Dolmot

Bandcamp Friday, this week (November 5th). Any fresh tips? I sometimes get kind of frustrated when labels start carpet-bombing me with campaign emails exactly on Friday afternoon. I often have other things to do then. How do I pre-listen to 50 offered albums in one evening? Could at least someone remind me a bit earlier, please?

I just checked the link and right now there seems to be a small selection of compilations there. Let's see what happens next. It's a tricky situation. The previous version was a treasure trove for an oldschool rave collector, but hardly for anyone else. Let's face it - next to no one would probably need 234 old rave compilations (many of them double albums) nor pay any really serious money for digital copies of them, but for about 200 euros/dollars the whole bundle was an impressive collection for archival purposes and in case that you wanted to check random bits from there. However, if the original licensing deals had expired: Maybe the artists don't see a penny of it. Then again, "a penny" would be the right ballpark estimate per track if you split the sum (minus fees, the label's share, taxes etc.) between, let's say, 4000 tracks in the bundle. And then, trying to re-negotiate the deals with everyone who had appeared on those albums over several decades would be a monumental task. I happen to know how tedious it can be to track down and to negotiate the licences even for a single track today with so many possible rightholders in different regions etc. Then just imagine the effort vs gain for thousands of them if it's basically just a tiny amount of oldschool hoarders who might ever buy this bundle (or parts of it). So, is anyone going to make a lot of money from this? It would be awfully nice if the compilations with very little market value today would be just uploaded gradually to archive.org as public domain or offered as pay-what-you-want-for-charity or whatever, but even that would require a permission from everyone individually. In any case, such huge collections with diverse authors and little demand are largely stuck in a limbo. It's hard to see any way out from there that would be both realistic and legal. I was kind of tempted to buy the whole shebang for the aforementioned reasons (basically packratting and occasional nostalgia/research) but never did because my hard disks are a disaster area and cannot handle hundreds of gigabytes with extra backups - which you always need with online stores that may vanish without a trace.

It did, a few hours ago... https://shponglemusic.bandcamp.com/album/shpongle-remixed-by-cosmic-trigger Not sure either. Nice picks for tracks to remix, but IMO the problem is that the originals were so smoothly flowing and iconic to begin with that turning them into a jumble of glitch-dubstep-whatever-mashing doesn't really add much value. I find myself listening to the original parts, which are still in there, but currently I feel that I'd prefer them in their original context anyway. In some places the production and mastering are impressive sound-wise. The price itself isn't that bad either for a 2xLP, compared to the earlier ultra-special editions of classic albums. However, with shipping it would be over 41€ and because Bandcamp's tax and IOSS status is still annoyingly unclear, I might be hit by 12-ish euros of customs and fees, pushing the grand total to 54€ or so. That's already steep for an album I'd be unlikely to play much, either physically or digitally. Worth it for sheer collecting or just in case if I happened to learn to like it more later? Not sure indeed. Well, no ticking red counters there at the time of writing...

Sad if true. It has been a long journey. I think I even bought my first vinyls from there in the early 00s. One of them was Are You Shpongled. It was cheap (by today's standards) and hadn't moved off the shelves particularly fast because vinyl DJing was fading out. Times were changing and now they're changing again. Coincidentally, just yesterday I ended up on the label/distributor page of Saikosounds on Discogs. That one I only visited for the 2 min samples, though. Probably never ordered a thing due to the possibility of customs fees and hassle. Apologies for wasting their bandwidth for years.

I believe Bandcamp Friday was cancelled/paused for a few months this summer, but now it's up again for the rest of the year, 1st Friday of every month. One of those is just behind the corner. To get started, 20% off in LSD and Dragonfly Bandcamp stores with code lsdfamily20.

I like to refer to this thread because it's related and I did some research there... The relationship between "proper" goa trance tracks and the genre name can be possibly seen like the chicken-egg problem. Can you produce real goa trance if there's no such genre? Can there be a genre if there are no tracks? In fact, if you read the wikipedia article for chicken and egg, it says, among other viewpoints: But which one is the chicken or the egg in this "genre or track" comparison? Well, I think we can agree that there were tracks laid by the proto-goa genre and tracks totally inspired by the Goa party scene before the genre name was acknowledged. For the obvious Goa (place) infuence, see Goa EP and Carlo Andrea Raggi's Goahead alias. Were they goa tracks or does that require crunchier synth lines? Who knows. Where did those appear first? At least The Infinity Project, Eat Static and Dimension 5 were releasing already in 1991, and ultimately their style progressed right into the core of what we call goa trance. When did they "cross the line"? In there, opinions probably differ. Or like the Discogs 'Vinyl Only' Goa tracks list description says, "One man's Trance is the other man's Techno and my Hard Trance is your Goa Trance. Not much you can do with style debates and obscure releases will have style changed sometime." Or acid trance classics like Hardfloor's Acperience? Would it be totally goa trance if released, in an alternate universe, on the B side of some Green Nuns 12" in 1995? I think it's a fun topic to discuss as long as you take it as light musings only and don't expect to reach any hard facts or conclusions.

Bah, I just check the 12" promo sheets.

Bandcamp Friday is starting again, I reckon. Any tips? I've been too busy with other stuff. (For example, tracking stray shipments from previous orders...)

My order is in. I still have to double- and triple-check to believe it. Let's just hope that it arrives safely too. Very nice reissue in its simplicity, by the way. In some threads I've been lamenting the recent extra fancy bundles which cost an arm and a leg, don't show the original artwork properly, and sometimes don't even fit into a normal shelf. This one seems to deliver the original release and some extra tracks, no frills. £24.99 is/was a fair price too. 1150 copies? Could have been more because price-wise this was well within the reach of an average fan. Let's see how long they last. (Edit: apparently gone already in some 20 minutes. Wow. )

I got an email notification from BC. Then I tried to hunt high and low on the site, no luck. Then I came here for clues. I should be sleeping already, though. Let's see if I wake up tomorrow to learn that this batch has been sold out too. Still the only Shpongle album that I don't have on vinyl at all.

There's this topic for hot tips. I mostly point out offers for physical stuff myself but Neogoa just had a nifty digital deal in there. Their discography is not that expensive anyway, I think.

Ultimae Spring Sales until April 3, 2021: https://ultimae.com/ultimae-spring-sales-until-april-3-2021/ Also in their Bandcamp store, 20% off with "bloom20"...I think. Might combine nicely with Bandcamp Friday on 2nd? Pitch Black CDs 50% off on Bandcamp: https://www.facebook.com/story.php?story_fbid=10165165222155442&id=14580875441 If "end of May" is not a typo, that one could be combined as well to give the band a better share of this great deal.

The second Bandcamp Friday of 2021 starts soon. Anyone got any hot tips? I haven't received anything yet and I may be too busy to hunt for them right now.

I happen to have extra copies of the following Global Sect releases, new: Merr0w ‎– Odysseus Atlantis ‎– Cosmic Waves Various ‎– Globalsect Radio You can pre-listen and check the stuff on Bandcamp. Shipping from Funland (conveniently within EU if that helps). Kind of "name your price" but there may be a small twist. Please PM for details. Let me also mention that I have a really busy month ahead so there may delays with messages and such, but that's due to unavoidable priorities, not because I hate you or anything. Thanks.

I've received stuff this year... They arrived already a few weeks ago, but I've been too busy and kind of frustrated with other stuff to post this. However, on a positive note, we finally have a nice winter in here. I took this photo outside on snow, although it's not very obvious from this angle. I can post a "making of" later. So, what do we have in here? Suntrip 2020 releases: Hypnoxock ‎– Beyond The Wormhole Clementz ‎– Kretsløp Triquetra ‎– Human Control Various ‎– Gamma Draconis Mindsphere ‎– Mental Triplex - Beyond And (almost) latest Global Sect: Merr0w ‎– Odysseus Atlantis ‎– Cosmic Waves Various ‎– Globalsect Radio They also provided the neat backdrop. I mean, the fancy one, not the old rug nor the snow. Meanwhile...if someone is interested in buying the Global Sect stuff, please contact me. Things happened and now I could forward these.