zikzak new music roundup - mix 11.6.23

Hey all

Sorry its taken so long to do anything here on zikzak. I have been really busy with my own music & frankly whats happening in the world got me a little but down so i just put it on the back burner

I have recently lost my radio show as dublab.de has changed the focus of their operations to having a local performance space rather than radio, so i am really going to try to do things here that promote music i think you should hear. I really tried to make my radio mixes “arty” and that takes a lot of time and effort. Seamless mixing, ect, ect… Doing it here on zikzak, its more focused on purchase and knowledge. Considering also that virtually all social media is also tanking, i think this is an important duty for me here. Its going to be harder and harder to find places where you can get info on music that you enjoy as everything is either broken or fragmented. I tried to make this more about vibe and there are 2 to 3 second gaps between tracks. That makes things so much easier and that way i can get more music in front of you rather than trying to create some kind of sonic masterpiece. The soundclound link also has comments where i put down markers where each artist track is as well as links below to purchase. In this way i think its even better than a typical radio show because that isnt as focused on music purchase as this will be. I also am not crazy about writing so i will try to let the music do most of the talking

Also, since i have been away, there have been some rather large music related developments. The big one being the sale of Bandcamp to Songtradr. Obviously thats not great news for pretty much anyone involved (besides Songtradr). I’m not as pessimistic about it as a lot of people out there based on what i see on Twitter (yes I’m calling it twitter…they will never get me to play ball on that…) It is a wakeup call i think to really start investigating other ways of getting music to people besides Bandcamp. It wouldn’t surprise me if they completely did away with the purchase/download aspect but I’m not ready to throw in the towel just yet. This is why on this mix below, you will see all Bandcamp links. I will obviously pivot when this becomes possible. I think eventually they will try to turn it into an indie Spotify deal considering that Spotify just came out and said no track that gets under 1000 plays will see any money whatsoever(not like there was a lot anyway). I hope this too is a wakeup call for both listeners and artists to move away from what is essentially a music rental service that only helps to devalue music as something that you actually own. For me, the move away from streaming is the biggest hope i have moving forward

I do hope that people start to embrace the CD more as well as going back to the idea of having actual files on your phone or perhaps even an MP3 player. Having vinyl and streaming as the two of the main ways music is disseminated seems like it will keep making life rather difficult for musicians and those who care about them. The cost, leadtime and freight associated with vinyl is making it very hard to expect it to keep going in the coming years. Going back to the Spotify…we can now also see there is no money in streaming so i think we need to change both our buying and listening habits if we want to keep the music landscape healthy. Thats just my 2 cents fwiw…

Here you go. Enjoy

Field Lines Cartographer - Transit Of Ariel

èvia - Slumber

Fia Fiell - Phoenician Letters

n9oc-u

Piotr Kurek - Smartwoods (Original)

Minor Science - Summer Diary

Paavoharju - 13:13

Strategy - Message from Ouroboros

Pretty Sneaky - Memory Theme

Rest Symbol - Twelfth Hour

Other Joe -Man of the World

Felbm - Cycli Infini (excerpt)

Jonny Nash - Light From Three Sides

Susu Laroche - Heaven

MPU101 - nurMKS30

Den Osynliga Manteln - Trippelsol

Tara Clerkin Trio - World in Delay

Ultramarine - Xylonite