November 2004 news

November 29, 2004

UPDATE

Minor changes to the website, namely:

- Older releases now have their cover thumbnail shown at releases page;
- Rui Gato added to the artists page. Watch out for an early 2005 release;
- We have abandoned the 'details' type link for the releases. You should now click over the release cat. number, tube'|001, tube'|002 and so on.

And that's all for now. Check back next week for tube006.

Bye.

November 08, 2004

ACROSS THE GLOBE

test tube releases are featured for the second time at ACOWO, a Japanese website suggestively subtitled 'Introduction of High Quality Netlabels'. This time, Kengo Miyazaki, ACOWO's webmaster, has chosen our latest, tube005.
It's nice to have friends so far away. Keep it up, Kengo!

November 06, 2004

GLITCH-POP GALORE!


• tube'|005 - :Papercutz - Nighttime at the Playground

«Behind the alias :Papercutz is Bruno Pinto, a 25 year old computer engineer, who started getting into electronic music in 1999, with a project called Oxygen, together with friend Nuno Maciel. Bruno has been evolving and learning to work with new tools ever since. While Oxygen was clearly electro-pop oriented, on :Papercutz Bruno reveals itself as a pop song composer, where singing takes an important place on this new work, thanks to the voice of Marisa Pinto and Bruno himself.
Impecably produced, the sound ambients on this 5 track EP range from sweet flavored IDM beats to cinematic instrumental piano pieces, giving ocasionally space for some experimentation with static and glitch processing, all wrapped up into a kind of Keyboard Pop, with a catchy and candid feel, and aestetically very appealing.
Nighttime at the Playground could easily be coming from Warp or Morr Music catalogues. Just download it and try not to use 'repeat all' too many times.» - Pedro Leitão

November 05, 2004

IT'S THE FUTURE, STUPID!

There's a very interesting article on The Economist about the future of music and online distribution. 'Oh no, not another one!', you might say. True, but this one is particular insightful, to say the least. Here's a couple of quotes:

«According to an internal study done by one of the majors, between two-thirds and three-quarters of the drop in sales in America had nothing to do with internet piracy. No-one knows how much weight to assign to each of the other explanations: rising physical CD piracy, shrinking retail space, competition from other media, and the quality of the music itself. But creativity doubtless plays an important part.»

Ok, so what's all about that 'witch hunt' they've been pursuing over the last 3 or 4 years? It's like that expression: 'Keep repeating yourself the lie until it becomes the truth'.

«Big firms have always relied on small, independent music firms for much of their research and development. Experimental indies signed Bob Marley, U2, Pink Floyd, Janet Jackson, Elvis Presley and many other hit acts. Major record labels such as CBS Records, to be sure, have signed huge bands. But Osman Eralp, an economist who advises IMPALA, a trade association for independent music companies in Europe, estimates that over 65% of the majors' sales of catalogue albums—music that is at least 18 months old—comes from artists originally signed by independents.»

«In the past, an important part of the majors' R&D strategy was to buy up the independent firms themselves. But after years of falling sales and cost-cutting, the majors have little appetite for acquisitions, and now rely more on their own efforts.»

Ok, does this mean that the Majors will start to pay attention to 'higher quality' independent artists, focusing their investment on creativity rather than popularity? That's a bit hard to believe. I don't see the briefcase suit Executives and A&R's checking the local underground spots and trying to persuade artists into joining their ranks. The same people that underground creative mass loathe and despise. Unlikely. But the future is coming, and it's coming fast!

Next on test tube: tube005 - :Papercutz