Rip and Burn magazine

[Emergency Lalla Ward Ten]

Anyone seen this? A new music mag unashamedly aimed solely at iPod users.

Their editorial bangs on at length about the death of the album, how we no longer have to sit through lots of second-rate filler to get to the three or four decent tracks. Now *we* are in control.

Does anyone else find this attitude annoying? Surely the point of a really good album is that it has a shape, a beginning/middle/end, and the so-called 'filler' tracks play an important part. Otherwise, as Andy Partridge said about the XTC singles collection, 'you just get all the desserts'.

[9]

yeah, these people obviously have such short attention spans that they need to have 40 gigs of 'fried gold' to satisfy their musical appetites. Thats not a dig at poddies btw. The album will never die.

There was a thread about this but i can't find it unfortunately.

[Rats]

Yeah, an album is a carefully crafted piece of work (usually) with every song there for a reason and in the right order. I had this friend who asked me to copy him an album and about a year later he came round and I had it playing and he said "oh, I really like this song" and I said "Yeah, it's on the album I gave you"
"ah," he said "I only like the first three songs, I just rewind it after that". You know, like the commercially sensible first three fast songs that grab you. If people aren't prepared to take a couple of listens before they get into something, music is going to end up awfull, there'll just be 1 minute burst of a catchy chorus repeated. I think the album will live forever too, it'll just be the kind of people who buy singles whoo will pick and choose.

[mwude]

And of course it doesn't allow for the tracks that you at first dismiss as 'mere filler' that in time grow to be one of your favourites.  

The 'only want to listen to the best ones' attitude doesn't annoy me half as much as putting it on 'random'.  As you say any album worth listening to has been constructed to have a certain flow, the artist & producer will have put much deliberation into it.  In the same way that I wouldn't let a machine chop up a good painting & re-arrange it in any old order I don't use the 'random' button (in fact I don't think my stereo has one).

[TJ]

It's an appaliingly badly structured and badly written magazine. For me, that says it all about the 'hey, now we're the artists!' mindset it is based around.

[steevbishop]

I love albums, love 'em. Whether there are flat tracks or not, I'll always listen to the album from beginning to end, never shuffling. Bright Eyes' Lifted is in the car today, it's been ages since I've listened to them.

The same can't be said for my iTunes habits however. So far I have only bought one album from the iTMS, Elliott Smith's XO, all the rest have been free downloads or individual tracks that I've been wanting for ages (try Canned Heat's "On The Road Again", Gainsbourg + Bardot's "Bonnie and Clyde", Soundgarden's "Black Hole Sun" or Sparklehorse's "Happy Pig" as examples). When I want an album, I'll give it my undivided attention, but I sometimes visit the My Top Rated playlist which randomly plays any track I've rated over 4 stars. When I'm not desiring any particular album, it's a great way to be surprised by tracks I know I'll enjoy.

I don't have an iPod and I don't know if I ever will. I'm either at home or in the car. If I ever start walking to work again, maybe I'll need one.

[fanny splendid]

I have two iPods: one for each ear.

[Johnny Yesno]

music is going to end up awfull, there'll just be 1 minute burst of a catchy chorus repeated.

Not necessarily awful. This is one of my favourite albums:



Forty tracks, all 1 minute long.

Why 5 stars???
there are few reasons why

a)because these four masked guys are making such a strange and unlistenable music that they must be genious (or stupid)

b) because 40 tracks on 1 cd is a really brave idea

c)because nobody made a music so chaotic and creepy that after a few hours of listening you feel a need to jump out of the window and kill yourself (really, i am serious)

d)Because it is a great concept album about the emptiness of a modern commercial radio music

e)because Residents are really at heights of their power here

Anyway - ths is a shocking album.even in the times music so scary and brutal like Death Metal or Doom Metal Residents are sounding much more creepy - eventhough they are not using distorted guitars and growling vocals - their instruments are some mini synth toys,wooden sticks,industrial barrels and stuff like that...an album so paranoic and brutal that it is surely a masterpiece!!!

Quid pro quo or status quo or something, I think Mr Rats (Really, I am serious).

[splattermac]

Doesn't really bother me, en masse I don't care how people chose to do anything, I'm not trying to sell them anything or particularly understand them and ironically I will gravitate towards like minded groups, sociology and behavioural sciences, woo.

I feel sorry for the kids of the future who can't get the password to their dad's* record collection, or the hard disk fails and so has his mind and he can't remember any more who to recommend his kids download.

Like anything there will be fringe activity to the mainstream and trends, revivalists and purists.

viva la difference.

*and mum's of course

------------------------

complimentary ipods

[Clinton Morgan]

40 tracks on one CD being brave? Pah! Disc 3  of The Complete Webern box set contains 43 tracks and Disc 4 which has 42 tracks is nothing but eighty minutes and twenty four seconds of soprano and grand piano.

Anyway hasn't the i-podders ever heard of compilation tapes?

Idiots!

http://www.bluejam20.freeserve.co.uk/comps.htm

[fanny splendid]

Never mind tapes, I just get the local shaman in to bang his drum for an hour, or two.

[Johnny Yesno]

40 tracks on one CD being brave? Pah! Disc 3  of The Complete Webern box set contains 43 tracks and Disc 4 which has 42 tracks is nothing but eighty minutes and twenty four seconds of soprano and grand piano.

Yeah, but after a few hours of listening to those discs do you feel a need to jump out of the window and kill yourself (really, i am serious), hmmm? Surely that's a sign of a really good album.

[Hornet]

Doesn't this also lead to the argument that ripping CDs for one's friends or making compilations for the new love of your life is not the same as making a tape?  CDs are just to easy to skip through, whereas with tape you were almost "forced" to listen all the way through to avoid much pushing of large clunky knobs to find what you wanted.

I am just as guilty of it myself.  In the car I fill my 6-shot box with 6-7 hours of music, stick it on random and still find myself reaching for the button on the wheel to move on to the next one.  Its a terrible habit which I just can't get out of.

When I am working out using the Nomad player I try and make it as inaccessible as possible to avoid the temptation for finding the next track.

[Johnny Yesno]

This is one of my favourite albums:



Forty tracks, all 1 minute long.

Why 5 stars???
c)because nobody made a music so chaotic and creepy that after a few hours of listening you feel a need to jump out of the window and kill yourself (really, i am serious)

Heh! Forty times from a first floor window, maybe?

[splattermac]

did you just quote yourself?

This is interesting, would you like a lie down and to maybe tell us about it?

;)

[Rats]

Nelly's into them, I remember trying to find that album on soulseek. I don't like the sound of that review to be honest, unless it's a total exageration. I love s and m for the lug holes like early mercury rev but if it's really going to make me want to jump out of a top floor window, pete waterman has that market cornered.

[Johnny Yesno]

did you just quote yourself?

This is interesting, would you like a lie down and to maybe tell us about it?

;)

Sorry! The Jam idea sprung into my head long after my original post.

Rats, I only posted that review because it made cackle like a loon. It really is a great album with a nice vein of humour running through it.

[axel]

Talking of music mags, the music industrys now complaining about free CDs given away with mags and papers:

In a week when Sunday newspapers gave away some 10m free CDs, music organisations have condemned a trend that, they say, is "totally devaluing music". The British Association of Record Dealers (BARD) and the Music Managers Forum (MMF) are calling on labels to withhold acts from covermount CDs, and threatening sanctions against companies that fail to comply.
Last weekend's Sunday papers shifted some 10.5m free discs, while just 2.6m albums were sold in the same week. "The idea that music is free and that they don't need to buy CDs is definitely in people's minds," says BARD's Kim Bailey. "The record companies are giving confusing messages to customers. On the one hand, illegal downloads are wrong, but on the other hand, here's lots of free music."

According to MMF's James Sellar, the covermount CDs "reinforce perceptions that music has no value". BARD is now monitoring all tracks on covermounts and circulating a list to retailers. "It is unfair to ask retailers to stock something that is already freely available," says Bailey. "This could kill off the market, particularly in compilation CDs."

I find NME still gives away the best CDs, any other nominations?

[fanny splendid]

I like the ones they give away with the weekend papers. Usually it's to promote an artist that is releasing a new album, and they'll give you an exclusive track, a couple of old songs, and some live material. Select used to be good for tapes, and as you say, NME and Melody maker used to, as well. And again, it was the demos and the live tracks, and the alternative mixes that were made available, which made the free tapes so good.

There is nothing to stop the record companies releasing all this stuff, that the fans actually want, and making a good few quid out of the deal.

[axel]

NME still have some good free Cds. Morrissey did one earlier in the year which was great (although it did depend if you liked Mozza, as most of the tunes by other bands sounded a bit like him). The XFM sessions one the other week was fine as well.

The Libertines one in the Observer even convinced me (along with a storming show at Leeds festival) convinced me to buy there CD. I like it after a few listens. The same reason i don't think downloading ruins sales!