:: GussetBLOG ::

:: Friday, January 08, 2010 ::

MP3 Friday

I met Benji Bower last week. He plays the staggering collection of instruments below to provide his live one man soundtrack to Ali Baba & The Forty Thieves show at the Tobacco Factory, Bristol. Taken with permission. (The show is highly recommended (by me) btw although my nephew only enjoyed it "middle".)



From the programme:
"Benji is a composer, multi-instrumentalist and producer. He is a founding member of Unforscene and UFS productions. Theatre credits include: Papa, Please Get the Moon for Me, We're Going on a Bear Hunt (Bristol Old Vic), Aesop's Fables, Stickman (Scamp Theatre), Strange Case (Bristol Old Vic / Pervasive Media), Ugly Duckling (Tobacco Factory), City of One, Jolity Farm (Myrtle Theatre), TV credits as composer include Colut of a Suicide Bomber (Channel 4), Cmonics Britannia, Rude Britain (BBC4), Blown Apart (BBC2). As Unforscene: Sulston Connection, Pacific Heights, New World Disorder (Kudos), Fingers and Thumbs (Tru Thoughts)."

Check out Unforscene and UFS Productions

The fascinating looking spiky thing to the right of the photo is a waterphone.

"The Waterphone was invented and is patented by Richard Waters (pat.#3896696). Each instrument is unique and made to order. Richard personally makes, tunes, signs and dates each Waterphone. The sound of the Waterphone has been compared to the haunting melodies of the Humpback Whale and voices from inner/outer space. Waterphones have been described as acoustic synthesizers, Waterharps, a musical “Aladdin's Lamp”, and “Whalephones”."

The ongoing competition page includes recordings of what people can do with it that are definitely worth listening to.

As I've recently bought a Gristleism I'm interested in this hack:
Gristleism modified with LFO pitch modulation and sample trigger
by ASMO
The official site even has a mods page.

9 Countries - Mashed ambiance, soundscaping across Asia. A Wax Audio production



"9 Countries was recorded on location in Indonesia, Thailand, Cambodia, Laos, Myanmar, Tibet, India, Egypt and Greece between October 2005 and March 2007 by Tom Compagnoni. What you hear has been entirely assembled from these field recordings, no additional samples used.
"Recorded, edited, mixed, re-mixed, mashed and mastered by Tom Compagnoni 2005-2009"

And last but not least... A new Bug Brand video:

Labels: Bending, Instruments, MP3

:: Dan 8.1.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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"The Skip to the End review of the decade is now on line at www.thejuxtaposition.co.uk/skiptotheend.html [tracklist etc.]
It's a personal look back at the last 10 years which is tricky seeing as I have difficulty remembering what I did last week. Consequently there are some blatant ommissions (no Venetian Snares, Rotator, Dub Step or Ukuleles - you've probably had enough of them from previous casts) and it's 25% longer than normal.
Feel free to skip to the end of all the opinionated text that accompanies the track list.
Hope you enjoy it and have a Happy New Year.
Pete"
Direct link [70MB MP3]

Jon Rose plays 'The Fence' at the Viitasaari 'Time of Music' Festival
Embedded audio on that page ^

Yes, it really is someone playing a barbed wire fence like a violin. And it sounds amazing. See the Relative Violins page for some other fantastical instruments.

Spectra Liquid site says:
"HO HO HO! Christmas would be nothing without gifts. Therefore, we and our newly signed artist, Frank Riggio, decided to give you his second album, Anamorphose, for FREE! That's right, 14 tracks of cinematic, experimental electronica, ranging from nu-jazz to film score soundtrack atmospheres and detailed sound design patterns are now available in both mp3 and wav. Only a few months before Frank's first CD-release on Spectraliquid, he couldn't provide the label and his own fans with a better gift than this.

"Download it here, spread the word and prepare yourselves for his next album on Spectraliquid, expected to hit the stores in March 2010."
[WARNING: 800MB ZIP containing Wavs, MP3s and artwork]

IJO - 'Verbal Dance' EP BITPEP002DL [webpage with 50MB zip]
"Bit-Phalanx's veteran Acid-Jazz, Drill & Bass Lithuanian compiles six of his favourite unreleased tracks from 2005 - 2009 that demonstrate his harsher, mentalist tendencies."

Labels: Instruments, MP3

:: Dan 1.1.10 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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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] ::
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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] ::
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"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] ::
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Labels: Cats, Electronic Music, Electronics, Instruments

:: Dan 25.10.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Oakley TM3030 Midi controlled synth
"Constructional difficulty: Moderate, but its a big project with many parts."



Richard Wigglesworth says:
"So I finally finished building my home made acid monosynth. I call it that all though oakleysound (www.oakleysound.com) call it a 303 clone, the tm3030. I got the PCB from them and a parts list and then built it after ordering parts from various places. There is a track here called SSM2210 and you can hear the home made acid monosynth right at the beginning. It is genuine analog, home built. I will be taking it to Lo Motion in reading on 10 Oct."

Good work!

You can hear Anarchist606 and I interview Richard in the November 2007 Goatlab Radio show here.

Labels: Electronics, Instruments

:: Dan 7.9.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Theremug from Kyle McDonald on Vimeo.
[also via grom]

Labels: Electronic Music, Food, Instruments

:: Dan 6.7.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Turnkey / Sound Control goes bust
"Sad (-ish) news for British music gear buyers - Sound Control group, who own a string of enormo-shops and Turnkey, the UK distributors for Moog, DSI, Jomox and more, have appointed administrators after failing to find a buyer: "Following a review of the Group’s operations the Administrators have today made the difficult decision to close 10 of the Group’s trading locations and bring to an end its telesales and internet sales activities. These changes to the Group’s operations have resulted in 163 redundancies with immediate effect." The group has a turnover of £50m and employed 338 people across Britain. Obviously their competitors, like Dolphin Music, are delighted."

Sad news.
Look out for bargains!

Labels: Instruments, News

:: Dan 2.5.08 [Arc] [1 comments] ::
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Yellow Drum Machine


"This is a robot I just made.
It was very hard to film, as the camera came in the way for any natural behavior. Anyway, here is what it usually does:

• Navigate around, collect some data, avoid obstacles, until it
• Finds something "worth playing on" (a single isolated object or a wide flat surface that it can find an angle onto)
• Snakes into place
• Plays some beats on what it have found, and samples this, checking it has a "good sound"
• Based on data collected in the area, and sample just made, then compose a little rhythm, and plays this along with the sample

"Why? Well.. I was sitting thinking what I should do for my next robot, what it should do.. Listening to music.. making a rhythm with some robot-parts.. Thought; "Hey, I will make a robot that drives around and plays on stuff"
As always, get more on letsmakerobots.com"

Labels: Instruments, Music, Programming, Robots

:: Dan 23.3.08 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Phew, this has been a long time coming. Cross-posted with Bristol Breakcore Blog.

Following Anarchist606’s post about the plethora of rare video footage, charting the history of popular music, that can be found on YouTube, I thought it might be interesting to try to cover the history of electronic music in the same way. This is not intended to be in any way comprehensive, I know there are huge chunks missing, so please feel free to add more.

Now, the oldest electronic instrument I can find any footage of is, of course, the Theremin, invented in 1917 by Leon Theremin and still used to this day:







A rash of other early electronic instruments appeared throughout the 1920s and and ‘30s, and disappeared again just as quickly. It wasn’t until Pierre Schaeffer’s invention of the tape recorder in 1939 that the first major school of electronic music took shape.

1940s - Musique Concrète

Some of the pioneers of this technique of creating music from recordings of natural sounds through layering and tape splicing are presented here:









1940 – Vocoder invented by Homer Dudley.

Demonstration on vintage (1978) Sennheiser VSM-201 shows what it does:



Demonstration here from 2007 shows a software vocoder being used to control visuals as well as audio:



1952: RCA Synthesiser Mks I & II invented. No footage found from this period but see later section on the Radiophonic Workshop. The ring modulator also appeared around this time, see Dalek voices.

1953: Greek architect turned composer Iannis Xenakis writes Metastasis, using statistical techniques to create music. Another pioneer of music controlled or composed through computing techniques.



1956 – The Forbidden Planet, with “Electronic Tonalities”* by Louis and Bebe Barron. Pioneers of snuff audio, using circuits build to feedback and go into oscillation they recorded the sound of the electronics dying, so none of these sounds could ever be created identically twice.
(* It was intentionally not called music in an attempt to avoid playing musician union fees.)



Varèse/ Xénakis/Le Corbusier - poeme électronique (1958) [stick with it!]



1963 – The BBC Radiophonic Workshop, founded by Daphne Oram in 1958, experimented with musique concreté through it’s early years. It came to mainstream attention when Ron Grainger’s Dr Who theme is arranged and rendered out of tape loops by Delia Derbyshire, the first lady of electronica.



















Stockhausen was another important pioneer of experimental music, working music Musique Concreté in the early days and then all sorts of other strange things later on. Like the Helicopter String Quartet:



The music in the video below is "Etude" by Karlheinz Stockhausen (I’m not quite sure why someone has decided to put this video to it but I’d guess they have a custard pie fetish.)



1965: First Moog Synthesiser released. Interview with Bob Moog from



Here there should be a homage to Walter/Wendy Carlos and especially A Clockwork Orange but instead I have to include this:



Someone’s Moog ad:



Alice Shields - Study For Voice And Tape (1968), with pictures of sci-fi crumpet:



1970: Emerson Lake & Palmer - Knife Edge
Keith Emerson at his keyboard battering best. (Incidentally, he took a flame thrower to a Hammond organ the time I saw them live.)



1975: Rick Wakeman – King Arthur on Ice



Out of place, but I couldn’t resist including Wizard Of Oz vs the Moog Cookbook



1978: Brian Eno on Music for Airports



1979: Jean Michel Jarre - Equinoxe - Place De La Concorde. I love Jarre. He’s like the David Copperfield of synths. Just look at that silver shirt. I expect him to start levitating at any moment.



1979: The first digital sampler, the Fairlight CMI is produced.
Herbie Hancock Demonstrates the Fairlight on Sesame Street



1981: Brian Eno & David Byrne – America is Waiting, from Life in the Bush of Ghosts, so far ahead of its time it’s scary.



1982: Peter Gabriel and Fairlight CMI, bringing in a “new-wave of electronic skiffle”



Secret of the Fairlight Sequencer



Carlos pops up again: Tron - Light cycle sequence (1982)



1982: Vangelis – Chariots of Fire OST & Bladerunner OST





Grammy awards Synthesizer Medley 1985



Curtis Roads founds the Computer Music Association in 1980 and edits the Computer Music Journal for 23 years. Fluxon (2003)




The 80s were synth-pop tastic, and I could include so much here, but most of it will already be so familiar it’s not really worth it. As a token example, here’s Philip Oakey & Giorgio Moroder - Together In Electric Dreams. For more Moroder see the soundtracks from Midnight Express, American Gigolo, Flashdance, The Never Ending Story, Thief of Hearts, Electric Dreams, Cat People and Scarface.



Then there’s all the New Order, Madchester stuff. You know all that. So let’s skip to 1989. Where there is disquiet in a field in Kent.





Quality gurning:





Meat Beat Manifesto – Helter Skelter (‘97 mix)



FSOL



At this point there could be a whole post of the same size just about the Amen break, but I’m really not interested enough to do that. So instead, here’s my personal favourite dnb tune, Photek’s Ni Ten Ichi Ryu



A nod to the Bristol scene:



Now, as the rave scene above got a bit silly and didn’t make a lot of sense without the aid of pills, the people staring trying to bring the intelligence back into it. Here’s holy trinity of “IDM”: Tom, Rich, and Mike:

[]p



Monkey Drummer



µ-ziq – Brace Yourself Jason 2004 live mix



And here are some of the younger names to appear

vs – dm megamix





Datach'i - In Silence



Some Ghost Play Their Customised Tape Machines



Leafcutter John



Team Brick at the captains rest in Glasgow 26/06/07



monster zoku onsomb @ el perro Madrid



sonic death rabbit - live @ darkmatter soundsystem

Labels: Electronic Music, Electronica, Instruments, MP3, Video

:: Dan 31.8.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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Software

TeraWiki – The Unofficial Ableton Live wiki

Reason tutorial sessions in Bath 07.04.07 [£50]

Hardware

Monome 40h now shipping [$500]

Labels: Audio, Electronic, Instruments, Music, Production

:: Dan 27.3.07 [Arc] [0 comments] ::
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