Version 6

First off.. If you are still seeing the old version of R4NT, update your bookmarks to www.r4nt.com (not www.r4nt.com/v5).

After 2 months or so of complete insanity, we've launched the completely re-written, revisted, re-done version of R4NT. I wanted to quickly go through some of the large changes:

The Logo. After 5 years with the completely unreadable, yet much appreciated logo, it was time for change. I've fought with a new design for many years, and have always come up with something that I didn't quite like. Thus one weekend after going out for a huge Nellies breakfast, Ian and I cramed ourselfs in my appartment and hashed out over a hundred variations of the logo. The main goal was to produce something fresh/cool that would improve the legability of the brand. Burning Hot. Nice work Ian.

The new Publication system. We've moved away from monthly releases, and have gone with a more frequent publication schedual. The original goal is to have weekly releases, but I'm sure we'll have our regular up and downs. Thus I'd highly suggests subscribing to the RSS feed, and you can get instant notifications of new articles.

Also the new site has been completely re-written in Ruby on Rails, which has been a very interesting learning experience for me. Prior to starting developement on V6 the site was completely written in PHP, and only the past 2 volumns have been stored in a database. I had to make some adjustments to the existing database schema to accomodate the new format, but after weeks of coding and tweaking I've managed to get most things working. One of the coolest things to checkout is the new Archive sections where you can sort through the last few years of content (we're adding the older issues slowly). You can sort by date, author, category and of course ye' old faithful issue/volume.

Design. Let's just say.. Less filler, more goodness. The blog section has been totally stripped out of the homepage, since well.. It's completely different content. Oh.. and HUGE photos are replacing the gallery. Granted you may see some photographic articles in the near future.

Content. More of less the same, however I believe we'll see a spike in the quality since there is no more looming deadline. Also expect fresher content (again due to the new system). Also, I've started a new segment called R4NT Radio, to replace the old written segments such as "Hot New Music". Also expect more video related content (hint hint, we've recently interviewd Kid Koala, but it's still being cut together).

Lastly. I'm headed to Austria at the end of this week to go cover one of the largest musical festivals of the year, "SpringSix". The festival is held in Graz, and there will be artists such as, Coldcut, Felix da Housecat, Nick Matthews, Jesper Dahlbeck, and about another hundred or so DJ's, producers and MC's. It's going to a freaking blast. Stay tuned for many updates, and expect to see some interviews coming up in future installments.

Phew. That's about it in a nutshell.