Friday, August 8, 2014

My Bandcamp Music



On Bandcamp.com I have found lots of interesting music of very high quality, music that would never have reached me through old media distribution channels.  

 

 

 

A better way for music distribution

Bandcamp is a web-site where you can listen to and buy music.
You can buy for download directly to your computer, no need to hassle with ripping CDs any more, and lossless formats are available so you do not have to worry about encoding quality.

Today, when physical media such as CD is disappearing, many find that streaming services like Spotify is a good source for music.
However, there are very good reasons to prefer services where you buy and acquire the music and download it for local storage, on your own hard drive.
At least for the enthusiast, who cares about quality, this is the only way to ensure you have the right version of your favourite albums, and it will not suddenly go away if the streaming service goes down or you simply loose your internet connection.

I present for you some examples of music I have found, and describes what makes those special with respect to how they sound.
As I say on my Bandcamp page; "My review comments focus on sound - not many do so, and others are far better on the music part." 


Electronic 

 

The Flashbulb - Reunion:
A masterpiece of dynamics and excellent sound production.
Note the impact of the drums of tracks like Oak Lawn UFO and Walking Irrevocable.
But be warned, this is electronic, and everything is allowed, sometimes effects like distortion and changes in tonal balance are used in ways that can seriously disturb the typicial audiophile ears.
The dynamics and general composition makes it possible to play very loud and it will still sound quite pleasant, there is no Loudness-war disease here.

Emancipator - Safe In The Steep Cliffs:
What makes this special is the lively and exciting sound.
Listen to, or rather, feel, the drums on Rattlesnakes, note the big difference in both sound and tactile feel between the sharper smaller drums and the larger bass drum.



Panda Dub - Antilogy:
A dub production with unusual good overall sound quality, dynamic and detailed, pleasant to play loud.
If you like this one you should check out Panda Dub's other releases, particularly the older ones.


 

 






Instrumental


Emily Davidsson - BASS SOUNDS: Music for Unaccompanied Cello from the Early Baroque: 
This is a musical and technical masterpiece.
If you think this should be easy to do right - only one instrument, then check out some other releases in the same genre of classical music with few instruments, nowadays quite many of those are destroyed by bad production.

Seems Like Old Times:
A Jazz band in my room, simply.
No attempts to polish or amplify or make things sound bigger than they are.
And it is this simple and plain approach that actually achieves what others with large budgets and names try to do using boosts in the bass, compression, limiters, more compression, and eventually ending up with a flat and unnatural sound.
Turn it up and this sounds huge, dynamic and natural, it achieves to transfer some of the energy and liveliness of live music.






Join and find hidden treasures yourself


I have no affiliation to Bandcamp.com, I only encourage you to join and support the music and distribution platform, contribute by posting about music you find there, and enjoy the diversity of popular and established artists as well as the new or specialized ones.
Look at my personal collection at bandcamp.com/oyvindkvalsvoll to see what I have found, and then you can use the bandcamp.com/discover to search for music.



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