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from the pick up

May 3, 2009 · by · in , , ,

I recorded a new set!  It sounds like acid:

Download here.

1: Sleezy D – I’ve Lost Control [Trax]
2: Phuture – Phuture Jacks [Trax]
3: Li’l Louis – Video Clash [Dance Mania]
4: Phantom Power – Acid Uber Alles [Clicktracks]
// Virgo – Go Wild Rhythm Track [Other Side]
5: Eddie Cointreau – Onchorhychuis [Tide Pool]
// James Zabiela – Down Here [Renaissance]
// Limbo – Maple Leaf Gave Me Lisertia []

In news unreleated to techno, here are two things that will blow your mind.  ACHRON is an RTS game in four dimensions – you can move backwards and forwards in time across an eight-minute window from the ‘present’.  If your head hurts, don’t worry.  Go to the site, watch all the videos, and it will start to make sense, mostly.

Philip K. Dick would have loved Achron – and he would also have loved the AllloSphere – which is a 30-foot sphere that displays scientific data on the inside.  No, really.  It’s at the University of California, Santa Barbara, and it is pure science fiction.  Follow the link, watch the videos.

And I bought some music:

Jon Hopkins – Light Through The Veins (Ewan Pearson’s Downtown Lights Remix) [Domino]
Booiamrudolf – It’s Deep In Here [Elefant]
Booiamrudolf – Ally’s World [Elefant]
Booiamrudolf – Fliuz [Elefant]
Ane Brun – Headphone Silence (Henrik_Schwarz Remix – Dixon Edit) [Objektivity]
Paul Ritch – Evil Laff [Wagon Repair]
Garcia & Caro – Dead Souls (Radio Slave Long Distance Kiss Mix) [Buzzin Fly]
Ultraworld – Northern Piano (Hardcore Piano Mix) [Strictly Rhythm]

tdpl26: robsounds – high rollers ep

April 30, 2009 · by · in , ,

Tide Pool brings you the hotness.  Check it out.

You should also go and look at djhistory.com right now, because there’s some amazing stuff there – especially the interviews.

I was on a bus for 12 hours twice over the last weekend, so I got a lot of thinking done…assuming you call sitting exhausted in the Chilliwack bus depot thinking.  I can say for certain that out of all the Greyhound depots in BC, Chilliwack smells the worst.

But, to return to the point, I had some ideas for a little program that will morph two midi files together, like some sort of theme breeding system.  I’m going to try to do it quick and ugly first, which will probably lots of interesting non-musical results.  Then I’ll try to get a more musical interpretation going…which seems a lot harder.  It’s going to be called MORPHINE, in theory.  Probably a Python or Processing project, depending on what has better midi libraries.

I also had an epiphany about an alternative to standard dice-based RPG combat systems.  Randomness and I have had a bit of a falling out of late, and I’ve been after a system that won’t ruin your life on a single roll of a d20, or on 15 rolls of a d6, or what have you.  The concept I’ve dreamed up is a bit of MAGIC, a bit of SquareSoft styled card-puzzle games, and a bit of 4e-styled miniature tactics.  I think it’s way too complex, but I also think it’s very interesting.  We’ll see what happens and what I have time to do with it.

through-composed

April 16, 2009 · by · in ,

The best way to buy classical music, by the way, is on vinyl from thrift stores.  I picked up Debussy’s Nocturnes and La Mer, along with Tchaikovsky #6 and Sibelius #1…all for less than five bucks.  Look out for orchestra sampling hip-hop soon.

And, on the subject of classical music, all of my recorded compositions can be found here.  So far there’s one cunning tape piece, a recording of one of my improv maps, my string quartet, and my piece for the orchestra readings.  More will be added as they appear.

Finally, I’m working on some dubstep.  Loooook out.

oh, the huge manatee

April 13, 2009 · by · in , ,

I’ve been fighting with this really finicky acid house mix, so what do I do when I finally have time to DJ?  I put Ligeti and Richie Hawtin in a cage, and see what happens:

0: Gyorgy Ligeti – Lux Aeterna []
1: Gaiser – Chlorine [Minus]
// Richie Hawtin – DE9 Loops [Minus]
2: Heartthrob – Apprentice [Minus]
// Richie Hawtin – DE9 Loops [Minus]
3: Kyle Geiger – Glide [Drumcode]
// Richie Hawtin – DE9 Loops [Minus]
4: Rekorder – Rekorder 3.0 [Rekorder]

In non-techno news, I’m working on a string ensemble thing called SIX IMPOSSIBLE THINGS BEFORE BREAKFAST which should be hard enough to quiet all my viola-playing friends.  Also in the works are two simples pieces – one called TUNING and one called HEARTBEATS.  You can probably figure out what they are from the titles.

Finally, Braid is out for PC, and it’s diabolically amazing.  It calls itself a puzzle-platformer, but it’s at least 90% puzzle game, along the lines of Lolo or Solstice.  Highly, highly recommended.

oh right, music

April 11, 2009 · by · in ,

Marshall Jefferson – Mushrooms (Justin Martin Remix) [Troni Soundz]
Blu Mar Ten – If I Could Tell You [Blu Mar Ten]
Steve Porter – Rizer [PH]
Misstress Barbara – Dance Me To The End Of Love [Iturnem]

If someone told me last year that I would be listening to, and loving, a techno cover of a Leonard Cohen song, I would have laughed for daaaays.

Also worth pointing to is Bullion‘s 24-minute remix album / mashup / labour of love, Pet Sounds In The Key Of Dee, combining parts from the Beach Boys’ legendary album with beats from the late J. Dilla.  Google around and you’ll find a download link.  It’s very much a coherent, seamless whole, rather than a collection of remixes.  It’s also totally rad.

some things in the way

April 6, 2009 · by · in , ,


That need mentioning, as a way of restoring my internet-self to life:

NODAL:  A generative composition system, now available for PC.

And Yet It Moves:   A mind-bending puzzle-platformer.  Available at Greenhouse.

If you can find it, Grafite’s goal for Wolfsburg against Bayern is a thing of beauty.

(In retrospect, MYST was a really weird game, wasn’t it?)

fractal – oceanography

March 25, 2009 · by · in


…is out now, on Pacific Front.  You can buy it here and hear a longer clip of it here.  Remixes come from Rennie Foster, AFK, and Toby Emerson.  The original mix is a nine and a half minute jaunt through halftime breaks, minor-key counterpoint, huge bass riffs, and shimmering synths.  It is pretty rad, if I do say so myself.  I hope you think so too.

at midnight….

March 21, 2009 · by · in , ,

…all the film directors and the hollywood crew go out and round up everyone who knows more than they do.

WATCHMEN is an overwhelming and impressive film, and is almost certainly the best adapatation possible of a very difficult book.  With that said, it does nothing that the comic does not do, contains at least two of the worst scenes every filmed, and, with exception of Jackie Haley and Billy Crudup, has no performances worthy of the name.  It is an odd thing, really.  I can’t see how it could have been done better, but it left me almost totally cold.  Maybe Alan Moore is right, and it never should have been done at all?

RIP:  A Remix Manifesto is a snappy piece of documentary-ganada about remix/mashup/free culture.  It’s a very tight piece of filmmaking that brooks no delay and less dissent.  I do wish the film had at least mentioned people like, say, Steinski, Coldcut, and so on, rather than focusing on Girl Talk.  At least now I know that I need to pin him down and figure out how his software works.

The film’s biggest problem, for me, is that it tries to beat its thesis to death.  Mashups and remix culture are tremendously important, but they are not the sole and only future of culture.  Fair use, copyright, and patents have huge and obvious problems, but throwing them out totally is not the answer.  Lars Ulrich and Metallica are assholes, but they had a point.  It would have been nice to hear from, say, Luke Chable, who lost a record contract in the early ’00s due to a track of his being available on the internet.

Regardless of which way you swing on control of content and ideas, RIP is worth a look.  It may make you angry, it may make you want to support The Pirate Bay, but it provides an exceptional look at how our culture has fractured, changed, and grown in the 10 years since The Internet Happened.  And there is no turning back from that.

fractal – xanadu

March 15, 2009 · by · in

No idea when I found time to post this, and maybe that shows, but here it is:  

 

Download here.  Some neat things happen.  There’s a MASSIVE, spaced-out ambient intro, then some deep breaks, then a prettier ambient outro.
1: Poni Hoax – Faces In The Water (Ambient Edit) [Tigersushi]
// Luke abbott – Gates Part 2 [Border Community]
// Marc Mitchell – Souls On Board (Ambient Mix) [Proton]
2: Exoplanet – Obvious Encephalus [Proton]
3: Arthur Deep – Demonstraight [Proton]
4: Mango – Kisses (Chillout Mix) [Morphosis]
5: Fairmont – Gazelle Tool [Border Community]
6: Somfay – Folding Ghosts Into Orgami Stars [Archipel]
// Radiohead – Reckoner (Somfay Remix) []

frantic

March 14, 2009 · by · in , ,

School is busy.  And that’s the truth.

In this brief break, I would like to thank Yan Li for his wonderful, wonderful musical, LEFT, which I saw today.  Thanks are also due to the mad people behind Sonic Lab on Friday night, who put together a wide-ranging and mad-as-eggs concert.

In terms of shows, I am performing Hollas Longton’s piece, For Martin Arnold at his graduating recital on Saturday, March 28th, at 8:00.  I am also having a piece of mine played in the composition lunchtime concert on Friday, March 27th, at 12:30.  Both of those are in the recital hall at UVic.

I’ve not bought music in far too long, but I’ve been loving sets by Larry Levan, James Zabiela, DJ Koze, Eskmo, and Lazersword of late.  Don’t sleeeeeeep.