Various Artists – The Money Will Ruin Everything: Second Edition

Various Artists - The Money Will Ruin Everything: Second Edition

Over the course of this decade the Norwegian label Rune Grammofon has become synonymous with a certain kind of experimental music. I don’t know if there is a good way to categorize it except to say that all of its releases seem “clean” to a certain extent. All of the albums are housed in the same kind of digipak CD cases with artwork by Kim Hiorthøy. The vinyl released by the label is always on very nice slabs of 180 gram goodness.  And regardless of however harsh, noisy, or just plain “out there” some of the music is, there is a certain level of clinical exactitude to it all. This is absolutely not to imply that the music coming from Rune Grammofon artists is in any way stagnant or sterile, in fact it is quite the opposite.

The Money Will Ruin Everything was a compilation initially released in commemoration of the label’s fifth year and paired with a book. It contained tracks from some of the label’s releases up to that point as well as exclusive tracks. This first edition sold out quickly and fetches quite a sum on ebay if you happen to see it there now. So now we come to the compilation’s second edition, released to mark the label’s tenth anniversary. The comp is practically taking stock in the groups that have released or are currently releasing albums on the label: noisy improv group (and personal favorite Rune Grammofon band) Supersilent, the gonzo freakouts of MoHa!, electronic melodies of Phonophani and Alog, the prog of Shining, and the singer songwriter Susanna just to name a few.

Label head Rune Kristofferson is one of the few guys out there holding the torch for the old school business model of vinyl and CDs. In the accompanying interviews with the book included he discusses his reservations about the sound quality of mp3 files and reluctance to participate in a world increasingly heading toward digital releases. Having grown up mostly without the advantage of being able to get anything and everything exactly when I wanted it, I can sympathize with this particular outlook. I will always want to have a physical copy of a release I really enjoy. Kristofferson is putting the time and effort into the Rune Grammofon catalog to ensure that those who invest in his way of doing things get something nice in return. I can only hope that this enables him to continue releasing excellent music for another ten years.