Highlights and Lowlights of 2018

Started by ConcreteMascara, December 14, 2018, 06:56:51 PM

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deutscheasphalt

Highlight: The album I listened most to over last year was Atrium Carceri & Herbst9 collab "Ur Djupan Dal" on Cryo Chamber. Fell asleep to it many many times and I think it's just a very well-rounded pretty much flawless ambient album made by people who know their shit.

Lowlight: The intense and growing use of modern social media by people involved in the noise scene who otherwise like to portray themselves as "underground"

IVX

Quote from: deutscheasphalt on February 01, 2019, 10:31:04 PM

Lowlight: The intense and growing use of modern social media by people involved in the noise scene who otherwise like to portray themselves as "underground"

Completely agree

yosef666

Quote from: IVX on February 02, 2019, 06:18:44 AM
Quote from: deutscheasphalt on February 01, 2019, 10:31:04 PM

Lowlight: The intense and growing use of modern social media by people involved in the noise scene who otherwise like to portray themselves as "underground"

Completely agree
Apparently one needs an Instagram account to even find out about many releases these days. Sucks to find out that friends whose projects I've supported for years (booked gigs for, distroed, etc.) have put out releases that I miss out on but 20-year-old kids who were listening to screamo last week end up with copies.

/rant
Where we're from, the birds sing a pretty song and there's always music in the air.

"As long as humans have hands to draw with, topics such as fucking, sucking, tits, ass, sodomy, pink cunts and big dicks along with death, murder, politics and power will always be on our cave walls." -Joe Roemer

Thor

Quote from: yosef666 on February 03, 2019, 12:11:02 PM
Quote from: IVX on February 02, 2019, 06:18:44 AM
Quote from: deutscheasphalt on February 01, 2019, 10:31:04 PM

Lowlight: The intense and growing use of modern social media by people involved in the noise scene who otherwise like to portray themselves as "underground"

Completely agree
Apparently one needs an Instagram account to even find out about many releases these days. Sucks to find out that friends whose projects I've supported for years (booked gigs for, distroed, etc.) have put out releases that I miss out on but 20-year-old kids who were listening to screamo last week end up with copies.

/rant

Examples? I don't have instagram f.e. but I've never had troubles getting the releases I want

vomitgore

I guess Ritual releases count too?

Shibalba - Stars al med Hum
Damn enjoyable and possibly my favourite together with the Phurpa split.

Arktau Eos - Eremos
DEFINITELY my favourite  by this project. Perfectly executed with great sounds.

LOWLIGHTS:

- people still too stupid to send trades and paid orders. Fans afraid of calling rip-offs rip-offs. People making excuses for their rip-offs online and continuing to rip people off. Weird that nobody is ever too wound up with psychological issues and family business to ACCEPT orders and take money...

- Price policies of many labels. Times are tough, production costs - especially for analog releases- getting higher due to limited sales. But 10 - 12 € for a regular tape, 23 - 25 € for a LP that isnt even gatefold or heavy or marbled or anything else that would justify such price becoming normality... a bit too steep for me as a customer. I know, nobody is forced to buy etc, but come on...

urall

Quote from: yosef666 on February 03, 2019, 12:11:02 PM
Quote from: IVX on February 02, 2019, 06:18:44 AM
Quote from: deutscheasphalt on February 01, 2019, 10:31:04 PM

Lowlight: The intense and growing use of modern social media by people involved in the noise scene who otherwise like to portray themselves as "underground"

Completely agree
Apparently one needs an Instagram account to even find out about many releases these days. Sucks to find out that friends whose projects I've supported for years (booked gigs for, distroed, etc.) have put out releases that I miss out on but 20-year-old kids who were listening to screamo last week end up with copies.

/rant

you mean the whole Skjold recs etc... trend ? 

WCN

Favorites of 2018:

PRESAGE - Feralheart CS (self-released)
TRERIKSRÖSET Live CS (Hatband)
PAIN APPARATUS CS (Maniacal Hatred/Phage Tapes)
SEWER ELECTION - Dismal CS (Team Boro)
BODY CARVE - Guts In Red Plastic CS (Gutter Bloat)
CAPERS - Dregs LP (Förlag För Fri Musik)
BLIND DATE - Open Trap CS (New Forces)
SISSY SPACEK - Trash Staging LP (New Forces)
RUSALKA - Revisualizations CS (New Forces)
MK9 - Loss As Loss CS (Bacteria Field)
WORTH - Blood Possessed CD (Prose Nagge)
MO*TE reissue CDs (Industrial Recollections/Audio Dissection)
THE RITA feat. TRERIKSRÖSET live in Berlin
RUSALKA live in Cologne
WORTH live in Warsaw
Harsh Noise label and EU based distro of American Imports
https://whitecentipedenoise.com/

MyrtleLake

#52
Re: social media / instagram

I have wondered how so many releases sell out with near instantaneous speed. The above comments motivated me to mire into the Instagram comments. I understand a little better now why. By the time a fair number of labels and distro's I pay attention to post the releases for general sale on their website—or, even later, here—only those in the Instagram feed knew they were going to be released and when. There is plenty of evidence that I see of sales directly through the comments section. The major disadvantage for everyone outside that feed is that even with a public Instagram account, none of the content is available through a standard internet search engine. I also discovered that bookmarking a profile doesn't seem to work—every bookmark I made in my browser goes back to whatever page I started on or last looked at or... ???. I suspect this is all purposely built into the site. Instagram wants you to sign in and create an account and assemble a personal feed, after all, so they can mine your information. I hope people realize that Instagram is Facebook. If you want to run that route, fine, but please go in with your eyes open.

ConcreteMascara

Quote from: MyrtleLake on February 07, 2019, 08:48:17 PM
Re: social media / instagram

I have wondered how so many releases sell out with near instantaneous speed. The above comments motivated me to mire into the Instagram comments. I understand a little better now why. By the time a fair number of labels and distro's I pay attention to post the releases for general sale on their website—or, even later, here—only those in the Instagram feed knew they were going to be released and when. There is plenty of evidence that I see of sales directly through the comments section. The major disadvantage for everyone outside that feed is that even with a public Instagram account, none of the content is available through a standard internet search engine. I also discovered that bookmarking a profile doesn't seem to work—every bookmark I made in my browser goes back to whatever page I started on or last looked at or... ???. I suspect this is all purposely built into the site. Instagram wants you to sign in and create an account and assemble a personal feed, after all, so they can mine your information. I hope people realize that Instagram is Facebook. If you want to run that route, fine, but please go in with your eyes open.

That's a pretty accurate representation of how it happens. It's not all bad, in my opinion. I can understand artists and labels wanting to reach interested parties outside the scope of this forum or a Facebook page. Since Instagram allows artists to combine their personal lives with their musical identities into one highly manicured feed of pictures and information, and decide who sees what, it's a good way to get notice of your music/releases/zines/etc directly before the people most likely to buy them. It sucks for those who aren't savvy or constantly watching their Instagram feed, but music distribution continues to change. And besides, most of the bigger labels and distros continue to get the word out the old fashioned way and generally make enough copies for inventory to stick around for months or years.

The way I look at it is, if I didnt know some tape existed and I lived however many weeks/months/years without it, than was it really so important that I get it in the first place? While's it's nice to be on top of all of the bedroom tape labels, many of which are doing good things, I can also live with picking up just the bigger or less obscure releases. I can't even keep up with Freak Animal releases anymore so I don't stress over it.
[death|trigger|impulse]

http://soundcloud.com/user-658220512

PedestrianOrgans

I got Instagram earlier this summer at first exclusively to communicate with Dead Gods out in NY, and since then it's been a huge benefit with keeping up with releases as well as getting in touch with people, so.......yeah it's not "underground" but I'd always rather hear something than not.

Zeno Marx

Quote from: spiritassembly on December 31, 2018, 07:14:29 PM
Nurse With Wound/TNB 'Changez les Blockeurs'/'Changez les Blockeurs And' (Dirter) - wasn't expecting much of this and was pleasantly (if that word can apply) surprised - Stapleton has lovingly boosted all the most irritating frequencies of the original and tripled the density. CD adds 25 more minutes of brain damage. The whole thing sounds more like TNB than TNB themselves, almost.
Listened to an excerpt of this yesterday.  Definitely worth hearing, very good, and with its own identity.  Is this even the original material employed?  I wonder.
"the overindulgent machines were their children"
I only buy vinyl, d00ds.

eyestrain

#56
TOP 3:

INCINERATED "Lobotomized"
So much retarded low end... madness. I fucking love this album so much, I don't think I listened to anything more than this.
◆ every release on Force Neurotic
Nothing caught the feeling of my year better. Onwards!
HIMUKALT "Come October"
Leagues better than the LP.

Highlights:

KALI MALONE "Organ Dirges 2016-2017"
Favorite drones of the year, easily.
C.L. LOBBESTAEL "Particle Dissolution"
And one of my favorite ambient albums ever. This will stick.
MATTIAS GUSTAFSSON "Tapeworks Vol.s VII (Landmusk)/VIII"
Still one of my favorite artists. New album on BAADM, can't wait to hear it!
CHRISTINA VANTZOU "No. 4"
She shook off the modern classical vibe entirely. Thank god.
NO DREAMS "Fantasies Of Affection/Been Bitter For So Long"
Been bitter indeed...
CHRISTIAN MIRANDE "Sealed Deposits"
90 minutes and I'm rarely feeling bored or moving onto the next tape.
EVENINGS "Blinding Grey"
I loved his set in Detroit I got to catch in 2017. What a great artist and tape.

SCHAKALENS BROR & VMS ELIT, Dayton @ Skeleton Dust HQ
SISSY SPACEK in Baltimore
THROAT in Baltimore
KELELA in DC ;)
REMNANTS in NYC

(Lots of noise/PE bangers that I loved for sure, but they've been mentioned here how many times now?)

Lowlights:
◆ Just about every day that passed. Fuck that year.
◆ Having to listen to THE HELLACOPTERS and MINDSET at the shop every day all year.
◆ Having to listen to CITY HUNTER and THE SMITHS every day at my new shop >:p

MyrtleLake

No Dreams: "Fantasies of Affection / Been Bitter for So Long"

"Fantasies.." is the 12" on Torn Light. What's the latter?

eyestrain

Quote from: MyrtleLake on February 12, 2019, 06:57:10 PM
No Dreams: "Fantasies of Affection / Been Bitter for So Long"

"Fantasies.." is the 12" on Torn Light. What's the latter?

Correct! There were a few special editions with a tape included. Very nice as well!

cr

Still struggling with all the mess from relocation, but as I'm listening right now, I can say that one of my favourites from 2018 was and is the KSNK CD, the sound as well as the artwork/cover/metal.