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: 

"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. 

Sweat, Surprise, and a New Track...

Perhaps you have heard the phrase "Creativity is 1% Inspiration and 99% Perspiration". The implication being you shouldn't sit around waiting to create, you need to work at it and be determined to both start and finish something. 

With my project "Sweeping the Noise Floor" it's necessary to focus to complete tracks and albums (let alone live shows which are a lot of work) but I really couldn't define the actual percentages. This is because almost all my tracks come out of a place where I don't have a specific sound or goal in mind at the onset. I assemble what tools I want to use and then  start slowly patching and building until something comes into focus. Once the initial inspirational sound is there I process to trying to mix levels, parts, etc live in a linear fashion to see what I can do with what I've found. If I'm still pleased with what's happening I progress to recording tracks live and then dumping and editing them on the computer doing the panning, levels, and perhaps adding more effects, fades, etc. 

If this sounds very fatalistic that's because, for this project at least, I try to set up an environment where things will fall into place. While it's obvious nothing would happen if I didn't put the effort in, I approach the instruments (and especially the modular synths) as something organic and acting a bit on their own. While I set certain wheels in motion it's also true I am constantly both pushing forward and sitting back at the same time. Does that count as "perspiration"?  I honestly don't know.

The more quantifiable parts of the track (working on the parts, mix, final master) are more rote and similar from any other track by the time I get to those stages. But that initial Something, that Je ne c'est quoi that starts the ball rolling? I would certainly give that a lot more than 1% credit - whereever  it comes from.

I didn't intend to create anything today. Parts of this track go back 3-4 years while the majority of it was composed and recorded all at once in less than an hour after my morning coffee. It's what I like to call a "surprise" in that I wasn't expecting to come up with anything and when I did I just went with the flow. 

Perhaps I'll do a "part 2" to this post where I'll describe the patch and how I came up with this ditty. (By all means please comment or email if you'd find that interesting and/or helpful!) But for now I'll just let the music do the talking. 

Close your eyes, relax,  and float on.

Mixed Signals...

For those interested in what all this philosophizing on inspiration,  composing, and general sound mayhem adds up to I present my new full length album of heavy synthesis by Sweeping the Noise Floor, titled Mixed Signals..  I have been recording and mixing the material for this record off and on for a bit over three years. During that time I've acquired new tools and instruments, learned a few new techniques, and mixed and matched those integrating them into my vision of what Sweeping the Noise Floor should be.

To Stream the album in it's entirely you can click below or go directly to http://davidtalento.bandcamp.com/album/mixed-signals








Mixed Signals,  is a 12 song, hour plus culmination of my more free form all synth based material. Here is the description from the main release page:

This is the second full length Sweeping the Noise Floor studio album following up on 2007's "Baseline. Over Three years in the making "mixed Signals" showcases a growth of the overall Sweeping the Noise Floor sound and intention while maintaining it's creeping energy and dedication to emotional sound exploration. 

There is a lot of variety in these songs. Some evolve slowly while others tic and ping back and forth in the audio realm. Some ever have (gasp) melody while others take the listener to uncharted territory and aural locations. While the length runs over and hour you'll find different songs take their own path and time frame to get where they are going. 

A few of these tracks have been previous released over the years most notably "That Which Was Then Becoming" which appeared on the international compilation "Signs" dedicated to notated scores and Buchla Modular synthesis as well as on the synthesis and art blog:   SynthandI.blogspot.com 

Modular synthesis in general still take center stage including instruments by Buchla, Serge, Modcan, and various DIY manufacturers such as MegoOhm and DAEDSound.com. There are also older mono synths and some new additional tools such as custom Reaktor ensembles and very creative recording and mixing techniques. The end result is a step forward in sound exploration which, I believe, creates a cohesive whole. 

The "album" was specifically mixed and sequenced to be listened to in it's entirely, perhaps as background, perhaps as the main event. However you choose to apply it I thank you for your support and hope you enjoy it as much as I have putting it all together. 

DT Phila Pa, May 2013

To make things a little more interesting I'll be pointing out some highlights from tracks as I remember making them along with some insight into the process in upcoming posts. In the meantime feel free to listen, download, and enjoy. Comments are welcome and if anyone would like to do a published review or suggest someplace I should submit the album for review please let me know and I'll send off a free download code.

Headphones ON!

Guitar/ Not Guitar... and No One Played Synthesizer...

I have always been obsessed with sound and making unusual noises using whatever tools I could find. Long before I owned a synthesizer my first introduction to "synthesis" was via stomp  box effects, especially delays. Those little colored stomp boxes on the floor in front of guitarists onstage that would make their instrument sounds like jet airplanes taking off (flangers),  doubled parts (choruses and pitch shifters), or perhaps my favorite, multi-part harmonies and spaced out swirling notes (delays).


All of this culminated years later when I did a series of shows and an album appropriated titled "Guitar/Not Guitar) where the idea was to pick up what looked like a conventional six string guitar on stage and have the sound the audience heard be anything but a traditional six strong guitar.  I used effects, a guitar synth, loopers, and even a midi guitar for parts of the set. A simple example of "guitar/not guitar" can be found here where I play Roland GR300 guitar synth into a delay and build the loop in real time. This was done in one take with no overdubs


But before I get to ahead of myself my exposure to doing this started years before I even knew what a guitar or delay was. As a good American teenager I listened to what is now considered "classic rock" radio stations and friend's record collections, etc and it was there I first heard the guitar pyrotechnics of Brian May from the band Queen.  Bloated AOR radio rock bands in a synth blog? you might ask? Well, yes there is a direct connection, please stay with me!

Casual fans might not be aware but Queen's first six albums (the initial ones with all their big rock hits) all had extensive studio wizardry with effects DIY amps, effects, innovative overdubbing, etc. In other words sound sculpting at it's most creative and finest. They were so proud of the work they put in they didn't want anyone to confuse the huge string and orchestral arrangements (done entirely on guitar) that they brazenly put the words "No One Played Synthesizer" on the credits of each of these records. Like their music or not, Brian May was always a true sound pioneer modifying his amps and literally building his main guitar from scratch to get it's wiring to do exactly what he wanted. He also used a series of delays to achieve his trademark sound and developed a way to reproduce his studio work live in real time on a single guitar. In this video he demonstrates one technique he uses combining two short delays one after another to make multiple notes play at once:

 

Seems simple enough (all the masters make difficult things seem simple) but with a little experimentation and practice you can try this at home with similar results. Now again, perhaps Radio Ga-Ga isn't everyone's cup of English tea (personally I liked their earlier "non synth" albums) but from a pure sound excursion level you can't argue with the technique and passionate drive to create new sounds. May's use of muted rhythm playing, echo, volume swells and more seeped into my teenage synthesist's brain and when combined with the other tools and artists I stumbled across better known for their guitar sound work (Robert Fripp, Adrian Belew, etc) I was off and running in my journey to explore and create.

As a coda to this post I'll add that there is a classic lost video of an Extremely young Adrian Belew giving a class on "How to Play Electronic Guitar". In the 80s instructional VHS tapes were all the rage and most taught budding fanboys how to shred like their latest metal hero or plays the blues. Someone thought it was a good idea to get a true wizard of bizarre noises to do an instructional video showing how he made his guitar sound like Seagulls, Rhinos, Spaceships, and more.

I suppose outside of the more subtle influences if there ever was a genesis of Guitar/Not Guitar Belew's VHS tape would be it. I've always loved the title was ELECTRONIC guitar not Electric guitar. Truth in advertising folks.

Strum and pick on!

Old band, New Life...

Most of my musical "Career" has been mixing things up and going with what interests and inspires me at the moment. For anyone looking for pointers I can say that is probably the worst way to present yourself commercially but it might be one of the most rewarding in terms of expressing yourself or just having fun. Of course being successful or popular need not be in contrast to being an artist but they certainly are a delicate balance if you want them both together.

Some of my biggest inspirations where people who circumvented the art/commerce world by simply supporting themselves in other ways and using those funds and their free time to do exactly what they wanted and critics (and sometimes fans) be damned. The great American classical composer Charles Ives lived most of his adult life as an accountant boldly stating "I will not let me family starve because of my dissonance." Hear hear!

I've always been a fan of Long island based sound/noise/industrial/whatever pioneers Controlled Bleeding and was even more intrigued by their no compromise highly varied output and their dedication to having one foot in the "real" world and two ears in the musical when they wanted. After the passing of long time members and a period of transience founding member Paul Lemos has resurfaced with a stripped down version that he feels captures the spirit and earns the Controlled Bleeding moniker. Eschewing the scat and operatic voices (actually skipping any  vocals whatsoever) he's brought Controlled Bleeding back to it's more free form avant/Jazz live playing roots and has done some intriguing shows the past few years with just guitar, drums, and some minor loops and samples. As with all their other output it sounds nothing like any other version of Controlled Bleeding but then again, isn't that the whole point of creating sometimes?

Here is a great recording of a live set with the current lineup in early 2012:
https://soundcloud.com/liveatsheastadium/sets/controlled-bleeding-live-shea


For those shocked and awed by the "new" direction don't forget there are shards of this in a lot of their earlier and later live shows as well. Through the miracle of you tube here is a set with the mighty Joe Papa and one version of the full band live in NYC:


As a special treat, fans of the really out there might want to check out Paul and Joe Papa's side project under the name The Breast Fed Yak who's album "Get Your Greasy Head Off the Sham" prompted Amazon reviewers to write:

"imagine a naked, 350-pound superhero scatting like Ella Fitzgerald having an epileptic fit "

and

"Picture the scene in Gremlins where the gremlins are smoking, drinking and playing cards. Now, imagine that they are also on meth and have broken into the band room of the local high school. The resulting chaos might sound like this CD"

Bop on!

Happy Vintage Holidays...

Proving that analog is much more than synths and psychedelic is much more than stoned guitars or TB303s I present a 15 year old recording that pushed the limits even for an underground band. Overdrive Date Master   was an indie rock/experimental psychedelic (that's what rock guys called Noise back then) band. we had a loud and sordid career throughout the 1990s playing the usual circuit of rock clubs in town and a few extra shows as here and there. We started with synths and guitars into a pile of effects along with some older drum machines and tape echos and usually ran everything into a wall of a half dozen or so tube amps we lined up onstage so we wouldn't have to use the pa. As we discovered more odd instruments (Casio saxophone, 8RPM record players, Library of Congress for the Blind pitch shifting tape recorders) we piled more delays and effects on the mix and kept pushing the reverb and vibrato on those Fender amps. 

Eventually we decided to just drop the guitars and any semblance of songs all together and did a show of just   playing and processing esoteric records, found tapes, and toys. We called this our "holiday party" and set up Christmas lights, put a Santa hat on the clapping monkey, and had Tomy robots running into the audience delivering Christmas cards and holiday treats. Perhaps it was because of the spectacle or maybe people just didn't mind the noise as much as we thought they might but the show caught on and eventually as other obligations and bands took hold Overdrive Date Master slept most of the year only to come alive for the one show a year which grew from small clubs to larger venues and eventually out of town festivals. 

Instruments would sometimes creep in but only if they didn't do anything musical. That wasn't too hard when the mandolin met stereo rack mount processors and more amps started showing up.

Vinyl played a big part in the proceedings and everything from "Songs of the Humpback Whale" to "How to Think by Steven Allen" and Chipmunks tunes played on 16 RPM (try it; the voices are "normal" and music is, well. appropriately possessed) had their turn. "Now Playing" placards adorned either side of the stage to announce to the audience what was being deconstructed before their very ears. Instruction records such as how to be an actor or even my favorite a "Do It Yourself Psychoanalytical Kit" fought with distorted and manipulated Holiday tunes while I hit the "Habanera" preset and we set our sites for the heart of the Sun. 

The mess always ended with various bleeps, bloops, echos, and holiday cheer balancing out ringing ears. It might not be what one expects from "Electronic" or ?Experimental" or even "music" but it always got us through another year.

Now for the first time in 15 years you can relieve the mayhem of the show that started it all. Free Download with inserts and additions for all.

"You can clap if you want to."

More "Live" with Dan Deacon...

I have a number of other more geeky and philosophical posts brewing but reaction to the last post on some off-the-beaten-bath live electronic music performers has promoted this quickie which I just HAD to share. Baltimore MD's own Dan Deacon has been a fixture for ages doing circuit bent opuses which build like a concerto in their emotion and intensity. With man handled Casios, 8bits, and wires Deacon is a true artist and he even writes with the same intensity. Here's his patriotic manifesto on America no less.

He's also been consistently dedicated to bringing the pings to the masses live as seen here in this 2012 SXSW concert set. Note TWO live acoustic drummers and vocals feature prominently (who says glitch can't meet human?).  Special note this was posted by NPR who does a LOT more than Big Bird folks.  NPR rocks as much as Deacon. They're both geeky, free wheeling, and magnificent. Bleep and Support on.

Kids Today!

I've been making electronic music and merging it with indie rock at various points since the late 80s.  Back then the divisions between genres and "Rock and Roll" VS  DJs or pre-recorded  parts were more of  a jumble. Hip Hop had made turntablism an art and of course the whole British synthpop movement brought out this new technology to the masses and bands evolved from "punk" to "new wave" and then some. As things crept on there was a merging of man and machine as bands started to incorporate drum machines or sequenced synthesizers into their live performances. In the late 70s we had groups like Suicide who somehow made dirty and frightening rock and roll with a Cha-Cha drum machine and cheesy organ. In the 80s technology hit top 40 radio with bands like the Cars and Devo and in the 90s the underground industrial movement with everyone from Psychic TV to Ministry  were pressing ""start" and then blasting onward.

Every step of the way there were vicious verbal battles by old school "musician" stalwarts who declared using prerecorded or sequenced backing tracks or arpeggiators and drum machines "cheating".  Jabs and diatribes were everywhere mocking hardware laden bands who "couldn't play an instrument" or "simply stood there". If  I had a dime for every time a self appointed manly guitar player made an effeminate reference about a synthesizer I could buy you a vintage Minimoog or '56 Les Paul.


Of course the evolution of mixing classic rock and punk with electronic instruments was much more nuanced and complex but if you'll forgive my gross simplification and go with me that sequencers, drum machines, and guitars, bass, and drums started to merge in live music more we can all proceed.

Still with me? Good.


For better or worse we have now grown into an age where complete live performances can (and are) done on a single laptop or with looping software and virtual instruments. I've attended Power Electronics as well as  techno shows where the "band" consisted of a singer and his ipod and in some cases, much to my surprise,  they rocked.  These required a certain suspension of the traditional view of what "Live music" is but you need not go further than current critical and indie darlings like "The Kills" or "The Submarines" to see what can be done with a guitar, macbook, and some feedback and good old reckless abandon.

I suppose I still hearken back to my roots of playing sweaty rock clubs with broken PAs and I like hearing live bass guitar and drums as much as I like to hear all the new things we get with wacky synths and samplers. What I find fascinating is when a young band who never knew about the past's arguments  mixes it all up and spits it out focusing entirely on what's been important throughout this technological revolution; the Music.

This past week I was flipping through internet TV channels on my Roku (how futuristic!) and came across a rebroadcast of a show that offered live in studio performances by various bands called "In the Basement".  I immediately went to one episode that demonstrates the ultimate in old school rock performance -  a concert with the reunited Iggy Pop and the Stooges. But in the best of the old school booking traditions this show mixed up bands and not only had the quintessential rock gods The Stooges,  it also had a younger band that played multiple synths, guitars, prerecorded percussion/sound, and live drums. And they had a dedicated charismatic live singer. And they rocked.

From Brasil of all places C.S.S.  (http://www.subpop.com/artists/css) blew the roof off the studio even after The Stooges.  The playing, arrangements, and songs were great but what got me was the feedback drenched 100% live transition between their two singles and the gleeful grande finale noise crescendo at the end. Seeing these younger musicians do that that reminded me what music is regardless of the instruments used. I first heard their album tracks on the GREAT indie phila. radio station WKDU a few years ago.  I liked what I heard but this performance took the recordings  and went to that *other* place where inspiration, groove, energy, and what makes us play music mix into a good sloppy and spicy stew. In other words, a LIVE performance.




The video clip is  about 9 minutes long and I highly recommend watching it in it's entirely to see the magic unfold right before your eyes. CSS would be the first to admit they aren't the most advanced players or tightest musicians but they are great at what they're doing and enjoying it which, in this case,  counts for just as much. The simple yet intriguingly intertwined guitar parts have that special something as do all the fun and creative synth and sound lines. And their unapologetically mined Disco beat turns what could be retro and stale into fresh and youthful again. Throw in some irreverent lyrics and almost a half dozen girls and boys swapping instruments and musical hooks and you've got a party that shows new can come from old. Especially if you remember why you're doing it in the first place.

Rock on.

Ridiculous...

I recently found an old cassette tape my friend Kent Williams had sent me back in the 1990s. You know when "tape trading" was all the rage and long before CDrs let alone digital recording. Well, to be fair I think DAT was the high end studio bees Knees.

Anyway those were the days when I'd pick up two cheesy analog pieces and do a "jam" twiddling knobs like a monkey not really knowing what I was doing and then declare I had written a "track". I guess in some ways not much has changed.

Anyway this is a silly two bit piece with the lowest of the low drum machines (a Boss DR55) and Roland SH101 monosynth I remember buying from a Pawn shop in south Philly during my lunch break from work. I set the drum machine to "Velveta" and threw a few note sequence into the SH101 and, well, recorded a track. And then promptly forgot about it forever. Until I found it on the ass end of a cassette tape this year.



What do we learn from all this? Perhaps a little about enthusiasm and youth and how friends make it all worthwhile. Or maybe just twiddling analog stuff is good clean stupid fun.

Either way, bleep on...

Meet Jim Coleman, Listen to Trees...

Every few months I tend to get restless and go internet surfing for posts or information on my many inspirations. Recently I was pleasantly surprised to find a new album and blog by one of my favorite musicians, Jim Coleman. Many of you may know him as the keyboard player in the seminal NY indie band Cop Shoot Cop  which combined unorthodox instrumentation (two bass guitars, scrap metal drum kit, and sampler) with  a driving raw energy focused into bursts. Their barrage of rhythmic noise often got them thrown into the "industrial" or "post punk" labels although they were always much more than that. Over the years the band honed this energy into surprising and coherent dramatic songs (still using the same instrumentation with occasional additions of horns or guitar) building dynamics and tension while still throwing the listener fresh shards of sound that were increasingly melodic and structured while never losing their edge. A big part of this  was the unconventional use of sound as an instrument and that's where Jim and his sampler came in.  Rarely loading in a "keyboard" sample he played sound effects, explosions, loops, and miscellaneous patterns as a noise virtuoso. Listen to the backwards building voices in "Seattle" or the clawing sirens and swooshes  in "Turning Inside Out" as just some examples.

On Coleman's latest release "Trees" the listener is treated to a gorgeous ambient electro-acoustic meditative journey. There are some darker edges but for the most part the album reads like an antidote to the tension and clamoring hyperactivity of the past. Is this the same artist who gave us the collage track  "Relief"  from an album titled White Noise?

It most certainly is.

I spoke with Jim recently and he has a great web page and blog where he gives a bio and some personal experiences and thoughts.  For this blogs sound obsessed purposes however highlights from our conversation were the moments where he emphasized his interest in sound going to back to when he was a child and used to play his dad's 45s on the wrong speed just to hear what would come out of the speakers. Classically trained in both piano and french horn he emphasized "what I wanted to be doing was sitting down at the piano and be making up my own stuff."  He eventually attended art school where he studied experimental film. In between creating new work from reels of found film and optical processors he started to make sound loops from stock footage films and would set up mics and a four track at parties and record the festivities for mixed playback later.

After Cop Shoot Cop ended Jim started working with other artists such as Italy's Teho Teardo and began what would seem like a perfectly fitted career in soundtrack work. His first piece ended up being used in the title credits of  US indie film guru Hal Hartley's "The Unbelievable Truth". He released two albums under the name Phylr with obvious synth and beat elements but as he himself describes his work "even when I do electronic music it's not what people consider to be electronic music". Amen to that.

His experiences and artistic experimentation lead to not only an obvious evolution but also a culmination which seemed to focus on, as he put it, "finding new ways looking at things we take for granted". It was in this mindset that Jim decided to mix things up again and challenge himself to work differently than he had in the past. Doing the basic track work on his laptop during morning and evening commutes Trees began to take shape. Once the structure was down he added other musicians and elements.

Trees is the first release on his new indie label Wax and Wane. It veers from gorgeous string laden modern classicism  to ambient percussive meditations and excursions into free floating sound sculptures. Moods shift and mutate and by the time it's over almost an hour later you feel both relaxed and rested.



Perhaps one of the most enjoyable aspects of the release is the variety of  tones and textures, sometimes all within the same song. The CD starts with what could easily be a classical ensemble piece "Sideways" but doesn't stay there wandering off  with short leads by horns and strings beckoning the listener to follow  until we arrive and the percussive raindrops of "Tracks". A guide vocal comes in on the next track "Dawn" with middle Eastern influences building until we arrive at a - dare I say it- culmination of all the pieces in "Closing". Trees ends with a coda track "Rain" which again revisits the sounds and textures used as though the listener were taking one short glance back before moving forward.

 

And speaking of moving forward Jim is already working on the follow up to Trees and has scheduled a live radio performance with the great Independent radio station WFMU December 18th at 9 pm

To me Trees and Jim's career serves as an inspiration to sound oriented musicians everywhere. When his indie band got big and imploded rather than going larger and moving to the West Coast machine he chose to focus on what made him happy and works both in the field he loves and outside it to maintain his independence and musical integrity. When distribution for seemed to stall he started his own label and has been doing publicity and online distribution and has lined up a physical CD release to be available soon via Cargo. He's made peace with the challenges of his life and has a comfortable perspective on where he's at and continues to do interesting and exciting work on his own terms. Trees is the organic and living proof.

But don't take my word for it. Here are a few links for further exploration into the world and music of Jim Coleman.

Enjoy!

Soundcloud with various projects: http://soundcloud.com/phylr

Trees Download from Amazon:  http://www.amazon.com/Trees/dp/B008FTC5PQ/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8

Trees Download from ITunes:  https://itunes.apple.com/us/album/trees/id540626631

Trees Download from EMusic: http://www.emusic.com/listen/#/album/jim-coleman/trees/13476270/

Jim Coleman Website:    http://www.jimcolemanmusic.com/

Jim Coleman's Blog:  http://jimcolemanmusic.wordpress.com/

Mellotron Demo Destroyed...

It's been a few weeks since I last posted and there are some exciting things coming up but rather than wait longer and longer I figured I'd at least post something in the meantime. This is a silly track I composed a few years ago.

The "musical" component of it comes from samples of a Zero Oscillator which is a particular analog oscillator capable of some extraordinary sounds. The Voice samples are taken from a 1960s video which demonstrate the famous Mellotron as a kind of home entertainment system. of course I destroyed both sources and messed with everything until it came out, well, like this:




The track was assembled bit-by-bit in Sony ACID incrementally moving and clipping loops here and there until everything made as much sense as, well, what you hear. It's a bit of a challenging track but if you can stick with it hopefully you'll get the sense of humor and pay off as well :)

Scratch on!

New Member to the Family and A lesson in Live Modular Mixing...

After a few year wait (well, over a decade if you count rumors, I received my Fenix II modular from Holland this week.  I'm sure she'll be making a lot of appearances on the blog in the future and I'll give a more complete description soon but for now here is a little ditty I patched up this morning after coffee.



This patch uses only one VCO and has five main elements going into Mixer1 and Mixer2 and is a good example of how I "play" a live patch by mixing the elements up and down in the master stereo out in real time and tweaking.

 1. Square Wave into Mixer 1 Input 1 having it's pitch modulated by the internal sequencer

 2. Square Wave going into Mixer 1 Input 2. The wave is being fed into the wave multiplier which is being controlled by the same clock (LFO4) as the sequencer

 3. Sawtooth wave into Mixer 1 Input 3. This waveform is being fed into VCF2 which is being modulated by a sine wave from LFO2. You can hear it self oscillating more as the track builds.

4. Digital noise going into Mixer 2, Input 1. The CV of the digital noise is being modulated by the sequencer out as well.

 5. Analog Noise being fed into Mixer 2, Input 2.


The basic structure starts with me mixing in the analog noise and then digital noise. I bring the Wave Multiplied Square up in the mix and shortly mix down the noise and move the Square wave sequence to the forefront. Then I add in the Filtered  sawtooth and tweak the filter, digital noise CV and levels until we work our way back down and abruptly end on the noise beat. All of that mess is then fed into the internal phaser with the + and - outputs going into the dual left and right outputs.

There is no additional reverb, compression, or any panning or volume change in the mix. This is 100% live as recorded directly from the Fenix to WAV.

Enjoy!

Demo. Track. Yes.

Earlier this month I sat down to do a post on the joys of the Buchla 261e oscillator. I've previously posted about how uniquely sophisticated and organic this digital/analog hybrid Oscillator is and I find myself coming back to it over and over again for all sorts of tones, timbres, and classic waveforms.  Like many Buchla modules the 261e contains much more than meets the eye. it's CV controllable modulation oscillator offers evolving waveforms and the main sine wave, while digitally generated, is extraordinarily round and wooly.  I've also raved about it's built in filtering and timbre controls which make this a number of modules in one. 

So with more exploration in mind I sat down to do a demo of both oscillator sections with a little tweaking. I  built up a series of complimentary sequences on the 250E and assigned various gates and CVs to the waveform input, and both pitch control inputs.

One thing lead to another and I "rolled tape" to capture my simple demo run through.  Then I liked what I was hearing so I separated the two oscillators and did a few more takes. Then I started to carve out three distinct lines from the 261e including both sine wave outputs as well as the modulated multi-waveform modulation oscillator output. Along the way I started tweaking the filter and timbre controls in time with the sequence to create something a bit more sophisticated that I originally intended and took the raw WAV files and started messing with volume and panning and fades to sculpt something musically out of the raw material.

Next thing I knew I added another synth (MS20VST) played live over top. A bit  more editing,  some added reverb, and by the time I was done I decided it really wasn't a demo anymore. So, now we get a new completed track.  I told you before how the 200e has a way of convincing me to do more than I thought I would.  This is certainly still a solid demo of what the 261e can do. I suppose it's good to know that might sometimes be more than even I intended.

This track is available for free streaming and download at Name-your-own-price including free as part of my new singles collection at the bottom of my bandcamp page here:  http://davidtalento.bandcamp.com/. Feel free to sample the other ware while you are visiting and, of course, bleep on.

Exile - Ambient Music from 1994

http://davidtalento.bandcamp.com/album/exile We're all synth lovers. Back in 1994 I released my first full length album without knowing how much of a valentine to analog filters, LFOs, and sweeps and pads it would be. Almost 20 years later it still does what I didn't even know I intended it to do. This was released as a cassette album with two sides: "Open" and "Closed". Yes I was young, artsy, and more than a bit precocious but it was all in fun. Some of the tracks got more attention than others and the most ambient was picked up for a compilation by Arts Industria and got me some label interest. Here is "untitled #3" This was the early 90s when float/chill/ambient was all the rage after all but as with all my work each track is different and even in the synth genre I couldn't sit still. To prove the point here is "Kill Yr 808" which has a keyboard solo somewhere between Sun Ra and Peter Gabriel: Some tracks are taking a solo synth and going to town on one idea. The recordings heavily feature a Roland Juno 106, SCI Pro One, and Ensoniq ESQ1 but there is no techno (that came later and quite by accident for me). The album is available for streaming free in it's entirety. Full download price (including two extra long bonus tracks) is only $7 with individual downloads only 75 cents. If you like, please buy and feel free to puruse the rest of the catalog to see where I've been since this one.  As John Cale once sang, I write reams of this stuff. For analog purists I still have about a dozen cassette tapes for sale with their original photo copied and cut out JCards if you want to be all super retro  Thanks for listening and enjoy.

Buchla Ambient Track and "Accidents"

Following up on the track I posted in the previous entry, here is a bit more information on how it came about and some insight on what I perceive to be the creative process and how it can be enhanced by modular synths and organic technology in general.

The track started out as a short beat drive sequence at about 120BPM. Not very fast but certainly more rhythmical and up tempo. I also took advantage of the modular nature of my instruments by cross patching different systems. I ran the 259e oscillator into the Modcan Digital delay and a custom Analog Solutions Comb Filter built into ModcanA format.  I then went to the 261e and patched it into a low rumble drone that used internal feedback between it's Primary and Modulation oscillators. Dedicated readers of this blog might remember how amazed I was at the low "BoooooM" the 261e sine wave can spit out and I have been fascinated by it's capabilities ever since.

I had both oscillators being run by the 250e sequencer which was sending CV out to the pitch in of each osc and then also sending gates and triggers to the 281e envelopes and 292e gates. To make things a bit more interesting I started to program the pulse and CV in on the 250e and set it to different combinations of strobe and various advance/enable/sustain modes on the start/stop section.  As with a lot of my tinkering I wasn't entirely sure where I was going but I was trying different things to see if I found a sound or rhythm that appealed to my mindset at the time.

This is where I feel modular synthesis in general, and the Buchla 200e system in particular, helps to inspire me. Patching and programming modules is a far cry from picking up a guitar or sitting at a piano and hitting a key. Yet, at their core, they are all instruments used for making music. With a guitar you can bend the string or slide your finger up the neck to reach another note or tone. One a piano you can hit the key fortissimo or barely press it so the hammer slooowly meets the felt and the note is more or less coaxed out.

A modular synthesizer, by it's definition, offers openings and access to sound building blocks that don't exist in hardwired or closed systems. It's the fumbling with the interaction of these parts that make the equivalent of a sustained note or muted string to me. I feel my way around the patches starting with something more or less straight forward (in this case I wanted to process the 259e and have a sequence play the 261e sine wave) and then mutate and bend the patch until it starts to peak my interest. I call this the synth "talking back" to me and I often refer to it as a very organic process. With something as complex as the 250e sequencer and the modulation possibilities of the 200e's oscillators it's entirely possible to have the instrument come up with aural combinations and results you didn't expect. If you are going into the composition process looking to allow this to happen "happy accidents" can occur which bring about completely new directions for your music.

This is exactly what happened with the track in question. I usually make a patch I'm comfortable with and map out the modulations and mixing I am going to do in real-time and then sit down and record the track live pretty much sticking to my plan. I set up everything to what I believe it's  "start point" should be and pause the recorder anticipating I'll press go and we're off capturing what I laid out in my rehearsals and preparations. This usually involves stopping or rewinding the sequencer (or other tempo generator) and, in this case that is exactly what I did. What happened next, however, was the perfect "happy accident".

Instead of silence when I stopped the 250e I heard this fascinating organic drone emit from the Buchla. A strange pinging tone (a combination of the 259e modulated A/B waves and the comb filter and delay apparently)  started  *talking* completely alien to my involvement.  It was as though I had created an aural Golem and had set it loose and it wasn't until I stopped the sequencer and it's notes from pushing everything forward that I realized the patch was already moving.

I sat for a few moments stunned by the sound it was creating. Slowly I started to mix in the 261e and realized by turning up the level on the 292e I could allow enough of the strong sine wave through so it would feedback. It sounded like one of Robert Fripp's 1970s feedback guitar solos and with some practice I was able to "play" the 261e in this sustain/feedback mode like an instrument in and of itself. The final piece came through when I started to manually shift the steps on the 250e. By not clocking them I had full control over when the notes of the pre-programmed sequence changes. I could go forward, backward, or even skip steps as I saw fit with both the other tones flowing from the manual tweaks I gave them.

The result is the track "Down the Hill Backwards", a  titular nod to Brian Eno. I sat down to make a straight forward up tempo melody oriented electronica track. The modular, however, had other ideas and it wasn't until I stopped and listened to what it was telling me that I realized I had created something entirely different. The ability to interact with and instrument like this is what makes a machine "organic" and the creative process inspiring to me. I hope you enjoy the conversation as much as I do.

Here is the track one more time:




Talk on.

New Buchla 200e Ambient track...

I've been busy in the studio again. Will upload a more complete post including patch details soon but for now enjoy this new track courtesy  of the 200e and some odds and ends.

New Buchla Compilation Release!

One of the great things about being an electronic musician is the constantly evolving community on-line. There are forums, mailing lists, blogs, and sites which offer information and support on even the most obscure instrument, software, operating system, or vintage relic.  

Another benefit of this is it is easier to find other like-minded individuals and create and share music and ideas. Those of us older types remember the days of "tape trading" when the only method of having a friend in another state or country hear your music was to put it on a cassette and put in in a mailbox. Like, with postage and such kids. Gasp!

Some great music came out of those days. I personally participated in a Devo, AC/DC, and two looping, and numerous "Electronic Music" compilation tapes and CDs.  Perhaps in a more nostalgic post I'll muse on the joys and fun of those days but for today, the end of 2011, I'll take the leap forward and present you with an end-of-year present:  SIGNS: A COMPILATION OF WIGGLERS’ GRAPHICAL NOTATIONS FOR THE BUCHLA SYNTHESIZER. 

 

I'll let the curator of this fine release, Giorgio Sancristoforo, describe his efforts and the final CD as he does it best:

"Some months ago I’ve asked to the fellow Buchla musicians of the MuffWigglers website to participate to a collective experiment on music notation for the Buchla synthesizer. In the world of modular synthesizers music we often see free improvisations, sketches, etudes, but very rarely “composed” music with notation.

This experiment was an attempt to involve nowadays modular musicians in the field of composition by means of graphical notation.

The result is finally here. Signs is not only an amazing collection of mind blowing music, it is also the proof that notation in electronic music is alive and kicking and indeed deserve further explorations.  I want to thank with all my heart all the contributors of this amazing work. I hope you will all enjoy it."

 

The download "CD" release includes a beautiful 22 page  full color booklet with essays, bios, and descriptions of each of the pieces and artists. It is in high quality 320 KPS MP3 format and FREE!!!

You can download SIGNS as well as other fantastic cutting edge electronic music from the Gleetchplug Website here:  http://www.gleetchplug.com/Gleetchplug/Releases.html  

I'm proud to have a track on this great compilation. It was both challenging and fun. For full details download the release and check out the booklet! 

Here is the full TRACKLIST:

1)Olga Kokcharova & Gianluca Ruggeri : Eidetic Landscape
2)Todd Barton : Altair II
3)Niklas Winde aka 7th DanSound : Men för helvete Älskling!
4)Cyril Baud aka Ernest Saint Laurent : Incursions 3
5)Didier Debril : Sequences
6)Giorgio Sancristoforo : Andante Molto Vago
7)David Talento : That Which Was Then Becoming
8)Lyonel Bauchet : Kinesthézic
9)Schleusolz : Waltzing at the shipyard 

I hope you enjoy listening to release. Happy New year and keep bleeping into 2012!!

What Do you DO with All this Stuff Anyway???

The title of this post is a very valid and frequent question I get when someone sees my studio filled with synths and wires and steps over piles of power supplies, drum machines, stomp boxes and more. The answer is a big more complex but could be simplified into the short answer, "I make music with it". You can blame my Jr High School music teacher, Charles Terry, for introducing me to the very first synthesizer I saw in real life (an Arp Odysessy) and defining music as "Any Meaningfully Organized Pattern of Sound". Seriously, he was THAT cool and it just goes to show some things from your school days do stick with you.


I recently had the opportunity to attend the annual Musicology conference which was held in Philadelphia (my hometown) this year. One of the speakers played a clip of an interview she did with one of the pioneers of Detroit techno where he stated rather than worry or think about genres or types of music (House, Acid, Techno, etc) he just "made music" and put it out adding, "I leave the labeling to others". My musical background both in appreciation and in training is diverse. I suppose that combined with seeing artists from all media who have always made their own path influenced me to never really do the same thing twice and to not pay much attention to where it would "fit". A short list of such artists would include Charles Ives, Chuck Close, Brian Eno, Controlled Bleeding, Hal Hartley, Joe Jackson, Louis Armstrong, and Reed Ghazala.


I founded HelpWantedProductions.com in the early 90s as a vehicle to put out cassettes and do shows of my then new interest in electronic music. I released tapes, CDs, and eventually downloads and played hundreds of shows of everything from Ambient, Industrial, Power Electronics, Dark Synth, Techno, Handheld and 8bit, Indie Rock, and about a dozen other genres all of which really don't convey what the music is. Some is played with guitar and bass, other has DIY soldered noise boxes, analog or digital synths, drum machines, and theremins. All of it, as diverse as it is, comes from the same place. I have music on other labels and compilation CDs as well as various online sites and have collaborated with other artists, festivals, and frequently play as a band member in a few friend's projects doing everything from keyboards and bass to vocals and Omnichord. All the piles'o'gear come in handy but when it comes down to it I grab a few pieces and just go with them either solo or with others and make music.


As you may have noticed this post is liberally sprinkled with links to streaming and downloadable files. This year I decided to come into the 21st century and create a page with much of the HelpWantedProductions.com back catalog. Not everything is up but more will be added. For now there are XOXBOX live sets, Modular synth sets (including This One of my large ModcanA system which has been written about on this blog), Guitar Synth and ACID music
albums, and more.

The official page which will be updated occasionally is at: http://davidtalento.bandcamp.com/.

All tracks are free to stream and most are a name-your-own-price system. It's not the full picture and as you can tell by this blog hardly the end of all this. But to answer those that wonder "what do you DO with all that gear?" it will do for now.


Listen On!