I was looking for a pretty specific kind of image for this post, something like a huge black and white dragon, straight from the crudest American heroïc fantasy, sitting atop a massive pile of broken records, some shiny CDs at the top, some very old crumbling blackish 78s at the bottom, the dragon holding some in his claws, tail glistening among the shiniest discs, mouth wide open like the very Compass of Life & Death. I couldn't find anything remotely like that, and this failure, at 3.30 am, shattered yet another pillar of universal truth: Google doesn't have the dragon game on lock.

I wanted to write about some of the demos we get, which is apparently something you're not supposed to do "in the business". In a general way. I don't know, even though I think it can be pretty healthy to name names sometimes, a demo is a private communication. Plus I just want to state some very obvious things, in a most humble way (now that I don't have the fucking dragon).

1. We get lots of demos. Demos make us happy.
   
2. There are two types of demos: myspace demos/non-myspace demos. "Myspace demos" mostly originate from myspace. I.e: there are myspace demos that have nothing to do with myspace, we get them in the mail, in the INS inbox, etc. These demos are of the no -hello-no-nothing variety. Myspace makes it very easy to just beam your music to tons of innocent bystanders, hence we get more of these on myspace, hence the cute nickname. We love myspace, by the way, and do not, repeat: do not think less of a track we get from myspace. Provided it's not wrapped in a myspace demo.
   
3. We listen to all the non-myspace demos. And to most of the myspace demos. Complete disclosure: most of the time not all the way through. Sorry.
4. We try to respond to all the enquiries. It takes time, we're broke busy and slow and broke busy. By the way: if you sent us a demo a while ago and didn't get an answer, please write and ask what's up.
   
5. We are a French label, even though I'm writing in English right now, for some unscrutable reason. So why do French artists send us cover letters and emails in English? There's something sad and dark here, deep in the cave. I know, bad copy and paste job, they send the same thing to tons of labels, I know. Those are pretty easy to spot. I'm talking about the custom ones, where they talk about Institubes and obviously know about Institubes. And they're French. And they write in English. And I won't comment on their command of the language. So, people, why? Amis de France, le français va très bien. Parlez-nous français parfois.
6. We're not looking for the next Para One, Surkin, TTC or Justice. A huge chunk of what we get is owned in some way either by our own artists, either by our friends. We won't steal from them, will we? This bassline, you know the one, right? We love it as much as you do, but we can't and won't release more vehicles for this bassline, sorry.
   
7. We actually sign people from out-of-nowhere demos. Das Glow dropped unannounced in our inbox.
   

I'm forgetting something. There will be a second instalment then, methinks. Please send real, legitimate, hardcore dragons with your demos.