108 posts tagged with music and ElectronicMusic.
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It's OK to Cry
SOPHIE (yt) Is Gone. Her Music Lives On - "The artist's posthumous album is less an expression of her journey than a guide for the rest of us—a last gift." (previously) [more inside]
The Electronic Sackbut - the World’s First Synthesizer
In 1945, Hugh Le Caine, a physicist at Canada’s National Research Council, began working in his spare time on a single-channel musical instrument he dubbed the Electronic Sackbut. He was intrigued by the fact that the three auditory sensations associated with music—namely, pitch, loudness, and timbre—had counterparts in electronics—namely, frequency, amplitude, and the harmonic spectrum obtained by Fourier analysis. To demonstrate those qualities, Le Caine created a synthesizer that mimicked, among other things, a brass horn known as the sackbut. Listen to it on Hugh Le Caine - Compositions Demonstrations 1946-1974 (full album). Oh, and Vanilla Ice Remembers The Electronic Sackbut [more inside]
I'm a HORSE not a DJ
I walk, I trot, I lope, I gallop! Get to know dj and producer horsegiirL, a rising star amongst "a new wave of electronic artists that prioritize the fun and kitschy, that counters the more serious approach that often permeates the electronic music scene". Or as she says in "My Barn My Rules": Did you know there are more than 350 breeds horses in the world, and I am one of them! [more inside]
OK Google, Save My Life
Google researchers unveil a generative music AI, MusicLM. "We introduce MusicLM, a model generating high-fidelity music from text descriptions such as a calming violin melody backed by a distorted guitar riff'..." [more inside]
Electric Friends of Electric Friends
Electronic pop/dance flourished internationally: Be a Boy, Gina X Performance; Thrash, Cowboys International; Day Breaks, Night Heals, Thomas Leer & Robert Rental; Aurora B., Krisma; Chip 'N' Roll, Silicon Teens; I Need Somebody To Love Tonight, Sylvester; Faites le proton (Inst.), Casino Music; Kameari Pop, P-Model; Margherita (Inst. Hot Edit), Massara; The Visitors (Inst.), Gino Soccio; Alien (12" Disco), Nostromo; Underwater, Harry Thumann. Minimalism too: 1, Galen Herod; Ice Floe, Young Scientist; Have a Good Ride, Pyrolator; Sei Note in Logica, Roberto Cacciapaglia. Trash Theory's Before Are 'Friends' Electric gives a genealogy for high-profile British synth-pop of the year: Electricity (Version II), OMD; Are 'Friends' Electric? Tubeway Army; Cars, Gary Numan. And, technically, it was the year of The New Sound of Music (1979).
A whole new way to make electronic music
In a way, Bespoke is like if I smashed Ableton to bits with a baseball bat, and asked you to put it back together. [more inside]
Love on a Real Train
The 1984 single from Tangerine Dream, set to a night time video of the automated Tokyo Yurikamome line from Shimbashi to Odaiba (alternative video, shortened side-view video). The track appeared in the film Risky Business, as well as The Squid and the Whale, Mr Robot, and Black Mirror: Bandersnatch. Different train video, train composite video.
Microtonality
Decolonizing Electronic Music Starts With Its Software. "In 2004, Khyam Allami was ready to give up on electronic music. No matter how hard he tried, he couldn’t write melodies that sounded like the music in his head. “It felt like the software was leading me somewhere that wasn’t my intention, and I couldn’t understand why that was,” he recalls. Born in Syria to Iraqi parents, Allami had grown up in London playing guitar and drums in punk bands. He was exploring Arabic music for the first time—or at least trying to, but the music’s distinctive quarter-tones were proving difficult to emulate. The software simply wasn’t made for him."
Now he has partnered with creative technology studio Counterpoint to create two free browser-based pieces of software - Leimma to create and explore microtonal tuning systems, and Apotome to create music with the tuning systems the artist selects in Leimma. Link to both. (Note that Apotome appears to work only in Chrome or Firefox, and the tutorials are rather long and maybe a bit heavy on the theory and music tech for the average non-musician.) Use of the software was premiered at this year's (mostly virtual) CTM Festival in Berlin. [more inside]
Freedom of choice is what you got / Freedom from choice is what you want
Forty years ago, DEVO released their third album, Freedom of Choice. The album would be their commercial breakthrough, thanks to the hit single "Whip It" and its accompanying music video. The album peaked at 22 on the Billboard charts, with "Whip It" reaching 14 on the Hot 100. [more inside]
Robot at Rest
"The most jazzy I've heard electronic music get."
Have you finally reached that age category, where bodily problems start showing up and you can not blindly trust all of your farts anymore? There is no reason to worry, just embrace the ageing. Anyway it's been a while since anyone has heard of me, I have been quietly making new music and over time I ended up with this almost entirely unquantized album which may be the most pretty sounding thing I've done to date. I'm not expecting anyone to read this by the way but it'd be unkind to leave this text box empty. It makes it feel unfinished if I did. This album is best enjoyed in your private aura like playing from your headphones while you're in public or commuting or in a field for no reason other than to listen to this album. Don't let anyone play this in the club, it won't work, none of the tracks sync well just to give djs a hard time. Save the environment, start with yourself. Wonky Vision by Fah, on Bandcamp. [more inside]
Piipittää
Sähkö The Movie is an unconventional documentary by Jimi Tenor about Finland's iconic electronic music label, featuring bits of work by label artists, including Ilpo Väisänen and the late Mika Vainio, of Pan(a)sonic fame
Seasonal and phantom islands
Lake Superior (Wikipedia) is the world’s largest freshwater lake, and its largest island is Isle Royale (Wikipedia), whose largest lake is called Siskiwit (Google maps), whose largest island is called Ryan (Google maps). Ryan Island is reportedly home to a seasonal pond called Moose Flats that, when flooded, contains its own island—Moose Boulder. This makes it “the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake on the largest island in the largest lake in the world.” At least, that's how it was represented on Wikipedia and Atlas Obscura, until an intrepid mother and son unraveled a geographic hoax (Atlas Obscura). This temporary/ mythical island is not yet included in Andrew Pekler's Phantom Islands interactive sonic map (also via AO). [more inside]
International Women's Day dance party: "We are here because of women"
Weekend dance party x International Women's Day: once again (Wonderland Magazine, 2019) Boiler Room teamed up with Gurls Talk (an online community for young women to discuss issues; previously) for a celebratory party. This year, the DJs, selectors and musicians were Born N Bread*, Celeste, Flohio, Jamz Supernova*, Jess Ajose, and Shygirl. Rewind to last year, and check out Jordss, Jorja Smith*, Little Simz and Babeheaven joining Adwoa Aboah (Instagram) for a night curated by Jasmine Srih (Ig). [more inside]
Rest In Peace, Lone Swordsman
Famed British DJ and producer Andrew Weatherall passed away today. He was 56. Coverage from The Gaurdian, The BBC, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor, and Optimo’s JD Twitch. Weatherall is best known as the producer of Primal Scream’s Screamadelica and a key launcher of the acid house scene in the UK, one-third of The Sabres of Paradise, and one half of Two Lone Swordsmen.
"...it’s about feeling vibrations and frequencies.”
A Sonic Pulse [Vimeo, 07:23] explores D/deaf people’s experience of electronic music from a visceral, communal and scientific perspective. [more inside]
Switched-on Bach, exploring the potential of electronic music in 1968
This ground-breaking album seems to not be available for sale or streaming anywhere. So I’d purchased a used LP and digitized it for all to enjoy! Switched-On Bach by Wendy Carlos on Internet Archive (via Sarah Wallin Huff on MltShp). The first classical music LP ever to be certified for a Platinum Record Award, by selling to hundreds of thousands of mostly younger listeners who didn't normally buy classical recordings. Carlos saw the Moog voice as valid on its own terms, which may be one reason why this album still stands out today, when compared with some of the more flamboyant work that followed from others (AllMusic review). More on the album from Wendy herself.
Miss Negrón, in the conservatory, with the kohlrabi
A History of Music and Technology
Pink Floyd’s Nick Mason presents A History of Music in Technology, a nine-part Open University/BBC series "charting the history of music and technology and exploring the world of legendary artists, producers, engineers and inventors. The series shines a light on game-changing innovations including the synthesiser, electric guitar, samplers, drum machines and the recording studio itself," and airs until June 22. Episodes available to date: Sound Recording, The Studio Part 1, The Studio Part 2, Samplers and Drum Machines, The Synthesizer, The Hammond Organ, Electronic Music Pioneers, and The Electric Guitar.
Er war ein Rockidol
Today we are pleased to have the exclusive premiere of Front Line Assembly's re-work of the storied "Rock Me Amadeus" originally by Falco. [more inside]
A-all-the-way-to-the-E: 19 hours of Autechre, circa 2015
Whatcha doing this weekend? Nothing much planned? OK, good, because Autechre recently dropped a set of 19 live recordings to stream and buy from Bleep, from their 2015 North American tour, running over 19 hours total. Bonus 1: early evening set from Rob Hall in Los Angeles (Mixcloud), before the Autechre set. "Gentle friendly tunes to greet the gentle friendly folk of LA." Bonus 2: Here's almost 3 minutes Live at Sónar on YouTube (the lights come on at about 45 seconds in). Bonus 3: 20 minutes of Live at Sweatbox 2, Bojangles, Drake Street, Rochdale, 4th June 1991, back when people thought it was a good idea to bring the whistle posse to Autechre shows.
"...trying to visualise the Platonic realm of form underlying reality"
Platonic
... a hypnotic audio-visual mind-warp recently released by musician Max Cooper (previously on the blue: one, two) and artist/filmaker Páraic Mc Gloughlin. (No mention of a photosensitive epilepsy warning on the page, but maybe there should be?)
... a hypnotic audio-visual mind-warp recently released by musician Max Cooper (previously on the blue: one, two) and artist/filmaker Páraic Mc Gloughlin. (No mention of a photosensitive epilepsy warning on the page, but maybe there should be?)
My face is the real shop front
SOPHIE (wiki, official, previously) recently dropped her first full length album, OIL OF EVERY PEARL'S UN-INSIDES -- full album stream. Reviews: Pitchfork, The Line of Best Fit, exclaim. Interviews: Vice I-D, PAPER. Official videos: Faceshopping, It's Okay To Cry, Ponyboy. (some links may be nsfw) Enjoy.
a series of movements that match the speed and rhythm of cake
Teased with a series of street art pieces and a warped press release from, ahem, Warp Records, Aphex Twin has announced a new forthcoming EP, Collapse, with the release of track 'T69 Collapse' (warning: may trigger epilepsy.)
Spaaaaace... laaaaaab...
Kraftwerk's live shows are known for being fairly regimented affairs, but at the Jazz Open Festival in Stuttgart, the band was joined by a special guest for a performance of "Spacelab": ESA astronaut Alexander Gerst, who is currently stationed about the ISS. (SLYT)
A sad voice. A sad chord. Drums and hi-hats. Maybe some beeps.
Planet Lonely
is a thirty-five track “album” of melancholic house music released for free by DJ Healer on his Soundcloud,
following his two recent albums and another DJ mix.
(DJ Healer’s various other aliases have included Prime Minister of Doom, Traumprinz, DJ Metatron, and Prince of Denmark.) Previously
(DJ Healer’s various other aliases have included Prime Minister of Doom, Traumprinz, DJ Metatron, and Prince of Denmark.) Previously
New media representations of women in electronic music
Vorsprung Durch Techno
im a soviet refugee singing for salam
Orgonite are a Middle Eastern Rave group from Tel Aviv with lyrics in Hebrew, Russian, English and Arabic: Habibi Yaeni, HAMSA, Adibass, Kayfuyem (feat. Arsen Petrosov) [more inside]
Chapelier Fou, the musical mad hatter from France
Chapelier Fou (fr.wiki; Mad Hatter via auto-translation) is the stage name of Louis Warynski, a multi-instrumentalist who composes complex pieces on violin, mandolin, harp and various electronic pieces and synthesizers, as you can see in this live clip of "Darling, Darling, Darling" as a solo piece in 2009, and for some proper madness, an augmented live video, featuring more artists accompanying Warynski and delightfully weird, surreal animations. You can find more videos from his YouTube channel, and most of his discography (Discogs) on Bandcamp.
RIYL Things happening in sync to music for a while
oldest Dan Deacon video with repeated patterns
patterns older Dan Deacon video with repeated
repeated patterns old Dan Deacon video with
with repeated patterns newer Dan Deacon video
video with repeated patterns newest (longest?) Dan Deacon
For the four-part USA Suite on America • Presented as an episode of Off The Air
patterns older Dan Deacon video with repeated
repeated patterns old Dan Deacon video with
with repeated patterns newer Dan Deacon video
video with repeated patterns newest (longest?) Dan Deacon
For the four-part USA Suite on America • Presented as an episode of Off The Air
A treasure trove of electronic tunes from Aphex Twin and his aliases
Aphex Twin recently launched a countdown on his website. It began on the same day he performed at Field Day festival in London, where he sold a mysterious 12" and, for the first time in his career, live-streamed his set. And then he dropped the biggest bomb: an expanded collection of the Richard D. James releases since 1991, even pulling from some of his alternate alias side projects (AFX, Polygon Window, The Tuss, etc). You can buy FLAC or MP3s, or use the embedded streaming audio player with unlimited access to the entire catalog, and there's still more to come...
Beyond 440
Richard D. James (aka Aphex Twin) speaks with ex-Korg engineer Tatsuya Takahasi on their collaboration on the monologue, microtuning, geometry and dreams. Plus new Aphex Twin track 'Korg Funk 5' using exclusively Korg synths. Double plus: 'AI Synths'
tick tock tock tock
Against The Clock is a YouTube series from British music portal FACT where electronic musicians of various predispositions lay down a track in their studios. Some use just Ableton or Logic on a laptop and a MIDI controller, others go full hardware and Eurorack, while some explain their process and others are silent throughout the video, but all of them have just 10 minutes to build that track from scratch. [more inside]
Just a little night music
Kara-Lis Coverdale is an organist by day and an electronic music composer by at night.
A contributor to Tim Hecker’s Virgins and Love Streams and Lee Bannon’s Pattern of Excel, she’s released several well-regarded indie electronic music albums built on samples: Triptych I; A 480 (built from vocal samples); Aftertouches (built from electronic instrument clips); and -with LXV- Sirens.
Having gone on tour and done some interviews, she has just released her first (solo) vinyl album, a 22-minute long, three part meditative piece entitled Grafts. It can be streamed at her Soundcloud page.
A contributor to Tim Hecker’s Virgins and Love Streams and Lee Bannon’s Pattern of Excel, she’s released several well-regarded indie electronic music albums built on samples: Triptych I; A 480 (built from vocal samples); Aftertouches (built from electronic instrument clips); and -with LXV- Sirens.
Having gone on tour and done some interviews, she has just released her first (solo) vinyl album, a 22-minute long, three part meditative piece entitled Grafts. It can be streamed at her Soundcloud page.
Seventeen years later, it’s a GAS
While Kompakt records co-founder Wolfgang Voigt has hundreds of releases to his pseudonyms, its likely his 1997-2000 ambient/techno project GAS that has had the most influence. Critics took last year’s vinyl reissue of four albums (Zauberberg, Königsforst, Pop, and the long-missed Oktember 12”) as an opportunity to lavish praise: The Quietus, Spectrum Culture, Pitchfork, Resident Advisor. Recently, Boiler Room’s Music Editor Gabreil Szatan interviewed Voigt about the project.
Today, Voigt released the first new GAS album in seventeen years: Narkopop. Early reviews are in from NPR, Pitchfork, The A.V. Club, and Line of Best Fit.
Today, Voigt released the first new GAS album in seventeen years: Narkopop. Early reviews are in from NPR, Pitchfork, The A.V. Club, and Line of Best Fit.
Spoiler: There’s a lot of Warp
The dispute is over! Pitchfork has done it! They’ve assembled the positively, most-definitive, entirely indisputable list of the 50 Best IDM Albums of all time! (50-41, 40-31, 30-21, 20-11, 10-1.) Surely no one will have contrasting opinions.
There’s a Spotify playlist! There’s an Apple Music playlist! And there’s an explanatory video if you don’t want to read things. All fifty entries inside, with some links to reviews from Pitchfork at the time (note humorous contrasts and hagiographic rewrites!), Wikipedia articles, and streaming audio. [more inside]
There’s a Spotify playlist! There’s an Apple Music playlist! And there’s an explanatory video if you don’t want to read things. All fifty entries inside, with some links to reviews from Pitchfork at the time (note humorous contrasts and hagiographic rewrites!), Wikipedia articles, and streaming audio. [more inside]
"Music equals good..."
Vita and the Woolf are a newish duo enjoying growing, deserved acclaim. Vita and the Woolf are Jennifer Pague and Adam Shumski, and they're riding a rising tide of acclaim for their carefully layered songs and intense performances.
Dubstep's great-great-grandad
More famous for helping to crack the Enigma code during World War 2, Alan Turing also created the first ever computer-generated musical notes in 1948. In 1951, a recording - the first ever of computer-generated music - was made at the BBC. The recording was restored this year at the University of Canterbury in new Zealand and can be heard here [mp3].
via @v21
Back to the future mixes / Radio DT64 / Paul Kalkbrenner
Musician Paul Kalkbrenner, perhaps best known for the (hard-to-get in region 1 but fantastic) movie Berlin Calling (trailer, Sky and Sand video, Revolte scene) grew up in East Berlin listening to electronic music on East-German Youth Radio DT64 (German wiki info, soundcloud archives). While reconnecting with memories of this time he has spent 18 months compiling a free 3-part mix series with 2 released so far, constructed from online recordings of DT64 broadcasts from the late 80s and early 90s, mostly from the years immediately after the wall fell until the station closed in 1993. [more inside]
America, America is Killing Its Youth
Henry Rollins reports that Alan Vega, vocalist for legendary proto-punk band Suicide, has died.
With profound sadness and a stillness that only news like this can bring, we regret to inform you that the great artist and creative force, Alan Vega has passed away. Alan passed peacefully in his sleep last night, July 16. He was 78 years of age[more inside]
Moderat + Blond:ish = 4 essential hours of electronic and weird music
For your listening pleasure, double-dose of other/worldly Essential Mixes from the recent past: the German trio known as Moderat (Mixcloud/Soundcloud), and the globe-trotting psychedelic Canadian duo known as Blond:ish (YouTube/ Mixcloud/ Soundcloud). Blond:ish started releasing music together in 2010, while Moderat have a more than a decade of work together and more musical history as the separate parts of Modeselektor and Apparat. Which is to say, more music inside. [more inside]
Provably 4.416 times more complete than your favorite musician
Sean Archibald makes electronic music using microtonal scales, rather than the typical 12-tone temperament, as both Sevish and himself . Droplet is a neat starting point. If you're a sucker for strange harmonics, also check out his blog, in which he gets geeky about xenharmonic music and his favorite microtonal bands. Happy listening.
Your speakers are going to E*X*P*L*O*D*E
Capsule’s Pride (Bikes) is a new mixtape of Akira-themed remixes from Toronto, CANADAAAAA!-based producer Bwana that has just been released by Glasgow-based LuckyMe Records. If you don’t want to stream it on Youtube while watching minimal music videos derived from the manga’s art, why not download it here (scroll down) and listen while browsing through the Otomblr.
Unterstützt die Wirtschaft - öfter mal Weihnachten
Kraftwerk live in Soest, Winter 1970. This concert from "Youth Carousel" is the earliest existing concert recording from the pioneering electronic group out of Düsseldorf. The group was founded that year and is seen here with their original lineup.
Analogue before analogue
Wir sind die Roboter!
We've previously talked about the Langley School Music Project, Dondero High School's Pop Concerts, PS22's choir, and Chapel Hill's Chorus Project. Now we have first graders at the Grundschule Am Lemmchen in Mainz Mombach singing, playing, and acting out Kraftwerk's iconic single Roboter. [SLYT, if you ignore my links to previous school music groups.]
Marcel Duchamp meets the Invisibl Skratch Piklz
Vinyl Terror & Horror are Camilla Sørensen and Greta Christensen, two Danish DJs now based in Berlin. They are not your average DJ duo. [more inside]
on the history of electronic music
Createdigitalmusic collects together 11+ documentaries on the history of electronic music. Ranging from 2 on Delia Derbyshire of the BBC Radiophonic Workshop (1 previously), to EMS (previously), to detroit, acid house, rave (previously), tresor, and more. Plus one news report an the early days of Chicago house that's a documentary in and of itself.