Yeah right! Every month was it to be? Well I suppose I kept the Ork Alarm! "irregular bulletin" tradition going. In heindsight perhaps once a month was a tad optimistic. Many thanks for the good wishes and help you have offered. Please feel free to contact Ork Alarm! regarding information or articles on anything that you feel is relevant.
Concerning the subject of relevance and the decisions as to which bands should be featured in Ork Alarm!, well that always was a grey area. From the moment articles started appearing in the original Ork Alarm! fanzine on Univers Zero and Art Zoyd the boundaries had started to move further away from "Zeuhl". Ok, Initially the fanzine concentrated on "Zeuhl" related or influenced bands but in later issues Paul Mummery replanted the fence posts to encompass more RIO related material as well as the occasional personal favourite. So I've decided to put a stop to all my concerns :-) Anything that is remotely considered Zeuhl or RIO is fair game and the rest is for you to decide! To some extent, every musical genre gets muddled and hijacked by fans of related styles of music (Soul and R&B especially spring to mind) and it could be argued that Zeuhl and RIO have a wider brief than ever before. The most important point though, is whether you, the reader actually like the music recommended by the reviewer. Does it really matter if it's considered Zeuhl, RIO, ZIO or Reuhl as long as the quality and originality are there? Obviously there are certain musical traits in these genres that appeal to likeminded folk who may visit this web site and it is understood that Ork Alarm! is not going to suddenly change musical tack. Ork Alarm! will continue to highlight potentially desirable music and point you towards the quality reviews that are out there in WWWland. The best that Ork Alarm! (online) can hope to acheive is to be a gateway for your awareness. You can't click a mouse these days without accidentally downloading an audio sample, so with a bit of patience and investigation there's never been a better time to avoid buying a bum steer.
I doubt that it has escaped your notice, but recently the price of the US Digital Drinkmat took a tumble. About time too! Those bastards have been ripping us off for far too long. And now it's our turn to rip off the Artists. Hooray for us! We'll show them who's boss. Pass me a modem and a Peer to Peer Napster substitute and I'm sorted.
Well ... Something along those lines, but it is interesting how the dynamic changes once that bottom line starts to evaporate. Whether this price cut will reverse the decline in CD sales and appease the masses is questionable. It assumes that, to some degree, the consumer is stealing the artists work as a protest to the price point and not just because of a thieving mentality.
Obviously we expect (nay demand!) that the Artist suffers for their art, but do we really want Britney Spears busking on Liverpool Street Station? I think not. Index linking todays rip off British CD prices against the 2 quid I paid for my Argent LP "Hold Your Head Up" in 197? isn't really the point. The problem lies in the fact that the consumer has been empowered with far too much ammunition. So, the Record and Film industry must fight back. But how? Appealing to our good nature doesn't seem to have worked, so it's all hands on deck, splice the price, drop the occasional file sharing virus (I wonder?!) and set sail for new encoding horizons. Mind you, I quite liked Vinyl.
Bloody Scientists! Why can't they leave things alone? OK the Cylinder was a bitch to file and you only had to look at Shellac and your Mantovani collection was in bits, but what was wrong with vinyl? Not many people had homemade pressing plants in their living rooms, did they? And there was never a danger with Reel to Reel (Can you imagine the size of the far eastern market stall knocking them out at 20 Bahts a lump?) but then came that dreaded word ... "minaturisation". The Compact Cassette heralded the beginning of the end. In a split second of eternity the digital age arrived and hiss free CD recorders were just a price point away from every tossper who thought they were a record label. And it's got worse! It's all moving too fast for me. I just know that on my 80th birthday (wood touched whilst typing!) my kids will be fitting me with the complete Seventh Catalogue Jaw Bone Implant on MP7 so I can dribble away the hours in tune at the rest home they've chosen for me.
Currently stapled into my iPod (after purchasing original product)
Patricia Dallio - "L'encre Des Voix Secrètes"
Franck Balestracci - "Existences Invisibles"
Louise Avenue - "Let's take one more..."
Univers Zero - Rhythmix
Hatfield and the North - "Hatfield and the North"
Caravan - "For girls that grow plump in the night"