Dear all,

Welcome to the tenth edition of my mail-outs, all of which have been archived on my website. As usual, please find an overview of my recent articles and radio features as well as some assorted/unsorted bonus recommendations below. Again I specifically point it out if a piece is available in an official or my own English translation.

+++++ Stuff That I Wrote (or Said on the Radio)

— I do not have any tattoos, but for years have been considering getting the letters K A T E  B U S H inked on my knuckles because that would work perfectly. With Never for Ever turning 45 years and Hounds of Love celebrating its 40th birthday this September, I took the opportunity to write an essay about this anti-popstar for HHV-Mag (English/German) and produced a small German-language radio feature for WDR’s Westart (starts at the 14 minute mark) about Hounds of Love with some choice quotes by renowned bushologist Leah Kardos.

— One of my favourite labels for unconventional music these past few years has been mappa. For HHV-Mag (English/German), I wrote a lil’ profile on Jakub Juhás’ efforts to read the world through the ears. If you’d like to dig into mappa’s back catalogue and don’t know where to start, I can recommend Lenka Novosedlíková’s performance of Sarah Hennies’ »Sisters,« Felicity Mangan’s »Creepy Crawly,« and the massive »Synthetic Bird Music« compilation. 

— I’ve linked to the label’s Bandcamp page above, but as you might know I am quite critical of Songtradr’s marketplace and its almost-monopoly on all things DIY/indie in the marketplace space. Hence, I have tested four Bandcamp alternatives for DJ LAB. (By the way, Mirlo—my favourite of the four—has just last week finally launched label pages.) 

— Testing out and/or developing new marketplaces is more important than ever because the music is at a crossroads—that’s according to Mark Mulligan/MIDiA at least, but I agree. With swathes of artists and bands pulling their catalogue from Spotify, the discussion around fair compensation in the streaming economy has gained new momentum. However, an issue that I see with this is that a lot of people, music journalists very much included, have no fucking idea what they’re talking about. Also in DJ LAB, I tried to explain how royalty payments in the streaming economy actually work. No, Spotify’s not sending $ 0,003 per stream to someone’s bank account, even though a lot of my colleagues and also plenty of artists keep regurgitating this hearsay-based oversimplification that essentially boils down to a falsehood. So … As you can see, this really bugs me, not (only) because people are wrong on the internet, but also because I think it is damaging to the discussion. 

— Speaking of facts and nuance, there is a new study that for the very first time gives an overview of and insights into Germany’s music festival industry. Turns out there’s a lot of them (almost 1.800!) and that a lot of those (almost a third!) are worried about their future. For der Freitag (archived), I spoke to some people on the ground about what festivals can collectively and individually do in this time of crisis. A few days later, Coachella announced its line-up for its next edition sooner than ever, so I followed up on the bigger piece with a smaller one (archived) explaining why selling advance tickets early has become more imperative these days, and what strategies some German festivals use to make this easier for their audiences.

— If you’ve come this far, you are probably wondering where this month’s radio rant about the AI slopification of streaming services is. Don’t worry, I got on the airwaves once more to talk it through, this time with DLF Kultur Studio 9’s Dieter Kassel, to once more discuss Velvet Sundown et al as well as the social and political implications of all this. I’m not saying anything I haven’t said before a couple of times there, however it should be noted that I came with fresh numbers from Deezer, where now 28 % of all uploaded music is AI slop. The latest development is that Spotify has announced it would do the barest minimum to battle spammy scams and scammy spam, which is mostly AI. So far I haven’t been commissioned to take this lil’ face-saving campaign apart, but let’s see.

— Haus der Kulturen der Welt will host the Middle Ground: Festa Literária das Periferias festival on the 10th and 11th of October. I’ve done translation work for this project, so maybe that Bachelor’s degree in comparative literature is finally paying off.

— ‘tis cultural journalism award season again. Three years ago, I wrote about why I prefer to take no part in this, and have dusted off and edited this English-language piece after being made aware that an institution has been publicly criticised for allegedly snubbing me—even though they wanted to nominate me twice in the past and complied with my wish to leave me out of it. I would like to facilitate a discussion around the subject more generally.

+++++ Some Unsorted Recommendations

First of all, I recommend taking long, destinationless early-morning walks on sunny, crisp autumn days. I think those are best enjoyed without headphones, but if you must: An absolute pearl that I came across again during my Kate Bush research was the B-side »My Lagan Love,« a rendition of an old Irish folk song. What is striking about it is that it only uses two elements, or instruments, Bush’s voice and some reverb, making it an outlier in her discography. It is a deeply fascinating, haunting piece of music. Speaking of a minimum of means/maximum effect, William Basinski’s The Disintegration Loops have been remastered for yet another box set. I put that on faintly in the background while my mum was visiting. What genre is this, she asked me, and I said, well a lot of people would call this ambient but it’s more complicated than that, to which she said, but Kristoffer you’re a music journalist so you should know which genre that is, leaving me no other choice but to explain the entire backstory of this album to her, after which she nodded and said something like oh, okay, that’s interesting … Can you put on some Dire Straits instead? I guess my recommendation here is getting a reality check once in a while. Speaking of which, there’s a tonne of interesting concerts coming up in Berlin, just in time for coughing season. On October 1st, Kai Fagaschinski will team up with Yan Jun (remember their Ni Vu Ni Connu album?) for a gig at KM28 and the latter will also perform with sun yizhou, who will be in town for an inhumane amount of gigs in early October. On October 2nd, light bulb musician Michael Vorfeld will present his new Karlrecords album Glühlampenmusik at West Germany together with Periode, and the day after Kiezsalon returns to Musikbrauerei with Evicshen, Mayssa Jallad, and James Blackshaw. Maybe see you around, Berliners, and happy decorative gourd season to everyone else! 

Thank you for your attention and until next time.