Welcome to Bliss/Aquamarine - an alternative, underground and indie music website.

For those that don't yet know me, I'm Kim Harten and I'm a music fan now based in Bromsgrove, UK, after living in Redditch for some years, and then in Birmingham for a couple of years. On this page I will explain what Bliss and Aquamarine are, and attempt to answer some of the questions I'm often asked.

WHAT IS BLISS, AND WHAT STYLES OF MUSIC DO YOU SPECIALISE IN?
Bliss is a non-profit tape label started in 1993 to help promote music I personally like. There's an overall emphasis on indiepop and noisepop, but it also ventures into other melodic genres such as indie-rock, punk-pop, spacerock, psychedelic, progressive, folk, folk-rock and various other styles which are less easy to categorise.

The label was started in the days when many tape labels were extremely lo-fi and included a lot of messy, unprofessional music/noise, and because of this tape labels had a bad name. I wanted to change their reputation and instead release tuneful, well-recorded music. A lot of people have commented on how they found the sound quality, and quality of the music itself, superior to other tape labels. There have since been a few more lo-fi (but melodic!) artists featured on the tapes, on occasions when I feel that the song itself is so good that it shines through the lo-tech recording, but there isn't that much extremely lo-fi stuff on Bliss. This isn't to say I'm against homemade songs and out to alienate those that record at home - I have released a lot of material by home recording artists. It is possible to make a more than acceptable quality recording at home. The sort of thing I have a problem with is lo-fi in its extremest form; music recorded on a 2nd hand cassette, where the tapehiss drowns out the song, and the sort of messy, random experimentation that even a five year old could make.

WHY HAVEN'T YOU TURNED BLISS INTO A CDR LABEL, AS CDRS ARE CHEAPER NOW?
Partly it's to do with a lack of money, and also inconvenience. I have over eighty tapes out and it would be a complete nightmare to remaster every single one! My hi-fi equipment is nowhere near the computer I use, and it would be impractical to move it, so using a computer-based CDR writer is out of the question, and I can't afford to buy one of those CDR writers that's a hi-fi separate. I've been running Bliss as a tape label for years now and have grown to love the whole 'tapes' thing. As mentioned above, one of the ideas of starting Bliss was to prove that tape labels can release good quality music, and for this to continue, it has to continue being a TAPE label.

AND WHAT'S AQUAMARINE?
Running alongside Bliss is Aquamarine fanzine, in which I tell people about music I like on other labels. Now and again there'll be the occasional review of something I'm not so keen on but there's an overall positive emphasis, as I prefer to write about what I think is good. Much of the music covered is on DIY and small independent labels because a) in general, I prefer uncommercial music and b) this sort of music needs exposure as the big press give little or no coverage to it and even some fanzines ignore it. Aquamarine is not one of those "indier-than-thou" fanzines though - if I like something on a big label I'll write about that too. I don't like to limit myself to just one type of music and would rather judge music on how it sounds, not what label it's on or what scene it's from. After doing 20 paper issues of Aquamarine, I decided to make it a webzine. Click here for issues 21 and 22 (complete) and 23 (in progress). Many of the articles from the paper issues appear in the archive section, and I hope to add more in the future.

HOW CAN I GET ON A BLISS TAPE?
Anyone interested in submitting material for possible inclusion on a Bliss tape (no cover versions please), email me here. The formats I accept are CD, tape and vinyl. I can't pay you for being on the tapes due to the non-profit nature of Bliss, but I will be able to send you a copy of the finished compilation.
UPDATE - Volume 129 looks to be the last tape, for a while at least. Therefore I will no longer be accepting submissions for compilations for the foreseeable future. Should this change, I will announce the news on this page. Existing tapes will be kept available; I am just taking a (possibly permanent) break from releasing new ones. Please see the 'out soon' page for more details on why Bliss looks to be coming to an end.

I CAN'T SEEM TO FIND AN ADDRESS ON YOUR SITE...
There isn't one. If you need to send me anything through the post please email me and I'll let you know where to send it.

DO ARTISTS ON BLISS TAPES STILL OWN THEIR COPYRIGHT?
The answer is yes, and if the artist wants to use the same track(s) on another release they are free to do so.

DO YOU JUST PROMOTE BANDS FROM YOUR LOCAL AREA?
No, I promote bands from all over the world.

DO YOU SIGN BANDS, PUT BANDS INTO A STUDIO, OR REQUIRE STAFF?
I've had a few emails from people who seem under the mistaken impression that Bliss is a business-based label with an A&R department ... this is not the case. As already explained above, it's a DIY setup run solely by myself. I don't sign bands, just help to promote music I like. If you're looking for a label that's going to pay you millions, this is not the label for you, but if DIY tape labels are your scene, you've come to the right place!

Some people who don't know about the DIY music scene have contacted me expressing a wish to be on a tape, but they have assumed that I will put them in a studio. This is not how underground tape labels work, as they operate on a much smaller scale than 'proper' record labels and cannot afford to do such a thing. All the music on Bliss tapes has already been recorded by the band/artist, either at home or in a studio.

Basically, Bliss is just a hobby; it takes up practically all my spare time, but is still a hobby nonetheless. Because of this I am not looking for staff, producers, session musicians, or anything else that 'proper' record labels may need, so please don't send me emails asking if I can give you a job!

CAN BEING ON BLISS LEAD TO INTEREST FROM OTHER LABELS?
Although Bliss is just a small-scale setup, there have been occasions when being on a Bliss tape has led to interest from other labels - eg Ways Of Stephen got a single out on Winter Cow Recordings of Finland and an appearance on a compilation CD from Meller Welle Produkte of Germany as a direct result of their Bliss tape; Karina ESP appeared on an Airborne Virus compilation CD as a result of being on a Bliss compilation; and Mother Goose got signed to Seriously Groovy Music Ltd after they appeared on a Bliss comp alongside Seriously Groovy band No Wings Fins Or Fuselage. Mother Goose were impressed with No Wings' material so contacted Seriously Groovy and the rest is history! I can't promise that being on Bliss will automatically lead to further exposure, but you never know.

HOW ARE THE TAPES PROMOTED AND DISTRIBUTED?
Promotion is through this website, through flyers sent through the underground music network, and on occasions, mentions on other people's websites and in other people's fanzines. More recently there was an article on Bliss/Aquamarine in the nationally-distributed music magazine Get Rhythm.

As for distribution, I'm the sole distributor at the moment. I have dealt with distros in the past but was messed around and ripped off on a couple of occasions, so have been wary of dealing with them since. If you are from a reputable mailorder distro and are interested in distributing the tapes, get in touch. I can only sell copies of the tapes for the distros to then sell, not supply distros with a master tape for them to make copies from (which would be a copy of my own master tape). By copying from copies there will be a loss of sound quality - as hinted at earlier, I'm pretty fussy about sound quality, and many of the bands also wouldn't be too pleased if their songs are being distributed in lesser quality. Please note that I can only accept payment up front, and in UK pounds.

CAN YOU ARRANGE FOR MY BAND TO PLAY LIVE IN YOUR AREA?
I personally am not involved with gig promotion, but there are links to local gig organisers and venues on the links page.

HAVE YOU LISTENED TO MY CD YET? WHEN WILL YOU BE REVIEWING IT?
Please be patient with me. There is only me running Bliss/Aquamarine, and I get sent hundreds of CDs and tapes, so it takes me a while to get around to listening to/reviewing everything. By all means, email me to check if the CD has arrived in the post, but please don't keep on emailing me asking when I'll be reviewing it, as I won't yet know. If I've promised a review, I'll let you know when the review has been added to the site.

I SENT YOU A CD A WHILE AGO & YOU SAID YOU'D REVIEW IT, BUT I CAN'T SEE IT ON YOUR SITE.
As with the question above, please be patient with me. Realistically, it does take several months for things to get reviewed (usually, anyway). I am not lazy, I am committed to music, but I have a huge workload so things can take a while to get done. There is only me running this and I have to do the following - Listen to music. Review music. Add reviews/articles to the website. Answer emails. Answer letters. Go to post office. Compile tapes. Copy tapes. Put together tape covers and flyers. Not to mention all the usual day to day stuff I have to do that's not connected with Bliss/Aquamarine.
I know it can be frustrating to wait for reviews, but if it's any consolation, you will find that many well-established zines that are run by just the one person take the same sort of time to get reviews done because they are sent a large volume of review materials and have other commitments besides their zines.
Please do not keep bombarding me with questions about when I'm going to review your stuff. I will let you know when I have done.

IMPORTANT CHANGES TO SUBMISSION GUIDELINES FOR AQUAMARINE, AS OF 21 MAY 2003:
At the moment I am sent far too much music than I have time to deal with. I didn't want to have to put restrictions on who can send me stuff to review because I'm very much into music and didn't want to miss out on anything. However, the backlog of CDs to review is building up all the time and I really can't review things as quickly as I'd like to. After much thinking I have decided that I will no longer be accepting review items from new contacts. I hate to do this as ideally I want Aquamarine to be open to anyone who wants to send music for review, but unfortunately this is no longer practical. I do not, however, want to miss out on releases from my regular contacts - if you have sent me music before and you know that I like it, please feel free to continue sending your music for review in Aquamarine. If I like your music then I want to keep on promoting it! I figured that if only my regular contacts send material, the amount of stuff to review will be more manageable. Once the backlog has gone down, I will be able to start accepting submissions from new contacts again - watch this space!

WHEN WILL THE TAPE WITH MY SONG(S) ON BE OUT?
Tapes are released as soon as they are finished; some can take a few weeks to get done, others can take months. You can check the progress of tapes by visiting the out soon page, which lists all the bands on a tape so far. You will be sent a copy of the tape whenever it's ready.

A COUPLE OF OTHER BITS ABOUT THIS SITE:
As well as being the Bliss/Aquamarine site, I also intend this site to be a source of information on my favourite bands The Sea Urchins and Delta, who I must stress have no connection to Bliss but I want to write about them as I'm a fan.

There have been times when emails sent to me have either bounced or gone astray completely. Please try emailing me again if you have been unsuccessfully trying to contact me. Please note that I do not accept email attachments - any unsolicited emails with attachments will be deleted.

IMPORTANT UPDATE ON EMAIL ADDRESS (31st March 2004):
I was previously under the impression that I would no longer be able to receive mail at kim@blissaquamarine.net, but in fact I still can do, I just can't send mail using this address. The kim.harten@btopenworld.com address that I was using recently will be out of action soon, so please do not email me at this address as I won't receive the mails. For those of you who have the address k.harten@totalise.co.uk, this is also no longer valid. Could you please continue emailing me at kim@blissaquamarine.net - I will be able to reply using an alternative address (which I've decided not to publish on here in the hope of minimising spam).

UPDATE ON POST GOING MISSING (24th October 2004):
Recently there have been quite a lot of things sent to me at the c/o address in Redditch that I normally use, which have not got to me. Seems there is a thieving postman at work. If you have sent me something and do not know whether I have received it, please contact me to check.
If you are one of my regular contacts who sends me review material frequently, please contact me for an alternative address to use, as I just don't trust the postmen in Redditch any more.

UPDATE: SITE BACK UP & RUNNING AT LAST! ALSO NEW EMAIL ADDRESS (January 2007):
I had been unable to update the site for around 2 or 3 months due to reasons way beyond my control. The web hosting company I used to be with were having serious problems and I was unable to carry out any updates. I have now moved to another hosting company, so hopefully things will be back to normal again soon. Stay tuned for more reviews shortly!
Also, I have changed my personal email address yet again - please do not use the one at plus.com as this will be out of action soon. Please continue to use the blissaquamarine email address to contact me; as mentioned above I can reply using another address which I do not advertise on the internet in the hope of reducing spam.