BeatPick Blog on music licensing, creative commons music, gigs

Ah, the world of Heavy metal. So many would agree to put it down as an immature, poorly refined genre, based on adolescent testosterone or virtuoso antiques. Yet this would be a big mistake. Few genres have been as open to contamination as Heavy Rock. From classical music to Brazilian tribal music, from experimental electronics to Dance music, practically every relevant style of the last century has somehow found its’ marriage with the genre’s soaring guitars, in the works of authentic musical pioneers.

Moreover, in the past decade the underground and, alas, little known works by bands such as Earth, Stephen O’Malley’s Sunn O))) and Khanate have pushed the boundaries one step further, transforming Black Sabbath’s pivotal doom rifferama into something that is completely avant-garde: the so called “Drone Metal” music movement. Where the low chords and scorching sounds of metal meet the buzzing droning of avantgarde electronics/improvisation creating something that is a pure, and profoundly refined, novelty.

asbestoscape is the creative creature of Luke Shaw, a British musician seeking for his own interpretation of the genre. And what an interpretation it is. An approach that is both loyal to certain Drone/Doom metal schemes (ie. the tendency to inevitably carry melodic moments into the land of low-key cacophonics) and lugubre atmospheres, yet fully aware of all influences that may enrich its’ sound. No surprise therefore if the drum patterns relate far more to Post Rock and Industrial styles than to Doom’s minimal - almost ambient - habits. No surprise that certain guitar riffs (as on opener Artic) have a distinctly shoegazing, Kevin Shields‘ inspired sound.

Of course, this is no album for the faint of heart. It is a deeply sad, melancholic and moody piledriver of a record: yet there is something cathartic in its’ epic crescendos. Like a rainy British day, it’s an experience that can prove itself strangely appealing.

We’re very proud to present such an interesting and fresh project: listen to the album on Beatpick.com!

We can finally reveal which blockbuster film 20th Century Fox licensed our very own Jamison Young’s great track “Memories Child” for…

If the image isn’t enough of a hint, or if you live in a bunker with no TV, the film is the greatly anticipated second chapter in X-Files full-length motion pictures, entitled “I Want to Believe”. Useless to say, we’re all incredibly excited to hear Jamison’s music on the big screen, and in such a huge production…

Other news on the licensing front, and good news for our Indie-Rock Nashville based duo You Are A Hologram. The band’s track “Giant Little Gods” has been chosen for an online promotional video for Toyota’s Italian webpage, in the launch of the latest Toyota IQ model. Again, we’re exceptionally glad to have helped music we strongly believe in reach a wide public and a good business deal.

Last month BeatPick.com was also one of the star enterprises in the first edition of Italian Venture Capital event Techgarage. The aims of the occasion were the promotion of Italian-based companies in the European technology market, and the building of connections between the world of entreprenuity and web-based startups (in particular of the web 2.0). Both the BeatPick.com conference and stand received much consensus, as one of the most innovative musical realities on the (alas, rather static) Italian cultural scenery. The top Italian economic newspaper, “Il Sole 24 Ore” featured an exhaustive article on the event: another reason to be proud of our presence.

Last but not least, we’d love for our readers to check out some of the excellent new music added to BeatPick.com lately. From the Heavy Psichedelia of asbestoscape to the excellent live dance gigs by Science vs Nature, from Ten Mile Tide’s classic Americana to a wonderful 1938 rendition of Puccini’s Tosca: BeatPick.com never sleeps, and is always seeking for the best sounds around!

The Mind behind Minimalist Orchestra is Scooter Vineburgh. Having started his musical experience as a percussionist, Scooter eventually found his songwriting dimension in the use of Roland’s original Handsonic, the HPD-15. The songs written this way gave birth to the exciting band that can be heard on “Arrivals and Departures”, one of the best BeatPick.com albums of the last months.

Joining the founder are Kerry Schneider, Ed Guild and Misha Rutman, plus occasional collaborators Dr.Nigel and Brian Knoth: the band actually works by adding their parts on files sent to each other via-internet, demonstrating once more the exceptional advantages new technology is bringing to musicians. The result is an entrancing mixture of Dub, Dream-Pop and Trip Hop, that, while paying necessary tributes to the genres’ milestones (Portishead and Massive Attack above all), finds personal ways of interpreting such sounds for the 21st century public.

The hyper-Brixton post-dub of “Roots”, the vaguely Sinead O’Connor (pre-reggae transformation) reflection on weather “DifferentHue” and the aquatic electronic soul-DnB in “Flicker” are just some of the highlights on an album that deserves full attention from all those who love their Electronica to be soul-tinged and emotionally involving.

No wonder that the band recently won the Microsoft Crossfader prize as “Next Top Artist”. Just the beginning of an excalation to well deserved public affirmation?

In his recent interview on the official Roland website, Vineburgh stated the following: ” (…) there’s definitely a whole new room for an ‘artistic middle class’ that didn’t used to exist. It used to be that if you didn’t have a major label deal, you didn’t have anything. But now there’s a lot of room for people who have day jobs or families to be involved in the arts, and it is changing the landscape and affording people with different lifestyles the opportunity to make music.” Precisely what we believe in BeatPick.com, where new technology is a key for building, not a demon to be fought off in an absurd attempt to maintain an obsolete state of affairs dominated by a musical oligarchy.

Listen to “Arrivals and Departures” at BeatPick.com, and enjoy!