Echolyn - new album(s)

Hi,

I wonder, though ... if the more things change the more they stay the same?

The streaming thing was/is centered on the sale of individual songs ... for a dollar, let's say ... and an album has 6, 7 or 8 pieces, and that would make the album price, more or less.

But some notes here that are really tough and have hurt the sale of a lot of music ... take a Beethoven Symphony ... let's say 4 movements, at a dollar? ... the equation is now screwed up, because the streaming system was designed for SONGS ... not music ... and it has never been cleared up ... and I can already see it .... Klaus Schulze broken up into segments to appease to a singles audience. I can tell you what Edgar Froese would say about that, for sure!

It reminds me of the 1970's when my roommate would bring stuff from the station (Guy Guden - Space Pirate Radio) and many albums with long cuts were BANDED ... to try and get the station to at least play parts of it ... and this was a number 1 FM station, mind you! So you had CTTE in various parts, TFTO is an ungodly number of parts, Tarkus in at least 5 or 6 parts, Karn Evil in several parts ... and at least I'm happy to see that many folks did not like that ... and it seems that the practice slowed down and might have stopped ... but nowadays, a lot of the "progressive" and "progrock" is not exactly about the music itself, but the song .... and many times I find this sad ... I tend to think that the "songs" get a lot more respect, than the rest of the band's album ... feels like Venus de Milo missing arms or legs ... in a museum! 

Again, the best of luck, and Holidays ... I really wish that the commercial systems that do mp3's and such, were more forgiving and helpful, but for them it's about the money, and if they can get 9 songs for a dollar each, that's better than the sale of the album, which is not bringing in as much money.

What bothers me the most is that "progressive" websites, do not seem care enough enough of a band's album and its concept and idea, and a lot of discussions tend to break apart ... though the album will be listed in their best of the month or year. But I can not speak for the efficiency of this when the album is in the midst of 75 other releases ... and I can't help feel that it makes the album not as good as all those ... which, of course, is not fair to all the others ... and this is one reason why I do not list things, and I do tend to not do preferences per se, though my take on "krautrock" as an artist scene, not just a bunch of songs ... makes me feel that rock music lovers never saw a movie, or a play, or ... 

It's as if the conceptual base is way off ... my favorite example is the cover of PASSION PLAY, which is a sort of satirical comment (for me) that classical music died ... or is done ... and it certainly has been the case as the sales of classical music has dropped to a point that you and I can not exactly list some famous maestros or special artists ... and the ones travelling the college circuit ... are nothing "special" in what I have seen so far ... at least nothing compared to Isaac Stern, Yehudi Menuhin, Leonard Bernstein, and so many other monsters that brought us music ... and soon, we will see "progressive rock" and "prog rock" ... as folks get tired of the same thing over and over again?

Staying on top of it all is tough ... I hope that Echolyn can "get there" and be able to do what they do best ... several friends of mine (Djam Karet) all have side "jobs" ... which kinda tells you they are in the same state of affairs, though they have had a decent distribution system to get their material out ... though I can not speak to its value these days ... but some lucky ones, seem to do just fine ... Marillion, DT, Porcupine Tree ... basically they were there at the beginning, and have continued with it, allowing for some artistic freedom that is rare in this ocean of music.

Hi,

Agreed. And, sadly, in some ways the Internet is the place that has created that idea and thought ... heck I think I did not listen to a lot of things until at least 2005  and purchased things  from the bands and artists that I knew and understood to be (generally) very good. 

I think Echolyn fits in that group of special bands ... but all in all, I often post and say things that most folks don't seem to relate to very well ... so, at least, I'm not one of those folks that will listen to many of the things on the monthly list, or the yearly list ... and then not get anything ... although nowadays, there is so much stuff out there, that I'm not surprised to see someone treat Echolyn like everything else ... but it also says something for the incredible quantity of materials out there to the point that it is really difficult for some folks to make up their mind, especially when someone said it was great ... and in my case, OFTEN, I feel like ... no ... please ... not more cookie cutting! 

Echolyn does not fit in a cookie cutting factory, and in my book deserves more from listeners and fans ... but that might not be how others feel ... as sad as that might be.