Bitzl R started in September 2010 as a space to share music and videos of immediate interest to myself (Alan Reilly.) Initially it was just a pinboard of artists works, posted with no real context, built using Tumblr purely because the nifty interface. However I quickly got wrapped up in the Tumblr community, taking influence from Yvynyl, Disco Naïveté, Gluttony Is The New Black and La 3e heure! (as well as design and general guidance from my pal Nialler9.) Contextless posts changed to a more filtered approach and over time the site found its own voice. It’s a new music site for sure, but it certainly isn’t specialised. There’s everything from folk to electronica (but never folktronica. No. No. No.) Dubstep posts might be followed by nu-classical. Fanciful imprecise melodies are aired alongside cutting and immediate tunes. There’s indie, lo-fi, experimental, new wave, old school, doo wop, lots of R&B, very little rock and pop always reigns supreme.

The pronunciation isn’t important, but just in case it ever arises in spoken conversation it’s two words, Bit-zel *pause* Or. Bitzl R has no agenda but that’s not to say there’s no objective, or even ambition. It’s a relay of great music that may or may not get promoted otherwise. It’s about living with and in culture (albeit a thin strand,) as opposed to dipping in and out of it. It’s about being informed and embracing what’s current without making any grand statements. Few acts featured will ever fill stadiums or win awards (whatever that measures), a certain few never even make it out of the bedroom. On Bitzl they are all presented in the same artistic light, that illuminating echo.

The site was originally named after a character from the novel Everything is Illuminated by Jonathon Safran Foer. The story charts a journey, discovering the past and shedding light on the present. An emphatic telling of one man’s trip to the town of Trachimbrod in the Ukraine in order to research his grandfather’s life. Bitzl Bitzl R was the gefiltefishmonger of Trachimbrod, that is, he sold gefilte fish to the townspeople. By no means a central character, he played a small but integral part, feeding the town and those that shaped its history.