Dolmot

I got back from the only trip abroad I have planned for this summer. Croatian mountains were majestic. Right after that I went to a club meeting at a summer cottage. Now I'm finally back home and trying to relax, although there's still some backlog and hassle with monies. (Protip: avoid Norwegian airline for a while. Their performance is very dodgy ATM.) It feels strangely quiet in here, compared to all the travel bustle. It's also raining so I'm not going anywhere. What next? Check the CDs that I ordered ages ago but in some cases never even opened? Do some dull, long overdue chores? Try to produce something artistic? Just sit here and stare blankly? Decisions, decisions...

This is getting silly now... (Or did it already several pages ago?) I remember that there were goa-flavoured .mods in the tracker scene in 1993-1994. The term "goa" as a genre was barely known back then. However, soft-synths were quite limited so there was plenty of sample ripping from hardware or commercial sources (which in turn were typically hardware-based). Where do you draw the line with "no external synths used"? One landmark was Propellerhead Software's ReBirth, which was released in December 1996 and made fully soft-synthetic classic goa sound quite easily achievable. I have some tracks from 1997, which indeed credit ReBirth as more or less the only sound source. And you could distribute ReBirth-sequenced files directly too. Those were definitely 100% PC. It's also known that Shiva Shidapu was releasing tracker music in 1997 and they were hardly the only ones. No idea about all their sound sources, though. I think I made some pure AdLib FM-synth tracks in the mid-90s. The manufacturer of the original card went bankrupt in 1992 so the hardware option was definitely there earlier than goa as a named genre existed. The sound capabilities were definitely limited, but a 303 is not a strict requirement for producing goa, right?

There was the short-lived D5 Records, presumably related to (some) Dimension 5 members. According to Discogs Dimension 5 page, "They thereafter stayed with D5 records for a while, but fell out due to musical differences; and Kerry and Nick started up their own label (Intastella) to release their music." Meanwhile, D5 records did have a D5 002 release but not by Dimension 5. It's only credited to Jon Bell, who hasn't been a Dimension 5 member in any way AFAIK. All other D5 Records releases appear to have some overlap with Dimension 5, though. So...is it 002 or maybe some other D5 Records release mislabelled?

Maybe! I will! (And I will if I like!)

Is there a late pledge option?

I suspect one of the main issues would be that in reality, most releases are actually multi-format. Most vinyl releases are available as downloads, many as CDs too. I'd also say that the main topics of any release discussion (before/after) are: that the release is/was happening the music itself (+ maybe linking it to the artist's / label's other production etc.) So, there are very few releases that would be strictly vinyl-only and fairly few discussion points that would actually concern the vinyl format itself. If there's a vinyl+digital release, where would we put it? Directing digital buyers to a vinyl subforum would feel wrong. Splitting the discussion to two different places would be worse. What would we do in the vinyl forum topic? Discuss just the pressing while avoiding all references to the music? Meanwhile, it could be informative to have the formats listed in post tags. However, my realistic prediction is that even if that was requested/recommended, the success rate would be less than 10%. Copy-paste announce-bots won't do that, and "normal users" aren't consistent with their tag use either. I browse the forum almost exclusively through the "Activity" -button.

I just got an email and seems that there are new copies now...if you're fast? https://liquidsounddesignuk.bandcamp.com/album/youth-gaudi-astronaut-alchemists

Well, it's up now. Short version: 2LP, no bonus tracks as far as I can see, fancy box, edition of 2500, "no future coloured variants", £119 + shipping. Hmmh... https://shponglemusic.bandcamp.com/album/nothing-lasts-but-nothing-is-lost-remastered

Is Psysex meaningless trance music?

I definitely agree about the life-changing part. I may write a separate post about my life in the arse end of the world, where electronic music was typically incredibly difficult to get in the pre-internet days. Nevertheless, Prodigy found its way there and was present in almost everything I was doing back then, be it music, computers or something completely different. It was also the great unifier. By MftJG, everyone with even the slightest exposure to electronic music knew them. By TFotL, everyone under 60 did - also there in the middle of nowhere. Barely any other EDM act could match that. "The greatest" is not that easy a decision for me, but all things considered, it's definitely hard to name a better album than their 90s classics. They're just so goddamn solid musical adventures, whereas many other contenders have a whiff of recycling two or three ideas a few too many times. Many other albums from that era I listen mainly as a nostalgia trip but Prodigy because they're so enjoyable and awesome throughout. And they definitely managed to bring EDM on big stages, properly. Yes, music-wise (in the early days) it was just that one guy operating a sound system in a booth, but the show was nothing like a laptop-staring session. The rest of the guys really completed it. The name of their video collection "Electronic Punks" was spot on. Which brings me to the main point of this post... Mind you, I absolutely don't want to belittle Keith. He was with the crew for almost 30 years, really going for it at 100% power and delivering unforgettable performances. Still, I find it a bit strange when some major news outlets write headlines like "Keith Flint, Prodigy frontman, dead at 49" (CNN). Others refer to him more modestly or accurately as "vocalist" or "singer". Meanwhile, there are some tones hinting that now the group is gone when their "frontman" died. Yes, that's how it went with Motörhead and Lemmy, but in this case it sounds odd to me. After all, before TFotL, Keith was a dancer, strictly. That was his credit on Experience. I think that before Breathe and Firestarter, his vocal contribution comprised about four words spoken on "Fire". Maxim delivered the vocals on Poison (arguably their first track with their own, full vocals) and most of the hype on stage. By the time of TFotL, they had already released two massive albums, about 9 singles, 2 EPs and whatnot with barely any musical contribution from Keith. The rave scene found them "too mainstream/popular to be cool any more" already in 1992, when Keith was "just" a dancer. Even though all of them had their role, for me Liam was - and still is - the true brain and soul of Prodigy. It was his magic touch I heard on the albums. To be really honest, I was even quite disappointed when they picked up the new, vocals-heavy style. I wanted rave tracks, not songs. They, however, seemed to prefer stuff that was fun to scream on stage. In hindsight, it wasn't a bad move for their success nor even that unfitting (electronic punks and all that), yet I reserve the right to prefer their old output with instrumentals and occasional weird vocal samples. Well, times have changed. And the band, and the show too. Maybe in this century Keith really counted as the frontman. But I still remember vaguely one quote from a book, maybe "Adventures with the Voodoo Crew" (1997). They talked about one of their earlier US tours, where slightly clueless reporters were asking "so you're a band - who's the bassist?" Back then there was no bassist nor a singer - or if there was, it was Maxim. Now I wonder if the reporters who have only seen the post-TFotL days really understand how the group worked in the past. I don't know what happens next. Upcoming gigs have been cancelled so there's a bit of truth in the notion that the frontman is gone and the band cannot go on (at least for a while). Then again, that decision makes a lot of sense in a situation like this in any case. I'd say that without Liam there would be no Prodigy. Without Keith...I don't know. We'll see. Sharky left in 1990, Leeroy in 2000. Now there are zero dancers and no firestarter either. Their early live track "Death of the Prodigy Dancers" has taken a really grim turn.

Free jazz?

Gah, how dare you release limited stuff when I'm about 130% busy with a gaming weekend (and work)? Ah, whatever. Ordered anyway. Bandcamp makes impulsive shopping easy (too easy?), and I'm a sucker. I'll re-check on Sunday what I really managed to do / mess up here...

Reading the Bible six times, becoming a pope or something like that.

The whole vinyl business has got a bit crazy. One largish music store chain here just reported that in 2018 their vinyl sales may have surpassed CDs in revenue. Of course, there's the contributing factor that CD sales continue to diminish, but it's still impressive or even scary. Quite a chunk of that seems to be pure collectibles - special editions, limited editions, weird colours, fancy boxes...you know the deal. I wonder how many of those buyers even have a working turntable and whether they ever really use it. My gut feeling says that a lot of today's vinyl shopping is more like collecting, investment, or getting more impressive display pieces to show one's fandom. Listening is an option which is in there, but in reality it often goes unused. That aspect has obviously always existed, but the overall situation was quite different in the 80s when LPs were a common home audio format or until 2000 or so when DJ CD players were so dodgy that vinyl was a very valid choice if you wanted to mix accurately. I kind of miss the times when we bought loads of bog standard 12"s and spun them daily, just for fun. No huge worries if you lost one, spilt beer on it or whatever. It was just a £5 disc, often easily replaceable. Would you do that with a £100 collectible? I see more and more releases where it seems that nobody is really playing them. As soon as the release is out (and also sold out in a matter of hours, days or weeks), half of the batch appears on Discogs marketplace, still in shrink wrap, for double price. The rest has probably been hoarded to private collections somewhere. OK, nowadays you can typically buy a CD/digital version or stream it with a single click. Participating in the vinyl gold rush is entirely optional. Nevertheless, I find it a bit sad that a playable music format is turning into a display or collecting piece, where you may not even dare to touch it. It's like those action figures that people stash in their safe in original packaging, never opened. Not much action there, eh? We're shipping plastic from the pressing plant to a store, then to the first buyer, then second hand to the next schmuck who is willing to pay double price, then to the next one. Producing some CO2 and trash at every step. Maybe never even opening the shrink wrap. We could just as well be trading bricks with a limited edition serial number on them. Or stamp-sized tokens to save money on shipping. Or digital codes. The concept is getting silly. And still I'm participating, often just out of fear of missing out and regretting it later. It's a never-ending game and it might be very wise not to play at all. However, I try to pick releases that actually see a turntable every now and then and there's no reason to worry about it. I see no major glory in finally getting buried with the world's largest collection of mint condition ultra-special editions, never touched. A few years ago I was living really busy times when I barely browsed or bought a thing. I was also so busy that I had no time to think about missing something. So did I really miss anything - unless I look at the backlog of all those fancy releases I don't have? What a deep philosophical question... I buy CDs, rip them, and keep the originals as a physical backup. That has been my modus operandi since 1995 or so. (Although back then you couldn't just download everything as FLAC, thus CD was the only realistic way to get CD quality.) Sometimes they come with a nifty booklet too. Sometimes the next schmuck will buy them for double price. I don't really believe in vinyl hi-fi either. There's a little bit of truth to it, namely the fact that the physics of vinyl simply prevent some of the worst idiocies of digital mastering. The pressing limitations and cartridge movement force the sound to be somehow more natural and easier on the ears than some bad examples of CD/digital. However, it's very easy to make a shitty vinyl pressing with its own issues, which greatly outweigh the tiny benefits. There are also major, inherent limitations on the dynamic range and stereo image. And you need a good cartridge, a fresh stylus, some effort on the cabling etc. to get even close to digital clarity. And that's the ideal case, which may never happen. And the discs will wear out. Some quality is quickly lost in any case, and unless you're extremely careful, they'll develop crackle and pops. For that reason alone, I don't really bother with ambient on vinyl. It's just a hopeless combination. In that genre I want to be able to press play and enjoy noiseless perfection for hours - with no disc flipping either. In short, don't even consider vinyls if you want high audio quality reliably, easily and repeatedly. If you have a top notch setup, make a digital rip from a brand new copy to get that alternate mastering/playback experience. Beyond that, it's just a fancy ritual. (But what a great ritual it is to spin some 12"s in a small party for people who can truly appreciate it.) OK, that was a lot of ranting. Back to the point. Am I going to get the new Shpongle vinyls? I don't know. They're probably extremely impressive pieces - and yet there's the massive agony of realising that every play would cost you £10 in resale value as the grading will take a hit. Then again, Ineffable is the only album I don't have on vinyl yet... Oh bother.

Nice. The CD reissue of Extended is welcome too. Original copies are nowadays fetching 80€ in VG condition.