Relaxed Machinery

31/08/2017

Latest Update on relaunching Relaxed Machinery posted to the website. Questions and comments always welcome! John

http://relaxedmachinery.com/2017/08/29/mailing-lists-physical-media-podcasts-mixes-playlists-website/

I’ve been talking to several different label owners and radio hosts over the last few weeks. General theme of how do we lift up everyone in this genre of music – which for me is ambient…

13/08/2017

A new update on a bunch of relaunch topics... http://relaxedmachinery.com/2017/08/13/time-for-an-update/

I’ve had a couple of people reach out to me about releasing something in 2018. Awesome. Great to hear from old friends!

The new Relaxed Machinery will be a centralized label meaning it won’t be “self release… together” as we did the first 6 years. I’m pulling it in and streamlining. As always, the goal is to be a friendly partnership between rM and the artists.

I don’t think I’m going to keep the “cover art templates” like we did every year in the past. Steve did such a cool job with those, but I think I’m going to keep it simple and have full edge to edge cover art for each album.

Standard releases will be digital on Bandcamp and distributed to digital outlets for sale / streaming. However, special releases may be in different formats.

THE COG IS NOT GOING AWAY! [ continue reading at the link... ]

I’ve had a couple of people reach out to me about releasing something in 2018. Awesome. Great to hear from old friends! The new Relaxed Machinery will be a centralized label meaning it won…

31/07/2017

Leaning this way, leaning that…

I’m strongly leaning towards centralizing the releases and being a “proper label” in the sense of dropping the “self release… together” concept from our first 6 years. What this means is all releases would flow through the label and not be self released by each artist. Of course, the artist retains all rights to their music in the long term. I may wish for ‘x’ amount of exclusivity first though.

I’ve started the process of changing the website. Yep – this is as basic of a WordPress Theme as humanly possible to use. It’ll work for the near term.

I’m looking for a new tagline… “organic .: ambient :. techno” just doesn’t feel right any longer. This won’t be easy. 🙂

Cover art – I’m thinking of not doing templates for the front covers any longer. The verdict is way out on this one… a long time to decide. Parts of me loves having an immediate cohesive artwork theme – and part of me wants the cover art to be specifically for each album and not have the label image get in the way. We’ll see!

Until next time…

John

http://relaxedmachinery.com/2017/07/31/leaning-this-way-leaning-that/

I’m strongly leaning towards centralizing the releases and being a “proper label” in the sense of dropping the “self release… together” concept from our first 6…

23/07/2017

More thoughts on the relaunch. Had a good conversation with a friend on whether I should release everything as a label or continue how all previous albums were released in the "self release... together" mode - where the artist uploads or gets cdr's made and then keeps 100% of their profit.

The least "fun" thing for me during my AtmoWorks co-owning years was tracking the money. John (Vir) always paid the artists from my reports, and handled the taxes end, but just doing the reporting was a pain. But! Is it worth it as a label going forward? The label did do a ton of work for each release and Steve, Geoff and I volunteered our time to make each release the best possible. Lots of time to ponder that one.

As you noticed from last week's post - I'm planning more short 30 minutes give or take releases instead of long form 60 - 90 minute ones. I do plan to be fully digital. I don't see a major point of doing physical releases except for special projects. Yes, there will be some long form albums - just depends on the project, artist, etc...

On my own music... which I do plan to have something of mine be the first release for relaunch... I have all the cabling and power yet to go - as well as the setup of the pedal board. Heidi (my wife!) and I bought some PVC pipe to route wires through in the closet. Have to experiment with that. Good idea of Heidi's! The closet is in pretty much permanent setup now.

Thanks for reading - any comments or questions are very welcome!

John / Relaxed Machinery

19/07/2017

Relaxed Machinery is relaunching later this year. What do you think of my new focus on ep length / 12" length releases instead of full length albums?

07/07/2017

Hey there! Long time, no see!!!

http://relaxedmachinery.com/2017/07/07/hey-there-long-time-no-see/

Quick note to say I’m slowly coming out of hibernation. I tore down my studio and rebuilt it again. It’s looking great. I’m feeling excited about recording music again. I’m feeling excited about launching Relaxed Machinery into Phase 2 of it’s life.

The new Relaxed Machinery will focus on shorter releases – think of them more like EP’s or 12″ singles. Beginning to think about new logo and branding. This will all take time. But, I will start posting here regularly.

- John

Quick note to say I’m slowly coming out of hibernation. I tore down my studio and rebuilt it again. It’s looking great. I’m feeling excited about recording music again. I& #82…

11/12/2016

Happy Holidays, everyone! While Relaxed Machinery continues to be on hiatus - be sure to go directly to the artist pages and see what they're up to. I'll list a bunch of them in comments below.

I hope everyone has a happy and healthy Hanukkah, Christmas Kwaanza, Solstice, whichever holidays fill you with joy and happiness. - John Koch-Northrup

31/07/2016

Two new releases on earthMANTRA this week. Please check out SiJ & Paul Minesweeper's "Duftérose" and Lingua Lustra's "Waves" http://music.earthmantra.com

18/05/2016

ABOUT TONIGHT'S SOMA FM / DRONE ZONE DEBUT OF STEVE BRAND'S “THE PATH OF THE HEART”... In order to participate in chat, you'll need to either have a Slack account or create one. This is a bit of a change from previous. Sorry for any inconvenience. We hope you listen in and join chat!

https://relaxedmachinery.slack.com

https://somafm.com/dronezone/

14/05/2016

Steve Brand's latest release "The Path of the Heart" debuts on SOMA FM's Drone Zone this Wednesday 5/18 and releases officially on Friday the 20th! CD versions are available for pre-order now on Steve's Bandcamp page at http://steve-brand.bandcamp.com

Join us in chat on Wednesday night during the debut!

08/05/2016

STEVE BRAND HAS PUBLISHED "THE PATH OF THE HEART" ON BANDCAMP FOR PRE-SALES!

OFFICIAL RELEASE, 05-20-16

https://steve-brand.bandcamp.com/album/the-path-of-the-heart-available-05-20-16

7 track album

08/05/2016

Join us in for the Soma FM/Drone Zone debut of Steve Brand's, “The Path Of The Heart”...chat and/or listen...05-18-16, EDT 9PM, CDT 8PM, PDT 6PM, AEST 11AM, CEST 3AM, BST 2AM...Hope to see you there!

Watch for chat details in the near future!

26/03/2016

earthMANTRA is proud to announce the release of the debut album from Indigo Symbol - 'Zenith'.

Indigo Symbol is Richard Soto, who for the last 8 years has been the creative force behind FTMTE (Fear that Makes the Empire), an Industrial act in vein of early Front Line Assembly. On "Zenith", Richard strikes out in a brand new direction - one with which fans of minimalist drone and deep-space music will immediately identify.

eM is thrilled to be the birthplace of this new ambient project, and excited to welcome Indigo Symbol to our roster of artists.

9 track album

03/03/2016

Premiere on SomaFM – Kloob – Solid Foundations

We are so thrilled to once again have a our new album premiered on SomaFM Drone Zone! SomaFM has been such a huge help to us over the years.

This Friday, March 4 at Noon Pacific Time on http://somafm.com/dronezone/

A quick way to find out what time it is in your part of the world is to type into google: “noon pacific time in Barcelona” and put your city there.

Result: 12:00 PM Thursday, Pacific Time (PT) is 9:00 PM Thursday, in Barcelona, Spain

Dani is back with his 2nd release on Relaxed Machinery: Kloob – Solid Foundations. It’s an excellent album of ambient music with Dani focusing in on his favorite topics of interest: metaphysics, attraction, emotions management, extraterrestrial life, astral projection and personal development.

Droning atmospheric space music and ambient textures with minimal beats. Music on Drone Zone is all about sonic textures and environments. Youll hear music by artists such as Pete Namlook, Steve Roach, Harold Budd, Brian Eno, Stars of the Lid, Dilate and the KLF.