Sonic Boom LA

Was that a sonic boom here in LA?

Update 11/30/08 2PM: It was the Space Shuttle Endeavour landing at Edwards Air Force Base that caused the sonic boom.

Edicisum

edicisum from candas.

Edicisum

directed by Candas Sisman

soundtrack by Isambard Khroustaliov

Metasonix Eurorack Prototype

Deviant Synth first Metasonix prototype Eurorack module: tube distortion/VCA.

Waveform Jewelry + Wedding Rings

Sakurako Shimizu's Waveform Series laser-cuts the shapes of sound waveforms into jewelry.

The Japanese artist, curator and jewelry designer has used the sounds of yawns, sneezes, giggles, wows and church bells to create bracelets, necklaces, brooches and earrings.

Now she's using recordings of wedding ceremonies to make custom sound wave "I do" wedding bands.

Cool idea.

via boingboing

Vatican Forgives Lennon

The Vatican newspaper, L'Osservatore Romano, has forgiven the Beatles for John Lennon's March 1966 statement to the London Evening Standard:

"Christianity will go. It will vanish and shrink. We're more popular than Jesus now - I don't know which will go first, rock and roll or Christianity. Jesus was all right, but his disciples were thick and ordinary. It's them twisting it that ruins it for me."

Those comments created a firestorm of controversy. Lennon received death threats. Conservative Christians organized rallies to publicly burn Beatles albums.

The following year, Lennon offered the following explanation to the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation:

"It’s just an expression meaning the Beatles seem to me to have more influence over youth than Christ. Now I wasn’t saying that was a good idea because I’m one of Christ’s biggest fans. And if I can turn the focus of the Beatles on to Christ’s message, then that’s what we’re here to do.

If the Beatles get on the side of Christ, which they always were, and let people know that, then maybe the churches won’t be full, but there’ll be a lot of Christians dancing in the dance halls."

On Saturday the Vatican celebrated the 40th anniversary of the White Album by praising the Beatles for their talent and creativity in L'Osservatore Romano. The article dismisses Lennon's 1966 "bigger than Jesus" statement:

"It is a phrase that provoked deep indignation at the time, but which sounds today like a quip from a young man from the English working class overtaken by unexpected success."

"(The Beatles' real talent) rested in their unequaled capacity to write popular songs with a sort of euphoric lightness that constituted a genuine trademark."

"Today recordings seem above all to be standardized and stereotyped -- falling well short of the creativity of the Beatles."

Speaking words of wisdom, Let it be.

via nyt

NSFW: Microphone BJ Feedback

Warning: Not Safe For Work.


Wojciech Kosma "Blowjob" controlled feedback microphone art. Performance by Monika Klimas.


at Expo Brighton Festival, the UK’s largest weekend of free sound art and experimental music.


at the Museum of Modern Art Warsaw, Poland.

via felix at muffwiggler. youtube: thejobblow.

Bit Blob

"Noise performers extraordinaire, The Loud Objects, and Dr. Bleep have teamed up to create the first being of pure noise!

The Bit Blob is a digital noise maker that's controlled by connecting its contacts together, allowing you to bend your way through unlimited sonic madness. You can also connect LEDs, audio outputs, or other Bit Blobs between control pins!

More pics and info at Flickr.

Only 30 will be made for this holiday season."

You can buy them now at bleeplabs.com.

via matrixsynth

ohGr American Memory Project El Rey LA

ohGr put on a solid concert last night at the El Rey Theatre in LA. Ogre from Skinny Puppy on vocals, William Morrison on guitar, Justin Bennett on drums and Squigg on keys.

Ogre appeared on stage walking backwards toward the crowd. He faced the back of the stage for the first few songs, wearing a bizarre costume with camera lens eyes in the back of his head so it almost looked like he was facing the crowd. They played a mix of new and old ohGr tracks, including songs off the new Devil In My Details.



Bill Moseley [and his wife and kids?] came out in between songs for some spoken word weirdness.

The opening act, American Memory Project, was really cool. The side project of live ohGr members William Morrison and Justin Bennett, the duo played behind a screen of projected images of 200 years of American oppression. There were images of Native Americans, slaves in the South and the chaos of WWII. Audio samples from the American Memory Archive include an interview with 81-year-old former slave Alice Gaston. The video and music were great. It felt almost like watching a live DVD in person. Strange but good.

William Morrison on American Memory Project:

"The theoretical context of the project is that some time in the very distance future, long after America is gone, some artists scouring the backwater of whatever the net has become discover the American Memory Archive. They have no context for it's meaning but are intrigued by the sights and sounds. They create surreal impressions of the material they find and broadcast it back through time. A quantum radio channel beamed into the sub conscious minds of the 21st century."

The show was mixed on a Yamaha PM5D, and lights were done on a Hog PC.

Jane's Addiction El Cid

Señoras y Señores, Jane's Addiction is doing it again. Less than a month after their epic reunion concert at La Cita, the original 4 members of Jane's Addiction will play a concert at El Cid on Thursday.

Update: Here's the setlist:

Whores
Trip Away
Standing in the Shower... Thinking
Mountain Song
Ain't No Right
No One's Leaving
Then She Did...
1%
Stop!
Had a Dad
Ocean Size
Chip Away

The Beatles: Carnival of Light

Paul McCartney wants to release "Carnival of Light," a previously unreleased 14-minute experimental track The Beatles recorded in 1967.

The Fab Four played the recording just once for an audience at an electronic music festival in London. During the Abbey Road recording session Paul asked the band to "just wander round all of the stuff and bang it, shout, play it. It doesn't need to make any sense." The song includes distorted guitar, organ sounds, gargling and Paul and John shouting "Barcelona!" and "Are you all right?"

McCartney wanted to include "Carnival of Light" on the Beatles' "Anthology" compilation, but his bandmates didn't agree. He needs permission from Ringo Starr and the widows of Lennon and George Harrison to release the track.

Paul McCartney: "The time has come for it to get its moment."

Nine Inch Nails: Ilan Rubin

Ilan Rubin of Lostprophets will take over drums and percussion next year when Josh Freese leaves Nine Inch Nails.

Trent Reznor's announcement on nin.com:

"With great pride and excitement I announce the addition of Ilan Rubin to the lineup beginning next year. I had the chance to see Ilan playing his ass off at Reading and Leeds a couple summers ago and he blew me away. We recently invited him out to rehearse with us and he blew US away - the perfect guy to pick up the sticks after Josh leaves us at the end of the year.

Stay tuned for some 2009 tour announcements soon."

Elan Rubin drum solo at the Lostprophets gig in Sheffield on Aug. 14.

Peter Grenader Plan B Tour

I visited Peter Grenader at Plan B in Pomona yesterday. Plan B is the synth company Peter started several years ago after envisioning the possibilities of analog modular synths in the Eurorack format.

I saw him put on a great show at AnalogLive last year. The man is a synth guru. We sat down in front of the modular rig at Noisebug, the exclusive US reseller of Plan B products, and Peter took me through the ins and outs of many of his synth creations.

He grabbed a fistful of cables and started plugging away, flipping switches and turning knobs to show me how to patch some wild sounds. He comes from the school of synthesis that preaches the power of subtlety. He is fascinated with the nuances of turning a knob a fraction of millimeter. He loves attenuators.

From the pure raw sound of the Model 15 Complex VCO to the Buchla-style ringing of the Model 13 Dual Timbal Gate to the 4 simultaneous and varied outs of the Model 10 Polyphonic Envelope to the smooth sweep of the Model 12 Vactrol Filter to the more vicious double resonance bump of the Model 11 Evil Twin Bandpass Filter, Peter Grenader's Plan B modules just sound awesome. It's amazing how many features he's able to cram into the small space of every module he makes.

I was really impressed with his "computer inside" modules like the Model 24 Heisenberg Generator and the Serge-esque Model 23 Analog Shift Register. The ELF-series Model 39 Wave Splicer is one of those "How did nobody think of this sooner?" ideas. It takes 2 waveforms and switches back and forth between them at every zero-crossing. Very cool.

His joystick rocks! The upcoming Model 32 Vector Plotter has a super-long-throw joystick, 4 ins and 4 kinetic gates which allow for some intricate modulation techniques never before seen in a modular synth joystick. The gates automatically trigger when you move the stick in different directions. In addition to the X-Y outs, there's also a manual Z gate that fires when you press the button and move the stick at the same time.

Add the Model 35 Vector Switch to put a 9-space grid on the X and Y axes, and you can run it 9-in/2-out or 2-in/9-out.

Peter gave me a tour upstairs of the Plan B workspace. He's got a team of people working hard to assemble his modules to his specs. Peter says he recently implemented a new quality control procedure and has lots of new modules in the works.



I don't want to steal his thunder, but he's working on some really cool stuff. The NAMM Show in January is going to be a very exciting time for Plan B.

Peter, thanks so much for spending the time with me yesterday.

King Crimson 2009 Reunion?

Adrian Belew on his Elephant Blog yesterday:

"the mighty krimson was supposed to perform on the west coast in 2009.
that was where we left things following our last night in new york city.
just before leaving for the power trios marvelous tour of 8 countries in europe
I received an email from krimson's strategic advisor mr. andy leff.
andy asked everyone for their schedules for may.
at the time I believed the power trio was booked in may,
which turned out not to be true (not yet)
and I said so in my reply to the members of the mighty krim.
somehow this was offensive and the whole tour
was called off because of my remarks.
for that I am deeply sorry.
I did not mean to offend anyone.

this morning I penned an email to robert with my apology
and my thoughts about the great adventure we've had thus far.
in so many words I told him I loved him and was very proud
of the work we have done together.

more importantly perhaps I said this,
"any time, any place you would like King Crimson to perform:
count me in. I will be there."

and there it stands.
doesn't mean krimson will tour again
but I certainly hope so."

Mitch Mitchell RIP

Mitch Mitchell was found dead at the age of 61 of apparent natural causes in his room at the Benson Hotel in Portland, Oregon, early yesterday morning.

Mitchell had just finished playing an 18-city tour celebrating the music and legacy of Jimi Hendrix. The 2008 Experience Hendrix Tour featured Buddy Guy, Robby Krieger, Jonny Lang, Kenny Wayne Shepherd, Eric Johnson, Brad Whitford and other rock notables.

Born John Mitchell in London, he was best-known for his work with The Jimi Hendrix Experience and was the trio's last surviving member. Mitchell pioneered the style of drumming now known as fusion and played on the legendary classic rock albums Are You Experienced?, Axis: Bold as Love and Electric Ladyland.

New Buchla Modules + Website

Buchla has revamped the Buchla & Associates website at buchla.com and posted info on new 200e-series synth modules.

Buchla 200e Electric Music Box

201e Powered Cabinet/Box
206e Mixer / Preset Manager
210e Control and Signal Router
222e Multi Dimensional Kinesthetic Input Port
225e MIDI Decoder / Preset Manager
227e System Interface
250e Arbitrary Function Generator
255 Control Voltage Processor
256e Quad Control Voltage Processor
260e Duophonic Pitch Class Generator
261e Complex Waveform Generator
266e Source of Uncertainty
281e Quad Function Generator
285e Frequency Shifter / Balanced Modulator
291e Triple Morphing Filter
292e Quad Dynamics Manager
297 Infinite Phase Shifter

via fluxivity on analogue heaven

SoundTransit.nl

SoundTransit.nl is a fascinating website which maps everyday field recordings all around the world. Organized by Derek Holzer, Sara Kolster and Marc Boon, the site is a collaborative, online community dedicated to field recording and phonography.

You "book a transit" using an interface similar to one you'd find on an airline's website. Choose your start and end cities along with the number of stops, and SoundTransit puts together an "itinerary" as a playlist that you can download as an mp3. What a creative way to listen to the sounds of the world!

Listen: Los_Angeles.Prague.mp3

For my first SoundTransit journey, I chose to travel from LA to Prague with 3 stops. I picked the long-way option of LA-Moscow-London-New Orleans-Prague. The first part of the audio was recorded in the red line subway in Hollywood. That crossfaded into a clip of bank managers in Moscow. Then the chaos of May Day 2001 on Tottenham Court Road in central London with rioters smashing windows and police helicopters circling overhead. Followed by a steamboat in NOLA and ending up with some kids kicking a football around a courtyard in Prague.

There's a world of sound out there for you to explore: Chinese polyrhythmic weaving machines, Turkish seagulls, Nepalese snake charmers, Egyptian wedding ceremonies, Portuguese fireworks... The sounds go on and on...

SoundTransit is really cool. The recordings are Creative Commons Attribution licensed, and the sharing and reuse of SoundTransit recordings are encouraged. You can email friends your SoundTransit audio excursions and even upload your own field recordings to the site for others to experience. Search by keyword, artist, country and location. RSS feeds allow you to listen to the most recently booked transits and last uploaded sounds.

DIY Bowed Spring Nation

"Spring Nation" bowed spring DIY instrument built and played at the Onkruid Festival a couple weeks ago at Bar en Boos in Leiden, NL.

If you have any more info on this, feel free to comment.

Photos by wot nxt.

Nine Inch Nails: HOB Atlantic City Concert + Peter Murphy

NIN/Peter Murphy "Reptile" youtube by wrt7

Nine Inch Nails played a special club show Thursday night 11/6/08 at the House of Blues in Atlantic City, NJ. There was a surprise guest on Reptile: Bauhaus frontman Peter Murphy.

From the opening riff of Pinion, I knew it was going to be a crazy concert. The energy from the band was high. It was great to see NIN play in a small venue instead of a big arena. It was raw and intense. No video screens. No interactive stage production wizardry. No slow songs in the middle.

Just in-your-face Nails.


Trent Reznor Atlantic City speech 11/6/08 youtube by febfairy213

After Closer, Trent Reznor talked about how some fans bitch online about him singing the wrong lyrics in the middle of the song. He asked what the right lyrics were and threw the mic in the pit. I caught it and yelled, "Through every forest, above the trees..." Then he added those lyrics into the next song, Discipline.

NIN played some songs they hadn't played in a while. The whole show was awesome.

Nine Inch Nails House of Blues Atlantic City 11/6/08 setlist:

1. pinion
2. love is not enough
3. terrible lie
4. 1,000,000
5. letting you
6. march of the pigs
7. piggy
8. the frail
9. the wretched
10. the collector
11. survivalism
12. reptile [peter murphy vocals]
13. closer
14. discipline
15. the beginning of the end
16. 31 ghosts IV
17. wish
18. head down
19. gave up
20. the line begins to blur
21. only
22. god given
23. down in it
24. hurt
25. starfuckers, inc.
26. the hand that feeds
27. head like a hole

Here's a youtube clip of Peter Murphy - Trent Reznor - Jeordie White + Atticus Ross covering The Normal's "Warm Leatherette" in 2006 via feloniousbutterfly:

eyeSequencer

eyeSequencer turns a photo of an eye into music. Patrick of cappel-nord.de:

"Every now and then you see some particullary beautiful eyes … some of them inspired me to use images of eyes to create musical material. I wrote a little framework/application in Processing to help me analyse the image. “Scanners” circulate in the eye and analyse RGB and brightness values. These values are used to create OSC Messages, which then are send to SuperCollider. SuperCollider would be a great way to produce the sound, but for this example i decided to use SC3 to send MIDI events to Ableton Live, to two instances of the Alphakanal Automat Synthesizer."

Ladytron Synthesis Workshop

Ladytron interview with Helen Marnie - Daniel Hunt + Reuben Wu about the beginning of the band and the principals of synthesis + Mira Aroyo gives a mini-tutorial on the Korg MS20 and other synths in Ladytron's London rehearsal space.

Phonagnosia

Phonagnosia is a rare condition in which a person can engage in normal conversation and understand what is said but cannot identify the person speaking. The inability to recognize voices can be caused by stroke or brain damage.

Recently a new discovery has been made. The first known case of someone born with phonagnosia has just been documented by researchers at University College London [UCL]. A 60-year-old woman, known as KH, has suffered from the condition from an early age. She is unable to recognize even her own daughter's voice on the telephone. She can appreciate music and pick out different songs and instruments, but she usually can't identify the singer.

KH always knew she couldn't do what others could, but it wasn't until she read an article on prosopagnosia, the inability to recognize faces, that she realized she may have a vocal version of the condition.

Researchers at UCL are seeking others who may be phonagnosic. Contact Dr. Brad Duchaine by phone: +44 (0)20 7679 1005 or email: b.duchaine@ucl.ac.uk.

via neural.it

Fire Extinguisher Speakers

Russian modder Strannik turned a couple old fire extinguishers into a pair of speakers for his computer.


Check out the pics on topmods.net + bit-tech.net.

Project: Fire Sound System

via boingboing.