The sound of the crowd

ginger 555% cd set., a photo by The original SimonB on Flickr.

Busy, lazy, uninspired, forgetful, enjoying other stuff... Take your pick from any of these excuses for the continued paucity of posts. A bit early for thinking about New Year's Resolutions but I guess being better at this in 2013 will be an ambition.

Anyhoo, I've been wanting to waffle on about crowdfunding for a while now and today seems to be the moment. Partly becuase Ginger's 555% (as pictured above) won "Event of the year" at the Classic Rock awards last night. That was my first toe-dip into the murky waters of paying up front for something to be created without support or backing from the traditional music biz (as opposed to paying up front for something that already exists, which is what most normal shopping is after all, not often you get to try before you buy).

I can't remember when I first encountered the concept, but do recall reading something about Marillion raising money through their web site to fund a new album many years ago. It only properly registered with me when I first joined Twitter though, and people I was following started plugging projects on Kickstarter or Pledge Music. First ones they were aware of and supporting themselves, but then their own. And Ginger was the first that intrigued me enough to part with some cash. Of course I now wish I had taken the plunge earlier, but there you go.

The whole recording process was laid open to backers, with regular updates and sneak previews etc which, to my mind, brought the project alive. Watching a couple of minutes of video now and then in the run-up to release just made the sense of anticipation all the greater. Lots of artists are opening up the recording process these days through web exclusives and tweets and the like but most of my finding out about new albums still comes from seeing a review or even just spotting it in HMV. While such surprises are nice, I do enjoy a good build-up. And in this case the end product didn't disappoint - a triple CD set (distilled to a single disc selection by fan vote for retail release) featuring 30 tracks that have had more than a few listens since arrival.

Since then I have also backed (and received) the new albums from Amanda Palmer (there is going to have to be something pretty spectacular arrive in the next couple of weeks for Theatre Is Evil not to be my album of the year) and Ben Folds Five. Paul Miro, former singer with Derby band Apes, Pigs & Spacemen has done a pledge release through his own site, rather than one of the main players in the field, and already delivered in mp3 form with the physical disc to follow. That one I learned about through a comment on one of Ginger's posts, which made me doubly glad I'd backed that project as I would probably not relaised Miro was still going otherwise. Due in the New Year is an album of space songs from Kim Boekbinder, who I found out about through Amanda Palmer so it is all a bit circular in the crowd-funding world. I do take the occasional look through the Kickstarter and Pledge Music sites for other things that might be worth the risk, but nothing has sparked my interest as yet.

And then there is Ginger again. Not content with a triple album he also has another three on the go for this year. Two extreme noise and weirdness collaborations under the name Mutation and a power-pop thing called Hey, Hello. The bits of both that have been dribbled out so far have again whetted my appetite to fever pitch.

Anybody got any recommendations for other projects worthy of my cash?

All The Books Of 2011

All The Books Of 2011, a photo by The original SimonB on Flickr.

As in previous years, let us kick off 2012 with all my reading matter from 2011. This includes audio books (in italics) and graphic novels (including those serialised in Clint Magazine).

Santa was kind enough to bring me a Kindle, and the SFX Star Wars guide right near the bottom is the first thing I have read on it. Not sure what it will do to my reading habits as yet, but I am enjoying the use of it.

As may be obvious from the list, I have still been listening to the works of Terry Pratchett a lot, but have thrown in Alistair Maclean to spread them out a bit now...

Mike Gayle Wish You Were Here
Terry Pratchett Hogfather
Bob Fischer Wiffle Lever To Full!
Richard Hammond and Andy Wilman What Not To Drive
Neil Gaiman et al 1602
Alistair Maclean HMS Ulysses
Stephen Fry The Fry Chonicles
Terry Pratchett Carpe Jugulum
Paul Magrs Doctor Who: Sick Building
Roland Chambers The Last Englishman: The Double Life Of Arthur Ransome
Neil Gaiman American Gods
Arthur Ransome Old Peter's Russian Tales
Alain De Botton A Week At The Airport
Grant Morrison and Klaus Janson Batman: Gothic
Terry Pratchett The Fifth Elephant
Bill Bryson Shakespeare
Terry Pratchett I Shall Wear Midnight
Alistair Maclean The Guns Of Navarone
Mark Millar, Steve McNiven etc Nemesis
Terry Pratchett The Truth
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix The Gaul
Stephen Smith Underground England
Magnus Mills The Maintenance Of Headway
Peter Benchley Jaws
Simon Garfield Just My Type
Mike Gayle Men At Work
Dean Regan Windmills Of Suffolk
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Golden Sickle
Martin Watts Windmills
Jason Barlow (Ed) Top Gear: 100 Sexiest Supercars Of All Time
Neil Gaiman et al Eternals
Terry Pratchett Thief Of Time
Jean M. Auel The Land Of Painted Caves
Alistair Maclean South By Java Head
Terry Pratchett The Last Hero
Greg Gutfeld Lessons From The Land Of Pork Scratchings
George Orwell 1984
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Goths
Peter Anghelides Doctor Who: Pest Control
Henning Mankell The Pyramid
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix The Gladiator
Roger Wardale Arthur Ransome Master Storyteller
Doug Moench, Paul Glacy and Terry Austin Batman: Prey
Terry Pratchett The Amazing Maurice And His Educated Rodents
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Banquet
Mike Gayle My Legendary Girlfriend
Emma Kennedy I Left My Tent In San Francisco
Ian Harrison The Thames: From Source To Sea
Alistair Maclean The Last Frontier
Mark Millar et al American Jesus, Volume 1
Simon Schama The American Future - A History
Mark Gatiss The Devil In Amber
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And Cleopatra
James May Notes From The Hard Shoulder
Denny O'Neil et al Batman: Vow From The Grave
Terry Pratchett Night Watch
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Big Fight
Arthur Ransome Swallowdale
Richard Hammond A Short History Of Caravans In The UK
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix In Britain
Herman Melville Moby Dick
Paul Brickhill Reach For The Sky: The Biography Of Douglas Bader
Colin Barker Ipswich Tramways
Tom Baker Who On Earth Is Tom Baker (Abridged)
Dan Brown Digital Fortress
Garth Ennis, Amanda Conner et al The Pro
Bill Bryson Mother Tongue
Arthur Ransome Racundra's First Cruise
Neil Gaiman and Yoshitaka Amano Sandman: The Dream Hunters
Terry Pratchett The Wee Free Men
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Normans
Rachel Hewitt Map Of A Nation
Arthur Ransome Peter Duck
Henning Mankell Faceless Killers
Alistair Maclean Night Without End
Denny O'Neil et al Batman: Challenge Of The Man-Bat
Chris Jones Too Far From Home
Mark Gatiss Black Butterfly
Rene Goscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix The Legionary
David and Leigh Eddings The Redemption Of Althalus
Stewart Copeland Strange Things Happen
Mike Gayle Turning Thirty
Simon Singh Fermat's Last Theorem
Bill Bryson The Lost Continent
Stieg Larsson The Girl With The Dragon Tattoo
Arthur Ransome Winter Holiday
John Lloyd and John Mitchinson The QI Book Of The Dead
Jonathan Ross, Tommy Lee Edwards and John Workman Turf
Arthur Ransome Coot Club
Alistair Maclean Fear Is The Key
ReneGoscinny and Albert Uderzo Asterix And The Chieftain's Shield
Tim Severin In Search Of Moby Dick
Terry Pratchett Monstrous Regiment
Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Played With Fire
Richard Hammond Or Is That Just Me?
Arthur Ransome Pigeon Post
Paul Brickhill The Dambusters
Simon Garfield Mini
Bill Bryson Notes From A Small Island
Stieg Larsson The Girl Who Kicked The Hornets' Nest
Neil Gaiman Fragile Things
Joe Moran On Roads
SFX SFX's Unnoficial Star Wars DVD Viewer's Guide
Arthur Ransome We Didn't Mean To Go To Sea
Terry Pratchett Snuff

What books wil 2012 hold?

Faded Formats

Faded Formats 6, a photo by The original SimonB on Flickr.

So last night I finally caved in and paid for my first ever music download (Mr Blue Sky by Jim Bob (you know, him off of Carter) which is to be the theme for a new Radio 4 comedy written by Andrew Collins and starting next week). I'm not sure where I stand on the technological progress line between early adopter and total luddite, but I guess this step has been a long time coming.

I've been a ready purchaser of music for as long as I can remember (starting with a rip off version of the Star Wars soundtrack performed by the Sonic All Stars) but I guess I have been putting this move off for a long time. I like an object when I splash my cash, and this was the first song I have wanted to own that I can't get in a physical format. And it feels a bit odd to have it this way - do I now add it to my database of owned music or not?

It was a wrench for me when I started buying some albums on cassette rather than vinyl. While I had gathered a few that way over the years I can remember precisely the moment that size of medium and non-scratchability outweighed the ease of being able to drop the needle on any given LP track.

October 1986 and a family day trip to London during half term. Before we hit the main objective of the day (a museum visit) we had time to visit the Virgin Megastore on Oxford Street. The fact that I would have to carry them around with me for the rest of the day meant I ended up purchasing Emotional by Falco and Crash by the Human League on tape. OK, so they then went in my pockets but it somehow felt wrong. Especially as we then went on to buy a socking great dot-matrix printer around the corner on Tottenham Court Road and took turns carrying that for the rest of the day.

After that the die was cast and a succession of Walkmen were stuffed with tape after tape bought from the shops, rather than ones I'd recorded myself. Even the arrival of our first CD player in the house (and then my own) didn't stop me buying albums on tape despite the limitations of easy access to any given song and dodgy sound quality (well, they were half the price) until my final year at college in the early 90s. Something I regret now as there are stacks of them moldering away in the corner of my study and never being played.

But, if that day 26 years ago heralded the begining of the end of my vinyl purchases, have I now done the same for CDs? Probably not, because if nothing else for as long as they can be picked up on the high street or with the weekly shop I will continue to do just that. And my car stereo has no input jack so I'll need a continual supply of discs for the foreseeable there as well.