OFF: DarXtar, Bedouin and record labels; + PT news

[Jon Jarrett]

        Dear All,
                  recently acquired _DarXtar_ at long last, which brings
me within one track of as-close-to-DarXtar-Kompleteness-as-I-can-be-till-
someone-reprints-_Darker_, and it has set me wondering. I take it there is
still no news on a release of _Tombola_? Still no label that meets the
Commander's wants? What is he after that is so hard to find in the
industry?

        And the same goes for Bedouin. The material is there, it's just
failure to close a deal (as I understand it) that's stopping it being
released. Again, what is the problem? I remember a while back we had a
little discussion about how Man's Ruin would probably snap up the chance
to release such a thing, and they seem to be a reputable company, and
furthermore have the distribution (although I reckon if it's in my local
HMV the distribution's adequate - not that I'll buy it there of course but
as a measure of the album's footprint... ).

        You see, I have a morbid fear that these delays are going to kill
the bands. Though DarXtar and Bedouin both have been looking for deals to
record the stuff they have written for as long as it would take to come up
with a fresh disc's worth of material, I'll bet they haven't. And the
longer they're out of the action as far as the shopfront goes the more
likely it seems to me they'll finally stop completely. It seems to me that
the companies are out there with whom an acceptable compromise could be
reached; why do the bands disagree? Man's Ruin would probably do a lovely
job by Bedouin, and Delerium could handle DarXtar judging by how they've
done with The Spacious Mind and On Trial. Though, that said, since the
last little glit of albums, Deleriuym Records have been awful quiet - are
they going through a bad patch or something?

        The reason I ask that anyway, is because amidst all this
space-rock inactivity, I have just received word that PT's next album is
in the final mixes stage! I mean, that's quicker than a Fall album! Full
message included below with names changed in headers to protect the
paranoid (the original source is a msuic journo):

On Tue, 8 Feb 2000, The Bishop of Dulwich wrote:
>
> Date: Tue, 08 Feb 2000 12:35:29 +0000
> From: Dulwich, Bishop <dulwichb at cofe.co.uk>
> To: jjarrett at chiark.greenend.org.uk
> Subject: Fwd: That was quick work
>
> Read this!
>
>     [ Part 2: "Included Message" ]
>
> Date: Tue, 8 Feb 2000 12:31:57 +0000
> From: Nick the Nick <drclaw at secret.hq.org>
> To: His Grace Bish <dulwichb at cofe.co.uk>
> Subject: That was quick work
>
> Read and tremble.
>
> THE NEW ALBUM
> The new Porcupine Tree studio album, now titled "Lightbulb Sun", is nearing
> completion. The provisional track listing is as follows :
>
> 1. Lightbulb Sun (5.30)
> 2. How is Your Life Today ? (2.55)
> 3. Four Chords That Made a Million (3.36)
> 4. Shesmovedon (5.14)
> 5. Last Chance to Evacuate Planet Earth Before It Is Recycled (4.49)
> 6. The Rest Will Flow (3.18)
> 7. Hatesong (8.28)
> 8. Where We Would Be (4.14)
> 9. Russia On Ice (13.11)
> 10. Feel So Low (5.25)
>
> All the tracks are linked in to a continuous flow of music and with
> the exception of "Four Chords..." share the same lyrical theme.
> Hatesong was written by SW and Colin Edwin, all other songs are by SW
> with string arrangements on 3 tracks by Dave Gregory. Other titles
> have been recorded and will appear as additional tracks on singles.
>
> Final overdubs are now being added with mixing due to start in February.

--
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        |       Jonathan Jarrett             11 Manhattan Drive,   |
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