Hard News by Russell Brown

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Hard News: Friday Music: Bringing the beat back

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  • bob daktari,

    there's a glorious Pinterest board with all the album covers in Tied To The Tracks put together by the Audioculture crew - http://www.pinterest.com/AudioCultureNZ/tied-to-the-tracks/

    Not only are we fortunate to house many a talented musicians here but our artists and graphic designers aren't too shabby either

    A Ferry boot - sold!

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to bob daktari,

    there’s a glorious Pinterest board with all the album covers in Tied To The Tracks put together by the Audioculture crew –

    Ah, thanks. I knew that was coming but didn't realise Simon had whipped it up so quickly.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Richard Stewart,

    When I first heard this Future Islands track I was totally underwhelmed; but then I watched this passionate Letterman performance and, well, see for yourself...

    Pt Chev • Since Feb 2012 • 73 posts Report

  • Mike O'Connell,

    But top of the list is my favourite New Zealand album cover ever:

    Some fascinating musical and cultural insights on Pininterest. For example, The Keils - which reminded me of the (brief) German heritage associated with Samoa; - and who remembers Tasman Empire Airways Limited, 'product placement' a la 60's style! I note Littlejohn were the precursor to Blerta.

    On a related theme, and this may have been covered before, but there's some pretty cool band poster art out there - I stumbled upon this, the Christchurch Library 1980's Poster Collection. Includes the Clean and the obscure like the Cartilage Family (which I'm pretty sure was one of Shayne Carter's earliest bands).

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 385 posts Report

  • Moz,

    ok, I'm sure I'm just being dense here, but is there some way to actually buy a copy of the 'Tied to the Tracks' material, or do I have to sign up to some streaming service and pay per listen? Either way, direct links would be nice. Unless we're just in the "one day you might be able to hear this" stage?

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • bob daktari, in reply to Moz,

    Spotify has the bulk of the 200+ albums that have been digitalised, so far, to stream for free - you do have to find them yourself via the search function

    iTunes, amplifier.co.nz and other digital retailers have them too - there you do have to purchase

    There is no single "buy now" nor single point of entry to find them all in one place as its a huge number of albums from a equally large number of different companies

    Just to compile links to where you can buy/listen to each individual album (multiple links per album) is a huge undertaking (hours of work) - its more a heads up these albums are available for the first time digitally and find them where you normally hang musically in the digital world

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report

  • Moz, in reply to bob daktari,

    There is no single "buy now" nor single point of entry to find them all in one place as its a huge number of albums from a equally large number of different companies

    That's kind of useless, then. "some music you might like is available"... yeah, I knew that.

    Now I'm supposed to trawl around every music selling site I use searching for random albums I recall from my youth hoping that they're available. Or work through the pinterset site hoping that I don't miss anything I like and that all the available albums have cover art up there, before running each one through the aforementioned collection of retailers. Even Flying Nun, who don't exactly set records in the agressive marketing department, manage to provide a list of their "now in FLAC" material.

    I appreciate that people have done a lot of work to make this happen, but surely at some point at least one of those people had a list of all the albums they have worked on?

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • Moz,

    I'm now curious about why this was done. It doesn't seem to be "so people can buy them", and "so people will hear them" is limited to Spotify listeners who either use random play or whatever "recommend stuff" options spotify uses and it happens to suggest these ones. If spotify doesn't allow external linking that would seem to make it a poor choice, and if it does, why isn't that list of links one of the main promotional tools? But again I'm assuming that the goal is "get people to hear the music", rather than... well, I dunno, what is the goal?

    For me, what I want is to be able to listen to these at work or at home, ideally only downloading them once. I'm happy to pay for it, just not to the extent of buying a new SIM card on a high-data plan so I can plug that into my laptop that supports the proper DAC, then carry the laptop to work every day. It's just a lot of faffing about done that way.

    FWIW, I've spent a lot of time ripping and scanning my CD collection (300+ CDs), then organising and scraping documentation together for them. Admittedly a lot of my scans are lower res than the pinterest uploads (my ENZSO is 14oo pix square, cf 1700), but I have them and they're readable and re-printable at the original size. I have a few vinyl rips that are even more work because I've had to fiddle with noise and clicks and whatnot. So I do have some idea what's involved. But the crucial thing I did was organise them all into one big catalogue that I can play. So I open my FLAC-player and they're all there, searchable and listenable. That was the whole point of the exercise.

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • bob daktari, in reply to Moz,

    Try this PDF listing of all the albums: http://www.promusic.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Digital-Reissue-List-16-May.pdf

    Hope that helps some

    auckland • Since Dec 2006 • 540 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Georgia Knott sings exquisitely

    Certainly does.

    another Auckland producer, 18 year-old Totems

    Impressive young talent. Thanks.

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Sacha,

    Older chilled number I revisited the other day while driving

    Ak • Since May 2008 • 19745 posts Report

  • Moz, in reply to bob daktari,

    Try this PDF listing of all the albums: http://www.promusic.co.nz/wp-content/uploads/2014/05/Digital-Reissue-List-16-May.pdf</q>

    Thank you for that, it's the first half of what I was looking for.

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • Grant McDougall,

    Regarding Vehicle, us Dunedinites were pretty lucky when it came out in 1990, David Kilogur's actual original artwork was put in the window of Echo Records on George St and very nice it looked, too.

    Nice to see Craig MacDonald given a pat on the back for his Able Tasmans' artwork. I crossed paths with him last year through mutual friends and he's a top bloke.

    As for the almighty Sun Ra, I highly recommend John Swzed's magisterial biography Space Is The Place, a truly cracking read whether you like Ra's music or not.

    Dunedin • Since Dec 2006 • 760 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel,

    latency as charged...
    How long does a hard drive last?
    or a flash drive?
    CDs limited lifespan...
    investigated by Library of Congress

    Here is the Atlantic article

    Dependence on Electronic Data Retrieval
    still seems a black hole for future historians
    let alone current users...

    I can't imagine a working hard drive
    as old as some books I have held...

    even retrieving sound from vinyl
    is possible by purely mechanical means

    but...

    </old argument>

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Rich of Observationz,

    You have to maintain a digital archive, as in having more than one copy on a hard disk or other online medium and validating constantly that those copies are still readable. When (not if) they fail, you replace / upgrade the broken hard disk and carry on.

    If for some reason a digital repository was powered down for a long time (as in decades), then you'd have problems bringing it back up and reading any data. So if society was wiped out by global nuclear war, survivors wouldn't we able to access a lot of early 21st century information, even when they'd recovered to the point of being able to make electricity again.

    Back in Wellington • Since Nov 2006 • 5550 posts Report

  • Moz, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    survivors wouldn't we able to access a lot of early 21st century information

    What's often forgotten is just how little material survives in any form. Sure, we have some of many types of records, but the other 99% or more has been lost. There are very few cases where we can go back even 100 years and say "yes, it's all here". Even for stuff carved on stone - just visit an old graveyard.

    The advantage of digital in that sense is density and ease of copying. I have a huge amount of information (including, for example, a complete copy of the diaries and photos from my childhood... or at least those that physically survived until I could scan them). Plug in last year's hard disk, say "copy to this years", wait. Beats "find large slab of stone and a very patient monk...".

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Rich of Observationz,

    Attachment

    ...even when they’d recovered to the point of being able to make electricity again.

    ...and there's manuals for all that,
    though, right?
    and...
    and the clouds will be full of data, right?
    an eclectic electric rain reigns


    ;- )

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Ian Dalziel, in reply to Moz,

    just visit an old graveyard

    wood and bone
    blood and stone
    paper and water

    and in unrelated news

    The Dead C perform a free gig, presented by the Christchurch Art Gallery, at the Naval Point Yacht Club, Lyttelton, (Chchch) tonight (friday 23rd) with a stripped-back version of the Terminals before heading to Australia, to perform at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday as part of a showcase for the label RIP Society at the Vivid Festival.

    Christchurch • Since Dec 2006 • 7953 posts Report

  • Moz, in reply to Ian Dalziel,

    The Dead C ... at the Sydney Opera House on Saturday for the label RIP Society at the Vivid Festival.

    Is magicness! now I need $40 and some kind of excuse. Joelistics tonight (hiphop) and loud noises on Saturday, now all I need is ... oh, wait, Directions in Groove[1] at the Eastside Ride on Sunday! My weekend is complete!

    [1] not even slightly a jazz fan, but I'm willing to suffer for the sake of eclecticism

    Sydney, West Island • Since Nov 2006 • 1233 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg, in reply to Moz,

    I’m now curious about why this was done. It doesn’t seem to be “so people can buy them”, and “so people will hear them” is limited to Spotify listeners who either use random play or whatever “recommend stuff” options spotify uses and it happens to suggest these ones

    "“so people will hear them” (without having to purchase) is limited to people who are on Spotify. There’s no “recommend stuff” required. The titles of all the albums are on that Pinterest and thus searchable. Over time I’ll add Spotify URLs to each but that’s about 8 hours work as it is and time restraints have meant I’ve not been able spend more hours searching for those on 150 titles (the first handful already have these links).

    But as I say, a quick search of Spotify (which is free if you so require) will give you 90% of those albums in a jiffy. iTunes will give you 100% of these albums.

    Not quite sure how much easier it could be.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Simon Grigg,

    To add to that too, a primary reason those were uploaded to Pinterest was that non-Aucklanders would have the opportunity to see the covers now on the walls of the Tyler Street Garage.

    Just another klong... • Since Nov 2006 • 3284 posts Report

  • Ana Simkiss,

    I wonder how much of the attention Janine & the Mixtape is getting over there is down to the Lorde effect. Am imagining the music industry Eye of Sauron turning to Middle Earth to find moody female musicians..

    Freemans Bay • Since Nov 2006 • 141 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Grant McDougall,

    As for the almighty Sun Ra, I highly recommend John Swzed’s magisterial biography Space Is The Place, a truly cracking read whether you like Ra’s music or not.

    An amazing book.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • Russell Brown, in reply to Ana Simkiss,

    I wonder how much of the attention Janine & the Mixtape is getting over there is down to the Lorde effect. Am imagining the music industry Eye of Sauron turning to Middle Earth to find moody female musicians..

    I reckon it’s helped at places like Billboard, and to get it on the right show on VH1 – but her manager, Dawn Raid co-founder Andy Murnane, also already has some good contacts in those places.

    Her actual market is currently the R&B audience, who aren’t the Lorde fans. But if she does continue to make an impression in that market, she might be seen as kind of cool and alternative, the way Lorde is in pop.

    Auckland • Since Nov 2006 • 22850 posts Report

  • JacksonP,

    Charlotte’s been giving this some deserved air-time on KiwiFM. Reel by Amelia Murray aka Fazerdaze. Free download also. Another younsgter in a bedroom, rumour has it.

    If I was a picker of such things, I’d say Fazerdaze is destined for greatness. Second time you listen to that track, you’ll be singing it. Trust me.

    Also on The Audience. :-)

    ETA: Credit where due, Silke had Amelia in the studio in January on Freak the Sheep. I like the moment where she says ‘get close to the mic, but don’t touch it!!’ Haha. I remember it well.

    Auckland • Since Mar 2011 • 2450 posts Report

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