From Projekt Records’ Sam Rosenthal.

2014 was another productive year for Projekt: the label released 18 CDs, repressed 4 older out-of-stock CDs, and added 10 digital-only titles to the roster. The physical releases were a mix of standard editions and limited editions, choices that made sense with the ongoing devolution of the music industry. Stores hardly stock music anymore, so we’ve lost the “random discovery” that retails stores once provided. Instead, most sales are at Amazon or directly from our webstore; which means it’s only the dedicated and hardcore who are discovering Projekt releases. This leads to limited edition releases, to satisfy those specialized needs. These releases have a finite issue, and will not be repressed when they sell out; you should buy your copy while you can. Bare in mind that some titles are nearly sold out (see red text below). With that in mind, here’s a list of the 18 physical CDs from 2014.

Limited Editions

PRO291 Mercury’s Antennae: A Waking Ghost Inside 85 COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt CD PRO294 Stratosphere With Dirk Serries: In A Place Of Mutual Understanding 13 COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt CD PRO300 All my faith lost…: Redefine my pure faith — Sold Out!  PRO301 black tape for a blue girl: Remnants of a deeper purity 2-LP Vinyl 100? COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt LP PRO306 Erik Wøllo: Tundra (ep) – Sold Out!  PRO307 Mirabilis: »Here and the Hereafter« 59 COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt CD PRO308 Unto Ashes: Ghosts Captured 26 COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt CD PRO309 Dirk Serries: The Origin Reversal 16 COPIES LEFT – Buy the Projekt CD

Standard Editions

PRO292 Alio Die + Sylvi Alli: Amidst the Circling Spires – Buy the Projekt CD PRO296 Paulina Cassidy: Sugar Wingshiver – Buy the Projekt CD PRO297 Steve Roach / Kelly David: The Long Night – Buy the Projekt CD PRO298 Erik Wollo: Timelines – Buy the Projekt CD PRO299 Loren Nerell and Mark Seelig: Tree of Life – Buy the Projekt CD PRO302 Steve Roach: Structures from Silence (3-CD remastered) – Buy the Projekt CD PRO303 Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig: Intention – Buy the Projekt CD PRO304 Byron Metcalf & Dashmesh Khalsa & Steve Roach: Dream Tracker – Buy the Projekt CD PRO305 Steve Roach: The Delicate Forever – Buy the Projekt CD PRO310 Steve Roach & Jorge Reyes: The Ancestor Circle – Buy the Projekt CD

What were your fellow Projekt aficionados purchasing?

2014 Top-10 sellers in the Projekt webstore

#1 PRO305 Steve Roach: The Delicate Forever – Buy the Projekt CD #2 PRO307 Mirabilis: »Here and the Hereafter« – Buy the Projekt CD #3 PRO291 Mercury’s Antennae: A Waking Ghost Inside – Buy the Projekt CD #4 PRO309 Dirk Serries: The Origin Reversal Buy the Projekt CD #5 PRO306 Erik Wøllo: Tundra (ep) – Sold Out!  #6 PRO302 Steve Roach: Structures from Silence (3-CD remastered) – Buy the Projekt CD #7 PRO308 Unto Ashes: Ghosts Captured – Buy the Projekt CD #8 PRO300 All my faith lost…: Redefine my pure faith — Sold Out!  #9 PRO297 Steve Roach / Kelly David: The Long Night – Buy the Projekt CD #10 TIM30 Steve Roach: The Desert Collection (Volume One) – Buy the Timeroom CD

2014 Top-10 sellers in the Projekt Bandcamp Store

#1 PRO302 Steve Roach: Structures from Silence (Deluxe edition) – Buy the download #2 PRO297 Steve Roach / Kelly David: The Long Night – Buy the download #3 PRO303 Byron Metcalf and Mark Seelig: Intention – Buy the download #4 PRO298 Erik Wollo: Timelines – Buy the download #5 PRO306 Erik Wøllo: Tundra (ep) – Buy the download #6 PRO310 Steve Roach & Jorge Reyes: The Ancestor Circle – Buy the download #7 PRO305 Steve Roach: The Delicate Forever – Buy the download #8 PRO144 Steve Roach: Mystic Chords & Sacred Spaces (complete edition) – Buy the download #9 PRO300 All my faith lost…: Redefine my pure faith – Buy the download #10 PRO291 Mercury’s Antennae: A Waking Ghost Inside (300) – Buy the download

As somebody who loves data, I look at this and see a number of interesting points: 1) On both charts, 9 of the 10 titles are 2014 releases. 2) The top-6 at the webstore are completely different from the top-6 at Bandcamp. Not a single title on both! 3) Everything on the physical CD chart (except #10) was a Projekt-label release. The big sellers are Projekt’s own titles, as opposed to about 10 years ago, when we had non-Projekt CDs in the charts. 4) However, it’s not just the top-sellers that keep the webstore in business, it’s the overall totals; and that tells a different story.           2014 Income from the Projekt webstore:           Projekt CDs = 42%           Non-Projekt CDs= 40%           Projekt sale CDs = 18% You guys still like the variety of music we stock in the store, and enjoy the deals you can get on Projekt sale CDs. 5) That’s a lot of ambient/electronic on these charts. It’s a chicken-and-the-egg question. Does Projekt release more electronic, because that’s what you buy? Or do you buy more electronic, because that’s what Projekt releases? My impression is it’s harder and harder to sell a Darkwave title these days, so I focus on the electronic releases. 6) 4 of the top-10 physical sellers are in the Darkwave genre, including 2nd & 3rd slot; while only 2 of the top-10 Bandcamp are Darkwave, and they are in the 9th & 10th slot. It’s interesting how electronic-focused these download sales are. Not what I expected, when I started using Bandcamp. I thought it would be more for the darkwave side of the label. 7) Look at #2 + #3 on the physical list. Both feature Dru on vocals. (Hi Dru!) 8) I think All My Faith Lost… would have been higher on the chart, if the release hadn’t been limited to 200. That was the first in the limited edition series, and I underestimated your interest in this band. 9) A lot of the electronic focus is the work of Steve Roach, an amazing & prolific artist. I counted recently. 60 of Projekt’s 310 releases are from Steve. If you consider that at least 50 of those 310 are out of print, that means just about 25% of Projekt’s CDs have Steve’s name on the cover! And even more, many of the titles consistant sellers at retail are Steve’s. I love his music, and it’s very rewarding to see that so many of you love it, as well. 10) Buy those limited edition releases before they are all gone!

I could stare at these numbers all day and come up with new observations. But actually, I’ve been not working the last five days, and will continue not working for the next three days. I’ve been in the studio creating new songs. I’ve never taken a staycation to work on music. It’s a lot of fun, though the days all seem to blur into each other, and day and night flashes by, kind of like that scene in The Time Machine. Harley yowls at me from the living room, and storms into the studio demanding pets… and new music comes from non-existence into existence!

Well… That’s a statistical wrap-up for 2014. Thanks for your ongoing support.

I hope your holidays have been wonderful, and that you enjoy a great New Years Eve with people you love.

Sam

From Projekt Records’ Sam Rosenthal.

People love the old days.

Ok, I get it. There was that certain point in time when that certain song just hit you. Or the first time you discovered an artist. Or maybe it’s a special somebody, and the music they always use to listen to, which still brings back great memories. There’s all sorts of good reasons.

And sometimes it’s because, “Music was just better back then,” or, “All new bands suck.”

Yes, there are many reasons why the 90s were a high point in music.

I get Facebook messages from people along the lines of, “I just discovered your page. I didn’t know Projekt was still around.” I ask a few questions and discover the last album they purchased from Projekt was something like PRO51, Love Spirals Downwards’ 2nd album Ardor. And, oh boy! Projekt has released 259 albums since then! (They’re reminiscing about a very thin sliver of a pretty lengthy Projekt history.)

And hey, I appreciate those memories! I appreciate that Projekt was there for you at a certain point in your high school or college years. But artists keep making art; and times change. Love Spirals Downwards and Lycia aren’t even on the label anymore, they haven’t been for years. Time keeps on slippin’ slippin’ slippin’…

Swag, merchandise, stuff! I was wondering a few days ago: What do people our age want? I know that the majority of my readers are not millennials. My estimate is the average age is 45, with most of you falling into the 35 – 55 range. What do we want? I recently received a care package from the Treehouse, a no-kill shelter in Chicago that I’ve donated to since the late 90s when I released A cat-shaped hole in my heart (a benefit CD, where all royalties went to the Treehouse). The care package contained a metal water bottle, a t-shirt (Ewww, white!!! Who’s gonna wear that?), a reuseable supermarket bag, and a set of writing cards. I guess this is the sort of stuff that people like me want? Actually, the water bottle and supermarket bag were immediately useful to me. And a black American Apparel Medium shirt would have made it 3 out of 4!

Cards? Do you write a lot of cards these days? Would you like a set of 5 cards with images from Projekt albums from the 90s? That’s something I could put together!

Water bottle? Yep. We already have that, in fact two: 24 oz and 32 oz. We also have an 18 oz corn travel mug and a nice cobalt blue coffee mug.

Maybe we need something new? A new thingie with the Projekt logo on it. Do you have suggestions? Post them in the comment area below.

Back on topic… People love the old days. I admit it: I listen to a lot of old music as well. I guess I don’t hear that many new bands that excite me. Is it because I’ve listened to a thousand bands, I am too picky, or what? I try. I try to listen to new things, but I do keep finding myself drifting back to music I already know I love.

Robert S wrote: “By the way, your music (Black Tape…) and the music that you recommend has been a part of my life going back to the late 80’s when I first started working for Parks and Recreation. I loved the manual stuffing of the packages when you mailed out everything by hand, especially the post cards. Would you believe it, I am now officially retired and I still follow your music endeavors although on a pretty fixed income; I cannot buy as much as I used to. I hope you keep up the interest in creating music and ensuring that the younger generation has the opportunity to listen to, enjoy and even learn from quality music. I may be old fashioned to a point but the current “pulp music” really has nothing to offer and makes no significant statement that has any kind of meaning. Thanks for what you do.”

My reply: Well, the orders are still stuffed by hand; just that it is Joe doing the stuffing these days. And it’s interesting what you said about a fixed income. More than one person replied that they don’t buy as much music as they used to, because of the economy. That sort of gets to the heart of last week’s rant. But ok, wait. Not ranting today….

What about Black tape for a blue girl?

With my own music, I’ve tried new things. In the 2000s, I released three albums, the latter two approach a “pop” territory, perhaps fully realized on 10 Neurotics. I’ve heard from people who love it, and also people who don’t love it so much. Ha! Taste is such a fickle mistress. I think artists have to follow their muse. I love when bands release another album that I love; but I also respect them for trying something different. Doing what strikes their fancy at that moment.

For me, I’ve been thinking about the stylistic elements that make up the sound of Black Tape For A Blue Girl. What are the elements and genres that are primary to my music? I find that I’m making Ambient tracks at the moment. Lots of Ambient! I guess that’s part of the process to get to the ethereal / song-like tracks that I know are coming…

I planned to tell you about my idea for Black Tape For A Blue Girl… but I was introduced to a website that seems to provide the service I thought I’d have to code and build myself! I need to do some more investigating to see if it fits the bill. I might be able to realize my idea more fluidly than I previously imagined.

Polyphasic sleep

I posted this blog about the polyphasic sleep I have been doing for the past 300 days.

What’s new at Projekt?

We have November releases from Unto Ashes and Roach/Reyes (read about them below). Both are amazing & wonderful albums! There are two January 20th releases going in to the pressing plant, and an early February release I am about to guide into production. I am out of town again most of this week, and THEN I will start nailing down the plan for my new Blacktape thingie-doodle.

This is very exciting: I wrote a short scene in the style of Rye. I went to a coffee shop and wrote, without distractions. That is a preview of my personal plan for 2015: focus on priorities. More time to work on my art. More great scenes to write. More lyrics and music to create.

Thanks for your support in that.

Projekt’s two November releases

Unto Ashes: Ghosts Captured

Ghosts Captured is extremely limited; 200-unit edition in ProCDr 4-panel ecoWallet. While supplies last, your CD purchase of Ghost Captured includes a free copy of Unto Ashes’ Burials Foretold.

For fifteen years, acclaimed darkwave ensemble Unto Ashes have been unrepentant and uncompromising purveyors of apocalyptic folk, neo-Medieval, gothic, neoclassical, and ethereal music. Their newest release, Ghosts Captured contains a total of 25 cover songs (18 on the physical CD and an additional 7 available for free download at Bandcamp), breathing “blood-lit” life into an incredibly broad array of songs from some of the most improbable bands on record.

Facebook-fan William K writes, “I purchased this the day it was released. I’ve been looking forward to it for so long. A very diverse mix of covers. Amazing album. It is truly like hearing these songs for the first time.”

Read the full the description at Projekt.com

Steve Roach & Jorge Reyes: The Ancestor Circle

Conjuring images of a primal futurism, this alchemical blending-of-sound is a ceremonial offering to the forgotten gods. The Ancestor Circle is a new tribal-ambient-electronic collaboration, steeped in a frothy mind-altering blend, waiting for years as the potency increased. Like the audio artifacts of a lost tribe, the studio source recordings that form this album’s foundation were uncovered in 2013 on a cryptically-marked set of tapes. Created the week before Roach & Reyes’ May 2000 concert at Tucson’s Temple of Music and Art, this is their last joint studio project as Reyes passed on to The Ancestor Circle in 2009.

Joe T wrote on Steve’s Facebook page: “Just received my copy today! Totally excellent and evocative of all that is Jorge Reyes (of which I have all his music) and the perfect ambiance of Steve Roach who I’ve followed since Structures from Silence premiered.”

Paul O: “This is a important part of musical history. A gathering of great musicians, such as Steve, who are taking us on a spiritual journey via music of the spheres. This is some of the best music happening now and hopefully for some time to come.”

Chris R: “This album is spellbinding, that calls from that deep well of magic and mystery. The circle will never be unbroken, Jorge lives and breaths in this release his presence is felt throughout the whole album. A fitting bookend to the Roach / Reyes collaboration. Farewell Jorge…”

Read the full description at Projekt.com

Link-a-doodle-doo

Not One Artist’s Album Has Gone Platinum In 2014 Ouch!!! Read at Forbes Magazine.

Steve Roach is included in this Oberheim DMX feature Read at TheVinylFactory.com.

Voltaire: The Legend of Candy Claws Pre-order yours at Voltaire’s website.

Mapanare.Us Miami Art Show Thanatos’s Patrick Ogl is crowd-funding an art show at Kickstarter.

NYC pastor: Starbucks is flavoured with the semen of sodomites Oh shit, I just thought the problem was that Starbucks was burning their roast…. : ) Read more at pinknews. This guy is kookoobirds! Funny comments from my facebook friends.

My son likes to remind me that you’re more likely to die from a soda machine falling on you, than a shark bite. This is another good statistic: In the average year, you’re around 10x more likely to be bitten by an inhabitant of New York City than you are to be bitten by a shark. Read more at Shark.ch. And then all this, from my friends on Facebook: Julie B: With the Ebola fears, I’ve cut way down on biting strangers. Susan R: And during the zombie apocalypse, this number will go up significantly. Steve M: “New Yorker injured by falling soda machine after being bitten by a shark.” Susan R: Shark, attempting to bite face off man exiting subway, crushed by mysterious soda machine falling from 11th floor of near-by building. Susan R: OR, band of zombies throws soda machine onto shark. Steve M: OR, sharks attack zombie with soda machine during New York “Hug a shark for Christmas” Susan R: ^win Sam Rosenthal: I assume the soda machines are falling onto people who are shaking them, trying to steal soda. The machines take revenge! Susan R: Clearly then, the sharks need to be shrewd and seize this opportunity, by hiding IN the soda machines and biting the hands of people as they reach in to retrieve their sodas.

A fan alerted us to another wonderful review of Steve Roach’s Structures from Silence, which was reissued earlier this year on Projekt (Records). Read the review at hypnagogue.net. Purchase the 3-CD set or download at Bandcamp.

Here’s how you can hear more Projekt music before you buy

In an email message, David B wrote: “The musician-artist has a power that one can’t put a price on. I will gladly pay the money if the artist touched a nerve with me, and gosh, I would hope there are many others out there like me. The problem for me is justifying the cost if after listening the music doesn’t connect with me. A physical artist’s offering is viewed and you either connect or not, then purchase based upon that. With the musical artist, I struggle with music reviews and the 30 second sound-bite to make a decision – do I buy it or do I not.”

About 18 months ago, I heard that fans wanted to preview more than 30 seconds, and I think Projekt’s Bandcamp page provides a great solution for this request. Stream full tracks from Projekt albums; sometimes, you can stream the whole album!

From Projekt Records’ Sam Rosenthal.

[ Written Sunday morning ] This weekend, I am supposed to be making one final attempt at writing lyrics for a new Black Tape For A Blue Girl song, so I can record with Athan in New York City next Monday. But frankly, it’s too early in the process to create lyrics I’m excited about (the stuff I’ve written so far is perhaps up to a “m’eh!”). I keep drifting towards writing dark electronic songs based upon my horn sound named “102 Hypocrite=Me” (this is a sound I created in the A Chaos of Desire era). Ok, do what feels right, I suppose. Two new songs started…

But, oddly enough, my brain is having a few ideas for the follow-up to my novel Rye. This is good, because work on that has been stalled (and by ‘stalled’ I mean, ‘not started’). It is so stereotypical to be a writer with writer’s block after finishing a first novel! I wouldn’t go so far as to call it “block” (even thought it HAS been two years since Rye was published). I’d say I’ve just not been making enough time and space to get back in the mood for writing.

Something occurred to me in the car Friday morning on the way to my son’s bus stop. He loves turning on NPR to listen to whatever they are reporting on. I am so tired of hearing about Ebola. NPR is filling all the available space in my brain. It makes me a bit nuts; I realize the radio leaves me no space to think.

Early on Saturday morning, I walked two-and-a-half miles to downtown Portland; headed towards The Fresh Pot coffee shop. Forty minutes of walking. No radio, no news on the ipad, no texts on the phone. The only things I had to do was drop off some promo packages at the mailbox, and drop off my voting ballot at the ballot box (as an aside, let me say it is so cool that every registered voter in Oregon gets a ballot in the mail. We fill it out at home and send it back in. Every state should use this system). Anyway… forty minutes of walking. No NPR. No news. Crossing from residential to the industrial east side; on the bridge over the river, then slipping within the tall buildings downtown. Just walking and my brain randomly thinking about nothing in particular.

While I was sitting at Fresh Pot, I had an idea. I asked the guy behind the counter if he had a sheet of paper and I filled both sides with sloppy red writing. It might be something for my next book. It might be trash. But I wrote SOMETHING!

I am thinking about how to re-introduce my characters in the sequel to Rye. I find it’s a common problem in sequels that writers assume you already know their characters, and they jump right into the story. A writer I met made this mistake in her sequel. Having never read the first book, I was confused by the third sentence. One cannot assume readers know your characters like you do. And yet, you don’t want to bore your return readers with the obvious. This dilemma has been on my mind for a while.

Every day when I was working on Rye, I walked a-mile-and-a-quarter each way to Projekt; I was taking in the surroundings, watching out for traffic, seeing what the druggies at the housing project were up to; and my thoughts were also working on the issues I was gaming out with my characters and plot.

That kind of input from my environment doesn’t seem to hamper my creativity. It seems to stimulate it. But the radio, the internet, information-inflow? That seems to be a problem. My friend often says: too much input, not enough output! Too much pre-chewed information is bad for my creativity. I have to turn off the radio, stop reading so much news. Walk a mile to a coffee shop. And let me brain do it’s thing.

Hey, check this out: I finally got into the last decade and bought an iPhone. My old blackberry-styled phone wasn’t ringing anymore and the back was being held on by painter’s tape. It was time to get semi-modern.

I am very aware of a problem I’m about to face: iPhone addiction. I don’t want to use the phone as a time-filler, or as a video-watching-device. I want to use it to make my life better (find things on Yelp when I’m out of the house, read texts from the people I am about to meet, make phone calls). I’m sure you’re rolling your eyes and thinking, “Yeah, good luck on that one, Sam!” But really, I want to fight the urge to nurture this addiction. I sense people are losing their connection to other people and their environment, as they crawl into their technology. They’re walking down the street watching cat videos and reading about the ten hottest actresses in SciFi films. All well and good, if that’s how you want to fill your life.

I want my life to be filled with creativity.

Speaking of… I am supposed to be in the studio, rather than procrastinating here writing this blog. At least blogging is writing; it’s creating something; it’s output.

(Yes, I admit it, I shot this photo of my ESI on my iPhone!)

I am out of town next weekend and after that, there are two new Projekt releases to announce. Then I’ll pick back up on the intrinsic value of music (which I started talking about in last week’s blog).

Take care, Sam

Link-a-doodle-doo

Hi Florida. Which Billionaire would you like to buy your governor? Article at The New York Times.

Not One Artist’s Album Has Gone Platinum In 2014. Read the article at Forbes.

This Thursday in Portland… Sound & Chaos: The Story of BC Studio. For over 30 years, Martin Bisi has recorded music at his studio in Brooklyn’s Gowanus neighborhood. Brian Eno worked on the album On Land there. Bisi worked with many other influential musicians there, including Sonic Youth, Swans, Angels of Light, John Zorn, Foetus and the Dresden Dolls. I recorded Brian Viglione’s drums for 10 Neurotics at BC Studio. This film plays Thursday 10/23 at the Hollywood Theatre. There’s a free afterparty + performance by Martin at Club 21. Facebook Event Page.

DEVO free Concert in Times Square from last week. Watch the whole thing on youTube.

Weep: Weep (Pre-order, expected late October) | CD $14 Doc Hammer’s latest CD of lush and powerful Dark Rock with a bit of Shoegaze panache. I Die You Die writes: “The tack that the group’s taken with their fourth full-length, from its unassuming eponymous name to its intentionally buzz-forsaking promotional strategy, to its less bombastic yet no less memorable sound seems specifically designed to avoid putting Weep in the same category or conversation as its predecessor.”

Please share your thoughts below. If you are signed in, your comment appears immediately. Otherwise, it will appear when I get on-line to approved it. If you want to share this blog on your pages, here’s the shortcode: https://www.projekt.com/store/?p=6584. Thanks. Sam