philipnight asked: So I've gotta know: have ya seen the video for indie harpist Mikaela Davis’ new single yet? If not, you should check it out. Youtube: "Mikaela Davis Dreaming"
No, I have not.
David Joseph, who runs the British arm of Universal Music, says A&R men used to be alchemists, discovering base talent and turning it into gold. “They made dreams come true,” he says. These days they are venture capitalists. Particularly at big labels such as Universal, A&R executives increasingly expect acts to have built a self-sustaining, if modest, business before they offer them a recording contract. Large numbers of Facebook friends and Twitter followers help show that a band has traction. But record labels have become wary of social-media indicators.
— Discovering musical talent: A new, improved hit machine | The Economist
‘…I just remembered that to-day’s my birthday.’ I was thirty. Before me stretched the portentous, menacing road of a new decade… Thirty – the promise of a decade of loneliness, a thinning list of single men to know, a thinning brief-case of enthusiasm, thinning hair… we drove on toward death through the cooling twilight… ‘I’m Thirty’ I said. ‘I’m five years too old to lie to myself and call it honor.’
— F.Scott Fitzgerald, The Great Gatsby (free eBook).
Just this morning someone paid $10 for an album after Googling “lelia broussard torrent.” A bit later, a fan plunked down $17 after searching for “murder by death, skeletons in the closet, mediafire.” Then a $15 sale came in from the search “maimouna youssef the blooming hulkshare.” Then a fan made a $12 purchase after clicking a link on music torrent tracker What.CD. Then someone spent $10 after following a link on The Pirate Bay, next to the plea “They sell their album as a download on their website. You can even choose your format (mp3, ogg, flac, etc). Cmon, support this awesome band!
—
Cheaper than Free « Bandcamp Blog (via yvynyl)
Go, Bandcamp, go. (via rawkblog)
2012, the year of contrary awesome facts!
(via rawkblog)
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
DiS Radio - 2011 Review Show
Drowned in Sound’s editor Sean Adams, and BBC reviews editor Mike Diver, run down some of their highlights of 2011.
Tracklisting:
SBTRKT - Wildfire (Drake remix)
Sleep∞Over - Casual Diamond (Laurel Halo remix)
Modeselektor - Shipwreck
When Saints Go Machine - Jets
Kate Wax - I Knit You
St Vincent - Champagne Year
Rustie - Surph
Shabazz Palaces -An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum
The Men - Bataille
The Antlers - Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing feat. Sharon Van Etten (Magnetic Fields cover)
Kuedo - Scissors
John Maus - Believer
[Flash 9 is required to listen to audio.]
Hear me maul the english language alongside some songs that I like.
DiS Radio - 2011 Review Show
Drowned in Sound’s editor Sean Adams, and BBC reviews editor Mike Diver, run down some of their highlights of 2011.
Tracklisting:
SBTRKT - Wildfire (Drake remix)
Sleep∞Over - Casual Diamond (Laurel Halo remix)
Modeselektor - Shipwreck
When Saints Go Machine - Jets
Kate Wax - I Knit You
St Vincent - Champagne Year
Rustie - Surph
Shabazz Palaces -An Echo From The Hosts That Profess Infinitum
The Men - Bataille
The Antlers - Nothing Matters When We’re Dancing feat. Sharon Van Etten (Magnetic Fields cover)
Kuedo - Scissors
John Maus - Believer
Pitchfork Top 50 Albums of 2011, in US Sales
Fascinating to see the numbers but also shit-scary reading. Be curious if anyone has compiled similar for DiS’ top 50 in terms of UK or US sales?
Eric Harvey put this together earlier this month, after he and I got the idea to put this together last year. I’m reblogging again because some people have asked me about it, and because his version is weirdly difficult to find on Google.
1. Bon Iver Bon Iver - 317,355
2. Destroyer Kaputt - 30,000
3. M83 Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming - 59,573
4. PJ Harvey Let England Shake - 62,000
5. Girls Father, Son, Holy Ghost - 30,000
6. Oneohtrix Point Never Replica - 3,800
7. Tune-Yards w h o k i l l - 40,386
8. Drake Take Care - 967,560
9. Real Estate Days - 20,700
10. The Weeknd House of Balloons N/A
11. St. Vincent Cruel Mercy - 44,334
12. James Blake James Blake - 47,372
13. EMA Past-Life Martyred Saints - 6,100
(via perpetua)
seaninsound | This Is My Jam →
What’s your jam? I hear this awesome site is now outta beta…
You say shortest day, I say longest night…
Long Dark Songs - Winter Solstice playlist
Over the past few hours, we’ve compiled this Spotify playlist to celebrate the longest night of the year (oh, please don’t moan about it being the shortest day). We asked our messageboarders, our followers on @drownedinsound, and the folks over on our Facebook for their favourite long (over 5mins) and dark (open to interpretation) songs, and here’s where we’ve gotten to after 90mins of suggestions, and a heap of things thrown in by DiS’ editor…
Mogwai – Music For A Forgotten Future
David Bowie – Warszawa
Nine Inch Nails – 34 Ghosts IV
Billy MacKenzie – Pain In Any Language
Scott Walker – Bouncer See Bouncer …
Fever Ray – Memories From When I Grew Up - Remembered by The Subliminal Kid
Björk – Pagan Poetry - Matthew Herbert Handshake Mix
PJ Harvey – We Float
Sparklehorse – Dreamt For Light Years In The Belly Of A Mountain (Aka Maxine)
Bon Iver – The Wolves (Act I and II)
Songs:Ohia – Ring The Bell
Colin Stetson – White Pulse Mix - Tim Hecker
Richard Skelton – Of the Last Generation
Barn Owl – The Darkest Night Since 1683
Jeniferever – Atlantis Arise!
The Cure – The Same Deep Water As You
Death Cab for Cutie – I Will Possess Your Heart
Logh – In Cold Blood
Explosions In The Sky – Six Days At The Bottom Of The Ocean
Oceansize – Paper Champion
The Album Leaf – Moss Mountain Town
Sigur Ros – Sigur 8 (Untitled)
Harold Budd – First Light
Sonic Youth – The Diamond Sea
El Kid – Hypnosis
Burial – Untrue
Massive Attack – Protection
Godspeed You! Black Emperor – motherfucker=redeemer
Raime - This Foundry
James Blackshaw – Sunshrine
Dirty Three – Sea Above, Sky Below
Pulp – Sheffield: Sex City
George Michael;Elton John – Don’t Let The Sun Go Down On Me - Live
Nine Inch Nails – Hurt
Björk – Desired Constellation - Ben Frost’s School Of Emotional Engineering Mix
Fuck Buttons – Sweet Love For Planet Earth
Fennesz – Black Sea
Isis – From Sinking
Cult Of Luna – Finland
Magma – Kobaia
Nick Cave & Warren Ellis – Song For Bob
Josh T. Pearson – Sweetheart I Ain’t Your Christ
Okkervil River – So Come Back, I Am Waiting
Ulver – Lost In Moments
SUNN O))) meets Nurse With Wound – Dysnystaxis (… a Chance Meeting with Somnus)
Fever Ray – Coconut
The Sisters Of Mercy – This Corrosion
Iron Maiden – Fear Of The Dark
Megadeth – In My Darkest Hour
Depeche Mode – The Darkest Star
Swans – The Sound
Trentemøller – The Mash And The Fury - Original Mix
Klaus Schulze – 1. Satz: Ebene
Sunn 0))) – Che
Just emailed my @Spotify playlist picks over to them and flicked my auto-reply on. Have a good one everyone.
Very Best of 2011: Playlists of Pop, Dubstep and Festive Music by Drowned in Sound
Each month, Spotify invites Sean Adams, founder of influential London-based website Drowned in Sound, to compile a playlist of his picks, skewed toward the independent music championed by the website’s informed staff and irreverent community. Here’s his round-up of the year…
Yes, it really is that time of year. Christmas is very nearly upon us and the magazine racks are stuffed with ‘best of the year’ covers and filled with pages of lists, lists and more lists. Websites are no different, with top albums, favourite singles and silly prizes being awarded for all kinds of tenuous ‘of the year’ things. This month’s blog features some of my picks of the year-end lists, with hopefully something to please most tastes…
It’s DiSmas!!! - a very DrownedinSound.com Xmas
There’s no month-as-a-playlist this month, due to the annual December drought of decent releases. However, here’s one I made a few years ago… It features everything festive from Sufjan Stevens’ version of ‘Jingle Bells’ to Nat King Cole via a song from Low’s brilliant Christmas record, a Tom Waits song about a hooker, Tori Amos singing ‘Emmanuel’ and, er, Mariah Carey and Blink-182. If something on this four hour playlist doesn’t make you feel a teeny bit festive, well, you’re probably dead inside.
November was a busy month and I somehow forgot to send this playlist over. November’s selection featured a track from the bit bonkers but rather brilliant David Lynch (yeah, the famous Twin Peaks director) album with Karen O on vocals plus an equally nutty song with a child talking about licking frogs from the M83 album, and plenty more besides.
DiS User-Generated Tips for 2012
We asked our community who they think might do well next year, and here’s a selection of new music for you to plough through, featuring names you might begin to spot on festival bills and may be hearing on the radio before too long. I’ll admit the first few are the ones I’m tipping to will do well in 2012.
Here’s my songs of the year mixtape, which features most of what I’ve loved this year, most of which has featured on my monthly playlists, which you’ll compiled below.
More Best of 2011 Playlists
DiS’ Favourite Albums of 2011 - Sampler - a taste of Drowned in Sound’s albums of the year. Full list of DiS’ 75 favourite albums of 2011, plus commentary can be found here.
Drowned in Sound Top 120 Singles 2011 - Wendy Roby does a column for DiS every week. She’s listened to over 3000 singles this year and these were her favourites. Click here to watch all the videos and read her fascinating thoughts on many of these tracks.
P4K Songs of 2011 - Our US friends over at Pitchfork have also done their songs of the year, which includes the likes of M83, EMA, Cold Cave, Charli XCX, Jamie xx, Toro Y Moi and more…
S/FJ: 2011 BEST OF - The New Yorker’s pop music critic shares his picks of the year.
DiS Does Pop 2011 Playlist - The Best Pop Songs of 2011… according to DiS pop columnist Robert Leedham. His end of year column for us is well worth a read, especially if you’re looking for last minute gifts, including a Britney jacket for a dog!
Basstard tracks of 2011 - this was submitted by one of our users, who described it as a mix of the “sons of drum n’ bass: dubstep, bass music, wonky and all that stuff” and features the likes of Burial, SBTRKT and a brilliant Nathan Fake remix of Radiohead.
2011: Best of Electronic/Dance/Bass - a 250+ track dance-floor adventure, which was submitted in our songs of the year thread.
Two Thousand and Eleven Cats - this was also made by DiSser meowington, and it features a dizzying mix of Minaj, Katy Perry, ‘A Real Hero’ from the Drive soundtrack and Bon Iver.
2011 - if you’re of a somewhat noizer persuasion, this selection by ClamingToBeOnTele includes Mogwai, Battles, Russian Circles and Morbid Angel.
Thrash Hits Slaylist: Our Albums of 2011 - about 100 times louder that that, is this ‘slaylist’ full of the year’s best metal from the chaps at Thrash Hits.
A Year of Playlists for the Spotify Blog
…and that’s yer lot for two thousand and eleven. I’ll be back in January, which I promise has heaps of great records lined up to kick-start the year.
Have a great festive break,
Sean
http://drownedinsound.com // @seaninsound
