The internet is a wonderful thing. It has liberated the small artist and gifted them complete freedom over the release of their work. The result of this is artists who would have 10 years ago had no chance of building up a fan base outside of their home town can build intimate relationships through their music with people living anywhere in the world. What an age we live in! Music being in ‘the cloud’ excites me more than music being in a live venue. This is why I was delighted yesterday to hear that Alex Ljung had made it onto the Top 30 Power Players Under 30 Billboard list:

Where then is the downside to all this modern age tomfoolery? Well, with such freedom artists hypothetically have nothing stopping them from releasing as much music as they want, which *might* cloud their judgment and on occasion disable their quality control filter. As a result a good artist could have their image tainted  by releasing a few too many duds that a record label may have advised against.

Hello Inkysmudge! Does any of the above sound familiar?

The band have released 4 albums/E.P’s in 9 months according to their website. They are a band that I think perfectly demonstrate my above point. I don’t dislike Inkysmudge by any stretch of the imagination, at their best they reminded me of early Eels and seem extraordinarily charismatic.

Linked below is a track that I was emailed by a member of the band which he described as “the most representative” example of their work. Fine. It’s a perfectly good song that I’m sure many of you will like. The problem is that if you go to their website you will find far too many songs that sound pretty darn similar.

My initial aim was to review a record of theirs, but sadly I found all four too hard to tell apart and released too close together. Instead I published this rather unkind attack, which Inkysmudge certainly don’t deserve to have aimed entirely at them.

I hope that my thoughts have at least entertained you.

Under The Power Lines by Inkysmudge