^^ Mahler on Bruncker. Dude didn’t mess around.
required listening
How good is that Africa Hitech stuff? SO GOOD.
the hotttness
I can’t say enough about these cats.
where we at
Projects, at the 1/4 way of the summer:
– RINGETTE, for sax & electronics, is done. Sounds like Berio.
– ABJURATION, for flute & marimba, is totally drafted, pending player approval in the fall. Think lite Ferneyhough.
– BABA YAHA, for bassoon and piano and loops, has a first section and form. Writing like Tchaikovsky is hard.
– ELEVEN, a small chiptune suite, is 1/3 of the way done, for the year,
– TH TMPST is well concepted, some analysis has been done. Needs lots of work.
– Considering a project called GIRLS DANCE TO THIS MUSIC, will probably hold off on that for a bit.
– ALL MY FRIENDS MISS ME has been started. It’s a pretty self-explanatory mix tape.
– Serato statistics tracking is at 0.1 or so: some things work, more can be done, and then
– LYRETTE, a chord progression improv tool, built in Max, is at 0.001.
– Figuring out what I want to do with my life: 15%.
Lots to do!
trying to hit this page more
…by leaving the login open in Chrome at all times:
Sunset Labs, the DJ collective that I’m part of, is live.
Great interview with Chris Longshanks, and an even better mix from him, over at Subdiv.
This is beautiful: papercraft meets projectors meets shadow puppets meets Russian fairy-tales.
The MIT bookstore is amazing. And the piano in my house is between 95 and 81 years old.
on vinyl
Actually, on record stores:I used to do a lot of record shopping, but that stopped being possible in Victoria several years ago. When I was in Berlin last summer, I had the chance to go record shopping, and I discovered an amazing thing. Turn out I had not been listening to music, not properly, for the last five years. In a record store, with nothing between me and the needle, with no chance to distract myself, I had to take the damn time to hear things. This was relevatory. The amount of care I put into that purchase was much, much higher than any recent grab from Beatport or Bleep. Not because of format issues, but because of listening and focus issues.
I think it’s possible to listen to music this way online, but it’s much harder. Beatport times out after two minutes, Bleep works in 30 second chunks, Boomkat has BEEEEPS regularly. Randall Munroe, of XKCD fame, spoke to this a bit in this post , and there are apps like Freedom that turn off your internet connection. I just went through the Resident Advisor reviews RSS feed, paying as much attention as I could…and I still got lost, briefly, chatting with a friend. Focus is hard on the interwebs. The best way to really turn your ears on to music is to go to a record store, sit and listen for an hour or three, and then choose your tracks.
going to boston, brb
Yep. America! I’m hacking for The Echo Nest for the summer. No camera this year, so things will be fairly quiet. If you’re out east, drop me a line! If you’re not, I’ll be back in the 250 in September.
shorts
Amazon Web Services crashed on the day that Skynet was supposed to wake up. Just wanted to have that down for posterity. Remember: truth is always stranger than fiction.
NEW WORLDS is coming back. Well then.
Portal 2 is out. I won’t be able to play it until I get back from Boston, which is crushing.
Boston! Here are my projects:
– TH TMPST, which has been discussed before.
– BABA YAHA AND PRINCESS VASILISIA, for bassoon, piano, and electronics.
– ABJURATION, for flute and marimba.
– RINGETTE, for tenor sax and ring modulation.
– ELEVEN, a series of electronic miniatures with Gerald Deo.
And, you know, work. Busy times!
another girl
Jacques Greene played at Sub:Division at Lucky bar last Wednesday, and single-handedly restored my faith in music. What’s the best music to play in 2011? Everything: dirty, dirty Chicago acid, heavy dubstep, gorgeously lush 61 BPM R & B joints, driving Detroit techno, snappy garage, and so on. A spectacular set.
In other news, I am now a Serato person. So many things to say about that, but it can wait for a long post.