Various Artists - Missing Futures [Lost Language]

However, that will have to wait (thank fuck I hear you sigh) as I really need to say something about the pulling of LOST201 - MISSING FUTURES on Friday.

This was supposed to be my final A&R offering at LL, and a way to honour the commitment I had made to release the music of those artists featured, and to leave nothing on the table after I had gone.

Tracks were mastered, copy + artwork was submitted, everyone was happy, and a date of September 25th was agreed.

By midday on the 25th, nothing had appeared in any of the online stores, so I got in touch with the parent label - at which point I was told LOST201 had been pulled at a meeting the previous week, and no one had thought to tell me.

They had decided they no longer wanted to release any albums or EP’s, preferring instead to release all the tracks on MISSING FUTURES individually over the coming weeks. No regard for the meaning or sentiment behind LOST201- just a banal preference for ‘catalogue’.

So on a day I had kept free to talk about all the music on MISSING FUTURES, I found myself arguing with the office, and (not for the first time in recent years) sending damage control emails to all the disappointed artists who were expecting to have their music released that day.

In an industry in danger of losing its soul to the machine - meaning, art, and the human touch are more important than ever - and this episode further demonstrates why I would prefer to focus my efforts in those areas - on ideas, concept, sentiment, etc., and all that stuff beyond the catalogue number.

I should probably wrap this up, but I wanted to finish by saying I was really happy to have received a load of replies to my last email. Lots of interest in the meditation course I mentioned, and even a couple of DJ gig offers for 2027!

Happy days.

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