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Physicals Made of Dragon Glass

It is overcast here, with low ceilings, strong winds, and a chance of rain. We’ve been getting poured on lately: the greens are vibrant but shifting to stay warm. The soil is moist, fertile… I should know, my wife is pregnant. Musically, I’m sort of all-over-the-place right now.

The last record I bought was KYLESA’S new release “ULTRAVIOLET”. It just came out this week. I acquired it through means I’m not particularly fond of: I went to my nearest corporate electronics/media outlet and bought the CD. This is ostensibly old-school of me. I can remember going to the same place (ahh, fuck it… it’s Best Buy) when I was a teen and perusing the shelves for CDs on a regular basis. Of course this was when their SLAYER catalog was three or four albums deep. Now you’d be lucky to find “REIGN IN BLOOD” and maybe their latest release. (Jeff Hanneman was at times criminally underrated by the Metal crowd, by the way.) This was different though, the band’s social networking entities put up a graphic describing how the first week “ULTRAVIOLET” was out Best Buy would be offering it for 7.99 US or until they ran out. They pointed me in that direction.

I don’t see this as bullshit in any way: not from me, not from the band, not from the label, and not from Best Buy. I’m still supporting the band, and in 2013 I think any artist would appreciate an official purchase (particularly of any kind of physical copy). The band is letting their fans know of where they can find their new album for a bit less, perhaps to save them money, perhaps to reach more people, perhaps to get more physicals out there. Either way, it’s not like Best Buy is relying on KYLESA CD sales to stay in business. In fact, it’s admirable of them to push such an obtuse and obscure record/band from a relatively underground label. The label is “Season of Mist”, a somewhat avant-garde Metal label operating out of Marseille, France. Really, the only loser here is my local record shop (Electric Fetus). But I’m shopping at Electric Fetus on a regular basis; I probably buy 80% of my physical music from them. So I don’t feel too bad about that.

ULTRAVIOLET is just what I needed, though. It could not have come out in a better spot for me: sandwiched between listening to the new AESOP ROCK/KIMYA DAWSON project and a DOORS phase inspired by introducing “Apocalypse Now” to my wife, and the week after attending a Hip-Hop festival (Soundset) for 10 hours. This is grown up metal, with gain dialed back a bit and spacey, thoughtful riffs and runs that aren’t trying to prove anything. And I’ve always really loved this band for having three different singers which really makes for a more communal/collective vibe as oppose to the – at times – borderline fascistic structures of some Metal bands. It’s also refreshing to hear simple, personal content (“Bloody teeth bouncing in quicksand/The dream repeats/I’m coughing up my own blood/Then I knew I was shedding more than bone/Trying to tell you/But I’m choking on my own blood”) after the last Metal band I listened to was GHOST (B.C.)… with their tales of sacrificial alters and occult rituals and the like. I recommend giving it a try, especially to anyone who hasn’t listened to Metal in some time.

I’ve also been listening to the new BATHS this week – “OBSIDIAN” – which is very beautiful indeed. (Although it seems like every time I throw it on I’m finalizing one thing or another for my latest, and perhaps last for some time, release.) I’m giving it my… fourth?... listen now. This is one of those records that strikes that perfect balance between being comfortable in its own skin, and very confident, and pushing its own boundaries, reaching as far as it can. And speaking of lyrical content, damn, these are some frightening, dangerous, but somehow graceful lyrics that will get inside you and intoxicate you with their charm (all the while asking difficult questions). The dichotomy of “Tall rock shelf are you maybe here to help me hurt myself/Miasma sky would you swallow me alive/Realize there is very little you can do for me” over such patient and gentle piano is other-worldly but relatable. And the production is enviable with hints of that raw, unfiltered L.A. sound a la FLYING LOTUS but subtle so as not to overshadow the rotting content, somehow gleaming without sun. Definitely one of the better albums I’ve heard this year.

Now “OBSIDIAN” I likely will buy from Electric Fetus, maybe even tomorrow. And if they have got a vinyl (that hopefully comes with a free digital download card) I might spring for that. I imagine this album would sound wonderful on vinyl.

Back to the grind.

- Dan Black

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On The South and Abandoned Theater Grounds

On abandoned theater grounds the past ignites.

I’ve been below the Mason Dixon line for 40 days and 40 nights now. Slowly but surely the South is creeping into the bloodstream: my taste buds, my cultural footprint. My accent has not changed, even though I don’t think I have an accent. This morning I got a look like, “you’re gonna have to say that again”… and I’m thinking “You don’t understand ME? No, no… I don’t understand YOU.” And the South isn’t all like this; if I was in Orlando, FL my immune system would not allow any sort of cultural contraction, no matter how small. But Memphis has a special feeling to it. It’s honest and cuts to the chase, and its history is palpable. When I walk down to 2nd now, and hang a right, I begin to see the pulsing grid of the city. Parts of it are faded or flickering.

I haven’t been doing much tourist shit since I’ve been down here, just because I’ve been working. Since day one I haven’t felt like a tourist, more like a disgraced politician who’s living in a hotel for the foreseeable future. The patio that sits on the trolley line is my front porch. When my wife came down here to visit about a week ago I did my first real touristy stuff in about a month. We went to the zoo and watched the ball game. We visited Graceland and the Stax Records Museum in the same day. Anyone that knows me knows I am not a huge Elvis supporter. That being said two things shocked and delighted me when walking through where he called home for the vast majority of his life: he gave a ton of money to charitable causes and city infrastructure (and often times surprise visited random kids and people in the hospital), and his “mansion” is hardly a mansion at all. It is small, practical/livable, and pretty damn modest considering.

If Graceland was all about the face of Elvis everywhere though, the Stax Records Museum was about the music of Stax and its cohorts and the process of its creation. This is a museum where an entire wall is made of 10 inches, and an entire exhibit is dedicated to the control room.

The company was founded by a white guy named Jimmy Stewart, a country fiddle player who initially thought his record company would feature rockabilly, country, and some straight forward pop. You know… white people music. His sister, Estelle Axton became the financial backing of the operation shortly thereafter and the name “Stax” was born. When Jimmy came across DJ and Rhythm & Blues singer/composer Rufas Thomas around 1960 things changed. Both he and Estelle became infatuated with the genres of black America and Stax Records – the one we know today – was reborn.

Touring the facility, standing on the grounds where so much soul had lingered on, viewing the consoles that so much history had been pumped through, was inspiring. And it taught me lessons that are applicable to myself as a musician, and to the new paradigm of music we’re seeing today.

COLOR, AND THEREFORE ANY OTHER SUPERFICIAL BOUNDARIES BETWEEN US, AIN’T NO THING. When the South was at its peak of unrest, and each day seemed more uneasy than the last, Stax Records existed outside of that (even though the people and music inside its walls were very much so Southern). In short, nobody at Stax gave a fuck about race. While many of the faces of Stax… Wilson Pickett, Isaac Hayes, Otis Redding, Booker T. Jones, Sam & Dave, etc… were black artists, their bands often featured white musicians, and their records were engineered, produced, and mixed often times, by white people. And of course the label was owned and operated by the siblings Estelle and Jimmy. These same principles can be seen today. The artificial barriers that have been put in place between us by forces unknown and probably dead are being circumvented by netlabels and musicians all over the world on a daily basis. Or they’re being sliced to pieces all together. But more labels can and should adopt this.

MUSIC IS TRUTH, IF ALLOWED TO BE. One of the more eye opening things about Stax Records is an honest and impartial comparison with its peer label from the North, Motown Records. The two labels, perhaps unfairly, are often times mentioned in the same breath. Though they have many similar defining characteristics, when it comes down to music itself, and the philosophy of its creation, Motown and Stax could not be more opposite. Motown created more hits for a reason; the music was stripped of its primal essence, the rougher patches around the edges… its soul, and presented to the public/listener as watered down and accessible as possible. Stax let the artist (be it a studio guitarist or a singer or a composer) fly free with unclipped wings, even if they broke stuff or alienated people. Everyone at Stax was allowed to conjure up sounds from deep inside, unedited and true. In this sense, Motown was hits… Stax was truth.

GREAT RECORDS CAN BE MADE ON A BUDGET. One of the cooler stories I heard – being a production geek – was how the “reverb room” was engineered. The studio was converted from an old abandoned movie theater (see, we’re already saving money). One of the studios was built into the actual theater itself, so the floor was slanted and the ceilings were high. Sound dampeners were typically hung from the ceiling and fixed onto the walls. To get natural reverb, the engineers would go in early in the morning and strip the padding/dampeners down to the concrete; they’d just chuck them in the hall leading to the room. The piano/amp/drumkit/whatever was setup on the low lying end of the room (where the movie screen was), and the mics were hung with chains from the ceiling on the opposite side. Apparently they would get great reverb just from doing this. For as legendary as it was, Stax was never a powerhouse financially, and its history is chalk full of examples like this. They were able to create great sounding recordings with old and often times used equipment, in an abandoned movie theater, with not much of a budget.

ANYONE CAN BE A MUSICIAN. Stax rests on McLemore Ave. in the Chandler Park neighborhood, East of downtown Memphis. The houses have been around for ages. Apparently Jimmy was known – and therefor the studio itself – for letting almost anyone come in and lay something down. If it was good, they'd compensate the person and use it, if it wasn’t… no big thing. (This could be one of the many reasons of their eventual downfall financially, running tape is not cheap.) Stax Records musicians came from all walks of life, and many of them did not come from musical backgrounds and/or have any formal musical training. All their training was on the job. This relates back to music being truth: either you’ve got it way down in your guts or you don’t, the formalities of being a “musician” do not necessarily apply.

DON’T LET COMMERCE GET IN YOUR WAY. Stax went out of business due to bankruptcy in the early 70’s. CBS bought the majority of the company from Stewert (who has since said he regrets this, of course), under the oversight of Clive Davis, who wanted to bring the Stax sound to the greater USA and world. Davis was fired shortly thereafter though, and CBS’ interest in distributing and funding Stax declined in his absence. The consumer demand was there, but there was no way CBS was going to push Stax artists as much as their own, major label acts like The Isley Brothers or Sly & The Family Stone. Even though they owned the majority of the company. And with Stax not being too financially conscious to begin with, the studio simply could not stay above water. I think this speaks for itself as it applies today. The game has changed however, and the major labels/corps don’t hold nearly as much sway as they once did.

If the Stax story teaches us anything – as musicians or lovers of music from the future – it is that honesty and open-mindedness go a long way. And if you’ve got a little bit of cash and the passion for it, you can start a record label. Our Lord Commander Bunny knows a little something about that. As do the founders of Black Lantern Music.

- Dan Black

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Sampling and the Art of Expression

As an avid user of the sampling artform, Bunny’s post on sampling bias triggered snippets inside my head that have been brewing for some time. In an increasingly small and interconnected world, how do we, as artists, reciprocate the things around us to express the things inside us? Surely nothing is purely internal; if it were, what would we express from the electricity in our brains with no sensory perception of anything outside it? Therefore, what is “Starry Night” if not a remix of a vision of Saint-Rémy, France? How do we define “sampling”, or a “sample” itself?

In 1956 RCA put out a 45 featuring a handsome young white man on the cover titled “Hound Dog”. The record became infamous with a new sound called “Rock n’ Roll” and the sexualization of American youth (among other things). The dirty little secret of one of Rock n’ Roll’s most famous songs from one of its most famous singers is that a mere 3 years prior the same song had been recorded by a big, confident Southern black woman named “Big Mama Thornton”. Was Elvis sampling Big Mama Thornton or simply “covering” one of her songs? What is the difference between the two (length?)? Moreover, was Big Mama Thornton “sampling” Jerry Leiber and Mike Stoller, the two original writers of the song? Were Leiber and Stoller sampling the Delta bluesmen of the 20’s and 30’s, utilizing their 12 bar-blues structure and using the exact same progressions? What is more artistic, Elvis singing songs he didn’t write and making them more user friendly for white America (listen to them back to back, you’ll hear it), or DJ Shadow chopping up a cello recording to pieces, rearranging and detuning the notation to form a melody over several other bits of aural canvass? Sampling is intrinsic to the very nature of artistic creation.

These are big, difficult philosophical questions more suited for Lawrence Lessig. I can only speak from experience, shuffle that through my filters and gates to spit out the easiest way to answer questions of such magnitude: as it pertains to sampling – and indeed greater musical theory as a whole – there are no rules.

I once saw on Twitter “dont sample MP3s… thats wack.” This was a retweet of a mildly famous Hip-Hop producer who apparently decides to take it upon himself to tell people how to do what they do. The Hip-Hop community is especially irrational when it comes to the finding and implementation of sampling. I should know, I have one of my many genre-feet in that door. Ironic that it’s only okay to sample vinyl whilst the same producers/DJs digitally infiltrate “control vinyls” with files from their laptops via the ScratchLive program to spin records on stage. I don’t have ScratchLive (mostly because of price), everything I manipulate with my tables is the actual record. Am I going to tell DJs they’re fakes and posers for not doing it that way? Never! I would never tell anyone how or why to express themselves. There are no rules to turntablism; there are no rules to sampling.

All we can do as artists is take what we have around us – experiences, tools, materials, perceptions, peers – and use those things to make art that is hopefully honest and true to ourselves. Why limit ourselves arbitrarily? No good can come of that. Creating art is hard enough without self-imposed limitations.  Sampling is a tool to express oneself, the various ways that is achieved should be fair game.

Believe me when I say I have tried just about everything I have access to and the idea to act upon when making music. I’ve sampled vinyl (manipulated and unmanipulated), converted YouTube videos to audio and imported the result, sent audio from an MP3 player to my MPC and performed sampled bits live into my DAW, recorded guitar into my MPC, taken single drum hits from break beats, chopped and compressed almost every type of digital audio file imaginable, tuned guitar amp feedback into chords… I have used a goddamn bullet vibrator while turning tuning keys to turn a guitar into a drone device. If it’s helping me express what I want to express, I don’t give a fuck. I’ll do it. 

Which “Hound Dog” is the real “Hound Dog”? Well… which one do you like most? For me, Big Mama Thornton’s version (with her amazing backing band) takes the cake due to the looseness of the piece… but if you want to like Leiber and Stoller’s or Elvis’ version more go right ahead. Bunny’s right, the finished product is what matters most, along with the artist and listeners interpretation of. We don’t want your rules. We don’t want your limits. 

- Dan Black

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On the distaste of remix and sample culture

"So did you make this, or did you just use samples?"

"Yeah he's good, but he's just a remix artist."

"I heard he doesn't even both to make his own patches, just uses presets and a buttload of samples and chucks effects on them!"

  Any of these look familiar? In a whole range of music-creation social spaces – from facebook groups, to messageboards, to even basic bar-talk – these sentences are uttered countless times to denounce the newest up-and-comers, or to look down on the n00bs of the field, usually touted by folk with a penchant for analogue gear (with, it must be said, usually the disposable income to afford such devices), and a dearth of knowledge about the relative arguments of sonic (though not compositional) superiority. The facts are that large amount of creators decry sample usage in music, as well the remix culture that the technique originally spawned. These detractors have respect for the cannon – if someone cited their influence in Afrika Bambaataa and only sampled from vinyl onto an MPC, everything would be deemed kosher. However, using sample packs of drums, synths, voices etc, and incorporating them into an FLStudio- or Ableton-created track is a no-no. 

  Although this prejudice has largely passed in the modern era, and only clings on in the minds of old school purists, confined to sneering shop-talk in the aforementioned messageboards, there are still vestiges of anti-sampling rhetoric floating around. My gripe with it is this: in any other medium, artists that make use of pre-existing materials (be it wood, ocher, metal etc) are universally accepted as artists. However in music, one is also expected, by and large, to create their palette from scratch,too, or at least heavily modify all parts of the materials to ensure they're unrecognisable. This, to me, is quite stupid. The recombination and mastery of materials into aesthetically pleasing structures and combinations – human, wrangling elements into something more human-like – is the basis of art. This takes skill and taste. That's all it takes. And in all honesty, the latter matters much more than the former (in spite of what the snobs say).

In many respects creating your own sonic materials can be considered a whole separate discipline unto itself. I mean, how often in recordings of rock bands are sound engineers brought in? They're there to assist the performers and composers in getting the sound they want. It's a well-known separate discipline, and in many respects entirely analogous to someone preparing wood for the outside of a building. They are there for the preparation of the materials, and although this stage is necessary, it's not what one would consider utterly integral to the overall beauty of the finished product. Assembling and designing is the work of the architect, the one who eventually gets the praise for assembling these materials into a beautiful object.

Architecture, art, and music, are have massive overlaps in terms of development and construction.

Using this analogy, audio composers/musicians should be free to source their sonic materials from wherever – some are of inherently higher value to the task at hand, yes, but no-one should look down on you for your design to include some prefab elements, or items that are bought off the shelves. It doesn't necessarily diminish the end product any. And therein lays my main point: these detractors from sample packs and presets seem to hardly give a damn about the end product, only process. And the final finished object is the main point of construction in the first place, is it not?

- Bunny

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Music is Alchemy: Stream Of Consciousness As Technique

Writer's block happens to all writers at one time or another. Sometimes the words just aren't coming out right - or at all. Various systems exist to curb this type of brain lock, but one I personally find the most useful is experimenting with stream of consciousness narrative. I first became interested in this exercise through Johannes Göransson, one of my all time favorite authors, who uses the technique frequently in his poetry.

There are no boundaries, no rules, just release, write whatever comes up and let it lead you  wherever it wants to go, without restraint. In music this also works as improvisation, which Dan covered beautifully last week. I recently was faced with writer's block, and below is an example of a stream of consciousness piece I did in attempts to swish around my thought juices. I simply set a timer for 10 minutes and wrote whatever bubbled up.

_____________

I had a dream and you were there except it wasn't you it was a sound coming directly from my chest but it wasn't my chest it was a void so large the concept of escape shuttered and fell away without time there to cushion the blow we stood inside of one another like voodoo dancing and our feet scraped past the idea of gravity and its oppressive hold on our limbs another abyss before the wreckage skewed this world i saw you placing hummingbirds into your mouth their wings flapping in your throat you said nothing could beat the fever out of you your hands like so many hourglasses against the tide of my heart knocking the wind out of the sky with a temporal glance towards the nothing encroaching our feet we ran to the limits of the sea just to drown in trenches of our sadness the rain cried with us and i thought my bones would cave in then like so many forgotten day dreams of slicing the night open to drink its galaxies remember when my face was your face and the totality of knowing that we would not escape this reeling into the backside of tomorrow only to turn away mumbling about the flight of moths enveloping the clouds if i could tear out my eyes to show you the emptiness behind them maybe you would understand why there can never be a haunting without the haunted first another day to shove our ribs through the tone of collapse another evening to put the guts back into the torso of a feeling long lost to complacency we cannot be still we cannot hold our voices in our throats they leap out like frogs thirsting for violence we want to be devoured we want to break everything around us that says no we want to feast on stars until we find an implosion large enough to swallow our fear nothing bleeds fast enough we cannot be contained the fist has already broken the glass the shards are inside of every 3am ache in another time in another world say farewell to letters in your mouth say farewell to the creaks in your spine these words are only there to cradle you sweetly in the dark moment of the blooming petals framed against your skull 

_____________

Though the results may seem like gibberish the point of the exercise is to get words out and clear the brain to prepare for the writing one would like to start. The words are always there but sometimes finding the "right" ones takes a bit of mental excavation. 

“To all appearances, the artist acts like a mediumistic being who, from the labyrinth beyond time and space, seeks his way out to a clearing.” - Marcel Duchamp

  - Sara SplitOpen

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On Face Candy and 2013 Improvisation

All music is improvised at least once. Even for classical composers or studio-based musicians, the material they annotate onto page or screen is – at one point in their brains – made from scratch. Where musicians dwell, improvisation lingers somewhere nearby.

I have the fortune of being from the city where one of Hip-Hop’s (and music’s) greatest improvisers who ever lived called home. Michael Larsen… Eyedea. Perhaps unfortunately famous for winning the KRS-One hosted, HBO aired “Blaze Battle” tournament in NYC, Eyedea was a legendary freestyler at a young age. A wordsmith so in-touch with his own self that dropping a line seemed as natural for him as ordering a sandwich is for the rest of us. I say “unfortunately” because his battle chops too often overshadow the fact that he was a brilliant writer, thinker, performer, and experimenter.

One of Eyedea’s greatest experiments was one steeped in improvisation: Face Candy. Face Candy was a group composed of the Jazz trained instrumentalists Casey O’Brien (bass) and JT Bates (drums), Eyedea, and like-minded MC and friend Kristoff Krane. The idea was to combine the Free-Jazz and Hip-Hop Cypher philosophies into one: no songs, no rehearsals, pure improvisation. Seeing Face Candy was always entertaining. When it didn’t work it could be a train-wreck. But when it did work – when you knew you were part of a moment that would never again be duplicated, and time stood still – there was nothing like it.

One of Face Candy’s greatest achievements is an improvised album called “Waste Age Teenland”, released months after the passing of Larsen. The group had Casey’s brother Graham O’Brien (of No Bird Sing and Coloring Time, who have since taken the torch from FC) come to one of their shows at a place called The Black Dog Cafe and engineer a studio quality recording of everything they did, separately tracked out and all. The stems were transferred to Winterland Studios, to be mastered but remained unchanged. A handful of material was recorded over the next couple days, on top of the Black Dog originals. The new content was also improvised. Even… say, knob twisting with a Mod Filter. The result was one of the most bizarre if not powerful pieces of recorded music since the dawn of the millennium.

Ironically, around the same time (Winter, 2010-2011) Jazz group Medeski Martin & Wood embarked on an improvisational tour; they would play an entire main set completely improvised. If the show went well, they would encore with preconceived material. Who says a cultural human consciousness doesn’t exist??

As an audiophile (addict) I would like to see this philosophy rear its head in 2013, both in recorded and performed situations spanning all genres. A metal bassist hitting record only knowing what key the song is in, an Electronica producer hooking up a MIDI controller and laying down and keeping whatever pops out, a drummer improv’ing with the song changes as they come. It’s risky, but if Face Candy has taught me anything it’s that the results can often be stunning and inimitable.

- Dan Black

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Music is Alchemy: /// Rituals and Compulsions ///

Many musicians have habits and rituals to aid them in the process of creation. These compulsive acts range from superstitious behaviors and organization preferences, to mental preparations for partaking in artistic endeavors.  

I have OCD, and I don't mean the "Look how OCD I am, my room is *so* clean! Time for a selfie, aren't I cute on Tumblr?" I have horrible anxiety that needs to be channeled into repetitive systems to help curb the swarm of mental garbage from coming out of my ears. The entire reason I started making music was to have something to focus on, an escape from my ego and its masochistic ways. 

I adhere to a number of systems when making music, if not only to keep organized, but also to instill a ritual feeling into the process. Creation for me feels like a spiritual practice and though I am not religious, I envision Ableton as one might envision a deity. I pray to its altar, I worship its GUI, I sacrifice my blood to keep it sated. 

My "studio" is my bedroom and while this is convenient it is also an exercise in controlling my procrastinating tendencies. I like to have a few things around to keep focused and damper the impulse to check my email 1,000 times per hour. 

Creature audience?

CHECK ✓

Random project notes? 

CHECK ✓

Handwritten notes + highly caffeinated beverages?

CHECK ✓

The most amazing thing about all these systems is that they truly don't "do" anything, merely having them makes me feel like I am prepared to get things done. One of the attributes I find so incredible about making music is that the end project feels like something that did not even come from all the notes or plans or sketches it was originally designed with; it becomes its own entity entirely. 

There is a moment that occurs when writing a piece where everything comes together, the individual parts gel to form a single thing, as though by its own accord. I may be the one programming the notes and arrangement but a magical manifestation takes place and the result has nothing to do with me at all. The result brings to life something that split apart doesn't have the same impact of the whole. It is this moment that I live for, when I know that whatever it is the sound wanted to be it has become, and my role as conduit is complete. 

“You have to know how to look even if you don't know what you're looking for.” - Roberto Bolano

- Sara SplitOpen

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Ebbs and Flows: Forms of Repetition in the Alchemy of Music.

My LL compatriot Sara SplitOpen explained that music is alchemy, a reflection of our lives.  Its repetition (or existence) grinding through a House break, if you will. As it applies to the word’s most primal definition, music very rarely exists without repetition. Even as it applies to music with no formal melodic structure – sound to sound, note to note – music has repetition: we call it a time signature. What is a time signature if not a pledge of repetition? “I solemnly swear throughout this here piece of collected noises I will do something [insert digit] times for every [insert digit] of these… I shall do this henceforth until this collection of noises endures no more… so help me Gods.”

Alright, take away any sense of formal rhythmic structure, take away the time signature, and what’s left… the collection of noises right?  Okay, so what percentage of collected noises never uses the same noise twice?  Ambient music – even of the most obscure variety – comes closest to music without repetition.  But even within free-form ambient music we hear repetition: the tones, the levels, the notation.  Actually ambient music – particularly when long notes are held to tweak and morph for minutes at a time – may epitomize repetition’s role in music.

Like Sara says, this is only natural. Life as we know it is repetitious on every level. Cellular, astronomic, subatomic, ecological. However, there is another piece to the puzzle of life (and therefore music): ebbs and flows.

Ebbs and flows are a form of repetition, to some degree. They repeat in the sense that eventually, though it may take some time, one will happen again. Probably. They are much more chaotic by nature. If the Earth rotating on its axis in 24 hours and revolving around the sun in 365 days constitutes repetition, then the Ice Age constitutes an ebb or flow. Like repetition, these ebbs and flows exist in music majority of the time. But they are not perhaps as frequent or tangible.

That ambient track I referred to, the one drawing out tones for long stretches of time before changing? Lives off ebbs and flows. Those peaks and valleys we hear will not happen again as they stood the first time around. Mountain ranges did not spawn of predictability. Some sprout up from two continents colliding over billions of years, others from a tectonic plate shifting underneath another.  These events will happen again, but their battery life is limited at best.  Tectonic plates cannot slide under one another to infinity.

Like the Earth, music showcases its fair share of ebbs and flows in a variety of ways. Phrases or licks themselves have ebbs and flows: a trumpet lick works its way through a forest of notes before sliding down a river then climbing a hilltop before waltzing down again, all in the span of seconds. They definitely show up in single songs, at least in a large percentage - that low-level, chilled-out break in a song, or that deafening crescendo. Albums, whether accidental or by choice, definitely seek out and grab hold of ebbs and flows, not letting go for anything. Stretch this out to the artistic trajectory of an artist and it applies as well of course. Even music ‘scenes’ (regional, genre-based, or otherwise) have ebbs and flows, some may repeat and some may never see life again.

If repetition is the basis of life (music), ebbs and flows are the variety therein. Music, and these ebbs and flows, work in conjunction. It’s like Sara says… alchemy

- Dan Black

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Music is Alchemy - FEMALE Guest Mix

Today's Music is Alchemy feature is an interview and mix from FEMALE, a UK producer who makes gorgeous minimal synth tunes perfect for hazy nights. 

  What is the story behind the name "FEMALE"?

FEMALE: There are a few reasons for the moniker “FEMALE”. Initially the project was supposed to be a Riot Grrrl duo but I never found a female vocalist so the name is partially a homage to that band member that never was. 

Another reason was that I started realizing that a lot of my favourite vocalists were women (Jonnine Standish, Alice Glass, Nik Void etc.) and that I could never truly replicate them because I am a man so I just called the project “FEMALE” to try and get that bit closer to them. The final reason is because I just thought it would be funny since my voice is so low and clearly not female.

Do you have any rituals you do before, during, or after making music?

I find it very difficult to work in my studio which is set up in my bedroom. I like to think of that as some sort of cruel, self-imposed ritual. 

What was the last song you listened to?

“How Did You Learn My Language?” – The Collier

What is the concept behind your mix?

The main idea behind the mix was to try and keep switching between varying genres in an attempt to fit the notion of “Music is Alchemy”. I designed the mix to try and catch people off-guard with transitions such as going from Arvo Pärt’s gentle “Spiegel Im Spiegel” in the assault of sound that is Factory Floor’s “16-16-9-20-1-14-9-7”. The mix is also cyclical, beginning with some Riot Grrl, through to modern classical, electronic artists and then back into Riot Grrl again.

<a href="http://musicforvacuums.bandcamp.com/track/mix-for-limitless-lives" data-mce-href="http://musicforvacuums.bandcamp.com/track/mix-for-limitless-lives">Mix for Limitless Lives by FEMALE</a>

Mix for Limitless Lives: Free Kitten – 1,2,3  Zack Christ x Danaet – Frontin Alone (Extended Version)  Steve Reich – Electric Counterpoint  Violet Familiar – Flicker  Thom Yorke – Jetstream  Arvo Pärt – Spiegel Im Spiegel  Factory Floor – 16-16-9-20-1-14-9-7  Actress – Supreme Cunnilingus  Suicide – Keep Your Dreams  SELA. – SCANDALOUS! (demo)  FEMALE – Ephemeral  Bratmobile - Stab

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Music is Alchemy - Repetition

Repetition is an important feature in music and in our daily lives. We wake up, have a day, go to sleep, wake up, have a day, go to sleep, wake up, until one day we don't.

The result of repetition is trance. We become entranced by life, and we become entranced by music. The best music is like a dream you didn't know you were having, you enter into it unaware.

"The repetition itself becomes the important thing; it's a form of mesmerism. I mesmerize myself to reach a deeper state of mind." - Haruki Murakami

In my own aural experiences, I prefer a lot of variation within drum beats and basslines. I once asked a psytrance producer why the drums are always 4/4, and he said the beat is only there to keep your feet moving while your brain trips out on the other sounds. 

Polyphonia Vs. Zik - Fucking Dimensions

Having a constant tone or rhythm for the brain to focus on is important for letting the mind wander. Instead of analyzing patterns, the brain can zone out on the background and focus beyond. This makes genres like techno and psytrance very successful within the rave community. Since the beat remains constant, the body can also remain constant in its movements. The body will respond to time signatures within a beat spontaneously.

I have always had an overactive mind. My thoughts bounce around like pinballs and my attention span is negative 33. I don't enjoy repetition, especially in drums, but one artist who utilizes the technique very well is Borealis. For me the techno that Borealis makes is the perfect combination of repetition and variation.

<a href="http://borealis.bandcamp.com/track/hyaline-lash" data-mce-href="http://borealis.bandcamp.com/track/hyaline-lash">Hyaline Lash by Borealis</a>

I would imagine that each brain responds to repetition in music differently and what seems boring to some is enlightening to others. The more one focuses on the same thing over and over again, the more can be derived. 

“Life has to be given a meaning because of the obvious fact that it has no meaning.” - Henry Miller

- Sara SplitOpen

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Ableton Deathsquads

On Tuesday this past week Ableton Live 9 released. Friends, peers, and both keep telling me I should look into it. They all say it’s for me. I have some experience with it, bits of noodling here and there. From what I have gathered personally, Ableton seems far better suited as a live and/or DJ device than a home production interface. In transforming a laptop into an instrument at will, there really is nothing like it. The ‘session view’ combines simplicity with any type of knob imaginable seamlessly. A group like Marijuana Deathsquads – filtering almost everything through the program – may not exist as easily in an Ableton free world, at least not in terms of improvisational capacity. Sure someone would step in to fill the void, but Ableton nailed it. Here’s my question as it pertains to making albums though: do more people export clips and ‘scenes’ from it to another DAW, or use it as their one and only program? Cut, print, and out to master… straight from Live?

Deathsquads, as much as I love them, have never accurately reproduced the energy of their music in recorded format. They are, without question, best experienced in a live setting. Preferably with a longer set time, so those improvisational tendencies can evolve, suck up nutrients, and eventually die off for the next batch of noise organisms. Their recorded stuff feels watered down… a cup of coffee after you’ve used the same grounds three times previously. And the more I think about it, the less it feels like human error. It feels interface, or DAW, based. That isn’t to say some great records haven’t been made with Ableton, a bunch have. It’s just when I think of the program, picture it in my brain… the arrangement view isn’t the mental image I get, the session view is.

In Googling top DAWs (only viewing articles from 2012 or 13) I found that Ableton was rarely if ever number one. This includes a plethora of gear sites/blogs as well as production forums. FL Studio seems to be very, very popular. Studio – again, from what I’ve got up on my tabs – is getting the most number one hits. Musicians of varying styles really seem to dig Cubase too. Then the usual suspects fluctuate: Logic, ProTools, Sonus, Reason, GarageBand, etc.

I would love to have Live 9. I would. Though I have a sneaking suspicion I would use it as an instrument more than an arranger… a composition tool. Which is fine if you’ve got cash to blow; but shelling out 500 to 800 USD to turn a laptop into an instrument just doesn’t feel right to me when I look at my bank account. I’ll easily fork that over for a Telecaster, or for a Korg analog synth - something tangible. But for a screen that pops up on my computer? Plus what I have already does a decent job in that regard.

Maybe I’m being too harsh. Maybe this new iteration of Live will be used by studio musicians as much as live musicians. Or maybe they’ll absolutely nail it by the time Live 10 rolls around: splitting the live and studio aspects apart, working in synchronization yet two independent programs. If I was on the Ableton team I would push for that. Because the people who are using Ableton Live live – in their basements to jam with friends, or on-stage making the crowd move – they’ll always be upgrading. They’re hooked. The question is, how do you bring more musicians/users into the fold? “Ableton Studio”? Ableton Live and Ableton Studio, together in the same package, would be a great way to widen appeal for the company. Plus maybe I would get that quintessential Marijuana Deathsquad's record I’ve been hoping for since they blew me away at a tiny St. Paul bar years back.

Then again, I suppose there’s a reason why Ableton Live 9 has the “Live” in its name. And why Imagine-Line FL Studio has the “Studio” in its name.

- Dan Black

[limitlesslivesblog-blog]

NUMBER 6

1953 is now.  Now is the Future.  Time is not a line.  Time is a loop.

This May marks the 60th anniversary of Jazz At Massey Hall, the live culmination of a select few instrumentalists that resulted in the nearest thing I can liken to musical enlightenment. Powell, Mingus, Parker, Roach, and Gillespie: pure ecstasy. Hands dancing up and down the keys with no regard, two “leads” (if that term is even applicable) absolutely wailing hardly in key, syncopation that’s been doubled too many times to count, and a bass that vaguely keeps progression. These are not the sounds of Ubermensch born unto this plane from an existence we cannot comprehend. These are not the sounds of Gods. Rather, they are the blemished creations of men – fallible, decaying, troubled men – bleeding out their hands without restraint, expectations, or limits. Parker would die a mere two years later, bones so corroded the coroner would mistake him for thirty years older than he actually was. For Charlie, that filter he took out never got put back in; and it finally caught up with him.

Terra Nova Expedition sails from Cardiff to Antarctica. The People’s Republic of China amends and subsequently removes its Great Firewall. The Rivonia Trial tries 221 acts of sabotage.

In the year 2013 musicians steadily unravel the secrets to the other Charlie’s (Mingus) brain, the ringleader of the Massey Hall cypher. Turns out it isn’t locked, the deadbolt was busted off.  Down a long, darkened hallway we find it: glowing green light oozing out behind a splintered door labeled “#6”. All it takes is a push. Once inside, a variety of characters loiter… chatting and sipping beer. GhOst and Vindsval from Blut Aus Nord are surrounded by a coven of Witch-House folk, the tube TV is unplugged but generating white noise. Michael Gira of The Swans sits at the kitchen table with a turntablist and a Hip-Hop lyricist, a cloaked Electro figure stirs a large pot on the stove. A group of musicians cling to the fire-escape out the window, desperate to peer inside but still too afraid to step inside. But the Mingus flat is no elite club: no passwords, no dress code, no donations. All are welcome.

The Toronto show is happening now. Dizzy’s trumpet has been hacked; a quarter-inch runs from his baby to Powell’s work station, where he manipulates the notes with a laptop and some custom hardware. Max rolls a steady snare with one hand, while the other triggers pads for drops and reverses. Parker’s on his knees, upping the feedback on his DD-7. And Mingus has outfitted his stand-up with a cracked touch screen.

The Megacity of the Future is growing, along with it the capacity of Charlie’s number 6 apartment party. Those privy to it always embrace new faces free enough to seek it out. They crave new members: a shy, bushy haired 30-something carrying an acoustic that reads “this machine kills isms”, a 19 year old clutching sheet music tight to her chest, a backpack filled with a laptop, USB sticks, and paint pens. When they take the elevator up the Block, stroll down that hallway, and push inside they are immediate equals. The Massey Hall stories – recollections of little moments happening then, now, and later – confirm this. Powell, the Charlie’s, Dizzy, Roach… they aren’t legends. They weren’t in 1953 and therefore are not in The Future. They are rusting bits of human, like you or I. We all can be them, with the push of a door and absolutely no inhibitions. No restraint. Limitless.

- Dan Black

[limitlesslivesblog-blog]

MUSIC IS ALCHEMY: Fuck the Trap, where is your heart?

While some prefer bangers to smash the dance floor in two, I prefer to break my head in two. Music is the great dissolver, out of body experiences for all, no time no self. I listen to music to obliterate my ego.

When does sound traverse the barrier of aurally pleasing to consciousness melting? Something within it must reach through the gunk of thought, and pierce a wordless place, a secret spot that allows full immersion.

In order to be changed one must be malleable. To accept the journey one must also accept the possibility and likelihood of getting lost. The depths of sound our aim, to reach the heart’s flame.

We will be exploring the science and the magic of what happens in our brains and bodies when we hear sound.

- Sara SplitOpen

[limitlesslivesblog-blog]

OUTSIDE LOOKING IN : A PERSONAL ACCOUNT OF HOW STRANGE MUSIC SAVED MY LIFE

Like so many other genre signifiers, the term ‘funk’ has been mired by generations of tepid attempts to capitalize on a sound. At its root, ‘funk’ has always been a descriptive word. From early Parliament to the Meters, the term was used to describe a certain grimy feeling that seemed to ooze from the pores of the music itself. It is almost impossible to imagine that to most people, funk is nothing more than slap bass and disco grooves. At this stage of the game, it is almost synonymous with elevator music, and one lazily pictures a black guy in his 60s, balding with a braided ponytail, jamming away on his Schecter in a cocaine glow. By 1978, American funk had already started to age into a sort of meaningless groove. The threat was gone, and in order to find some dangerous funk, one had to look outside of the casual circle of Brownian and Clintonian era funkdom. William Onyeabor was a musician from Nigeria. After a good deal of local success with his debut LP “Crashes in Love,” Oneyeabor departed on a journey into outsider dance that remains unparalleled and can only be rivalled by that of the Iowa farmboy turned New York punk disco prophet, Arthur Russell.  Onyeabor’s sophomore album “Atomic Bomb” is truly that: a facemelting blast of rhythm peppered with some of the most insane synth work ever heard on an album. Disjointed and loose, Onyeabor manages to blend the chaotic and frenzied sensibilities of Fela and King Sunny Ade with a straight gangster groove, creating the soundtrack for a Blacksploitation film from a dimension where the air is far heavier and the lighting just a tad too low. Just listen to the “hit” single “Better Change Your Mind,” a sprawling nine minute monster with one of the most sincere vocals you will ever hear. This stuff is ripe for re-edit, but in all honesty, nothing can beat the joy of listening to it as it was presented originally, in all it’s ragged glory. - Dafydd McKaharay

[limitlesslivesblog-blog]

Let us introduce ourselves

We are a group of writers with a vested interest in the future, and more specifically the future of music and culture. We are musicians, critics, historians, futurists, artists, and writers.  Technology has changed the way humanity seeks out and consumes culture. It has changed the way we perceive and codify information. Through this, humanities' individual apacity – outsourced to our localised machines through feedback and storage loops – has been increased to hitherto unknown sizes. Humanity is overcoming its limits though its technology.

We aim to catalogue this, to speculate on the interactions between humans and culture, between these two sides of an artificial dichotomy. We aim to critically analyse whether or not culture is progressing, whether technology is good for culture, and whether or not it is a good thing for us.  We also aim to show you what we personally feel is a preferable future, through showing you artists, exploring their work, as well as ideas around music.

We aim to show you show how limitless humanity will become, through our own LIMITLESS LIVES.

- Bunny