in The real cost of free, a fantastic opinion piece summarizing many of my own views about copyright, piracy, free content, and creativity. Required reading.

rip-remix-manifesto

RiP: A Remix Manifesto

I recently had the pleasure of watching RiP: A Remix Manifesto, a documentary about culture, copyright, and creativity in the 21st century directed by Canadian filmmaker Brett Gaylor. The main focus of the film is Girl Talk, a mash-up artist, though you will also hear from Lawrence Lessig, co-founder of the Creative Commons (and a huge…

Urbane Archaeology

New Music Digest: Summer 2010

Every now and then I gather up some of the more provocative or informative articles I find in my travels in order to compile a digest post such as this one. What follows is an assortment of music-related content I’ve been reading in the last couple of months. Revealing Shakespeare’s Inner Pirate takes a close look at how culture…

New York Orrery

New Music Digest: Spring 2010

I process a lot of interesting content on the web these days. Much of this comes from the blogs I subscribe to and read almost daily. I also tend to follow links shared on Facebook and Twitter whenever my curiosity is piqued. I have been sharing my findings on Twitter but it is a fleeting medium—good content is quickly buried.