New releases: heaven or hell?

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.

Who I've been looking at
There has been a miracle since my last post. Only a small one, but a miracle none the less. Sellaband made the songs from Natalia Safran's CD available for download on their site. (Mind you, the mp3 tagging is a real mess on them) A few days later, the CD itself arrived in very minimal eco-packaging (about half the thickness of a digipak), along with an additional printed sheet insert with a message from Natalia about the album. But is it as amazing as promised? I'm leaning towards no. I find myself distinctly unimpressed, but how much of that is due to the absurdly long time before the music has been seen causing me to lose a lot of interest in the first place, I'm unsure. More care appears to have been taken with the packaging than the CD, as the insert was hand signed but the CD itself appears to contain none of the normal CD information about tracks etc. but appears merely a duplication from a master source of the kind that any person with a computer might perform. It's a pleasant enough listen, but with only a couple of tracks which seem hitworthy (one of those is "Hey You", the one snapped up for the Renee Zelwegger film). It's also somewhat repetitive in both the lyrics department (if you haven't worked out she has a "wonderful but crazy loverboy" by about the 3rd or 4th track you're obviously lagging behind) and the fact Natalia shows no variety vocally either - she sings in exactly the same way with exactly the same dreamy soft voice in every song and it therefore feels like she's being propped up by the music and her male singer rather than able to achieve anything much on her own. I therefore find it's a pretty disappointing effort for something which has taken so long. The strongest material seems to be on the front of the album as well, leaving what feels like a half-finished album finished off with filler just to get it done. On the positive side the album has been well produced - possibly a little too well produced for my own tastes, but there's no denying it's up there with the best sound quality albums to have come from Sellaband so far.

"The Lives of Dexter Peterson" is now available for pre-order from Matthew Ebel in a number of different formats/packages starting at $10 for a lossless download. Alternatively he also has a "chartbombing" plan, if you'd rather wait until the actual release to buy. More details on all the options are available here along with 3 of the album tracks for you to listen to.

Also very much in a "coming soon" mode, the new Poets of the Fall album "Temple of Thought" is due to be released on 22nd March. So I'm now busily looking round to find the best price for this as the current exchange rate pains me somewhat. Whilst I don't mind paying that little bit extra for an import, when the price means I can get 2 albums in the UK instead, that's normally stretching things a little bit too far. Obviously this is one of a few cases where I'm willing to make an exception (the 5 star rating should tell you that) hence the price hunting, rather than me automatically going for my usual source for Finland. In the meantime, they've also released 2 singles they did as part of the soundtrack to the video game "Alan Wake's American Nightmare", one of which will be on the album itself. This particular track "The Happy Song" is a complete opposite to their current release "Cradled in Love" and whilst feeling more like B-side material it features what I can only describe as the ultimate in stadium singalong for a chorus involving the magic phrase "I'm a psycho". So if that description doesn't make you want to check it out, then I don't know what will.

Howling Dollhouse have released their debut album this past week. Well.. technically it's their second, seeing as their first was the self-titled "Into The Night" before they changed their name. It seems they've had the same amazing inspiration on album titles since the name change though, hence this one is also self-titled "Howling Dollhouse". It seems the album itself is currently available to buy digitally on iTunes but not Amazon, and tracking down physical distribution (if indeed there is any) will be very hard work given their website is currently little more than a landing page with a video of one of the tracks from the album - the only mention of actual CDs I've seen so far is that they will be available to buy at shows which would be rather a way to go unless you live in Australia. Whilst their music is also available on some streaming services already, the fastest way to get a feel for the variety of this 13 song offering once you've viewed the video is to stop by their facebook page where five more of the songs are posted. What I've heard has been enough for me to make the tweak upward I was expecting in their rating (and yes, despite the fact I don't like rap) but I'm currently expecting it may take me a while to get hold of this one due to the present distribution seemingly being a complete mismatch for my usual methods of purchase.

The latest facepalm moment came as I was taking a visit to Sellaband to post a status update to let people know my Natalia Safran album had actually arrived. I happened to notice this particular project, which appears to have basically nothing to do with music. According to the info in their plan, they want to fund production and warehousing facilities for wood granule based bio-fuel. In return for your investment, you can get a reduction in the cost of buying tonnes of this stuff. Nearly a fortnight on, the project is still there and still available to fund. Are Sellaband branching out into non-music related stuff, or is there STILL nobody keeping an eye on what's actually in the projects being signed up because they are too busy spending their time on Facebook? I know what I think the answer to that one is, hence the facepalm. Makes you wonder just what it takes for some people to get a clue. And given it took me about 30 seconds to spot that strange looking project, I'm wondering how many others I've missed as a result of my less frequent visits so far this year.

The sites I've been looking at

Mushp
Had a wander over to look at this as the result of the news article on Sellaband listing them as their new partner site. Described in the news article as a "community and information portal", I found myself staring at something I certainly wouldn't describe as that. The site itself appears to have absolutely nothing resembling a community, seemingly being merely links to a collection of articles you can comment on with no forum or obvious way to interact otherwise. Clicking on the link for "artist blogs" gave me a list of a whole 7 artists, most of which contained only one post (with the most being two posts). And as for the artist profiles, I've no idea how you find those. The "show all" link on the newest profiles just takes you back to the list of artist blogs, meaning that as soon as an artist is no longer one of the last 3 added profiles, they've basically disappeared into the equivalent of the "Sellaband graveyard". How many artists on Sellaband actually will bother starting up profiles over there I have no idea, but the site looks highly "beta" and of even less worth than Sellaband itself at the moment - it looks like they're looking for Sellaband to drive traffic to their site as a result. I have no idea what Sellaband are looking to get from the partnership either, because there's certainly no "community of fans" over there, or anything interesting enough to make such a group of people want to visit Mushp regularly in the first place, so the chances of Sellaband getting any traffic from there other than perhaps the odd artist under the false impression people will throw money at them if they join Sellaband look to be pretty much nil.

Earbits
Welcome to the site that I could have seen thesixtyone becoming before they had their disastrous site redesign. Earbits is basically a streaming radio service covering independents from the somewhat known to the completely unheard of (obviously providing they've uploaded their music). You can pick a radio station from a wide number of different genres to listen to and you'll get a very useful page up for the track currently playing. This typically contains an artist biography, photos of the artist, links to artist sites (e.g. website, twitter, facebook etc.) and a "discography" section which lists all the releases currently available on Earbits for that artist with clickable 30-second previews of each track. For many artists there's a "buy" option associated with this (though I've not checked out the prices yet) and I've even occasionally seen a "download for free" option too. The streaming is completely ad-free as well, so there's actually a lot to recommend it for the music lover looking for something new. There's also a real-time chat option, although it appears unmoderated at least at present. On the downside, the ads that pop up when you first reach the site are annoying (in particular the one with the question about whether you'd visit the site again - seriously, why ask that within the first half second of someone visiting your site as it may be their first time?) and whilst I've been able to stream from the site without logging in, it seems that Facebook is required if you want to post comments or get any real use out of the site, as that seems to be the only way to register. I'm also seeing a lot of problems with streaming as it often gets stuck claiming it is "buffering" - in reality you land up having to skip or pause/play to get it going again, and as a result it's not as reliable as I'd like for something to be playing in the background whilst I'm working on something else on my computer. There's also no mini-player/pop-out player which is kind of a mixed blessing - on the one hand it would be a shame to lose the view on all that lovely info I quoted earlier, but on the other it seems more likely you need to hear something you like before it becomes of real interest. I can't really see people spending all their time reading artist bios while the music plays - it's more likely they want to do as I do and have the music playing in the background, but then have the easy info access when something catches their attention.

Ylex
As one of the major radio stations in Finland, I've been visiting this site on an irregular basis since about 2004 as one source to point me in the direction of artists from Finland I hadn't heard of before, so I could go elsewhere and check out them and their music. However it's been a while since I was last there and I had a pleasant surprise on my recent visit. Seems that not only are they now streaming live radio over the Internet, it also seems the licensing is in place to allow people outside the country to view/listen to it. As a result I'll probably be spending a few hours a month doing just that, as it's likely to cut out some of the work in deciding which artists I might be most interested in (previously I had to fight the language barrier on the site to determine that). It also means I'll probably be keeping my eyes peeled for other streaming radio stations outside the UK this year - if streaming is finally starting to get past the licensing issues it's had up until now, then it could well become my main form of discovery this year.

That's all for now. Stay tuned in March when I'm hoping to get one of my special posts out (though I haven't decided which of the subjects rattling round my head to write it on yet) as well as one of my more usual ones, but you'll have to wait and see if I actually manage enough time and material for all that.

New Year no surprises?

If you already know about my rating system then skip on down to the next header, otherwise here's the lowdown.

The rating system
The rating system I use for this blog is somewhat unique. It's not a reflection of how much I like the music itself as much as it is of how far I am along the process of conversion from consumer to fan. So, over time you may well see some of these ratings go up if I mention an artist again. And indeed go down, as musical changes of direction or failure to keep my interest are just some of the reasons that may affect a rating.


Congratulations, you've made a temporary blip of interest on my radar. Now how are you going to keep it?


I've seen enough of you to recognise and remember you, but I'm undecided so I'm not really following you (yet). I may make a spur of the moment decision to check in on what you're up to once in a while, but even that's no guarantee. May also apply to artists I am aware of, but whose music I've decided I don't have enough interest in to want to pursue further based on what I've heard.


I'm liking what I hear in general, but I still wouldn't describe myself as a fan. I will be wandering past your site occasionally, and there is something like a 50% chance I'll be buying your next offering once I find out about it, providing I have the money available.


Now I am a fan, so the chances are I'll be past your site once every month or two at least. There's a 90%+ chance your next offering is already sold, and occasionally I might even be going for something more than the basic package (if you have one)


Reserved for very few, this is about as close to internet stalker as you can get. I am actively watching because I do not want to miss your next release date, tour in my area etc. etc. You may not always be aware of the fact I'm looking over your shoulder to see what you're up to, but trust me, I'm there on a weekly if not more like a daily basis. Depending on how you tend to release your information, I may well be signed to your mailing list as well.

Who I've been looking at
Firstly as a quick update from my review of the year post, it's probably going to come as no surprise that the Skitzo Calypso album "Ghosts" has arrived safe and sound. And in fact a few days earlier than I was expecting it. Meantime I'm still waiting for my Natalia Safran album, even though the email exchange with Sellaband about the situation (and other subjects) continued after my review of the year post was written. Indeed it will soon be another month since she last logged into Sellaband and more complaints have started appearing on her wall in that time. And enough said by my last post on what I'm thinking at the moment as a result of these events.

As for the Skitzo Calypso album, interestingly although I like it nothing has leapt out and grabbed me above any other track as a must-listen. The tracks come across as too similar rather than having the variety (and hence interest) that Brad's solo project album ("The Day The Devil Fooled The World") did. Rather I think the better (and more memorable) tracks are the ones up for free download. Even though it's well known I'm not a fan of rap, my pick of the bunch is therefore "Ready or Not" - the song you'd probably be least expecting me to choose of the eight available (5 on the EP + 3 free).

Into the Night are in the process of changing their name etc. to Howling Dollhouse. So the album I posted as expecting this year is going to be released under their new name. They already have a new website and a new video for the first single from the album which you can view from the Howling Dollhouse link I just gave you.

Don't know whether he read my last blog post, but it looks like Matthew Ebel is finally getting himself organised with regard to sending out things overdue from last year, causing me to once again relax and stop doubting my sanity for now. Looks like I'll be able to expect this in the first half of March, given the travel time for post and the fact that the album part of "The Lives of Dexter Peterson" is expected to be mastered and have all its artwork ready by the end of February - once again it makes much more sense to send everything together at this point.

I also now have an album title for the new Poets of the Fall album due this year. The album is called "Temple of Thought" and the first single from it "Cradled in Love" has already been played on radio in Finland. Of course this also meant within a couple of hours it had already been uploaded to Youtube, despite the fact it wasn't even available to buy at the time. Unusually this isn't an up-tempo track (as might be expected from the first release off an album) and might therefore explain why a different single is being released in Germany. Whilst I don't generally link to unofficial uploads, I've got a particular reason for doing so this time. So go listen to the full song here and then give your ears a real treat by listening to the full quality clips posted on the artist's own site. Like many in this day and age, I'm often guilty of listening to mp3s for convenience and portability, but it's nice to be reminded of one of the reasons I still buy CDs in the first place, given what can happen to track quality in some cases. And at the same time there has also been a reminder of the dilemma fans face in the form of this post. Just as artists seemingly face the "chicken and egg" situation of not being able to get their music on the radio or tour until they have enough fans in a country, so there is also the problem from the fan side of how to convince others to listen to an artist (and hopefully eventually convert into fans) when their music isn't being played on the radio and they're not touring there either. Hence one of the reasons people turn to illegal means in the first place, even though a lot of artists seem to be under the impression sharing is actually hurting their sales despite the fact those who like what they hear will often buy it later. People don't buy music they haven't heard unless they are already reasonably big fans of the artist that created it, yet there are still way too many roadblocks out there stopping music getting to potential listeners without them resorting to methods considered illegal, given music should be considered a global market.

So onto the new stuff and as usual we're at the time of year where I go looking around at some of the artists I haven't been near in a while to see what they're up to, rather than actively looking for new music. However that doesn't stop new music from finding me, and it's been interesting to spot that I am starting to get the odd artist follow me on Twitter, seemingly appearing from nowhere. Unfortunately I haven't picked up anything that has grabbed my attention sufficiently to warrant a follow back (at least at this point), and as can probably be expected the follows have therefore tended to be temporary as a result. Most interesting so far has been Bridge Construction, who sounded like they ought to be something I'd have fairly high interest in listening to from the description in their biography, but have turned out to be a pretty disappointing take-it-or-leave-it based on the tracks I've heard so far.

As for those I've been to visit so far, it feels like I'm pretty much suffering the curse of the dead due to unclear, outdated or just plain old hard to find information presented to those dropping by rather than actively following. Three examples of such artist websites follow.

It's been rather a long time since I stopped off at Mandyleigh's page and it's unclear whether the most recent post on her blog is a couple of weeks old or more like a year old as a result. What does seem to be certain is that family has been taking up a lot of her time since I was last there and the music has been forced into taking a back seat as a result. Indeed the fundraising she started on her own site for a second album back in 2010 looks like it didn't really go anywhere either and there's seemingly no new music available since she recorded her Sellaband album. Whatever she's currently up to, I wish her well, but it doesn't look like anything much is (or will be) happening musically any time soon.

I've also wandered past Lily's site, but the obvious information on it appears to be about a year out of date, as the "February 8th single release date" shown on the homepage appears to apply to last year. She does appear to be active on Twitter though, so will be seeing what further info I can get from there as she always used to be a pretty friendly and fast responder before.

Bulletproof Messenger's site pretty much continues to annoy me. I find I get much more useful info a lot easier from anywhere but their own website. I really like these guys and their music hence why I'm signed to their mailing list, but it never ceases to amaze me how poor their website seems at introducing them and their music to anyone hearing them for the first time who will have dropped by to find out more. When you get more from Youtube and even from Twitter than from an artist's own site, it's quite clear they're really not making best use of their potential.

One other place I've been was to visit Grooveduke's site to find out how he was getting on with the cancer battle. Seems he is still holding off on getting the transplant operation done and started looking for a management team at the end of last year to try and get some progress towards getting a new album funded. Looks like the one he attempted (and failed) to get made on Sellaband did indeed get finished. It's called "Heavy Mariner" and whilst I have to admit I never really got into his music, I quite like the rather distinctive album art he had made for this (of which there appears to be more in a similar style elsewhere on his site). There hasn't been any update to his blog in January though, so I can only hope his latest trip to hospital has gone well.

The websites I've been looking at
Netvalar who I first met on Sellaband has resurfaced on the music scene after being pretty much absent for a while now. It looks like he's reopening his music research, but has dropped the Netvalar name and slightly bizarrely has me listed as one of his mentors, despite the fact I only scrambled out the consumer pile and started looking at music and crowdfunding as a result of discovering Sellaband. So it's a little strange to feel someone considers me a mentor when I've spent all the time we've been interacting in learning from scratch myself. A process which is still ongoing, but for which I really ought to publish a "what I've learnt so far" type post soon, listing the conclusions I've reached to date. Five years has caused me to contemplate some interesting stuff, after all.

I've also started a little more training of my station on Last FM. So far I'm up to just over 500 artists covering about 3000 plays, though the first couple of pages are now getting pretty representative of who I'm listening to most at this point in time, whilst being not necessarily so accurate of who I've listened to most if the past were properly taken into account too.

That's pretty much all I've got for you at the moment. Recovering from Christmas/New Year and getting January with all its birthdays (including a major one of my own this year) and wedding anniversaries out the way always tends to take up a lot of time (yet another reason for me not looking for that much in the way of new music at this time of year), so hopefully I'll be finding some more interesting info and sites for you soon.