Mar 5th 2008, 7:15pm

News from the outer reaches: Netlabels, podcasts and Nine Inch Nails

by michaelGregoire

Here we are again, another week and a whole slew of new releases. From here on out I'm doing things a bit differently from what I've done in the past. I'm merging what used to be a Sunday posting of net audio news with the Thursday posting of net audio releases. So each week on Thursday or Friday you'll get a dose of news from the world of net audio and netlabels along with an overview of all net audio that was released at Jamendo and archive.org.

This week I want to shine the spotlight on a few releases that you should take a few moments to check out. First up is a new one from One Bit Wonder. Their 31st release — Kiorda Däkin's "3". Kiorda delivers a selection of ambient and glitchy tracks for you to chill to. If you need relaxing sounds, this one's for you.

Next up we have a new Zymogen release — number 18 for them. "Tisza meets Dunav" is the first release for Zymogen by Serbian-born/Paris-based musician Letna. A gentle collection of ambient, organic meditations. It reminds me a lot of KLF's seminal release "Chill Out". Another one for those quiet times.

Recently, Phonocake presented their 48th release. "Ready Bill, Ready John" is a collection of IDM by "Cyclotron". 7 tracks for you or your robots to groove to.

An interesting new release I've recently come across is the latest by afmusic — "So Sad About It All", an excellent pop/rock ballad by "Split Seconds". If you're into the new wave of artists who are heavily influenced by the alternative 80s sound, then you'll enjoy this one.

One of my personal favorites Series Media have also released a new one for you to enjoy. Kazuka's "Tatami EP" is a straight up electro adventure with featuring expertly crafter melodies and beats.

Recently, Pharmacom Records released a new live mix by Jerzz entitled "Trug Naor Vruuger" which presents some of his experimental work over the past few years. If you need your fix of an experimental minimal noise mix, this should do it.

As you my have noticed, 12rec. is also one my favorite netlabels on the scene. Many of blocSonic's netBloc releases feature at least one 12Rec. track. So it's always with great pleasure that I find that they've released a new one. This time around, it's their 46th release. It's the third release in their "Austrian Autumn/Winter" series which features music coming out of... well I hope you can figure that out. David Schweighart's "Thank You For Listening To This Record Which Made My Hours Pass So Quickly" is an adventure to listen to. From the opening static/noise of "Stuttered Phrases" to the layered harmonium of "My Head in the Harmonium", this release is a reminder to the listener that yes they are listening to truly independent music. Independent from the shackles of genres and boundries. As with all 12rec's releases, the package art is beautifully designed.

Bumpfoot is another one of those labels that you keep going to for quality releases. Here you'll find not one, not two, not three...but four new releases for you to enjoy. The first is by an artist named Ethernet. His release "Orgonite EP" features a techno/house sound on the first three tracks and it's closed out by a dub version of "Orgonite" to cool down to. Next on the list is "Scepticisme EP" by Nic Hurryn. A minimal glitchy soundscape. Then there's Darksome Notes' release "Night Work" which gives you techno complete with claps. Finally there's a release on bumpfoot's foot sublabel. Dimitris' "White Shadows" is the second bumpfoot video single which features the audio track along with a video in iPod format.

Also available this week are two new netcasts. The first from Machtdose... a collection of tracks ranging from Rock to Hip-Hop to Electropop. You'll also find included a track you might recognize from our own netBloc Vol. 12: Anaxagoras — Josh Woodward's excellent "Shadows In The Moonlight". Next is the latest Netwaves which features an interview with artist Phillipp Wiegl and tracks from Electrosound, one, Aerotone, Dreiton, Valiza Tools, Fragment and iD.EOLOGY.

Speaking of iD.EOLOGY, they've dropped two new releases for your listening pleasure. The first one is from the Netwaves featured artist Phillip Wiegl and Michael Hoffmann. Weigl & Hoffmann's "Elevate EP" features an expertly crafted electronic sound that verges on the organic. The second new iD release is Kosmonaut's "Frames EP". This one is for you Drum 'n Bass heads out there. Enjoy this high energy romp.

One last bit of info from the netlabel front is coming out of Alpinechic. They've recently gotten their videos featured at bkanal.ch, an excellent Swiss online video network.

On netBloc Vol. 13: color in a world of monochrome you can find an excellent rock track by Ohio artist Jamie Dull. Well he's recently announced that he's started a new band. The band goes by the name of "Mye" and will feature Jamie on guitar and vocals. He lists as band influences Muse, Rage Against the Machine and Queens of the Stone Age so you know they aren't going to be putting you to sleep. They're currently writing music and have one song complete. To keep up with them, you can visit either Jamie's site or their myspace page.

Lastly, the big news of the week... that's putting it lightly... more like the news bomb of the week was the fact that Nine Inch Nails released a previously unannounced 2 CD collection of new instrumental music entitled Ghosts I-V. Just as Trent Reznor did with Saul Williams' "The Inevitable Rise and Liberation of Niggy Tardust", the NIN collection was released online initially, with Ghosts I available for free download in 320kbs mp3 format and various other configurations and prices. That's news in itself... though the biggest news is found at the bottom of the FAQ page. That's right, the complete album is released under a very share/remix friendly Creative Commons license. That's right... you can share, redistribute and create non-commercial derivatives of this amazing work. Also stated on the FAQ page is the fact that there is a forthcoming partnership announcement. Could it be a ccmixter.org contest??? I have no idea, but you can only wonder for now. Can you guess the first thing that came to mind when I first saw that license? Probably. Perhaps a NIN Ghosts I track on a future netBloc compilation? I'd like to... and I probably could without permission, but as I always do, I prefer to attain formal permission form the artists I include. From a quick look at their site, Trent is not an easy person to communicate with aside from the flooded blog post comments on nin.com. If anyone out there in interwebsland can help me get a hold of Trent Reznor, it would be greatly appreciated. If you do have contact info, use the handy blocSonic contact form to let me know. I'd really like to include the first major artist who made their way to the underground net audio movement. The fact that a major artist released a complete album under a CC license is a watershed moment. One not to be taken lightly. Aside from a few initial technical glitches, so far it seems to be a complete success and you can bet that if Saul Williams' release didn't get the majors' attention... the NIN release most-definitely will. NIN was the first to go CC, I'm quite sure that they won't be the last. Bye bye major record labels....

Oh...and one last thing... I'm well aware that blocSonic crashes a lot. Thanks due to Ruby on Rails which is what I developed it with. In order to make blocSonic speedier and less prone to dying, I've begun a complete port of site code to PHP. I used to develop with PHP prior to jumping ship to try my hand at RoR, but let's face it... RoR is fun, but slow and clunky. I learned a lot from developing with RoR and have brought that knowledge with me back to PHP. I'm a better PHP programmer thanks to my time spent with RoR. Anyway, in the next month or two you'll have a new blocSonic and perhaps new user features.

That's it for this week enjoy the sonics... here are this weeks releases:

Filed under Releases, Netlabels, News, blocSonic, Creative Commons and Netaudio Releases.
Tags: net audio, netlabel, creative commons, free, music, download, mp3, flac, jamendo, internet archive, blocsonic, netbloc, nine inch nails and nin

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