Note: The recent and hefty gap between updates has probably been noticed by anyone who pays attention to that sort of thing, just as a side note I'd like to point out that this isn't entirely down to my habitual laziness in life but is, in part, the result of a change of focus at TCUC towards more articles and in-depth pieces and away from regular reviews and features. There'll definitely still be reviews but not as a matter of routine, in fact I at least'll only be covering new releases if I feel that they're good enough to merit it. There will be less new content in the future but hopefully what there is will be more worth reading and it'll certainly make my life easier than feeling obliged to churn out reviews simply for the sake of it. And, as ever, the site still needs submissions, so if you've got something to say about free music/Open Culture then get in touch.

One of the biggest tricks the free music movement is missing at the moment is one which is all too often barred to us by the very mediums we chose to use. I've noted before, fairly bitterly in fact, the near absurd preference the scene seems to show for electronic and experimental music and, for what it's worth, I maintain that the balance we maintain genre wise is an unhealthy and all too often self-indulgent one. But I also concede that beyond almost pleading requests for labels and artists to diversify and start really delving into the opportunities offered by a cultural model which has the capacity to indulge absolutely any style of music or concept (not just the efforts of determinedly experimental bedroom producers), there's little I can, or would want, to do to redress the imbalance we have. What, however, does fall within all of our remits is the task of opening this movement up to the alternatives that we would want to see.

Poetical or Political?

When I'm writing for this site, or just rambling incoherently about free music, I habitually refer to 'us', the movement that is, the free music scene which provides a common thread to bind together a vast number of completely different individuals into some sense of collective belief. Or at least that's the theory.