It's The Music That Matters

The entertainment industry in the past few decades has given us a lot and also taken away a lot. It has given us great music and great movies among other things but in the scramble for big bucks and big names the more delicate sounds, the subtler voices, the slightly more diffident artistes who are nonetheless very gifted, have been kind of lost. Making it big these days depends all too much, not on real talent but on contacts, on how you present yourself and other abilities which have nothing to do with your artistic spirit.

The internet is turning out to be the good guy here and has come to the rescue of many struggling artists whom recording labels have initially turned down. During my time in Germany for example I kept hearing this song on the radio by a singer called Sandi Thom, (I wish I was a punk rocker with flowers in my hair) and later found out from Thomas that she had initially promoted her song through the internet. On account of the numerous downloads and requests by enthusiastic fans, it was soon being played on the radio stations and became so popular that a well known recording label finally decided to release her CD.

One musician I've discovered recently on the Zaadz network calls himself "Artist X". According to his profile, "Artist X is a songwriter, vocalist and guitarist who has decided to release his music anonymously via the internet in an effort to keep the focus where it should be - on the music!" Sampling his songs on the net I found some really nice stuff, inspired by what he calls his "spiritual awakening" and thought I would invite you to listen to it too. I found it quite a pleasing mix of familiar styles and listenable. Artist X claims to have been influenced by Pink Floyd, Nick Drake, Phish and other musicians and bands and also by Alan Watts, Eckhart Toll and Ramdass on the spiritual front. Here is where you can get a taste of what he sounds like:

http://www.myspace.com/artistxsongs