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

[K Henderson]

Jon asked,

>                  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?

Hey, Scott...you ever hear from the Commander??

>        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.

Well, I think "Tombola" *is* supposed to come out on Delerium, ain't that right?
And yes, I think that's a good move for all parties, as I had been getting
to feel like Delerium was moving away from psychedelia into electronica
(well, many of their bands were doing that on their own), but now with these
three, hopefully good times will continue for them.  And us.

As far as Bedouin goes, how 'bout 'Rise Above' who I consider to be sort of
the Man's Ruin of the UK?  Also, they have a relationship with Relapse (is
it?) over here in the states, and so we sometimes get US domestic releases
of Rise Above stuff.  [I think I just saw that the Quill CD (a German stoner
group I believe), was just released here in the states...is that via the
same pathway?]

>        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):

Yeah, must be something about Snapper.  Gong's new album was also done in
amazing time, considering the 'maturity' of that lot.  It (Zero to Infinity)
should be out this month on Snapper's spinoff label 'One Eyed Salmon' or
whatever.  Have the Ozrics split from Snapper? Somebody told me that, but
I'm not sure that's true.  The Waterfall Cities was issued here in the US on
some obscure NY label, but I figured that was some licencing deal with
Snapper back in the UK.  Floating Seeds was on Snapper at least.

I pretty much echo your sentiments Jon...I wish there was a simple answer.
I'm sure it's tiresome for these artists to continually fight against
indifference, and I too wonder if they will again start to one-by-one drop
off the map, until we reach 1978 all over again.  :(  Of course, the
internet will always feed the *really* indie outfits who sell their wares
from their own sites and labels, so as long as they have the gear to
self-produce quality music, we'll always have something to hear.  And I
think 1999 was a remarkably good year.

Keith H. (FAA)