If you live in (or happen to be visiting) the South Wales area, you can now buy Brave New Wales from the wonderful people at Spillers Records, the oldest record shop in the entire world. It could be argued (although perhaps not very convincingly) that Spillers was in fact set up in 1894 by Henry Spiller specifically in order to sell Brave New Wales 114 years in the future, and the past 114 years have all been the groundwork necessary to get the shop into a position whereby it can take on a few copies of this exciting and desirable compilation. Had Borges been from Grangetown rather than Buenos Aires, he might have had a few things to say about that.

Progress report on Brave New Wales (this was intended to be a PowerPoint presentation with pie charts, histograms and clip-art (I was thinking specifically of those black stick figures with sticks for noses, the ones that dance and stuff), but believe it or not I've got better things to do with my time).

Airplay so far:

Huw Stephens, BBC Radio Cymru
Eirwyn Llwyd Roberts : Beicio
Angharad Davies/Rhodri Davies : Live at St. Giles

Lisa Gwilym, BBC Radio Cymru
Carphology Collective : Moving A Pile Of Bricks... (to the left)

Adam Walton, BBC Radio Wales
Carphology Collective : Moving A Pile Of Bricks... (to the left)
Jim Knight, Fiona Owen & Gorwel Owen : Six Minutes
Y Phthwng : Cyfnos

Audition, Resonance FM
The 14th Century : Ei Thwyll a'i Hystryw
Angharad Davies/Rhodri Davies : Live at St. Giles
Chuch : Snorkel
Ian Watson/Mark Jolliffe : #3
Jacob Whittaker : Classic Mix 02
Simon Proffitt : The Ringing Rocks

Battle Flutes & Sideways Skulls, KUSF
WHITENOISESOUND : Sunset

Viva La Trance!, WJFF Radio Catskill
Chuch : Snorkel
Y Phthwng : Cyfnos

Reviews so far:

"...this is an excellent introduction to Wales and its musical undercurrent"
Frans De Waard, Vital Weekly. Read the whole review - including reference to everyone's favourite Dutch town, Nijmegen, in the Vital Weekly archive.

"Play the CDs through a decent sound system and make time for it, it deserves your full attention..."
Emma Louis, Snowdonia Nights Out Gazette. Read the whole review at Snogonline

Other stuff

An interview with Simon P about the compilation at Snogonline

If you want to walk into an actual shop in order to buy your copy, and see it and fondle it first before parting with your spending money rather than relying on newfangled digital technology to transmit virtual cash from your computer to ours, you can visit the following places:

Cob Records, Bangor: even if there were loads more record shops in the Bangor area, this would still be the best.
Sound 323, London: even though there are loads more record shops in the greater London area, this is still the best.
Aquarius, San Francisco: still the best.

Have you seen or heard reference to the compilation elsewhere? Is someone championing it/slating it unbeknownst to us? Leave a comment! We're greedy for more information.

It's here.


[read more] [buy one from the shop]

YES. BELIEVE YOUR EYES.

IT'S TIME TO PREORDER YOUR COPY OF BRAVE NEW WALES

New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release New Release

The Welsh division of the Fourier Transform empire has moved office, and is now located in the beautiful rural idyll of the Conwy Valley. Please don't send anything to the old Cardiff address, there's no-one there any more.

Submissions are now closed for Crania Draft Massif. Hold on tight while we prepare the tracklist and ready the artwork! Brace yourselves for some truly disgusting music...

Here's a typical thing: you put out a call for submissions for a compilation, and hardly anyone bothers responding because you forget to put any kind of submission deadline on the initial call, and so everyone's thinking, hmmm, well, I've got ages to do this - no point worrying about it yet.

So I guess I'd better put a deadline on the Crania Draft Massif project (see previous blog entry for details), and then I can sit back and watch the flood of submissions overwhelm our tiny office. Ha ha.

The National Samaritans Awareness Day is on 24th July (24/7 - representing the 24 hours a day, 7 days a week service), so it seems wholly appropriate to use this as the deadline. There we are, that gives you all over two months to produce some beautiful/deranged/copyright infringing music. Want that in big bold writing for clarity? Here, then:

Crania Draft Massif submission deadline: 24th July 2007

Need some inspiration? Here's an excellent list of charity singles. I also have some of these hidden online as mp3s - email us if you need a link.

It's happening. The floodgates have opened. Slowly but surely, Simon P is cleansing himself of his entire CD collection. Grab yourself some bargains! More stuff will be added often, until it's all gone.

CRANIA DRAFT MASSIF: CALL FOR SUBMISSIONS

Are you a kind-hearted sound artist? If you are, read on...

Fourier Transform was established in order to produce small, limited quantities of beautifully and unusually packaged music. In direct contradiction of these founding principles, we are now delighted to announce a call for submissions for our next project, an unlimited edition web-only charity compilation.

We're inviting submissions for CRANIA DRAFT MASSIF: an mp3 compilation of charity song remixes to benefit Cardiff Samaritans (hence the anagrammatical title). Some of the worst music of modern times has arisen from The Charity Single, but we hope to redress the balance slightly here by producing an album of challenging and non-commercial music, all for a good cause.

How it will work: we'll have an album's worth of mp3s available to download. The mp3s will be free, but we'll have a paypal button and recommend/encourage that listeners donate money if they want to. Every penny (or cent) donated goes directly to the charity. Well, minus paypal fees where applicable - which is to say that the paypal button will be the charity's own button - none of it is routed through us.

The music: ideally each track will be (at least vaguely) based on an existing charity record, whether it be a drastic butchered remix, bizarre reworking or unusual cover version. I'm not at all concerned about copyright violation, so any charity song is fair game - Band Aid, Ferry Aid, USA For Africa, Candle In The Wind, whatever. In the unlikely event that we get many more contributions than we can realistically deal with, priority will be given to stuff that totally murders the original while being cool music in its own right. We're big fans of concept, but we also want at least some people to enjoy listening to these tracks.

What we don't want: faithful rock/pop reproductions of the original song. No-one wants to hear an earnest note for note cover version of Do They Know It's Christmas. No-one.

Practical stuff: all contributions will be very gratefully received, but we can't promise to use everythiing for the final tracklist. We're hoping that the mp3 will be donated by the artist, so regrettably we won't be able to offer any payment for contributions (we're not making a penny from this). Artists will obviously still own the copyright to their sound recording though, so it doesn't have to be exclusive material. We'll have extensive 'sleeve notes' to give credit where it's due, more info about the artist, contact details etc. Ideally material will be 256kbps constant bit rate mp3s. Please don't email mp3s directly to us - either email a link to the file, or send a CD/minidisc/wax cylinder, with 'Crania Draft Massif' somewhere on the disc or envelope.

Some official charity blurb:
Cardiff & District Samaritans is staffed and run entirely by volunteers, and is funded entirely by donations. It offers 24 hours-a-day confidential emotional support for people who are experiencing feelings of distress or despair, including those that might lead to suicide. It operates within one of the poorest areas of the UK, the South Wales Valleys, where per-capita anti-depressant use is higher than anywhere else in the country. More info here on their website

In other news, Brave New Wales is on its way, I promise. And it'll be good.