With apologies to James Bridle
1: Kraftwerk – Trans-Europe Express [Kling Klang]
2: Modeselektor – Grillwalker [Monkeytown]
3: Mono/Poly – Needs Deoderant [Brainfeeder]
4: Kuedo – As We Lie Promising [Planet Mu]
5: Amon Tobin – GOTO 10 [Warp]
6: Jakes – 3rkout [Punch Drunk]
// Machinedrum – Where Did We Go Wrong [Planet Mu]
One of those sets when you realize that “shit, I don’t have any music at 107 BPM”.
-So I made a Weavr. That is to say, I made a robot that trolls the internet for what it thinks I am interested it. It’s doing an awful job so far, which is nice, I guess.
– Along those lines, the mighty New Aesthetic tumblr is closing. This is a damn shame, but very apropos at the same time.
– DREAM|CITY: I finished my field recordings and sent them to Connor, and made an alpha version of the webapp. Things proceed apace.
– John Peel’s record collection is on the internet. Read that again, and be prepared to spend a lot of time with it.
– I’m going to NIME! I’ll be gone from the 16th through the 28th, I hope.
– I’m playing for Sub|Division on June 15, which will probably be my last gig in Victoria. Come on out, do: I’ll have more on that as I know more about it.
Last term I tried to discover how to DJ, based on computer analysis of over a hundred mixes. I made a cute webapp for it: it doesn’t really work though.
So I thought I would just ask. DJs! How do you pick what track to play next? Email me: I want to know. djfractal at gmail dot com.
I’d also like to know:
– What sort of music do you play?
– How long have you been playing for?
– Do you use Serato, vinyl, CDs, Traktor, Ableton, or?
– How old are you?
– Where do you live?
…but the first question is by far the most important. Get at me.
– I made a prototype imagegrabber for the webapp for DREAM | CITY. Big ups to the Google Street View and Flickr APIs.
– Sketched out Tornado Songs IV: next step is to print out the first three songs and pore over them making corrections, tightening, etc.
– I got a set called THE NEW AESTHETIC recorded! Will post it soon.
– Our algorithms may become dangerous at any minute.
– Amazing things on the internet: collaborative pentatonic jams, care of Dinahmoe.
– WEAVRS. I have no idea what these are, but I aim to find out.
– Need to big up Sub|Division for a great show with Max Ulis and the Big Reds, and Hush for an amazing night of house from Natron, Full Function, and Transient.
– Oh man, it’s the end of April. How did that happen?
– I’ve got lyrics down for Tornado Songs VIII and alllllmost done for IV: now I just have to write the damn things.
– On that note, I’ve been accepted to the Bozzini Quartet’s Vancouver edition of Composer’s Kitchen, so at least the string writing for Tornado Songs will be tight.
– Finally got my latest set, ‘Arguing For Your Limitations’ recorded. Get it here.
– Did a bunch of field recording for a project with Connor Ashton called DREAM | CITY. More on that as it breaks.
– Valve’s employee handbook got leaked. It is fascinating.
– The Byrds and the Beegees tells you what your parents were listening to when you were conceived. Yes, this won the internet for the week.
– Planetary Resources is apparently real. Paging D.D. Hariman and Art Clarke, please.
This is a DJ set about people making poor choices. It is, for better or for worse, not autobiographical. It is a lot of tech/house jams. Download here.
1: Zebra Katz – Ima Read [Mad Decent]
2: Nick & Danny Chantilain – Is Killing Me [Ovum]
3: Scuba – Feel It [Hotflush]
4: Click Box – Nebula [Minus]
5: Azari & III – Manic [Turbo]
6: Body Language – Falling out [Smoke N Mirrors]
7: Steffi – Yours [Ostgut Ton]
8: Steffi – Sadness [Ostgu Ton]
– I am done the paper for ISMIR: it’s about timbral changes in DJ sets. Ten thousand thanks to George Tzanetakis for working on it with me.
– Four Tet’s new DJ set, Conference Of The Birds, is exceptional: cosmic, folky, driving: music for dancing without being Dance Music
– My friend & inspriation, Cassandra Miller, has a new website, which makes me want to update this website in the worst way.
– I finished some music for Steven Ness’s orca game, which will be out soon for iPad.
– BORDERLANDS is a mind-stoppingly good granular synthesis app for iPad, by a guy named Christopher Carlson, out of Stanford.
– Finally, Tycho at Penny-Arcade put up some wonderful words about Doing Things:
“You have to get back on the horse. Somehow, and I don’t know how this kind of thing starts, we have started to lionize horseback-not-getting-on: these casual, a priori assertions of inevitable failure, which is nothing more than a gauze draped over your own pulsing terror. Every creative act is open war against The Way It Is. What you are saying when you make something is that the universe is not sufficient, and what it really needs is more you. And it does, actually; it does. Go look outside. You can’t tell me that we are done making the world.”
Maybe stretching how we define “week” here, but so it goes.
– Julia Easterlin has finally released Eyes On The Prize. It is the best thing.
– There’s a FireFox plugin called Collusion that shows how you are being tracked on the Internet. Essential.
– Google released its Glass video. Valve has one of the coders behind Quake working on wearable computing. A computer simulation of Tupac “performed” at Coachella. The idea of computers mediating our perception of the real world is going to become mainstream very, very fast.
– I got a draft of the third movement of Tornado Songs done! Also had the premiere of Five Rooms For Solo Flute, by Sara Page, and of Ringette, by Alex Richards. I am in their debt.
– I am taking time off from writing the ISMIR paper to write this. It’s due in 48 hours. Go go go!
It’s that point in “the term” when things start getting done. Which makes me deeply happy.
– I got data for my timbre analysis paper for ISMIR, thanks to George Tzanetakis and his shockingly powerful 8 core desktop Mac. Results are pretty good, so far.
– I confirmed lyrics and sketched out rhythms for the third movement of TORNADO SONGS. It’s called “The Soldier With The Green Whiskers”, and is silly.
– I bought music! Margot’s new tune, Alt, is rad, as is Carl Craig remixing…Friendly Fires, of all people.
– Pair is an app for long-distance relationships. Despite the tragic term “thumbkiss”, the idea of having an app for your significant other is a serious one.
– Boston Dynamics do not fuck around, in terms of robots.
– I have a crush on Bret Victor. In addition to wanting to fundamentally change how we interact with everything, he helped prototype the iPad. A serious dude.
– Taylor Holmwood and I sat down for 3 hours and got audio / video for CIRCLES, which I edited together last night. I need to print the poster and the project is done, thank heaven.
– Charles Stross’s comments on the Girls Around Me app are well worth reading…and are part of the reason why I’m going to be turning my Facebook account off again pretty soon.
