raccoon audio: rag for william s burroughs

So if you were to ever make a 10-minute film about the life of William S. Burroughs, you could use this Matmos track as your soundtrack. Gunshots, adding machine sounds, Jajoukan pipes: this cut has it all. (If I were to quibble, I'd say they should have faded out into the sound of purring cats in the final minute, but otherwise, spot-on.)

From Matmos' new(ish) album, The Rose Has Teeth In The Mouth of A Beast, which is a suite of ten songs, each dedicated to a different deceased queer.

Labels: audio, mp3s, music

Tuesday, December 05, 2006
6:32 PM
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I don't really like any of the sounds that come with Windows XP. They affect a sort of clear placidity, and the very contrivance of it leaves me feeling vaguely unsettled. Which leaves me on the hunt for short bursts of interesting sonic matter. This is one of those "e-mail me" things. (Thanks, by the way, to people who wrote in with mail client suggestions.)

Perhaps I should pick up this album Ringtones, on the experimental UK label TOUCH. 99 tracks from some of today's most interesting electronic musicians, each around the length of a cellular phone's ringtone.

"They are in one way or another intended to be experienced as isolated, personal interventions: low-res loops, creature calls, in low-res environments... In whichever form you find them here, do sample remodel and employ these humble suggestions..."

Sounds promising, but my budget is awfully tight right now, and I'm generally spending my CD money on albums that give me more than just "humble suggestions." The new Town and Country release is a particularly sweet, warm album...

Labels: music, music_commentary, sound

Saturday, February 23, 2002
1:32 PM
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This just in:

Holding a vibrator to an acoustic guitar sting creates a sweet array of unholy droning noise. Especially when the vibrator in question is this Hello Kitty vibrator: its plastic head has an irregular topography, which means more ways that it can be productively touched against the guitar.

Speaking of drones, I can't seem to find a good drone music discography on the Web. The FAQ for the DroneOn mailing list has two lists worth examining, one of current practicioners of drone music and one of "ancestors". But because both of these lists stick closely to the rock pantheon, they neglect to mention the many drones created by both composers of "new music" (La Monte Young and Phill Niblock are both conspicuously absent) and electronic musicians (those of you seeking the latter may wish to check out this Needle Drops column).

I am half-tempted to create my own web resource on the topic. I'll put that in the If I Had Limitless Time file.

Further listening: D. Bauler, of The Journal of Speculative Disease, has some "drone sickness" loops available here.

Labels: music, number_none

Saturday, February 09, 2002
6:22 PM
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Last night I braved the first real Chicago snowstorm and went out to the Bottle to see Carol Genetti perform.

Ms. Genetti is a vocal improviser, who sometimes performs with Saccadia, an experimental sound and performance troupe. Last night, however, she performed one solo set, and a second set accompanied by double bassist Damon Smith and cellist Fred Lonberg-Holm.

I am highly enamored with vocal improvisation, and each time I've seen Genetti I've been blown away by her ability to string together squeaks, gurgles, monopthongs, fricatives, hisses and various other mouth sounds in order to create something transcendent.

This performance was in support of her new album The Shattering.

Labels: music, music_commentary

Thursday, January 31, 2002
6:24 PM
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Not so long ago, I was sent a copy of Zuihitsu, an album of theremin improvisations by James Coleman.

The theremin's basic repertoire of electronic effects are both strange and easily recognizable, a combination which may have contributed to the way it has been marginalized as an instrument. It spent much of the last century relegated to providing either novelty effects for novelty bands or space noise for science-fiction soundtracks.

However, early theremin virtuosos such as Clara Rockmore revealed that the theremin could be an instrument of remarkable range and depth. Coleman works within this tradition, generating sound-events that are remarkable for their subtlety and nuance.

Coleman's collaborators are also a talented bunch; in particular I enjoyed Liz Tonne's vocal punctuations and the experimental chamber music of the undr quartet.

Further reading: Clara Rockmore's book Method For Theremin is available as PDFs, from this site.

Labels: music, music_commentary

Saturday, January 26, 2002
2:37 PM
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amateurism

Friday's Imaginary Year entry is about amateurism.

One thing that I am an amateur about is playing the guitar.

Here are some pointers on how to tune a guitar, and here are seven beginning chords.

If I lived in Canada, maybe I could get a grant, because Canada has a registered charity (CAMMAC) devoted to creating opportunities for amateur musicians "to make music together in a relaxed, non-competitive atmosphere." Some articles from their journal, The Amateur Musician, are online.

Labels: amateurism, how_to, music

Saturday, January 19, 2002
12:13 PM
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instruments and voices

I was talking to Rich a while ago about how my musical tastes, in recent years, have leaned away from song-based albums, and towards instrumental albums. He asked me for some recommendations, and, as a result, I have decided to write up brief descriptions of ten of my favorite instrumental albums and post them on Rich's media weblog, Super Karate Monkey Fist. The first one is up there now: a review of Brian Eno's Music For Airports.

In other news, tonight vocal improviser / sound poet Jaap Blonk is playing in Chicago. Last time I saw him perform, he put on a solo show (performing his own vocal compositions as well as famous ones by Kurt Schwitters and Antonin Artaud). Tonight, however, he is leading an octet, with the remaining seven slots filled by the usual suspects of the Chicago improv scene: Guillermo Gregorio, Ken Vandermark, Michael Zerang, Fred Lonberg-Holm, Jeb Bishop, Jim Baker, and Kent Kessler. I'm looking forward to the show.

(A reminder here, of the web's best sound poetry resource, UbuWeb.)

Labels: music, music_commentary, sound_poetry

Wednesday, January 16, 2002
10:27 AM
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Stumbled upon a CD in the record store today: Small Music, Vol. 1, by Rolf Julius. On this disc, Julius creates teeming chatter from "electronic buzzer instruments" and "nature sound from Brazil and Japan." The three resultant tracks sound like either the dense wet heart of a rainforest or a complex global information system made audible.

This unusual paper on Julius suggests that he might be synaesthetic, and discusses some of his installation work:

"The approximately 80 metres long barrel vault of the gallery was empty except for four groups of four loudspeakers each standing on the floor in a square arrangement. A square glass plate rested on each group. Julius sieved nearly circular heaps of red and black pigment onto the glass plates. Quiet music came out of the loudspeakers, consisting of a sustained gently chirping rushing undercoating of the room and somewhat lower pitched sounds appearing in the foreground as short actions. There were intervals of ten to more than thirty seconds duration between these short motifs."

Information on other volumes in Julius' Small Music series. But where's Volume Three?

Labels: installation_art, music, music_commentary

Wednesday, January 09, 2002
3:39 PM
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