Pop the "dead channel" question off some people, and they may grab at The Grateful Dead Channel, broadcast across North America from 2007 and hosted by Grateful Dead band members Bob Weir, Mickey Hart, Phil Lesh and Bill Kreutzmann, along with archival chin-wags with Jerry Garcia.
But bounce dead channel off those of us outside the U.S. and Canada, particularly people of the left-field electronic muzak persuasion, and--at least since early 2008--we'll steer you in the direction of the U.K.
Leeds, in the north of England, actually.
That Dead Channel posse runs a net-label which aims "to serve as a vehicle for the transmission of electronic music that has little, or no, other outlet", they say.
Dead Channel releases can be downloaded for zero-cash (here superimpose free in case you don't get the gist), in high quality MP3 format, and these penny-less downloads include full-colour cover artwork and embedded art for MP3 players like your iPod thingy.
The site is updated with new releases on a nearly-regular basis, and news can be found on their dead channel blog.
There's some crazy shite here, most of it superb, and cannily diverse; it's one of my own one-stop shops and I'm enamoured with the releases by people like Micoland, Ant Orange, Kubex, Sofaboy and Naffdogg.
Today, they did it again with their latest batch: Previously unreleased stuff by Noisepsalm, Asymptote, Dimomib, and my own hack project, Little Nobody. You can check out this trilogy and download the beasties here.
Dead Channel also released the sizzling Lego Project compilation just 3 months ago, and they've disseminated an array of other cool music over the past 12 months, all of it FREE. Weird, I know. These people are not into making profits, or any money whatsoever it'd seem, but it's nice to get freebie sounds when the global economy is doing its take on a fancy Olympic swallow dive.
"The label was set up by me and my housemate, Ant," says Chris Kubex.
"We're both part of an electronic music collective here in Leeds, England, called Gonzo. Dead Channel was initially developed as a platform that Gonzo artists could use to share their music, and gain exposure from it. But the quality of unreleased music we began to be exposed to, not just within Gonzo, but from all over the world as people sent us demos, meant we ended up releasing stuff by artists from America, Greece and Japan, as well as from Leeds and the UK."
What Dead Channel doesn't seem to have is stylistic perimeters, although Chris retorts that there are some constraints.
"I guess, in musical terms, we tend to favour the outside edges of mainstream electronic music; not veering far enough into the experimental to seem pretentious, not veering far enough into the mainstream to be considered ordinary or boring. At least that's what we try and do, but on an unconscious level. We get given or sent a lot of music, and we just release the music that strikes us as interesting. I wouldn't say that there is a Dead Channel 'sound' per se, but like I said above, we seem to sit on the outside edge of mainstream electronic music, between the experimental and the dance floor, veering occasionally like a drunken person... or something."
The Leeds connection is the glue that holds this particular crew together, evidenced in the array of parties and club nights they're involved in within that city on the River Aire.
"Well the Gonzo collective all have different backgrounds and come from all over," Chris relates, "But mostly, these people met while at university, or after moving to Leeds from various other cities. The area of Leeds we all live in is quite bohemian, and conducive to spending life being creative, making music, putting on parties and getting by how we can. We all share this ethos, so naturally gravitated towards one another, finding a shared love of electronic music, art, drugs and debauchery."
With these influences in mind, it'd be pertinent to jot down any special messages for all the kids reading this at home.
"Er... download our music? It's cheaper than booze and fags. Hope this is OK; got a bit stuck on this last question!"
