Despite my handle here at TMT, I’m not much of a sleuth these days. I do what I can with limited resources and wet my beak in a lot of troughs genre-wise, mostly minding my own business in regard to hype and release dates. One label, however, that has captured my imagination is Blood Music, doubly so when the small-run metal powerhouse announced it was releasing two records whose identity would not be revealed to the public. That idea alone is a true slap to the senses of traditional practices, but like an A1 Thick N’ Hearty from Whataburger (it’s a Texas thing), I found once I bit into this mystery and tasted its tangy juices, I couldn’t stop taking more hearty man-chomps.
Before I reveal to you the full extent of what I know (which includes the identity of the band! Holy shit! READ ON to discover the One, the Only, the Chosen) allow me to reveal the inner machinery of this fascinating venture. You see, the powers-that-be at Blood Music not only released these two albums without telling the public who created them, they also released the albums without the artist’s knowledge or consent. “Woah, slow down Gum; isn’t that illicit?” you might ask, and you’d be right to broach the subject of legality. However, under the current Creative Commons agreement the artist in question had entered into with Bandcamp, all music found wherein was and is fair game. In other words, Blood Music lifted a band’s music from Bandcamp, ripped it to vinyl, and released it, all without telling the band or the public what the futt-buck is going on. In fact, they’ve stated they’re worried the band might be upset with them when they learn what happened! Which, to me, is… awesome?
So you probably want to know who the band is right? Yeah, I was just like you a few hours ago, cold and alone, but now I know that the artist in question is none other than Cloudkicker. To me they sound like a progressive, perhaps math-y update on the best Pelican material. I still didn’t pull the trigger on these personally, before or after learning of the odd ethics of this release; to me, it’s just nice to know a label is trying something new. And wouldn’t you know, looks like the biz strategy worked because the elusive ‘Mystery’ LPs have all sold out, albeit as records from Blood Music are wont to do.
Wow, we’ve come so far together; does it have to end here? NO, says Blood Music:
And the most incredible part of all this: once you receive your copies - you are also entitled to participate in the fruits of this work. If you somehow see a particular usage for the CD or LP that you receive, you are entitled to use it - free of any claims - and to build upon it for your own, so long as you use the proper methods of attribution in the legal code linked above.
And so it goes. Read Blood Music’s full explanation of these rootin’ tootin’ record shenanigans HERE and don’t forget to write your cloud-kickin’ congressman!
• Cloudkicker: http://cloudkickermusic.com
• Blood Music: http://www.blood-music.com