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2015: albums of the year

December 14, 2015 · by · in

Veeery strong year, here.

Africa Express – In C Mali

I wanted this album so badly I installed iTunes, bought it, and then uninstalled iTunes.  In C is an obvious landmark that means many things to many people … but I suspect that this version is going to hang around for a very long time.

Arca – Mutant

… and let’s not forget about Xen, her album from late last year, or her work for Bjork and Twigs.  Arca is the future.

Holly Herndon – Platform

Herndon is likewise the future.  Her and the whole neo-idm / new aesthetic / internet music people are by far the most exciting things going on in 2015.

Julia Holter – Have You In My Wilderness

Holter, in contrast, is “just” making immaculate, ultra-lush baroque pop records.  No big deal.

Honorable mentions to Four Tet – Morning / Evening, Floorplan’s Paradise, FKA twigs – M3LL155X, and Bjork’s rip-your-heart-out Vulnicura

2015: sets of the year

December 14, 2015 · by · in ,

Objekt – Live at Freerotation, 2014

So last year.  Whatever – this is as joyous and heavy and welcoming and brilliant a DJ set as you’ll hear in the next few years.

Natasha Kmeto – FACT Mix 514

As self-assured as you need music to be.  Kmeto does just about everything, here, and does all of it well.

Jackmaster b2b Armand Van Helden Live @ Boiler Room.

Just as much fun as you think it should be.

Honorable mentions to Tama Sumo’s RA mix, Visionist’s ice-cold RA mix, Ben UFO’s live set from Factory Osaka, Peter Van Huesen from Labyrinth, and of all people, Sasha’s RA mix.

2015: concerts of the year

December 13, 2015 · by · in

FKA twigs presents Congregata

Oh.  My.  God.  Impossible voice, amazing choreography, undeniable stage presence, mindboggling lights (yes, that’s a laser off a sequined top), show of the year by a country mile.  FKA twigs is a far, far better future of pop music than we deserve – if you are not watching her, start now.

James Holden Live at Le Possion Rouge

My boy.  I think I’m out of superlatives for Holden, and his live show of The Inheritors deserves all of the ones I’ve used already.

SK Kakraba at Bossa Nova Civic Club

“come at 11 there’s an african dj”, texted a friend of mine.  If he had said “there’s a man playing the gyil“, which is what I walked into, I would have been there on the dot.

Floating Points Live at Music Hall of Williamsburg

Concerns about accidentially going to a Third-Stream show not withstanding, this was a monster of a thing:  11 players, amazing visuals, huge sounds, huge peaks.

Honors out to Holly Herndon at The Wick, the Dark Circuits show at Spectrum, a tiny NYU composer’s concert with lots of Feldman, and the NY Phil’s CONTACT concert at National Sawdust.  More next year.

week 138

December 5, 2015 · by · in , , ,

Back in action.

– If you have not read Bret Victor on the climate crisis, do so right now.

– In similar heady reads, Kickstarter’s Yancy Strickler on Fighting The Power is also important.

– Of course, people are also making mad, loopy techno by stacking records up, so there may be some hope for the world.

week 137

December 3, 2015 · by · in ,

Still on catch-up.

– Google has open-sourced their machine learning system.  This is sort of amazing, even if some of my academic pals are not impressed by it.  Google is basically saying “even if you can match our code, you can’t match all of our data”.

– I mentioned China’s credit score / life score – here’s a more personal look at it.

– Other scary stuff:  Mirriad can put ads into ad-hoc videos.  How long until that can be done dynamically, depending on who is watching the video?  Not long.

– “music / video social media” continues to be a thing:  Fusic is a good example – and what happens as the tech from Mirriad becomes commonplace?

– And, lurking ‘way down the list is app streaming.  Native apps, no install.  Here we go again.

week 136

November 29, 2015 · by · in , , ,

Late, again, but lots to talk about.

– Y Combinator is starting a research lab.  Which is interesting in at least six ways.  I, personally, hate the lack of speed in academia, but there are many things that said lack of speed enable.

– LineFORM, from the Tangible Media Group at MIT, is sort of neat.  We currently think of our personal supercomputers as phones / black mirrors / etc, but they for sure do not have to be.  (The actuation looks pretty cheap, to me, but the idea is particular)

– We went on an art field trip at work, and saw, among other things, the monumental Frank Stella retrospective at the Whitney, along with lovely things by Elsie Driggs.

– Ellen Jewett, on the other hand, is not much of a modernist, but is amazing.

– Biosciences just get more and more bonkers.  I think I’ve mentioned CRISPR before, but it really can’t be mentioned too often.  Note the money line of the “editable mouse” – that’s us in a few generations.

– Brian McFee pointed me at Neural Storyteller, which is terrifying and wonderful.

week 135

November 2, 2015 · by · in , ,

– If you’re not reading James Bridle, well, you can start now.

– Mat Dryhurst’s SAGA is super interesting and makes me feel like some Stack will steal it.  But it’s also so XANADU-esq that it may be doomed to failure.

– Map projections, projecting.

– Uber, but for doctors.  That’s basically Pager.  Software is coming for your job.  Look out.

week 134

October 25, 2015 · by · in ,

– A black American man has applied for refugee status in Canada, citing unjust treatment by the police.

– I think I mentioned HOPSCOTCH, a mobile opera in 24 cars, before, but it sure is worth a mention again.

– The gyli continues to be amazing.  That’s SK Kakraba.

– Saw the words “Long String Instrument” at Academy, was not disappointed by Ellen Fullman, who is the wizard behind it.

week 132

October 10, 2015 · by · in

What a time we have, up here in Heaven.

– My man Stefan Maier turned me on to the music of Elaine Radigue, which is lovely.

– He likewise pointed me to the arcane folk at MSHR, who do…well, many things.  “Ritual techno”?  “Witch-house-hackathon”?  Take a gander. (and think about LaMont Young, while you’re at it).

– Fugue Machine, by Alexandernaut, basically won the internet this week.  Multiple play heads!  Variable pitch / speed / direction!  Amazing!

– While we’re here, Sonic Pi looks pretty great, as far as livecoding goes.

– GCHQ remain evil bastards who have no love. They’re watching you, now.

– But, China trumps the West:  new “credit scores” in China are going to include social data, behavioural data, and the same data from your friends.  Yes, that is as bad as it sounds.

– In slightly better news, some people are working on a mesh network for New York.

week 131

September 27, 2015 · by · in , ,

Once more with feeling!

– This Is My Jam is gone, but in the best way.  Big love.

– Experiment.com is super interesting, and filled with some tricky things around conflict of interest and proof-of-expenditure, but has a bit of a huge ceiling.

– Novelty classical music performances generally hurt my teeth, but this Bach is … sort of amazing.

– Bret Victor is, as ever, not wrong.

– Say “forest megaphone“.  See?  (More to the point, the acoustic amplification of the tiny sounds of nature is super rad.)

– Always talk about nightclub history.

– I think these cats may have gotten blown up in the time between me reading this and me posting it, but a BitTorrent backed rogue / free streaming service has…lots of potential. (And some amazingly hard problems, but hey, c’est la vie)

– “Immerse yourself in synaesthetic alien vistas and control them like an ambient disco-god.”  Well, sign me up for Panoramical.