Slashdot Mirror

http://www.shitkatapult.com/

http://www.areal-records.com/

http://www.mego.at/

http://www.kompakt-net.de/

etc.,etc.,....

There's so much good electronic music out there, it's silly to make such a statement. Not all of these labels will necessarily be your cup of tea, but these are the first five or so that popped in to my head without looking on the back of any CD's. Check out some record store sites like:

http://aquariusrecords.org/

http://forcedexposure.com/

or a site like http://www.pitchforkmedia.com/

for new music releases from several genres. It's all out there for the listening!

• Forced Exposure
• Rough Trade
• Post Everything

• Resonance FM <-- HIGHLY RECOMMENDED :-)
• WFMU
• WCSB

cos basically we want to reform it, so we can start actually buying CD's and so on again, right ?

Look... there are thousands of independant labels out there putting out music that's just as good as (and often better than) the major labels. Not only that, but there are plenty of sites where you can learn about this independent music. The All Music Guide covers quite a few non-RIAA bands with tiny distributions. If you're not sure which bands are part of the RIAA, there's the RIAA Radar, which will tell you which bands/albums send money to the RIAA. As far as distribution, Forced Exposure, In Sound, and several other outlets (including the music download services) offer tons of RIAA-free music.

Personally, I'm very taken with these labels:
IDEA Records
Beta-Lactam Ring
MEGO Records
Drag City Records

Here's my issue. The RIAA will die a slow, painful death. This is inevitable. Don't worry about it. Small labels are just as capable of recording, producing, packaging and (to a lesser extent) distributing music as the RIAA. If you, as a consumer, will do a little research, you can find a whole world of underground music -- sure it isn't on the commercial radio stations or MTV, but it will play in the same CD player that all your RIAA CDs play in. Nobody's really being locked out. It is very different in the software industry, but you all know abou that...

Give me a break. The RIAA does not speak for the entire music industry, and there are plenty of great independant labels and pseudo labels (such as CD Baby) that whole-heartedly disagree with the RIAA on many levels. Even before the RIAA was suing its customers it was fucking over the artists, many of whom have become basically indentured servants to the 'big 5.' Personally, I haven't bought major label music in years, just because I think that in general it isn't innovative. Here's who I *do* buy from:
Beta-lactam Ring
Elevator Bath
IDEA
Wholly Other

And last but not least, the best independant distributor of anything ever... Forced Exposure

Sites like Epitonic and Parasol have steaming audio and are not 'radio' per se. Parasol is a distributor and Epitonic is a site like MP3.com but with a more condensed selection of signed indie artists (not the myriad of DIY stuff that might be fun to wade through at MP3.com, but since you said google was dense, then this is a valid comment). Epitonic's radio stream is cool because you can listen to what they have programmed or 'walk through' genre, labels etc or create a playlist for the broadcast.

Allmusic is very good at guiding yo to stuff you might like. By checking roots, influences, followers and similar artist of an act that you like you might stumble on some new stuff.

Weblogs, forums... of course.

Then there is the old reliable. Magzines, college radio and record store clerks.

Some of my favorite mags: Magnet, Wire, Signal to Noise and CMJ.

You must have some local college stations... some of them do internet streaming if there is none near you. Local to me (Northampton, MA) there is WAMH and WMUA.

There are a few great record stores that send out new release emails of obscure titles. Also, they have employee lists. I have bought many titles without listen by looking at the employee lists. If 10 people that work in the store say it is great, then it more than likely is. Here are two great stores on each coast: Forced Exposure in Boston (click on "Employee Top 10") & Aquarius Records in San Fran (click on "Favorites" for each employee)... for both sites, sign up for the email updates for weekly new releases.

If anyone is into Free Jazz, check out my site.

Savvas Ysatis is great. Especially check out his and Taylor Deupree's contribution to the Architettura series, Tower of Winds.

Although not strictly electronic, I would also suggest Bill Laswell. Try Invisible Design.

I would recommend Forced Exposure to anyone looking for good music.

Savvas Ysatis is great. Especially check out his and Taylor Deupree's contribution to the Architettura series, Tower of Winds.

Although not strictly electronic, I would also suggest Bill Laswell. Try Invisible Design.

I would recommend Forced Exposure to anyone looking for good music.

Savvas Ysatis is great. Especially check out his and Taylor Deupree's contribution to the Architettura series, Tower of Winds.

Although not strictly electronic, I would also suggest Bill Laswell. Try Invisible Design.

I would recommend Forced Exposure to anyone looking for good music.

Savvas Ysatis is great. Especially check out his and Taylor Deupree's contribution to the Architettura series, Tower of Winds.

Although not strictly electronic, I would also suggest Bill Laswell. Try Invisible Design.

I would recommend Forced Exposure to anyone looking for good music.

See: http://www.forcedexposure.com/artists/ear.html

Sonic Boom and collaboratuers hunker down over their wires and switches for a revolutionary new type of sound generation called circuit bending, involving the cannibalism and reintegration of the circuitry of cheap electronics (ie. Speak & Spell) and other economy effects, allowing new sounds and chance discoveries to emerge from previously unrelated circuit board points.