The Crowned Heads of Europe - Witnesseth
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Like a scooped EQ, the market for CD's is dropping, while markets for vinyl and MP3's are holding steady or increasing. Steve Austin's SuperNova label isn't the only one going the "just vinyl and MP3's" route. For at least one release, drone/doom/noise imprint Sounds of Battle and Souvenir Collecting has gone all-vinyl, with free MP3's included. (alien8 is also bundling free MP3's with physical media.) And it's a doozy. "Drone/doom/etc." - tune in, zone out, right? Wrong. I've heard The Crowned Heads of Europe's Witnesseth many times as background, and it's pleasant as such. But hearing a record is different from listening to what it has to say. After closer inspection, I was amazed at how much I'd missed. Each track is distinct. "Vena Amoris" is a subtly pulsing feedback sculpture. "Broken Belfry" circles vultures around a distant timpani. "Sifting Sleep" builds to a big electric climax. "The Baker's Sorrow" is fuzzy, warbling, and devastatingly plaintive. These aren't just drones that were jammed on for a while, then commodified onto wax. They're proper constructions, with layers and directions. They reward close listening. And they come with proper presentation. First pressing of 100, 50 with a "psychedelic foil insert." (Click above to enlarge.) Vinyl isn't cheap to press, so this is a labor of love from a small label with good product: in their own words, "Your Favorite Twisted Sound Boutique."
Sifting Sleep
Timeslip in Colour
Buy:
Sounds of Battle and Souvenir Collecting
Labels: ambient/electronic, clee, usa
7 Comments:
I'm starting up my own label and I'm looking at moving into the vinyl/drop card format for next year if all goes well. With my business model, vinyl is hard to do (I give 50% back to the artist).
Vinyl sure it a lot cooler than Cd's. Here's hoping things head in that direction and Cd's go away for good.
Vinyl is always cooler than CD's. I'm not sure about the environmental impact (does wax require petroleum to make?), but perhaps the numbers are low enough so it doesn't really make a difference.
Best of luck with your label. I went to your page and dug Oh Alchemy.
Cool man thanks. My MySpace has samples of all my bands (not sure which page you went to) but it's at http://www.myspace.com/tplt08. Oh, Alchemy will have a Cd out in January.
I believe wax does require petroleum to make but I'm not 100% sure on that one.
WHAT ABOUT TAPES?!
Tapes are cooler than CD's, but not as cool as vinyl. They are cool until you try to find something that actually plays them. I'm not driving my 1995 Saturn (named for Kelly Bundy - see Top 5 Metal Cameos on TV Shows post) anymore.
They're a nostalgic format for me. My earliest words and sentences and then my toddler/elementary school soliloquies were eagerly recorded on tape by my parents when I was little. There still exist tapes around with me reciting poems about lions and saying that I don't want to speak in English (we lived in LA for a while when I was a little squirt so I picked up on my second language at a young age). If I ever do buy a car, I'm never buying one without a tape deck. Besides, you can't play vinyl in a car unless you want to listen to a lot of skipping.likedow
Vinyl does have higher production costs than CDs. One of the calculations I made in starting FSS and selling vinyl and downloads was that the production costs of vinyl might be offset by the low costs of digital albums. The jury is out on that and likely will be for awhile. But I think a well-designed LP sleeve is a much better advertisement than a little jewel case.
And to paraphrase Tom Waits, surface noise is what holds an album together.
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