Two decades later, the London based dance culture magazine that covered everything from the noodliest of Jazz to the noodliest of Detroit Techno is to shut down its print operations.

Like many mags of recent times the popularity and downright functionality of the web as THE place to get up to the second info on new tracks, scenes and so on, has taken its toll on their sales and after some soul searching and hardcore economics it seems that it will be become an entirely web based operation.

Lucky for them, the spotted this a while ago and have a well set up website as a springboard for their future.

Heres what the editor Paul Bradshaw has to say:

Straight No Chaser: Interplanetary Sounds - Ancient to Future

Letter from the editor/publisher

Greetings to Chaser's universal friends and family

This summer will see the last edition of Straight No Chaser as we've all known it. Since the "Summer Of Love" in '88 and those inspirational, post-warehouse party, Talking Loud & Saying Something sessions at Dingwalls we have held true to the Freedom Principle that we defined in Issue No.1. Chaser has consistently provided a creative, spiritual and cultural hub around which a host of like minded souls around the world have vibed, interacted and created their own thriving, highly individual scenes and music. In order to continue doing this we have, at different times over the past 12 months, gathered together the posse - friends and family, musicians, producers, DJs, visual/graphic artists, film makers and readers - to discuss the current role of Straight No Chaser magazine in the current creative and cultural climate and how we should respond the continued digitalisation of the industry and the expectations of the Myspace generation. At times our conversations have been heated but they have always been rooted in positivity and based on a genuine wealth of experience. The outcome of all these discussions is that in an age of instant information we should go deeper, more cultural, more artistic... more radical... and to do this we need to get off the production treadmill and initiate a new era of Straight No Chaser.

It's not going to be easy, but we love a challenge, we're fired up creatively plus we know there's a lot of love out there for Chaser, so you can expect us to call on your support to pull this off.

Initially, we plan to step up and extend our interactive web presence - which to our shame we've pretty much neglected (apart from Chris T's tremendous efforts on the Chaser Myspace!). The aim is to continue to maintain our unique and ongoing relationship with that wealth of global talent consistently producing music both in those home studios and live onstage. This will coincide with the Chaser crew raiding our substantial archive. Firstly, we will negotiate to produce a visually chunky, slamming, globally distributed book that reflects the journey so far. Secondly, the archive will fuel a serious exhibition of graffix, photography and illustration. Personally, I can't wait to see this done - we know that it will blow people's minds from Rio to Tokyo. And then... we'd like to do the Chaser "specials". What format they will take? I really don't know but, more than likely they will be limited editions, deep 'n' phunky, sold via the web and selected hip outlets and highly collectable. However, don't expect us to vanish into a mist of retro pre-occupations. While we will always celebrate our roots into the past, where as Sun Ra said, "History is his story, Mystery is my story!", we remain essentially committed to working with those people around the world actively creating those bright moments that make for a better world.

Right now, we are working overtime at our Hackney HQ to come with a final, blazing, edition of Chaser. We want all our advertisers to get busy and book space in the mag! It's out in mid August and will unrepentantly celebrate our achievements so far with selections made by Swifty, Mitch, Gilles P, Ross Allen et al. It will dish up a couple wikkidly unique and fresh photo stories and one deep NYC piece courtesy of Andy Thomas And finally, it will drop an in yo' face boundary bustin' celebration of all the people... artists, musicians, writers, poets and players... who the Chaser crew worldwide predict will be actively shaping our future. It will be LARGE.

Check the Brownswood message board crew's forum to see how you as an individual contribute to us resolving some of our debts by penning a "big up" in the final mag.

So, to the community out there- London, NYC, Berlin, Philly, Havana, Dakar, Osaka, LA, Tokyo, Bari, San Francisco, Paris, Rome, Atlanta, Lagos, Munich, Amsterdam, Sao Paulo, Rio De Janeiro, Detroit, Singapore, Cape Town, Sydney, Leeds, Glasgow... need I go on? Join us in this celebration - the Freedom Principle in action!

Best wishes & maximum respect.

Paul Bradshaw

(Straight No Chaser: Editor+ Publisher )

Taken from the SNC forum here

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Tayor @ 13 Sep 2007 9:42

was a quality quality mag