27/09/2008

Art Groupie (2008)



for more details on the Art Groupie (2008) compilation visit Groovescooter Records.
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released september 26, 2008

Following the success of the 2006 Art Groupie show, the fine folk at Groovescooter Records expanded for the 2008 version, with over 30 artists and their artworks. That, of course, means that the compilation discs were expanded as well, into a double CD set. Featuring hand painted and stamped artwork from Paris at Groovescooter, the discs were originally only available as freebies at the opening of the exhibition. Disc One is the mellower of the two, while Disc Two features more raucous and up-tempo offerings. That's where you'll find Telafonica's 'Everything Is Green Except The Way I Feel", slightly edited and segued expertly with the tracks around it. In fact, this attention to detail in the programming makes this a remarkably cohesive listening collection considering the diverse range of sounds across the two discs.

Disc One
1. Amanda Stewart - Residue
2. Amanda Cole - Vibraphone Theory II
3. O||O - That Sound
4. Peret Mako - The Plot Thickens
5. iota - Drop Down Angels
6. Nicola Schultz - Shih
7. Steve Kilbey - Wolfe
8. All India Radio - Persist
9. Night Radio - Maps In The Sky
10. Melanie Horsnall - Lovers Home
11. Zeal - Yumi And The Sky
12. Heidi Elva - Nothing Is What It Seems
13. Mick Turner - Neither Here Nor There

Disc Two
1. The Hoo-Haas - Hick Up 'Ere
2. Caroline Kennedy - Meer Acken
3. Gustoclout - Car Of Idiots
4. Ben Ely's Radio 5 - I'm Psyched
5. Danger Of Death - Nancy Boy (Hot Plate Mixdown)
6. Cherry2000 - Feel Like A Man
7. Telafonica - Everything Is Green Except The Way I Feel
8. Justin Cooper - Refused Morning
9. The Dub Dentist - The Dark Side
10. Deprogram - Monkey
11. Toy Death - Smothered Love
12. Kristofir - The Information Booth
13. Don Meers - Ghost Train (Mothloop Remix)
14. Forenzics - Submariner
15. Volume=Colour - Passing Signs

22/09/2008

cardboard and paint

i realised yesterday that i didn't have a leisurely 4 days to build the covers as i originally thought because i am heading to canberra for a 2 day excursion. so i did a week's worth of screenprinting (4 layers in cmyk - 53 copies - that's all the a3 cardboard the newsagents had left - we're getting 60 discs) in a day today and have 11 cut and folded so far. now all we need is for the actual discs to arrive by thursday and everything will be great.


21/09/2008

september cup

virb!

i updated my virb page, in thinking only good of your (Adrian) idea about using it as a kind of blogging tool.
there you go.

20th on cabinet pin

well, as promised nearly a month ago, bec and i had a go at the 20th thing for cabinet pin music. blake also created something, but i'm assuming that will be lessons in time. the piece bec and i worked on is up at the virb site so have a listen a feel free to give feedback.

18/09/2008

the separation

another updated mix of the separation is now up on virb - the separation demo 18-9-08. i've removed a lot of sounds so there's a lot more space, and re-dynamicised it, as well as clean the ending up a little.

i'll also get around to converting the virb site into a kind of blog for progressing demos. my idea is to just upload them as we go (i don't think there's a limit to how much you can upload on virb, though i could be wrong) and give a brief written explanation for each.

17/09/2008

about telafonica

i added an 'about telafonica' section on the right column today. read through and tell me if it's too wanky/not wanky enough/accurate/workable etc etc.

16/09/2008

the separation prepared this for another marriage

eliza did a quick recording of a vocal - one take, hand held sm58 so it's pretty raw. i did an even quicker mixdown with a simple reverb and compression on it, just so the idea is hearable. it doesn't end as such as we just cut and paste the middle section on the end to fit eliza's words, and that also causes the dynamics to move etc etc etc...but you get the idea. i've uploaded the track to the virb page, so have a listen and make any comments.

10/09/2008

whatsit?

I don't get your letter to the guitarist...

08/09/2008

it's all handmade these days mostly







david, i figured this was for art groupie, which you are in by virtue of the fact that you're in telafonica, so it warranted a place here.
i kno w you're probably not much in the headspace to make business decisions, with reverse jetlag now upon you just as you were almost getting over the original jetlag but...a deadline is upon us!

i got the screen done today and printed up some prints. i've decided that i'm just not capable of working with any sort of precision on this scale without the industrial end of equipment necessary for making screens. so here it is. obviously there are serious issues in the print with lots of patchy areas. i've taken some close-ups of some of the patchier areas to give you a full indication. in terms of print quality, it is just about perfect - all the patchiness is in the screen. i do like it in its way, but think it would probably be more successful as a layer in something a bit more complex.

anyway - what do you want to do? i can do more of these no problem. or i can get some printed up digitally. or we can go with the two you gave me. but it needs to be decided today or tomorrow so i can get framing done.

07/09/2008

dear mr wassell

Dear Mr Wassell.

Telafonica will no longer be requiring your services. We have found another guitarist who fit right in, played live with us without even a rehearsal and, most importantly, took a mere fraction of the time to set up that you yourself normally take.

We sincerely thank you for your past input.

Adrian Elmer
on behalf of the entire Telafonica team.

04/09/2008

i concur.

i agree with you, Adrian and Marcella (Hi Marcella, I'm Blake).. and I find interesting your point Marcella, in regards to the possibility of splitting the 'almost' released album..
Is that a serious consideration/possibility?... splitting the songs in the album into two, three ep's,,,

in thinking about my own, individual music and the way it should be presented, i saw the idea of the 'ep' having one common theme, direction etc.. as being the most logical and effective. and also it would give the most respect to each individual song on it. Rather than just being heaped together with all other songs written and produced in a period, the purpose of a song in itself (and collectively with others), becomes more significant... not just another piece to fill up 3-5 minutes on a disc.
in saying this, however, i do not think that this is anywhere near impossible in producing albums (maybe just a easy habit to fall into)... there are several albums i can think of that keep a central mood and musical purpose. which i really like.

short releases are a lot more appealing to the passing audience members i agree-adrian. so i think that they are good idea to pursue in the near future.
we should think about that in regards to the moving along of a couple of songs at the moment... 'the separation', your funky bass song... 

03/09/2008

morpheme online

it's not downloadable but you cam stream at any time - http://www.last.fm/music/Telafonica/Morpheme

i'll get downloadable versions up on archive.org soon, but they were already uploaded at lastfm - i just had to cahnge some settings to make them all listenable in full.

also...

Do you think we should make Morpheme available on the web somewhere for free? How many copies have you got left? If you don't want to could you put it somewhere for me to access, maybe the archive, so I can get to it if I want to? Might sound strange but being so far away from things makes you want to have access and when you don't it gets frustrating, not that I have any specific purpose for wanting it I just do! Actually I was trying to remember the words to some songs and couldn't and wanted to find them online...

yep yep yep

Adrian Elmer, I think you've hit on a genius plan. Yep yep yep I agree wholeheartedly in the mini release concept. I think this would help with some of the more eclectic work not having to hang necessarily together on an album. I even think we should do this for the stuff mooted for album #2, break it down, do a staggered release of this stuff. What do you think about this?

01/09/2008

excelsior hotel - 25.9.08

release culture

"The rise of CD-R culture has created a new aesthetic imperative among its listeners. The album is no longer to be perceived as a definitive statement, a honing down or summing up of an artist's concerns over a period of time. The notion that an album is a real-time snapshot, with its ephemerality deemed a plus point, is becoming more prevalent. Obviously, this makes financial sense; with recording and production costs so low, artists can't be blamed for cashing in by releasing everything they do. In any case, there's a hunger for these artefacts - though one imagines a substantial proportion of the audience are at it themselves - a need for something rough and real in an age of glossy cultural surfaces."

Keith Moline
in a review of releases by Ilyas Ahmed
Wire magazine
September 2008


i've become fairly enamoured of the d.i.y. approach to many things over the last few years. what has always bothered me a little, however, is that there is a d.i.y. aesthetic as well as a d.i.y. attitude. i generally subscribe to the d.i.y. attitude, but generally wouldn't immerse myself (though i have a passing interest in) the d.i.y. aesthetic, which often falls into the anti-music end of the spectrum. for me, i want to use the attitude but make things i personally love. i remember when we were planning artwork for the morpheme album, david saying that he liked the tension of being handmade without being nihilistic. i think that sums it up really well and it has actually grown into something of a manifesto for me.

but i also think that digital music distribution, in whatever form, is basically killing the album format. now i love albums more than anybody, but there are realities to face and the best way forward is to figure out solutions for the new paradigms, rather than try to fly in thier face, which is ultimately pretty futile. if you are an established artist, i think the album will still be around for you for a few years yet. but we are not that, and there's other options.

at this stage for us in the current landscape, i think steady streams of less work are more useful than big statements. i'm currently really liking the idea of short runs of things to sell at gigs etc, being sold very cheaply, and then maybe getting them online for free a year or so down the track. realistically, not many people are any longer going to shell out $30 or $20 for an album if they have a passing interest in you. however, there's a reasonable chance they might give you $5 for a 4 or 5 track ep if they have a passing interest in you. for my own satisfaction, the key is to still make that ep aesthetically pleasing, and an object in and of itself, while maintaining a budget just above zero. i'd really be happy to have a release every few months which, over time, would plot a progression. that paradigm also gives much more scope for diversification. for example, i love pop music, but i also love minimal electronic music. i can kill myself trying to work out how to mix the two across 12 tracks that can sit together on an album, or i can do a handful of each and get them out as separately released entities (though i'm not a fan of infinite aliases, i'm much more than happy for acoustic pop and minimal electronics to all be telafonica). and with people now drafted into our little collective (steve, blake, eliza) who all do their own things outside as well, i have to say i'm quite excited by the prospect of what the telafonica family could end up producing. and i do think the sheer weight of numbers of good quality stuff (because i think all the things the different people do are of good quality) will eventually create its own momentum, as it's already beginning to do.

vinyl record enthusiast peter king

i spent 25 minutes on the phone to peter king in new zealand last night. he sounds like a great guy. he went through everything we need to get things prepared for him to press the 7" records. so today i am mailing him a small parcel containing everything he needs to make 60 lathe cut 7" records for us. i'm quite excited. there's currently about a 5 week turnaround, but i told him about the launch on the 24th and he said they should be able to have them to us for that.

as soon as i finish this blog post, i'll upload some mp3s of the two tracks onto our virb site.