19 April, 2004

New downloadable Chroma Key album

This news is a week old, but it's new to me:

Kevin Moore has a new Chroma Key album out, exclusively available for (paid) download from his website.  Unlike the earlier releases, 'Memory Hole' is a 80-minute radio programme broadcast in 2003 by Radio For Peace International in Costa Rica.  Rather than a number of songs or instrumentals, this features original music accompanying spoken word, largely content sampled from peace activist radio, far-right shortwave radio, mainstream television, and various spiritual/evangelical audio sources.

The download itself is in .mp3 format encoded at 205 kbps (a typical .mp3 file on the web would be at 128kbps). The files themselves contain supplementary media (artwork, credits and comments), whilst the download also includes .pdf-format artwork (jewel case inserts and CD label) for printing.

I enjoyed the foregoing Chroma Key albums, so it might seem surprising that I won't be buying this myself. A lesser reason is that for customers outside the USA, payment is by credit card only, and I don't (won't) have one. The main reason, though, is the subject matter. At least in the four audio samples at the website, the spoken material is primarily sampled from christian and white supremacist propaganda - obnoxious stuff, almost certainly intended to unsettle the audience, in my case, successfully. I can appreciate the artistic statement and potential importance, but I doubt I'd play it more than once, which isn't a selling point.