OPTIK: BIGGER THAN LIFE

I recently watched the Criterion Collection's blu-ray release of director Nicholas Ray's near horror,  BIGGER THAN LIFE (1956),  and was impressed not only by the wonderful transfer of this Deluxe Color CinemaScope production,  but also by its broad critique of suburbia, consumerism ("What did you get me?"),  our predominantly patriarchal society,  and the smothering of any sort of meaningful creativity.

"So are we. You are, I am. Let’s face it we’re dull. Can you tell me one thing that was said or done by anyone here tonight that was funny, startling, imaginative?”

Christianity and education also take quite the beating here,  generally for the conformity and conservatism served up by each. Obviously,  all of this seemed quite shocking and inappropriate at the time. The film is particularly prescient in its treatment of prescription drug addiction,  as the film itself was inspired by an article on the subject that had appeared in The New Yorker in 1955 and is even more relevant today.  James Mason is chilling as the mild-mannered school teacher (Ed Avery), whose life is turned upside down by the jolting pains that are only quelled by an experimental and highly addictive drug (cortisone) that quickly turns him in to a self-righteous,  erratic,  and horribly "truthful"  father and husband.  Their house seems to scream as Ed has an attack at the front door on the way to the hospital,  his hand grabbing for balance only to find his paroxysm of pain amplified in the tortured cry of the doorbell. Barbara Rush plays wife Lou Avery,  a typical 50's wife with little self-esteem and plenty of self-sacrifice.  Speaking of sacrifice,  Christopher Olsen's performance as son Richie Avery (very much the bound Isaac to father Abraham in the Biblical sense) is a revelation of discomfort,  skittishness, as well as a building anti-authoritism (a kind of stand in for Nicholas Ray and a young generation about to explode).  Ultimately,  this is a movie about pain (physical,  emotional),  those unwelcome guests that stay no matter how intensely ignored,  and   cannot be medicated away in any real sense.  It is also about a toxic environment,  which in this case is suburbia as experienced through the machinations of the nuclear family.  Ray is at his expressionist best here,  giving life to ominous shadows and unease to his camera's perspectives.  There is seemingly a happy ending here that defies the reality of Ed Avery's dire heath concerns,  and brings us right back to those unuttered words,  pain and the NEED to medicate.

REFUSE: The Test Oscillator on My Block

People throw out the strangest things (I always have my eye out for a nice broken VCS3),  but the irony here is that I just wrote about audio test oscillators, and one promptly appeared on the curb down the block from my house.  It powers up and emits what seems to be a sine wave,  though the knobs do little to change intensity or frequency of the signal.  File under:  explore further.

THIS IS HOW WE DEFORM: KOMA Elektronik SVF-201 Variable Filter

I recently purchased this filter from our friends at CONTROL mainly on its strength and simplicity of design,  as well as the LED corona glowing around the large cutoff knob (hey,  who doesn't like lights?).  I had been impressed by this Berlin-based company's other Eurorack product,  the Kommander  CV/Gate Motion Controller,  a handheld dual infrared X-Y motion controller used much like a theremin (though it produces no sound itself).  While the 201's bandpass,  highpass,  and lowpass filter sections seem typical,  it's the mix out of those three that I found most intriguing for overdriven effects.  The CV inputs are also a plus.  I'm looking forward to checking this baby out! 

LOW ARCHITECTURE 7: WESTONE "THE RAIL"

This bizarre and somewhat unique instrument from 1984 features a minimalist body with headless maple neck,  tail tuning machines,  and a sliding pickup.  Of course this design (obviously influenced by early Steinberger models) came as something of a shock to players brought up on the Fender bass design ethic.  Tone is controlled  by sliding the pickup up and down the two rails that comprise most of the body.  Players probably found its lack of mass a bit disconcerting as well,  given the weight associated with most basses. The body resonance factor was as nonexistent as the "body". It didn't sell much,  but is certainly more than a curiosity.

A RECONFIGURATION (of sorts)

As I start to arrange my remaining synths,  the vintage gear (EML, EMS) seems to get tossed aside in favor of newer Eurorack,  Serge,  and Buchla instruments,  but one should never neglect those oldies.  I think the above grouping works well together,  with everything within easy reach and inter-connection.   Let the cacophony begin!

EAR BEFORE: AUDIO TEST OSCILLATORS

Imagine a world where sound-making was limited to lab equipment like the above audio test oscillator, an equalizer for tone control,  a white noise generator,  and an LFO.  Welcome to the late 1950's and 1960's,  when electronic musicians had only these rudimentary tools for producing and modulating sound.  Arrangements were done on tape,  and were surely as tedious as one could imagine.  Please notice the plethora of test oscillators that comprise Simeon (top),  an enormous instrument constructed and used by the band Silver Apples (1st album produced in 1969). Their music could certainly be called "garage electronica" for lack of a better term. For musicians not concerned with pitch (and an ever drifting oscillator),  other choices slowly become available in the form of commercially available synths like Moog modular (rather forbidding in scale and price),  and my favorite,  the EML 200 (1969),  a portable collection of oscillators,  ring modulators,  an LFO,  noise generator,  spring reverb,  sample and hold,  high and low pass filters,  wave shaper,  etc.  In other words,  this was and is,  a user friendly array of synth modules wrapped up in a compact package. And by the clinical look of it,  not very far removed from the lab... nice.

RETURN: EMS SYNTHI AKS

I've only had time to check out a few functions of my vintage Synthi AKS Mk II (1972),  but I must say that the three oscillators working in unison with the filter and envelope shaper can be quite mean and unpredictable.  A subtle turn of a knob or insertion of a matrix pin can really cause havoc,  which is a good thing in this case.  Fun,  to be sure.  Thanks,  Mike.

SH*T ART or ART BRUT?

My brother recently sent me the above photos of a painting (and the "sitter") that was recently described as "awesome" by Facebook friends.  I really must assume that such friends are either blind,  excessively kind,  compulsive liars,  or completely art illiterate.  I'm going for the latter,  as it seems that  a vast number of people prefer their "art"  without emotional resonance, cultural reference points,  poetic ambiguity,  political viewpoint,  conceptual grounding,  or even technical prowess. If this was the visual rumbling of the naive or the insane,  I'd as least "enjoy" it for the qualities inherent in that mindset,  but alas,  that is probably not the case.

VIEW?

As I slowly work out the imagery,  references,  and concept that will be part of this new triptych,  I must also figure out how these three drawings/paintings will be seen on the wall.  I first thought the usual horizontal left to right reading might be the way to go,  but verticality could improve its presence and contribute to the meaning.  What do you think?  It would be nearly nine feet high!

LOW ARCHITECTURE 6: KRAMER DUKE DELUXE

While it was certainly influenced by Steinberger's headless design,  this short-scale Kramer bass introduced in 1981 gives credence to the possibility that smaller could be better.  Its aluminum neck is stable,  yet too cold to the touch for some finicky basses.  The "deluxe" model has a much nicer Schaller bridge/tailpiece and double Jazz Bass style pickups.  It's a tiny,  yet highly playable instrument whose overall look brings a bit more gracefulness to a somewhat staid design.  Now in the collection of Rachelle from CONTROL in Brooklyn... enjoy!

OSCILLATIONS: BISH BOSCH by Scott Walker

Well,  I guess this completes the trilogy of terror that began with TILT (1995),  resumed much later with THE DRIFT (2006), and concludes with this release.  All of them have felt like distant relatives of "song",  and have created vast ambiguous spaces within which text and sound meld into scenes of corpulent dread,  black humor,  and failure.  The human condition is treated as  bodily poetry here,  as arms,  legs, cliched put-downs,  and impolite noises fleck these spaces.  Strangely enough,  it is this preoccupation with the body that makes BISH BOSCH the most approachable of the trilogy.  The cover art is the only one of the three to readily suggest a human presence,  with its stark gestural painting and expressive trail of drips.  As per Scott's methodology,  historical figures and events dot the landscape as doors into lives built on contradiction, betrayal,  and confrontation (see the epic "SDDSS1416+13B (Zercon the Flagpole Sitter)" and "The Day the Conductor Died",  the former concerning a comedic Moorish dwarf in the court of Attila the Hun,  the latter an invitation to Romanian dictator Nicolae Ceausescu to talk about his world). It is so easy to see ourselves in the musings contained in the latter:
                                        
                                             I am nurturant,  compassionate,
                                             caring.

                                             O Not so much,
                                             O Very much.

It's an uneasy truth,  but one that suggests our humanity in all manner of ambiguity, indecision, and self.  Yes,  the angels and the devils are always us,  and Scott gives form to that solipsism.  BISH BOSCH's artistry is also in the sounds and smears that confront,  not illustrate.  I see illustration as a redundancy,  while poetry is about clashes,  obstructions,  and transgressions,  maybe even small illuminations.   They are our stumbles into light and shadow.  Those stumbles are accompanied by a jittery flux of sound and silence,  produced by traditional (guitar,  bass,  orchestra)  and non-traditional (machetes,  bodily sounds) means.  It is this constant movement and change that makes the tracks here so un-graspable and frustrating,  but ultimately so satisfying as an experience.  Again,  this is us and Scott, well beyond "The Sun Ain't Gonna Shine Anymore", stranded in our world of choices and contrasts.

                                          

                                          

             

A SCRUTINY OF SILENCE

MARKER: FIRST DAY OF RETIREMENT

I DREAM OF WIRES: CHRIS CARTER INTERVIEWED