I am also a passionate advocate of DIY and D2F but not to the extent that you do everything single thing yourself. And I don’t think many people would disagree. It’s not practical to believe DIY must be a go-it-alone business.

That would make it some kind of religious pursuit. The aim is not to do without other people, it’s all about being in control and yes cutting out middlemen. But they are deadweights who add no value, not the people who have skills and assets you need.

why don’t you come to Israel to see for yourself.
don’t schedule a DJ booking.
you say “Israel is an apartheid state” and your fans listen.
At least have the decency to come and declare at first hand.

I came here today as I was working with the Ipod on shuffle and Ride a White Horse Disco Odyssey came on and blew my socks off (not for the first time). I thought I’d better check your site out as its been while.

We should be thanking you buddy but I will always buy my music. If only there was a way to make sure you got 100% of the money from it I’d be happier too. I’m not a big fan of the middle man, especially with the channels available to all via the internet these days.

First off, to my shame i wasn’t at all aware of Discographies, so I’ll def check it out.

I liked Noise cause it was thought provoking, a good ‘story’ – as every history is some kind of story – which even though i found fault with it at points, it made into an interesting, sometimes even wild, interpretation of the relationship between people and music, and that between culture and economics.
Specifically I arrived at it while writing a paper about the invention of the phonograph, and got to Noise on my search looking for what ways has the possibility to record sound, and more specifically “playing it back”, has brought into our lives.
And in these times when the music world is changing so fast, it’s still a sphere in which different kinds of know how’s – how to create it, how to program/edit/curate it (as dj’s do) – still maintains strong value, which goes beyond just having it, as everyone nowadays sort of has all the music ever made (as long as they’re connected to the web).
And it’s a special kind of knowledge, as everyone ‘likes music’, and we have an active, ongoing, non-stop relationship with it, either at the club or home alone, and yet, not everybody manages to ‘speak’ with it.
Am I making any sense?

Now, your Bitter Devotion remix that I just discovered, that I DO love – and I plan to listen literally ad nauseum to it. Thanks!

I’m sure Ewan has read Noise. Perhaps he even likes it…. I’m pretty sure it’s mentioned in Ewan and J Gilbert’s book Discographies.

If you’re around to reply can you tell me why you like this book? What idea did you get from it that you thought was good? I’ve read it and I pretty much hated all of it but I’m still curious about it’s appeal to other people.

My point is…these distortions seem unfortunately somewhat endemic to the ongoing tensions between (underground) music culture and its representation in popular media.

P.S. Re: Polly’s comments…way to steer the topic off course…