We occasionally get e-mails asking as to the progress of Ribcage, the WordPress plugin that runs the back end elements of this site. Progress has been slow, as we have been satisfied using raw MySQL backends to add releases. Yet I can finally show you some screenshots of the beta version of the software I am currently running on my home machine. Hopefully it will show you how easy this software is to use, as well getting some interest from other people who may want to use it in the future. It will, of course, be released under the GPL, open sourced. The intention is that using WordPress, which takes five minutes to install, then grabbing the plugin from the WordPress plugin repository (which anyone can now do within WordPress itself), you could have a working Creative Commons record label up within half an hour. This, we hope, will increase the ease to set up and therefore the numbers of Creative Commons labels across the internet.

Ribcage should be out in the new year to coincide with our two year anniversary, an event that will also be celebrated in a number of other interesting ways! We have a whole load of treats up our sleeves for you.

Photo courtesy of Feathered Tar at flickr.

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A good day for Badger, and a good day for fans of avant jazz-rock brilliance. For Sweet Potato’s Mash is finally upon us! And goodness knows it’s been worth the wait. A rollocking ride- like Faith No More hopping into a time machine and emerging in Canterbury circa 1971 (stopping off in Twin Peaks along the way)- it’s available now for download or to buy (as a carbon neutral jewel cased CD with 8 page colour artwork) for a mere £5. It’s a co-release with the good people at Foetal Orange and an album we’re extremely proud to be putting out.

It is also the first release we have put out on Bittorrent as MP3, FLAC and Ogg Vorbis. If you are into such things, give the links a click and download this way – the more that do, the faster it becomes for everyone to do so, provided you keep seeding. Fire up those torrent clients immediately!

And we’re pleased to confirm three more forthcoming releases too…

The Exploits of Elaine: 2003-2005
In their current incarnation, The Exploits of Elaine are an improvising collective making music that sounds a little like This Heat playing folk music from the planet Saturn. But prior to that, they made bloody awesome post-rock music. Their songs were direct, emotionally powerful and contained more ideas than most bands in that genre have across a whole career. This is a compilation containing tracks from their untitled 2003 EP and some unreleased material from 2005, including the mighty Laputa, which replace that bloody Sigur Ros song on every single nature/sports programme trailer.

Talk Less, Say More – ‘It’s About Time’
A companion album to the mighty “It’s About Time” EP released on RoR. Tolstoy, Greek tragedy and theories of the life, the universe and everything delivered in devastating rhymes with slickly impressive production and a knowing nod in the direction of pop.

Les Etoiles – To Leave A Mark
Another fine album of haunting confessionals. The sparse beauty and devastating lyrical ability of ‘Never to Alight’ remains, but Mr Fitzpatrick has added lusher, richer instrumentation this time around. Another one for lonely nights.

Hello there,

Very soon!

We’ve just taken delivery of our first professionally made release: Sweet Potato’s very very excellent album ‘Mash’. We’re doing it as a joint release with the lovely folks at Foetal Orange (run by Dom and Jack of Sweet Potato and Strap the Button) and expect it to be out within a week or two. The CDs have a four page liner booklet and are fully carbon neutral.

It’s an extraordinary record- quite unlike anything else we’ve heard. It’s somewhere between Ornette Coleman, Faith No More, Gentle Giant and post-Wyatt Soft Machine. Operatic vocals, free jazz wigouts, stonking riffs and curveballs aplenty.

One of the things we say in our manifesto is that anyone could do what we are doing. This post (below the fold) describes the technical nuts and bolts of how this site works so you can maybe do the same. In particular it describes the genesis of the software that runs this site – Ribcage. We get a fair bit of e-mail about it, which I am always very pleased to answer.

Myself and The Fabulous Mr Eric Lee are going to host the first annual ROR hackathon in January – the intention being twofold. First to expand Ribcage beyond its current parameters – to interface with Last.fm and Musicbrainz properly, to add details of gigs for our various artists, to allow users to be informed of updates more easily. Secondly and more vitally, it is also to make Ribcage a WordPress plugin that anyone can install and use. The implication is, we hope, obvious: anyone who can run a blog will be able to run a download label. With the new WordPress 2.7 allowing plugins to be installed direct from the repository without messing around with FTP and the like, this means that you could go from a standard blog to a label blog in less than five minutes – imagine the possibilities!

Photo by flickring.

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