Anewmusic.co.uk

The Love Commandos new site

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Thu, 01 Oct 2009 17:51:38 PDT

The Love Commandos
Zakala has recently finished putting together the Love Commandos new look website. Designed as a new blog style site for the West Midlands rock band it will hopefully attract more people to the band - especially once we get out and start gigging again after completing the album "Siren".

AWAL

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Thu, 02 Aug 2007 03:52:42 PDT

Given that I'm never going to have the time or the money to press and distribute the last Druidspear album I'm looking at online distribution through iTunes via Artists Without a Label (AWAL).

Apple to sell DRM-free music through iTunes - silicon.com

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Thu, 05 Apr 2007 08:31:43 PDT

"Apple and EMI have announced they have taken the first steps towards
DRM-free digital music - but only for those who are prepared to pay
extra."

Well it's a start, but where is the advantage over buying the CD and ripping it yourself, given that the price rises push an album over the usual "supermarket" price?

On the bright side it shows that consumer power can have an effect - if we all keep pressing for DRM free music that we can use how we like, where we like and on what we like once we have paid for it eventually the other record companies will offer it.

OK so I'm slack.

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 05 Mar 2007 06:45:41 PST

Yes the tracks are mixed and mastered and I've played them on enough devices to feel that they travel well. Now we just have the small matter of distribution. I don't have the cash to press a CD, but since it is now possible for independants to get their music hosted on iTunes this may be the way to go. Would people be willing to pay 7.99 for an 11 track D'Spear album? Is this worth my while?

Let me know.

Nearly there...

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:21:41 PST

OK I know I've threatened as much before, but I think that the Druidspear album is finally ready - I just need to listen to it to check final volume levels and tweak if necessary. Having a set of hi-fi speakers to check the masters on has finally made the mastering a manageable task as the Genelecs I was using, whilst wonderfully details in the mid and high range were definitely lacking in bass extension. Rolling off the sub-bass on most of the tracks should make them much more clear and listenable (I'm being picky of course; most people wouldn't immediately spot the difference between these and the original masters, but the originals weren't very portable and really didn't sound right in some situations).

Anyway assuming there's no more tweaking needed (and if there is I promise I will do it this week) I will mail white labels to the band for comments, get JC to sort out the album art and JB to organise the blurb. We might even have it available for Yule!

Now that would be a present.

Long Time Ago

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:50 PST

Druidspear launch their myspace with "Long Time Ago" video:

http://vids.myspace.com/index.cfm?fuseaction=vids.individual&videoid=1314637501

http://www.myspace.com/druidspear

Magic Ship

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:50 PST

magicshippart.mp3

Baby stopped play. . .

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:50 PST

I cannot lie, having a son has been a wonderful new experience and a challenge. It has also meant that final work on 'the Druidspear album' has been put on the back burner. The good news is that the final mastering is almost complete and the first white label copies should be going to band members and selected promotional contacts in the next few weeks.

The album title looks like being 'Broken Sourcerer' (sic) and hopefully Jim will start work on the sleeve notes now that we have a sequence for the tracks. The artwork is still up in the air at the moment, things have moved on since the original cover of was mooted so I don't know what the final cd will look like.

I will try to get some new mp3s onto the blog and the website to give you all a taste of the finished product.

Almost there...

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:50 PST

Well the mixing is complete and Jim is a happy bunny! Now I've got the technical task of pre-mastering and gapping the tracks to complete the process.

Now all we have to do is decide on how to market the album and to create the artwork and liner notes.

Nearly there!!!

Coughs and sneezes...

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:49 PST

I've been ill, Jim's been ill and nothing has happened on the album. We are still hoping that it will be available as a Yuletime stocking filler, indeed we are hoping to finish it off in the next couple of weeks. Then we just have to sort out distribution.

D'Spear CD Update

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:49 PST

I know I keep saying it, but we are getting there, we really are. We are 99.9% happy with the mixes of everything except Titanium Girl which I've been working on over the summer.

A little more work and we'll be ready to go. We still haven't thought much about how to produce and distribute the CD - we wondered about an online supplier that would produce the CDs on demand, but that might not be the best value for the fans. On the bright side it would reduce our capital costs.

Anyway we should have the mixing finished by the end of the month and the Mastering shouldn't take me too much longer. So we may even see a Yuletime release, wouldn't that be a nice present?

What's in a name?

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:48 PST

Tuesday evening was a very productive evening. Andy T., erstwhile 'Spear guitarist and occasional bassist, dropped in to listen to the work so far and to provide a fresh set of ears.

We now have at least basic mixes for all the tracks, some are finished and many just need a few finishing touches. Hurrah.

We also considered how best to promote the new CD and how to generate interest in it. Whilst we are quite keen to do some form of live work it woul dbe fair to say that none of us have the time or energy to commit to the sort of schedule of live dates that we were doing in 97-99. One of the suggestions was to perhaps organise some larger events with multiple bands and perhaps some gigs at other selected events - I guess we'd jump at the chance to do something like the national pagan federation conference again.

Certainly the podcasting idea was given the thumbs up, especially as Jim would like to get involved with presenting :))

The best idea of the night was the realisation that the podcast should have a better name than "The Anewmusic Podcast" which I felt was rather cumbersome. The concensus was that, as with the original fanzine, the show should be called:

The D-Files

So obvious really.

Gojo Music presents: An Alternative Black Country Night Out

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:48 PST

'An Alternative Black Country Night Out...An Alternative Night Out In The Black Country'

The Lamp Tavern - Dudley - Fri 17th June

Creative co-operations present another evening of cool contemporary arts culture from the Black Country region at The Lamp Tavern, 116 High St, Dudley, West Midlands, DY1 1QT. Tel: 01384-254129.

Fri 17th June – tickets on sale now @ £5 each. Tickets can be purchased from the Lamp Tavern now.

More info from Gojo Music

Tuesday night action

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:48 PST

Tonight Jim and Andy T are coming over to do some more work on the 'Spear album - hopefully we'll get another track mixed tonight.

I suspect that there could also be some discussion of future 'Spear outings to promote the CD.

We've also had a request for available CDs - not bad for a band that's been on hold for four years!

No news is good news...

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:48 PST

The old news page is no more - well actually it's now just a redirect page to the blog. That way I can keep it more up to date and manage it more easily. :)

New background

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:47 PST

CSS isn't really my thing - I've never had chance to get to grips with it completely, but I've managed to hack around the blog template to use the same background as the rest of the Anewmusic site. Why? Well mostly for stylistic reasons, but particularly because I'm doing away with the old "News" page in favour of the blog.

The Richard Vobes Radio Show

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:47 PST

Richard Vobes is a truely dedicated man. He has, since the start of 2005, been producing a daily family orientated podcast covering a variety of interesting topics including, but by no means limited to, beer tasting, haunted houses, "sound-seeing" tours of local (to Worthing) places of interest and of course general happenings and magazine show items.

Worth a listen :)

The Richard Vobes Radio Show

Studio and podcasts

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:47 PST

It's been a while so I guess I should update the site with the skinny on what's been happening. The studio has had a little more work done on it to improve the workflow and ergonomics. Mostly this has involved the purchase of wiring looms to pull some inserts and the aux send/returns onto a pair of patchbays so that it's easier to rout compresion effects to different places on the desk without resorting to rummaging around at the back of the console (not an easy task for an engineer of the more comfortable persuasion).

So we now have a nicely tidy work environment with all of the recent gadgets integrated into the system including a valve mic pre (of the cheap, but usable, kind) and my bass v-amp which I finally got to hear properly for the first time last week. We also now have both PCs wired through the desk which potentially gives me separate playback and recording PCs so that I can do live recording (if that makes any sort of sense) of radio style shows that we can put out as podcasts. Whether I'll bother to do this or just record the voice parts and composite them depends on how well I can actually do "live" radio.

Once I finally get to put one of these podcasts together I'll get it up on the site so that you can listen to some of the music and plans that we hope to put together in the near future. Of course as you are all no doubt aware "near" can be somewhat subjective in Anewmusic terms, but the new D'Spear album (yes that one) is being mixed at the moment and we think it would be nice to get some snippets out there for people to listen to.

Review: Pagan Dub Lord - Dragonseidr

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:46 PST

newy page

"Another disc retrieved from the 'Ohmigod I'd missed those' pile! Pagan Dub Lord is an electronic space rock band who definitely ingests far too many psychotropic drugs for their own good. This chemical haze does however lead to a stunning c.d. of trippy sound rhythms and tunes. With influences as wide as King Crimson and P.I.L. the sound on the disc always challenge and delight. With the instrumentation including Dragontronics, throbtones and electric mushrooms I think you know where these people are coming from. Musically a bit like the Bastard offspring of the Aphex twin and Ozric Tentacles my only criticism is a bit of an over reliance on Synth drums…a bit of processing wouldn't have gone amiss there."

Druidspear Promo Video

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:47 PST

I recently put together a video from some old footage that was created by Jim and Nick for one of Tensin Wah's earlier projects. This was cut to the current demo mix of "Long Time Ago" and I'll get a link up to it asap!

Pod what? Pod WHAT?? PODCAST!

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:46 PST

...to paraphrase the one and only Rob Halford of Judas Priest.

Yes, podcasting is here! "Where?" Here, on this blog. Yes! Honest. Ok this just looks like a blog, but you head over to http://podcast.anewmusic.co.uk to see the new improved podcast friendly version.

You've been there? You're back? "It looks the same, but with better graphics?" Cheeky monkeys. You're right though, to look at it's no big kahuna burger. But to listen to...

"Listen to???"

Yes, now you can listen to it via iTunes or Windows media player. How? Well you'll need a little piece of software called a feed aggregater or a podcast client. For Windows you can use nimiq, ipodder or doppler.
For mac try ipodder or ipodderX.
ipodder also has a Linux version :)

More podcast content to come...

Jane!

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:46 PST

Check out a podcast of a snippet from Druidspear's "Jane". This is a test podcast.

Awake the Podcast!

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:46 PST

Check out a podcast of a snippet from Druidspear's "Awake the Bloom". This is a test podcast.

More blogging madness!

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:45 PST

Phase 2 of the Anewmusic website revamp sees the migration of older news items from the "news" page to the Anewmusic blog. Just so you know what has (or mostly hasn't!) been going on.

Shhh...keep it to yourselves, but...

noreply@blogger.com (Zakala) — Mon, 13 Nov 2006 05:19:43 PST

...there may be some sign of the long dormant Druidspear masters for "Lord Vervain" seeing the light of day. Since we got the studio facilities up and running again the long lost lead loon and I have been plotting our plans of sonic domination. Mixes are occuring and vibes are happening.

We really don't know if these will see official release or whether it will be a limited edition thing for the hardcore, but things are stirring in the woods and the clouds are gathering. Watch this space...