Mansun and Serialisation.

I was contacted last week by an old schoolfriend through the magic of Facebook. This is not a friendship I have any particular interest in rekindling, but it is at least notable for being responsible for my ongoing relationship with the Tom, so that's something.

Anyway, this guy, for no reason, messages me through the Facebooks to tell me he's been re-listening to Six by Mansun. Well, we both got it when it came out in '98 and enjoyed it a great deal, so I suppose there's that, but I'm still not sure why he needed to tell me about it. Anyway, with this message came the assertion that if Six was released now, "it would be a major critical success". Now, Christ help me, I can't help but tell people exactly how wrong they are. I do really enjoy it. I am not such a good human being in that respect.

In the course of this deconstruction, I expressed the opinion that Mansun would likely only achieve critical acclaim in 2008 with Six if they serialised the album online; "releasing a song every fortnight with lyrics and maybe additional text to give it a more cohesive narrative. Put it out under Creative Commons license, make individual instrument tracks available in .aif format for remixers, all that kinda thing. They would win the Internet. Cory Doctorow would write a very enthusiastic Guardian piece." (I really do get like this. I am an arsehole, I know.)

Me and the Tom had briefly discussed, only the day before, the idea of recording individual songs and making them available online, complete with artwork, lyrics, .aif files for remixers, but I'm enjoying this idea of serialised releases. I'm imagining having six or seven songs to make up an EP or mini-album, and then releasing it song by song over a number of weeks. Lovebomb the blogosphere, get everyone talking about you, and with a schedule of releases over a specific period of time, you've got more chance of keeping the internet and all its mates interested than if you're posting songs with sporadic infrequency.

With good presentation, and the ability to spread the word to enough people and blogs, serialised releases could really make an impact on the internet and give unsigned artists a boost. As a music fan, I'd love to be collecting albums and EPs on a fortnightly basis. Check my inbox on a Saturday morning, download a clutch of new tunes, and spend a lazy hour poring over the supplemental material online. Whole communities and fora would spring up around this kind of activity. It's what web 2.0 is all about, isn't it?

As always, here is some music.