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Hearpen exists to sell soul. It's not merchandise. It's not content. It's called music. We offer downloads of recordings for which a commercial release is not deemed practical, as well as rarities, live recordings, limited releases, and anything else of note by Pere Ubu and bands related to Pere Ubu or Ubu Projex. Be clear on this point: we don't like download audio. But, here we are living in the sort of world we live in. It's not our fault. It's your fault. You. Personally. You allowed this to happen. You are here looking for this sort of thing. We simply react to the marketplace. You create the marketplace. How We Got To Where We Are
Download audio has constricted the marketplace. We must find our proper niche. That niche will be the place where we can control our output and offer it on terms that we can live with. It is not possible to enter into a commercial contract without negotiating download rights. It is intensely frustrating to hear sound that we have spent months meticulously constructing being reduced to a dog's dinner with lousy encoding ratios. If it's going to be out there we want it reproduced in such a way as to adequately convey the meaning of the sound. So we'll do it ourselves. Please see this link for a detailed explanation of the technical and aesthetic decisions made.
Every medium is a compromise but given the years we struggled under the extremist regime of Vinyl Production it's not a stretch to use the MP3 medium when the marketplace has made the commercial release of many kinds of music production effectively impossible - referring not to studio albums but to live recordings, unique events, and specialist / fan interest releases. Better that something of quality be heard than not heard. So, for studio recordings we use the highest quality MP3 encoding possible. And, in spite of our oft-expressed loathing for the Download Audio Medium, we believe that, at the cost of large file sizes, we can deliver a quality Listening Experience to our customers. We wouldn't bother if we didn't believe it. And we don't sell what we don't endorse.
A Note on Sound Quality
It behooves you to check this link for our attitude towards live recordings. We toyed with the idea of rating technical sound quality, and soon gave it up. Clearly, cassette tapes from the 70s and early 80s - or any era - are not going to be hi fi experiences. If you want to hear Pere Ubu from the Pirate's Cove in 1976 it's going to be, uh... ambient. That said, cassettes can yield pretty good quality. (See if you can spot the track from the Raygun Suitcase Director's Cut which is actually sourced from a cassette recording of an early test mix.)
The Transaction Process
hearpen.com accepts major credit cards in payment as well as PayPal transactions. In most cases you have the option to buy individual songs or the entire album. Some songs are only available via an entire album purchase - these songs are marked with an "X" on the release page. After the purchase phase of your transaction you'll be presented with a page listing your downloads. Click on each song/link to initiate download. The links will expire after you've downloaded the files five times or 120 hours after your order is placed. The downloads will appear on your computer in your default download location. The filenames will be an alphanumeric sequence starting with "USKFA." Drag the files to your iTunes window or import into your MP3 player. Once imported the song files will display song titles, band names, proper running order and album titles.
LIVE ALBUMS: They are presented in their original running order. We toyed with the idea of leaving in all between song noise, nothingness, talk and applause but given the increase in file size this would yield, and the various opinions on the value of this approach, we decided against it. Nonetheless, for some live releases, we have included some of the "better" ambient bits. You may want to set your MP3 player preferences to "gapless," according to your own tastes.
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Ubutique, etc.
Pere Ubu cds, t-shirts and misc items are available via mail order from Ubu Projex's sister company Ubutique, as well as Smog Veil, Cooking Vinyl and Glitterhouse.
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NEW RELEASES ** The Art Of Talking (1982) ** Pirate's Cove 6/2/77 U-Men Live At Interstate Mall (1978) Paradiso July 14 1991 (Part 1) Paradiso July 14 1991 (Part 2) Petit Ubu (1991-93) Oh, Pennsylvania, I Do Remember Thee (1998-03) Turpentine / Petrified Three Things / Life Of Riley Wait For It Here In The Life / It's In Imagination Nobody's John / Behind Your Eyes About Us Technical Issues |
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