ALMOST MUSIC?

A recent track that takes advantage of the inherent qualities of the Tip Top BD808 and the Flight of Harmony IMP.  Yes,  at this point I do prefer the BD808 to the Blu Lantern Asteroid BD,  as its nearly acoustic sound is ripe for processing.

THE SADNESS OF THINGS

One of my longer recent pieces,  and as such,  done entirely on my Monorocket/Eurorack  systems.  I'm emphasizing texture on this as you can plainly hear,  and keeping things highly discordant and abstract. The prominently used machines  on this track are my Make Noise DPO,  a 4MS Peg,  a Trogotronic 666,  the Malekko Wiard Oscillator,   the Blue Lantern Duo Skew LFO,  ZTVCO and Spacemoth Filter,  and last,  but not least, my Intellijel Ufold.  Enjoy.

MAGNIFIERS: CABARET VOLTAIRE the art of the sixth sense by Mick Fish & D. Hallbery

This book from 1985 (second edition 1989) is quite unlike any pop bio one might find oneself immersed in while in the "reading room" awaiting evacuation and celebrating isolation.  It is essentially a series of interviews with the three key members of Cabaret Voltaire: Richard H. Kirk,  Stephen Mallinder,  and Chris Watson.  Their brand of experimental music borrowed ideas from literature (William Burroughs,  in particular),  the visual arts (Dada, Surrealism,  Performance Art,  Pop Art), "serious"  experimental music (Cage,  Stockhausen),  and film (Bunuel,  Warhol/Morrisey,  Fellini,  Kenneth Anger).  Early on (1974 or so), these influences only added up to a jumble of noise,  tape loops,  and audio verite.  Eventually they jelled into a most peculiar kind of art song,  a seemingly reckless blend of garage experimentalism,  the Velvet Underground,  and cheap drum machines.  Growing up,  I found albums like THE MIX UP (1979),  THE VOICE OF AMERICA (1980),  THREE MANTRAS (1980),  and RED MECCA (1981) most compelling as a form of anti-establishment paranoia,  where conspiracy theories,  political/religious soundbites,  heavily processed vocals,  and harsh sounds coalesced into a voice I wanted to speak in.  The interviews here give us a glimpse into those dark rooms of conception, motivation,  and chance before commercial concerns took a bit of a bite out their recordings.  Mick Fish (who joined the band as a drummer after Chris Watson left) followed this book with an of addendum of sorts in 2002,  INDUSTRIAL EVOLUTION: THROUGH THE EIGHTIES WITH CABARET VOLTAIRE.  Both books are essential reading for those interested in Sheffield's early music scene,  a milieu that added groups like the Cabs,  Clock DVA and Throbbing Gristle to our radical pop playlists. 

OSCILLATIONS: "Moon in June" by Soft Machine

This side long track (19:11) from Soft Machine's THIRD album (a double!) at first seems indicative of the psychedelic excesses of the late sixties and early seventies until you sit down and give it a careful listen.  It's a manifesto of sorts,   as it creatively tramples the cliches inherent in its title in three distinct sections.  The first is the last of Soft Machine's forays into vocal music,  with drummer Robert Wyatt providing a suitably sensual lyric as introduction:

On a dilemma between what I need and what I just want
Between your thighs I feel a sensation
How long can I resist the temptation?
I've got my bird, you've got your man
So who else do we need, really?

Now I'm here, I may as well put my other hand in yours
While we decide how far to go and if we've got time to do it now
And if it's half as good for you as it is for me
Then you won't mind if we lie down for a while, just for a while
Till all the thing I want is need
Till all the thing I want is need

I want you more than ever now
We're on the floor, and you want more, and I feel almost sure
That cause now we've agreed, that we got what we need
Then all the thing us needs is wanting

I realized when I saw you last
We've been together now and then
From time to time - just here and there
Now I know how it feels from my hair to my heels
To have you on the horns of my dilemma
- Oh! Wait a minute! -

Over - Up - Over - Up - ... Down
Down - Over - Up - Over - ... Up

Living can be lovely, here in New York State
Ah, but I wish that I were home
And I wish I were home again - back home again, home again

There are places and people that I'm so glad to have seen
Ah, but I miss the trees, and I wish that I were home again
Back home again

The sun shines here all summer
Its nice cause you can get quite brown
Ah, but I miss the rain - ticky tacky ticky
And I wish that I were home again - home again, home again...

Living is easy here in New York State
Ah, but I wish that I were home again

Just before we go on to the next part of our song
Let's all make sure we've got the time
Music-making still performs the normal functions -
background noise for people scheming, seducing, revolting and teaching
That's all right by me, don't think that I'm complaining
After all, it's only leisure time, isn't it?

Now I love your eyes - see how the time flies
She's learning to hate, but it's just too late for me
It was the same with her love
It just wasn't enough for me
But before this feeling dies
Remember how distance can tell lies!

You can almost see her eyes, is it me she despises or you?
You're awfully nice to me and I'm sure you can see what her game is
She sees you in her place, just as if it's a race
And you're winning, and you're winning
She just can't undertsand that for me everything's just beginning
Until I get more homesick
So before this feeling dies, remember how distance tells us lies...

Singing a song in the morning
Singing it again at night
Don't really know what I'm singing about
But it makes me feel all right

His seemingly stream of consciousness singing/talking/scatting works well in this context, but must really be heard to understand the genius of Wyatt's lyrics and delivery,  and provides a suitable gateway for Hugh Hopper's fluid fuzz bass and Mike Ratledge's traumatically distorted organ sound to blast through. The expanded lineup at work here includes future Soft's mainstay Elton Dean on saxophone and saxello, among other wonderful british players.  The superb jazz/rock/experimental hybrid of the second section eventually gives way to a tape manipulated drone that brings an entropic end to a wonderfully realized "song".  Pataphysics never sounded so good.

OSCILLATIONS: CRESCENT by Andrew Chalk

This rare first edition C-30 from Andrew Chalk in beautiful letterpress packaging shows his sensibility already in full bloom.  "Bloom"  may indeed be just the right word to describe the earthy organic drones that comprise CRESCENT (1986) and its gorgeous graphic design.  One gets the impression that this really is a handmade release, some sort of pre-industrial artifact with the artist's touch in full evidence here. With that in mind, I hesitate to use the much maligned term "industrial" to describe these sounds,  as they seem more akin to markings found in Lascaux,  that "cathedral" of Paleolithic Art found in southern France.  Here are hushed atmospheres that slowly evolve into themselves,  folding and unfolding until  a reverence rather than a noisy crescendo is heard,  much like a a pagan prayer.  The titles imply elemental forces at work,  and that's precisely what you hear:  rubbing,  bowing,  blowing,  shaking,  and striking.  A call back to an earlier,  less frenetically electric time. 

THIS IS HOW WE DEFORM: Make Noise DPO

This is the latest addition to Make Noise's Eurorack hysteria,  and as such,  it's a continuous thread at Muffwiggler,  and flying out the door at CONTROL in Brooklyn.  In lieu of a re-designed Maths,  the Dual Prismatic Oscillator is tickling fancies all over the modular world (if you can get one!).  It clearly consists of two primary oscillators that not only produce a wide array of waveforms,  but both can FM each other into a frenzy,  as well as be used as an LFO.  Parameters can be further controlled through CV inputs and attenuators. While it may seem rather pricey at $599,  it's a far cry from the cost of its obvious forebear,  the Buchla 259e.  Go on,  make noise!

VOICEOVER: Director Stephen Kijack on the Culture Gap

"I feel like the alternative I belong to isn't a sexuality thing;  it's your artistic pursuit,  your point of view,  your political,  social,  and cultural beliefs,  that set you apart."*

*from NO REGRETS:  WRITINGS ON SCOTT WALKER edited by Rob Young

Kijack here describes that uncomfortable feeling of being apart,  other,  or  a kind of stranger on Earth. These  individuals struggle to exist in a world where "status",  a word not often used in my conversation or writing,  is defined by money,  social  connectivity, use of conformist media,  and a clandestinely flexible adherence to "family values".  One thing that most of these people share is a sense of uncertainly,  and it's that doubt that leads to an embrace of the ambiguities and rewards of art.  Yes,  there can be comfort in creation,  however skewed by cultural standards.

NEW this second sleep STUDIO VIEWS

Here are a few photos of where my kids' food money is going (oooops,  I have no kids).  I've taken to the abstract structural possibilities of modular synthesis,  having no need for keyboards (I hardly count my EMS Synthi capacitance keyboard) or exact pitch.  Besides the already mentioned EMS,  the other big players here are EML,  Buchla,  Serge,  and the multitude of designers/manufacturers involved with the Eurorack format.  At this point I've cleared away nearly all extraneous,  redundant,  and limited machinery.  Let the noise begin!

SH*T #3: CLAUDE MONET'S INFLUENCE

While Monet's approach to painting may have seemed revolutionary in its time,  it has devolved into a kind of classical dab and dissipate take on space, form,  content,  and meaning,  leaving only technique,  and not a very interesting one at that.  Yes,  there was initial liberation and transformation here,  but little that could outlast its purely technical concerns.  Monet's influence can be seen in scores of sunday painters'  work (see above for a "copy" of one of his better know works,  "Essai de Figure en Plein Air" 1886),  but without the sensuous impasto and luminescent disintegration much in evidence in his best work.  Light,  the primary component of Monet's paintings,  is seen as a flaccid element in most imitators,  totally lacking Monet's power to deconstruct/reconstruct a genre such as landscape or still-life.  Basically,  Monet,  with his pastel colors and prettiness (go to the Musee d'Orsay in Paris if you really want to gag on the obnoxious sweetness of Impressionism),  has given bad painters a green light to reduce his vision to simple "prettiness",  a term that seems more like a case of unintentional condescension than anything else. Now,  that's scary! With hindsight,   Monet (1840-1926) can certainly be seen as the Father of Sh*t Art.  Thanks,  Claude.

MIRACLE Part 2: A ZOe Chronology

MARCH 15,  2011:  Payment in full,  followed by the emails from Cynthia,  excerpts below...

MARCH 30,  2011:  "Your Zoe will not be ready for several weeks."

APRIL 29,  2011:  "Running a few weeks late."

JULY 16,  2011:  "We're running a little late,  but almost there... we'll have them fulfilled by           August."    
                          
JULY 23,  2011:  "Should be shipping in three weeks."

SEPT 12,  2011:  "Ten days before we ship."

SEPT 26,  2011:  We're two weeks away."

Many of my emails to Cynthia were not responded to all.  For the last few months,  someone named "Louise" fielded questions in a much more business-like way.  She promised and delivered the ZOe Mk. II with only a minor delay during her watch. Could "Louise" have been the new, improved Cynthia?  Who knows? On August 3, 2012 my ZOe finally arrived at my doorstep,  only seventeen months after paying in full.  

           

MIRACLE: Cyndustries ZOe Mk. II

After more than and year and a half (since my payment in full),  Cynthia has finally delivered the Zeroscillator Mk. II to disgruntled buyers who've been waiting three years plus in some cases.  I was assured by a friend that she always delivers,  but as months and months slipped by,  I became less than hopeful.  Misinformation circulated,  usually created by Cynthia herself,  that helped fuel anger without presenting anything definitive... hope limped on.  Well,  somehow mine arrived a day ago,  and it looks beautiful!  Its depth has been greatly reduced (to a more reasonable One and a half inches),  so placement is no longer an issue.  Now let's see how this Mk. II drives.  A full chronology to follow.