Berlin is beautiful today.
I’ve been working on some deep techno. I’ve been working on some chiptunes. I’ve been thinking about a secret project. I’ve been working on two compositions for the fall. I’ve been kicking myself for not bringing any music, because watching all these DJs play beautiful, beautiful vinyl gives me the itch something fierce. I’m making plans for a biofeedback-based music system. I’ve been staying out too, too late. I’ve taken on the order of 700 pictures.
I’ve been in Europe for a month.
From Information Is Beautiful
This speaks to some massive debates I’ve been having with myself as to the value of digitizable art in this strange, strange century of ours. Things like self-publishing, physicality, objectifiability, copyright, promotion, etc. I would write more…but it’s late spring in Berlin, and I’m going for a walk.
Meet my camera, at my flickr page. This will be both a photoblog and a backup for all my photos on my computer; expect a lot of images.
So here it is, on the record: I’m leaving for Europe for the summer on April 21st: flying to Amsterdam via London, to stay with my friend Hollas in The Hague for a few days. Then heading to Berlin to intern for SoundCloud. (!!!)
This blog will go pretty dark while I’m there: I am going to look into a Flickr account to act as a picture-backup and photoblog, I will keep working on a few tracks which will be posted here and to my SoundCloud, but there won’t be much text. If you’re in or are going to be in Berlin / Germany, however, drop me a line!
Some amazing links from recently, to get them out of my list:
Earthquakes as music
The Solar System as music
Colorflex: An impossible sequencer
What’s Mine Is Yours: Renatlic – A person to person rental market place
Many thanks to the heroes and villains who were at Hush last night for my set with Matt – I love you all.
I bought some music, for that set. Oddly enough, the Maetrik and the Innervisions were the business.
Maetrik – Paradigm House
Josh Wink – Dolphin Smack (Martin Buttrich Remix)
Crystal Fighters – I Love London (In Flagranti Dub)
Henry Saiz – Hipnos
Weekend Heros – Sidewinder
Royksopp – This Must Be It (Rex The Dog Remix)
Julian Jeweil – Soho
Innervisions – Berlin-Karlsruhe Express (Live)
Innervisions – Chicago (Live)
Etienne Jaumet – For Falling Asleep (Carl Craig Remix)
Mattheis – Wish I Was (Spada Remix)
Luke Abbott – Little Wonderment
Luke Abbott – Musicbox Two
Luke Abbott – Pavilion
Luke Abbott – Quincunx
Luke Abbott – Whitebox Stereo
I also wanted to say word one about the Shakleton show at Element, care of Longshanks and Subdivision: it was rad: groovy and heavy enough to keep those people celebrating the hockey game dancing, and mad enough for the heads. I wasn’t expecting British tribal/loopy techno to collide head-on with dub, broken beat, and minimal…but, obviously it has, and the results are pretty good.
Saturday night, all night. Come early, stay late, dance until your feet are sore and your hips are laggard.
Ah, Alban. Never let me say that third year music history didn’t teach me anything. I don’t think it taught me how to record sets of cunning post-disco, but here’s this set just the same.
0: Calvin Harris – I Get All The Girls (Acapella) []
1: Van She – Techno Music (Vemixed) [Modular]
2: Kano – Ike Saya [K7]
// Little Boots – Earthquake (Acapella) []
3: Gossip – Love Long Distance (Fake Blood Remix) [Columbia]
4: Vitalic – Posion Lips [PIAS]
5: Fever Ray – Triangle Walks (Rex The Dog Remix) [Rabid]
So many things are happening!
– The Rock Band Creator’s Network is live. This will break more bands than god.
– Emilie Simon is my new favorite steampunk chanteuse. That glove came out of IRCAM, apparently! Obviously they’ve found peolpe who can actually design.
– I bet a friend that facial recognition on phones would be here in two years. That was six months ago. Meet Recognizr. Will this be spidering public Facebook pictures soon? You bet your ass.
– In China, the Internet is watching you back. And sometimes it doles out vigilante justice, in theform of “Human Flesh Search Engines”.
– I watched a film about techno called Modulations on Friday in my computer music class. It was made in 1998, and has not aged well. This one, Speaking In Code, looks like a good update.
– Virtualization of musicians and composers is stumbling towards reality.
– Britain is using Classical music as a form of social control. Ahhh, Beethoven 9. (Also, Steve Goodman / Kode 9’s book SONIC WARFARE is out now. Must get a copy. )
is not the name of this asteroid-belt-deep DJ set:
Download here.
1: Exoplanet – My Circuits Are Fading [Proton]
2: Exoplanet – Afterlife [Proton]
3: Exoplanet – Clouds [Proton]
4: John Debo & Steve Porter – Deported [Bedrock]
5: Marc Mitchell – Souls On Board [Proton]
6: Sasha – Three Little Piggies [emFire]
7: Luke Chable – Melburn (Amb Bee En Tea Mix) [Bedrock]
I bought some music! Let me tell you all about it:
Johnny Cash – I Heard That Lonesome Whistle Blow (Apparat Remix) [Shitkatapult]
Empire Of The Sun – Walking On A Dream (Limbo Remix) []
Tycho – Coastalbrake [Spectral]
Janet Jackson – Scream (Neon Tetra Remix) []
Lifelike – Sequencer [K7]
Yousef – Come Home [Cocoon]
Nicolas Valle – Acid Punch [Dusty]
Secret Cinema – Reaktivate [Dmom]
Hrvsion – Oh, It’s Mastered [Living]
SebastiAN – Head / Off [Ed Banger]
Closer Musik – Maria [Kompakt]
Damabiah – Snow and Fog [Further]
Steve Bug – Trust In Me feat Virginia (John Daly Remix) [Poker Flat]
Quivver – Sludge [Boz Boz]
Royal Sapien – Clouded (Stefan Anion Remix) [Olaris]
Soliquid – Taipei Pocok Salata (Quivver Remix) [Baroque]
Somfay – Lying In A Bed Of Mist [Global Underground]
Mathew Jonson – The Alchemist
Hrdvsion – Peap Svm I Hsim [Living]
I’ve also been thinking about the value of promotion vs. hermitage, but more on that later. And I want to remix Schubert. And record a DJ set about the 7 deadly sins. I may need to get out more. Some quick things:
I can’t say enough good things about Bryan Talbot’s ALICE IN SUNDERLAND. Every city needs a book about it that is this clever and this full of love. Contrawise, Salman Rushdie’s latest, THE ENCHANTRESS OF FLORENCE, fell just a bit flat. It’s filled with light and wonder, but trails off a bit.
On more internet-centric things, someone has built the dating wheel from Logan’s Run, and HP are trying to build Dan Simmons’ Allnet. May you live in interesting times.
