Whilst you wait for us, have a look at these lovely things to wet your appetite…..

Well, we’re thrilled that Stereographic are on board: they’re going to be helping us define what MAKE is through the artwork, websites and cassette releases. For at least a year.

Which now means John and I need to get our fingers out and actually release something.

Which we will.

Soon.

And we’ll tell you who by.

Soon.

In the mean time, take a look at these pictures of bankrupt offices: they’re beautiful.

JM

Well, we met Sam from lovely graphic design company ‘stereographic’ to chat about doing some design for us.

Our ‘meeting’ was a lesson in what a meeting should be between us creative types: expensive coffee and lots of brown card being touched.

Sam showed us lots of beautiful stuff that he’d done with his partner George. What impressed most was the extent they’d go to to hand finish their designs. Take a look at this

Sams gone away to have a think about how they can help and talk about some money. We’re hoping they’ll do the work in exchange for my broken SK-5

Inspired by Sam’s creative spiel, JR took a picture of some doors. We’ll stick to the music x

JM

The last blog post filled you in on what we’ve been doing, but, well, what is it that we do?

Here it is then:

We are a beautiful cassette and download only record label.

There

We said it.

That’s what we are.

So why cassettes?

We love vinyl. Everybody does… and who wouldn’t?

There are many labels releasing great stuff on vinyl, and more and more labels becoming download only. The cassette is a piece of architecture: it’s built to last on the outside and delicate within.

It has a modified quality to it: hiss and warmth means character.

The artwork and packaging has so much more in the way of challenges to make amazing…

These reasons and more are why we love cassettes. The truth is, as this label unfolds we are learning more and more why we love cassettes.

Why do you?

The mark of a successful blog is regular entries knitting a story together: the story bits happening but the regular blog bit isn’t….. so here’s a bit of an update. I promise these blogs will become regular again!

Well, we’ve been learning, mixing, emailing, reading contracts, doing artwork, having meetings in Fiat Puntos, deciding on ‘stuff”. Let me tell you, it’s going to be worth the wait.

We’re meeting some amazing people on our journey, and we cant wait to tell you all about them.

The we are altered stuff  is going well : as its going to be the first MAKE release it needs to be perfect: hence the artwork debates.

The albums sounding great: half dark half a bit lighter, but always with a healthy dose of pop thrown in. There’s around 7 songs mixed with another 7 or so to finish recording: JR’s singing as I type this…….

Interesting link to all-round good guy Andrew Dubbers new online MP3 store : his blog underlines the fact that with so much music out there, we need filters: that’s where his online store comes in: interesting idea based around a series of tastemakers and opinions he trusts to select only “great music’ to sell: go read about it then go visit it and tell us what you think.

JM

Ive been mastering the we are altered single this week. In doing so , I dug out a few interesting links to the boldly named “loudness war”. I thought you might like to have a read if you’re technically inclined or wonder why music isn’t as quiet as it used to be.(Jazz fans, look away now)

The obligatory wikipedia entry, here

A good, understandable video explanation, here

A nice in depth article, here

 Its hard not to get sucked into this when youre mastering: modern Hip Hop has literally raised the bar … and it’s the most popular genre in the world, domination our ears, so when you compare your own material, the temptation is to simply compete compete compete.

Incidentally, I’d advise you leave mastering to those who do nothing but… And I’d not use headphones! The album will be mastered by someone truly excellent, and we’re choosing who soon, but for the single, DIY is best.

JM

Turns out our Thom wasnt the first to record sound : read about it here JM 

Behind the scenes it’s all hustle bustle. The we are altered album is getting close to completion, the first single is mixed and about to be mastered, and we’ll be releasing a very special EP by a very special artist soon and we’re making friends in the background… patience is a virtue.

What we want to extend is a warm “hello” to film makers with similar passions to ours. If you are free to chat about an outlet for your films to work with beautiful music Make will be releasing, email your interest to info@makerecordings.com with a link to some of your work.

Bye for now.

JM 

Ive spent the last couple of weeks listening to I Am Kloots new album. It’s great. The warmth you get from the voice and John’s accent is just lovely.More lovely Manchesterness from Elbow, whose new album sounds great too: another band who signify the intelligence and warmth of the city. There’s a great interview with Guy Garvey here, where he speaks about that very thing, with special mentions about Tony Wilson and Andy Votel.The city perpetuates its own musical myths, with the generation above giving a leg up to the new kids. I can’t think of another city quite like it. Can you? JM 

We are altered and Make recordings both have flickr pages, as you may have seen. Go here for the we are altered one and here for the label one.