Autechre – elseq 1–5 (2016)


Article by Lance Viggiano.

Autechre‘s elseq 1-5 is a four hour anthology consisting of five individual EPs, each compiled together loosely upon conceptual coherence between the constituent tracks. elseq 1-5 is an exercise in release format rather than just content; the artists behind Autechre seek to utilize the immediacy of the digital age, releasing tracks “as they go” without traditional limitations imposed by the “album.” Granted of course this collection appeared as a hulking and impenetrable dump rather than a sequence. This point bears worth remembering as this overview proceeds as the temptation to view elseq 1-5 as a complete work, or works, is ingrained in popular habits.

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Molested – Blod-draum Reissue Pre-orders Up

Dark Symphonies announced that they are reissuing Norwegian death metal band Molested‘s only full studio album Blod-draum later this month from the original tapes. Along with the new master from the original analog tapes (not the original CD just compressed for losers with Iphones), a new remix from the multitrack studio tapes will be included on the disc. The CD is available for preordering from Dark Symphonies right now.

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La Naranja Metálica Online Radio Show

Spanish language black metal webzine El Negro Metal has started hosting a downloadable monthly online radio show/podcast called La Naranja Metálica, which I have been told is a play on A Clockwork Orange‘s Spanish title La Naranja Mecánica. Most of the tracks being spun are from releases that Death Metal Underground and The Dark Legions Archive have endorsed in the past with many appearing on our recent best of lists. Hopefully La Naranja Metálica will help bring the best of the underground to a Spanish-speaking audience.

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Streaming Now The Primary Method of American Music Consumption

Streaming is now the primary way Americans listen to music according to a year end report by Nielsen, replacing downloads of individual singles.

It’s official: according to a new year-end report released by Nielsen, over the course of 2016, streaming became the primary mode of music consumption in the U.S. Overall on-demand audio streams surpassed 251 billion in 2016 — a 76 percent increase that accounts for 38 percent of the entire music consumption market. Plus, “the on-demand audio streaming share [of total music consumption] has now surpassed total digital sales (digital albums + digital track equivalents) for the first time in history.”

Streaming is the public consciousness recognizing that most of what the mainstream music industry has to offer is disposable. The labels can’t even find or develop potentially good new talent anymore as due to gutting their artists and repertoire departments and what revenue they make flowing upwards towards executives and shareholders. Average consumers never possessed high-fidelity playback chains of dedicated gear to take full advantage of the compact disc and vinyl records anyway; they only had mediocre integrated receivers hooked up to poorly performing speakers and headphones. Furthermore everyone truly into underground or once underground music genres now digs deeper, purchasing releases with zero quality control which commonly have print runs of only a few hundred to a few thousand copies. Classical continues to do okay too as classical listeners still buy the physical album and tend to have marginally better equipment.

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Morbid Angel Recording New Album

Morbid Angel (Trey Azagthoth and Steve Tucker) have finally found a new drummer: Scott Fuller of Annihilated and Abysmal Dawn. Instead of Morrisound, the band is currently recording a new album with Erik Rutan (Hate Eternal) at his Mana Studios and the drum tracks have been laid down. Expect digital, plastic sounding sterility.

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University of London Student Calls for Removal of White Philosophers From Curriculum

Ali Habib, co-president of the Student Union for Democracy and Education at the School of Oriental and African Studies of the University of London, has called for the removal of European philosophers from the curriculum. He and his student union have demanded the University drop Plato, Descartes, Kant, and Russel simply as they were white in order to “decolonize the University” and “confront the white institution.” The multicultural, anti-European students wish to only study philosophy from a “critical standpoint” so that they may sieve out all European thinking through “acknowledging the colonial context in which so-called ‘Enlightenment’ philosophers wrote within.” Ali Habib (pictured above), the Yemenite student officer responsible for the statement, is a known supporter of Marxist anti-colonial philosopher Frantz Fanon who died of leukemia while fighting for the Algerian National Liberation Front

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