Twisted peeps, this is a shocker and a piss take! Back in ‘95 ‘96 as a 16 year old I had the immense pleasure of being around when Twisted/ TIP/ BR/ Dragonfly released their first records and the scene was kicking off. The launch night of twisted at bagleys ( still have the art work ) and following gigs at the fridge completely changed the course of my life ( thank you)! I can remember the excitement of leaving parties ( and college after Bagleys, hehe ) and then falling around London to various record stores looking for the tunage I heard the night before ( spending 3/4 hours in a record store, talking to people and not a computer screen!- nice comedown! ). I have all hallucinogen 12” singles/ albums etc and some 400 other vinyls of the time!( the only thing I would save if my house burnt down- I can’t see many peeps racing back in to save an iPod as its all replaceable ). This is a collection of outstanding tunage and artwork from a scene in its infancy! I still have all these tunes and the sound quality is ace, the great thing is you can pick them up, read the little quirks and reminisce! Something feels hollow and disposable about the digital releases! Twisted has always been a bench mark and pioneer for electronic music and it would be a great shame to see it go!!

The workmanship that went into these tunes really stands out today- especially when you listen to a lot of the automated digital rubbish that’s around at the minute. The old stuff has a soul, told a story and took you on a trip! The Spongled albums stand out in particular because they are produced by real musicians which a knowledge and passion for recording and a hands on approach! I have and will always buy a genuine copy of any musicians work that I like. I was involved with a label a while ago and it left me completely dismayed ( skint! ) as all funding came out of our pockets- peeps loved the tunes but couldn’t find a tenner to buy them and support the artists and labels that were essentially providing a soundtrack to their journey!

I wish you every success with your latest album and up coming shows, and I’m sure there are still enough people out there who will support the label ( you could always put on a few more Twisted events in London hehe?? ). The scene may loose its direction ( if it hasn’t already ) and disappear up its own backside without labels like Twisted to guide the way!

Thanks again for all the brain twisters, look forward to many more!

Hallucinogen - 22 October 2009 08:43 PM

Funnily enough, since the torrent got released, we have now had several people asking for refunds!  Seems a bit lame to me, but perhaps they downloaded the album and absolutely hated it….

Don’t think so. Because album is very Good. The perfect Continue of last ones.

I see a lot of people saying that they’re going to buy the album and twisted stuff, how is it possible that there’s no difference at all? Perhaps they’ll buy it once it’s available and not the pre order thing.

Well anyway, I think we all should buy more than 1 album, just to help. The ones that have pre ordered a copy, should buy one too at the gig.

Damn, if I had enough money I would give it away to help Si and Raj, they deserve the best and lots of money.

Whooooo ha, after reading some of the posts on here I kinda remember why after years of being around this scene I keep more of a distance these days! People used to be a whole lot nicer!! If you ain’t got anything nice to say- why say it at all!! Any musician who tries to be creative and share these ideas regardless of whether you like it should get a bit of respect! Very easy to sit at a computer and slag things off! Don’t forget that these guys shaped and influence all the trance/ chill stuff you listen to today and continue to push boundries and look for new sounds! Most of the new wave of producers today don’t have a musical bone in their bodies and rely on a computer to write the track for them- i was in a studio with some guys who were doing mostly guess work to put a track together and it got released! Unbelievable! No story being told, just thud thud, tweak tweak, sounds like its supposed to, release!

Ass topic name is “REVIEW”:

Shpongolese Spoken Here - My favourite as it represents a beginning of NEW!

Fantasticly Harmonious Glitch followed by Nice Benji’s style trance beats, And topped with perfect Elephant horned Dub and astonishing guitars!

BEST!

I’m buying a bunch of copies of “Ineffable Mysteries from Shpongleland” to give away during the holiday season. I think Shpongle is pretty much our best bet for the advancement of humanity into a super civilization of enlightened beings!

The first time I heard Shpongle was from pirated music, but since then they’ve been my favorite band, ALWAYS on in my car or computer… Shpongle travels with me at all times… so I’m more than happy to financially pitch in to this great cause!

Ok..here we go,time for a rambling on session.

First of all,I would have never heard about Simon’s work (at least at the time) until I downloaded Hallucinogen many years ago,(97 or 98 and it was either LSD or Space Pussy hehehe).Of course at that time,I don’t even think there was a website for Simon,if there was,it was one of those cheesy Geocities ones,let alone any major place where you could buy his albums online.

Since then,I have bought most if not all of the Twisted catalog,saw him perform live when I could,I play Twisted’s music on my radio show,turned numerous people on to his music and as most of you know(thats been here a while) that I even have Shpongle’s logo tatted on me <—See Avatar.

I totally understand the outrage by Simon and us members,but this is nothing new,and the hostility here is just out of control.Further more,no matter how much any artist complains,or the record labels,et al,music piracy is not going to end any time soon.

Personally,I have not heard the new album yet,and I don’t plan on listening to it until I can buy a legit copy of it.Would I have if I did not read Simon’s statements,I will not lie,but yeah,no doubt.Like most of you here,I too am bit by the world fiasco economy,and I really want to hear the new stuff,but hey,I can spend $20 for it I mean,hey,whats one less sack of weed :p

That being said,Simon,I know that it totally sucks that your losing money,and us die hard fans really feel for you and Raj and everyone else involved,but lets face it,your a brilliant man,and you should have known this was going to happen,as it has happened on every single one of your releases so far.I guarantee that when people clicked on the torrent for your new album,the last thing going through their mind was ‘hey,lets shaft Twisted,Simon and Raj’ No,it was more like ‘WOW the new Shpongle EARLY,fucking sweet’.

So,can I get that autograph now Simon?

Perhaps with your next release you should hold it ransom… no one gets a copy until you have, say, 200 pre-paid orders Then you could give out free samples that are low sound quality or not the whole song or just one or two songs from the album to tease people.

I don’t think it would take long

is it just me or has there been a big influx of new memberships on this forum in the past week or two? wonder why?

DumbDuck - 23 October 2009 12:25 AM

is it just me or has there been a big influx of new memberships on this forum in the past week or two? wonder why?

HUGE! so much ppl werent talking before the leak, these boards were soooooooo dead

Maybe twisted should follow the trend and go with digital releases?

Release in FLAC format, 24 bits per sample, 96 KHz sampling rate.
Include lots of super-high-resolution art in digital format, videos etc.

That way, the full high-quality release will take up so much bandwidth to fileshare it won’t be worth it for most people, hehe!

From the point of view of someone who lives in America, it is discouraging when indie labels across the ocean don’t do digital releases. I’m an environmentally conscious person so I think it’s a waste of natural resources to manufacture a CD, package it and ship it from europe to here on an airplane when all I am going to do is rip it to my computer and put the CD in my drawer never to be touched again.

also: http://www.theage.com.au/digital-life/mp3s/how-labels-are-cashing-in-on-music-piracy-20091022-ha84.html

Shiranui - 23 October 2009 01:07 AM

Maybe twisted should follow the trend and go with digital releases?

Release in FLAC format, 24 bits per sample, 96 KHz sampling rate.
Include lots of super-high-resolution art in digital format, videos etc.

That way, the full high-quality release will take up so much bandwidth to fileshare it won’t be worth it for most people, hehe!

From the point of view of someone who lives in America, it is discouraging when indie labels across the ocean don’t do digital releases. I’m an environmentally conscious person so I think it’s a waste of natural resources to manufacture a CD, package it and ship it from europe to here on an airplane when all I am going to do is rip it to my computer and put the CD in my drawer never to be touched again.

This is exactly what I’ve been blabbering about in the other thread. It’s NOT impossible to profit off digital media in this era of instantaneous downloads and pie-rats. You have to add value on-top of the physical product. ***The physical product is almost secondary nowadays*** It’s all about creating tiers of value that incentize purchases in spite of piracy. Here’s my “up to date” Shpongle release plan.. It’s a bit too late to implement though.

1. Create a stand alone ‘flash’ site for Shpongle 4, SIX months before the album releases. This site would be social networking enabled and have satellite pages on all the social networking sites, Facebook, etc. A central hub if you will, for all things Shpongle 4. Navigation would use words like: Participate, Experience - Aural / Visual, Follow the Shpongle Journey, etc.

2. Collect money from buyers for the cd immediately, yes allow sales -6 months- in advance.

3. These early adopters will gain access to -exclusive- content. Blog access, tour videos, Simon and Raja talking about tracks -as they are made-

4. 1 Month before release, provide a good quality copy of the album to those who have paid (also further encouraging some additional sales). This mp3 copy could even be given out -for free- at this time, even if only to obfuscate any leaks of the FLAC/lossless version on google.

5. On release day allow paid users to download the FLAC copy, no DRM, no bullshit. Users who bought into the -premium- tier would also receive a physical copy of the album at this time.

6. Continue to add content to the Shpongle launch site as the concert becomes the focus. Paid users of the standard or premium tier will now come to the site to receive exclusive access to live streaming video from the event and podcasts from Simon and Raja as they travel and perform.

The idea here is that this plan works to maximize visibility while minimizing the impact of piracy. It also caters to the new style of how people consume digital media. It may sound strange to old schoolers, but people value simulaca(http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Simulacrum) as long as they feel special. People are willing to pay even though they can download the album for free if they feel like they are a part of the magic.

It’s too late to do this, but it’t not too late for Simon to take my extra invite to http://www.kickstarter.com and start a “let’s save twisted together” project to fund raise in this same style.

Thanks for reading guys. I knew my masters in information architecture and social media would be useful for something

This stuff is obvious to me, but a lot of creators of digital media are struggling to profit in these times. I kind of want to start a firm to help artists, labels, and other developers of digital content through this transition, pro-bono.

I really like the idea of this !
smart really smart !

wintermute - 23 October 2009 03:24 AM

Maybe twisted should follow the trend and go with digital releases?

Release in FLAC format, 24 bits per sample, 96 KHz sampling rate.
Include lots of super-high-resolution art in digital format, videos etc.

That way, the full high-quality release will take up so much bandwidth to fileshare it won’t be worth it for most people, hehe!

Recorded media, no matter what the quality, will always be pirated from now on. (As long as it is interesting anyway!)

Still, I agree wholeheartedly with the spirit of this proposal. Twisted is more beloved than just about any other label I can think of. Why are they not doing so well then? It’s the business model, really it is. There is this idea, expressed more in the music industry than anywhere else I can think of, that the artist has a right to essentially dictate the terms of the transaction. Real markets don’t work this way; businesses (and Twisted is a business) need to adapt to changing circumstances. A plea to fans will work once in a while but this is not a sustainable solution.

Now, I have to credit Twisted with being among the more visionary electronic music labels around. This web site is a great social networking platform, the artists have generally been engaged in fan interaction to some extent, and Twisted offers a number of non-standard products such as DVDs and other merchandise that set them apart from your average label (which is, for some reason, still peddling CDs and little else). So, this is a great start, but I think Twisted could do more.

Since about 2005 I have advocated for a vision of digital music sales that I have yet to see realized. (Anywhere other than my own site, at least.) As a digital music consumer I set a really simple standard: offer, at the very least, the same informational content of the physical media release (this means high-resolution cover art and lossless audio files) for LESS than the cost of the CD. Seems crazy, especially since the average per-unit cost of a WAV file on Beatport is still more than when you are pushing atoms around the globe, but this is really the standard that the industry is going to need to meet—at the very least. Now think about all the digital audio formats that are BETTER than CD. Why is no one selling that? Sure, it’s more of an audiophile interest, but there is considerable respect to be accrued by the first major label to take audiophile matters seriously. And who better than Twisted?

I find myself in an unusual position nowadays. I’ve sworn off physical media—I don’t really like the idea of having a bulky collection of stuff to lug around with me until I die. I’m more of a minimalist; I’d rather have it all virtual. Sure, I will miss out on the tangibility of physical media—something I will admit to liking—but it is a small sacrifice to make. I look back on my years of amassing records and CDs and realize that I rarely ever take anything off the shelf after that initial rush I experience when a new shipment arrives. It all just sits there. What’s the use?

So here I am, a big Twisted fan… and Twisted doesn’t actually sell anything I actually want to buy! Sometimes I grudgingly order a CD or DVD but that happens less and less. Mostly I just wonder why, in 2009, I can’t purchase FLAC files from the Twisted download portal? All those unreleased tunes look mighty tasty and I’d snap them up in a second if they were in lossless quality. But I’m not about to pay for crap, and that’s what MP3s are: second best, not better than the real thing at all. And, often, more expensive than the per-unit cost of a song sold on CD! It’s absolutely bizarre.

Twisted, offer up your entire catalogue down to the very last vinyl and bizarrely obscure spin-off project and sell it all in FLAC with high-resolution cover art for less than you charge people for the physical media. I’d buy tons. I would buy digital copies of the vinyls I already own, just to hear them without crackles. (And, anyhow, my turntables are in storage.) Remaster old CDs that you were never deep-down happy with and I might just pick those up too. Don’t stop there—the lot of you have a ton of music for which you own the rights to since the labels folded. Give us North Central Positronics and other old obscurities. Show those old tunes a bit of love and, since you already have it setup, you could sell it all exclusively through your own portal and not pay out to any middlemen. I’m sure Twisted’s sprawling legion of fans would be quick to throw some cash down for a digital bonanza of rare and obscure stuff! What do you have to lose?

Anyway, I thought I’d stop by to articulate some of my thoughts on the matter since the issue went viral.

Good luck.

Oh, and don’t feed the trolls.

@Simon - I’m surprised to hear news of financial difficulties and although Twisted is not my absolute favourite label it is a pillar of this fantastic community and demands my utter respect & attention. I hope you guys make it through this truly

on the troll - I’ve wasted maybe a half hour or so reading this guys comments and as per usual he’s got me frustrated (which is exactly what he wants). I know him better through his various other aliases; he’s a very persistant troll on a few other boards and I urge you to just ignore him. He’s not going to reason with you and stop since he does actually seem to believe a lot of the bollocks he spouts.

Oh and please don’t diss Ultimae in some sort of misguided attack on him… It so happens that people such as myself find them totally engaging works of art that really, really don’t ever get boring or samey and it irks me when I start empathising with him. Talking trash on one label because you’re annoyed that some other guy is doing the same to yours is not a decent way to go about things. Apologies if any of this has been mentioned in the last few pages, I had to quit reading his puerile remarks after a while and go make a cuppa

Oh I should also mention that ‘Hallucinogen’, ‘Shpongle’ and ‘Hi-Fi companions’ are some of the finest acts in the scene and I will be buying the new release when it becomes available and I have the money. I shall not be d/ling.