Phonocratic Records

It is time to vote for your favourite Laurie Anderson remixes over at Indaba. I, of course, would like as many as possible to vote for Lost Shadow’s remix, but I cannot force you, and there are many good entries. You can see them all here, or vote for Lost Shadow’s submission here. Voting is open until the 27th of May. All help is appreciated.

I have submitted a very alternative remix of Laurie Anderson’s “Only An Expert” to her remix contest run at Ibdaba Music. If you’re into really alternative, arty, electronic music, please listen to it (and the rest of Laurie’s production also of course). She is an extremely talented artist, both musically and lyrically. I comment on it over at Indaba:

As usual when you want to investigate a system, you tear it down to its smallest parts and then reconstruct it to create a representative model, which will, if you’re in luck, tell you what you need to know about the system…

The remix was created using a technique I will use and describe more in detail later, in a coming art project (probably not under the Lost Shadow name, though).

We’re celebrating one year with the new site at www.phonocratic.com! Sadly, there is not much other news. Lost Shadow is currently working in the studio on songs for the new album, hopefully to be released later this year. Stay tuned!

The new Lost Shadow single “A Nuance of Future” has been released. A Nuance of Future is the second single taken from the Lost Shadow ten year anniversary album “Age and Time“. This time, we have put together a maxi-single of over 70 minutes, consisting of 11 tracks. On top of long and short modern versions of A Nuance of Future, the single also includes the five winners of the Lost Shadow remix contest (Jason & Sander, DJ Alann Morse, Shane Wittig, stróm, and The Argyle Raver), as well as remixes by The Trance Line Project and Lost Shadow himself. We think this single is terrific, and suggest immediate downloading or ordering of it!

You can listen to the single at either Last.fm or Bandcamp. At Bandcamp you can also order a physical copy of the single, as well as downloading it. You could also use the player at the bottom of this post.

We also sadly announce that this will be the last single (at least for a long time) that is made available in physical format for ordering. In the future, Phonocratic Records’ singles will be released only in digital format, with printable booklets for those of you who want a physical copy in the shelf. We think of this as a necessary move to keep costs down, and hope that our reasoning is understandable. The whole store is going through some changes in the near future, which you will see soon. Stay tuned!

As I got the question of how we picked the winners for the remix contest, I will publicly disclose the reasoning behind our choices. First of all, we have judged on three main criteria: originality, creative use of the song material, and whether we liked the remix so much that we wanted to listen to it also outside of the actual listening for the contest purposes. We have, however, not focused very much on the quality of the remixes in terms of mixing, mastering, etc. We wanted something we wouldn’t have done ourselves. When the new single is released on Monday you will be able to listen for the details I specify in this post…

The Argyle Raver: In this remix, we really enjoyed the big contrasts created between the verses and the chorus, which are much bigger than in the original version of The Man Without A Shadow. Also, we liked the hard electronic part of the verses. And when the build-up comes at 0.24, it is totally unexpected… Overall, we would not have been able to come up with this idea, or creating something that sounded like this remix.

DJ Alann Morse: This remix creatively focuses on transforming the whole mood of A Nuance of Future into a completely different song. The setting is different, gone is the hope for the future, instead a whole lot of electronic mysticism comes in and disturbs this dream anthem. Very interesting take on the song.

Jason & Sander: We really liked this remix from the first time we listened to it. It sort of takes the best from A Nuance of Future and places it in a slightly different context, keeping the dreamy feeling of it, but also added in chords and melodies that send shivers down at least my spine. What also strikes me is that the sound of this song resembles what I currently is working on for my next album. Once again, taking a remix taking the original song and making something truly new with it.

Shane Wittig: The thing we really like with this remix is that it combines the sound of the original 2006 version of A Nuance of Future with the sound of the new version made in 2009. Also, it puts it all into a sound context that sounds quite much like the sound that the first Lost Shadow records tried to achieve back in the early 2000’s. However, Shane succeeds much better with that sound than I ever did. Still not convinced? Listen to the rising synth part at 5.25, and you will understand the greatness of this thing.

stróm: Well, this remix is truly different. We like that the tempo is sort of halved, and also we really like the instrumentation. I think the wasteland feeling I get from this very much aligns with the feeling of the original version of The man without a shadow, meaning that they really complement each other in a very nice way. What stróm deos with the vocals towards the end (at 5.37 ->) is fantastic. I would never have thought of this use of my vocals! In addition, taking more than two minutes before the vocals come in is a bald move, and should be highly encouraged!

I hope this sorts out some uncertainties about our remix picking. As you can see, we have been highly subjective, and mostly judged from taste. The common denominator between the five is that they all became frequent playlist entries in my iPod during the last month, even at the times I did not listen for the context purposes, which I think indicates that I liked them the most…