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CerebralMix Episode 17: Intersections In Four

CerebralMix Episode 16: In The Beginning Pt. 3

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Cerebral Mix Episode 14: In The Beginning, Part 2

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CerebralMix Episode 12: In The Beginning Pt 1

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NOTE: This week’s episode has a couple of pieces that are a little more adult than normal (not that I avoid adult materials in the first place).  Caution is recommended before allowing children to listen to this episode.

Internet time doesn’t function like time in the real world.  On the internet anything that has been around for more than a few years is considered old.  (I could go into a long analysis of technology life cycles and how it relates to internet age, but we’ll save that for a different show.)

So, back in what could be considered the “early days” of internet music, one netlabel managed to make a remarkable, if less known, mark on internet music by releasing just about anything that they could find: found sounds, cheesey lounge music, highly experimental and avant-garde music, mashups and remixes (before the term “mashup” had really come about), and even a high school swing choir / glee club’s un-copyrighted recordings.

The label was called Comfort Stand Recordings — a kind of “outsider music” netlabel that grew out of the Exotica Mailing list.  Even though the Comfort Stand only existed for 2.5 years (from 2003-2006), they had 80 releases, 8 compilations and 16 singles, all of which are still available from their website (comfortstand.com).

This remains a remarkable feat by nearly any standard.  Today, most netlabels are lucky to issue a release a month. 80 releases in 30 months is astonishing.  To have as varied and wide ranging releases takes a very special group of people to put together. Not only the artists, but the staff of the label understanding the whole range of music, and not pigeon-holing the label into a single style.  More amazing is the comfort stand audience.  And, they did have an audience.  Many of their releases are top downloads on the Internet Archive, and one releases remains one of the top-downloaded netlabel releases of all time.

Here’s the thing about the Comfort Stand: many of the participants were people working in music or sound industries.  While the recordings are seriously unusual or unique, and more divergent and eclectic than most of releases you will find on the big websites today, many of the creators are still working with sounds at one level or another.  And, many of them are still releasing works commercially and for free under CreativeCommons licenses.  Many of these artists have grown and changed over the last four years, getting either more quirky or more mainstream, but still maintaining their love for the music.

So, we pay tribute to The Comfort Stand this week.  So sit back and be prepared to experience everything from humor to horror and many more emotions as we track through 24 tracks from the vaults of the Comfort Stand.

Track Credits for Episode 6:

Sunday is possibly the best day of the week: you aren’t expected to go anywhere, or do anything.  You can sit back, chill with a book or newspaper, maybe do some cleaning or chores around the house.  The pressures and expectations of the rest of the week are gone.

This weeks show is a mix of chillin’ and groovin’ tunes just right for a Sunday.  From abstract ambient, to slow-techno, to funk-groove this set will give you the space and time to recharge your batteries to be ready for the rest of the week.

Sit back and enjoy the Sunday Chill and Groove Mix, this week on The CerebralMix.

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Track Credits for Episode 4:

Update: Coax contacted me with a better / permanent URL for his site.

Artist: Ergo Phizmiz

Title: The Faust Cycle (or The House of Dr. Faustus)

Today’s section is “The Abduction of the Object”. By this point, I have lost most of the narrative thread of the story, only to say that I do know what the object is, and was surprised by this turn of events, as it represents possibly the only aspect of an actual plot line that isn’t part of the setup, or a set of narrative twists and turns.

Ergo is chasing a Linnet in a part of the house he doesn’t recognize.  He doesn’t remember what he did with the parcel, and now imagines that if he happens on Dr. Faustus, he doens’t relish telling him that he’s lost the package.  As he chases the Linnet he finds himself in an auditorium with a cross dressing person on stage, reciting odd sing-song-ish poetry than rolls on and on endlessly and barely making any real sense.  The audience is a bunch of (again) people dressed in bird suits.

It’s after the cross-dresser that Faustus appears on the stage, wheeling out what appears to be a life size doll: Eloise. With the emergence of Faustus on the stage, we are presented with a series of processes for the construction of an automaton. I won’t explain here, however this section links together several of the more unusual recurring elements of the piece to give us an idea of how Faustus has accomplished a miracle:  Eloise is an automaton.

While we and Ergo have been introduced to Eloise before, now she is quite appealing to Ergo.  She has become a thing of beauty, something desirable.  So desirable that he storms the stage, knocks out Faustus (with a trombone he steals from the orchestra) and grabs Eloise and runs away with her.  And thus ends chunk 4 of The Faust Cycle, with possibly one of the most standard plot points of a narrative.  However, it doesn’t seem like a cop-out.  It works, we have seen Eloise before, and by now (nearly 12 hours into the piece) couldn’t have imagined that this was going to happen.

Much of the music and sound collages in this section were put together by James Nye & Ergo Phizmiz. And in this case, the majority of it has been used to illustrate the construction of Eloise and automata’s.  This is possibly one of more distinct and specific examples of an interweaving of the narrative elements with sound collage techniques.  Part of the sound collage reveals another source of the elements of The Faust Cycle: Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein.

Onwards..

The other aspect of Netlabels is in their history.  Many of  the Netlabels have been around for quite a few years.  They derived from the Demo Scene: a group of hackers (hackers in the good and correct sense of the word) who work with computers at the lowest possible level to produce demonstrations of what the machines can do. In some cases you would be quite astounded by what could be done with an Apple ][ or Commodore 64.  A lot of the music that these intrepid hackers wrote for the demos were initially released as “tracker” files, which predated MP3′s.  Eventually, with the rise of the Internet and MP3′s these intrepid multimedia artists started releasing music on their own for the world to listen.

I have become something of a fan of the Netlabel scene.  I believe they contribute more to the libre culture movement than is generally recognized.  The fact that the demo scene and Netlabels have been around for years, and predate the Creative Commons and the  libre culture movement says a lot for them.

Here I am presenting several sites that I have found quite a bit more enjoyable material on.  It’s unfortunate that two of these sites is no longer releasing new recordings.  However, the releases that have been made by all of these labels have contributed something interesting to the overall movement of free (libre) music.

Comfort Stand Recordings

Comfort Stand Recordings: This is the label that is no longer making any new releases.  Their main website page states:

After a 2.5 year run the stand has closed. Simply because the project is over and staff members and bands have gone on to other projects. We may return one day, but most likely in another form and dimension. We will no longer release any new works, but our 80 albums, 16 singles, and 8 compilations will remain online. Free and for a very long time. Many thanks to our past and future friends.

And indeed, their recordings are still available, and definitely worthy of downloading and listening to.  While not exactly a standard Netlabel, coming out of the Demo scene as others have, Comfort Stand Recordings presented an inspirational look at what the Internet can do when people are allowed to conspire on inspire each other.

These recordings were produced by a bunch of people that gathered on a mailing list dedicated to “Exotica”.  These are recordings of unusual music of all sorts of different flavors and styles.  Some of the participants decided that they wanted to start producing some of their own recordings or remixes as an homage to the recordings they cherished, and thus the Comfort Stand was born.

There are a couple of compilation recordings that serve as a great introduction to this fantastic Netlabel.  The first is Two Zombies Later:

Volume One

1. Br. Cleve & His Lush Orchestra – Shaken Not Stirred
2. Eric & Ryan Kilkenny – Bongo Avenger
3. Marble – Wah Factor 3
4. Philip Jackson – Nature Boy
5. Jeff Chenault and Andrew Izold – Exotica Revisited
6. Tipsy – Kitty’s Daydream (Longhair mix)
7. Scotch & Soda (Max McMillan) – The Lonely Bull
8. Don Tiki – The Natives Are Restless
9. Jack Fetterman and the in Hi-Fi Music Direction – Acapulco 2000
10. The Weird Lovemakers – Quiet Spillage
11. Skip Heller’s Hot Seven – Spy Perfume
12. Otis Fodder – Brilliant Pillows (Many Moons)
13. Astroslut – Love Theme From Astroslut
14. Der Plan – Jungle Village
15. Misty Roses – Up in Flames
16. Künstler Treu – If Jesus Came
17. Sem Sinatra – Toryansay

Volume Two

1. mr_melvis – A Walk Through The Powerhouse
2. Weirdomusic – Fiber, Ruler Of Pinakel
3. djfreshmoney – Whammo
4. Dana Countryman – Cocktails In Space
5. Jan Fornell – Drift
6. Bruce Lenkei – Moonlight Zombie Dance
7. Bumpenstein – Fuad Motel
8. Narcotic Syntax – Pingpong Voodoo
9. Hybe – Venom
10. Impro – Farid, Astronauts from Maghreb
11. Black Sash – You People
12. Mental Anguish/NOMUZIC – Blissful in Enchantro
13. Songs To Drink And Drive By – Walk On By
14. Magnus Sandberg – Island Knockin’

Think of these recordings as lounge music on acid.  An homage to the hotel lounge or tiki bar of the 1950′s or 1960′s, but updated through the use of technology to make for an even more unusual listening experience.

The second compilation that is a lot of fun is Wakka Chikka Wakka Chikka:

Volume One

1. Nick Chapman – Take Me Now!
2. Martinibomb – The Love God
3. DJ Bootsie – Vuluke Khall (Instrumental Version)
4. The Lounge King – Ici la Femme (XXX Mix) Louise Vertigo
5. Ton Rückert – It Was A Dream
6. Mr. Juno – Hatesex
7. SonnyJim – Suck My Disc
8. Pearls of Joy – Gloria
9. Lubna Lux – Baise et Rebaise Moi
10. The Devil In Miss Jones – Half An Hour Is For Free (featuring Fats Bob Trumpet)
11. Maquina de Atender Telefone – Give Me Anal Pleasure Please
12. De Zwervende Keien (The Drifting Boulders) – Wooden Shoes In Tirol
13. Thybbuk – Silk And Sweat
14. Colektro – Brainwank (Psycho Foo Edit)
15. The Funky Filter – The Porn King
16. Eldad Tsabary – Lophophora Williamssii
17. mr_melvis – Whose Fantasy Is This, Anyways? (featuring R. Stevie Moore and Ms. Demeanor)

Sub-titled “Porn Music for the Masses” it hits the target with dead on accuracy.  Just about everything you’ve ever thought of as a porno music sound track is in these recordings: every cliche, every hip-swinging rhythm, every guitar scratch.  And the best part: you don’t have to go looking at porn to get it, and it’s a lot of fun to listen to.

The recordings on Comfort Stand Recordings were released with a Creative Commons Attribution Non-Commercial license. The Comfort Stand may be closed, but they have left a legacy that I hope many others will discover and maybe even build on throughout the years.

Monotonik

Monotonik & Friends: I was a little upset to find out that this site has also gone on a long-term, if not permanent, hiatus.  This is one of the longest standing Netlabels around, having started all the way back in 1996, eventually splitting into two labels, and eventually having their main label emerge as a major force in the Netlabels.

As unfortunate as it is, Simon Carless has reasons for setting aside Monotonik at this point.  He feels that the overall music scene has changed so much that the concept of a net.label doesn’t make as much sense now as it did back in the 1990′s.  While this may appear to be true, I think there are other reasons to keep the label going, and I hope that in the future Simon will realize this as well.

A great place to start with Monotonik, as Simon points out, is the 10 Years of Monotonik:

1. ’10 Years Of Monotonik – The Mix’

mix produced by Chris Whaley. This 74 minute long continuous-mix excursion into the Monotonik catalog pays tribute to many of the truly outstanding artist the label has released over the years: Esem, Vim!, Sleepy Town Manufacture, Transient, and Lackluster, just to name a few.  The release is based 23 separate tracks, each one from a different artist.  I’m sure after listening to this, you will want to dig into the incredible resource that Monotonik has been over the past thirteen years.

As with so many online releases these days, Monotonik has gone with an Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license.  While this is unfortunate that others are not allowed to build on these works, at least they are available for us to enjoy.

Also, check out another project of Simon’s: Legal Torrents.  This is a site that distributes movies, music, pictures, animation, audio books, books, and a wealth of other materials that are completely legal to download.

Resting Bell

I honestly cannot recall how I found Resting Bell, but I am certainly glad that I did find them.  They have a series of unique releases that are ambient, organic, experimental, and just different than most of the music that I have normally found on the net.  One of my favorite artists has a release on this label: K. M. Krebs, Symmetries:

1. Illumination And Division
2. Surfacing Briefly
3. Each Into A Darkness Of Their Own

is based on a live show the Kevin did, which is also available on another netlabel. The player above only has the first track from this release, due to a bug in the player. See the release page for all three tracks.

Another major work on this label is Birds Of Joy And Sorrow by Garden From Light. This is an ambient drone piece of massive proportions: it actually takes up two releases in the Resting Bell archive:

Birds Of Joy And Sorrow Volume 1:

1. Sirin
2. Rusalki
3. Bannik
4. Marowit
5. Likho
6. Vual

Birds Of Joy And Sorrow Volume 2:

1. Alkonost
2. Karzel
3. Sariel
4. Drekavac
5. Koschei
6. Kikimora

It’s unfortunate that most of the releases from Resting Bell carry a Creative Commons BY-NC-ND license as I would love to think that there would be artists that would love to build on these pieces. However, even with that being the case, they are still worthy of downloading or streaming and listening to.

In Closing

So, there you have it: a journey into the realm of the Netlabels.  There is a completely wide range of music out there from kitchy-psuedo-lounge, to straight up idm, all the way to ambient-drone-atonal music.  Basically it’s all just a matter of looking, listening and finding what is appealing to you.

• Last Sunday’s Re-spin was, I think, pretty well written.  I managed to get some information in there that will help guide me forward with the site, and it hit on some interesting topics.
• My Editorial on Jamendo’s Future was a hard written piece, and I am not completely certain that everything I have been thinking was well represented.  At least, that was the conclusion I came to after I read the response from Jorg Fischer, which was well reasoned, stated and quite insightful as to where some of my article was weak and could be improved on.
• I was very pleased with the launch of a new recurring series: Finding Music Online.  I think this is a series that is going to continue building, and will allow me to expand several other areas of the site. Be looking for the next installment in that series very soon.
• I write the first of the two-part January Classical Listening articles intending for it to be a filler.  But, as I got into it, the article took on a life of it’s own I hadn’t expected.
• The only actual libre culture review this week was OG’s 01. I felt bad that I spent so much space in the review on issues that were more about Jamendo, listeners, and my struggles than it was about his music.  Fortuantely, the music itself was wonderful, and the artist was very appreciative of my review.
• I finally posted my review of the Cowon iAudio 7 & 9.  I have personally liked all the Cowon music players I’ve owned so far, despite the minor flaws I found.

In looking over the things that I promised last week, I see there were a few that I didn’t hit:

• I didn’t get the new Shoestring Classical Collection article out. That was a matter of trying to resolve a technical issue.  I just resolved the issue today, and now plan to start working on the new article.
• I didn’t get around to writing up anything on my Droid.  I have set out a plan for reviewing some things with it (not the phone itself, rather some applications that are appropriate to this site), but haven’t had enough time to work with the applications.

I sat down and did a mini-brainstorming session yesterday, and came up with a few new things to add to the site.  Not posts or series, but rather longer-term articles / essays.  I’m not going to jinx myself by talking about them specifically now, as they are bigger in scope and will require more work to produce.

With a few of the pieces I have been working on lately, I’ve been doing more research.  The fun part about this is: there is a lot more that I can work with.  It also means there is a lot more research that I need to do, and some more things for me to consider.

I started listening to an unusual piece tonight: Ergo Phizmiz’s “The Faust Cycle: or, the House of Dr. Faustus”. It’s an amazingly large work: 14+ hrs.  It was released by the Headphonica Netlabel. This is more than a somewhat daunting piece to attempt to listen to, it seems about as insane to try to listen to it as it does to have created it in the first place.

According to the artists website, the piece too three years to complete and made his head hurt — and that’s only one of 46 Reasons to Download The Faust Cycle from the artists own blog.

I love an insane challenge!  Until next week…