Sometimes its tough to get past the music one listens to when writing. Such is the case with the current project I’m working on.
I’m currently writing percussion and drones for use in the next performance @ Textures, Bios+a+ic’s (Wes’) monthly ambient series. This month should be a good one, as the show will be a 2 hour long improvised (well not completely improv, this is still electronic music) ambient excursion featuring Wes, his wife Jewel, Mike Stacey (Circle Six Mike), and Myself.
While working on some skeletal beat ideas this collection of sparse percussion and dubbed out delay ended up sounding like an early 2000’s Monolake track. I can’t say I’m particularly upset about this, Monolake’s work and bulk of material I have listened to and picked apart for sound design ideas ever since I was first introduced to to it in 2000. But it is strange how quickly one finds something familiar then runs with it…
I am please to announce that after a largely successful guest DJ spot, yours truly will be DJing Lipgloss @ La Rumba every second Friday of the month. For those of you that aren’t in Denver please understand that this is a pretty big deal. Lipgloss has been a regular Friday night in Denver for over 8 years. Consistently, Lipgloss sees between 350-500 people a night, and is an all around good time.
I thought I would go ahead and post a mix from last week for you to get an idea of what I will be playing (dancey synth-pop love songs… im a total sucker for that stuff!)
contact me if you’d like a copy of this mix for download!
Life got hectic there for a little while. New home, new decade of my life, no relationship to speak of… meh, enough excuses.
I’ve been working on tunes, Djing here and there, booking gigs and (but of course) making weird sounds.
I’m pleased to announce that I’m playing upstairs @ Beta, in the Beatport Lounge, opening for MiMosa. Also playing will be S.P.E.C.T.R.E., Citrus, and my homie Jason Roth (The Juice?? i guess thats what we call him these days)
I’m playing first as I have the least amount of people drawing power, and my stuff will be much more abstract (weird huh?) than the rest of the fellas playing. so 9-10pm, August 14th. Be there or Be [ ].
some new material (and some old reworked stuff too!)
i posted an early version of this asking for some opinions as to where to go with it. Thanks to those who responded, this is the new working draft, it needs some mixing help, but this is the tentative arrangement. I’ll let it sit for a few days before having a go at a proper mixdown.
Looking forward to debuting this track live @ Transistor Fest next month!
quick and dirty. I’ve been enjoying making some seriously interesting sounds using convolution to marry two sound files together. Convolution is way too involved for me to attempt to explain, so heres the wiki for it.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Convolution
I’ve found some free applications that employ the technique if you want to skip the reading and get to the convolving (as my cousin Steve would say, “skip the labor, gimme the baby”).
Right now seems to be a renaissance for electronic musicians, we are coming into an age where those who are just now becoming interested in composition and sound design have lived with and used a computer as long as they have been capable of using a mouse.
There is a boom in the DIY mentality, availability of parts and widespread know how is more abundant for those interested in creating audio devices or systems of control, not to mention programming languages that are out there that people are utilizing to create and manipulate sound.
There are a ton of great projects out there to get ones feet wet with, one doesn’t necessarily need to be an engineer or software programmer right off the bat to get involved. The following websites feature hardware projects that a beginner can build with little to no prior experience (other than knowing how to use a soldering iron)
http://www.paia.com/ (makers of the Fatman kit, many geeks first synth kit build, including mine)
http://www.musicfromouterspace.com/
http://ucapps.de/ (starting to get a little more sophisticated)
Have a fear of the soldering iron?
some (free) programming languages/applicatons out there for audio tomfoolery:
i need some advice/direction as to where to go with this. i really like the direction, but I’m a little stuck at the moment.
anyone?
UPDATED! new stuff added this morning before i went into work. thanks for the help y’all! im thinking the next step is a tentative arrangement, you know, the beginnings of a proper track.
