Wednesday 22 August 2018

The Death of Copyright


 Here is the situation.

You are fucked, we are all fucked.

You know this already.

A large part of the reason you are fucked is that your life is, to greater and lesser extents, controlled by about three large, very incestuous corporations.

These corporations, as well as ensuring that every element of your life is watched and regulated, a co-operation that you actively encourage and participate in, also have been, for some time, impeding the actual flow of cultural progress and development.
Where is your fucking spirit? Surely not lodged in the sperm banks of Apple? Why do you listen to the people that tell you support large corporations because this, in turn, will support independent artists? It isn't true and never was. The artists you are supporting through the large corporations are incest victims and nothing more. Feel sorry for them, but don't buy their records - they don't need you to. Support, instead, independent artists who live the dream of the early internet and the democratisation of taste.

The pop song has not only existed since the birth of recording. The nature of the pop song is that it is something which is "popular", which is to say that it enters popular culture. Before the spectacular triumph of modern capitalism, the entry of an object into popular culture implied collective ownership.

 
Nowadays, with the full fledged sensory assault we have inflicted on us by the media, we should have more right than ever to assimilate and personalise these materials. Instead, we are locked into tight regulations that make us criminals for interpreting materials that we didn't even want to hear in the first place. Then didn't want to hear again. Then didn't want to hear again.

Consequently the intent of this release is to infringe as many major label copyrights as possible simultaneously, in the name of progress, justice, and the human right to imagine and re-imagine! 

Songs, and songwriters, progress through hearing their work interpreted and re-interpreted. Imagine a world without both Billie Holiday and Ella Fitzgerald's versions of Cole Porter songs. This album provides all the artists involved with a wonderful opportunity to see how big the world can be.

Artists and Composers of the World Unite! You have nothing to lose but your tunes!


Arranged & Produced by Ergo Phizmiz (PLC) (TLC) 2003-2018

With contributions from The Travelling Mongoose, Monkton Wylde, Rococo Chanel, Simon Hartung, Martha Moopette, Dirty Duck, Simon Mathewson

Thanks to UpItUp Records, WFMU, Lottie Bowater (writer of the 21st century's best pop song), Womb Records, Care in the Community Recordings, Richard D James (who listened perplexed to my covers of his work and had fun trying to work out what was what), Molly & Rufus (who let me perform "Jolene" at their venue), Robin Gill (who suggested I cover "Sunshine on a Rainy Day" one heady evening in Krakow), Caroline Stupnicka, Pete Murphy (prolific music expert ignored by the industry), Talulah Robertson

Artwork by Caterina Robertson @caterinaaa.r on Instagram

This is an AVANTHARDCOLLECTIVE release by Ergo Phizmiz (PLC), who has been releasing wildly innovative music under-the-radar for 20 years and has been given constant short shrift by the music industry, and now finds themselves in an appalling financial situation and facing homelessness for the umpteenth time. You will find that the "songs" used here are mere frameworks around which to hang all manner of original composition and sonic wizardry. Support this release whilst you can before it is taken down by the monsters, and help independent DIY art thrive in the Brexit cultural wasteland. Because you're worth it.

Every recording enclosed herein, and everything ever recorded by Ergo Phizmiz (PLC), was made with a laptop, one microphone and whatever instruments were currently to hand. Because I'm worth it.