Still writing grants. Trying to avoid phrases like “My research will heal the sick and save the unbelievers” and “in accordance with the prophecy”. This is harder than you think.
– Got the new David Byrne / St. Vincent record, and it’s so Talking Heads, it really is. Maybe less African rhythms and more brass band, but a fine record just the same.
– Also obtained the complete string quartets of Benjamin Britten, of which No.3 is the runaway winner.
– Did a draft of the third part of DREAM | CITY, totally not sure about it.
– Bret Victor on how to teach programming. I don’t totally agree with him (I’m pretty sure that typing remains the best way to unambiguously tell a computer what to do), but he makes about a billion good points besides.
– Why are animated gifs still around? It’s 2012, and the only ubiquitous video format is the .gif. How did this happen?
I basically worked on a damn grant application for the entire week. But, with that said:
– I finished the second movement of DREAM|CITY. This is good.
– Saw a concert by the wonderfully mad Mario Bertoncini, which included a contact mic’d aeolian harp and a piece for bowed piano.
– And saw these two amazing things on the internet: CELLO FORTRESS and Laura Marling’s Experiments In Awkwardness.
Yesterday I finished listening to every album I own, in alphabetical order. I started in January.
This is not as ridiculous as it first sounds. I have a relatively small music collection – about 300 albums – and I allowed myself to listen to DJ sets and things from SoundCloud and Thisismyjam besides. But no changing the order and no listening to new albums until the 300 were finished.
This did lead to some pretty ludicrous moments, like when I went through the complete Bruckner symphonies in order, and then did the same for Mahler a month or two later. Woooosh. A lot of sauerkraut, as a friend of mine would say.
I did this for a few reasons. One, why keep such music around if I don’t listen to it? Two, maybe I could delete some of it that I no longer liked! Three, maybe I’d discover a few things that I had forgotten. Four, given the rate at which art is produced, stopping to review seemed wise.
I didn’t delete anything, of course. I discovered that Hello Nasty is a much better album than I thought it was when I was 16. I discovered that Bartok’s string quartets are better than I thought they were last year. I discovered that 90’s trance kickdrums have not aged well. I discovered that my rip of Graceland has clicks in it, and that old Prefuse 73 is really good.
Did I make any deep connections with things? No. One more listen wasn’t going to make me fall in love with anything I wasn’t already in love with. In that respect, the better solution would be to spend a month listening to only one album, in order to really wrap your mind around it. That will come later though.
– Not only have the good people at SubDivison made a new website, not only have their Rifflandia parties been amazing, their latest podcast is by my man Natron, and it is smooth, smooth, smoooooooth.
– School has started. Apparently grad school is basically about reading every damn thing.
– The first chunk of the music for DREAM|CITY came together really fast. The second chunk, which I started tonight, is looking like it will take longer.
– I picked up a flyer from somewhere, advertising Jerome Derradji of Still Music playing at Le Bleury. So, I went. Having gone, I can tell you that Le Bleury is a gorgeous little space, and that the people there play awesome post/disco, but often stumble on mixes. Jerome did likewise: amazing tunes, some often iffy technical things, but man: what amazing tunes.
– I just today finished listening to every album I own, in alphabetical order. I started in January: it was a bit of a thing, and I will hopefully write more about it soon.
Moving is a party, and don’t let anyone tell you otherwise. I am officially changing my master’s research to teleportation and soundproofing.
In other, more interesting news:
– Kev, Cheeba, & Moneyshot re-built Paul’s Boutique from samples, Beastie interviews, and acapellas. This is almost certainly the best mix of the year.
– Artisinal integers are now a thing. Really.
– Jon Rafman curates Google Street View. Welcome to the now.
– Finally got to read Dan Sicko’s TECHNO REBELS. It’s a great and detailed book that catches lots of small scenes and subtle influences.
– You may recall that I made a Weavr a few months ago. It has been killing it, of late. It’s like a bizzaro world version of me that loves romance novels, shitty dance music, and the Canucks.
– At the recommendation of the all-knowing, all-seeing Christopher Butterfield, I got a copy of James Gleick’s THE INFORMATION, which I promptly devoured. The more I read about data, the more I want to know about DNA.
– Went to three of the MISQA concerts at McGill: I am on the one hand worried about the state of string repertoire, when these quartets are playing basically the same things that were played last year…and on the other hand, happy to see performers of such excellent quality. Special outs to the Noga quartet for playing a damn fine Ligeti I.
– Beatport is selling mixes, and has probably been doing so for a while – shows how much time I spend on Beatport. Nevertheless, this represents a culmination of sorts: Beatport now has everything. This is news both amazing and depressing, both the end of the frustration of digging, and the end of the deep joy of digging and hustling.
– HOLY SHIT THE NEW FOUR TET ALBUM.
– My man Albert Santoni of Oscillicious has dropped Songstarter: an in-browser jam station. Highly recommended.
– I am working on half an octect called HAMADRYAD. It’s about trees, and trees, and is sort of structurally odd.
– Met the casually scintillating Erin Gee, am working on some Max/MSP hacking for her biofeedback piece. More on that as it breaks!
– I’m in Montreal! It’s pretty nice so far.
– I finished a hack called Music I Used To Like, based on the shirt of the same name. It is interesting how much variance there actually is between people’s taste in music.
– I had to do a bit of hacking in openFrameworks. openFrameworks is amazing.
– I finished the edits to TORNADO SONGS, based on the feedback from Composer’s Kitchen. Now I get to try to handle edits from 3,700 KM away.
– I’m writing up thesis ideas, as I need to beg for funding for second year. Aiiiii.
I was lucky enough to participate in the undergraduate version of Composer’s Kitchen, as put on by SFU, Owen Underhill, Christopher Butterfield, and the monstrously talented Quatuor Bozzini. They helped me work out the middle movement of TORNADO SONGS, for which I am very grateful. Big ups are also in order to Jamie, Sara, Alex Jang, Remy, Jeremey, Alex Mah, Thomas, Duncan, and Will for their exceptional pieces. I’ll have recording the moment I get them.
– You may have heard of this thing we did called Get Excited And Make Techno: we’re finished doing it, now. It was rad. Seven local producers met for six workshops over eight weeks to produce a free compilation of techno, dub, and house.
– I finished up my job with UVic’s CHISEL software engineering lab this week: many thanks to Peggy Storey and co. for a fun six months.
– Everything is ready for Composer’s Kitchen in two weeks.
– Everything is ready for TORNADO SONGS: I just need to make parts.
– I got a hack called ‘music i used to like’ working. I just need to get the styling nailed, and I’ll be good to go.
Get Excited & Make Techno presents a our free, 7-track EP, a product of a summer’s worth of workshops and beatsmithing:
– BandCamp
– SoundCloud
– Tumblr
Big thanks to Quinn, Kevin, Dan, Mike, Jason, Lee, as well as Rennie, Manj, Nathan, Kirk, Charlie, and Chris.
