The Null Device

EMI have dropped David Bridie and My Friend The Chocolate Cake (scroll down) for not shifting enough units, some two years after releasing his album Hotel Radio, crippled with iMac-killing "copy control" mechanisms, and refusing to listen to his concerns about it pissing off his fans. (And it was quite a good album; kind of like Ian Brown's Music Of The Spheres only more interesting.) Anyway, Bridie walks out of the deal with full ownership of his music, and into deals with Shock and Liberation, so all's well that ends well.

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Recently, David Bridie released a new album, probably his best solo work. Unfortunately, he's signed to EMI, so it never came out in Red Book format. Bridie doesn't have enough clout with EMI to get them to release a legit Red Book pressing that rips on your Linux box, doesn't kill your iMac and plays on your iPod, so he has taken matters into his own hands.

Here is the word from EMI Australia's projects manager for new media. "The new David Bridie CD has been released on a Copy Controlled CD. It has an embedded player that will allow you to play the CD on the PC so it is not impossible to play the CD on a PC." This obviously doesn't apply to all and so is still a pain. I apologize in this. I'm not a big enough seller to determine policy. If anyone so desires, send me an email, and I'll burn a copy off the master and send out with the artwork in return for a cheque for the cost of the CD in the store so that you can still enjoy listening to music the way to which you are accustomed. Hopefully this will not get too out of hand, and I won't be spending 6 hours a day in the Enormodome burning CDs.

Bravo to David Bridie; it's good to know that there are artists with the courage and integrity to take a stand like this. I'll definitely be sending him a cheque.

Incidentally, having heard the album, I strongly advise people to take him up on the offer. Hotel Radio is a great mix of Not Drowning-esque songwriting and world-class glitchy electronics (from Nick Littlemore). However, the version in the shops is corrupt, and such chicanery should not be encouraged.

(Speaking of EMI releases, I saw a limited edition version of the new Blur in PolyEster; it comes in a red book (like the Amnesiac limited edition, only smaller and with a Banksy stencil on the front), and appears to be, appropriately enough, a perfectly kosher Red Book disc. Chances are the regular version will be fux0red like every other EMI release made in Australia.)

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A fascinating piece on David Bridie, looking in depth at his recent solo album, as well as Not Drowning, Waving and My Friend The Chocolate Cake. Don't miss... (The Age)

"The Ghan railway from Port Augusta to Alice Springs," he explains, "was almost entirely built by Muslims from Afghanistan, with camels. I was standing there, in the desert near Maree, looking around, thinking of the Islams and their camels and thinking about who else was there, and what was going on late last century in the desert - the strange Europeans on the run and the Aborigines who had already suffered. This is in the heart of redneck white Australia. It's a strange meeting place. Still is. Australia is a strange meeting place. Strange things happen. That's really what I wanted to say."

But now Bridie feels he has come full circle. He says Act of Free Choice could quite easily be a Not Drowning, Waving record, albeit a decade on. At the very least it's a "logical progression" from his earlier outfit's work.

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