Why We Don't Like Record Store Day

Now, I'm not going to turn this into a big piece shouting at the guys behind RSD and what their intentions were to begin with, but this will be more of an insight into what happens behind the scenes and some general food for thought.

I'm presuming the idea was founded by an honest group of people that genuinely thought this would be great for the music scene and a brilliant business idea, and too right.

I'd like to point out the name of this sacred day, 'Record Store Day'. Emphasis being on the 'Record Store' aspect. This isn't a day to celebrate labels as we have the Independent Label Market for that, but it seems that the meaning behind the day has been obscured by Universal, Warner, Columbia and your usual group of standard money hungry monsters.

I have always encouraged the pressing and manufacture of vinyl, and the more music on vinyl, the better, but somehow within me, I am starting to not wish this sentiment towards any of these super limited to 25,000 copies, full colour, gum flavoured edible sleeves that will only be available on RSD and come free with a fridge magnet of a duck.

Anything to fulfill the demand of consumerism eh?

These types of presses are annihilating the limited number of pressing plants which are already exhausted. We've had a variety of presses come in the last month for labels that we manage where the records have been warped due to improper cooling times being executed, as the records have had to be rushed away to make room for the next. This not only means that we're unhappy, it means that the pressing plant have to do a re-run and lose out on their profit. It won't be long before some of the biggest and final pressing plants in Europe close and ironically it may be because of the strain that is RSD.

RSD should be about the Record Store. A day where people get to visit their local shop, speak to the owners, learn about the heritage of the shop, browse their catalogue and meet and speak to regular buyers. Don't just buy the limited edition Burial remix of Tina Turner's entire discography to flog on Discogs and leave, what was the point in having a day to celebrate that?

From a business point, there is a lot of money to be made on this day, labels, record stores, distributors, artists, producers and pressing plants could, and do make a lot of money around this time of the year, every year, but unfortunately it is not at the betterment of the music scene, most of the times the pockets that are being lined are the majors and the longevity of vinyl is being prevented.

We have all witnessed, at some point in our lives, a beloved genre die due to non-organic growth or a commercial bandwagon coming along to never ride to the next stop, so why let vinyl as a format go down the same road as Dubstep did as a genre?

Our latest release, Beyond The Confines, will not be part of RSD, we want it to be freely available everywhere and we want it to be reasonably priced too, we don't want to offer exclusivity to anyone and we want people to love the music above the "Limited Edition" sticker placed onto it.

Hopefully RSD continues, but from this year to the next, there has to be a shift in how it is managed and what is the best way in which the entire scene can benefit so that we can keep vinyl alive. 

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FPL007 - Sorrow - Hieroglyphics EP - Out Now

FPL007 - Http://fentplates.co.uk/fpl007.htm

VINYL

Full colour sleeve 12" - http://fentplates.co.uk/apps/webstore/products/show/4640501

Redeye: http://www.redeyerecords.co.uk/vinyl/51200-fpl007-sorrow-hieroglyphics-ep

Phonica: http://www.phonicarecords.com/product/sorrow-hieroglyphics-ep-fent-plates/122128

BM Soho: http://www.bm-soho.com/store/AutoKey/140892/sorrowhieroglyphics/EP

HHV: http://www.hhv.de/shop/en/item/sorrow-hieroglyphics-ep-359211

Well Rounded Vinyl Vendors: No Online Store - Based in Brighton

DIGITAL

Bandcamp: http://fentplates.bandcamp.com/album/hieroglyphics-ep-fpl007

iTunes: http://itunes.apple.com/gb/album/hieroglyphics-ep-ep/id828150190

Junodownload: http://www.junodownload.com/products/sorrow-hieroglyphics-ep/2417318-02/

Tracklisting:

Sorrow - Mourner

Sorrow - Chronicle

Sorrow - Kalypso

Sorrow - Lover's Charm

Sorrow - Cypher

Release Date: 24/03/2014

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FPL007 - Sorrow - Hieroglyphics EP

Audio:

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Fent Plates Evolution Volume 4 - Free Download

Download here: Sendspace Download Link

1. Avondlicht - Embrace

2. dfaultuzer - Better Off

3. Farz & Seldom - Visions

4. Lupus - La Movida (Prod. Demain)

5. Nymbus - Drift (Feat. Nori)

6. SCDD_ALTA - Somethang

7. Skywide - Floral Avenue

8. Tor - Loop Theory 

Review: Sorrow - Dreamstone

When we were sent  "Dreamstone" by Sorrow, I was more excited about the vinyl than any other. I have never seen such a beautifully pressed 12". The producer based in Bristol comes through will this collection of music however with such an amazing exterior package, I was hoping the music would hold up too.

Elixir: With a subtle piano, a rolling drum pattern and a warm attenuating sub bass, Sorrow starts the album setting the tone with a cultural exploration of the sound of  "Sorrow".  Soft pieces of distortion dip in and out of the mix adding to the entire texture of the song. Overall, a brilliant start to the album and a beautiful way to end a song. 9/10

Moodswing: Beginning  with the soft sound of birds chirping, this song has some similar resembling parts to "Elxir". I personally prefer the swing in the drums and the use of the vocals panning in and out, but there are elements of this song that are drawn out especially before the breakdown. The switch on the second drop makes the entire song a little bit more minimal which is nice but doesn't add anything to improving my opinion 7/10

Dreamstone Feat. Coma: Coma opens "Dreamstone" which rolls into a softly clapped drum loop with strings panning in and out. Smooth and to the point, this is what a dream would sound like. 9/10

Dalliance Feat. Coma: Bringing the tempo way down to about 120, this song has a beautiful roll. With Coma's voice chiming in and out. This is very similar to Moodswing or Elixir and the only factor that makes it different is the BPM switch. I prefer this to Moodswing, but there is some repetitive aspects to the song. 8/10

Embrace: With a beautiful guitar to open the song, I was sad to not see it used as much as a prominent sound in developing the main body of the track. I like the enclosing sounds that pulsate throughout the mix which ties in beautifully with the name of the song. I like the vocal use in the second drop and the general texture of the track. 8/10

Maelys: Bringing the tempo down but instead with a four by four sequence creates a perfect melody to just bop your head to the beat. There is an obvious "feel good" theme in this song and the entire nature of of the track is uplifting. One of my favourite songs on the whole album. 10/10

Supernova: Coming through with that darker "Burial-esque" vibe. This feels more at home with Sorrow's roots in terms of the flow of the drum pattern, the moving bassline and small cuts that give a hint to Sorrow's Grime background. 8/10

Flowerchild: Another Garage beauty, but this is a little happier than "Supernova". The second drop of this song pulls a rolling bassline melody which is catchy and would do justice on any dance floor. 9/10

Shadowed Doubt: Although this may have elements that I enjoyed, I found it to be quite similar in terms of sound and structure to "Elixir" and "Moodswing". The subtle eastern flutes gave the entire song a different feel, but there were too many similarities for my liking. 6/10

Gallows Hill: This is a better version of "Shadowed Doubt" with a dub influenced bass melody accompanied with a swinging drum pattern. The eastern spacious feel gives the entire mix an "airy" notion and I could easily listen to this on loop whilst at work. The entire way in which it is constructed  reduces the amount of switches or sudden sounds so that the entire song is much more progressive. 8/10

Intruder: On a completely different vibe to the entirety of the album, this Grime sounding track is pushing boundaries for the genre in terms of composition and production quality. This is what I would call "educated Grime". I like how Sorrow concludes the album with "Intruder" as it is the most uplifting track. 10/10


Overall: 8.8


This début album from Sorrow is a well crafted piece of art. The entire album is well composed with a darker start to begin with and then showcasing Sorrow's main talents in jumping between genres and delivering an incredible selection of tracks. There were several tracks that were similar to others on the album, but they all had their own unique style. Monotreme Records have also bundled an amazing package with one of the best records I have ever seen. If someone were to ask me about a good introductory album as to what defines the deeper or more intelligent aspect to Dance, I would give them Dreamstone.

Purchase: Monotreme Records / Redeye

If you enjoyed this review and would like to suggest to us what we should review next then please email us, alternatively, if you are an artist or a label that would like us to review your album then get in touch.

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12 Free Tracks: Fent Plates Evolution Volume 3

Recently we've got a bunch of new followers and we're worried that people may not be aware of the Evolution series. It all began back in 2010 where we decided we would collect a selection of music, bundle it up, and give it away on Christmas day every year. We also create a limited run of CD versions which can be purchased directly from our site.

Click here to Download

1. Ketone - Cote D'Azur

2. Kochari - Cloud Hidden

3. J-One - Vessel

4. Demain - Tribulations Feat. Caps

5. Magu - Essential 

6. Seizure - Heartache

7. Sepia - Winter Is Coming

8. Dank Sinatra - High Times

9. dfaultuzer - With Any Luck

10. Module Module & Temporal - Star Dust

11. Thology - Tale Of How

12. Tülpa - Alpha & Omega

Whether it is Dubstep, House, Hiphop or any other genre, as long as it fits with what we support then we're happy to feature it. If you want to grab Volume 1 and Volume 2 click here. Evolution Volume 4 will be out on December 25th 2013.

Http://Fentplates.co.uk

FPL006

To follow the Arcane EP by Asa that came out on 12" we thought there was no better time than now to introduce a fresh new face onto the scene. We have always been a label that will support the underdog and push artists that make incredible music even though they may not have a substantial following. Our main goal has always been to expose the artist enough so that a bigger label can pick them up.

FPL006 will feature three originals from this new artist accompanied by three remixes. We have always pushed physical retail and this release will be made available in a deluxe Digipack CD. This will be sold at the same price as the digital which will be £4.50.

More information will come out soon.

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Review: Phaeleh - Tides

To kick off our album review series, Phaeleh's album "Tides" is going to be the first. Phaeleh has always delivered in terms of quality, but has "Tides" set the benchmark? As an artist there is a clear sign that he is progressively exploring new avenues and constantly expanding his musical reach with diverse and eclectic sounds.

Journey: As the first track on the album, I was quite surprised. I thought it would be an ambient piece that would set the tone for the album. The immediate sudden violins and pre 2010 Dubstep drum pattern was not how I expected the album to kick off but I'm not disappointed. The first thing that surprised me was the subtle tabla (I think) which made me think back to his older tracks like "Rise Featuring Indi Kaur". A very strong start. 9/10

Here Comes The Sun Feat. Soundmouse: Now I've not been much of a fan of Soundmouse, her voice is strong and at points over bearing. I feel there was a bit of a disconnection between the build and the main segment of the track. Listening to the track a few more times, nothing has really gripped me and those cheesy overly disposable lyrics didn't do much to help my opinion. 5/10

Storm Feat. Jess Mills: The sinister and seductive voice of Jess Mills on the introduction instantly grabbed me. The Island Records vocalist blesses the track with some deep lyrics which interlock with the darker vibe of the record. The drum pattern rolls nicely with a slight shuffle which gives the whole track an ever building feel. The lyrics, yet again, are relatively cheesy but they could have been a lot worse. 7/10

Tokoi: Tokoi instantly stood out with a sudden change in BPM from the previous three tracks and an entirely 'feel good' atmosphere. The soft drum licks every now and again help the new melodies connect along with the atmospheric vocals which makes this record an instant favourite. 10/10

Whistling In The Dark Feat. Augustus Ghost: I have always been a big fan of Augustus Ghost with her mature and soft voice. I'm seeing a similar drum pattern in the layout of the more 140BPM orientated tracks which I don't have any complaints about but could find listeners finding repetitive. It also seems that most the lyrics for these vocal tracks are a bit nonsensical and cheesy. 7/10

Tides: Having to listen to this about six times due to it being so short but sometimes the shortest songs are the best ones. The piano melody is captivating and this song in terms of composition, production and melody stands alone. I see why Phaeleh named the album after this. 10/10

Never Fade Away: I'm an absolute sucker for that "warm crackly" sound that imitates that of an old vinyl with a clear digital sound on top. It's nice to see Phaeleh venturing up into the higher BPM's with odd kick patterns, although this track doesn't do any justice to the potential it could have been. The softer percussion can sometimes draw away from the main melodies with an overbearing snare in points. 6/10

Night Lights Feat. Cian Finn: From a production point of view "Night Lights" is one of my favourites with varying snares and that dub influenced warm sub bass melody. It's refreshing to hear Cian's vocals which compliment the entire nature of the song. I felt it was a few minutes too short and the ending was quite abrupt, but that just made me pull it back and listen to it again. 8/10

A Different Time: Similar to "Tides" although with use of some really nicely padded strings. If I'm not mistaken there is some reverse vocal business going on which assists with the two main structural builds. A well produced sound exploration and a brilliant atmospheric piece. 9/10

So Far Away:  I was looking for that "In The Twilight" track and this is it. A well produced build up with strings, rolling percussion, female vocals and splashes of cymbals. There isn't much else to say about this track other than it's an incredible penultimate track.  10/10

Distraction: Bringing the tempo right down with those soft accordion sounding melodies and if I'm not mistaken, I'm sure I heard a spray paint can rattle being sampled. When the entire track comes together after a lengthy two minutes, the clinical drums, soft atmospheric build and weighty sub bass beautifully conclude an incredible album. 8/10

Overall: 8.1/10

After "Cold In You", I didn't know how Phaeleh would top it but this album is an incredible series of music. Although there were a few tracks that let the album down with cheesy vocals or dismissive melodies, the vast majority of this album is timeless and a true testament to the versatility of modern Electronic Dance Music. Not only is the music a notch above, the entire artistic package of the vinyl and CD combination is something anyone would be proud to own. For now, I'm going to go and listen to "Tides" on loop.

Purchase from Redeye / Chemical 

If you enjoyed this review and would like to suggest to us what we should review next then please email us, alternatively, if you are an artist or a label that would like us to review your album then get in touch.

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Our slick new Bandcamp

We have just spent the last few days redesigning our Bandcamp and getting it up to date with all of our latest releases. Our Bandcamp now has all of our releases from early 2010 to present.

The releases are from 40p for each track to 80p for an entire release. 

Http://Fentplates.Bandcamp.com

Have a browse and share the link

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The problems Artists are facing

We're going to be using this Blog to write about different problems, issues and other thought provoking articles on topics related to the music industry. A lot of artists entering into the world of music, irrespective as to what genre it is, are facing a saturated marketplace.

We have been monitoring and talking with a selection of artists over the last nine months, in seeing how they develop by using different marketing techniques to expose their music to as many different demographics as possible. In this series we'll look into smaller topics that are always debated between musicians.

When starting up every producer or musician knows that you need material. Once you have your single, or EP, what do you do with it?

We have spoken with a variety of artists and labels and some said that Soundcloud may not be the best place in the world to upload music. Music uploaded to Soundcloud that isn't signed may have just lost its appeal to be signed as it's not exclusive any more. We found this is only applicable to established artists and most labels tend not to sign music that has been up for a few months as music is far too disposable in the current market. 

As a new Artist, treat Soundcloud as your public CV. Only put up the best of the best to ensure that your best foot is always going forward. People are easily prejudice and if an Artist put up a string of below average productions, then Artists run the risk of being associated with that a year later when they have improved their musicality and production.

We have noticed that a lot of producers create music without a goal, continuing to populate their Soundcloud with music that are clips but also remain unsigned. It isn't crucial to be signed but if an artist has a track they want to upload, they should do so claiming it will be part of an EP or part of a project. While finishing the EP or putting the package together an Artist could state that it is forthcoming. Whether this is by giving it away or being sold on Bandcamp, it is up to you. That topic is for our next post.

For now, we ring the same clichés, quality over quantity and so on. But those clichés are more important now than ever where music is something people can obtain for free, music is disposable and everyday hundreds of new Artists are born.

We'll be posting up part two next week.

As for Fent Plates, we have a few new updates with our new website launching in the next few days and we're just finishing off FPL006 which is going to be a CD EP release accompanied with a music video and full merchandising package. We will also be kicking off our mix series on our Mixcloud so make sure you keep your eyes on that.

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Piracy Of Digital Music And A Possible Solution

Our 10th digital release is approaching in about two weeks by Fused Forces and reflecting over what we have had out so far, from minimal and plain odd to deep, and chilled going all the way over to eyes down and broody, we have had a lot of material out in only five months of being a label.

With running a label comes the obvious problems of piracy and copyright infringement and I have decided to explain our recent action with a general point of view of the underground music industry with direct respect to the Dubstep scene.

Most of you will have or most of you know about ripping full tracks off YouTube or even downloading Torrents. These two factors are the two main downfalls that would affect the sales of music with the effects of it being positively exponential. All it takes is one person to upload the full track to YouTube for people to start ripping the music directly from the page and it then only takes one other person to put into a Dubstep pack or whatever respective pack and then the ball starts rolling. The larger amount of people that download the pack results in a larger amount of people that could even use P2P networking or even use standard file sharing hosts to spread the music.

There is a level at which you can prevent the exposure and free download of your own music and sometimes it can only take a polite email for the person responsible in uploading your music or the person who owns the file sharing site to take down the link.

Most of the time, the rate at which it is being illegally downloaded and uploaded, it is near enough impossible to prevent people from getting it removed and to be quite honest, if someone wants the track bad enough, there is always a way of getting it.

Recently we made a deal with a channel on YouTube called "DubstepTunez" that would be our exclusive host for all of our releases. We have our own channel but barely use it and we feel that Youtube is an incredible marketing tool and by using a host this would result in the channel already having roughly 40,000 subscribers and a huge database to send promo out to. This also means our music can reach 40,000 people that may have not heard of the label or heard of the artists that we have signed. The obvious downside is that people can now readily rip the music illegally as the channel only hosts full tracks.

Within a day Bosporus received over 7,000 plays and 3 other channels were already hosting Bosporus & Gloss The Doors. I personally emailed all of the other channels and said that they could keep their videos up under two conditions. The first one is that they prove they purchased the music legally and the second condition is that they merely mention in the description that it can be purchased from iTunes and any other various stores. All three channels replied back saying that they would remove the video immediately.

There were two solutions that we came up with. The first one is to give the music away for free and to earn money through licensing and physical releases of the music such as putting the music onto compilation CD's and retailing them, but all digital downloads would be completely free for consumers.

The main problem is that if the consumer doesn't part with any form of money in exchange for the music they will feel no need what so ever to listen to it properly and remember the label. It is similar to the people that stand in the streets and hand out free newspapers. Most of the time you might hold onto it and it'll end up in the bin, but what if it cost 20p? It might only be 20p, but you have had to go to a store or some guy in the street has offered you the newspaper for this price, you'll put it in your bag, suitcase or under the arm and take it home with you if you don't have the time to read it there and then. Because you have parted with a minute amount of money, there is an underlying need to keep the physical item.This same analogy shows how giving away music for free devalues the songs and the artist.

The second option would be to make the value of the music so low that it almost rallies downloading it for free. Personally, I would never spend £6.99 for an album on iTunes, I'd rather walk into HMV and get the CD, as then I have a physical object in exchange for my hard earned money. If the same album were on iTunes for say £2/£3 I would contemplate buying through iTunes rather than getting the CD. 

I think you get what I mean.

We did a small trial through March where we put 7 releases together which consisted of music from Box Mouse, Kochari, Blind Prophet, Twitch, Seizure, Gnome & A-list. The pack contained 16 tracks and it retailed at £3.99, this means each song is roughly 25 pence.

The sales for this pack of music were more than the entire revenue produced from iTunes, Juno, Amazon, Play & more. The small trial proved to be successful which has resulted in us creating a Bandcamp where all of our releases are at 40p. Paypal takes about half of that, but never the less, we hope these prices are competitive and will make people think twice when looking to illegally download our music.

All releases will go up on Bandcamp approximately 2 months after the actual release date, so everyone that has bought from a premium or normal digital store such as iTunes will have it exclusively for this period of time.

All in all, we have a lot to learn and there are many more things we can all do to support the underground Dubstep music scene.

Thank you for taking the time to read this.

Official Fent Plates Bandcamp