Thursday, May 08, 2008
Tuesday, September 27, 2005
Stylus Magazine is all about Soulseeking this week, articles about music downloading and over-saturation of our aural palettes keep on rolling in, and notice that they almost read like eulogies to something that's about to go away. Apparently, The Recording Industry Ass. of America (RIAA) has filed a fresh string of lawsuits against seven P2P software companies, and Soulseek is one of them.
Soulseeking - by Nick Southall
Soulseeking: Me and Mine: Ahab after the Whole - by Derek Miller
What is to be done? Since it's not really the kind of thing you write your senator about (not that I personally could, but I'm just throwing it out there), enjoy it while you got it, and stock up on your hard to find Pearls Before Swine bootlegs or out of print House Classics compilations now.
Soulseeking - by Nick Southall
Soulseeking: Me and Mine: Ahab after the Whole - by Derek Miller
What is to be done? Since it's not really the kind of thing you write your senator about (not that I personally could, but I'm just throwing it out there), enjoy it while you got it, and stock up on your hard to find Pearls Before Swine bootlegs or out of print House Classics compilations now.
posted by Jena Paradies at 12:01 PM
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Saturday, September 24, 2005
posted by Jena Paradies at 8:15 PM
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Tuesday, August 16, 2005
'Brecht's rejection of certain sorts of music was so extreme that he invented another variety of music making, which he called 'misuc'. Misuc he regarded as a way of music making basically differing from music, since it is misuc and not music.
Brecht's efforts in this field were really based upon his dislike of Beethoven's symphonies- 'his music always reminds me of battles'.
For a musician, it is difficult to describe misuc. Above all it is not decadent and formalist, but extremely close to the people. It recalls, perhaps, the singing of washing women in a back courtyard on Sunday afternoons.Brecht's dislike of music ceremoniously produced in large concert halls by painstaking gentlemen in tails also forms a constituent of misuc. In misuc nobody may wear tails and nothing may be ceremonious. Misuc aims at being a branch of the arts which avoids something frequently produced by symphony concerts and operas- emotional confusion. Brecht was never ready to hand in his brain at the cloakroom. He regarded the use of reason as one of the best recreations'
- Hanns Eisler
Regular posting to resume over the weekend.
Brecht's efforts in this field were really based upon his dislike of Beethoven's symphonies- 'his music always reminds me of battles'.
For a musician, it is difficult to describe misuc. Above all it is not decadent and formalist, but extremely close to the people. It recalls, perhaps, the singing of washing women in a back courtyard on Sunday afternoons.Brecht's dislike of music ceremoniously produced in large concert halls by painstaking gentlemen in tails also forms a constituent of misuc. In misuc nobody may wear tails and nothing may be ceremonious. Misuc aims at being a branch of the arts which avoids something frequently produced by symphony concerts and operas- emotional confusion. Brecht was never ready to hand in his brain at the cloakroom. He regarded the use of reason as one of the best recreations'
- Hanns Eisler
Regular posting to resume over the weekend.
posted by Jena Paradies at 9:11 PM
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Thursday, July 14, 2005
Tyler Hanel - Sometime - An excellent vinyl mix of tech-dub originating from the Berlin school of roots revivalism. The dense and moody textures of Rhythm & Sound coalesce with early Model 500, and further into works on dub-ridden labels like Raum Musik and Tikiman's False Tuned. Blaze's "Lovlee Dae" struck me as an especially lovlee surprise today.
Jeffery Mac - The Subtle Energies - Here's a mix that serves to put the highly contested art of digital mixing into a comfortable status quo. Jeffery leaves no stone unturned, not forgetting to pay homage to the genius of earlier techno visionaries like Vainqueur, and churns out a mesmerizing mix of some of the most brilliant cuts in recent memory.
Jeffery Mac - The Subtle Energies - Here's a mix that serves to put the highly contested art of digital mixing into a comfortable status quo. Jeffery leaves no stone unturned, not forgetting to pay homage to the genius of earlier techno visionaries like Vainqueur, and churns out a mesmerizing mix of some of the most brilliant cuts in recent memory.
Jena Paradies - New Identities - A third installment in a series of home-made mixes starting in September last year. Made with Ableton.
- The title of today's post is inspired by a proposed 10 song compilation "to listen to when you're trying to convince everyone you're not a communist."
- For an alternate worldview, there's "Russendisko Hits 2", compiled by Wladimir Kaminer and his DJ cohort Yurii Gurzhy. For an additional 19 EUR you can also purchase the retrograde kitch russian hat, as modeled by the schismatic writer himself, on the right.
posted by Jena Paradies at 12:49 PM
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Tuesday, July 12, 2005
Can I Get An Amen? is an audio installation that unfolds a critical perspective of perhaps the most sampled drums beat in the history of recorded music, the Amen Break. It begins with the pop track Amen Brother by 60's soul band The Winstons, and traces the transformation of their drum solo from its original context as part of a 'B' side vinyl single into its use as a key aural ingredient in contemporary cultural expression. The work attempts to bring into scrutiny the techno-utopian notion that 'information wants to be free'- it questions its effectiveness as a democratizing agent. This as well as other issues are foregrounded through a history of the Amen Break and its peculiar relationship to current copyright law.
Can I Get An Amen?
Can I Get An Amen?
posted by Jena Paradies at 7:30 AM
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Tuesday, June 28, 2005
In only a couple of years since it's inception, Type has built a solid reputation in the murky realms of minimal electronica with a string of remarkably solid releases from the likes of Andreas Tilliander, Khonnor, and Xela. Their newest offering pushes them another inch forward, with the help of Parisian newcomer Julien Neto. On 'Le Fumeur de Ciel', Neto offers 10 pieces of refined cinematic noir that hover about magically, often seemingly faded in in and out of the mix, like intuitive drawings of eternal themes with no definite or necessary demarcations. Simple yet impecable, digital processing remains subtly tucked in the background and is used almost exclusively to shape out melodies as fleshed out by pianos, strings and disintegrating synthesizers. An insiduously affecting record that would be well enjoyed in contemplative solitude, perhaps accompanied by the implied cigarette and a couple of glasses of Mary Mayans.Type page for Julien Neto
Having left Finland years ago for the more temperate climates of Berlin and Barcelona, Mika Vainio is finally letting some sun shine through his heart, likely made out of black ice, granite and pieces of vintage tone generator. His latest solo outing comes under his Philus guise (see artwork), on his native Sahko. The only other record under this name that I can clearly remember is 1994's Metri, which was a highly experimental release that made use of tone generator blips as melodic component for really minimal, rudimentary techno tracks, and which likely convinced the good people at Hardwax to keep the entire label's catalog in permanent stock ever since. Kantamoinen is far more sparse and atmospheric, in the majestic tradition of his eponymous releases. The difference is that here, Vainio makes ample use of synth pads and even organ to assemble truly monumental sound pieces that rarely exceed the 4 minute mark. With Kantamoinen, Vainio makes a bold step and re-invents himself (in his own way) with all of the grandor and none of the pomp. posted by Jena Paradies at 5:13 PM
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