spellchecker

Why, because it hurts to hear it? I maybe wouldn't have said it quite like that, and the only staff that ever bothered me were the "security", but he has a point. Maybe it's time there was a gap in the market to let the interested parties re-assess, re-group and reform. And do it properly. At best the Lemon Tree & staff deserves some sympathy and some good old nostalgia, it sure as hell doesn't deserve more people putting more money into their pockets. They've been doing that long enough. Meritocracy.

i once had a neighbour in a rented flat downstairs who liked to play her beats fairly loud with lots of bass. i think it must have been quite loud because she was on the ground floor and i was still getting lots of bass, me being above her. i hate telling people to turn music down because i feel like an arsehole and also i like listening to my music too, but i also hate it when i can't think for the rhythm violating me through the floor. so i decided to ask her to turn it down. she obviously had a couple of mates round, but it was quite late, around 11.30pm or something. i asked her if she could just turn the bass down a bit as that was all i was hearing. she politely said she would and i skipped happily upstairs. she turned the music up. i was furious! it was as if she had put dog poop in a bag, put it on my doorstep, set fire to it and knocked on my door! i didn't quite know what to do - should i call the police? i really didn't want to do that, as i thought that would escalate it to a new level. maybe i should go down and ask her to turn it down again and be more annoyed. or maybe i should just wait until they stop. then i remembered i had my 400W valve bass amp sitting in the alcove that probably needed a bit of a warm up. why not, i thought. i put the cabinet face down on the floor, probably just above her light fitting in the living room. i plugged in and switched on the cabinet and put it on standby, letting it warm up for a few minutes. i turned the gain up full and the volume half way to 5 - this was quite exciting, i'd never had it past about 2 before, even at a gig! i plugged in the bass and picked the low B string. well fuck me! everything not heavy enough or secured rattled right off my desk! 1 note - 5 seconds = shut the fuck up i recommend it.

just wanted to say if anyone else is interested, rubadub just dropped the price of their novation xiosynth 25 to 150 - a total bargain (except for me who bought it a month ago for 180 quid!!). it is a great multi function musician's tool.

novation xiosynth 25 - built in class compliant usb soundcard (2in 2out) - 1 line in - 1 XLR in (including +48v phantom power) - built in synth (same as in novation x-station) - MIDI over USB or from midi through port about 180 from rubadub down in glasgow (can order over internet)

crowdsurfing at radiohead in 95 was definitely the highlight for me, still have the tour t-shirt from that gig - boy it's geeky looking, different though! it was an amazing gig. remember reef in 1996 being really good too, sure it was in december sometime. proclaimers a few years back were smashing as well. wildhearts was a good one too.

for a more percussive approach the SPD-S is also an interesting option, our drummer has used one of these since 2003 Roland SPD-S Sampling Pad :: Overview limitations we have found are that the compact flash memory cards it accepts are limited up to a size of 512mb, even though you can obviously buy much larger cards these days. it just means buying multiple cards and swapping if necessary at gigs if you have particularly long samples. they are pretty sturdy and are built to take a bit of a beating.

i have an antares autotune atr1a going spare it is in greece though. i am going there in a few days however so if you were keen to buy it i could take it back for christmas. would want about 200 for it. it is in perfect working order.

i came onto the forum today to post a link to the article mentioned in the second post by elizabeth, she beat me to it, by a number of days it seems! having almost sent myself to sleep reading everyone's old arguments of yesteryear, i can tell most people probably didn't read the link in question. it is a long article but worth reading and it is good because it is not so much an opinion as an appraisal of the current state of play. well, there is of course opinion in there, but really - it is stating the obvious. there is an interesting quote that i am fond of, by R Buckminster Fuller: "You never change things by fighting the existing reality. To change something, build a new model that makes the existing model obsolete." interestingly i usually think about that quote in a futuristic sense but in the context of the music / record industry it seems to be applicable retrospectively. like it says on the interview with trent reznor / saul williams that Neil posted, OiNK filled a void that users remedied themselves, whether you agree with the legality or morality, it remains true. it would be nice to think that the industry, including distrubution outlets, record companies, artists, etc. can evolve - i find it hard to imagine a total collapse where all label went bankrupt and all contracts with majors became void. but if that did happen, then so what? like stripey said - music on, over, through the internet is here to stay, period. i was a heavy user of audiogalaxy (after the time of napster) but since then i have never really used the internet to download music except for one off tracks - usually old ones that i listen to out of curiosity! but i never download full albums. i am much more of an old tape style copier - i have been encoding my own mp3s since 1998 and since 2001 it changed to .ogg files, hence why my mp3 player is iaudioand runs rockbox! i borrow albums from friends and copy them, especially new ones of artists i haven't heard. i do buy cds as well, but i suppose i am an album behind buyer - i copy an album and if i like it i will buy the cd of the next album, usually. i used to feel a little guilt over the fact that i have about 6 therapy? albums that i have copied but have never bought a cd of theirs, except for an old ep called pleasure death. i have listened to their albums thousands of times, too. however, i have been to see them about 6 times, only once in aberdeen and only once at a festival, in london - the rest travelling to edinburgh and glasgow. i reckon they have made more money from me buying tickets and remaining popular when gigging than the value they would have got from me buying cds. if the notion of music sharing devalues a recording of music, then so what? if it encourages or even forces musicians to get out there and be actually be performers and really promote themselves, then that is a good thing. it has never been "easy" - in any day and age - to successfully make money from being a musician alone. i think if you are a musician you choose a slightly nomadic / unorthodox lifestyle, and if you want fair reward for your trade then earn it as hard as anyone else, instead of sitting at the bar nursing your spirits wondering why no-one buys your cds. for me, when i lived in aberdeen i liked to support the bands that came to town that i liked. i saw thomas truax the second time he came to aberdeen and went to see him everytime after that. same with chris tt and gatechien. i bought cds from all of them. each of these gigs i went to were busier each time the artist returned. i find it hard to have sympathy for RF Scott - nothing personal - maybe i have misunderstood what you have said or how you feel about these things. can i ask questions: - regardless of the morality of music downloading, do you think prolific music downloading affects your label in particular? - you say the margins are much tighter for local labels compared to major labels - agreed! but what is the point you are making? if you are doing it for the music not the money and you are losing money and continue to do so, then your label is a hobby - it is something you do because you love it and feel it is achieving something important if not for many people then at least yourself. if you are doing it for money and you are losing money and you continue to do so then obviously your business model needs rethinking. of course these are obvious points but if you are a business then there is no point being "good" to artists if it is at your own expense.

i dread to think what else is in the drawer that you pulled that mask from

i think ian put it down for a rest because neither the promoters nor bands were doing the bare minimum to get the listings in. i think certain promoters (not sure who) didn't pay for adverts after they promised to, and the whole process of getting listings from promoters / venues / other interested parties was beginning to be comme le floggage du cheval mort. as the original developer of the terribly un-aesthetic yet functionally useful website, i am sad that it has not been kept up to date by those whom it directly benefits, i.e. promoters and bands. the website at its peak was getting around 500 hits a day which was great news for aberdeen - that so many people were interested in what's on in aberdeen - and testament to the burgeoning live music / entertainment scene that often exists in the toon. as far as i know, the website is still up and running and you can enter content for submission, so if anyone has a an urge to get it going again, contact the promoters, or do the work yourself if you are keen enough. it was a very useful resource for me personally.

i have been abroad for the last six months and i've found that the cheapest way is to use a combination of skype and your uk mobile sim. if i want to send texts, i use skype - you can set your return number on the text message so if people reply it will come straight to your phone. in my experience it doesn't cost to receive text messages abroad, only costs to receive phone calls. hope that helps

don't know much about Futurepop, but Electronic and Electronica cover a large subset of music. for EBM, try the wikipedia page here: Electronic body music - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia from the artists there the ones that i've heard most stuff by are the likes of Front 242, Frontline Assembly, Nitzer Ebb, as well as other bands like Neurotic Fish, Covenant, maybe VNV Nation though maybe it's electronica too. for electronica, again the wp page: Electronica - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia however with electronica the genre is a lot wider, and can be anything from Goldfrapp to Smashing Pumpkins (adore), Bjrk, Depeche Mode, Motor, T. Raumschumiere, Aphex Twin.... often it seems areas and sounds of electronica are integrated into a band's more traditional genre or bands that span many different genres, like in the case of Smashing Pumpkins, Fear Factory, Skinny Puppy, The Young Gods, LCD Soundsystem, Nine Inch Nails, Radiohead..... then of course there are the different kinds of dance, techno, house, trance, drum and bass that all naturally incorporate electronic and electronica elements, often the work of one composer or DJ, e.g. Richie Hawtin, BT, Alex Smoke, Richard D James, Liam Howlett (prodigy), Anders Trentemoeller.... but not always, like in the case of Booka Shade, Utah Saints!, and some others i am sure! i am not to au fait with genre boundaries and quite how one artist slides into one genre and not another as much of this music i have begun to like in the last 2 or 3 years, i just listen to what i like, though probably worth mentioning that i can't remember the last time i listened to a straight guitar rock artist! times change i suppose. anyway here's a summary of what is high on my list of listening at the moment: EBM: none, just doesn't do it for me Technoey/Minimalist/House/Electronica: - Booka Shade - Alex Smoke - Richie Hawtin (DE9 Transitions is all i have at the moment) - Trentemoeller (HIGHLY recommended) - Motor - T Raumschumiere - The Field There are obviously hundreds more bands that are equally and more prominent in these genres, these just signify some that are popular with me at the moment, or that i have been introduced to, etc. etc. if you want to find out more about this kind of music and are about town, 1. find a couple of albums you like the style of, and then go see yogi in one up, and ask him for suggestions, he is absolutely great for that and is always great for keeping an eye on new stuff 2. ask calum working in the sound booth next time you are in drummonds, about what sort of things you like and what else you might like in that style, i have been introduced to much (most!) good music from calum, who in turn gets some really great stuff via yogi surprisingly amazon is quite good for researching this stuff, with the "people who liked this also bought" etc. etc. i've had a couple of blinding recommendations from amazon, like The Field and Hybrid... but have also found things in tandem with reading on Wikipedia, like BT, and older stuff like Way Out West, Underworld.... have fun! when i opened up my eyes to dance/electronic/techno/house it was like my musical life was born again and reinvented - there is no end of pleasure in listening, searching and discovering new music in these areas, unlike my experiences in rock/metal/indie music where my imagination and ability to be inspired by has stagnated significantly in the last five years. just need to get a big 400w woofer for my car now and i'll be set!

it's all a bit too web 1.0 really

i would definitely second the alex smoke recommendation (paradolia), it's a great album for sure. not ambient though! stripey recommended an album to me ages ago which i thought was quite good: Shulman : in search of a meaningful moment more towards the ambient spectrum i would say. it's not an album i play every week for sure, but i do enjoy when i put it on.

if the website attendance/usage drops to a level that there has to be some moderator redundancies, could i suggest that we have a poll to choose who goes, in an x-factor style public execution! on a less serious note, there isn't much point in posting drummonds listings. because there's the advertised listings, and then there's the "oops we double booked again" listings; never the twain shall co-exist peacefully.

yes well it's very nice, but i have to say i was rather disappointed when i clicked on 'RAVES' and all i got were some poxy words. i was expecting glow sticks skin tones and some serious gaussian blur

i know a plumber who has just recently qualified actually, he lives in newcastle but used to live in aberdeen, would maybe travel for the job? he is 30. if you are interested (and he is too) i could get him to give you a call?

i'd love to but i'm a bit geographically challenged at the moment. what kind of music do you think you will make? what kind of setup will the band have, i.e. guitars/drums/flutes/banjos/harpsichords/tubas? is it for fun or is it professional?

i have one and used it for most of the gigs i did with dear john. bass collection made 4 and 5 string basses with active electronics usually. i had a 5 string. i bought it new from the bass centre in london with a hard case for about 500 quid i think. i think they went out of business or stopped making basses a couple of years back. Michael from Subsistence also used to have one identical to mine I think. I like mine, it is fun to play; the bass needs to be setup correctly for the B string to sound good, but the E string is very nice and boomy, i find it more kicking than any other bass i have played.

i used to sympathise with your view: http://www.aberdeen-music.com/forums/comments-suggestions/23737-stop-moving-bloody-threads-all-music-discussion.html that was around 18 months ago. i was going to say that i think the situation has become "worse", but really something more has happened in my opinion: - bebo/myspace have perhaps taken away somewhat from the social aspect of a-m.com - in the last five years, the number of local bands playing in aberdeen venues, whether they are online or not, has grown a lot. i think this is in part to do with the growing number of venues willing to put on local live acts. the point being that if bands were all to ask for feedback, most likely they wouldn't get any and you would have a lot of zero-reply threads - as ian said, the music discussion does seem to turn over a lot more quickly than the feedback forum. I don't live in Aberdeen anymore, but I do like being able to keep up with what's going on gig wise through this website. I like the feedback forum: i wish more people used it, but in a way, i've come to appreciate its 'solo' forum nature. its purpose is clear and i think it is effective for those that use it. i think some people (myself included) wished more for the aubl forum kind of feedback, which to be honest a-m.com hasn't seen for about 4 years in my opinion, in the same manner and scale. however i don't think that is the fault of a-m.com - i think the popular music scene has changed a lot and brought in a lot of new faces. back in 2001/2002, i seem to remember the scene focus online being metal/punk/ska - where as these days i would say it is more pop/indie/extreme. the infrastructure has never been lacking with this website, on the contrary i think it is almost too much in the forefront: i think sometimes that the almost OCD like categorisation of forums and sub forums can make interest wane, because it is more work for some people to have a 'casual browse'. it must be a difficult balance to keep between hands off approach (with the risk of losing visitors who can't keep up with the pace of change) versus the strict forums categorisation that has been seen in the last couple of years. to be honest i am surprised Neil still has the stomach to keep this website going after so long, though i have to commend him for doing so (does this website never have downtime?? christ!). i would be interested to see usage statistics over the last 3 years, to see the variations in active member counts over seasons and over changing web trends such as bebo/myspace etc. etc. it would be interesting if one day this website was suddenly switched off, to see what people would miss the most - i can guess it wouldn't be the feedback forum (for most people), yet i am sure a lot of the smaller, low post but high readability forums would be missed, such as musicians corner, classifieds, feedback forums. at the end of the day, there are websites online that have the same purpose as the feedback forum, and are very popular. i suppose that if we're honest we like the idea of the feedback forums here because the readership is local and smaller, so if we do something good, we are more likely to be noticed and respected! how vain we are!

i'm glad chocolate hotdog and the sausage flavoured monkey came in first, i was getting a bit worried there for a minute

i like this, it reminds me a bit of dj signify, and as such i could imagine sage francis or buck 65 dubbing over it! mysterious though. i really like the trebley guitar piece though. if they remake dirty harry with a modern twist, this track should be filled out and fitted to the soundtrack.

cool, that last album sounds really interesting, will check it out once i land somewhere i can be posted to! i went to see nathan fake when he played at snafu a while back, but we turned up too late and missed the whole set. d'oh. have also been listening to richie hawtin, and some Motor stuff, really like Motor's first album. first track is amazing! ta for the suggestions.

i don't want to ruin it by over listening but that is inevitable now anyway. i found it while looking up some booka shade stuff. does anyone recommend other things in this field (oops pun) in similar or not so similar styles?

Is anyone else listening to this album? I think it came out in May. It was a 'recommendation' from amazon, so i decided to buy it on a whim after being distinctly underwhelmed by some other big albums released this year failed to excite. it's brilliant! just wanted to say that.