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"Something Clicked (Reaktor)" [mp3 removed]. This is an older tune reworked with Reaktor synths. An almost gentle calypsoid techno becomes very...obdurate. Originally written in a notation software program, which is where the screen shot below came from. A couple of people said they thought my music had evolved. I think it only got louder (see comments to previous post).
"Clip City" [mp3 removed] (reposted). Been massaging this tune, which was a crackly mess when it first appeared. I love the analog drum machine sound, but discovered the kicks and toms are so full-bodied digital audio won't capture them unless the gain is turned way down for the recording input. Sometimes you can raise it again in the mix but that's not working here. Nothing's lost in the final version, it just means the .mp3 is quieter and you'd have to bump the volume on your player to hear it at its best. I think some versions of iTunes adjust volume so all loaded tracks sound the same.
All the sequencing in this song I did, in other words, no found or cut-and-pasted MIDI. I know the lead line is ridiculous but sometimes I just rebel at doing a lot of musician-like variations in the melody. Octave jumps, that's all you get. The filtering is also all analog. It's kind of a prototype. I have this idea of doing a suite of 10 songs for the drum machine and Sidstation, which could be performed pretty easily live. I'm kind of bummed I can't get louder recording, though. Also, after I finished the tune I realized it sounds like Antonelli Electr. Oh well, if you're going to imitate people it might as well be your gods.
Thor Johnson sent this mashup of the OptiDisc GIFs posted earlier. Thanks! It looks like a 3-D image before you put the glasses on. Just saw the DVD prototype of this GIF and am pleased by how it came out--very minimal, clean and dumb. On a 20 inch Sony screen, it's everything I wish TV was. No Bill O'Reilly, no Tim Russert, just a cheap but elegant hypnodisc. It loops
One of the funniest things I've seen is Dave Chappelle's routine about the bus held hostage by a masturbating homeless man. Chappelle imitates a passenger flinching and shrieking "Biological Attack!" Then he describes the homeless man walking up and down the aisle, stroking himself and saying "OK, who wants some?" while riders sit there helpless with fear. Finally a burly man at the back of the bus says, "Let's rush him! He can't hit all of us!" The attacker is subdued, but not before a man gets a "nut busted" on his balding forehead. "Can't I get AIDS from this?" the man wails. "Of course not," says Chappelle, but then admits to the audience he has no idea and just said it to make the guy feel better.
As long as we're posting animations too large or silly for the blog, here's one called Atom Kitty, or, The Philosopher.
"Clip City" [mp3 removed]. This analog drum machine (the blue thing below) is so punchy puffs of air come from the speaker; unfortunately I have no digital recorder that will capture the full bass. So I went for a gritty "I did it at home" sound--lots of hiss, hum, and clipping, hence the title. This has a slightly menacing mood, at least until the Sidstation comes in. [Update--the tune has been re-recorded and reposted. I made separate tracks and subtracted "clipboard noise" on each one--what a concept--and then remixed it, eliminating most of the extraneous noise and eponymous clipping, except for a few bad patches. I also softened the Sid.] [Update 2: re-recorded again, and this time eliminated the clipping but at the cost of reduced volume. It's all there--you just have to "play it loud," as they were always saying on '60s rock records.]
"Tasteful Triphop" [mp3 removed]. The flip side of "Clip City"--a smooth rhythm track with lots of resampling, designer bleeps, and more of that spectral delay sound. This could be a car commercial.
Update: "TT" was remixed and reposted in 2009.
Maakies presents "The Bookworm and the Junky."
Blogger Lindsay Beyerstein went to Austin, Texas with her camera and took these photos of Tom Delay's "perp walk." Obviously this alleged money launderer and still active former U.S. House Majority leader was advised by his attorney, shyster Dick DeGuerin, to keep a shit-eating grin plastered on his face at all times. Believe it or not, all of the supposedly sophisticated government honchos and media DC personages have been genuflecting to this redneck for years. Common criminal trash--sorry, alleged common criminal trash--and he's still running things in the House. Enjoy his humiliation, but it's not like it's had any effect on his career.
