Australian outfit Twelve Foot Ninja have announced that they will be breaking up. As a final gift to fans, the group have released an acoustic album titled Mutant Dreams & Face Transplants: An Acoustic Experience. The effort is available digitally, on vinyl, and as an instrumental via TwelveFootNinja.com. At this time, the album is not available on any streaming service.
Regarding the decision to disband, the group issued a lengthy statement posted to their website. It reads:
EXCITING ANNOUNCEMENT
Here’s a long-overdue update to all our amazing supporters, replete with the ups and downs of an Astro Boy cartoon. On the most positive note: we’re incredibly proud/relieved to announce our latest and, dare we say, most commercially titled, dinner party-friendly album to date;
Mutant Dreams & Face Transplants: An Acoustic Experience.
Importantly, this announcement is not one of those shithouse “BIG NEWS COMING SOON” announcements…It is here, here it is.
THIS ONE IS ALL ABOUT…
Our version of an acoustic experience with some mutant dreams and a couple of face transplants chucked in. 15 tracks mirroring every year we’ve poured our guts into this project, sucked our guts back up and then tipped them out again. You can expect 12 reimagined fan favourites, and three previously unreleased tracks. It’s a mosaic of acoustic szhing-szhongas perfectly complementing a lovely lavender bath bomb, delicious Kit Kat Chunky as the sunsets glow quietly recedes to dusk. Treat yourself. You deserve it.
DIRECT TO YOU
Instead of our now expected-unexpected, ball-mangling, D1 tuned, syncopated riffoptimus-prime fisting a red herring; we’re changing up how we’re getting this music out. In lieu of whacking the full album up on all streaming platforms and getting 20cents…We’re limiting streaming platforms to just 7 tracks for now, with the full kahuna ONLY available directly from us on release. What a contra-bloody-versial-son-of-a-bitch!
STREAMING IN THE WIND
“Why ya doing that?”, we hear you enquirer, well…We’re tired of being musical martyrs investing enormous amounts of time and effort with very little to show for it. A lot of younger bands might not understand this move and remain fixated on landing that elusive golden gonad playlist inclusion…And some “fans” might whip out the ol’ “Get a real job!” chestnut – and unfortunately, they could be right. This isn’t a viable job.
VALUE
It’s essential to note that music fans should never feel guilty for utilising streaming services. These platforms offer unprecedented access to music and facilitate instant, extensive distribution for artists. However, the issue is not with the subscription fees but with how artist income is distributed, predominantly on a pro rata basis. This distribution is often more influenced by the greed of majors than by the streaming services themselves. Fortunately, the industry is in flux, and we are optimistic that a fairer distribution model (such as the User-Centric Model – UCM), may soon emerge. The joy of experiencing music created by fellow humans will always resonate, whereas traditional “industry” practices may soon face their reckoning.
TFN
The current industry dynamics, coupled with the extensive time required to produce our style of music, make it challenging to sustain careers without compromising our well-being or artistic integrity. This is particularly true when continuous touring is not feasible due to family and work commitments necessary to subsidise the demands of the band—a weird, parasitic loop…Now whack on a layer of complicated and often unfavourable industry “norms” onto the viennetta and you wake up one day realising that the squeeze isn’t worth the juice.
PARTING THOUGHTS
On the contrary to some of the vinyl liner notes about peddling forward…We’ve realised we’re no longer riding a bike, it’s just a bit of string with some sticky tape on it. So with a collective deep breath and focus toward the horizon, we’ve decided to lay Twelve Foot Ninja to rest. Remember – every ending is a new beginning, just like Simmo the Greyhound and the Oblong of Life from that movie about the singing pig and dead parents. To keep up with what each of us is diving into next, subscribe to our mailing list and explore the individual profiles linked on our site. Words can hardly capture it all, so here’s our sentiment in internet hieroglyphics: ️
