brisk

Whatever happened to that new Reload album he was supposed to release on Warp years ago? Last I read, he was taking a lot of time off to dedicate 100% to it, but it seems nothing ever surfaced... Excited for the new album though!

I won't give direct links, but if 128kbps mp3s are all you want, then just use JDownloader and enable the link download feature. When you copy the URLs to your clipboard, it'll auto-download the Soundcloud files for you.

I can tell you as a matter of fact (he told me enough times) that it was all a game to him. He just did it for a bit of fun and for every xlt member he was playing at being mean to, he'd give the shirt off his back for another. He sent loads of members of xlt presents, gear, guestlist entries etc... He even said he'd buy everyone a cake after Dove ripped off his music for a commercial and he got a load of money from them because of it! We all have our silly internet personas, but in the 5 or so years I spoke to Mark (almost every day) his actual personality couldn't be further away from his Jivverdicker antics. So I know that some people there will have a hard time letting go of that, but please don't think it's an accurate judgement of his real character, because it couldn't be further from the truth. Either way, his musical legacy speaks for itself. Between that and his twins, I think they were the most important things to him, and it's what we should really remember him for.

Considering they made a post the other day about that old aphex russian interview everyone has seen a million times already (and the author went in full-on defensive mode when someone called him out on it), I wouldn't exactly trust FACT mag as the bastion for music journalism integrity. They're just doing it for link bait, so don't give them the satisfaction.

Kanye is a melon, but this album is brilliant, there is no denying it.

Nice. What's interesting is that as suspected, the digital files have none of the tube distortion ruining the tracks, like on the vinyl. It still makes me laugh that this so called "audiophile" Vinyl Factory have absolutely no quality control when it comes to pressing music. It really was one of the worst presses I think I've heard in modern music, especially for a high-profile release and the ridiculous price. Anyway, the music is still great!

Ascension should be a classic. Instead, he just cuts it off after 58 seconds and moves onto a load of dull, similarly unfinished tracks that are in desperate need of quality control. I'm surprised 4AD haven't intervened actually. The 2nd disc in particular is literally just the same keys, bass and trap-style beats from track to track. It's like he made a single tune and then produced 16 slightly different mixdowns of it. Even the first disc is completely alphabetical in the track order. Did he just do a HDD dump of some random tunes he made or something? With a degree of actual care and compositional awareness, he could have made a really solid, memorable album. As it stands, it just feels incredibly lazy. If he doesn't care, then why should the listener? It's funny how he's constantly comparing himself to Aphex, Burial etc... and while Zomby has a good ear for melody, he's a world apart from his heroes in regards to composition. I'm sure Zomby doesn't give a fuck though and I've no doubt the ADHD kids of today will love it.

I think in the case of Zomby and Glowstyx, it was more a case of influence rather than direct stealing. In fact, when it comes to old UK Hardcore, thieving samples was pretty much the du-jour production method anyway. Everyone took everyone elses records and turned them into something different. I'm sure Zomby is well aware of it. In fact, we released our first Remerge 12" before either Zomby or Glowstyx released their records, which was very much the same kind of sound :) http://www.discogs.com/Remerge-Volume-1/release/1029633 AGT Rave Cru (Posthuman) were also doing this kinda stuff long before Zomby/Glowstyx too, just like Dave Charlesworth and the original producers were doing this shit back in 1992. Everything influences everything and when it comes to UK hardcore, you can't be too precious about it.

The runout groove on the new record apparently says "Winter 2012" so perhaps a full-length album is actually in the works and will be released around that time.

Yeah, it was repressed loads of times. They didn't announce it or anything, they just kept restocking to meet demand. Moth/Wolf Cub got an actual vinyl remaster though when it was repressed this year (or late last year, I forget)

It'll be repressed to whatever the demand is anyway, just like all the other TEXT records. Don't pay silly over-the-top prices for it on discogs/ebay or whatever.

Not a bad track, but I hate single-sided releases. It's a waste of money for both the artist and the people buying it. If nothing else, just stick a remix on the flipside or something, since the manufacturing costs are near-identical anyway.

Why are people still saying it is intentional, when the radio (digital source aka wav/mp3) don't have any distortion on them? Even Transition admitted some copies have problems and others don't. It's a pressing/mastering issue 100%.

youtube version (and the mary anne hobbs play of paradise circus) are digital source afaik

I just hate that over-amped, squeezed-to-fuck sound that comes with "modern" vinyl presses. It's daft making the vinyl sound inhumanely loud anyway, since most clubs don't even have decks in them anymore (and the ones that do tend to use limiters anyway) Better to do a clear, clean press that sacrifices volume, rather than one that is digitally brickwalled and loses all the charm. It genuinely makes me cringe, though maybe my ears are more sensitive than most. I also press a lot of vinyl myself, so perhaps i'm biased.

Nah, that was a shit press too. At least the A side. Overcompressed like crazy, trying to squeeze too much volume out of it. All you need to do is compare the digital version to the vinyl and you'll hear the problem. Surface noise wasn't the issue. Pretty tragic how shit most vinyl presses are these days.

Maybe it's part of their new anti-piracy policy, to make the record sound so awful that no-one will want to rip it :)

I emailed them about it actually, and they said this: I'm pretty shocked personally. For those who don't have the record, this is how the vinyl sounds. My only question is if this is how the record is supposed to sound, then why does the youtube/digital/radio rips all sound completely fine and different? I think it's a shitty mastering job personally, which is even more surprising considering Transition did it.

It's one of the worst presses i've ever heard. Even worse than the Street Halo A side in fact. Distorted to hell and back and sounding positively nasty. Not just my copy either, as a few others on discogs were saying the same thing. Tragic really.

[youtubehd]N701JYnjaMs[/youtubehd] Sounds good!