And Ayuma just released her gorgeous new track “Be Gone”: check it out at SoundCloud:

At the same time I’ve put the finishing touches on Ayuma’s brand new track “Wenn Ich Dich heute seh’”-- and there really are lots of other new songs in the pipeline, hence Antichrisis’ new album is developing pretty well even if you won’t be hearing any new songs until “Foxfire” (the new album’s title) is released.

Neil Young & Crazy Horse: “Walk Like a Giant”
Of Monsters and Men: “Your Bones”
Santigold: “The Riot’s Gone”
Lana Del Rey: “Born to Die”
Bruce Springsteen: “We Are Alive”
First Aid Kit: “Emmylou”
The XX: “Angels”
Exclusive: “Nachtmensch”
The Dead Lovers: “The Storm”
The Raveonettes: “Young and Cold”

So let’s do some arithmetics now according to the rule of three:

25.293 illegally downloaded copies = 100%
182 legally purchased copies = ?%

The answer is: obviously only 0,72% of those interested in Antichrisis (at least I presume that only those interested in our music would bother to download our album via BitTorrents) are paying for our music, hence it’s hardly surprising that Reartone Records and Tunguska Records, the last two labels that Antichrisis has been working with, had to call it a day because one simply can’t stay in business with that kind of payment behaviour — and as a result due to these facts we simply can’t afford a CD release on our own because according to these figures that would mean a foreseeable financial disaster for us.

But just for the sake of it let’s start dreaming a little bit: if only 50 % of those who downloaded the album illegally would have paid for “Not Fade Away” for example on Bandcamp (where the album is on sale for 7 Euros), we would have earned 88.522 Euros. We could have re-invested that money in better equipment for our home studio; we could have afforded to release a really extravagant collector’s edition on CD and vinyl with proper booklet, artwork and all that stuff and we could have also afforded to pay for a PA and for musicians to go on tour and play live — but that’s just daydreaming…

Fact is: the vast majority of our listeners are stealing our music — and yes, we know your line of reasoning: “It would only be stealing if the goods that have been stolen from you would no longer be in your possession which is definitely not the case with digital goods, so stop your sobbing!”. But that would mean that all kind of digital goods are left to villainy, be it literature, photography, cinematography, music or any other kind of art that can be distributed via the Internet — and that’s undeniably far beyond fairness! If you don’t want to pay for our music for whatever reasons you have, that’s absolutely o.k.; you’re welcome to listen to our music for free via streaming audio on Soundcloud or on this website -- but for fuck’s sake don’t fucking steal our music which is unquestionably our intellectual property (pardon my French, but it really makes me blow my fuse!).

Another fact is: Ayuma & me are working really hard on our music and we won’t stop making this music because music is our heartbeat and we fortunately don’t have to earn our living with the money we’re making from Antichrisis (which is approximately about zilch) but from going to work each bloody morning to make ends meet. Nevertheless we know lots of really good bands and artists who simply had to give up their musical career and their projects because they simply couldn’t afford it any longer — and it wasn’t because no one would have been interested in what they were doing but because no one wanted to pay for their work and preferred to download it illegally from the Internet instead!

But that’s enough ranting for now: most of all Ayuma and me would like to thank those loyal Antichrisis fans who purchased “Not Fade Away” so far once more; and here’s our blessing for our “illegal downloaders” (you know who you are): hopefully one day you’ll get ripped off quite neatly, too!

Download the Dark Feather magazine and the sampler for free!

Kurt Mitzkatis spricht mit Sid über das neueste Werk von Antichrisis “Not Fade Away” und die Bandgeschichte.

Die Band Antichrisis ist eine der am meisten unterbewertetsten Bands überhaupt. Mit großartigen Alben gelang es bisher nicht, den zustehenden Lohn einzufahren; dabei gibt es Antichrisis schon seit 1997.

Nun hat Mastermind Sid alles neu und anders gemacht. “Not Fade Away”, das am 14.04.2012 erschien, ist weit mehr als nur ein Albumtitel.

Genaueres werdet ihr im Gespräch erfahren. In der Radiozeit gibt es eine komplette Übersicht über das Werk von Antichrisis.

Diejenigen von Euch, die die Sendung nicht live hören konnten, können sich die Aufzeichnung des Interviews direkt bei German Rock e.V. anhören.

iTunes Store (or search for “Antichrisis” and “Not Fade Away” in your county’s iTunes Store)
Amazon MP3 Store (or search for “Antichrisis” and “Not Fade Away” in your county’s Amazon MP3 Store)
Bandcamp (international availability but you need to have a Paypal-account)

Just use the shop that suits you best -- the main thing is that worldwide availability should no longer be a problem.

Secret US embassy cables sent from Cairo in the past two years reveal that the Obama administration wanted to maintain a close political and military relationship with the Egyptian president, Hosni Mubarak, who is now facing a popular uprising.

I guess the same goes for Germany, too: satisfactory trade relations always require fraternisation with the respective rulers, hence there’s no support for the protesters neither from the US nor from German State Department, but nevertheless I do hope that their fight for social justice and Human Rights in their countries will prevail.

“Christmas Day” - Dido
“Stop The Cavalry” - Jona Lewie
“Harlem Country” - Kirk Brandon
“The Christmas Song” - The Raveonettes
“Fairytale of New York” - The Pogues

Best Wishes and a Happy New Year to all of you - and let me know what you think of the new website design.

In the meantime we hope you’re going to enjoy “Adrenalin” as much as we did when we were working on that song - and we also hope to be back on the track real soon!

By the way: New Antichrisis Interviews at www.hardharderheavy.de (in German only, also includes a very profound review of A Legacy of Love Mark II) and at www.lagrosseradio.com (in French only).

Maybe a lot of you might think something like “Duh - does the world really need another dispensable remix? Aren’t remixes just a bad case of flogging a dead horse with making some extra money from an already released song?” - and of course I can’t completely deny that attitude.

But there’s something else about remixes: In the older days (yes, I was born in the sixties, so I should know all about those good ol’ times!) a band recorded a song on tape and once it had been mixed and produced that song could not been altered any more - it was on tape, it was done, and the only thing you could do was a bit of remastering when you felt the need for it.

But these days are gone: Nowadays with all those hard disc recording-prospects there is no such thing like a “finished” track any more. Thanks to your software sequencer’s total recall-capabilities one can work on a project, finish it - and re-open it again 12 months later with all the proper settings just for adding an idea for a new guitar line. And me, I surely love that kind operation method.

Besides, since I’ve released the first version of “Crossing The Line” I couldn’t help but notice that this track needed a more powerful Techno beat to make it work - maybe there are some things that you’ll only find out after having “lived” with a song for a couple of weeks.

Anyway, that’s the reason why I picked up “Crossing The Line” again and revised it for Dark Feather No. 10 (by the way: you can still get the entire double-album here): the groove’s emphasis is now focused completely on danceability and there’s also a more aggressive midsection as well as additional vocals by Ayuma. You may download or listen to “Crossing The Line (Dark Feather Remix)” here. Enjoy!

I’m really proud of this version because Ayuma’s vocals bear that special kind of melancholy airiness that emphasizes the overall feeling of that song: the battle is over and you have lost - and there’s absolutely no way of ever going back. But at the same time this means that there’s no more burden on your shoulder: though you’ve been bereaved of something that once was so precious to you, you are now free from a situation that was only causing pain in the end. Let your tears flow for the past, but the future’s promise lies already ahead and it’s sounding like a sparkling waterfall from afar.

Maybe this is one of Antichrisis’ most catchy tracks so far - but don’t get fooled by the song’s overall easiness: still a deep sense of valediction is lurking under its surface.

But after I had finished mixing the 78 tracks that “The Point of No Return” consists of I swore to myself that I would never be recording as many tracks for just one song again - possibly!

The songs you find on this website are distributed online for non-commercial purposes, but quite a few of you have asked again and again in the past for an easy way of contributing at least a little bit of money for Antichrisis’ songs - and this is where Flattr kicks in.

Though currently still closed beta (but you can already sign up for an invitation code), Flattr is a micropayment project started by Peter Sunde and Linus Olsson. Users will be able to pay a small monthly amount and then click buttons on sites to share out the money they paid in among those sites, sort of like an Internet tip jar. The minimum users will have to pay is 2 euros. Sunde said, "the money you pay each month will be spread evenly among the buttons you click in a month. We want to encourage people to share money as well as content.”

The following video gives you an idea of how Flattr works - and the very first moment I heard about this project I thought “This is the future for content payment on the internet: a fair spreading between users and content providers - and in the end it breaks down the barriers between these two groups. Now isn’t that exactly what Punk was all about in its early days?”

So if you want to be part of this new movement, sign up at Flattr and start the revolution now - and don't forget to click on any of the Flattr-badges on this website to get Antichrisis flattred, too.

Dark Feather No. 10 comes as double CD and contains besides Antichrisis’ “Crossing The Line (Dark Feather Remix)”
also tracks by 7 Seals, A.Stray, Alexa, Alter Vocalis Ego, Apo Velation, At Daggers Drawn, Avatar, Avataria, Black Chameleon, Die Votion, Embercrow, End Of The Road, Ferment, Frozen Memory, Mirrored In Secrecy, My Lucina, Nion, Osiris T., Plastic Autumn, Shade Of Shambles, Stealing The Bride, Stormgarde, Summer’s End, Tharsys, The Exploding Boy, Via Obscura, Wort-Ton and Your Favourite Nightmare.

As this double CD is sold for 6,50 in Germany and 8,50 € within Europe (including postage and packing), it’s definitely a bargain - so don’t hesitate to contact Holger at Dark Feather to get hold of your copy of this really awesome sampler.

Find also Holger’s short interview with Antichrisis (in German only) here: This time not only Sid is answering Holger’s questions, but also Antichrisis’ female vocalist Ayuma.

So Tunguska Records proudly presents "Cantara Anachoreta" by Antichrisis not only as a double album (Yes, "Beautiful Wolves" is really that long!), but also remastered by legendary engineer and producer Harris Johns (Kreator, Voivod, Sodom, Einstuerzende Neubauten), glamourizing the album with delightful depth and tremendous warmth.

In addition to that the album's artwork got revised from scratch and now contains superb and exquisite illustrations by one of Germany's most talented and groundbreaking cover artists, making this new edition also interesting for those who already own the original release of 1997.

As this album is distributed by Twilight, international availability should be no problem. For further information see Tunguska’s website.

Such a guy is Holger Warschkow of Dark Feather: he puts so much effort and lifeblood into his Underground-Zine just because he believes in what he is doing and the bands he is supporting. And although Dark Feather’s subject is Gothic and Metal, Holger’s own musical taste goes far beyond these brands — and I’m sure that Hunter S. Thompson would have found much nicer words to characterise the music business if more people like Holger were involved.

Because of all that I decided to submit a previously unreleased Antichrisis song to Holger’s newest edition of his zine/sampler Dark Feather No. 9 called “The Point Of No Return”, featuring Ayuma on vocals as well as guest appearances by Frank Hennig and Näx. “The Point Of No Return” is Antichrisis’ latest track with a playing time of more than 9 minutes — and what else is there to say about that song as well as Antichrisis’ future plans can be read in the corresponding interview (which is in German only).

If you should be interested in purchasing that terribly recommendable sampler (containing 12 more remarkable bands apart from Antichrisis) just follow the instructions on http://www.darkfeather.net if you’re from Germany or send an email to contact@darkfeather.net if you’re from anywhere else in the world, because the CD-sampler itself is only 1,95 € (that’s definitely a bargain if I ever saw one!), but postage and packing may vary depending on what part of the world the CD has to be sent to.

And more good news are on the way — just wait until the 14th of May!

Thus I've also added a download section to our website: Feel free to download those tracks there if you want to add them to your music library - they're all good quality mp3-files so they should sound alright on any mp3-device.

By the way: I won't be doing any blog-entries in German any more. I can see by the emails I receive that the vast majority of Antichrisis-fans seem to come from abroad, and I'm sure that our German fans will be able to understand entries in English as well. It's simply a time-saver for me if I only have to write entries once, so I hope you'll understand this decision (and it's also a good way of annoying gladsome Guido, our linguistically challenged foreign minister).

A few weeks ago I've met Jens, our former producer, again: He's now working for Laboga Amps and VIG Guitars, and we spent a very cool evening in Nuremberg with him and his endorser Tommi Denander, who turned out to be a really nice and folksy bloke - and one can really learn a lot by having a good time with such professional musicians.

My wife Ayuma also came up with some great new songs last year which I'm having the honour to produce. If you'd be interested in German music with a very special touch, check out her songs at MySpace or at Ayuma's own website. By the way: Ayuma also did the female vocals on "Here Comes The Night" and "Ocean's Too Wide" - and "The Point Of No Return” is already on its way.

And here's another piece of news: Julia Dobberstein is working on a re-release of "Cantara Anachoreta" with all tracks remastered by Harris Johns, new stunning artwork by Ben and "Beautiful Wolves" as bonus track. There's no release date yet, but as soon as this collector's item will be revealed, I'll let you know.

And if anyone out there would like to follow Antichrisis on Twitter, just look for http://twitter.com/Boscastle (Yep, it's "Boscastle" and not "Antichrisis", as everybody would have assumed. Those who know me will get the reference, anyway).

Being a musician myself, I'm torn between the two sides: on the one hand the internet and its possibilities of sharing and distributing music (but if we want to call a spade a spade we should include a term like "illegal downloading", too!) has turned out to be nothing less than a big "Up Yours!" towards the record companies' pricing policy, but on the other hand it has also caused a lot of severe problems for the kind of really devoted musicians and labels trying to make a living from what they're doing.

Experts affirm that today there's only 1 % of legal purchasing of songs and albums, which means that there is only 1 in a 100 songs that the artist or his record company actually gets paid for - and you can't run a business on that terms. That's why our label Reartone Records simply can't afford to release the long awaited Antichrisis album "The Legacy Remains": there's absolutely no chance of breaking even with new independent releases of that kind, hence I totally agree and understand Reartone's decision although I certainly regret that "The Legacy Remains" will now become some kind of "lost album", and that all the work we've put into its production so far was in vain.

Reartone cannot release any new albums as long as the aformentioned situation stays like this - and that doesn't affect Reartone Records only: Even a successful independent company like Chikago's Touch & Go Records with bands like TV On The Radio, Yeah Yeah Yeahs or CocoRosie has to reduce its output because they just can't cover the costs any longer. Mac McCaughan of Merge Records commented this with the words: "If a company that did everything the right way can't survive in this environment ... then who can?"

But what does all that mean for Antichrisis? Well, there won't be any CD or album releases in the near future at all (unless another label would be interested in signing Antichrisis). As aforesaid, I can understand Reartone's decision and I totally agree with them, hence there's no bad blood between Reartone and Antichrisis. If the economoical situation should change, there's no obstacle for resuming our collaboration.

In the meantime (or for the future - who knows) , Antichrisis will be stripped down to being a 1-man-project again like it used to be in the early days of "Cantara Anachoreta". I'll be doing everything on my own again including mixing and production, and as soon as new songs are finished I'll make them available on this website via streaming audio. I don't have any idea at the moment if there'll be a way making these new tracks available for purchase, because I don't like any of the current online distribution possibilities for independent artists: there are too many different internet platforms with too many different terms and conditions, which makes it difficult to work time- and cost-saving. But as soon as there's a proper solution on the horizon, I'll be trying to provide a good and easy way for acquiring Antichrisis' songs by purchase.

Anyway, I doubt that there will ever be an album by Antichrisis again, as I really don't believe in albums any more: they are a thing of the past, and the future's definitley in releasing separate songs as soon as they are ready and leave it to the customer which individual song he or she wants to have - it should be up to them if they want to burn it on CD or not. Online distribution is the future of any multimedia content, whether we like it or not - but it's all still in its infancy!

So "The Legacy Remains" will possibly never be released and Antichrisis will be reduced to being a 1-man-project again. I definitely won't stop making music, because it's simply such a vital and important part of my life. Of course I could now finish the songs of "The Legacy Remains" on my own, but to tell you the truth it just wouldn't feel right, because these songs were the collective achievement of a band that unfortunately doesn't exist any longer, and it would be quite unfair towards my former band members if I'd release those songs single-handedly now.

The reason that the band has now ceased to exist is due to the fact that we've never been a live group but a studio band. And as all band members are living far away from each other in different parts of Germany, the only occasion we got together was when we met in Reartone's Bluehouse studio for rehearsing and recording. So the end of the collaboration with Reartone Records implies the end of the studio band Antichrisis, too. But I'm glad that both Naex (uilleann pipes) and Frank (vocals) have assured that they would love to contribute their input to Antichrisis in the future, too, so there'll be still some guest muscians around!

Nevertheless my deepest gratitude goes to Jens Bachmann (former guitarist and producer), Tilo Rockstroh (former keyboarder and sound engineer) and Jens-Nils Kuge (former Drummer): these guys did such a great job for Antichrisis on "Perfume" and "A Legacy of Love Mark II", and I'm sure that "The Legacy Remains" would have confirmed what outstanding and unique musicians they are. It was an honour and great pleasure to work with them, and I sincerely appreciate the time we've been recording together.

A new chapter of Antichrisis is aborning - back to the basics, in a manner of speaking, and these basics will sound a lot like "Ocean's Too Wide" or "Crossing The Line" (already available on this website's Music section). And as I don't have to focus on album productions and studio sessions any more, there'll probably be some new tracks here quite soon... so stay tuned!

I’ve also started digitalizing all my old tapes, which means that heaps of previously unreleased material still has to make its transition from ye good ole analogue tape to the digital shelves of my Mac. As soon as everything’s indexed, transformed into mp3 (Sorry for that, Harry: I know you would have preferred Ogg Vorbis for some strange reasons, although I think you just love to have audio data with a file extension that bears resemblance to the name of a mad Klingon high priest!) and thoroughly inspected in terms of aural tolerance, I’ll be putting a reasonable amount of Antichrisis’ early stuff on this website.

In the meantime I’ve received some very nice and interesting emails from Arseny from Moscow and Robert Negut from Bucharest which I haven’t replied to yet: Just a little more patience, guys - as soon as Ayuma and me have returned from our honeymoon, I’ll be returning to you, too.

I’ve also had a few requests for my current top ten which accidently turned into a bloated top sixteen - but that’s personal charting for you:

Soko - I’ll Kill Her
The Killers - When You Were Young
Royksopp: What Else Is there?
Silver Jews: Suffering Jukebox
Flooging Molly - Punch Drunk Grinning Soul
Attila the Stockbroker - And I Wont’ Run Away
The Raveonettes: The Christmas Song
Franz Ferdinand - Walk Away
Jens Lekman - Black Cab
Santogold: Say Aha
Midnight Choir - The Train
Bruce Springsteen - Long Walk Home
The Pack: King Of Kings
The Monks: He Went Down To The Sea
The Thermals: An Ear For Baby
The Mountain Goats: Hast Thou Considered The Tetrapod

1. Cessation of all trade relations between Europe and China
2. Boykott of the Olympic Games 2008 in Peking

It's time for any European politician to show which side we're on: either support a nation's struggle for self-determination and democracy, or forget about freedom and democracy in the name of market globalisation!

Please support campaigns for Free Tibet at http://www.freetibet.org/ or http://www.tibet.org/.

"Teignmouth" - Patrick Wolf
"I'm waking up to us" - Belle & Sebastian
"Turning of the Tide" - Midnight Choir
"Love hurts" - Emmylou Harris & Gram Parsons
"We oh we" - The Hidden Cameras
"Smile at Everyone" - Minor Majority
"Understanding Jane" - Icicle Works
"Balkon gegenüber" - Kettcar
"I lost it" - Lucinda Williams
"One thing" - Runrig
"So called Friend" - Texas
"When you were my Baby" - The Magnetic Fields
"Head on" - Pixies
"Uncertain Times" - The Raveonettes
"Serenade" - Dover
"Goodbye Horses" - Q Lazzarus
"If I told you you were beautiful" - Minor Majority
"I will not forget you" - Sarah McLachlan
"To win just once" - Saw Doctors
"The last Beat of my Heart" - Siouxsie & The Banshees
"Live before you die" - Social Distortion
"Reconsider me" - Moneybrother
"Buried Bones" - Tindersticks
"Neon Moon" - Midnight Choir
"Common People" - William Shatner
"Please don't leave" - The Ramones
"Like a Cannibal" - Mila Mar
"Ode to L.A." - The Raveonettes
"Landungsbrücken raus" - Kettcar
"Come back from San Francisco" - The Magnetic Fields

And don't forget: The limited digipack edition of "A Legacy of Love Mark II" is still available at Playbaker at a bargain price!

In the end there's a quotation of victorian poet Alfred Lord Tennyson that crossed my mind while I was going through recent occurrences:

I hold it true, whate'er befall;
I feel it, when I sorrow most;
'Tis better to have loved and lost
Than never to have loved at all.

Alfred Lord Tennyson (1809 - 1892)
"In Memoriam" (1850)

Best wishes to all of you - and stay tuned!

Life fades away - Roy Orbison
Don’t play that Song (You lied) - Ben E. King
Levi Stubb’s Tears - Billy Bragg
Warning Sign - Coldplay
Brand New Start - Paul Weller
Love is Only a Feeling - The Darkness
Mary’s in India - Dido
With Whom to dance - The Divine Comedy
Duke of Earl - Gene Chandler
Boys of Melody - The Hidden Cameras
Sleep Well Tonight - Inspiral Carpets
Ascension - Kirlian Camera
Du sälde vära hjärtan - Lisa Ekdahl
Pillar of Davidson - Live
The Gift - Midge Ure
Dark Island - Mike Oldfield
Whale - Rescue Mission
Hear My Song - Vernon Midgely
Ring on the Sill - Cowboy Junkies
Until the Morning Comes - Tindersticks
Ciega Sordomuda - Shakira
All My Little Words - The Magnetic Fields
These Arms of Mine - Otis Redding
Shakin’ all over - Johnny Kidd & The Pirates
Say Hello Wave Goodbye - David Gray

That’s all for today - we’ll keep you informed about further developments!