I Bought These On Bandcamp — Month #3
I wanted to find a way of balancing out my monthly Spotify subscription (£14.99 Family Plan) with money that went direct (or as direct as possible) to the musicians who make music I like. So I made myself a promise that I would spend at least £15 per month on Bandcamp. I gave these articles the title #15permonth. I think I was hoping the hashtag would take off, with little or no input from me. That hope died.
Then Spotify changed their pricing to £16.99 per month. I was momentarily torn between retaining my pithy hashtag title, or responding to what the Universe was telling me and ditching it. I ditched it. Also, should I up my spend to at least £17? Then I realised that I have spent well in excess of £17 in the previous 2 months. It was all falling into place.
Now these articles (apart from the first 2) will be titled “I Bought These On Bandcamp”. When the creative muse fails you, call a spade a spade. I hope you enjoy.
— by Ian Dowling.
N.B. for many of these I opted to round up to the nearest £, and sometimes paid a £ over the odds if I particularly enjoyed the music. I found my psychology around this quite interesting. I got pleasure from paying the extra, and enjoyed writing the artist a note thanking them. It felt like a connection. A very small connection but nevertheless…
- The Heat Inc. “The Heat Inc.”
The Heat Inc. tout themselves as the loudest Rock ’n’ Roll band in London. I believe them. For two reasons: 1. Why should they lie?, and 2. This EP has enough raw, primal energy to power a small town.
From the opening drums and guitar of “Down In The City”, to the barfly stumbling of “Sammy Swing Easy”, these guys know what is required from a dirty London rock’n’roll band.
If you had a Cadillac to drive around Camden in the summer, it would be under-equipped if it didn’t also include this EP on the stereo, and some extra speakers.
Buy it. Put it on. Turn it RIGHT UP. Rock.
£5 + £1 tax. CD = £7.50 + delivery.
2. Gal Go Grey “Gal Go Grey” album
WHAT A FIND THIS IS.
I’m not going to ruin this absolutely wonderful record for you by attempting to give you a sense of what it is like in regular prose. I have neither the skill nor the understanding to put it into some sort of linear form for you. I will just list some words instead. You can free-associate as you wish.
- Crunchy, lo-fi, processed beats
- Pulsing modular and polyphonic synths
- Dirty, dirty, DIRTY saxophone
- Old cassette tapes
- Taxi Driver Original Score made on a Tascam Portastudio. (a good thing)
- 70s New York
- 80s Berlin
- Jazzelektronischemusik
- And repeat.
Just wonderful.
$8 USD + $1.60 tax. Casette tape = $15.00 USD + p&p.
That’s it for another month. This time I’ve had a relatively restrained buying spree, but I think the fact I found and supported two absolute gems is what is giving me all the good feelings. Remember, it’s not about the amount you spend. You could spend £5 per month on Bandcamp and still be putting FAR more money into musician’s pockets than listening via any streaming platform or other digital download service.
Until next time…
© At Swim Ltd. Creative Arts 2021
At Swim Ltd. is a creative arts company that likes to do things differently.
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