Author Archives: Tim Hall

Goodbye mFlow, hello Bloom.fm

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Tim Hall

I was quite an enthusiastic user of the now-defunct music streaming and download site mFlow. I’ve been beta-testing it’s successor, bloom.fm which is looking as though it’s going to be a very different beast.

I’d previously described mFlow as a cross between iTunes, Spotify and Twitter; it had something of a community aspect in the way you could “flow” tracks which other members could listen to, with a short but sweet Twitter-style commentary against each track.

Unfortunately the Achilles Heel of the site was that paid downloads were the only revenue stream, and too many downloads were seriously overpriced. While I was prepared, for example, to download a Dimmu Borgir album for £4.99 which cost three times that much in HMV, I can’t imagine anyone being willing to pay £19.99 for something like Mostly Autumn’s “Still Beautiful“. No matter how excellent the music is, it’s a fiver more than the band charged for the CD! The streaming and social side was great fun, but that side of things wasn’t earning money, it was just a loss-leader for download sales. And it does appear that they weren’t selling enough downloads for the site to be viable.

The successor seems to be designed as more a competitor for Spotify and Last.fm, with various subscription levels, although they’ve yet to reveal the pricing structure. It’s currently in Beta as iOS and Android apps, although a web-based version is coming. It will be interesting to see how it develops. At the moment the focus is on genre-specific radio stations (I’ve had the Prog channel running on my phone all day while I’ve been working), but playlists and some community features are coming. Follow BloomFM on Twitter to keep up with them.

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Freedom of Speech?

Posted on March 1, 2012 by Tim Hall

There seems to have been an awful lot of outbreaks of really hardcore misogyny in the tech/geek world of late. There have been too many incidents of women in the games scene in particular suffering enormous levels on online abuse by anonymous trolls purely for expressing an opinion not everyone agrees with. Some people have suggested that this sort of behaviour can be found in all walks of life, it does seem to be worse in certain subcultures. Maybe it because the frequently overlapping games and IT worlds tend to attract a disproportionate number of people with very poor social skills?

The latest firestorm concerns a deeply unpleasant individual by the name of Aris Bakhtanians, who justifies some deeply unpleasant and disturbingly creepy behaviour with the following words, here quoted by comic writer and blogger Chris Sims:

Can I get my Street Fighter without sexual harassment?

Bakhtanians: You can’t. You can’t because they’re one and the same thing. This is a community that’s, you know, 15 or 20 years old, and the sexual harassment is part of a culture, and if you remove that from the fighting game community, it’s not the fighting game community

I had never heard of this so-called “fighting games” community before, and if this Aris Bakhtanians is in any way representative of it, it’s not a community which deserves any respect in the wider world. His insincere non-apology doesn’t really change that.

Chris Sims doesn’t mince his words.

“If your community can’t introduce a baseline of respect for another human being without being destroyed, then your community should probably be burned to the ground and have salt spread on the ashes so that it’ll never come back.”

Bakhtanians had ranted about “This is not North Korea” when challenged. It’s exactly the same behaviour you hear from violent knuckle-dragging white nationalists, who claim that they and only they stand between “white culture” and oblivion. For situations where the arrogant, hate-filled jerk tries to play the victim card, China Miéville says it far better than I can.

Indeed, an astoundingly small proportion of arguments ‘for free speech’ & ‘against censorship’ or ‘banning’ are, in fact, about free speech, censorship or banning. It is depressing to have to point out, yet again, that there is a distinction between having the legal right to say something & having the moral right not to be held accountable for what you say. Being asked to apologise for saying something unconscionable is not the same as being stripped of the legal right to say it. It’s really not very [expletive deleted] complicated. Cry Free Speech in such contexts, you are demanding the right to speak any bilge you wish without apology or fear of comeback. You are demanding not legal rights but an end to debate about & criticism of what you say. When did bigotry get so needy?

Quite.

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On Gatekeepers and Discovery

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Tim Hall

There has been discussion on social media recently about the changing nature of the music discovery process, and the role of the music press. Some expressed nostalgia for the days when the music press created a buzz about major forthcoming releases ahead of the release date to build up anticipation. On the other hand, I liked the way some artists who have embraced the fan-funded pre-order model reward those who’d paid up front months earlier by letting them be the first to hear the record, some weeks or months in advance of the retail release date. A music journalist suggested that made media outlets less likely review the records when bands did that. I’m not entirely convinced.

As I see it, the press aren’t as central as they were 20-25 years ago. They’re not totally irrelevant nor likely to become so in the foreseeable future but neither are they the sole gatekeepers that they used to be. And this is a good thing; it’s not healthy for a small number of gatekeepers to have complete control over what gets exposure. At it’s best, with human nature being what it is, there will be a degree of politics and favouritism. At it’s worst, you can end up with bands who kiss the right arses getting coverage at the expense of those with the most awesome music. And don’t get me started on the London-centric nature of so much of the press.

I was a prog fan in the dark days of the 1990s when the genre was more or less marginalised and ignored by the media. So the internet has always been a major part of the music discovery process for me, going back long before there was Twitter or Facebook or even MySpace. Who else remembers ROCKNET and UKMUSIC on CompuServe back in the mid-90s?

It’s not necessary to be able to hear the music online although there are plenty of bands I’ve discovered via sites like last.fm. I’m one of those people who will buy a record unheard based on recommendations from a trusted source. I think the collective opinions of a significant number of music fans is at least as valid as those of professional music journalists, and less likely to be influenced by music biz politics.

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Karnataka, Colston Hall, Bristol

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Tim Hall

Photo & Video Sharing by SmugMug

New review of mine on Trebuchet Magazine of Karnataka at Colston Hall in Bristol. Photos in the review are mine, but the embedded videos of an earlier lineup of the band were not my choice – I’m blaming the editor for that one!

I’ve uploaded a few more photos from the gig. They’re not my best, since the lighting could be described as “challenging”. Was using my f1.4 50mm virtually the whole time.

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Chris Squire – The Simon Cowell of Prog?

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Tim Hall

Sometimes it’s not always evil record labels who behave badly towards others. Fans of Yes know how singer Benoit David stepped aside due to voice problems, and his temporary replacement Jon Davidson of Glass Hammer became permanent.

Benoit David’s press release does give the impression he’s been treated rather shabbily.

I was then pleased to learn that Jon Davison would be my replacement as he is an accomplished musician with a fine voice.

I subsequently learnt, from a band member’s interview, that I had officially left Yes and that my departure was permanent.

Now, I did like “Fly From Here”, and even gave it a favourable review. But now they’re giving every impression that they’re in it solely for the money.

I nearly went to see them at the Hammersmith Odeon last November. But the date clashed with The Heather Findlay Band at The Brook in Southampton the same night. Despite having tickets for two other dates of Heather’s tour, I decided I’d rather see a band playing for the love of music than a bunch of has-beens who were only interesting in topping up their pension funds.

I think I made the right decision. When it comes to art vs. commerce, Chris Squire is on the same side as Simon Cowell.

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Delain Fall Victim to Cloth-Eared Bean Counters

Posted on February 20, 2012 by Tim Hall

Some people question why I frequently describe the major labels as being run by cloth-eared bean-counters. It’s because of things like what’s just happened to Symphonic metal band Delain.

You finish your album, and then you don’t know when the release is. But you know that fans are waiting for it. We were so satisfied with the album, and also our producer was satisfied. But some executive nut-case just doesn’t get it, and decides: “Well, let’s not release it.” Other people do get it, and right now, they are talking about how and when to release it. It’s a nightmare! We don’t have control over it, and at the moment, we can only wait.

It’s an old story. Delain were signed to Roadrunner, who got taken over by Warners. Who, if their head-in-the-sand attitude towards digital licensing is anything to go by, show every sign of being the most clueless of the majors. As so often happens with this sort of takeover, Warners fired many the people who the band knew and trusted, and now they’re sitting on the record. Maybe they haven’t got anyone left who knows how to market a band the major label probably would never have signed in the first place. Blogger Ronnie Soo has even speculated that they want to re-mould the band’s singer Charlotte Wessels as a radio-friendly pop star, and ditch the band.

This sort of crap happens a lot with the majors. They give every impression they’re run by marketeers and accountants who’s most significant characteristic is that they are not passionate about music. Yes, this sort of thing has always gone on, but in the days of social media when bands can communicate directly with their fanbase, it’s harder for labels to pull this sort of dick move and get away with it.

This is why I had some serious mixed feelings when I heard that two bands I know had recently been signed. I hope and pray that the bands knew what they were doing, and scrutinised the small print of the contracts carefully, so that they and their fans never get shafted the same way.

Some bands forget that “The guy they trust” in the label when they sign might not be around for the duration of the contract, especially if the label they signed to gets eaten by a bigger one. I’d advise any band signing a record deal (and their lawyer) to work on the assumption that, however friendly the label guys seem, they *will* try to screw you, and make sure the contract is watertight. In the worst case they need the option to walk away without the label being able to hold their record hostage.

Hopefully Delain will be able to release the album, and find a label they can continue to work with. Sadly, and cynical as it may seem, if Warners are really only interested in nothing but money, it’s in their interest for Delain to split up rather than sign to another label. Less competition.

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Steve Wilson on Prog’s Stockholm Syndrome

Posted on February 14, 2012 by Tim Hall

In a great interview with Steve Wilson, along with talk of his most recent album “Grace for Drowning” and a lot interesting thoughts on the present and future state of the music industry, he touches on the image of progressive rock world.

We’re living in a time when a lot of bands are looking around and seeing that the climate has changed so much over the last 20 years. Many feel the right thing to do is perhaps go back and revisit what made their reputation. Yes famously did a return to that last year. For 20-30 years, classic progressive music was incredibly unpopular and unfashionable. I was talking to Steve Hackett about this. He feels for the first time that people actually appreciate the work he did in the ‘70s. He feels it’s only in the last three or four years that he’s begun to feel people value that work as his greatest achievement. For 30 years, he was told it was shit, that he was a dinosaur, and that the music was worthless and no-one was ever going to want to listen to that hippie stuff again. I cannot underestimate how these guys were brainwashed. Robert Fripp and Ian Anderson feel the same. They were brainwashed by the media into thinking everything they did in the ‘70s was worthless junk. It’s almost like abused child syndrome. It took a great amount of reassurance for them to begin to believe that people love that stuff and that it’s the work that their reputation will ultimately rest on.

This is what I’ve been saying for years. In 2012, nobody cares what punk-era hacks like Paul Morley, Tony Parsons or Julie Birchill think any more; their opinions have not stood the test of time, and they haven’t been “relevant” for years. Yes, a few ignorant music journalists who were in nappies where Johnny Rotten swore on the Bill Grundy show still parrot ignorant clichés from that era, but they’re increasingly a minority, and they’re far more likely to be called out for not knowing what they’re talking about.

As for progressive musicians, the cage is not locked, and the jailers have gone. There is no need to pretend they’re “not prog” because of the alleged stigma attached to the genre. So let us have no more of the nonsense about any musician having to completely disassociate themselves from “prog” because it would damage their career.

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Another Celebrity Death

Posted on February 12, 2012 by Tim Hall

So we awoke this morning to the news of Whitney Houston’s death at the age of 48. While I’ve never been a fan of her genre of music, it’s still yet another life cut far too short and another great talent wasted by substance abuse.

In the last few years I’ve got to know quite a few members of various bands, so celebrity deaths come just a little bit closer to home for me. I pray this never happens to anyone I actually know. Makes me wonder if the price of success and fame is too high for some people.

I really detest the way the celebrity fame machine all-too-often chews people up and spits them out, like Aztec deities demanding blood sacrifices. Worse still is the way some pundits glamourise self-descructive behaviour as somehow “rock and roll”. I’m unrepentant about some very harsh things I’ve said in anger about one particular Guardian music critic over things he said about Amy Winehouse before her tragic but all-too-predicable early death.

I can certainly name of a few artists who’s work I admire who give the impression that they’ve gone very close to the abyss and only narrowly avoided falling in.

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The Ghost Moon Orchestra

Posted on February 4, 2012 by Tim Hall

As announced on The Mostly Autumn News Blog

Mostly Autumn are very proud and excited to announce the pre-sale of the special edition of their new album…

The Ghost Moon Orchestra.

The special edition will be limited to 2000 and will consist of, as well as The Ghost Moon Orchestra; a second album entitled A Weather For Poets, which will be an acoustic album with some new and some re-worked Mostly Autumn songs.

“Some songs, which don’t fit the ‘vibe’ of the main album, but work beautifully as acoustic songs make this special edition album the ideal place to showcase them. Also some Mostly Autumn songs work really well acoustically and again, this is the ideal way to put a different slant on them. I hope you will enjoy it.” Bryan Josh

This special edition is on sale at £20.00 (plus P & P) only from Mostly Autumn records and we hope to be shipping it late May/early June.

Their previous album “Go Well Diamond Heart” saw the band bounce back strongly for the first record with Olivia Sparnenn taking over on lead vocals. With a stable lineup that’s gelled strongly over the course of three tours in the past eighteen months, I have very high expectations for this album.

After the disbanding of Iain Jennings’ band Breathing Space, it will be very interesting to see how much he contributes to Mostly Autumn’s songwriting on the new one. Is “Ice”, the song he co-wrote on the special edition of the last album a taste of things to come? I hope so.

As an independent band not dependent on a record label, Mostly Autumn fund the recording by pre-orders, so if you want to support them, go and order the album now rather than wait until June to buy it!

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The Reasoning – And Another Thing

Posted on February 1, 2012 by Tim Hall

The Reasoning’s long-awaited new EP, “And Another Thing” is now available for pre-order from the band’s website.

The four-track EP marks both the end and the beginning of an era, in that it’s the final release by the band as independent artists on Comet Records, and the first new studio recording of the 5-piece lineup of the band.

The official release date is 12th March 2012, but the band will dispatch pre-orders received before the end of February a week early.

Oh, and the first 500 orders received will be signed. So go and order it now!

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