What is GLR??

[GLRuk]

NOTE: DUE TO THE INEVITABLE SLOW-TURNING WHEEL OF PROGRESS THIS POST IS HEINOUSLY OUT OF DATE, BUT I FIGURED I SHOULD KEEP IT UP FOR POSTERITY. FOR THE MOST UP-TO-DATE M.O. SCROLL TO THE END OF THE THREAD - tD


Okay, so - I've come up with a few basic guidelines which will become the GLR template of how shit goes:

GLR UK is a co-op; a co-operative society where members [artists, critics, music lovers, heads etc] can exchange ideas and opinions on each others work. The internet is supposed to have the potential of reaching millions, so lets get to it! Fuck TV and radio, this is where everybody's hanging out these days... The GLR community is contained within one place, namely the forum, so the bigger the draw one artist creates, the bigger the benefit for everyone else and vice versa. Enough people have the talent to make music but just aren't being heard - not by each other, not by the people who'd dig their tunes the most - not by hardly anyone. Get here, get crackin - make your tunes. You want to make music - I want people to hear it. Music from the people is far more real and infinitely more interesting than some overpaid super-producer's assembly-line pop troupe brain-child. Right?

GLR is all-encompassing. We wouldn't want to restrict ourselves with labels and segregation, so GLR is for everybody. There's no style of music we won't listen to or help you make - if you want to make music with [or without] GLR it can be anything from Dub to Polka. Give feedback. I can't stress the importance of this enough to those who I suppose would be classed as 'fans'. Artists need to know what they're doing right and what they're doing wrong - tell them and it will improve their music and also therefore improve your listening pleasure. Artists, the more constructive criticism you give of other peoples work the more you will receive yourself. Use the forum to your advantage: each artist gets their own board - what goes on it is your deal.

GLR functions as an entirely separate entity from the rest of the music industry and all GLR produce is exclusively distributed by GLR and it's artists by whichever means they see fit. Recording time in the studio is free, but all GLR CD sales are split 50/50 artist/GLR - 50/50 is the basic idea, the split will actually be variable depending on the amount of work GLR actually needs to put in; if I'm only printing the CDs then I'm only going to take enough to cover CD printing costs. Each contract is for one record at a time and there are no deadlines. Artists are free to record with other labels at any time - in fact I'd encourage it. If you are local to the GLR studios then everything we have here is at your disposal - if you are an international GLR artist I've currently been experimenting with recording sessions via skype, but a better solution will be introduced soon.

**EDIT: You don't have to record 'with' GLR per-se, or even release any material under the GLR name. Just the fact that you're here and giving an opinion is enough. GLR artist = artist frequenting the GLR site, not necessarily an artist who records with us.**

I should also point out at this point that this venture isn't likely to generate hella much cash, so any Rolls-Royce-driving coke-devouring rich-ass rock-star dreams you have with you are best left with customs. If this GLR theory works in practice though you'll get something of more worth anyway; sounds cliched, but - its not about the money.. well, it shouldn't be.

Spread the word - the more music you make and the more people you/we/me/they turn on, the more the GLR community grows, the more we all progress on our individual musical journeys. Far too often I see people complaining about the frankly shocking state of the turd-churning music machine and its quite clear that the internet is turning the industry on its head; so something needs to change - I'm no fucking prophet so I don't know if this will work or not, but if it means making music then I'm game.

The Deceptionist
GLR UK ca. March 2007

[GLRuk]

GLR - whats that??

In this modern age of complex computer wizardry, new-fangled gadgets and widespread internet use (and abuse) the tables have been turned on the music industry, and over the last few years music production as a whole has been wrenched inside-out.

The ability to produce high quality tracks and, perhaps more importantly, circulate them amongst a wider audience is now more than ever within reach of the general public - those who would previously have been self-confessed amateurs now have the tools at their disposal to create sounds on a par with (and often far surpassing) the so-called professionals of the current music industry. But what happens next..?

GLR is a step toward the unknown - free music for the listeners and free hosting for the artist, while GLR pays a negligible amount to cover the hosting and administrational costs. Born of a combined ethos part punk-rock, part flower-child and part pure gonzo, GLR aims to bring our listeners the best (or at least the most interesting) and most diverse local talent from right across the globe - all at the touch of a button.

The GLR collective conscious is fairly open to different sounds, so the chances are that in one visit you could go from listening to dub reggae, to some light dylanesque acoustica or to full-on psychedelia - all in the space of a few minutes... The GLR music-box (top of the page) plays a continuous random selection from the full GLR archive (currently somewhere in the region of 15 hours), but the music can also be accessed through our bands pages, which contain mp3s, albums and artwork to stream or download, as well as full info on all artists.

Our forum, the hub of the GLR experience, includes the 'GLR musical learning resource centre', info on all associated artists, a members only bootleg board and chat-room, the collective works of D.M. Turner, music reviews, band critiques, opinions and more...

GLR - the international local underground

...so welcome to GLR - we hope you find whatever it is you're looking for.

pax

160dB,
Alex French,
Colourful Thief,
The Cult of Psychedelic Murder,
Danny Dasher,
Dawn,
The Deceptionist,
Kesey,
Kev Bridges,
River of Leaves @ GLR

[GLRuk]

en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Underground_music

The term underground music has been applied to several artistic movements, such as the psychedelic music movement of the mid-1960s, but the term has since then come to be defined by any musical artist/band that avoids becoming a trend/mainstream. Other early "underground" bands include the Velvet Underground, MC5, The Grateful Dead, Patti Smith, and the Stooges. Frank Zappa tried to define "underground" by noting that the "mainstream comes to you, but you have to go to the underground." In the 1960s, the term underground was associated with the hippie counterculture of young people who had dropped out of college and their middle class life to live in an off-the-grid commune of free love and cannabis. In modern popular music, the term “underground” refers to a performers or bands ranging from artists that do DIY guerilla concerts and self-recorded shows to those that are signed to small independent labels. In some musical styles, the term “underground” is used to assert that the content of the music is illegal or controversial, as in the case of early 1990s death metal bands in the US such as Cannibal Corpse for their gory cover art and lyrical themes. Black metal is also an underground form of music and its Norwegian scene are notorious for their association with church burnings, the occult, murders and their Anti-Christian views. All of extreme metal is considered underground music for its extreme nature.

Shlomo Sher's "philosophy for artists" argues that there are three common misconceptions about the "underground": that it refers exclusively to the rave/electronica scene; that it can be described with a vague, broad definition of "anything which is not mainstream"; and the myth that underground music is kept secret; he points out that no band or performer "exclud[es] virtually anyone or anything" using "secret passwords and hidden map points". Instead, Sher claims that "underground music" is linked by shared values, such as a valuing of grassroots "reality" over music with "pre-wrapped marketing glossing it up"; sincerity and intimacy; freedom of creative expression is valued over commercial success; art is appreciated as deeply meaningful fashion; and the Underground "difficult to find", because the scene hides itself from "less committed visitors" who would trivialize the music and culture.

In a Counterpunch magazine article, Twiin argues that "Underground music is free media", because by working "independently, you can say anything in your music" and be free of corporate censorship.[2] The genre of post-punk is often considered a "catchall category for underground, indie, or lo-fi guitar rock" bands which "initially avoided major record labels in the pursuit of artistic freedom, and out of an 'us against them' stance towards the corporate rock world", spreading "west over college station airwaves, small clubs, fanzines, and independent record stores."[3] Underground music of this type is often promoted through word-of-mouth or by community radio DJs. In the early underground scenes, such as the Grateful Dead jam band fan scenes or the 1970s punk scenes, crude home-made tapes were traded (in the case of Deadheads) or sold from the stage or from the trunk of a car (in the punk scene). In the 2000s, underground music became easier to distribute, using streaming audio and podcasts.[4]

Even some musical styles that eventually became mainstream, commercialized pop styles started out as underground music. Late 1970s disco is often considered to be a very commercialized type of pop music. However, before disco's mainstream adoption in 1977 and 1978, disco records were underground music created by nightclub DJs for the gay dance club scene. Similarly, hip hop began "on the streets"; in the early 1980s, rappers did beatboxing and made up rhymes for tiny underground labels. Genres such as New Wave, no wave, noise, noise rock, alternative rock, grunge, various forms of heavy metal, grindcore, electronica, outsider music, and experimental music, also trace their roots to underground scenes.

A music underground can also refer to the culture of underground music in a city and its accompanying performance venues. The Kitchen is an example of what was an important New York City underground music venue in the 1960s and 1970s. CBGB's [5] is another famous New York City underground music venue claiming to be "Home of Underground Rock since 1973".

[GLRuk]

Current GLR Front Page... Now Archived

Welcome to GLR...
In this modern age of complex computer wizardry, new-fangled gadgets and widespread internet use (and abuse) the tables have been turned on the music industry, and over the last few years music production as a whole has been wrenched inside-out.

The ability to produce high quality tracks and, perhaps more importantly, circulate them amongst a wider audience is now more than ever within reach of the general public - those who would previously have been self-confessed amateurs now have the tools at their disposal to create sounds on a par with (and often far surpassing) the so-called professionals of the current music industry. But what happens next..?

GLR is a step toward the unknown - free music for the listeners and free hosting for the artist, while GLR pays a negligible amount to cover the hosting and administrational costs. Born of a combined ethos part punk-rock, part flower-child and part pure gonzo, GLR aims to bring our listeners the best (or at least the most interesting) and most diverse local talent from across the globe - all at the touch of a button.

LeARN MoRE

[/color] or LeAVE SiTE.[/color]
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Community
The hub of the GLR experience - our forum includes the 'GLR musical learning resource centre', info on all associated artists, a members only bootleg board and chat-room, the collective works of D.M. Turner, music reviews, band critiques, opinions and more... join

Music
The GLR collective conscious is fairly open to different sounds, so the chances are that in one visit you could go from listening to dub reggae to some light dylanesque acoustica or to full-on psychedelia all in the space of a few minutes... The GLR music-box (top of the page) plays a random selection from the full GLR archive, but the music can also be accessed through our bands pages, which contain mp3s, albums and artwork to stream or download, as well as full info on all artists.