Thursday, June 7, 2012

The future (+ a word about vinyl)

Since I started this label in 2005, I've been getting a lot of shit for focusing on CD and not doing any vinyl editions.
The truth is, I don't really care for vinyl. It takes a lot of space, it's expensive to ship and manufacture, and I fail to hear the supposedly great sound quality beneath the surface noise and parasite sounds.
I know I'm in the minority here, but I'd rather listen to music on CD. First of all, what you get when you buy a CD is a perfect clone of the audio master, which means you can hear the music exactly as the artist intended it to sound. Unless you're Steve Albini and you can supervise the whole recording + mastering chain, it's definitely not the case when it comes to vinyl (especially in 2012).
That in itself is the biggest selling point, but it's not all. CD is small, easy to navigate, can contain up to 80 minutes of uninterrupted music (without having to flip sides three times!), and can play on pretty much any modern (thus easily replaceable) equipment.
If you're in it for the music, I honestly can't see any reason to go for the vinyl instead. Sure, I like the bigger cover arts too, but it sure is not enough to justify the hassle.

So yeah, basically, we will never ever do vinyl!
Some artists who have been involved with the label seem to really be into it right now, and we will keep on supporting them and carry their records. The only sure thing is that there will never be another vinyl release with the Savage Land logo on it.

This said, a CD-only label is clearly not viable at this point, so we're currently exploring ways to evolve and keep supporting musicians in this awful age.
RIght now, we're mostly looking into video production and digital distribution of live recordings. It's not perfect and it's not our first choice, but at least we won't resort to the "limited edition colored vinyl and silkscreened packaging with gold embossed letters" scheme that seems to be so prevalent today.
Fuck you, Rock Is Hell Records! (although I bought some of your stuff to put on my wall.)

Ahem, so... no new release on the horizon, but the label is definitely alive. We're just plotting in the shadows and preparing for the next phase.
You can still buy our wonderfully mastered CD releases at savageland.bigcartel.com in the meantime.

Also, here's a list of records you should check out:

Normal Love - Survival Tricks
Weasel Walter - Ominous Telepathic Mayhem
Profanatica - Sickened by Holy Host
I Don't Hear Nothin But The Blues - Appalachian Haze
David Buddin - Canticles

+ upcoming MndlsBlstng and Behold... the Arctopus records later this year.

Expect more.

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