Free download links fixed

Apologies for the broken links - just to let you know they should now be fixed (I have tested all of them in Firefox and they worked). First - join the Northcape mailing list here! . Next, return to the same page, and log in using the password that will be emailed to you, this will give access to a page of exclusive free downloads from 'Captured From Static', 'Detach', 'Letter to Nowhere' and other releases, and also some remixes! You'll also obviously be kept up to date on new Northcape releases and other news, but there is normally less than one mailing a month. Obviously you can also unsuscribe (should you wish) at any time! Cheers, NC

http://www.northcapemusic.co.uk/news/

Why make music?

Sometimes this is important for me to remember! Given the work that goes into producing music, it can be hard to deal with when a track or release either falls unexpectedly flat or gets negative feedback. Ignoring negative feedback definitely isn't the answer - there is always much more to learn. However, I think neither is dwelling on it, which I find easy to do. Music can't be reduced to following a set of rules, and every listener has their own perspective and is approaching any track from a different angle. The important thing is to move on, and focus on moving the music forward. Over the time I've been releasing music on the internet I've found on a number of occasions, with hindsight, that I have decieved myself about aspects of a track, particularly when there is pressure to release something, and this can be true of both technical aspects and also the overall impression that a track gives. Although perfectionism can be painful, I'm constantly learning that it's best not to ignore any doubt, even if it doesn't seem important at the time. Some people can work to deadlines, but I think good quality music can't be rushed. Personally, I need to step back from it before releasing it, and if it's not absolutely 100%, if there is anything that I feel isn't quite right, it shouldn't be released. This can be a difficult lesson to learn- but I think the most important thing is- don't compromise. At the end of the day, (particularly given the state of the music industry!), and whatever it costs to make, this is not a career, and I make music for self-expression above anything else. If people enjoy it, or even better, occasionally buy it*, that is a great thing, and makes me feel that it is more worthwhile, but it's not why I make music. For a long time when I started no-one heard any tracks, I composed music because I enjoyed it and for no other reason. Music can take me somewhere else when I'm making it even more effectively than when I'm listening. I think that what [...]

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New, completely redesigned website now up!

The new website is now up, after a few days hard work! It has been completely redesigned and rewritten as I was never very happy with the previous version, which was a bit hacked together to get it to work. The main improvements made are:

Whole website is now coded in wordpress, which should make it much easier for me to keep up to date. I have put some effort into trying to code and structure it properly!

The website now contains a hopefully fairly comprehensive record of all Northcape releases, credits, tracklistings and other information. I have filled in some gaps from the previous website.

The website should also be easier to navigate around! All of the releases are linked together with streams, mp3 links and credit information. I have put quite a bit of thought into how it might be used and I hope that this comes across in the final result.

Finally, but not least, new design and new colour scheme!

Some features are the same- I have kept the guestbook and the mailing list functionality, and the free download page is still there- but updated (you might find a few more mp3s!) I'd very much appreciate if you can try to navigate around, try to find any broken links, and leave any comments or feedback. If you want to click on the facebook 'like' and google +1 buttons, they are on the bottom left...

Cheers, NC

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In praise of the album

I'm writing this blog in response to a recent blog 'Eclecticism and what makes a good album' by the electronica artist Dementio13 on his website. The blog started me thinking about the reason why the album still exists in an age of digital music; the point is made several times in the blog and subsequent comments that the album isn't as important as it used to be. When its so easy to pick and choose, download only your favourite tracks, and play them in whichever context you want, what is the point of an artist putting out an 'album' rather than just 'a collection of tracks'? I'm going to make the declaration straight away that I don't think I'm ever going to stop listening to albums as albums. I very rarely put my ipod on shuffle, when I decide to listen to an artist, I generally listen to one of their albums or EPs, front to back. This definitely makes me a more demanding listener - an artist can have great tracks, but if they fail to put an album together without a few tracks that need to be skipped, either due to the quality or due to them being completely out of place in the collection, I'm likely to listen to the artist much less than I would otherwise. I'm aware that I may be unusual in listening like this, but I don't think I'm unique, and the important point I want to make here is that I feel I get more out of the music by listening to it this way. This might be one reason why my favourite artists are all good at this. I get frustrated with them when an album is just that bit too long, or contains a few weak tracks that should really have been left out. People can of course listen to music however they want, as a random shuffled collection of tracks or whatever. But as a fan of the album, I think they are losing something fairly significant by doing that if the artist has released the tracks as a coherent whole. The best albums really are a lot more than [...]

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Emerging Organisms 4

I'm pleased to confirm that Northcape has a new and exclusive track '1am Transition' to be released on the forthcoming Emerging Organisms 4 compilation, which will be out on August 9th on Tympanik Audio. This is the 4th volume of a critically acclaimed compilation series focusing on IDM and atmospheric electronica and this release includes tracks by Hecq, Port Royal and Bola as well as Sun Sea Sky's Boy Is Fiction. "29 tracks, over 140 minutes of music on 2 compact discs only (no digital) with stunning artwork by Unshape (Kostas K. / Subheim) and sonic mastering by Mobthrow.". It's now available for pre-order.  The Northcape track appearing on this compilation is something I'm very happy with - deep late-night material - and won't be released anywhere else.

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New review of 'Alluvial' EP from NetMusic Life Blog

(In Italian): Non nuovo agli ambienti netlabels, Northcape, artista autodidatta inglese proveniente da Warwickshire ritorna con questo intenso e fluido "Alluvial EP" rilasciato dalla lettone Elpa. Un EP ispirato dalla geologia e dalla preistoria umana, dalla difficilmente immaginabile lentezza con cui il nostro pianeta ha impiegato ad evolversi. Siamo in zone ambient, in cui i lunghi accordi di tastiere si perdono nello spazio infinito inseguendo nordiche correnti d'aria. Northcape riesce a trasmettere l'idea di un mondo precivilizzato galleggiando tra riverberi ipnotici e sovrapposizioni d'arpeggi (Water Over Flint) in cui i pochi elementi che potrebbero ricondurci alla nostra caotica era sono i battiti ritmici elettronici. "Doorways Facing East" è un piccolo esempio in cui l'ambient può contenere anche elementi di tensione, un quieto risveglio disturbato, un amara consapevolezza che la strada compiuta finora è stata cancellata da tremendi e indelebili eventi ambientali. Ben rappresentato dalla foto di copertina, "Alluvial EP" è acqua che scorre, nitida sorgente di emozioni e sensazioni che Northcape sa trasmettere con semplicità ed onestà. (Rough English translation- apologies for any errors, due to a combination of myself and google!): Not new to the environment of netlabels, Northcape , an English self-taught artist from Warwickshire returns with this intense and fluid "Alluvial EP" released by the Latvian Elpa netlabel. An EP inspired by the geology and human prehistory, from the hard-to-imagine slowness that our planet has taken to evolve. We are in ambient areas, where long arrangements of keyboards are lost in the infinite space chasing northern air currents. Northcape is able to convey the idea of ​​a pre-civilisation, floating world with overlaps between reflections and hypnotic arpeggios (Water Over Flint) in which the few elements that might lead us back to our era are chaotic rhythmic electronic beats. "Doorways Facing East" is a small e [...]

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Alluvial EP out on Elpa music ~Thursday 9th June (free d/l!)

The new 4-track "Alluvial" EP will be released by Latvian netlabel Elpa Music for FREE download around Thursday June 9th. The catalogue number is Elpa70 and you can find the label here: http://www.elpamusic.lv/ The 'Alluvial' EP is inspired by geology, human prehistory and the idea of 'deep time' (I was reading about some of these subjects when producing the EP!) I have tried to express a sense of scale, which is in contrast to the more personal landscapes that inspire much of Northcape's material. The result is this EP which contains four slow-building but still melodic tracks with a more ambient feel. Some of the tracks are inspired by the idea of human habitation in the distant past, and others by geological space- the release image is pretty much a landscape I was imagining when I was writing the tracks. The sound is definitely an exploration of new ground - expect something a bit different from my normal approach to melodic electronica- but I think these tracks still keep a recognisable sound. Thanks to Elpa for releasing this EP, they have released some great material in the past and I'm glad that this release will be on there.

http://www.northcapemusic.co.uk/news/

Working in isolation

Recently I decided to put a 'draft' track up on soundcloud, it's the first time for a while I've done this. In the past I put most things up on music forums and learned a lot from doing that, but since being signed (to a small independent label, but a good one), I decided to try to take a more 'professional' approach to my music. I'm not quite sure what that really means, but part of what I think it means to avoid releasing anything on the internet apart from the final version, when it finally comes out through the label. The idea is obviously that people then only ever hear your music at its best, and never hear all the mistakes on the way. However this is a tough thing to do, and not just because you get quite impatient waiting for something to finally be released! In my day-to-day life I don't have access to the quality of feedback available in various places on the internet, and I've been finding myself building up a number of unfinished of tracks which I've been unsure are really 'good enough' for release, either in terms of the basic ideas or in terms of how I've executed them... In the past I would have just finished these tracks, put them up on a forum, and judged from the feedback whether they were potentially releasable as part of an album or EP, but without this I've been struggling. Perfectionism is part of it, and confidence is another part. So I can work towards the next full release (whatever or whenever that is, I don't yet know) I've decided I basically need to get more tracks finished, and if there's something I really can't judge, I just need to put it out there somewhere and try to get a second opinion... I won't be releasing everything in draft form, but sometimes it definitely helps.

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Remake vs Remix

Recently I rashly promised to do a 'remake' of a track as part of a project where different artists are creating their own versions of tracks from a new album. I initially thought that this could be a remix, working with at least parts of the original, but hadn't realised that the concept was an entirely new version of the chosen track (no reuse of any wav files allowed!) This was quite daunting initially but I've made some progress and have a rough mix of something that will hopefully appear on the final compilation. The original album as a whole is in a different, more intense style to my normal listening, and is as much alternative (with vocals) as electronic, which has added to the difficulty of choosing a track to work on. I've tried to avoid subjecting anyone to my version of vocals and picked one of the more chilled, instrumental tracks... However, trying to interpret the original version of the track while making it sound like something by Northcape has still proved a challenge, but hopefully a worthwhile one! I'll let you know when there's more news on this.

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Northcape Website blog back up (again)

I have now re-added the wordpress blog following some initial bugs. Please let me know if you spot anything else wrong with it. I have however given up on the planned complete site recode, it's not worth the time and effort by itself and is best included in the next site re-design. Wordpress itself is proving quite difficult for me to work with, the preset templates are fine but moving away from that to the kind of site I have got at the moment is by no means easy. I've therefore settled for a kind of compromise for the moment- the majority of the site, although re-coded in php, is not hosted in wordpress. The only page that is hosted in wordpress is in fact this blog... A bit messy in terms of the files involved but it does work and I'd rather spend more time on music. I may keep working on this in the background from time to time but I'm a bit frustrated with the sheer complexity of programming in wordpress as opposed to programming in html or even php. However the good news is this blog is now working with comments and all the other wordpress functionality, which was the initial objective! I just got sidetracked in to tidying up some code...

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