Orion

This must be one of the scariest websites I’ve seen in a long time. It tells about the life after the oil crash. Meaning when we have no more oil to rely on. Which will be pretty soon. The website just gives no hope at all.

This is “Energy Curve” of the history.

Soon, actually very soon we will run out of oil and return to the state of energy consumption which was happening before the 1920’s. But it won’t be like in the 1920’s because there are like three times more people in the world now and our society is totally dependent on oil. It will be catastrophic.

I totally recommend this website – take a moment and browse it through: Peak Oil – Life After The Oil Crash

Have you ever thought with which machines the famous synth sounds, drums and loops were created?
Check through the Synthmania site and you’re much wiser.

Thanks to Skasi!

That’s the cool thing about Logic. You can make it wasy for yourself and use all the presets and settings, or you can go into it and create something that sounds unique and special.

Paul van Dyk speaks about Apple, Logic and his work.

Or new Eric Prydz remix? Or new Henrik B track? Or the much hyped “Ambassadeur Theme”? Well, pretty rockin’, nevertheless.

“Hot! Tip!”
I finally managed to upload the Mind Records catalog from 1996, which has been rotting on my archive drive for years already.

Do you still remember when you used to order the records browsing catalogs like this? You phoned to the shop and asked them to play you records you probably would like. And the guy in the shop left the phone next to the speaker and put the record on. And then you made your decision.

Boy, those were the times… We really rarely think how easy acquiring music has gotten. I should really remember that next time I’m whining about some bad user interface or slow connections on some random mp3 shop.

See the full Mind Records 1996 catalog.

Low Light Mixes has published a very nice ambient selection. The mix is mostly made out of field recordings and other recorded soundscapes. Very interesting, relaxing and surprisingly rhythmic.

The sounds range from a resonant pipe in a rain storm to foghorns to church bells to chanting to arrival anouncements to piano and an open window. I know that some field recordings may be interesting but not really listenable, not musical enough. I think this mix works pretty well & is easy to listen to.

Download “Migrations” mix or read more.

This is very interesting. Proton Music manager Jay Epoch tells Beatport has sent the following notification to all the labels selling music via their service:

“Any label that cannot produce $300.00 in GROSS sales each quarter will be put on a probationary status. If the label is unable to hit the $600.00 mark by the second quarter then that label will be cut from the Beatport system […] by increasing your promotions outside of the Beatport store and providing a consistent new release schedule we are confident that many of our low producing labels will be able to achieve the quarterly sales goal.”

If this if true, this means two things.

First of all, the huge amount of bad quality music will little by little vanish from Beatport. Finally – what we buy actually affects what they are selling. Very nice.

BUT there are loads of very good small labels, which probably will have problems selling enough music in order to stay in the store. In the worst case scenario this would mean that Beatport would end up selling just electronic music hits and supporting the major labels and we would need to find the rare gems elsewhere.
This must be the first time I’m mentioning the word “rare” when talking about digital music. I really hope they will find a good compromise between those two scenarios.

If you liked the From Rural To Urban chill-out mix series, you might want to download some similar tracks.

Check out the DJ Orion – Rural & Urban iMix #1, now available on iTunes Music Store.

And yeah, this is crystal clear, but anyway: when you’re buying the tracks, you’re supporting the artists who made that wonderful music. No money is being transferred to me.

Now it’s time for Time Magazine to write the same article which Wired (1, 2) and Yle wrote already months ago.

Still, 990,000 vinyl albums were sold in 2007, up 15.4% from the 858,000 units bought in 2006. Mike Dreese, CEO of Newbury Comics, a New England chain of independent music retailers that sells LPs and CDs, says his vinyl sales were up 37% last year, and Patrick Amory, general manager of indie label Matador Records, whose artists include Cat Power and the New Pornographers, claims, “We can’t keep up with the demand.”

Time: Vinyl Gets Its Groove Back

Thanks, Thomas!

Suomen Kuvalehti: Tanssi Villi Lapsi

House on leikin nimi ja säännöt ovat ne tutut ja turvalliset. Hauskanpitoa ja kapinaa tällä postmodernismin, dekontruktion ja kaaos-teorian aikakaudella.

Jos tiedät artikkelin ilmestymisvuoden tai lehden numeron, jätä viesti kommentteihin.

Kiitos skannauksesta Juha-Matti Ojakoskelle!

The blogpost of the week: Lifehacker writes a very nice article about websites offering free music for downloading and listening. I know, it’s all old for you music freaks, but I bet there is a page or two of which you haven’t heard of.

>> Lifehacker – Download and listen to free music on the net