Gorman - Alum Creek

Been a bit slow on the blog-front this month, it hasn't been entirely intentional. The Golden Cup tape has thrown me slightly off kilter. According to mediafire it has been downloaded 1037 times (and counting)! By comparison the next most downloaded releases I've uploaded are 'Five Bells' by Cam Deas with 679, 'Atomic Weekender' by Caboladies with 440 and 'Norns' by Natural Snow Buildings with 422. Searched around and found it on Impose Magazine and Bolachas - neither of which were familiar to me - so thanks to both of them. Hopefully it suggests that others also think it's an excellent release and that distros won't have too much trouble selling their copies.

Moving on...

I'll try and be a bit more frequent with updates leading up to New Year - and beyond.

Gorman - Alum Creek

Gorman was Jordan Spencer, the man that runs Cabin Floor Esoterica. Gorman is now a defunct pseudonym but in his two years he got releases out on Blackest Rainbow, Tired Trails Collective, Housecraft and Reverb Worship, alongside his own labels, Open Range Records and Cabin Floor Esoterica.

"'Alum Creek' features two tracks of floating drones and chiming guitar like sounds that is a delight to behold. Recorded especially for Reverb Worship direct to tape in the autumn of 2008."
There is an underlying drone to Gorman releases but I think ambient is much more appropriate. It's a bright melancholy - if you'll allow me that juxtaposition. Is the distortion digital from the tape to CD transfer? At times it certainly sounds that way, yet somehow it adds to the recording. It gives you that sense of your windows rattling without needing to check if your ears have begun to bleed.

This is still available from Reverb Worship so please consider buying a copy if you enjoy it.

1. Rock Skipping, Olentangy River (12:15)
2. Stepping Into Early Fog (10:00)

Download / Buy
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News:

A week on Friday (4th December) Bush Hall (Shepherd's Bush, London) will be playing host to Six Organs Of Admittance, Ignatz and Voice of the Seven Thunders (a new incarnation of Voice of the Seven Woods). Only found out about this one this morning. What a line-up!
And in related news Six Organs did a soundtrack to a novel called 'Empty the Sun' and both have recently been released on the official website on CD and vinyl (both limited to 1000).

audioMER (email): Sachiko - Golden Hypnos (LP)

Autobus Records: Brazos - Phosphorescent Blues
Sunset - Gold Dissolves to Gray

Students of Decay: Asuna & Opitope - Sunroom (pre-order)

Not Not Fun: V/A - My Estrogeneration
Topaz Rags - Capricorn Born Again

Abandon Ship Records: Human Adult Band - La-Dee-Frickin-Da
Reverse Mouth - Of The Cloth
Grasshopper / Twisty Cat - split
Excepter - Steps: La Sala Rossa
Mouthus - Eskimo King / Afternoon Penis
Cough Cool - Digestible Doom
Chapels - Days of Sleepless Night

Siren Wire: VII - Part I
VII - Part II

New Shh... This is a Library album, 'Dream Big', is available for pre-order this week from I Had An Accident Records.


A remix of Carl Sagan and Stephen Hawking called 'A Glorious Dawn' is out on Jack White's Third Man Records.


The latest Zelienople record on Type was released last Monday. The album is fantastic and the bonus CD was the vinyl is well worth getting the LP for if you're not fussed about formats - Boomkat is the only place I've seen it available so far.

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CD on demand

I've heard this idea quite a bit over the past four or five years. My dad has mentioned a number of times in the past about books on demand where you can go into a book shop, order a title that is no longer available and the shop prints off a copy in half an hour. Obviously this should be quite an easy model to translate to CDs these days. No doubt this isn't the first available but whilst looking around for 'Odyssey of Iska' by Wayne Shorter I saw my first example on Amazon US. This is no doubt the future of the dying CD. Isn't it?
If it is, will they be doing it for games and DVDs as well?
I personally can't imagine the physical format ever dying out completely - at least I really hope there are enough similar minded people out there to help me keep up the obsession - but the eventual demise of high street record / film / game shops will probably strengthen the case for manufacturers to rip us off even more.

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Sorry if I've not yet replied to some emails, I will do one day soon(ish).

Thanks again to the people that have joined the Last.fm Group. The charts are really interesting. Looking down the full list it has been lot more varied than I had been anticipating.