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I must say that music-wise, life has been bliss since I found and signed up over at Oink’s Pink Palace. Despite the sort of corny name its core BitTorrent music tracker is no laughing matter. It has become a de facto standard on the net. Never before has music been so thoroughly organized and easily accessible. And never before have I found such a diverse selection of rare and even out of print albums. To me, Oink represents what is really great about file-sharing, as it doesn’t focus on rabid scene rules or the 0-day hype. It’s a place for music collectors and connoisseurs.
Sure, uploading rules are strict. But not “scenocentric”. Just the way I like them. A good encoding can more than make up for not being a scene release. From a purely philosophical standpoint, the scene breeds the wrong type of elitism, something that is perhaps most evident with music. Anyway, most of the crap that is floating around Kazaa or DC++ wouldn’t stand a chance on a moderated, quality-minded community forum like Oink.
I can only begin to assess the kind of musical adventures I have embarked on these last couple of weeks. I nabbed the Highlander OST, crazy vocal albums with Leonard Nimoy & William Shatner. Several albums with Chieftains, Dubliners as well as Altan and Capercallie. Loads of Noam Chomsky audio books and speeches. Numerous ethnic and world albums (stupid and narrowminded connotation I know) Arabian Travels, A Native American Odyssey, Lonely Planet Collection. Classical music from Puccini and Berlioz to Kodo. Dead Can Dance. Blackmore’s Night. Dougie MacLean. Natalie Merchant. Hem. Red Army Choir. Tibetan Tantric Choirs. The Pogues. Twelve Girls Band. Lais. It seems to go on forever. This is of course on top of current releases.
I am also proud to say that I am finally giving something back to the pool. Not so surprising given my interest in folk and hoping to score more folk albums I chose Scottish legendary folk musicians Corries. A long time favorite band of mine ever since I first picked up a few of their albums while in Scotland many years ago. I can’t deny that this is something that still burns intensely in my soul even to this day.
