(idm) FAX reissues (was: Re: dreamfish "re-issue") - free rant included!

From Greg Earle
Sent Wed, Dec 3rd 1997, 22:23

> Brett McCormick wrote:
>> 
>> the rather interesting version of dreamfish is different than the fax
>> "re-issue"..  I like them both, although they're nothing spectacular
>> or anything.
> 
>  Hmm!  Re-issue of the Original Dreamfish or dreamfish2 on 
> rather interesting, are you sure it's not the re-issue on 
> AmbientWorld ?

Speaking of FAX re-issues in general ... (Charles are you listening?)

I was looking through Charles' recent post on what's still orderable FAX-wise
and noticed this Ambient World re-issues stuff.  (After I spent several
minutes vainly trying to un-braindamage the layout.)

This begats the obvious question - and I hope it doesn't open a can of worms -
why isn't there a re-issue of, say, Tetso Inoue's "Ambiant Otaku"?

I keep hearing about this thing.  How prices are really high for it, how it's
limited edition, one of the better FAX issues, etc. etc. and that's why it
goes for so much, blah blah ...

Pardon my "Music wants to be Free" bent (guess all this MP3 collecting has
gotten into my brain) but since there seems to be a lot of demand for it,
and there are other titles in the FAX canon that have been re-issued, why
not this one?  I've half a mind to MP3-ize mine and put it up on the Web
(a la the MASK 2 MP3 page that someone kindly put up), I mean sheesh ...

<rant>

I really think the biggest problem in the IDM/experimental techno/313/etc.
world is lack of availability.  I read posts on these lists all the time, and
thousands upon thousands of releases are mentioned (heck, just collect about a
week's worth of Lance's postings and that's at least a hundred records
mentioned right there (-: ) that I - and I suspect most people - will NEVER
get to hear even a small sliver of 'em.

Personally, I think everything should be MP3'ized.  "Home MP3'ing is Killing
Music!" the labels cry.  Bullshit.  Yeah, like I really want to only be able
to listen to music on my fucking computer with little powered speakers?  Also,
the only album I've downloaded from the Net in its entirety is CJ Bolland's
"Analogue Theatre".  Before that, I'd only heard "Sugar Is Sweeter" and had
decided "Well, I guess I can skip this one".  Gee, what do you know, the
rest of it is *nothing* like "Sugar Is Sweeter" and you know what?  When I
saw it in a store, I bought the damned thing.  So because I was able to hear
it on the 'Net, CJ got a few more pennies in his pocket.

OK, but not everyone has the same scruples as me, you protest.  Maybe so.
But the simple fact - in our genres, at least - is that this music does
not get much distribution and it's damned hard to find, even though there's
a LOT of it (Every week the Synaptics folks tell me there's 50, 75, up to 150
new releases they get in.  How am I supposed to pick something to mail order
from them when I have no way to hear any of it, a priori?  So I don't.  But
I dropped $525 in Modern Music back in April, because I was there in the
store and could *hear* stuff.  Helllllooooo ... is anybody paying attention?)

I've been mumbling about Internet music distribution being the Future Of Music
on these lists for several years now.  (Not claiming prescience here, just a
rather obvious pathway due to familiarity with the technology.)  It's about
time the music was MORE ubiquitous, not the other way around.  FAX titles
changing hands for over US $100 or whatever while there's re-issues of other
titles just seems really silly to me in this day and age.

</rant>

        - Greg