Norwegian vibes: a Prins Thomas talk

So, after the revealing conversation with Lindstrom, we needed to talk to Thomas (Prins). The other half of the fascinating and fresh combo Lindstrom & Prins Thomas. Like I said in my previous entry: this is all part of the feature we will run in Serie B for our next issue. The full content of these two conversations is now recorded and ready to be replayed, and edited. But here's just a few raw impressions...

If there's something you can feel talking to Thomas is certainty. The man knows what he's doing, and the most important thing: why. This doesn´t mean there's a plan behind his work with Lindstrom, or the labour at Full Pupp (the fresh and eclectic label he´s being pushing at a very personal ratio). There´s maturity and the ultimate desire to have fun and pleasure in the music. Can you ask for anything more? Not really.

I had to confess to Thomas how Cosmic Prism (the double mix cd released in 2007 under his name) is one of my recent favourites in a category, the mix cd, tha usually does not last very long in the shelf... And we can almost say the same about his hilariously entitled compilation Full Pupp Presents The Greatest Tits Vol.1. Oddly enough, Thomas has often confessed not being a hardcore record digger. The same is applied to the music in L &PT. Are there no secrets then? That´s what he says. But then agaion, how can you explain love at first sight? How about music at first sight?? Because ever since these two guys got together their understanding of what brings them together has created simplicty in complexity. And although it took them some tiem to reach global ears, the time has come.

Thomas admits openly listening to anything that estimulates him musically, be either techno or rock, disco of funk. Good is enough. Being a dj for many years has, of course, created a taste for danceable music which we can all see in his remixes for other artists, and sometimes inside the duo releases. But, honestly, it's not about sweating hard kicking beats to the floor. There's more. There's abstraction, daydreaming, cinematic textures in what he mixes, produces or composes with the ultimate goal of originality. Cosmic disco? Nu disco? Norwegian excentricty? We can call it anyway we like: the remaining truth is one about exciting and rich music that touches head and soul.

Norwegian vibes: a Lindstrom talk

For so many reasons this is the year for Lindstrom & Prins Thomas. Their unfashionable style, northern eclecticism, retro electronic and fun-tastic sound has been fascinating more and more cultivated ears, until the ever belated eyes of the media have decided to push them up. God knows where! In only 6 years since they first met, but just 4 since they released their first collaboration, the duo has established solidly as the forefront and true spirit of something suspiciously called nu disco, sometimes cosmic disco. So, is that just what it is? Another trend ready to bite the dust? Quite the opposite.

2008 has already seen the solo project by Lindstrom, a counter-current album of three songs but full travelling spirit. Where You Go I Go Too is clearly a personal manifesto of the vibes beyond the seductive work Lindstrom does remixing other material, or the more outgoing palette he combines musically with Prins Thomas. The opening track is almost 30 minutes long and the good news is it doesn´t really matter. It´s wonderfully abstract, inspirational and intelligent (although modest and simple). On the other hand, Prins Thomas (the dj eye and fingers behind the tandem) released another individual cry: Full Pupp Presents The Greatest Tits vol.1. An i rresistible collection of truly spacey and cosmic electronic brushes extracted from his own adventure, the label Full Pupp. In some respect a logical continuation to his mix album Prins Thomas Presents Cosmo Galactic Prism.

So, keeping all that in mind, ready and steady as we always are in the magazine Serie B www.sbum.com we decided to give them space in our pages. For that reason I had an early (for Spain) night conversation with Hans Peter aka Lindstrom. Almost an hour of impressions, comments and concentration with someone who paces his words and thoughts with the same affirmation and conviction that we feel in his music. There will be time and space to look in detail the content of this conversation and the upcoming one with Thomas. But the overall feeling was one of dealing with an artist who finds intimate pleasure in what he is doing, regardless trends, vibes and hypes, who still considers his work at the early stages of creativity, and looks at his partner in art with admiration and inspiration. A rarity in all matters, Mr Lindstrom!! Thank you for your words.

Dirty tracks

You have all probably heard it recently. Vinyl is not dying at all: is coming alive from its ashes. The media have been writing frantically about this new "fad" for months now, particularly in the last few weeks. Figures are going up specially in the USA where the RIAA (Recording Industry Association of America) announced how the vinyl records sales went over the 1 million mark in 2007, although they still only mean a weak 1% of the business.

I guess one could truly dig a little deeper about all this excitement in the "industry", see it as another desperate reaction in a moment of general panic, with CD sales going down an estimate 20% every year (for 2006 and 2007). Reading comments like "we could really carve this out to be a nice profitable niche,” from Bill Gagnon the Senior Vice-president at EMI Catalog Marketing in the New York Times need no further explanation.

If you have been buying vinyl from before this trend, or actually while the mp3 panic was expanding rapidly, you might have noticed a few things. First of all, with everyone downloading music files from P2P servers, the real first victim of this party has been the CD. But secondly, vinyl. If the general public - and that is not the music collectors, but the ones who buy one or two records a year - feel that buying music makes no sense when you can get it for free, the natural consequence is an overwhelming amount of products for sale for a decreasing demand. In commerce that means lower prices. We didn't see this in most music stores but we saw it clearly in all second hand or specialised retailers. More and more boxes of reduced price records, and clearly lower prices for once untouchable collector's items...

One of the reasons for this situation is the access to Ebay and many second hand stores (because technically that's what they are). Some time ago, if you bump into a first edition of your favourite collecting artist in your local store, you would be ready to pay almost anything in the ignorance and fear of not having such opportunity again. Luckily enough, you can take it easy now, put it aside, check a few stores in the net, and get the best deal for the same collecting pleasure. But of course, you are not the only surfer out there, and the sellers know it. So they started to push the prices, increase the sale`s information (release year, cover state, audio state) and unfortunately to lie.

It's all very romantic, trendy, exciting and fun to be part of the vinyl crowd. It's great to see new audiophiles discovering how much better was to enjoy music in the two sided format, with those gate fold editions, bigger photos, as opposed to the invisible hackery effect of an mp3 folder in your pc´s hard disk. It's even more rewarding to make buddies in the shops, learn the language codes, differentiate turntables and needles, even if you don´t particularly want to be a dj. But, what shall we do with the sound quality?

One of the supporting reasons for vinyl against CD or any digital format is the sound quality. Just google that for a few hours and you can get the explanatory information about sound waves, bass quality, range, etc. This is all true if records are preserved and offered fairly for second hand buyers. Although I don't have the figures at hand (but would love to know them, so please link me to any info regarding that) I'm sure a big part of the so called new business in vinyl relies on second hand sales. It´s true a big part of DJs worldwide still prefer 12" and LPs, and many popular artists (from Radiohead to Bob Dylan) are launching their music in alternative vinyl options, but even all those will one day find themselves in a crate having a second run for sale, only now with an injured quality.

Unfortunately, if you buy vinyl you have probably been ripped off many times. In my experience, at least half of the times when I bought a vinyl but didn't have the chance to check the quality I was fooled. Some times for a middle range price like 30€ or more. This can be avoided, obviously, when you deal with a local store with the minimum supply of a turntable and headphones. But if you buy abroad, or through Internet you are exposed. And there's nothing as frustrating as playing your beloved and highly paid vinyl at home and discovering is full of cracks, scratches and killed sound... It awakes your worst assassination instincts! And yes, you can always go back to the shop, write to the seller, complain and fight for your rights, but the moral damage has already been done.

So, it is all very exciting and encouraging to see sellers and buyers enjoying this vinyl comeback, specially if this will encourage companies to release new material in vinyl (the best guarantee for a good sound is an unopened/sealed record). But it is also very important to keep an eye for all those vinyl pirates who will not have a problem to overprice an old dirty dusty record and sell it as an all time well preserved jewel, when in truth, it's just another piece of junk.

Talk to me

Comes September and the return from holidays combined with the old feeling of going back to school makes this month a rollercoaster of excitement and emotions. Summer isn´t over yet, and certainly not in Madrid, with bars and tables outside jammin´ with laughs and smiles until late in the morning. It's time for a new beggining and most of us find this time of the year ideal for new plans. Mine is very simple.

I started this blog back in march 2005 as a complement to my articles in the magazine Serie B www.sbum.com , with the idea of expanding some of my opinions about music, culture and society, from a contemporary urban bug like myself. The only limit was language: I chose to express all that in my native tongue, Spanish, with the spirit of adding up (if necessary) some more content in that language to the English-dominated Internet. Until now.

The success of the entries in Spanish in a different blog ring (lacomunidad.elpais.com ) as opposed to this Blogspot community has given me the opportunity to diversify, and multiply, my writings. So, from now on, Másàjazz in Spanish will only be found in La Comunidad, and this address in Blogspot will remain for the entries in English. They won't necessarily be the same, probably quite the contrary, so being Spanish-English speaking will give you access to both blogs. Otherwise, when reccomending a certain artist or album you will get the specific idea of my liking: I don`t usually talk about the music I don´t enjoy. In the words of Shakespeare (Hamlet) "the rest is silence".

My final request comes to you: make this space alive and stay connected, subscribed or at least active. Drop a comment, participate, let me know about your feeling and thoughts. It gets very lonely here, on the screen.