found drama

random thought while driving home this p.m. Since 99.9% of our CDs are in a box for the move, I made myself this mix CD-R recently to “get me through” the assorted necessary driving. ANYWAY one of the tracks I burned was BT’s “Fibonacci Sequence” — the full version off of the bonus disc of the UK release of “Movement in Still Life”. I noticed all these weird but subtle differences between it and every other version of it I’ve every heard. Something slightly different between it and the white label single version of it in my record crate. Something a little bit different between those two and the one on the Sasha “Ibiza” GU mix. Something… You get the idea…

Anyhoo– I got to thinking about tracks as living things. If you’ve ever written a song using Acid or Reason or your guitar or all three, then you kind of already know what this means. Except that those are all private versions. Fuck ups. Practices. Jams. Sessions. You might share a dubbed copy with a buddy you’re working on it w/ but that’s it. But you listen to it evolve over time. You help shape it. Now stretch out a little bit. Some artist mixes up a new track, gets a dubplate crushed and hooks up a DJ friend with that copy. It’s now out there in the venue and with enough plays could become recognized. That combination of beat and bassline. Something along those lines. Three months later, it gets released on white label. Same track. Instantly recognizable. But the breakdown is a little longer. Or a sample has been thrown over top, something like that. Six months later, signed to a mid-size label and distributed all over the place… You get the idea…

And not to get political… But this seems so natural that it makes sense in a lot of ways to be a young artist riding Creative Commons licenses all over the place. If only b/c it gives your proponents a little flexibility. Help us help you…

About Rob Friesel

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