– Four Tet’s Angel Echoes is probably the vocal of the year.
– Holden’s Caribou remix is faaaaaantastic.
– Limbo’s Phoenix remix is also fantastic.
– Gudio’s album indicates that he, like me, played too many Super Nintendo RPGs growing up.
– Agoria is a genius.
– Isan’s little 7/4 number, Catagot, is also genius.
Another set coming soon, and then I’m practicing for my tech/deep/haus marathon on Saturday the 20th, and my disco/eclectro/dubstep throwdown on Monday the 22nd. Come one, come all.
SCULPT is an downtempo/ambient/hip-hop project, with samples from vinyl recording of classic orchestral musica, beats from classic drum machines, “vocals” improvised by a variety of my friends and comrades at UVic…all sliced, diced, and edited to suit my nefarious purpose.
This EP runs four tracks, and covers ice cold ambient, neck-snapping hip-hop, jazzy 808 jams, and a breaking wave of post-dubstep reverb. There may be an album-length project in a similar vein – we’ll see how this one does.
I am deeply, deeply indebted to Claire Stewart, Nathan Friedman, Heather Harker, and Shima Takeda for their time, skills and patience with this EP. The next one won’t take me over a year, I promise.
Books again: Paolo Bacigalupi’s THE WIND UP GIRL is fascinating. The plot, in this case, is a vaguely Frank Herbert-esq tale of conspiracy, people submitting to their baser instincts, and nations being moved by the actions of individuals. However, the MacGuffin here, of a post-collapse Thailand run by biotechnology is staggering: Bacigalupi’s world-building is maybe not as razor tight as some other authors I could name, but his conceit is enormously satisfying. Reading the book has the same bewildering effect that reading NEUROMANCER must have had in the 1980s. All we can hope for is that he’s not as prescient as Gibson.
I’m also working on a set with Quinn ‘Rhythmicon’ Dawson, of Pacific Dubstep and SubDiv fame. It’s going to be deeeeeeeeeeeep. And I’m so so so close to being done the SCULPT e.p. of orchestra-sampling hip-hop/downtempo. Should have it locked soon.
Yep, telling you again. I am dropping music from beyond outer space at DANCE OF THE DEAD this weekend. Lots of spooky samples, graveyard basslines, minor keys, and so on…as well as serious sets by Toby Emerson, Joshua, AFK, and Nigel Haze. Don’t sleeeeeeeeep.
Been reading. We’ll start with William Gibson’s ZERO HISTORY: it’s somewhere between SPOOK COUNTRY and PATTERN RECOGNITION. It’s not as breathless as PATTERN, but not as bloodless as SPOOK COUNTRY. It has the same amazingly tense anticlimax as both its predecessors and it has the same amazing use of language and culture. It also has space penguins.
And it’s a bit pat: Gibson is maybe wrapping his loose ends too tightly, but given the incredible level of serendipity that the intertubes creates, maybe that’s ok. It is, regardless, vital reading for the year 2010. Gibson throws you into the NOW more than maybe any other author.
Can’t stop recording sets, it seems. Can’t stop making sets about mythical women, it seems. This one walks between Detroit jams, perfect pop, and endless bass washes.
1: The MFA – We Will Destroy You [Border Community]
2: Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream (Limbo Remix) []
3: Yousef – Come Home [Cocoon]
4: Agoria – For One Hour ft. Scalde [Infine]
5: The Mole / Franciso Triano – T-Strings Of Life [Fur Trade / Transmat]
This is a project about simple harmonies, video game noises, big breaks, and dancefloor monsters. It’s a four track EP that will leave you thinking of your days with the NES, of that time you dated that guy who was really into chiptunes, and that time you played one of these tracks and everyone loved it and danced for hours. . Well, I guess that last one hasn’t happened, yet.
This one is self-released through SoundCloud: there are 100 downloads of each track, at full bandwidth, and then they’re gone forever. Get ’em while they’re hot.
