New Live Music!

It's been a while since I posted. I've had many ideas for reviving this Blog but for now I'll just start with where it all matters: The music and people.




At the end of February 2020 my friend and local Philadelphia EMusic veteran SteveO and I got together and set up some gear and just improvised for the evening. On a whim I recorded it and when I went back to the files and mixed things it reminded me a lot of the 1990s live Music For Isolation Tanks coffeehouse gigs I did (now available as the Caffeine album) . Sure some of the gear has changed and while our styles have evolved setting up a limited amount of gear and making the most of it is pretty much what I always did.

These jams include some old favorites of mine in gear (hell-O Juno106!) but also some of my DAEDSound.com  circuit bent gizmos that weren't  around in the 90s.

SteveO is the founder and leader of many Philadelphia Electronic bands including the brilliant Punch Drunk  and Klockenhouzer as well as the bass player in the Goth/Doom Metal Band The Worst Ones.

You can see some of Punch Drunk's theatrical and aural mayhem online and still buy their compilation CD  on amazon.  or listen on Spotify.  Here's a great example of what made them so unique and exciting:

We did two jams for a Looong time and I edited them down (believe it or not!) The link is a free download of two songs totaling over 25 minutes. Enjoy!

Back with Beats...

Been a while since I posted. Here are some things that I have been recording the past few months. Find all and more at DavidTalento.bandcamp.com



MegoDETH Vs Music For Isolations Tanks Upcoming Full Length: 
  


Music For Isolation Tanks new track:

 
More New Acid: 

Try the Tube Shot Darling...

Electronic music comes in many forms and is used for all purposes. In the 1980s one such purpose was a super sexy computer voiced pinball machine called Xenon. This was the first pinball machine to use a new and improved voice board allowing multiple and longer samples to run as the player turned on the machine and started flipping away. It also was distinguished as being the first female voiced pinball machine which makes sense since the sound design was done by none other that sound and synthesizer pioneer Susan Ciani.

By 1980 Ciani was both a classically trained musician and a critically acclaimed early adopter of electronic music instruments and composition. While trying to make her mark she lived in NY and combined her unique vision and skill set in the emerging field of commercial sound design. Of her commercial work she is probably most famous for the "pop and pour" sound of a Coca-Cola can being opened. She had accomplished many firsts including being featured on the cover of  fledgling Contemporary Keyboard magazine

Ciani's weapon of choice was an early Buchla modular and early examples of her work on this can be heard at her own excellent web page here: http://sevwave.com/electronic%20music.html


But it was the company Ballys and their new Pinball project Xenon that would carve out even more groundbreaking work using the new (at the time) technology of sampling. With the invention of new memory chips which could store larger amounts of recorded sound the new Pinball machines could talk to the player. And who better than the playful and creative Ciani to make the machine come to life? This was the 1970s after all so it almost made sense for an over-the-top sexy robot design to moan when you slide a quarter in it or for the Alien blinking lights to invite the player with an encouraging breathy "Welcome to Xenon" upon start up.

The full story is captured with all it's humor, ground breaking tech, and the combination of both Ciani's vision and sense of fun in this short documentary made back in the day: 




The Kickstarter funded documentary A Life in Waves on Ciani and her journey is currently showing at festivals and will be commercially released soon. In addition to her years as a classical pianist and composer she is also now performing Electronic music again including a recent concert for the Women and technology exhibition Making/Breaking the Binary: Women, Art & Technology (1968–1985)  and the upcoming Don Buchla Memorial concerts next week. 

I encourage everyone to keep up on her still full schedule and dig deep into the back catalog of this innovative and unique musician and composer who not only broke ground for women, Electronic music, and commercial sound design but did so without every compromising her spirit, creativity, or sense of joy. 

Tilt on!

New Track? Sure it is...

What's a Mashup?

 
Sometimes things come out of playing with an instrument. I recently picked up a Roland TB-03 and while fiddling with the usual 303esque features I started to concentrate more on the trance like nature of throwing something into a delay and then moving it around. The TB-03 has a limited but practical internal delay and , well, this little synth line came out. I had some time on my hands so i took it down to the lab and added some analog drum machines to go with the minimal lead.

The samples came at the end and just seemed to go with the whole TKK/Revco vibe I do in my project MegoDETH so there you go.  Given it was more trancey and mellow like the 1990s Music For Isolation Tanks Nature/Nurture recordings I decided to credit it as a mashup of the two bands. Seemed just as silly as the song itself.

Sometimes you just gotta play... on!

Articulate. Noise.

Q: "What's your relationship with sound?"
A: "Complicated"

That says a mouthful. I've been interested in "noise" since I started recording and have mixed in what I call "sound sculptures" in almost every project of mine from ambient to beat driven tracks to full on harsh ... well, noise.  I started this blog to exorcise what is it about sound that drives me and explore further. Whether it's recording, performing, or simply going nuts in the studio for an hour and then turning everything off and going about my day sound and noise is always just around the corner. 

For those who are not familiar with Power Electronics, Noise, Dark Ambient or whatever related label or genre it evokes NY artist Pharmakon breaks it down in this excellent interview:

Her latest full length album is available on Sacred Bones Records:

For my part I'm still chipping away at my current sound/Noise project:




And occasionally I revisit sounds I made over twenty years ago*:

Or just sit down and record what instrument is up and running in the studio at the moment: 

"Noise" music, like music itself doesn't know genres or boundaries. It can be emotional, visceral, cerebral, or simply beautiful. There are no limits and the best of it refuses to be one thing at a time. It is complicated but for some equally rewarding. 

Bang and scrape on. 

* Being me I can never resist making something as unmarketable as possible. The last track on this Power Electronics or "noise" ep is a soft, quiet, piano based melodic composition. If you make it through the first three you end up there. I'll leave it to the listener to decide if that's a good thing or not.

“I have always been outside, and I’ve chosen to remain there" - Don Buchla

Don Buchla, Musical Instrument and Control interface inventor, engineer, and unique visionary passed away this month at the age of 79. 

Photo by Yotsuba&!

The NY Times obituary captures a bit of the flavor of his life and legacy and can be found here: 

http://www.nytimes.com/2016/09/18/arts/music/don-buchla-dead.html

I spoke with the man once and had the opportunity to see both he and his instruments and controllers perform in concert. He was drole, irreverent, quiet, and if you paid attention, funny. He eschewed the term "synthesizer" instead preferring to call his inventions "instruments" and even as he went away from traditional keyboard structures and western scale playing he always focused on the whole of an instrument as a vehicle to allow the player to make music. Indeed his most famous instrument was a portable collection of electronic mayhem he called the "Music Easel" which encouraged the user to mix colors of sound and paint something new. 

He wasn't a product of Hippie culture but he certainly contributed and drove it (literally and figuratively, he was behind the scenes in the Merry Pranksters and was on the famous van). He always lived and invented on the outside of what was expected both as a designer and in his business with financial gain being low on his list of priorities. During the beginning years of the analog synth revival he continued to focus on digital instruments that didn't make sound themselves but instead allowed users to play any instrument in a completely new and unique way.  His Marimba Lumina took midi controllers to a new level and created a percussion interface that could play crescendos and drones as well as hits and notes:

Not content to even touch an instrument Buchla invented the Lightening Controller which used space and area itself to create notes and dynamics:

Many people consider his return to designing and manufacturing boutique synthesizer modules as the culmination of his career and indeed his 200e system built upon and pushed his previous sound and interface designs further. I usually refer to modular synthesis as a "Masters Class" in synthesizer playing and if that's true then using a Buchla Modular is the doctorate program. Despite being perhaps the most complex and unusual instruments of their kind, Buchla steadfastly never wrote a manual for anything but the basics of how to turn on his modules instead insisting (and allowing) the user to make their own progress, mistakes, and discover new ways to "play" music in the process. 

My 200e System including DIY bits and bobs...

In his last few years Don Buchla experienced some health issues and sold most of his company and designs to the current Bucha Electronic Music Instruments (BEMI) company. Things did not flow smoothly and despite the initial praise and applauding of his vision one of the first products released was a more or less reproduction of the Music Easel from the 1960s. Despite the demand and interest in this instrument BEMI was plagued with production and quality control issues often taking thousands of dollars per unit in deposits from individual users and failing to deliver a working instrument for months or in some cases years. Don was never interested in repeating the past, only moving forward into the future and eventually something behind the scenes changed and he was fired from the very company that bears his name and sells his designs. A lawsuit he brought against BEMI was settled only a few months before his passing and the future of production and distribution at BEMI, while often promoted as being fine, is in an ongoing questionable state. 

Don Buchla didn't invite chaos but he also didn't impose order unless it was exactly what the user wanted. He opened notes, sound, and dynamics up for anyone curious (perhaps dedicated) enough to seek it out. His inventions - like the man himself some might say - were cranky, odd, occasionally misfired, and uniquely brilliant. Despite any earthly complications his legacy as a pioneer in art, sound, and space is not only secure but still waiting and encouraging us to explore what he left behind. 

Bleep and Bongo on.

Hello, Hello Psychaleppo!

A few months ago I had the chance to DJ an International Music show at a local radio station. While looking for interesting acts to showcase I came across what has become one of my favorite new electronic acts called Hello Psychaleppo.  They can be found on Soundcloud, YouTube, and the Mideast Tune Music Site but info on the "band" is scarce. Fortunately the music isn't and it's brilliant.

(UPDATE 8/30/16: ) The description on the YouTube page reads:

"Hailing from one of the most mystical and musically rich cities in the Levant, Hello Psychaleppo is deeply rooted in oriental music tradition. Hello Psychaleppo is the electronic music project of the young Syrian producer Samer Saem Eldahr (AKA Zimo). He made his mark, with his unique and experimental sound. 

He uses melodies of the Arab bedouin “Mawwals” and the ecstatic strains of tarab, and threads it through convoluted, industrial structures made from dubstep, drum & bass, electro and trip-hop. He creates a journey away from boundaries of style, engaging souls into letting go while experiencing a new dimension of sonic blends."

The full album Gool L'Ah is linked below from the band's soundcloud page below but just as a taste try this track:

Combining the best of Drums and Bass, Acid, and just good old fashioned Techno along with an expert use of vocal samples and synth leads Harem pulses and flows and just commands both listening and dancing. 

The Dj/Producer behind Psychaleppo also works with other artists and has posted some more recent remixes of acts such as MASA! which are a bit more mainstream. 

Indeed some of the material on the Ha! album is a bit less adventurous than Gool L'Ah but you can see the seeds of the more experimental tracks such as Every Time I Thought About it I'd Burst into Tears which, over it's almost five minutes goes from vocals to retro beats to all out rave to ambient and then tops it all with a little Jungle outro:

For those looking for more there is the You Tube page https://www.youtube.com/c/hellopsychaleppo 
which includes some additional remixes, edited clips, and even a few live performances and music videos.  Here's one from London in 2015: 



I'm thrilled to see this talent is still experimenting and growing as well as performing. For the full effect of an intro I highly recommend  listening to Gool  L'Ah from start to finish (you know, like in the OLD days kids!) and branch out from there. 

 
!on رقص

Pound of Feathers...

Been working in the lab cooking up a new compilation of my Soundscape/Noise/Avant Industrial music. Plans so far include both new, unreleased, and forgotten material including Altruistic Suicide, Sweeping the Noise Floor and my "solo" stuff.

Here's a taste of a new track:

Dig and Bleep on!

2016 Return to ... Exile.

I still have my 1980s  Juno 106 with the original "sticker" I put on for live shows.

In real life sometimes things conspire to change your plans. Sometimes you move ahead despite this. I released my first recording (on cassette tape!) around 1991. I followed in up shortly with a full length album of synthesized sounds, drones, music, and songs. I threw myself into the features and abilities of my synthesizers and effects and completed songs came out based on what I did and what the instrument "gave back" to me. Even though these were machines I felt there was interaction. Modulation settings and envelope decays would continue after I took my hand off the keyboard. I could hit a note and then play another note and the second would interact with the first. For a musician used to piano or reeds this was a new world and I threw myself into it whole heartedly.

Despite playing synthesizers for over 25 years and having my collection and experience grow from one or two 1980s instruments to dozens of vintage and modern pieces including multiple modular synthesizers my approach and fascination to sound and sound sculpture has remained consistent. I try out a tone or note, tweak a few parameters or shift my hand over the keys into a new chord or rhythm, and listen. I build from there repeating the process over and over and eventually I have what I consider a "song".  Sometimes it's music in the more traditional sense, other times it's simply a minimal exploration of  the evolving nature of sound and it's interaction with me and itself. 

I wrote and recorded all my original albums in a third floor walk up one bed room apartment (the original "LegionUK Studios").  I think I originally had one synth (a Yamaha DX27) a peavy keyboard amp with reverb and a Tascam four track. Eventually I got a SCI Pro One and Roland Juno 106 by the time the first full length came out. I called the project "Music For Isolation Tanks" because I felt I was doing this in a vacuum apart from my other experiences. I played bass in a punk band at the time so this was also alien to any musical interaction I had. Halfway through I had to unexpectedly move apartments and I finished the album on the go, hence the title "Exile". It's a minimal exploration of parameters and basic abilities of analog synths chock full of knobs, sliders, and weird low frequencies. As i mentioned before not much has changed. 

I took my tweaks on the road playing rock clubs, coffee houses, and art galleries. Anywhere that pretty much seemed inappropriate to be making weird space noises and beats in the early and mid 1990s. Some of these are preserved and now available in lost vault recordings such as 

The Caffeine CD: 

Or the Studio Live set from 1993:

Most of my free time was spent making music, playing live, sometimes recording those live sets and then playing with other projects, instruments, and bands. I didn't release any full studio recordings of Music For Isolation Tanks music for almost twenty years. But that's only half the story. I continued to experiment, play, jam, and record on my own. Eventually I announced a new albums was "coming soon". About five years later I realized I had amassed enough tracks for exactly that.

Return to Exile is a collection of studio recordings (plus one live track) that I feel capture the original spirit of my curiosity with synthesized sound. It's a retrospective containing all new material. Some tracks go back to about the mid 2000s while the final track was 100% written and recorded in October 2015. It's available to stream in it's entirely for free. promo copies are available for any reviewers. (please email for details).


I'm proud of how these different songs flow. It turns out without even knowing I was putting things together like I always did. And, of course, the machines helped me.

As I used to put on all my old cassette tapes and hand copied Catalogs of mail order items:

"I hope you enjoy this as much as possible" - DT

Return On.

Generative Music ... For Isolation Tanks.

Next month I'll be releasing my first Music For Isolation Tanks studio ambient album in almost 20 years. In going through my archives I found a lot of material I had squirreled away including a piece I did literally to put people to sleep. It's almost an hour of quiet ambient  and drifting patterns and somnambulistic tones. Slowly changing over time the end result is a trance-like journey to drift off to. 

 

I initially got the idea from clock radios that offer white noise or other natural sounds that mask out urban or technological environment. The initial idea of Music For Isolation Tanks was to create ambient and exploratory synthesized sounds and along the way I studied generative music - a process of setting parameters in motion so that actual sound and notes are created by a structure rather than played in a specific order. The composer sets the options and choices and then usually software or an interactive instrument generates what appear to be random and ever changing combinations of sound based around the initial criteria.  Of course Brian Eno and his associates are probably the most famous artists who used generative music techniques but they are part of the art and film world as well. 

I included an excerpt of my piece, Aurore, on the new album but the original was a longer extended piece; the idea being you put it on around bed time and let it play as it slowly sweeps you into sleep. The software used for this piece was created by the late Carlos Mateo who released a number of VST programs (including The Devil Inside which I used to make this little noise ditty). Adding some custom samples and tweaks I found just the right balance for deep yet non intrusive sounds which evolve slow enough to let your mind wander and body relax. Almost, well...  the perfect Music For Isolation Tanks.  

Sleeeep on...

Noise Annoys... or not?

I should be working on finishing the nice quiet ambient Music For Isolation Tanks CD but this is what happens when you have so many cool instruments in the studio begging for attention:



I started "work" on another project, this time the opposite of the nice quiet ambient stuff. Working from a fantastic custom instrument made up of various pedals offered by 4MS. The one-of-a-kind Vision Well was calling my name from the corner. 

At some point I'll probably need to document what this is but basically it's a series of souped up custom versions of freakish sound processors and noise generators such as the TriwavePicoGenerator,  Mondo Locto, Noise Swash, Atoner, and more with special internal and external patching, a mixer, and a few other bells and whistles. From the info I have this was built around 2007 to spec of a private buyer. I've had it in my studio for quite a few years and added some other features along the way. 

I suppose as I record more with this I'll probably be properly motivated to then put this aside and go back to the ambient album. Well, I guess that is just one of those good problems for an underground musician.

Buzz, Fizzle, and Fuzz on!

Electronic Party People...

Composer Dan Deacon does more than create and play electronic music. In this NPR Tiny Desk Concert he shows how much fun being a dorky, geeky, beautiful human machine can be.

I've been doing a lot of posts about inspiration and music in general and so figured this might serve as an antidote to anyone feeling I've been getting too philosophical or away from Electronic Music or synthesizers.  Dan Deacon is a creative electronic music oriented artist who studied conservatory composition yet isn't too proud to make noise with a circuit bent Casio. He's pretty unique in the field and his music builds and swells like an orchestral work constantly merging both emotion and elation. 

He's also very creative in his choice of tools and in this performance he brings out a midi controlled acoustic Piano.  Contrast this to my phone grabbed pic from his most recent tour where he tried out actual robotic triggered acoustic drums as well:

Dan Deacon Live in Philadelphia 2015

What he'll bring out next is anyone's guess. He's over in Europe now and will return to do a few selected West Coast US dates in the Fall. Highly recommended as an artist, electronic musician, and all around damn good time.

The full NPR post here: http://www.npr.org/event/music/387754703/dan-deacon-tiny-desk-concert

Dance on!

How to and Why...

Electronic musician's are notorious for liking and creating obtuse, experimental, and downright uncommercial  music.  To that end the community is a lot like the genuine Indie Rock/Punk world where artists compose and record what they want and release it when they are comfortable. This stands in contrast to many major commercial endeavors where album production teams and release dates are meticulously strategically planned  by managers, executives, and maybe -as a token-  with some input from the artists themselves. So with that, this post will focus on a newly discovered ode to the independent both in recording (got to have some geek/tech content folks!) and the inspiration.

http://weathervanemusic.org/ is a non-profit dedicated to supporting and showcasing independent music and the people who make and enjoy it. They offer workshops and a video series as well as documentation and an "Instructors Toolkit" for others to use to teach recording and other techniques. All come highly recommended  and this month they released the second season of their great Web/Video series "Shaking Through" which showcases musicians, engineers, and producers talking about and recording songs in the famous Miner Street Studio in Philadelphia.

This Season's first Episode features none other that Indie/Punk legends the Dead Milkmen and showcases both their confidence and experience with direct recording as well as their curiosity and comfort level with experimenting and collaborating with others. For a band known for catchy irreverent pop "Bitchin' Camaro", "Punk Rock Girl" and hick punkish manifestos "Stuart" the two videos from this series show just how sophisticated that "unsophisticated" veneer really is. The series focuses on two videos; one of the "Artist" and one of the "Production" and both are brilliant, insightful, and entertaining.

It's a joy to watch the musician's and recording team both relax and work hard at the same time and the result speak for themselves. What once was a juvenile  pleasure has now grown into a mature yet fun artistic and expressive event losing none of it's drive or relevance along the way. Few artists can claim that in general. The fact that the Dead Milkmen can pull it off just goes to show how much it's not about the corporate planning or chart sales and comes down the the same universal themes that drive any and all music.

Listen on.

"The World's Gonna Spin With or Without Me"

Recently electronic music auteur Richards James (aka Aphex Twin) posted over 170 (so far!) free unreleased songs on Soundcloud. Some are snippets and ideas but most are fully formed tracks. From an artist that was minimally visible for almost a decade this wealth of material  is like a godsend to fans. His decision to post under a generic pseudonym (user487363530001) isn't that surprising if you know how he operates

(Update: The User487363530001 soundcloud page  has been removed: WATMM has archived the tracks for download here: http://forum.watmm.com/topic/85636-richard-d-james-soundcloud-a-gift-to-the-fans/page-274#entry2286407 )

What is a bit more curious is why now and why post so many things for free all at once? Given the Aphex MO these questions will most likely never be answered but in the meantime fans and new listeners alike can share this work that once was hidden and now is out there for all to enjoy.

I recently discovered another artist had a new album out in 2014 and am kind of kicking myself that I didn't know it sooner. I caught up when I heard her distinctive voice on a TV show of all things and then went to check out if she had released any new material. Sure enough a double album set of 20 new songs has been out since last September. Lucinda Williams is a singer/songwriter versed in blues, country, and rock and roll and not an electronic music pioneer but after poking around I found some data points that stuck me as similar in my experience of finding both sets of recordings.

First and foremost while hungry for more information on her new album I came across this article declaring her one of 2014's most Overlooked Artists. Guilty as charged I thought - I'm a fan and didn't even know she had new material let alone 20 new songs. Turns out she was promoting on everything from the Tonight show to this tasty stripped down set at NPR's Tiny Desk Concert series: 

In his writing Old, But Not in a New Way author Grayson Currin  hits upon this insight:

"When we’re all trying to keep up with the best new Ableton users on Soundcloud or hunt for the best lo-fi uploads to Bandcamp, who has the time and attention to sit down with a 20-song set from a 61-year-old songwriter and parse just how thoughtful and articulate it is? I didn’t. She’ll likely release another record not long after we have a new president, anyway?"

Ouch. 

On electronic music forums and mailing lists the Aphex Twin "Soundcloud dumps" (as they been called) have certainly got a lot of attention. But equally it seems some listeners are blinking, retweeting, and moving on the the NEXT(tm) thing. One post I saw recently seemed to miss the point entirely by saying (and I'm paraphrasing) "I really like the outtakes, I wish he'd release another ambient album". This after he just released well over NINE HOURS of just that. 

Are we not paying attention? Are we so spoiled with amazing work that as soon as something brilliant comes out we shrug, tag it, and shove it in a folder on our phones or computers or shelves looking for more without even digesting it? And if it's any of the above or even a combination of those or other reasons what does this say about those who do create music? Are we simply shoveling new recordings together in a collection, tossing it into the electronic aether, and moving on ourselves?

Currin goes on to add:

"This isn’t mere information overload, where folks are flooded with so many sources of online sound that they never give anything a proper spin...  Instead, Spirit and many records like it seem to go unnoticed because, in that new church of overwhelming data and choices, we’re looking to latch onto a narrative hook or the simple feeling of newness that we can share. The appeal of something you’ve never heard (and especially something you suspect very few others have heard) dovetails perfectly with our new sharing infrastructure: This is mine, and by showing it to you, I’ve upped the level of my imprimatur."

I don't have the answers and openly admit I'm guilty of this as well. There are only so many hours in a week for my ears and mind to dig music and that's even less when you are making it yourself. But as listeners or artists we owe it to ourselves - and others - to be vigilant about the fatigue that can set in in this day and age of electronic distribution and promotion. Not all music is created equal and while no one can tell you what you like it behooves us to pay attention and give what we do recognize as great music and art a fighting chance. 

I found the new album "Down Where the Spirit Meets the Bone" in passing. In listening to the song "Protection" over and over I found these lyrics and blinked:

You know people be grinnin' and talkin' about me
Make me throw up my hands and call out cryin'
But the world's gonna spin with or without me
So I still get up and I keep on tryin' 

I've always been an advocate of artists having to please themselves first and then share second. it might sound pretentious or arrogant but the reality is sending your notes and words out into the universe is a delicate balance. It's impossible to guess what someone else will like or being happy with if you don't have the foundation of being satisfied with your work first. What she sings so seemingly effortlessly in the lyrics above might be the blueprint for us as consumers and more importantly, fans, to use to make sense of what we see and hear on a daily basis and maybe, just maybe, separate the signal from the noise. 

We Smell Sausage...

Mark Mothersbaugh of Devo fame  gives a tour of his studio in LA and explains backwards masking to the masses....

Cool Hunting Video: Mark Mothersbaugh's Synth Collection from Cool Hunting on Vimeo.

Super bleep on!

I've been working on a post about Susan Ciani for a few weeks. In the meantime, here's one reason why I am working on a post about Susan Ciani...

Full info on this excursion here:  

http://www.moogmusic.com/sight-and-sound/product_demo/suzanne-ciani-system-55

Ambient Tease...

My first "Electronic Music" project was under the name Music For Isolation Tanks in the early 1990s. I released a homemade cassette tape and sold it via mail order and local shops.

It was recorded on a stereo cassette deck (I later upgraded to a Tascam Porta05)

As with many DIY projects I had no idea what I was doing but my enthusiasm for "making wierd sounds" carried the day. I think I used my only synth which was a Yamaha DX27 and a few stomp boxes and I added reverb by recording direct out from an old Peavy amp which had a spring built in.

A few years later I made my first intentional album during a move from one tiny apartment to another (hence the name "Exile").

That album is still available today. have a listen:

http://davidtalento.bandcamp.com/album/exile-1994



 I never looked back and have released music every since. Which brings us to this month's short blog post. After over 20 years I am revisting the Music For Isolation Tanks in the studio. a new full length album will be ready in early 2015. For this I went back through the various phases of MFIT and ended up dwelling mostly on the initial ambient/drone aspects (with some odd energy thrown in for good measure).  A teaser track is out now. Keep your ears peeled for the rest soon.

Space out on!

Buchla Beatz... LoFi Style

 

Sometimes you just need to put substance over form. As a musician who has recorded both electronic and "real" music for over half my life I know the "proper" way to do things. In recording you can use mics, pre-amps, compressors, and of course various forms of recording gear to capture the sound and music "correctly".  I know how to do this and I have piles of those things including software on multiple computers that mimic and serve all those purposes. 

But everything has it's time and place. In another life I played in a psychedelic indie rock band and learned to flaunt the "proper" way to record in favor of getting something that captured what you were doing and moving forward with all your energy and creativity in actually performing the music.  We used to joke that in this project, titled Overdrive Date Master after a 1970s trucking magazine, found at a flea market - there could be no mistakes onstage. Whatever we did was the whole point of why we were there. Of course this can lead to uneven performances but at the same time the freedom of working like this  -  or should I say playing like this - can lead to an environment that encourages a higher level of creativity and, god Forbid, FUN. We "recorded" many of our shows and even studio tracks on toy tape recorders, cassettes, and even old tube reel to reel players using found or improvised microphones. The goal wasn't to get pristine audio quality or a perfect take; the idea was to capture something  and move on quickly to the actual playing. 

To be fair there have been times I wished I had a cleaner recording of some of the nonsense we did. But if I'm honest I'd have to admit that wasn't important then and it's not that important now. if we captured the moment during the madness that was just a nice bonus. And I have a lot of nice bonuses which have accumulated over the years.

This technique of: Sit down-> press play on Something-> Go has evolved as technology has. Now I, like most people, carry a phone that can record audio and video in a split second complete with built in mic. For improvisers or those looking to capture a snippet of something this is a great extension of the old lofi world.

A few weeks ago I sat down at the Buchla 200e and was playing around with it trying to make a more traditional Drum beat. The exercise mutated into a demo which then mutated into something that I suppose could be called a full track. These things aren't as straight forward as they seem in retrospect.  I didn't sit down to make a technoish song, i sat down and started playing just for the hell of it. Since i hadn't prepared to actually record anything I didn't have my arsenal of gear ready to go. To stop playing and messing with the music to set it up would have killed the mood and zone I was in that inspired the piece in the first place. So - and i think by now you all know where this is going - I checked my pockets for my cheap cell phone and, well the rest is now recorded history:

For those who like things with a *little* more Fidelity I did make a nicer sounding audio edit of the live performance which you can check out here:

Perhaps in a future post I'll write how I made the sounds and what Buchla, Thrid party,  and DIY modules I used (please email or comment if this is something you'd like to see) but for now I hope you enjoy this mess for what it is and the spirit behind it. 

Play on!

An Artist, a Gentleman, a Cheshire Cat

Geoffrey Holder (1930- 2014)

I remember my first road trip to NYC with some friends in college. While seeing the sites we stopped in one of the fancy department stores. As a bunch of scruffy college boys from central PA we were promptly (and probably deservedly) given the stink eye by the staff and patrons.

While ducking their daggers I saw this Giant of a man casually looking at ties. I recognized him but didn't really know who he was. He had a grace about his movements even in such a ridiculously mundane and pedestrian moment as this. My friends saw me gawking and dared me to go ask for his autograph. I didn't have any paper let alone a pen and poked around in the nearest store trash can until I found something - a torn of piece of a Lord and Taylor bag - good enough! I haltingly walked up to him and he looked down at me (he was taller than anyone there of course) and he smiled and offered a friendly "Hello" in that booming voice.

I held up my scrap of paper and asked if he would sign it. He was most gracious. His molasses thick low voice asking "Do you have.. a PEN?" sounded like Shakespeare. I don't think I even said anything and he glided over and asked the clerk at the counter (who really didn't like me at this point but was VERY polite to Mr Holder). He asked me my name and signed my scrap. Then he leaned over and before I could squeak out anything he shook my hand and HE said "Thank you" to me. You know how people sometimes describe movie stars or performers as having personality or charisma that lights up a room? Well, he had that.

I knew him from his movies and TV commercials (Co-Co- Casa CREAM of Coconut!) but I didn't even know his real name. When I figured it out (this was before internet kids!) sure enough, I had the autograph of Geoffrey Holder. I was what you could call a fan ever since. I remember smiling at the screen when I saw him as the Cheshire Cat on PBS. And of course he got to show off his iconic playful Baron Samedi as the villain from the Bond film Live and Let Die.

The more I learned the more I was in awe of this artist. He was not just a dancer but a ground breaking choreographer and director. He was a painter, photographer, award winning costumer designer, and, of course, a philosopher. In 2005 a documentary of the lives of Geoffrey and his wife, dancer Carmen DeLavallade,  was released titled Carmen and Geoffrey. You can find information on it via IMDB here. 

 

As you can see above I still have the autograph.  When I look at it and remember my brief encounter with him I always smile. He didn't need to be so kind and patient to a strange young man while shopping in a crowded store but he was. 

I suppose if you've read this far you're wondering what any of this has to do with synthesizers or sound. I suppose I could shoehorn in my fascination with his unique delivery and voice and claim his melodic manner of speaking was a form of music in and of itself. He certainly elevated everything he did from 7up commercials to the classics with his instrument. 

But the bottom line is he simply was every bit as inspirational and creative in his multi-disciplinary pursuits as any of the other artists I admire and mention in this blog and, like he once did with me, I wanted to share. 

Thank you,  and Dance in Peace Mr Holder.

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A good starting place for those interested in his life and work can be found in today's New York Times piece here:

http://www.nytimes.com/2014/10/07/arts/geoffrey-holder-dancer-choreographer-and-man-of-flair-dies-at-84.html

Game, Set, Bleep, Bloop...

Environmental sound has been used as long as man has been creating music. Drums mimic heartbeats, mutes on horns mimic voices, everything from the demons of hell (Saint-Saens Danse Macabre) to typewriters have been invoked or actually produced to flesh out scores and performances.

The industrial music genre looked at sound as part of our environment and turned it's eye and ear to themes such as our growing reliance on machinery and the dehumanizing effects of mechanization. With the advent of samplers and sequencers the tools for working with environmental sound not only grew but became more affordable and, therefore, more democratic. Today Children's toys do this for a few bucks and anyone with a smart phone can capture sound, manipulate it, and toss their completed work into a song or ringtone. 

And as you use that smartphone, or browse your web on your computer, tablet, or laptop  advertisers and business are scanning your searches, clicks, and choices and feeding that data into algorithms that help them predict patterns, sales, market trends and more.

So really, it was only a matter of time until a player in the data business decided to co-op the themes of man/machine and  use art to display their wares. Enter IBM, The US Open Tennis Match, and a pile of analog synths. A nice touch being many of these are classic analog modulars from a different place and time including an EMS Synthi and Arp 2600. 

James Murphy of LCD Soundsystem  teamed up with Tool designer Patrick Gunderson and his team to come up with an interactive self generating program that would take raw data from the tennis match in real time (Serves, scores, faults, player names, etc) and then synthesize that to controller data which would then be fed to Murphy's collection of instruments. A good overview is provided by FastCoCreate.Com here:  http://www.fastcocreate.com/3035202/the-sound-of-tennis-how-ibm-and-james-murphy-made-music-from-the-us-open

Interactive Data interface for Instruments

All the matches are uploaded on this site: http://www.usopen.org/en_US/sessions/ . The results sound like pings, whirs, and percussive yelps rather than mainstream beats or melodies but if you skip around and listen to different games you can hear distinct themes and sounds emerge.  For those with less  avant tastes apparently some of the music will be edited and remixed for an upcoming album based on the results. For those who want an immediate fix however, try this match between Serena Williams and Varvara Lepchenko
http://sessions.usopen.org/#!/match/WS301

Serve on!