A Lark Ascending

You must believe in spring: The Hodsock Priory snowdrops (and a few daffs) in full flood earlier this afternoon, a few miles up the road. [Excuse a Brit getting excited by spring - most countries see through this time of year with Carnival, Mardi Gras etc. We get Pancake Day! So a few days glorious weather and the first signs of colour can send us a bit odd!)

The rumour is that Branson had to get out from under a sinking ship, or its failure would cast a black mark over his other enterprises in the City. So, apparently, he had to throw £200 million worth of training into the package as a sweetener. MG So what did the £200 million train employees to do? How to stock only sure-fire winners?

Was the service charge related to the tax? There's a sign in the Post Office saying that a service charge will also be added in the event of tax being taken. Though last time I had tax to pay on an overseas package they did not mention or make me pay it. It all seems to be explained here: http://customs.hmrc.gov.uk/channelsPortalW...tyType=document

What's the service charge with DHL? I'm never in when they deliver and end up driving to their depot 30 minutes away. I've never been charged anything extra by DHL.

This has never made any sense to me. And the majors are sitting on treasure troves of "niche" material that a lot of people would love to be able to hear. An acquaintance of mine spent some time in the EMI Brasil vaults a number of years back, and was just stunned by all the top-notch material that deserves release, but has been more or less allowed to decay on the shelf. (I don't mean to imply that the originals are disintegrating; more like they've been ignored and forgotten and/or are perceived to be of little worth.) When I mentioned a Brazilian music blog where several highly respected artists have contributed rips (from vinyl) of extremely rare, o.p. material - one of the reasons they did that was to allow people to be able to hear some of the great (even unique) material that the majors in Brazil are refusing to reissue. These artists felt (in at least one case) that specific albums were/are hugely important - but that the music and its creators have been unjustly neglected due to label concern re. not being able to make any profits from potential reissue of this material. Good point. Though I doubt the majors would use an ethical argument - they'd stick with a cold, legal one. They only use the ethical one when it suits.

That's all I'm taking about. I don't have any illegal ones as far as I know and don't have any wish to find them. But I don't think the companies have any more hope in stopping file sharing between those who do want to do it than they had in stopping home taping in the 70s and 80s. I've no wish for any moral high ground. I have plenty of legal recordings that are of dubious moral origin. As I said earlier, all the ethical arguments about what is a correct or incorrect way of purchasing recordings pale into insignificance when put alongside the question as to whether it is right to spend a fortune on luxury items like CDs/LPs/downloads in a world where millions lack basic food and shelter. I put that one to the back of my mind constantly! [i'm not trying to launch any guilt trips here - just trying to put the ethics of distributing recordings into some sort of perspective. I don't think anyone who buys lots of recordings (as I do) can get too high up on their ethical horse).]

I'm always impressed by DGM - the King Crimson/Robert Fripp site. Fripp has been fighting the majors for decades to secure what he considers ethical treatment of performers. Instead of the majors approach of witholding product to create demand, DGM seems happy to swamp the site with more downloads than you'd ever want, giving the listener a vast range to choose from at very reasonable prices. How many times have we been to a concert, loved it, bought the album, only to find the performances truncated or studio bound. With live digital recording quality what it is now, there's nothing to stop a recording being made on tour and put up on an artists website for interested parties to download. Dave Douglas did this last year; and David Binney has been recording many of his concerts for download. The album every 2 years catches a fraction of what jazz performers are doing. Modern technology has the potential to allow us to hear a broader picture. Lots of us delight in the release of live recordings, airshots etc of past greats like Ellington. Current technology allows us to access this in the hear and now. I don't see the availability of a live download adversely affecting sales of a carefully constructed album (however it is distributed). With a performer I admire it's more likely to draw me towards it. Of course, it all runs the danger of more music than we can ever digest. But that's for the individual listener to control.

I think that's the key point. The dinosaur companies are desperately trying to preserve the status quo, only moving with the technology when no other possibility presents itself. If they put a fraction of the money they spend chasing illegal downloaders into offering a distinct, unique product then they might start to get somewhere. Instead of trying to litigate their survival they need to be accepting that the cat is out of the bag and they've got to provide something very different. Smaller labels and independent musicians are adapting much more effectively. I suspect in the world of specialist music (as opposed to mass popular music) there are a majority of people prepared to pay a fair price for legitimate material in the knowledge that those who made the music are getting a fair deal. Instead of sitting on a vast body of unreleased material and then moaning when another company puts it out, get it out properly. Chandos have all their OOP recording available for download. I'm sure these could then be illegally file-shared. But they've taken the risk that enough people want to play straight. They're now offering higher resolution 'lossless' downloads. This company seems to be investing in the technological revolution instead of trying to stop it in its tracks.

Virgin no longer exists in the UK - the stores were, I believe, bought by some sort of internal employee purchase (apologies, I don't understand take-overs, buyouts etc). They now call themselves 'zavvi' (I'm not sure why!). The store of there's I went in to was very poor, along with just about every UK record stop outside a handful of independents. Astonishing how quickly this all imploded.

I remember that only too well - I must have exchanged every three or four records, often with little improvement. I wonder if one of the reasons why ECMs took off at that time was the fact that they nearly always had much cleaner surfaces. My earliest LP purchases are quite solid, chunky affairs. By the end of the 70s (post Oil Crisis) they had become very flimsy. I went a bit heavy on the penny with this one, with the result that 'Positively Fourth Street' has about 20 seconds of 'scruncccccchhhh' as the stylus ripped away the surface! (I hate to think what that stylus did to my other records!). This is something you can't replace on CD as the UK version was different to the US - one of my favourite tracks, 'New Morning, is not on the US. But the CD reissue is the US one. However....thanks to digital technology I can now listen to the album in 'proper' (!) sequence. I found a cheap copy of the CD, ripped it, took 'New Morning' and another track off the respective albums and assembled the right version. Lunacy, I know, but!

Well, at least one pop/rock performer recognises your preferences: From: http://www.chrisrea.com/home.html There was a 3 minute item about this on the early morning news in the UK a few days back. I'm sure many Chris Rea fans will not be content to have just an MP3 copied from a mate. Scanning the book might just prove too arduous!!!!

I think record 'skipping' - i.e.jumping - is a problem of cheap record players. But that was all I could afford in the 70s so it left a scar! I still recall taping a penny onto the cartridge to keep it in the groove...some of my early records bear the scars! I had an excellend Rega Planar for 25 years - far from top of the range, but good. When that died last year I got a Pro-ject. The only skipping I experience is where a biscuit crumb has lodged in a groove. Easily dislodged. But inner groove distortion, clicks caused by scratches and 'wow' caused by off-centre pressing remain a problem which is why I only use the record player to transfer to CD-R. I suspect these are not issues to high end systems. It's worth remembering that a 15 year old today, with an Ipod or cheap CD box, experiences none of the irritation that I had at that age. There are records I bought in the early 70 where I still expect to hear the jumps, even though I now have perfect CD copies!

I actually understand the nostalgia for vinyl - and now CD! But I think the sound differences get overstated. It's a bit like preferring a classic car over a contemporary Peugeot. The former simply can't compete in performance, environmental friendliness etc. Yet, there's something indefinable about whizzing through the country lanes in the former. If you've never had or aspired to a classic car then the attraction is meaningless.

You have a point there - if I never bought another recording I'd have enough to keep me wallowing in pleasure for the rest of my life. Except... I got hooked into music by that sense of anticipation for what lay round the corner. I'm still gripped by that, regardless of what I own (clearly marking me as someone very successfully captured by capitalism!). Lewis Carroll got this perfectly: `

You explain why right away: But how often has the money gone to the 'people who deserve it' since the beginning of commercial recording? The idea that 'people today' are accepting immoral practices doesn't work...because we've all been party to that since we bought our first records. This is the way capitalism works. It'll take more than a change in the record industry to introduce ethical practices.

This strikes me as one of those situations where the technology is way ahead of the legality. As fast as the record companies try and nail the legality down, they still look up to find technology several streets ahead and have to start all over again. The only solution is for companies - or individual musicians/bands/collectives - to provide something unique that cannot be quickly replicated. The moral argument is all well and good but it doesn't stop people (I've got my own share of recordings that are of questionable provenance). But once you start hitting the moral high ground where does it stop? How about the ethics of buying a Mosaic for $120 that you get through once a year at most. How many meals could that buy in Darfur? I actually find a certain pleasure - I'm not sure why - in buying direct from the source. A musician's site, a small, specialist label. I'll loyally buy direct from, say, the Discipline Global site that handles the King Crimson/Robert Fripp music and feel no desire to locate this music cheaper because buying from there is easy, interesting, full of surprises and I've a feeling that a fair bit of the money is going to the people who deserve it. That's the model that is needed.

Minority Report Just to offer a different perspective - I'm not trying to start a fight! a) I've not bought an LP in about 20 years - I've slowly been either replacing them with CDs or burning them to CD-R (more recently replacing some with downloads). The bulk of my LPs are in the loft where they'll never be played again. I associate vinyl with rice krispies, off centre discs, inner groove distortion, needle jumps etc. Probably a result of only ever having modest playback equipment - but I worshipped the CD from the moment it arrived. b) Although I've had some downloads from commercial sites that have sounded poor, most I find hard to differentiate from a normal CD. I always burn to CD-R and play that way at present (habit, I suspect...I've not been able to get past the idea of an item with a specific, finite amount of music on it!). I've been perfectly happy with most from e-music. Recent downloads from classical labels like Gimmell (Tallis Scholars), Chandos and, more recently, the new DG site have been marvellous. Now I'm willing to accept that I lack either the discerning ears or the quality of playback equipment to tell the difference - but I'm pretty certain that it's only a matter of time before technology just eliminates any difference there. I'll have no difficulty to switching totally to downloads. c) I always find the arguments about the packaging interesting, especially when coming from a body of people likely to get dismissive about the general public's addiction to packaging in other areas. I was very attached to the packaging up to a year or so back. E-music weened me off. I like a nice front cover and notes if they are informative (though usually they're waffle!) - a fair few online distributers are getting good at making those available (Gimmell is superb!). In fact, I've gone as far as ditching my jewel cases and general paperwork, keeping CD and main booklet in a PVC folder. Saves acres of shelf space! I suspect that 5-10 years from now there will be companies running off 'audiophile' pressings of CDs as they do vinyl today. But the future lies in downloads (or whatever comes next!!!!). If I hear something on the radio today I want to buy, it will take me a day or more to get to a shop to buy it; ordering the CD online still imposes a time delay. The ready availability to purchase and be listening in half an hour at most is bound to win over the mass audience (and I'd include many people who enjoy specialist musics in that mass audience). I loved going out on Saturday afternoons to record shops, browsing, buying an LP or two, gazing at the gatefold. But those days are long gone. I spent 30 years going record shopping nearly every week, often driving to cities 30 miles away for a different experience. In the last year I've gone shopping maybe six or seven times! An enjoyable experience lost...but I've won back so much time, much of which has become listening time! Having said all that, I've no intention of ripping my existing CDs and then selling them! Oh, and it's interesting to read the term 'CD quality' as an affirmative. Not too long ago that would have been an oxymoron!

Well, no-one has told the plants yet but the sky is set for spring: It was warmer today than it was last July during our 'phantom summer.'

Well, spring is but a state of mind! Actually, I should have subtitled this 'Track the return of life across the northern hemisphere'. Apologies to Kenny Weir and others for my thoughtless hemispherism!

Seen some great pictures on this site - Chris' views in NY immediately jump to mind. So, with the first snowdrops out, how about a visual tracking of this wonderful time of year? This was the still wintry scene outside my front door at about 8.30 am this morning...less rural than it looks. The sunrise hides an entire small town! Proof of the snowdrops...I seem to have four!!!!

Hope that goes well, Papsrus. I saw Moody many years ago...can't recall in what context!

An interesting composer - in the 20s he was considered a bit of an enfant terrible; a bit too modernistic and (a bigger crime in some eyes at the time) continental. As time went on he seemed to get absorbed into the mainstream. A bit like Walton. There's some of his spikier stuff on this disc: My favourite is the more romantic 'A Colour Symphony' - great tunes there! Talking of Walton, there's a marvellous Decca box of his main orchestral pieces: The First Symphony, in particular, is amazing. One of those glowering between the wars pieces like RVW's Fourth.

Just noticed that both Chandos and Lyrita are now up on e-music (at least here in the UK). Never noticed that happening!

This is one reason why I'm really looking forward to more and more record companies putting material out via digital download (leaving all the 'quality' issues to one side) - the chance to fill in the gaps without duplication. I have 3 of the Fats Waller RCA sets, acquired just before they started to disappear. JSP have now launched a thorough series and I've recently got volume 2. The trouble is that there's a CD and a bit of material between the end of that set and where my RCAs pick up. The JSP box 3 would end up with nearly 3 discs of duplication. Fortunately JSP use e-music so I'm hoping it won't be too long before these boxes appear there. Though some record companies are crafty with this. I was looking to download one classical recording in ten parts off an album where I don't need the couplings. Unfortunately two of the parts were 'album only' so my only option would have been to buy the whole album with the things I didn't need. Another sign of a failure of the companies to take into account what customers are seeking in this new world. I read somewhere that Classics might be digitalising their collection - now that would work for me if things were available singly. Though I suspect I won't live long enough to see the job completed!

I have that record - really excellent. In fact I'll give it a play now! This is about to hit the shops in Europe later this month: http://www.amazon.co.uk/Mande-Variations-T...8446&sr=8-1 The blurb says: