Category: Music

Digging For Music

@joekay

The last album that came my way via a DSP algorithm was VOWWS‘ ‘Under The World,’ back in 2018. For real, two years since and Apple Music nor Spotify has really surfaced anything for me.

These days I just go to Bandcamp, pick a genre that I’m interested in at the moment, then look for album art that intrigues me. It’s how I found these amazing albums:

If you’ve been listening to music for years, and buy albums, you know shit that looks good most of the time sounds good. It’s how DJs source music from local shops – finding shit that looks cool is a great place to start. And now with Bandcamp, it’s even easier.

Compare with this Spotify playlist, one of the biggest for “Dark Ambient,” with almost 7,000 followers.

It may has well be a fucking Google Sheet. No artwork, no branding, no vibes.

Same with Apple Music. Sure, it’s got the cool Apple playlist branding, and while it has album art, you have to use binoculars to really tell what looks good.

Of course, this is all a ploy to get you to hit play. Just trust them, and don’t worry about that album art, I guess.

All that said, nothing is black and white. I still use Apple Music for streaming a playlist on my runs. I also stream NTS radio via Apple Music, and some DJ sets via the MixCloud app.

There are so many ways to listen and consume music. Bandcamp, though, is the closest we got right now to the local record shop, and the feeling of digging through the used CD bins (my favorite).

Above I just outlined how I dig, and maybe you have better luck than me with the big streaming services. So keep digging, friends. Support artists and musicians when you can and buy their music.

Albums and Numbers

I love this bit from Bandcamp, as they’re doing away with ranked lists:

The goal here is to change the Best of the Year from a math equation into a discussion.

Bandcamp

As I remarked on Twitter, it’s hard enough to rank athletes who deal in hard fast numbers like wins and points. Like, sports stars have a record of Championships, and even the one with the most is still debated as being the “best ever.”

Ranking sure makes bands, labels, management and the entire music machine happy (who doesn’t want to say they were an outlets number one album in 2020?), but I think the discussion of what albums just simply mattered in a certain year is important, too.

Four Tet Collaboration with Anna Liber Lewis

I’ve been thinking this for years – musicians need to collaborate with artists more often. Not just for music videos, but for stuff to get people to watch.

I’ve heard of Four Tet, but never gave them much of a listen. I think I found this video from a Twitter. The color caught me, the imagery. So I gave it a shot.

Like, in 2020 you’re just looking for a shot. As an artist, a band, a musician, a writer, whatever.

Appearance and branding and presentation really does matter. I don’t care how technically proficient you are, if your album art is sitting next to another release with better looking art, you lose.

Like, this is science. This is biology. Shiny objects get noticed.

So I left this video open for like 2+ hours the other day while working. Another hour today, and I’ll probably revisit a few more times.

And you know which artist I looked up today on Spotify?

Four Tet.

Sundays are for Making Doomy Mixes

Five song mix, featuring Everly Pale, Seffi Starshine, and Laurie Spiegel.

A few months ago I didn’t really know that “dark ambient” was a thing, but I’m really enjoying this new season of discovery. This only started during the pandemic, but also because I deal with heavy metal everyday, and have since 2008 or so. I’m not quitting metal by any means, but it’s my day job, I need to give me ears a rest.

It’s been fun learning a new piece of software, too; Serato DJ Lite.

I didn’t really know how to make a mix – I tried just stacking the tracks in Abelton Live, then ScreenFlow, but neither was very fun, since they’re not really made for that. Not a huge fan of Serato aesthetically, but it does the job.

The process of making these mixes is fun, too. Finding the music on Bandcamp, keeping track of stuff I find, downloading, managing those tracks, arranging each song, then the fade in and out, while recording the mix in real time to Audio Hijack Pro.

I’ve been making these on and off since May, and they’re a great distraction to *everything* that is going on these days.

If you dig this, I have more mixes here on MixCloud.

Delightful Electronic Music

This year has me diving into lots of electronic music, and these two recently popped up via Twitter and I am stoked.

Soundtrack for Admiring the Moon

I can close my eyes, count my breaths, and then I’m in a dark room filled with strangers and speakers stacked to the ceiling. The only light is from a few bulbs on stage, the air thick with reverb and feedback, a low rumbling hum wraps around my rib cage.

Since live shows aren’t a thing anytime soon, I like to go here when making these mixes. Count the minutes before the next track, stay present, feel the music in bones and my thighs like we used to.

If you like this, I have more here.

Always Link to Your Stuff

Remember your links when posting engaging content!

Metal Bandcamp Gift Club, where we gift people we don’t know from their Bandcamp wishlist on their birthday.

Got a Patreon? Link to it. Got a piece of press? Paste a pull quote and link to your Bandcamp. New video? New song? Link. To. It.

Worried you’ll come off looking spammy? Hah! Social medial algorithms ain’t letting 70% of your fans see your content without “boosting” anyways!

People unfollow all the time. Sometimes even by accident. Oh well. Link to your stuff. Make sure your links are in your bio. Set up a website with links to everything. Start an email list.

“But what would I even put in my email list?” Start with the 1000 pieces of content you post everyday on socials. Pick the three “most engaging” items. Boom (and include a link to your Bandcamp).

If you do all these 100% right does that mean you’ll be a star?

NOPE. But don’t take yourself out of the game without even taking a shot (horrible sports analogy).

I’ve been in and around this online music jam since 2001, I’ve seen a LOT. I remember mp3 DOT com and Rdio and Napster and Best Buy end caps and street teams. Put your links where fans can click them. Start there.

Learning to Love Streaming DJ Sets

I didn’t watch any football on Thanksgiving this year. Not a single play. This year, while prepping dinner with my roomie, I propped up my iPad and streamed over two hours of Marc Ribellet’s ‘Stanksgiving’ performance.

Live, unfiltered, spontaneous, dangerous, sexy – you name it.

Marc had all his year stolen a month or so ago, so he was working his way through some new sounds, new equipment. It wasn’t perfect, it wasn’t always “100% funk jams,” it was raw and real, and we loved it.

During the pandemic I came across HOR Berlin, which is a bunch of live streamed DJ sets from Berlin, in what looks like a tiled-bathroom, but it’s seriously been so good for my soul.

I mean, I kind of didn’t even know I liked techno, but I guess I do now! Dark wave is a thing too, I guess? There’s just so many fun jams, which partially inspired me to start my ‘Goodnight, Metal Friend‘ mix project.

For me part of the appeal of all these sorts of entertainment is just being a part of something live, as it’s happening. Without being able to go to live shows, or take a bus into NYC and walk around and be surprised, these live streams are just doing it for me at the moment.

It’s weird in a sense, though, as these aren’t really recorded works. Well, they are, as you see from the videos embedded above, but there’s just so many good mixes coming out all the time, and this doesn’t even factor in NTS streaming radio, or what’s on SoundCloud.

Perhaps it’s that each of these moments is hand-curated in the moment, by real humans. It’s a performance, but it’s also something that can happen in the background. Music as a utility, as a backdrop, a live person performing in real time, on my computer, adding a bit of humanity to an otherwise repetitive and boring life at the moment!

Goodnight, Metal Friend – Mix 4

My 4th Goodnight, Metal Friend mix, featuring Killanova, GubbiAnn, Oranssi Pazuzu, and more.

Not quite ambient, but a little darker, a little more spooky. The ambient stuff can be a little airy, I just want something with a little bit more weight.

This means lots of digging on Bandcamp to find tracks without drums, without screams, without too much high end. It’s some work, but I enjoy it.