Bottling Smoke was Digitalis Industry and Phantom Limb’s first experimental, field-folk festival, featuring the many of the best acts contemporary ambient/experimental music has to offer. Festivals are a dime a dozen these days, some good, some not so good. Bottling Smoke, though, was something special. From an outsider’s perspective, the numerous collaborative performances were the highlight of the festival and a fitting reflection of the communal backbone vital to the contemporary micro-label culture. One glimpse at the Brad Rose or Grant Capes (festival co-curators and Digitalis/Phantom Limb masterminds, respectively) discography is evidence enough of this empowering, internet enabled, globalization of independent, self-produced music. As explained by Sir. Rose, Bottling Smoke was a chance to bring these artists together for the first time, who had previously only been able to collaborate remotely. Tragically, I was unable to attend, so my take on all this can’t be terribly insightful.
Fortunately for me though, Digitalis has produced and recently released the first slew of disks in their new ‘Arroyo’ cdr subscription series. ‘Arroyo‘ is apparently intended to capture and communicate some of BS’s wonder and magic for the rest of us, the geographically deprived.
Continue reading ‘Brief glimpse into the latest Digitalis cdr subscription series, ‘Arroyo’’
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