“The advice I like to give young artists, or really anybody who’ll listen to me, is not to wait around for inspiration. Inspiration is for amateurs; the rest of us just show up and get to work. If you wait around for the clouds to part and a bolt of lightning to strike you in  the brain, you are not going to make an awful lot of work. All the best ideas come out of the process; they come out of the work itself. Things occur to you. If you’re sitting around trying to dream up a great art idea, you can sit there a long time before anything happens. But if you just get to work, something will occur to you and something else will occur to you and something else that you reject will push you in another direction. Inspiration is absolutely unnecessary and somehow deceptive. You feel like you need this great idea before you can get down to work, and I find that’s almost never the case.”
― Chuck Close

There are a lot of in-just things in this world, but this shutdown is not one of them. They (megaupload.com), have been a real thorn in nepenthe’ side for quite a while. But they are not the only ones.  And I am sure very soon ,a more deplorable site, with better technologies and financial backing with be up and running. Y’all keep your powder dry.

Here, I will not even get into Anonymous‘ retaliation for the take down of megaupload.com. Those boys and girls are on the wrong side…more on this another time.

The good fight

Sam Roesenthal’s label, Projekt has a good “How to” article that covers well, what we (Nepenthe) have been doing here since 2005. Frankly anyone who is in a creative line of work (intellectual property field) goes through this and should do what his article lists. For Nepenthe it has been very much like taking out the trash on a daily basis. Thank you Sam for that post!

Thanks for reading. Next time!

D. Ashley

Dwight Ashley & Tim Story’s 1997 release, Drop.

Drop was originally released on Angel Romero’s. Lektronic Soundscapes label in November of 1997. (Read the original press release for Lektronic Soundscapes) It’s cover design (created by Next Year’s News, Inc.) was included in Print Magazine’s Regional Design Annual the following year. In 2005 it was reissued on Nepenthe Music & Publishing label. It should also be noted that around this time, 1997, Brian Eno’s The Drop came out. Another fact of note is that Tim & I had finished this release some where around 1993 and could not find any one to release it until Angel gave it a listen. The name for the release came from a mutual friend of Tim and mine, David Elliot…we actually stole it from him…we told him we were going to of course. One last fact…The Hearts of Space Show #505 used 6 tracks from Drop…the show’s episode name is entitled Descent. (see the partial playlist from Drop below ).

HOS PGM. 505 DESCENT  1998
PGM NOTE : existential chamber music for the darkening world of autumn
Producer : Steve Davis and Stephen Hill

Now about the Cover.

The cover photo came from a stock photo company named Bettman Archive, now known as Corbis.

Original caption: 2/1/1974-Sao Paulo, Brazil- Body of man falls through space after he jumped to his death from burning 22-story Joelma Building in downtown Sao Paulo Feb. 1 as flames roar through the quarters of an investment bank.  Hundreds of people were trapped on upper floor of the building, many rushing to the top for a possible roof-top rescue by helicopters. The tragedy left hundreds injured and more than 180 dead.

Note the date 1974. That would be around 27 years before Sept. 11th, 2001. Note that this building fire happened in South America. Note the build architecture on the left…not really Twin Towers or a New York Skyline.

Why am I bringing this up? To set the record straight. Since 2001 Tim and I have had to personally field questions about the cover, “…was it from 911?”.  We even debated (for about a minute), if we should change the cover on the reissue as it was 4 years after the horribleness in New York had occurred. We thought the cover photo as well as the package design reflected what was going on with the music. So to bring it back around the cover photo on Drop, 911 it is not.

Thanks for reading. Next time!

D. Ashley

]]> http://www.nepenthemusic.com/rubato/911-it-is-not/feed/ 4 http://www.nepenthemusic.com/rubato/911-it-is-not/ http://feedproxy.google.com/~r/NepentheMusic-Rubato/~3/Qx_VHj75XHk/ http://www.nepenthemusic.com/rubato/wer-folgt-die-herde-unweigerlich-folgt-scheise/#comments Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:16:01 +0000 Dwight Ashley http://www.nepenthemusic.com/rubato/?p=518

Wer folgt die Herde unweigerlich folgt Scheiße

I would like to shake the hand of who ever said this first…this statement seems ring true a lot these days.. Okay more nepenthe news on the next post.

-D. Ashley

Recently, John Bon Jovi said… Steve Jobs is…“personally responsible for killing the music business.” Bon Jovi concludes that, because of iTunes, kids no longer have “the experience of putting the headphones on, turning it up to 10, holding the jacket, closing their eyes and getting lost in an album, and the beauty of taking your allowance money and making a decision based on the jacket, not knowing what the record sounded like, and looking at a couple of still pictures and imagining it.”

we were young once too!

I have been thinking about this subject for a while and Bon Jovi’s comment reminded me I wanted to chirp a little about this.

Back in the mid ’90s a real disaster happened in the music industry. One could argue it started in the late ’80s, but whenever it started, it does not changed the fact that Steve Jobs did not personally destroy the music industry (see external article – more on Steve Jobs later).

Simply put, labels would release a single, put it on an otherwise poor-quality full length release and charge $15.99 – $18.99 for it. That is one expensive single. Some of the accompanying tracks were simply bad, but mostly these tracks did not match what fans thought they were getting with the single, style-wise. After a while, people got sick of this. What to do, what to do?

Well, around this time the Internet was perking up… It has always been part of music culture in the West and now the world to share among your friends music that you like. This sharing used to be done with cassette tapes, then CD-Rs with very limited distribution; my friends called it Evaluatory Copies… During this era and method one could decide if your friend was right, then you would buy a copy for yourself if you liked it, that is… THEN there was this thing that happened called the Internet, which turned the whole sharing thing into more than just your close friends… more like everyone in the world who wanted it for free.

And share they did, and just when you thought everyone you knew had shared your file, 100,000 more people shared that file… the only problem was at the same time a generational attitude shift and the Internet met somewhere, and a joint conclusion was made that art should be free.

I remember that I first ran into this attitude back in high school during a Music Appreciation class…some buddy raised his hand and said. “I don’t know why you gave me an F, art should be free of grades.” No more evaluatory copies… just free stuff. Awesome!

The trouble is, you really can’t pay the bills as a artist if you are paid in FREE and all you have to show for your efforts are Likes and Friends (followers you don’t know). So all you really can have here is a hobby and not a career… but baby needs a new pair of shoes now and then.

However the music industry as a whole really deserves this, if you know what I mean. They charged really over-the-top prices and missmatched tracks. People got sick of it. I know I did.

A little about Steve Jobs and iTunes. IMHO, all Jobs is doing is organizing or legitimizing what people were already doing and packaging it as a lifestyle. If you want to blame Steve you really need to blame yourself for letting him sell you back the thing you were already doing. There is no way you can blame Steve for that. It was already happening. No, Steve Jobs Did Not Kill Music, We Did. Think about it.

Now the good news. In the last 24-28 months vinyl sales have been doing quite well as compared to what they were doing 10 years ago. And I mean sales not generated by dance clubs (DJs). Why? Because people once again have started getting together and listening to recorded music as a group of friends (sans headphones) in the same room. I have not even gotten into the issues of fidelity (compressed files) or buying something you didn’t like (like a whole release) and shelving it, only to give it a new listen later and then discovering how interesting it really was. These are issues for another Rubato post. All I have to say about those matters  for the time being can be summed up by the first professional advice I ever got… “Dwight, don’t be an ass to yourself.”

Thanks for reading. Next time!

D. Ashley

I have tried contacting them about removing both digital version of Blotch and Nurton off itunes, etc and have not heard back. I doubt they will remove it and I doubt they will respond. Why would they since the have stolen from Moebius for over 10 years on Blotch and 5 years on Nurton. The reason I bring this up is that I am asking for your support on this. Please do not buy their version whether CD or digital as none of the revenue has EVER gone to Dieter.

Thanks for reading. Next time!
D. Ashley

UPDATE: I just got an email from Rovi, who now owns All Music, All Movie and All Game .com. Rovi has repackage it’s error-base, with a new skin. Unbelievable!  It is the same error-ridden heap described below. I am puzzled why Rovi VP of marketing, Dave Jordan thinks we will fall for this. Are you kidding me? Take a look for yourself,  allrovi.com This is just really sad. Enough said!

Allmusic.com: A Failed Resource!

Allmusic.com, now owned by the Rovi Corporation, was once the premier go-to site and source for information about artist biographies, releases and track information, and just about anything you could think to look for…

Sadly, that was a long time ago.

These days, if you are not a household name you will be fortunate to have said name spelled correctly, let alone have accurate information posted about you or your work.  If Allmusic spells the artist’s name wrong when making a database entry, guess what?  You may not find it — and if there is already an entry for the artist that happens to be spelled correctly, there will be a new entry created that is not connected in any way to the artist’s existing information.

Here is an example (a Nepenthe Music example, of course). Go to allmusic.com, and type in Hans-Joachim Rodelius. You will find the Nepenthe Music release Offene Turen. Note the misspelling in Ach’s name (the first “e” is missing).  Now, type in Hans-Joachim Roedelius — you will find seven more of his releases.  Now, type in only his last name, Roedelius. You will find more releases still, all unconnected to the other two versions listings that include his first name.

I have to say this is rather lame for obvious reasons.  But just in case you missed it, we now have THREE entries for the same guy. What is not so obvious is that they lease out their database and spread all sorts of errors all over the Internet.  In Ach’s case, you might miss some of his extensive discography, or mistakenly believe his name is is spelled Hans-Joachim Rodelius… and repeat those errors in your own reviews, blog posts, liner notes, etc.

Here is another Nepenthe-related error.  Did you know Tim Story was influenced by Keith Jarrett?  No?  Well, you’re in good company — because Tim Story did not know he was influenced by Mr. Jarrett either — until he read that bit of info at allmusic.com.

Those are just two examples of NUMEROUS errors concerning artists on just this ONE small record label.  Multiply it by all the artists in release, and the scale of errors is rather massive.  This is just one case example and of course Nepenthe is not the only one.  I suggest you look up an artist whose work you know well sometime, and you’ll see what I mean … it is truly “over the the top.”

I have repeatedly tried to contact Allmusic for the the last 12 years to correct these and other problems.  Got lucky once and they fixed the error.  Another time I was told to send another disc…(yes they really did tell me that).  I did what they asked, and the error got worse.  Mainly they never reply and I, out of habit, send the same email to them every two months or so.

The total errors at allmusic.com could fill, well, an entire database.  A database we could call allmusic.com.  Seriously, this is a problem — the more their services are used, the more the Internet becomes corrupt with their bad data.

Simple solution: STOP USING THEM! Maybe then they will fix the problem.  Maybe they won’t.  But it WILL reduce the ongoing echo-chamber of errors created year after year after year … you get the idea.

If you need LEGITIMATE information about recording artists, there are other places out there that actually care about the integrity of their information. Try soundunwound.com or the commercial one called Muze.

Okay — that is the end of this rant.

Thanks for reading – Next Time!

D. Ashley

La Nordica (Hans-Joachim Roedelius) and Lunz (Story & Roedelius).

Pre-Order La Nordica now!

Please check later in March for more details on the Lunz reissue and see how you can buy your copy direct from nepenthemusic.com.

For more information on this and other Nepenthe Music soon-to-be released music visit the Nepenthe Music 2011 news sections. For the latest realtime info follow nepenthe music on twitter.

Thanks for reading. Next time!

D. Ashley

Contemporary? Seriously, I must admit this kind of statement reminds me of the line, We Live in Modern Times. It also sounds like Taxi is trying to sell pick axes to hopeful creative miners. I am sure Taxi means well…to their own well being…come on.. As the ad once said. …do you know what you say, knock it off!