The aptly-named Quaristice.Quadrange.ep.ae is now up in its entirety on Bleep.  It's another 13 versions of tracks from Quaristice, comprising 149 minutes of material.

If you're keeping count, that's 4:50:26 of material they've released this year.

I received my hardcopy of this today. I splurged and ordered the limited-edition, which has a second disc entitled, Quaristice (Versions).

I expected the second disc to be a set of one-off remixes, but it turned out to be quite different. To put it bluntly, this is the record Quaristice should have been.

My primary complaint with the album was that the individual pieces were too short, and that it lacked a sense of overaching structure. That's not the case here.

Eleven tracks from the album proper are represented, reworked and expanded. In almost every case, they benefit tremendously. While Quaristice felt like it had quite a bit of filler, this disc seems both more disciplined and better developed.

There's really nothing special about this record, except for the fact that it's stunningly good. In itself, that's quite daring these days.

If you're making electronic music, it seems you need a manifesto of sorts. The whole scene is fractured into more subgenres than anyone could track, each with its own set of rules and practices.

Take the early glitch-hop work of Prefuse 73, the micromanaged chaos of Autechre, or the gliding layers of guitar loops in Fennesz. An artist is known for their techniques as much as they are their sound. The whole thing is an unremitting, steely-eyed march forward, sometimes at the expense of making music that's simply enjoyable on a basic level.

You can't get away with just making good music; you've got to be doing something revolutionary. And sometimes that gets just a bit tiring.

The new Autechre record has been released a month ahead of time for download. This is a strange tactic for Warp. After all, Autechre doesn't need the buzz. They've got a built-in fanbase who will likely buy the record no matter what.

Precedent shows that Booth and Brown are somewhat averse to having their material leaked beforehand, and this may be a way of cutting that off before it starts. Before Draft 7.30 was released, someone was distributing "bootleg" advance copies which were, in fact, completely fake.

If it's not early promotion, and it's not a means to circumvent leaks, why release the record early? It could be that Warp (or the artists) lack confidence in it.

It's a harsh judgment, but Autechre have not only released some truly great music, they've rewritten a great many of the rules along the way. It's rare for an artist to become an influence within their own career, and rarer still for them to avoid treading the same ground twice. They've done both, so it's only natural to look forward to each new release with certain expectations.

The new album is due out 03/03. The release date was announced a couple of weeks back, but I’ve not heard much else. As of today, Bleep has the album available for download in FLAC and MP3 formats.

Motley Fool is advising investors away from putting their money into record companies. Why?

Because, in the words of David Boies, "an industry at war with its consumers is an industry in trouble." In the case of Jeffrey Howell, they're prosecuting someone not solely for file-sharing, but also for copies of legally purchased CD's on his computer.

There's been alot of attention paid to this one. Not because it's a Radiohead record, nor for its content, but for the manner in which it's been released.

See, you can download it for free. No subscription is required, and the songs are in unprotected MP3. What's more, the band wants you to download it. Pay whatever you feel is fair.

This is a big move, and one I've seen coming for some time now. Leave it to Radiohead to pull it off first.

Ah, the analogue cassette tape. Those little plastic beasties were the medium for countless adolescent epiphanies, and they were an endless source of frustration in my adult years in the music business. Holding one of these in my hand now, I see a fragile, tempermental and inefficient medium that's better off dead. My teenage years were a different story.

In high school, everyone traded tapes. Sure, vinyl was nice, but the tape had two distinct advantages: it was portable, and you could record on it. Both these factors lent it great power. I grew up in the Walkman generation, and though it's commonplace to see middle-aged types walking down the street with those white Apple buds in their ears these days, shutting out the world with headphones was something rebellious in my day.

I've got a new mix compiled for the T-Board January trade.  The theme was alternating male/female vocalists, and I was in a bit of a mood for what we called "college rock" in my day.

If you'd like a copy, let me know.  These are on MiniDisc, so naturally, you'll need a player that accepts them.

"When Thomas brought the news that the house I was born in no longer exists - neither the name, nor the park sloping to the river, nothing - I had a dream of return. Multicoloured. Joyous. I was able to fly. And the trees were even higher than in childhood, because they had been growing during all the years since they had been cut down."

If there's one thing Tim Hecker has mastered, it's consistency. He's been mining the same formula for four albums now, and although they may seem very similar on the surface, closer attention reveals a certain glacial progress.

Hecker's sound is similar to what I'd expect if Kevin Shields collaborated with the Hafler Trio. It's a dense, swirling buzz of feedback, static and distant shortwave effluvia organized into something resembling music. At first, it seems random and homogenous, but listen deeper and you'll find a wealth of carefully wrought detail. The washes of tempered noise and obfuscation hide the fact that all the underlying elements are carefully arranged and structured. This isn't ambient music in that it demands close listening and scrutiny to resolve the fine details.

This month's theme was "soundtracks."  Finally, a chance to put Ennio Morricone and Yoko Kanno on one disc!

If you'd like a copy, let me know.