:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Monday, March 01, 2010 ::

MP3, er, Monday

I'm on holiday, what do you expect. I've got a house to paint.

"The latest instalment of Skip to the End is now available at www.thejuxtaposition.co.uk/skiptotheend.html
I'm afraid it's a bit **** so be careful about when and where you listen to it.
Pete"
[55MB MP3 & tracklist on webpage]

More Braindance Podcasts

"Jazari is essentially an automated, electromechanical percussion ensemble, controlled using two Nintendo Wii controllers. It consists of a MacBook, a bunch of Arduino boards and a room full of drums fitted with solenoids and motors, and software written in MAX and Java which parses input from the Wii controls and plays the drums. The software is also capable of improvising with the human operator, by imitating, riffing off and mutating what he plays.

"Jazari was developed by a guy named Patrick Flanagan, who had been playing around with algorithmic composition, only to discover that people don't want to hear about algorithms, but do want to see a good live show. Anyway, here there are two videos: one of a Jazari performance (think robot samba float, conducted by a guy waving Wiimotes around; the music has a distinctly Afro-Brazilian feel to it), and one of Flanagan explaining how it works."
[Text via Null Device]

Worth watching for the eyebrows alone:


New Polar Bear album is out now! Samples on Boomkat.
Also new Monster X download EP, although I'm holding out for teh rumoured vinyl release of this.
Also need to get my ears around The Mount Fuji Doomjazz Corporation CD asap

FACT magazine:
"Autechre have recorded our 122nd exclusive FACT mix. Autechre. Do we really need to explain who they are?"






Introducing the WRONGAMIN noise maker. (via leafcutter)

Disigned and built by Leafcutter John. Full schematic at http://www.leafcutterjohn.com

The Wrongamin is an excellent, easy to build sound maker that can create a range of sounds. From crackles not unlike the sound of a dusty old record to a deep hungry animal growl heard through several out of control AM radios.

Bonus: Anti-paedophilia protest reggae

Labels: Electronic Music, MP3

:: Dan 1.3.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Unsound Festival Artists Predict the Future of Electronic Music
There are some good observations and ideas in here. For example:

Petre Inspirescu: "There should be a long discussion on this subject. I think the future is always bright and electronic music will be more diverse and experimental as we evolve. Promoters play a very important role in this because they have the opportunity to enlarge the perspective of audience’s by organizing more artistic events to educate the people."

Jacaszek: "Trends are changing with no mercy. To keep this artistic balance, innovation should not dominate our creative thinking. To do something original now, we should, rather, take from what’s close to us (local tradition, the deepness of our souls) and then express that with contemporary artistic language."

Newworldaquarium: "That’s one of the big questions in life! [Looking back to] punk, it became clear that you didn’t need an education to play music, and with house and techno it seemed you didn’t have to have a band either. With electronic music today, I guess you don’t even need an instrument anymore, and maybe some day writing a piece of music will be as common as writing something for your blog or a Facebook status-update. For me, it somehow has always been like that."

Mike Huckaby: "My motto is this: Always do what your peers cannot, and will not, do. If you adhere to this, you will always [be able to] reinvent yourself."

There's more on the link above.

Labels: Electronic Music

:: Dan 15.2.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

/mode +v noise, the ever expanding ASCII based music platform

I saw the /mode +v noise installation by GOTO10 at the Arnolfini earlier today and loved it. Use the IRC link (remember that?) to listen in real time and influence the generative score.

It was made using Puredyne



Puredyne is aimed at creative people, looking for tools outside the standard. It provides the best experimental creative applications alongside a solid set of graphic, audio and video tools in a fast, minimal package. For everything from sound art to innovative filmmaking.

Puredyne is optimised for use in realtime audio and video processing. It distinguishes itself by offering a low latency kernel and the high responsiveness needed by artists working in this field.

Puredyne is based on Ubuntu and Debian Live. All packages provided by Puredyne can be used if you are running this flavour of GNU/Linux. Use, share, copy, modify, join the development team or fork :)

Software highlights

audio

puredata, supercollider, csound, chuck, ladspa plugins, ardour, audacity, ecasound, …

graphics

gimp, inkscape, fluxus, freej, processing + extras, imagemagick, gthumb, gphoto2, …

multimedia

mplayer, vlc, avidemux, kino, mencoder, transcode, luvcview, xawtv, recordmydesktop, …

streaming

icecast2, ices2, ffmpeg2theora, oggfwd, darkice, darksnow, gstreamer, dvswitch, …

network

firefox, links2, network-manager, wireless-tools, ssh, telnet, gftp, irssi, nfs, …

devel

gcc, make, patchutils, subversion, mercurial, bzr, emacs-goodies-el, java jdk, python, …

…and much more.

Labels: Art, Electronic Music, FOSS, Music

:: Dan 21.1.10 [Arc] [1 comments] ::
...

Buy this track to support Amnesty

Portishead have released a brand new track - 'Chase the Tear' for Amnesty International.

It's now available as an exclusive download single from 7 digital with all earnings going towards our human rights work.

First aired on Zane Lowe's BBC Radio 1 show on 9 December, the track is out just in time for international human rights day on 10 December.

And if you were wondering - 'Chase the Tear' is a reference to a paper tear-style 'tear', not a tear from an eye!

Labels: Amnesty, Bristol, Electronic Music

:: Dan 10.12.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Clearing out some files recently I stumbled across my response to this survey of electronic musicians. Rereading my answers I noticed a change in the way I would respond that has developed over the last year.

When asked, “What is your main reference? (melody, texture, rhythm, sounds, etc)” I previously responded “Probably rhythm” and whilst that is still an important part of what I do I would say my priority is now texture. The live improvised laptopless performance I have moved towards definitely uses the layering of different textures of sound to build up a piece.

I can trace this trend back further and part of me is surprised I said rhythm is recently as a year ago. Guess I was DJing a lot more then.

Other changes would be more synthesis than re-sampling now, and more live improvisation rather than prepared jamming tools, which was always a goal so I’m glad I’ve made the jump.

Labels: Electronic Music

:: Dan 7.12.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Tim Exile's Reaktor effects ensemble has been cleaned up by Native and is now available for purchase.
Thanks to blackelmo for pointing this out.
"I'm not that crazy about NI's "free" Kore player so I just loaded the ensemble into Reaktor. I do think it's a better sounding and more fun to use solution for live performance than some of the other effects like Effectrix or even Ableton's beat repeat."

"Should come with a warning 'please mash responsibly'"

Labels: Electronic Music, Instruments

:: Dan 18.9.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

On Sunday 20th Sept, Arnolfini and Bristol festival will be hosting an afternoon of free workshops, focusing on state-of-the-art tools for interactive, audio and visual media. Practicing artists will be running through some simple projects you can do and will be sharing some of their tips and tricks.

The timetable is:

11:00 - 12:30 - After Effects

13:30 - 15:00 - Max MSP

15:30 - 17:00 - Circuit Bending

The workshops are open to all on a first come first serve basis.
If you are interested, send an email to makebreakbeat@hotmail.com stating your experience and which workshops you would like to attend.
Please help us circulate this email to anyone who might be interested in this event.

Many thanks

Jamie

Labels: Art, Bending, Electronic Music, Visuals

:: Dan 15.9.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

In the latest in our occasional series on unusually specialist magazines found laying around in the office kitchen, we now present Building Sustainable Design.

Which this month includes a though provoking article on the current assumption that buildings can be built for a 25 year life span and how this can no longer stack up financially or environmentally, an interview with Lucy Pedler of Bristol based sustainable architecture practice Achipeleco on why she “had hoped that the recession would be more catastrophic,” and a brilliant article on “What termites can teach us about natural ventilation in small buildings.”



Following from this there is of course next weeks Pestival, which Stewart Lee fans will probably already be aware of from his 41st Greatest Stand-up routine. Comedy at the insect themed festival is provided by Robin Ince along with many other fasinating insect based art projects from the Termite Pavilion to broadcasts from Resonance FM and workshops from The Art of Being a Maggot to Praying Mantis Kung Fu. Sadly I can't make any of this, but I'm most upset missing out on Cross Pollination, where “Internationally acclaimed sound recordist for BBC’s Life in the Undergrowth and original member of Cabaret Voltaire, Chris Watson, curates an evening of experimental insect music.”

Due to a family wedding I was also unable to attend Chris Watson's workshop at UWE last weekend, and I forgot to blog about it in advance, but there are still some events to go on the STAGING SOUND 2.0 programme, including the Dorkbot Bristol Sound Hack followed by Guerilla Busking in Bath this Saturday.

Back on an environmental footing, various national media have picked up on the “living wall that died” in Islington. Most of the press have hung the story off of the waste-of-public-money angle rather than the technical issues with the failed watering system / learning experience / maybe the odd weather we've had? There most be an engineer somewhere mopping a sweaty brow as that one passes over. Either that or (s)he will be saying “I told you so.” A year or so ago I'd've worried that this would lead to a cut in spending on environmental projects but in the current financial and political climate I know it's going to get cut anyway regardless of previous successes or failures. Not good times.

Labels: architecture, Bending, Economy, Electronic Music, Environment, Insects, News, Politics, Sustainability

:: Dan 26.8.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Heya! It's been some time. I know I may have thrown you the odd scrap of music now and again but that old spark, it just hasn't been there lately has it. I know you have other places to hang out. I hope you understand what a death in the family has done here. But it's great to meet up again, have a drink, chew that fat, catch up on what we would have been chatting shit about if other events hadn't conspired against us.

Did I tell you I attended the BLDGBLOG book launch last week?

[v.o.g.: You mentioned you were going]

Ah, well, I did. And not only did I get a great book out of it, not only did I meet with and chat with Geoff Manaugh, whose a really inspiring guy, not only is there a photo floating around flickr of me sat at the same table as Warren Ellis (I didn't realise that at the time, I was distracted by the woman with him), but I've also come away with some blog based inspiration.

In the introduction to the book Geoff explains that when he started BLDGBLOG he decided that he wasn't going to pour concerns and negativity into it, it would just be for stuff that interested him. Things that made him think, gave him ideas, starting points for flights of fancy. I like that philosophy. I may try to take it on to some degree.


[source here via here]

So what else has caught my fancy?


Shots taken on Czechoslovakia - East border of the eastern German state security (Stasi)
[via www.ustrcr.cz]
Found in the Vice Magazine photography special, which is out now.

Its good to know that The American President is an Ass Man, Apparently

"But seriously, is this not one of the best presidential photographs of all-time? Even Sarkozy looks like he's sneaking a peek, though he's French, so we expect him to do it. However, in Obama's defense, that is a great ass!"

"Solicitors for the National Portrait Gallery are apparently threatening legal action against a US Wikipedia user for downloading 3,300 digital photographs of paintings in the UK museum's collection, and then uploading them to Wikipedia."
[via clayton cubitt]

Cauty - Julie Andrews tip in the Nude magazine sale


Codex Sinaiticus - Home The ‘Draft for Comment’ version of the Bible

Rumours of a Dr Who film

There, I Fixed It

6 Intriguingly Shaped Communities As Seen On Google Maps

My Pinhole camera experiments


"Patti Smith is one of the most anticipated gigs of the week, and the audience the most vocal. … joined by SMZ leader Efrim Menuck on drums and Portishead’s Adrian Utley, who attacks a guitar with a paintbrush to spooky effect."
Festival review: Ornette Coleman’s Meltdown, Southbank Centre, London SE1 | Music | The Observer
I mentioned this to Leafcutter John, wondering if he was aware Ade was at the Polar Bear gig where John had used the same paintbrush trick a few months back. His response was a spirited "Ah, but did he do it better?"

Stylophone Beatbox

Pre-order here

Open Source TIC - ePetition response | Number10.gov.uk
"The Government supports the principle that, where new software is being developed by the Timely Information to Citizens pilots, this should wherever possible be released under open source licence and available for use by other local authorities. ... Where the pilots will result in new software tools, ownership and intellectual property rights will usually remain with the individual local authorities"
Is this not a contradiction?

‘Ghost village’ to be demolished

"A village built in Argyll to meet the demands of the UK oil boom of the 1970s but abandoned without ever being occupied is set for a new role." [video link]

Stuff you've missed on the tumblr
* a whole bunch of new photographers discoveries
* shoes by architects
* a bunch of LEGO stuff inc jewellery, USB sticks and giant Star Wars models
* London Underground Map print dress
* Geek guide to shoe lacing
* The Battleships drinking game

I've also just discovered that Blogger is limited to 20 tags per post.

So what have you been up to? How are things?

Labels: Art, blogs, Copyright, Electronic Music, Flickr, FOSS, History, Instruments, IP, Law, Literature, Maps, Music, Petitions, Photography, Politics, Privacy, Religion, Sci-Fi, Wiki

:: Dan 14.7.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Stuff I've found recently but haven't found time to write about:

Roomba, Economics and Long-Exposure Photography

Edit: Thanks to Tania for sending this iRobot Create Roomba hack link.

Dream: The Big Art Project
Watch the C4 series on Sunday evenings

New Scientist: You are made of space-time

BCS vs Singh - Astonishingly Illiberal Ruling

Behind the label: Recycled Toilet Tissue

BBC5 TV
"We are NOT the BBC. In an era when the majority of media corporations are subservient to ruling elites, new forms of underground media have to emerge. BBC5.tv would not exist if journalists were always allowed to publish the truth. The fact is that many are silenced."

Newsnight – Immigration Song Contest

BLDG BLOG:
Man unexcited by his own possessions
How the other half writes - In defence of Twitter
The Hills Have Eyes



Bacon is a health food!

Richie Hawtin's 10 most ridiculous ideas

Labels: architecture, Art, Electronic Music, Environment, Food, Gadget, Humour, Law, Photography, Physics

:: Dan 16.5.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Grom says:
"It doesn't get geekier than this
Honestly, outputting the contents of your hard drive to your speakers has to be one of the simplest and geekiest things I've ever heard of. A simple command and ambient/industrial music/noise is there for the sampling. this one's specifically for you DanP"
Thanks mate! I'll be trying that out for sure!

Also via grom:
Hairdresser turned would be robber into boy toy
I'm now considering a change of occupation.

Labels: Audio, Computing, Electronic Music, Humour, Noise

:: Dan 16.4.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

"Simple sinewave synthesizer triggered by an ordinary 16step sequencer. Each triggered step causes a force on the underlaying wave-map, which makes it more cute.Based on the AudioTool engine thus no sources, I am sorry.Press SPACE key to clear. Right-Click for Copy&Paste."

Labels: Electronic Music, Instruments

:: Dan 12.4.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

There is a pattern to my blogging here that shows that every time I buy an actual hard copy of a newspaper I blog about half a dozen stories out of it I may otherwise never have stumbled upon. This is no exception, here are my picks from Thursday's Guardian:

British therapists still offer treatments to 'cure' homosexuality
"Survey suggests a significant minority of mental health professionals continue to provide treatments to gay men and lesbians despite no evidence they can change orientation and concerns they are harmful...One counsellor who is a member of the British Psychological Society said: "Although homosexual feelings are usual in people, their physical expression, and being a person's only way of having sexual relations is problematic. The physical act for male homosexuals is physically damaging and is the main reason in this country for Aids/HIV. It is also perverse.""
This is outrageous. It can be criticised, if not demolished, from so many different angles I don't think I need to point that out. It's like a throw back to the 50s, when our society lost great minds like Turing because of it's backwards treatment of sexuality. From some of the quotes in the article there are, to me, some scary signs of counsellors forcing their personal (probably 2000 year old religious based beliefs) on people. These practitioners should not be allowed to "help" people again.

Are women doing better or worse in IT since Ada Lovelace?

Why not let the security services spy on Twitter? It's not like they'll learn anything from it

Getty Images now licensing hand-picked Flickr photos

Google's would be watchdogs are distracted by its chew toys

Vintage sound chips? They are music to my ears
Chip tunes goes mainstream?

E-government survey urges councils to free data

"Never mind the recession - Lego is now so popular that there are 62 little coloured blocks for every person on the planet. Yet only five years ago this family business was on the brink of ruin. Jon Henley reports from the Danish town where it all began"

Labels: Electronic Music, Feminism, Flickr, gay, Google, IT, Lego, News, Photography, Politics, Retro, Secuirty, web 2.0

:: Dan 28.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

John says:

Just before I head out on tour with Polar Bear I want to let you know that the files are now up for the Remix Competition.

Included in the download you’ll find all the stems from the MicroSong ‘Big Black Eyes’
They are encoded as good quality MP3’s.

Your job is to make a fantastic remix using whatever tools are at your disposal.

There are a few simple rules:

1. You have until 30th April to complete your Remix and send it to me in MP3 form. There are no restrictions on style. The email address to send your entry is included with the download package. DO NOT, I REPEAT DO NOT SEND: AIFF, WAV, or an uncompressed files!

2. You may add your own sound sources but please retain some of the originals or it’s not really a re-mix is it? You may chop, mangle, distress, sew, dilute, boil down amongst other treatments.

3. There will be one winner chosen by Leafcutter John and the winner will receive a very special prize, or a CD or something not too difficult to post. Winners will be announced as soon as possible after all the entries have been heard.

Depending on how many entries we get, we’ll try and put all the remixes up at leafcutterjohn.com

Don't forget, Polar Bear on tour, Bristol gig at the Arnolfini on April 3rd.

Labels: Competition, Electronic Music, LeafcutterJohn, Remix

:: Dan 24.3.09 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Wed 17th December, Stokes Croft, Bristol



This will be my first proper photo exhibition (ie more than one shot! I've got 56 in there I think) so I'm really excited about this. I'll also be DJing my favourite ominous film scores as well as some of Gusset's lesser heard soundtrack work after Manufactured Landscapes to close the night. Can't wait!

Labels: Bristol, Electronic Music, Gigs, Photography, Urban Decay, Urban Exploring

:: Dan 9.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

By email,
"hello dan,
i´m interested in the stuff you blog, so i think you could be interesting in the stuff i posting. (of course not in such a professional way you guys do and yes german) so here are severals links witch include heavy weight content. including german audioart. (and sorry for my bad english)
bye hg"

Thanks hg. My German is ropey at best but I can only assume that calling this blog a professional operation was a translation error. Flattery will get you everywhere.

Have a look through the following links for the linked audio:
asger-jorn-jean-dubuffet
destiny-mata-vs-tetsuo-furudate
thomas-bernhard-geil-auf-stereich-nein
auf-der-flucht-geblieben
samuel-beckett-krapps-last-tape
federico-chiari-ark-of-noise
kimono-kops-is-techno

Labels: blogs, Electronic Music

:: Dan 6.12.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

"A unique, informative, very readable and practical book, "Designing Sound" presents advanced sound design methods for tomorrows video games, interactive applications and computer animations."

Andy Farnell, who Hardoff introduced me to a couple of years ago, has finished and published his book of sound design using PureData. It's been a long time coming. The world seems to be full of books on computer generated imagery but audio synthesis books are much more thin on the ground. This fills a gap nicely.

Andy is selling the initial limited run direct from this website and is hoping a larger publisher will pick it up soon. There is also a great 100odd page abridged PDF Pure Data introduction available for download. Check it out and help support him if your interested.

Labels: Audio, Computing, Electronic Music, FOSS, Pd, Software, Sound

:: Dan 2.11.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Labels: Cats, Electronic Music, Electronics, Instruments

:: Dan 25.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

I received the following email message from a Colombian student studying for an Mphil in music and technology at the University of Portsmouth (UK):

"I am currently doing research on interaction and improvisation in electronic music, and would like to ask you some questions on this subject. This survey covers various aspects of computer-based music performance"

Interesting that my address was included in this survey, presumably scraped from this website (spokesy got it too) although I wonder what led them to the site in the first place. I have no real idea what this information will be used for but the questions are interesting enough for me to think there may be some benefit in posting my responses here. Maybe it will help me or someone else think about the way we make music differently. Text in bold is from the original email and my answers are filled out in between.

Do you have any experience with playing an acoustic instrument?

If yes, is this experience relevant to the way you approach music performance now?
Yes. Have played guitar since I was about 14. Does not affect the way I perform as such, but is what I mentally refer to in terms of scales and notation as I'm not good with [piano style] keyboards, and to some extent led me into electronic music through experimentation with effects pedals and electronics.

Do you categorize sounds in any particular way?
Yes, but it's a bit haphazard and I should do it better, but generally things are filed into drums, basses, effects, ambience etc.

Synthesis or re-sampling, which one do you use the most?
Re-sampling at the moment although I'd like to use synthesis more

Is sound processing something that influences you to compose in a particular musical genre or style?
I'd like to say no but it probably does to some extent.

What are some of the limitations you have come across as a laptop performer?
The two main ones are [1] the interface, which doesn't lend itself to performance, and [2] audience interaction, which is limited due to the screen in front of you and means people [often] can't tell what you are really doing.

What do you consider as a particular skill(s) for a laptop performer?
Making it clear what you are doing as people respond when they can see that, engaging the audience, taking risks.

In the case of playing with several musicians, do you have a specific role?
Haven't really attempted this yet.

How do you improvise when performing? (structure-based, sound processing, pattern-variations, etc)
Generally pattern and structure variation with live overdubs.

Do you prepare your jamming (improvisation) tools before performing or you do it in real-time?
Yes. Although I've experimented with tools that do not allow this and force you to take risks and not know what you are going to do yet, I've yet to develop the confidence to do this for a live audience.

What is your main reference? (melody, texture, rhythm, sounds, etc)
Probably rhythm.

Do you play your laptop by writing (programming) or pre-mapped controls?
Pre-mapped controls.

Is there any comment/advice related to your work experience that you would like to mention in this survey?
Can't think of anything right now.

I sincerely thank you for your time and cooperation with answering this survey. Your input is a great help for the development of this project.

If I ever hear anything further about this I'll post it here.

Labels: Electronic Music

:: Dan 8.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...

Can't afford or can't get your hands on a Tanori-On?
Something missing in your electro-acoustic folktronic experimentation?
DIY music enthusiast looking to beat the hipsters and tech-heads at their own game?
Why not build your own Tenori Off!?



[via Music Thing]

Labels: DIY, Electronic Music, Humour

:: Dan 15.9.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
...