Filed under: media, music, technology | Tags: cycling 74, granular synthesis, IRCAM, littlebits, max/msp, tim hecker
From a post at “we make money not art”, I found this project called littleBits. The idea is a fairly simple one:
littleBits is a growing library of preassembled circuit boards, made easy by tiny magnets. All logic and circuitry is pre-engineered, so you can play with electronics without knowing electronics. Tiny magnets act as connectors and enforce polarity, so you can’t put things in the wrong way. And all the schematics will be shared under an opensource license so you can download, upload, suggest new bits and hopefully see them come to life.
Basically, the project means to democratize the creation of physical technology in much the same way that Cycling ‘74 and IRCAM democratized the means of granular synthesis, or the synthesis of sound from the bottom up, the freeing of the most microscopic materials of sound sampling, allowing one to create their own electronic instruments. They did this first with MAX/MSP, and, in fact, even more so with PureData. (Thanks, Miller Puckette).
Tim Hecker discussed the need for granular synthesis in an electronic music issue of the now-defunct Parachute Magazine, and I think the argument he makes holds for physical, “black-boxed” technology as well as it does for electronic music. The essential idea is that the fetishization of technology or neo-naturalism are both backward ways of dealing with technological development. That is to say, we need to examine the technology insofar as it allows us to move beyond it, rather than allow ourselves to be seduced by a meditation on the state of a single technology, to fixate rather than innovate:
Perhaps a form of electronic music will come which will leave the technology it uses as only a trace — so that the aesthetic field opens up again to allow for spaces which are free from the suffocation of medium-based discourses; an electronic music which leaves its technology as just a murmur.
We do this precisely through, he suggests, granular synthesis rather than pre-programmed sound production software. The beauty computer-made music is, with relatively minimal expertise, how one gains an astounding control over the whole range of possible sounds. LittleBits seems to be making the same possible for those without a complex understanding of circuitry and mathematics (one of the problems holding the spread of granular synthesis is the grasp of mathematics it requires, though, anyone who passed trigonometry should find it well within the realm of possibility to learn).
LittleBits, if you read the interview, seems to require only that you match colors and conceive of simple circuits. It is certainly a first stage, but I think it is the first stage of something wonderful: freeing the basic materials of electronic technologies so that people can make them for themselves. Perhaps some day we will have LittleBits stores next to craft stores: it seems to be a potentially complex but basically simple kit with a nearly infinite number of interesting and cool possibilities. The number of possible basic units is both staggering and encouraging. The idea presents people with the building blocks of their own electronic experimentation, no complex machinery, start-up capital or fancy engineering education required. Maybe some will get a taste for it and move on to more advanced experimentation.
Obviously, this system by itself will not replace consumer technologies with a DIY culture, but projects like this are an exciting step in the correct direction.
Which is all to say: make yr own technology!
Filed under: interview, music, oulipo | Tags: angil, bök, cage, evans, glass, hiddntracks, minimalism, mottet, oulipo, piano, reich
I am cross-posting this with my other, collaborative blog: ghostisland.wordpress.com
A few months ago I found this album by “Angil and Hiddntracks” called Oulipo Saliva, which was built with a great deal of interest in constraint, avoiding the use of the letter “e,” focusing on woodwind instrumentation, the use of an old untuned piano, and even avoiding the use of the key of E.
I would certainly recommend it–a carefully crafted piece at every level. Here’s their myspace page.
With experiments like this, results can be either gimmicky or a wonderful surprise. They are, in this case, pretty dazzling. I wrote a small piece about it and Mickaël must have had a google alert set up for his name, because he dropped me a message and then graciously agreed to have an email conversation with me about his music.
Here’s the text: I think you’ll find that Mickaël is an uncommonly aware, crafty, sharp, interesting, and friendly musician. I’ve let him know that I will be posting this here, and that you may be commenting on it. So, if you have anything to say, make sure to say it.
I would definitely recommend reading the conversation, he’s a lovely guy with a lot of things to say. My apologies for talking so much.
Filed under: music, random | Tags: aging, college, growing up, madeleine, memory, the postal service, the speed of time, time
Give up!
Looking through my music collection today I realized that the album “Give Up” by The Postal Service is fully 7 years old. This means that it has been 7 complete, tumultuous and jarring years since the first time I remember thinking to myself that I was finally old enough. As we were dragging my boxes, my computer and my speaker system up the stairs of the dorm, I could barely hear my parents over the sound of someone playing “Such Great Heights” loudly enough that we could still hear it in my hall, one flight up and all the way across the floor. I had a minifridge, my parents left me there and I didn’t have anyone to answer to. My brothers had left starting 7 years before that and I remember believing I would never get to that point. I think the record was on repeat, or I’m completely conflating the track with my memories, because I swear it was playing when they left, too. I remember this clearly. I was ecstatic, nervous and a little scared but full of joy. (more…)
Filed under: media, music, thesis | Tags: consonance, consonants, dissonance, language, music, waveform, wildstyle
I am going to start posting some things from my thesis as I attempt to work them out. Sometimes these ideas will be more complete than others. This one, for instance, is the beginning of an idea but could possibly be interesting to others. I have the aim of taking this further and using consonance and dissonance as organizing principles for other sorts of realms: linguistic, political, social, etc. etc. I’m just trying to bang out some relations here, as it stands.
[[[Consonan(ts/ce)]]]
While a vowel sound is formed in the larynx, and only receives its special quality by the conformation of the oral cavity through which it is sounded, a consonant sound is wholly or mainly produced in the mouth, or the mouth and nose. Vowels thus consist of pure voice or musical sound; consonants are either simple noises or noises combined in various degrees with voice. But a noise may itself be of a continuous and rhythmical character, as a (more…)
Filed under: music | Tags: color me badd, jonas brothers, slant, the auteurs
Though Slant Magazine (read: not Slate) can be frustrating at best, somehow managing to balance a sense of critical and cultural superiority with a love of safe MOR music, every once in a while, one of their album picks reveals itself to be a surprisingly gutsy pick. However, looking at their year-end lists always makes me uncomfortable for a reason I can’t quite comprehend–maybe it’s that the two sides of the music-review persona don’t quite jibe with one another. Their movie reviews tend to be quite good, however, and are well worth examining for anyone interested in keeping up with independent film (a task much more difficult than keeping up with independent music.) Another great site for this is The Auteurs, with some pretty lively forum discussion and a surprisingly insightful blog, to boot. Unfortunately, you need to pay to watch the movies now, but for those of us who don’t have or want a netflix account, this site is an incredibly useful index.
The Jonas Brothers have defied all expectations and released a movie proving that they are, in fact, 3-D. The fourth dimension remains doubtful, as I think time will likely prove that the Jonas Brothers will go the way of the dodo and Color Me Badd, though without either a hilarious name or a hilariously terrible song (I wanna sex you up) about sleep-sexing. The Slant article reviewing the movie is one of the more incredulous pieces of writing I’ve seen in some time, obviously the work of a reviewer who would have been nowhere near that particular theater had it not been his job. He writes about the Jonas Brothers the same way someone would write about an oncoming zombie apocalypse:
Still, no amount of artist enthusiasm can change the eeriness of seeing young female fans weeping and hyperventilating over these focus-tested moppets, who at film’s beginning are seen getting awakened from seemingly normal human sleep, but whose every word, smile, gesture, and Mick Jagger-ish strut belies their actual pod-people natures.
Pop music has its good and bad points, it can be used to smuggle in revolutionary politics over a dance beat, to funnel experimental tendencies through a melody, or for other subversive results. The pop machine is one that, paradoxically, rewards safety and adventure. It seems, considering the Jonas Brothers are a saccharine version of music that was outsider maybe a decade ago, that safety tends to be pop music on its way out. The Jonas Brothers are sounding the death knell of an idea, the smuggling of safety and commerce into a medium more ideally suited for tricks and experiments, hoodwinks.
Or maybe I’m just bitter because, while working at a sandwich shop, I was once told by a woman that I looked like “A Jonas Brother.” She didn’t specify which, and that’s all fine and good–who can tell the difference anyhow?
JONAS BROTHER OMG
This is a truly fascinating bit of music: Angil and Hiddntracks, during a post-gig discussion, thought about writing a bunch of songs for almost only woodwinds for want of focusing on that woodwind sound, also stipulating that all songs should avoid a grouping of chords particularly difficult for alto saxophonists to play. Angil runs with this–going two jumps out (changing (for this album only?) to “Angil,” and his supporting band to “Hiddn Tracks”), and shying from (mostly, ignoring his (frankly, sad) slipping on six or so grammatically-hard-to-avoid words) lyrics in violation of his organizing standards. So, this fun, this passing thought, quickly turns into a spry OuLiPo constraint, involving gaming both musical and linguistic. Lastly, as if this wouldn’t satisfy his compulsion to play, Angil bought a piano from a closing clothing shop (a liquidation) and, thinking that tuning it would probably ruin his fun, built all his songs on and around this bizarro-carnival thing (though his piano is commonly (and annoyingly) said to ring out with a “Tim Burton” sound), his band following suit, strictly and assiduously avoiding all violations.
So, in summary: a skillful dodging of constraint violations both musically and lyrically. Additional constraint and difficulty coming with his thrift shop bizarro-piano. A fascinating album, AND, might I add, a joy to own. Dazzling. A charming work of art with a sound of its own. Music for sad birds, an aviary symphony.
Worth looking into, I would say.
Angil and Hiddntracks – Oulipo Saliva
Proposal: Indie-rock musicians, the new rockstars, are being paid for putting their music into commercials not only monetarily, but also in units of irony. Following “The New Slang” being used in a McD’s commercial (graciously pointed out to me by Ben Segal), we now have m83 in a car commercial.
m83 – Don’t Save Us from the Flames (Pontiac Commercial?)
This leads me to believe that the ad agency handling Pontiac’s ads have a better sense of humor than one could have expected. Or, Pontiac themselves have a better sense of humor. Either way, someone has a sense of humor, and m83 is most certainly in on the joke: “Yes, I’m selling my music for a commercial, but I’m also subtly undermining the commercial. Or making cars seem cooler by allowing a song about melting wheels and brains in your hair into a car commercial. Either way, I am being quite clever.”
There is some sort of subtle and only partially apparent machine at work here.
Lastly: the video for the m83 song is incredibly charming. In a noteworthy turn, it features a bicycle.
Filed under: music
Carrie Brownstein, once — and hopefully future? — shred doctor for Sleater-Kinney has written a wonderful little review of Wii Music for Slate Magazine (which, by the way, is probably the coolest pairing since Hall and Oates). I recommend reading it. It’s refreshing to read a review written with a complete lack of pretense — I’m looking at you, Pitchforkmedia — in a simple, friendly style. Not that this is a review of the latest Scott Walker, but you catch my point. The whole piece has the tone of talking to a friend, though admittedly a friend who was in a seminal indie rock group and is Fred Armison’s other half in a comedy duo.
Which is all to say, it makes me wish that we were buds. Also, I now officially have a little crush on her. Add her to the list of well-spoken musicians with blogs that are worth reading (Darnielle being the other one that I can think of), as well as to the list of cute girls who can also play the guitar better than you imagined possible (Marnie Stern!).
Also, check out her review of Rock Band.
Filed under: music
I have a new mix up at muxtape:
karateisland.muxtape.com
You know, songs for listening to. Check the site out, its a pretty cool idea. I would say more but I think it probably speaks for itself.
“Yes, we live in a world where the popularity of Wolf Parade is enough to sustain not one, but three yelpy moustache bands, yet the Horseshoe doesn’t even fill for HILOTRONS’ CD release. There is no God.”
-From Cokemachineglow
Yesterday at Darwin’s, slinging sandwiches and non-fat lattes at entitled Cambridge housewives, grumpy elderly people, and kids who look like they just finished their A&F photoshoot, I played the latest HILOTRONS record. This elicited two different responses from customers. (more…)
