Too much free

At the risk of descending into histrionic podium gush, LMYE is thrilled to host an exclusive new mix by one of our Artists of 2009, LJ Kruzer. Since we're doubly honoured to also carry the man's own words about LJ Kruzer versus archive.org, we'll interpose only long enough to commend this strikingly deft & subtle piece - the taste of its selections & the quiet bravado of its layering resonating throughout its 36 minutes.

Oh, & to alert you to SoundCloud streams of recent LJK remixes (including wide-screen dubbiness from TVO, featured here again yesterday) & Bandcamp riches (all via "respected node of musical ingenuity" Uncharted Audio) below...

Previous coverage (& here & here).

LJ Kruzer > LJ Kruzer versus archive.org

"This is a companion piece to my Electronic Picks mix for spannered.org, but deliberately contrasts from it by being compiled mostly of free mp3s I recently found on the Internet Archive rather than bought ones. Both mixes were made for a possible client, and both got rejected – the first because it contained too much techno, the second because it contained too much free music. Is 4/4 techno really so démodé now? And does freely available Creative Commons music from netlabels devalue (financially speaking) all music in people’s minds?

As for the first question, I don’t really care – now I’m a dad I see it as my duty to become as ignorant as possible of youth culture. As for free music diluting moneyed music, I don’t think so - but perhaps it’s a difficult question to answer definitively. If it has any impact on the music industry, it will just be to force labels to produce objects that people are willing to pay for. Slightly off-topic, but related – am I alone in thinking £6.99 for an mp3 album is a cheeky fucking rip-off? Back to the mix, quite often three or four tunes are all playing at once. The LJ Kruzer stuff in there (slight variations on album tracks) is only because I noticed it was nicely in the same key as some of the pieces I was using, and that’s about it.

Trawling through archive.org made me realise how much brilliant electronic music is being made all over the world by enthusiastic individuals, music that maybe isn’t getting the recognition it deserves because it isn’t lucky enough to get on the old hype machine that feeds our tastes. Still, I guess that’s just a fact of life, and maybe even physics – there’s only ever room at the top of the tree for a few people at a time.

http://www.spannered.org/radio/1664/
http://www.archive.org/"


LJ Kruzer - Poil (Cyan341 mix)

LJ Kruzer - Poil (Ukkonen mix)

LJ Kruzer - Tam (TVO Dead Weight mix)

LJ Kruzer - Tam (Trademark mix)









Important: LMYE only makes music available that artists/labels have chosen to share freely. Let us know if something here shouldn't be.