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weather canada

June 17, 2008 · by · in , ,

bWe’re well into one-off territory, folks. The weather in Vancouver has been all kinds of bad, but there’s a lot to talk about:

– I went to see Jamie Lidell about a thousand years ago now, at Richards on Richards, and despite his new album being way too Jameeroquai for me, his live show is still amazing.  Highlights included a man playing two saxophones at one, an extended beatbox jam of tunes from Mulitply and an epic encore.

– James Zabiela at Celebrities was pretty good too.  The problem with JZ in this day and age is that everyone else has caught up to his sound.  He’s still got all sorts of black magic and trickery, but it doesn’t sound as violently new as it did before.

– The m_nus showcase, also at Celebrities (which is a gorgeous space, by the by), was pretty good.  Hawtin no-showed, but Magda and Heartthrob played, with Heartthrob’s live set particularly impressing.

– On the subject of shows, I can’t thank the people behind Back To Bollywood and White Label (and Kenzie Clarke, my partner in crime at White Label) enough.  Both gigs were good times.

– Onwards and upwards, now.  How cool is Phoenix?  And how cool is this shot?

That’s a spacecraft landing on Mars.  Photographed by another spacecraft that’s orbiting Mars.  I think that’s amazingly bad-ass, myself.

– To geek out about acoustics, if you live above ground level in a big city, spend a night with the windows open listening to sirens as they echo off buildings, like ghosts.  Gorgeous.

– Tide Pool Is Love is this Thursday on Proton Radio, and features an overwhelming two-hour set from Robsounds, as well as a headfuck ambient / string quartet from Hollas Longton.  Tune in, do.

All My Friends – A Mixtape Special

June 11, 2008 · by · in

It’s done: Download here.

1001 <3s to the contributors: Alex Jang, Alia Yeates, Amanda Farrell, Andy Clequin, Chelsie Kadgien, Colin Moller, Dave Miles, Emily Farnsworth, Gerald Deo, Hilary Dawson, Jennifer Mitchell, Jessica Smith, John Spurr, Jordie Yow, Josh Doherty, Kathleen Genge, Kim Shepherd, Kira Hall, Kyle Smith, Mary Clark, Nathan Friedman, Pat Littlejohn, Rob Cross, Ryan Noakes.
Tracklist:

  1. Nujabes – Feather feat. Cise Starr & Akin
  2. Bach – Fantasia in G Major
  3. CocoRosie – K-Hole
  4. Bonnie Prince Billy – The South Side Of The World
  5. Dmitri Shostakovich – Jazz Waltz
  6. Morphine – Bo’s Veranda
  7. Julie Doiron – The Wrong Guy
  8. Serge Gainsbourg – Joanna
  9. Jamie Saft Trio – Czeqeel
  10. Tyler Straub – Easy Does It
  11. Cadence – The Things We Do For Love
  12. Handel – Zadok The Priest
  13. Patrick Wolf – The Magic Position
  14. Crystal Castles – Crimewave
  15. Bach – Fantasia in G Major
  16. The Rolling Stones – Jumpin’ Jack Flash
  17. Maurice Ravel – Le Jardin Feerique
  18. Fall Out Boy – The Take Over, The Breaks Over
  19. Editors – All Sparks (Cicada Remix)
  20. The Bravery – An Honest Mistake
  21. Pearl Jam – Dissident
  22. Okkervil River – A King and a Queen
  23. Radiohead – Reckoner (LoveTongueAttack Bmore Remix)
  24. The Smiths – That Joke Isn’t Funny Any More
  25. Talking Heads – Seen And Not Seen

I think it turned out really, really well, although this sort of mixing can be really subjective. (Disclaimer: I had to split the Bach up. I hope you can all forgive me.) Regardless, the tunes themselves are overwhelmingly eclectic and kind of fantastic, and that’s the point.  Enjoy! (Prior info on this project can be found here.)

white label / lit literature

June 2, 2008 · by · in ,

I am playing at White Label on June 14th, in Victoria.  I appear to be both opening and closing, and tagging with the legendary Kenzie Clarke in both slots.  If you like the techno, you should come.
I’ve been reading.  Ooops.  Kind of a lot.  I can say that the ‘The Best American Comics’ yearly anthologies, populated by people like Chris Ware, Robert Crumb and Jamie Hernandez, are very, very good.  I can say that ‘Empire’, by NOZONE, is a really lovely piece of work.  I can say that MAUS is amazing.  I can say that BLACK ORCHID is very obvious an early work of Gaiman’s and McKean’s – see in that light, it’s very good.  See in the same light as SANDMAN, it feels like a stepping stone.  I can say that FABLES, or at least the first book of FABLES, is like LXG meets SANDMAN…and not as good as either.

Whew.  I can also say that THIS IS YOUR BRAIN ON MUSIC, by Daniel Levetin, is very good – I would have liked a dash more science, but it’s a lovely read.  I also enjoyed a random single of DOKTOR SLEEPLESS, despite the harpings of my friends – I think Ellis is going somewhere with it.  Buy the ticket (or the trade), and take the ride.  I’m struggling through WORDS & MUSIC, by Paul Morley.  It would be a better book, I think, if Morley hadn’t been totally high when he was writing it.  I also need to finish THE MODERN CENTURY, by Northrop Frye….which is dry, but interesting.

Mixtape update / 1001 nights

May 30, 2008 · by · in , , ,

An update to All My Friends!  If you want to submit music for the mixtape, you have until Monday.  Click here for all the details.

Now then, on to about a thousand thousand other things:

– EveryBlock is really classy.  It’s overwhelmingly Web 2.0, but there’s lots of potential in there.

– Matt and I found a good hour or so from our monumental 5-hour set at hush.  So we put it on the internet:

Art is by the legendary Gabe from Penny Arcade.  There is also a preliminary video, if you’re on the facebook bandwagon.

– Merde, I have so much to say.  Execution is a lovely, lovely flash game.  It takes about 30 seconds to play, so be sure to play it twice.   The Penny-Arcade game is blatant fan service, but is very, very funny.

– EURO 2008 IS IN A WEEK.  I’m supporting Romania.

– Finally, I went to the Vancouver Art Gallery for the KRAZY exhibition of comics, anime and video games…and it was really pretty good.  The comics section was a little highbrow for my tastes, but there’s no question that it featured some amazing work.  Anime and manga lend themselves better to being blown up on huge walls, whereas some of the comics suffered just from being small.  The video game section wasn’t big enough (and was missing Zork and Tetris), but was pretty good otherwise.  We’re planning to go back some night other than opening night and taking our time with it.

All My Friends: A Mixtape Special To Be

May 15, 2008 · by · in ,


This probably reached lots of you via email, but I couldn’t be sure who would be interested, so I’ll crosspost the email here:

“Hi there!  I’m looking for a (small amount) of help with a music project.

I’ve been doing a lot of collaborative DJ sets of late, and I was suddenly struck very hard by the thought that I should do a mix with all of my friends who are *not* DJs or music producers.

If you’re interested, you should send me or link me to:
– A piece of music that you really, really like that is under 7 minutes.  (If you need me to edit a certain 7 minutes out of a longer work, I can do that.)
– A picture of yourself.  I’ll be making a mosaic of everyone’s picture and giving everyone credit, though I won’t be matching names to music.

I will take everyone’s input and mix / edit them together in a hopefully fairly coherent order.  The end result will go up on djfractal.net and be distributed to the internet net at large.  (I may split it into multiple parts, depending on the number of responses.)

Let me know if you’re interested, or just send me music & images (djfractal at gmail.com), or harass me with any questions.

corner of 4th and mirror

May 13, 2008 · by · in

I have clips for you, you lucky, lucky people.

Fractal – Mistroad – A work in progress since the start of first term last year.  ‘Mistroad’ has gone from dubstep to three-piece chamber music to nasty, darkroom progressive house.  The prog house version will be the version to get finished, although I’m still not certain about the ending.

Rennie Foster – A Commitment To Transit (A Skytrain Ride With Fractal) – I did this remix in about an afternoon, followed by some mixdown and mastering the next day.  This never happens with me, but I’m really pleased with how this mix turned out.  It should be released on Rennie’s Dirty Works label sometime this year.

Fractal – The World Outside –  This is a preview of my megamix /  album thingy.  It’s essentially everything I’ve ever done that I like, remixed and re-edited in to a coherent quasi-downtempo sort of think.  Think L.S.G or BT, and you’ll get the idea.

the other side

May 5, 2008 · by · in ,

I’m online in Vancouver, for the record.  I finished two quick & dirty minisets in my time offline, however:

Download here.

1: Tigerskin – The Holy Grail (Vintage Dub Mix) [Moodmusic]
2: Lee Jones – Aria (Tiger Stripes Remix)[Aus]
3: Liquid People – Son Of Dragon [Defected]
4: Chymera – Umbrella (Funk D’Void Remix) [Mezzotinto]
5: Chymera – Umbrella (Spooky Remix) [Mezzotinto]
6: Rennie Foster – A Commitment To Transit []
7: Mike Oldfield – Far Above The Clouds (Timewriter’s Big Bag Of Secrets) [Kinetic]


Download here.

1: Mistika & Medina – After Hours Ensemble (David West Remix) [Curvve]
2: Noel Sanger – Natural Perfection [Dissident]
3: Benz & MD – Signals (AFK’s Ogopogo Remix) [Proton]
4: Stel – Heart Full Of Napalm [Hope]
5: Keenan & Anderson – Runaway (Steve May Dub) [Navigation]
6: Gareth Emery – Outrageous (Shiloh Remix) [Baroque]
7: AFK – Eclipse (Dustin H’s Someday Solar Remix) [Pacific Front]

And yes, I used huge pictures for both of them.  Neener neener.

but if you’re bored

April 27, 2008 · by · in , , ,

A thousand and one thank-yous to everyone who came to Hush last night and rocked out with Matt and I. We kind of had a lot of fun.

Now, some things on The Internet need to be mentioned here.

NAWLZ is the first one. It’s a cyberpunk styled webcomic, done all in Flash, with lots hidden cues, flat out amazing art, a soundtrack, and acres of style. The story is a little byzantine, but the presentation is mind-bogglingly tight.

Muxtape, no relation to the legendary Vancouver acid techno phenom, is nothing more than a simple way to put mix tapes online. As if you didn’t have enough music to listen to.

Back in the real world, I’ve been trying to list off the best music school concerts of the spring term, and I’m having a darn hard time paring it down. I think my most favorite thing was, oddly enough, the Orchestra doing readings of pieces by Hollas, Felipe, and Andrew – all of which were very good and very, very different.

Honorable mentions go to just about everything else: the Concerto concert, the Orchestra doing Firebird, umpteen grad recitals and Friday Musics, and the impossible, improbable MUS 105 concert.

mimirisms

April 21, 2008 · by · in ,


I can’t praise BOOKHUNTER, from Shiga Books, enough.  In fact, I’m going to read it again.  If you like noir, books, or general geekery, you’ll probably dig it.

I find myself less fulsome in my praise for SHIKASTA, by Nobel laureate Doris “Oh, finally” Lessing.  The writing is fine, the premise is good, if a bit muddled in the beginning, and the brutal deconstruction of the human condition is exceptional.  However, I cannot stand the shifty, communist / higher power undertones.  If we’re going to save the world, we’re going to have to do it ourselves – not rely on people from other planets.

Also, music:
Sandji – A Walk At The Sunset Seaside [Proton]
Feihstel & Ukumori – You Made Me Smile (Instrumental) [Proton]
Ryan Davis – Clouds Passing By [Back Home]
Ryan Davis – Wide Open Spaces [Klang]
Dibby Dougherty – Lights Out (Chloe Harris Remix) [Dyami]
Rex The Dog – Circulate [Kitsune]
Rex The Dog – Italian Blond [Kitsune]
KIM – Fistogram [Modular]

(Have I mentioned that I’m playing at Hush this Saturday?  I think I have.)

linked lists are the new black

April 17, 2008 · by · in , , ,

A reminder:  I’m DJing at Sunset this Saturday evening, and then at Hush next Saturday.  Sunset will be techno, Hush with will be full-on madness with DJ What.  You should come.

I got the trade of THE NIGHTLY NEWS, by Jonathan Hickman, a few weeks ago, and I’ve been reading it when not studying for exams.  I wasn’t that impressed by the single that I bought, but the entire book is glorious.  It combines a dissertation about media, trust, belief, and the worst parts of the human spirit with a jet-black sense of humour.  Not the easiest of reads, but well recommended.

Two thoughts on the video game side of things, which I may talk more about later:  is it possible to use video games to teach synthesis of concepts?  That is, is it possible to use the closed system of a game to teach people to look outside of closed systems?

Also, is it possible (and would it be fun?) to make, on a console, a system for creating and sharing D&D-esq adventures?  The underlying game could be anything, but is the ability to deal with user-generated content feasible?

Finally, I hate to use this website for actual personal updates, but:  I’ll be moving to Vancouver for the summer as of the end of April or so.  If you’re going to be in town, drop me a line, do.