I Don’t Buy Records In Your Shop Now I Tape Them All | A Mixtape By Telafonica

April 14th, 2010 Stu

Telafonica are a Sydney band that operate more like an evolving, fluid collective rather that a rigid formation of players. Their original line-up has filtered into the diaspora, with core Australian members morphing into a four-piece that explore a long terrain, bordered by melodic pop on one side and experimental electronica on the other. Although the palate is broad, the influences are not always evident – hence, when Adrian from Telafonica suggested dropping a mixtape of tracks that acted as touch-points for the creation of their most recent album “Love On the Second Stair”, it was impossible to resist. Whilst many bands shroud themselves in unnecessary mystique, Telafonica take the opposite approach – here, by revealing their influences in such direct terms, and also at their web site, where work-in-progress conversations between members are carried out in the public domain. Stuart Buchanan

“In December of 2008, the Australian based members of Telafonica decided to specifically focus on the creation of a new album. They already had a handful of tracks in various stages of development that they had been playing in their live shows but were looking to see how to draw all these together, as well as create some new songs. One of the tactics used to give focus was the creation of half hour inspiration ‘mixtapes’ on CD to be shared around. In the end, only Blake and Adrian ended up compiling whole mixtapes, though Rebecca and Eliza contributed other tracks themselves as inspiration for specific Telafonica songs.

“The album was created and released in November of 2009 as ‘Love On The Second Stair’. This mixtape, developed especially for the Discontent blog, combines some of the tracks that were on the initial inspiration discs, along with other inspirations that came to the fore in the process of making the album, as well as some tracks from which samples were directly taken and used within the music that formed the finished album.

“There is obviously a wide range of things to be heard, from the most mainstream of mainstream to obscure side channels in the history of music. These reflect Telafonica’s bower bird approach to music construction, begging, borrowing and stealing from any and everywhere in order to compile their own postmodern, post-retro pop.

“In this mix, where a track appears in full, it has been either already made available by the original artists on the internet for free, or specific permission has been gained from the original artists to include their work. Obviously, a number of the tracks have not been made available for free and permission would be difficult (and costly) to secure. In those cases, the tracks have been used in a traditional sampling sense, with only very brief snippets occurring, and are generally processed in some manner.” Telafonica

DOWNLOAD: I Don’t Buy Records In Your Shop Now I Tape Them All | A Mixtape By Telafonica (69.7MB)

(nomo – all the stars)
(adam and the ants – kick)
(parts & labor – satellites)
(the martini bros – dance like it is o.k. (dj koze & the tease remix))
(the flying lizards – money (that’s what i want))
1. beem – RER
(the beatles – sgt pepper’s lonely hearts club band reprise)
2. balun – a surprise
3. whitewash – feather
(sigur ros – festival)
4. slareffenklang – you win
(bow wow wow – c30, c60, c90, go!)
(the jam – that’s entertainment)
5. ghoul – swimming pool
6. sufjan stevens – sister winter
7. hamilton yarns – newhaven to dieppe
8. go! team – junior kickstart
(the smashing pumpkins – tonight, tonight)
9. parades – exodus (telafonica treble remix)
10. underlapper – choking ibis

IMAGE: Cover Design by Telafonica

Tags: , , , , , , , , , ,

Posted in Mixtapes. | 2 Comments »

New Weird Australia, Volume Five

April 13th, 2010 Stu

(cross-posted from newweirdaustralia.com)

New Weird Australia Volume Five, March 2010, NWA005

DOWNLOAD ZIP FILE (AUDIO & ARTWORK):
Standard Quality, 160 kbps (92 MB) | Higher Quality, 320kbps (138 MB)

1. MOOKOID, Hex River Valley (3:32) from ‘Fishy’ (Pimalia)
2. DOT.AY, You Knight (5:25) previously unreleased
3. PEACE OUT!, Running On Sand, Walking On Water (4:29) from ‘Peace Out EP’ (self-released)
4. BURNING PALMS, Mockery (2:12) previously unreleased
5. THE ATLAS ROOM, Iris (5:18) previously unreleased
6. ///▲▲▲\\\, Spit Shine (2:00) previously unreleased
7. KATE CARR, Textopera (3:06) from ‘First Day Back’ (Retinascan)
8. RED PLUM & SNOW, I Would Die 4 U (2:21) previously unreleased
9. DUNS, Bad Rythm (sic) (5:47) from Cowardly Attack (c40 cassette, Willaston Tapes)
10. VORAD FILS, Temple Leak (2:42) from ‘The Warmest Static – POWWOW Ten’ (Feral Media)
11. JUSTICE YELDHAM, March Of The Bodypumpers (4:54) previously available as a Wire Magazine download
12. GAIL PRIEST, Etchings (3:22) previously unreleased
13. CAUGHT SHIP, BlackHole/SweatBeat (5:32) previously unreleased
14. CRAB SMASHER, Skin Destruction (3:58) previously unreleased
15. RIPPLES, False Mission (5:06) from ‘Ripples EP’ (self-released)
16. BLAKE FREELE, Inside There’s Expectations (8:59) previously unreleased

Compiled by Stuart Buchanan & Danny Jumpertz.
Artwork by Kris Keogh, kriskeogh.com

Click artist title for background information and links.
All music licenced via Creative Commons (Attribution Non-Commercial No Derivatives), except: Tracks 1, 3 & 6, all rights reserved.

Sleeve Notes, March 2010:

In his 2007 essay ‘Mob Rules’, futurist Mark Pesce noted that “John Gilmore, who co-founded SUN Microsystems … recognised an inherent quality of networks: they promote the sharing of information. This was codified in what I (only half-jokingly) call Gilmore’s Law: The net regards censorship as a failure, and routes around it.” This phrase has stuck with us in the intervening years – that the net (or more accurately, the human beings that use the net) finds censorship, and routes around it.

It came to mind again recently when considering the fracas surrounding the diminishing state of live venues in Sydney and Melbourne, highlighted by the struggles of The Tote and The Hopetoun. It was also front and centre of our minds when looking at the Australian Recording Industry Association’s 2009 Sales Report - claiming that despite an annual 72% increase in digital album sales, that “illegal file sharing… continues to erode profits and hamper investment into the local industry”. Clearly the mainstream music industry remains bewildered and befuddled by the ever-changing landscape unfolding beneath its ivory towers.

These are cited merely to highlight Gilmore’s Law in a new, weird, Australian context – that the artists on this compilation (and their kin spread throughout the country) find censorship, or find a blockage, and simply route around it. Closed venues are a blockage, mainstream industry machinations are a blockage, lazy media are a blockage, indeed any predefined ‘norm’ that restricts freedom of expression and dissemination of art, is a blockage – and in all these cases, we simply find it, and we route around it.

Crab Smasher and Red Plum & Snow route around distribution hierarchy and manufacturing expense by selling their music direct to fans on the digital platform Bandcamp. ///▲▲▲\\\ routes around traditional expectations of PR & marketing by refusing to be photographed and refusing to present a media release or bio, yet still ends up featured on the renowned U.S. site, The Fader. Justice Yeldham, aka Lucas Abela, finds a wall of noise and litigation around illegal downloads and routes around it by promoting Australian music on WFMU’s Free Music Archive (and thanks to Lucas, you’ll also find our releases there soon). The Atlas Room and Mookoid wind up on this compilation by routing around existing promo & media frameworks by hitting us up directly on Soundcloud. Burning Palms route around traditional marketing and find themselves with over 500 fans on their social network pages with zero releases under their belt. Need we go on?

Venues, channels, infrastructure and norms will all come and go. And if we can’t work with them, we’ll regard them as a failure and we’ll simply route around them. We will always network, we will always share and we will thus always survive. Call it (only half-jokingly) the NWA Law.

New Weird Australia is a not-for-profit initiative designed to promote and support new eclectic and experimental Australian music. Our current projects include a free compilation series (available to download every two months), a weekly show on Sydney’s FBi Radio and an irregular program of live events. Contributions from Australian artists are welcomed and encouraged -submission details and terms can be found at newweirdaustralia.com/aboutew.


Tags:

Posted in Mixtapes. | 2 Comments »