CUR$ES

A quick post about Glasgow synth trio CUR$ES, whose albums are all up for free download on their Bandcamp page. Three musicians, using a Prophet 08 synth, MIDI pads and a Yamaha drum pad station, the multi-instrumentalist band switch parts mid-song while playing live, creating a vibrant, musically capricious sound that evokes everything from Joker's purple-wow dubstep sounds to the ghost-garage of Burial or Ghostek, with detours through witch house, drag and classic synthpop. 

They're an absolutely incendiary live act, as was proved when we saw them deliver an outstanding live session in support of Com Truise at Captain's Rest last week. Have a listen to their latest album Hey, cool! I'm dead, and their recent split with ARM WTCHS FNGRS, and click through for yet more goodies from three rising stars of Scottish electronic music. We expect big things from CUR$ES as their career progresses!

Glasgow comic artists ruin their own career by giving away work for free.

Alternative Taking Flight cover by Garry Kelly

Well, it's free if you know where to find it. Otherwise you can actually buy Taking Flight by Garry McLaughlin and Stephen Sutherland in physical formats from the Laser Age Comics website. Here's their rationale behind seeidng the book on Demonoid:

Okay folks, here's an update on 'Taking Flight':

The coloured version is with UKomics for printing, and will be available to purchase at the QMU Comic Mart on April 7th. After that, it'll be available to purchase online, and we'll try to get it out there a bit further afield.

The comic is also currently being seeded on Demonoid. Recently fellow GLoW member and Glaswegian comics creator Gordon Maclean found his brand new comic 'No More Heroes' was being pirated on Demonoid. Rather than wail and gnash his teeth at this, Gordon decided to turn it to his advantage, and has received a lot of press from comic sites and blogs, interested in his take on this fairly new and emerging situation for indie comics creators.

This is something I've been thinking about for a while - is it better to clamp down on this and try to prevent piracy? Is it better to just allow it to happen and make the most of it? Or is it an idea to just put it out there yourself and see what happens?

Stephen and I aren't in this for the money, and from previous experience, I know that it's highly unlikely we'll make any profit from the comic - we're doing it because we love making comics, and because we want to get our stuff out there, increasing our skills and exposure in the hope of getting professional work at some point.

So 'Taking Flight' on Demonoid is *not* pirated, it is a genuine, free torrent, direct from the creators. Of course we'd love for those of you who know us to buy the comic if you can, but if you want to trial it, or if you have no intention of buying it, feel free to download it.

No, I'm not providing links. You'll have to go out there and discover it for yourself. This is an experiment that could backfire on us slightly, but so far, 95 people globally have read 'Taking Flight'. In two days. That's more than ever read any single issue of the Year of Fear titles. And we're already getting constructive comments and dialogue from those readers and it's significantly upped the traffic to the website, www.laseragecomics.co.uk, which is great.

Whether you do decide to buy or download your copy, we'd be interested in hearing from you, and why you went for the decision you did.

Meantime, if you want to pre-order your colour copy, head over to the website now.

GuMMy†Be▲R! - Spectral Analysis [Tundra]

Go and grab this fantastic four track release by electronic wunderkind GuMMy†Be▲R! now, from the ever-fabulous Tundra label, out of San Francisco. Expect hypercolour synths, crunchy electro breaks and spectral atmospherics... but grab it quick, it's only free to download for 24 hours.



- posted by Texture

Dizzee Spatula - free download

After some positive feedback for the last NORAVE mix, I decided to turn the Dizzee Rascal / Sepultura mix into a full on mash-up. So here it is:



Dizzee Spatula by littlerockrecords

Google wha..?

I've been brought in to Google Wave, which seems to suggest the exclusivity is waning... As far as I can tell, though, loads of folks still want invites. I'm feeling generous(and I don't reeeeally care), so I'll give one to the first person to email me with a tune I like, or at least hate in an interesting way.

littlerockrecords is the username, gmail is the domain.

Party safe, Little Rockets.

Good People, Good Music.

We like (and have booked) a few of the folks over on Winning Sperm. You should go check them out because you'll find some fucking awesome music, and also because it's all FUCKING FREE.

Which is nice.

They also have a blog, which I should read more.