What is 'Love'?

WHAT IS LOVE? (BABY DON'T HURT ME)

So it is that most divisive of days on the calendar…

ST VALENTINES DAY!

Regardless of your position on the validity of such a day, lets talk about love.

Don’t worry this isn’t going to be some mushy monologue about romance and whatnot.

Instead, lets talk about music and the love of it.

I have been in love with music since I was probably about 14 years old when I bought ‘Smash’ by the Offspring and it blew my mind, it was so different to what I had grown up with, or heard on the radio…It spoke to my teen angst in a way that I believe changed me significantly.

MANY YEARS LATER: Whilst my tastes have changed, music remains a driving force in my life, playing a massive part in my personal and professional life…as a music fan, musician and Label owner.

But why do we do it? Why do we spend so much of our money on a collection of structured sound waves, either collecting them or making them?

As any musician will tell you, its not to get rich…that is a 1 in a million shot.

Is it for fame?

I don’t think so; there are easier ways to get famous and certainly cheaper/easier ones.

Why does that kid sit in his room practicing guitar licks for 4 hours a day? Why does that 30 something guy keep getting in that van and playing shitty pub gigs to 20 people? Why does that couple spend every penny they earn to follow their favourite artist around the country on their tour?

I wish I could tell you but I am as bamboozled as to the significance of music as anyone, but I will say one thing…I am glad I have it in my life!

I would love to hear about your stories and your relationship with music, so please comment and let me know!!!

For those of you that are fans of valentines and are looking to spend the evening with your special one, here is the awesome track ‘A Spark In The Air’ by MiXE1:



For those that would rather the whole thing just went away and shut up, here is ‘Parasite’ by Defeat:


PS. Message to the Missus, happy valentine’s day Kathy ;)

Promotion>Production>Product?

Promotion>Production>Product?

Random thoughts from Steve Fearon.

It is perhaps a sign of our times of over-commercialisation and our attitude to music, that I am seeing an increasing amount of emphasis being placed on the marketability and production quality of a song/band over the actual quality of the 'product'.

I think in this day an age, production quality is more attainable than ever, and there is admittedly little excuse for less than at least mediocre production values, and an artists image is of course an important aspect of the whole package...however the lack of attention on the songwriting itself is becoming a little worrying.

With all the time and money spent by people on getting the PR and mix right, learning new production techniques, new social media methods...how many artists are putting the same effort into the art of songwriting?

How many people have spent days hunched over a computer trying to get that Kick sounding just right?

LOADS

how many people have spent days working on a vocal melody, or a nice transition from the bridge to the chorus, or in trying to learn new ways of writing challenging counter-melodies?

Less I am willing to bet.

I am not suggesting that we neglect the production, or the business side of creating music, but it worries me that these are often getting more time and attention than the art to which we all fell in love in the first place.

The song is what speaks to the heart, so if you get that right the rest will amplify it.

If you neglect the art, what will you have to shine up and market?

Ask Mr Cowell...he has made a career from it.

As a positive end to this rather dour article (Sorry!) here is a track from our latest addition to the roster, MACHINE ROX!

HMV – Too big to fail?

HMV – Too big to fail?

With the news that HMV has finally entered the drain it has been circling, there are a lot of cries for sympathy, shoe gazing and sadness that the High Street will be largely music free now.

With HMV dropping out, this leaves the digital big boys like Amazon and Itunes standing tall at the top of the music buying pyramid…and in some ways this is a big improvement…they have vastly bigger ranges of music, a well established interface and a better range of pricing.

However, what does this mean for the CD? The Vinyl? These items may truly be a niche medium very soon, which will be a shame.

The next 12 months will be very interesting with regards to how the big Record labels react, having been left with just the Supermarkets as a physical presence in many places, perhaps they will write off the CD now and fully embrace a digital approach?

Interesting times...

Ramblings Of A Very Intoxicated Madman By Dejan of Digital Diktator

Ramblings Of A Very Intoxicated Madman

By The Diktator

Greetings fellow prisoners of planet Earth. 

Thought it would be time to get some of my personal thoughts out there, for all of you to enjoy…hehe 

"The Eye Is My Teacher….Enlightenment Flows… Pathways Open…. There Came Lord Steve" - this is exactly how I would explain the beginning of our bands journey….if i would write my own "bible"….which would then be read in a few thousand years…….and again be misunderstood, by a bunch of retards……:) 

But anyway, I and the rest of the Diktator crew - Rösti and The Dynamic Statue, are very proud to be a part of SDR. It‘s good to be here in its beginnings and enjoy the unified progression through the times, with the best label mates someone could ever hope for and whom WE, if all goes as it should, hope to meet very very soon!!:) 

And if I ever hear somebody say that there is no more freshness in electro, i will bash his face in, and after he wakes up from the coma, send him a few links….:) Because i think those sheeple don‘t even know what the are saying‘… SDR should be a synonym for versatility, because it has everything, from drama, happiness and romance to terror, hatred and insanity. But some humans seem to be deaf AND blind… 

And don‘t get me started about the youth of today and their lack of respect towards artists/bands/performers and the "Single Based Structure" of listening to music. 

Nowadays, most humans just listen to singles… It‘ pathetic. But i won‘t go there, i will not make this post about my utter hatred towards those kinds of sheeple….. Because i think i already made my way of thinking clear throughout the years…hehe This is more about our gratitude for Steve and the rest of the SDR crew, for taking us in and making us a part of something special. We will never disappoint them!!!! And next year, at the SDR Gathering, we will show everybody that their faith in us is not in vain and that British Electro is alive, mad, fresh and intelligent and make them shout SDR SDR SDR!!!!!! 

Although, technically we are not British,hihi….But that‘s how at home SDR has made us feel. 

We know we are not British, yet every time we make music, talk to our label mates or think about the future of Digital Diktator, we all feel like we are just a few minutes away from everybody:) And hopefully, one day, we will be. Because we love this bunch of misfits:)) And the fact, that they are all so open minded, fascinates us. We can be who we are and still, they show us love. They represent everything, which i like to call Homo-Luminous a.k.a. Human 3.0, The Awakened Ones.

Here, at SDR, I and my minions can be who we are and we are grateful and happy :) Hard to find interesting, intelligent and open minded people these days. And we have:) In a way, we are all different in one concept or another, yet together we form a unity, which no one will be able to break. It makes my ears clap:) So to Steve and the SDR disciples we would like to say THANK YOU and here‘s to 50 more years!!!!! SHEMHAMFORASH!!!!

This is it for now, yet it shall be continued!!!

And to our fans i would like to say this:

I know it has been a while since the last post of songs, but we are 110 percent in the making of 2 albums at once, because we have a lot of material, which, we think, needs to be released soon, for the next batch of ideas to get recorded:) And since some parts of the music production got delayed, we decided to continue on the re-release of our first EP, transforming it into an album with re-mixed/re-mastered versions of old songs and added new songs, until we wait. So, yes, it took some time, but as soon as both are finished, everything will go faster and it won‘t take as long for the next album to get released…. and after both are released, we have something special planned, of which i shall not reveal anything yet :) But trust me, it will be awesome, hilarious and it will make the world dance:) 

And, we even have plans worked out,for after that one…so, our friends and fans, get ready for some major insanity to arrive from the Diktator camp in coming years!! So thank you all for exposing your ears to our sounds, and hope you‘ll all dig the future of Digital Diktator!!

Until next time my friends and before i go, i leave you with this, Digital Diktator - Seek Help:

Making music for the fiscally challenged By Gary Walker (Defeat)

Making music for the fiscally challenged - a case for using "freebies" By Gary Walker (Defeat)

To many (i.e. most) of us electronic musicians, I suspect that cost is one of major factors that governs the gear we buy and the software and plug-ins we use.

To borrow a phrase from Family Guy's Peter Griffin, what really "grinds my gears" is that some folk out there (usually "pros" who wouldn't think twice about dropping a ton of cash for a Macbook pro or a very expensive suite of plug-ins) still think that for serious music making you need to spend serious amounts of money and use serious gear, hand-made by nymphs and delivered via unicorn.

OK, I'm exaggerating a bit, but the cost of some gear is frankly beyond the reach of most of us mere mortals who have day-jobs and families to support and don't have the luxury of making a living from making music.

The point I'm trying to make is this: for a long time, I've beaten myself up that I'm not using Kontakt, Nexus, or whatever the current VST-du-jour is.

After agonizing over the fact I may not be using the "right" synth for a bass part or the wrong drum plug-in, I'm now at the point now where I actually no longer care and I tend to use free VSTs alongside those that are part of my DAW.

This is not to say I'm the modern embodiment of Ebeneezer Scrooge - far from it - I've found that ploughing my own furrow this way has allowed me to find my own sound, rather than sound like “everyone else". It has also forced me to be more creative and experiment, and I find myself creating my own sounds from scratch rather than relying on presets.

There is a lot of great free stuff out there to be found for us impoverished musicians to use, so I urge all of my fellow musicians to see what free treasures you can unearth and use on your next masterpiece - seek and ye shall find!

Thanks to Gary for his thoughts!

For those of you that haven't checked out Gary's act 'Defeat' yet, check this out!

Defeat's Outburst EP and their free to download Remix album can be found here!

Is 'Industrial' relevant?

Industrial as a 'genre' has always been problematic for me, as its always been a bit of a fluffy term.

What exactly IS Industrial?

What links VNV Nation, Combichrist, Skinny Puppy, Covenant, Hocico, Ministry and Apoptygma Bezerk so that they can exist alongside each other?

Wikipedia (the wonderfully informative and unreliable source that it is) describes Industrial Music as:

"Industrial music is a style of experimental music that draws on transgressive and provocative themes..."

and later continues:

"While the term was initially self-applied by a small coterie of groups and individuals associated with Industrial Records in the 1970s, it broadened to include artists influenced by the original movement or using an "industrial" aesthetic.^[3] These artists expanded the genre by pushing it into noisier and more electronic directions. Over time, its influence spread into and blended with styles including ambient and rock, all of which now fall under the post-industrial music label. The most notable hybrid genres were industrial rock and industrial metal, which include bands such as Nine Inch Nails and Ministry, both of which released platinum-selling albums in the 1990s. Electro-industrial music is a more recent development. These three genres are often referred to as simply industrial."

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Industrial_music

Clear as mud I am sure you will agree.

So what we are left with is a music genre that is largely defined by the aesthetics and themes as opposed to the instrumentation, BPM or Rhythm..

So why persist with a genre name that is so unhelpful in encapsulating the music under its umbrella, and does the modern scene have any relevance to this genre?

Some would argue most modern Industrial music sits under the separate genres of EBM, Electro Rock/Metal, Future Pop and Hardstyle all of which regularly flirt with Dubstep, Drum and Bass, and the more mainstream electronic genres.

With established artists like Uberbyte making steps towards the more mainstream dance scene, and Combichrist reaching out to the Metal scene, perhaps things are already in motion.

I suppose time will tell as to whether Industrial will survive as a genre or be reduced to an aesthetically descriptive term only, much like Cyberpunk, Steam punk or one could argue, Goth.

I will leave you today with a little taster of a track that straddles a few different genres all at once...the beautiful, epic and majestic 'The Window' by Digital Diktator:


Available as part of a free download here:Digital Diktator - From The Edge Of The Universe

February Update

Just a quick update to let people know what is going over at SDR HQ.

Digital Deformation

Matt is diligently working away on his next album, and from the few bits i have heard, its going to be a real stonker!

After the great response to 'No Signal', big things are expected of the next album and you will not be disappointed.

We are aiming for a release towards the end of the year :)



Digital Diktator

Our friends in Slovenia are just putting the finishing touches to their debut EP, which i expect to be able to hear in the next 7-14 days before we begin uploading some tracks for people to enjoy.

Following that will be their debut album, which is going to be going in a slightly different direction.

We should have some more news about Digital Diktator very soon!



Ghost In The Static

We are currently finishing up a few tracks on the new album, which we will be releasing some details about very soon.

There is also 'The Infection Vol 2' which like Vol 1 will be free to download and feature remixes from some of the hottest artists in the Alternative Electronic scene.

This will be made available very soon!

Ghost In The Static will be playing Dark 7 on March 10th for the 2nd year straight, details of which are available on the left column of this page, including links to buy the tickets direct from our webstore.



MiXE1

MiXE1's eagerly anticipated follow up to Module 01 is nearing release, with dates and track details available very very soon.

There will also be a Limited Edition Module 01 & Module 02 CD produced for you CD collectors that will feature several bonus tracks that will not be featuring on any other releases, so this is going to be a real collectors edition!

There are also a few other releases in the pipeline for MiXE1, but you will have to wait for more info on those ;)

For those of you that missed it first time round, here is an interview MiXE1 recorded for the 'Incoming Fire' Podcast last year ;)



Watch this space people!

Xmas means FREE MUSIC!

Digital Deformation have made their sensational album 'No Signal' available for free download for the next 5 days!

Make sure you get yourself one of THE albums of 2011 right HERE

ALSO

Ghost In The Static will be releasing their first material from their new album on the 16th December,  in the form of 'The Infection Vol I' which has a brand new track plus 4 remixes from Cyvergence, Ninja Spice, Witness The Apotheosis and Kaziko White completely FREE!

The tracks are available to stream, and eventually download right HERE

If you would like the tracks sooner, simply click 'attending' on this event HERE and if we get to 100 before this Friday (9th Dec) we will make the tracks available earlier :)

Thanks for your time!

Coming up...

Just wanted to post a quick update about what we have in store for you patient people out there ;)


OCT - Approx release date for Digital Deformations Single/EP release of 'Command Unit' which will feature some surprises in the B-Sides, this is not to be missed, and will help to reinforce Digital Deformation at the cutting edge of the UK Industrial scene!


NOV/DEC - Approx release date for 'Module 02' by MiXE1. An eagerly anticipated release to follow up on the excellent Module 01, which is available to stream to the left of this post. Taking a more personal perspective, MiXE1 will open up for the listeners in ways they hadn't dared imagine before.

LATE 2011 - Ghost In The Static are set to release a remix EP featuring remixes from some of the hottest artists around the Electronic scene based on two tracks from the forthcoming album. So not only will this be a fascinating insight into the different approaches of some great UK Industrial acts, it will also allow a preview of some new music!

EARLY 2012 - Ghost In The Static are aiming to release their follow up to 'The Open Eyed Dreamer Part I', which is yet to be named, but is very much underway. It will be following a darker, more aggressive path than the debut and will be looking to establish Ghost In The Static as THE Industrial Rock band in the UK.

There is some more news to come, but for now you will have to wait ;)

Steve Fearon

Static Distortion Records goes LIVE!

As of the 2nd September, Static Distortion Records is now live!


We will be looking for additional acts, promotional opportunities and to build relationships and will be trying to bring you the best in alternative electronic music in the UK!


As a treat, MiXE1 has released a brand new track for FREE download.


Please get yourself a copy of the fabulous 'Spark In The Air' today!