Techno for Luddites

posted by deprogram @ 1:39 PM

I've been writing several new tracks that I want to release on vinyl. Despite the exhorbitant cost, it almost seems like a rite of passage for every electronic music producer to press at least one record. How else to get the DJs to listen to your stuff and take it seriously?

Angel Gear has invited me to play keyboards with them for their first 2 shows. We'll be playing at Vic on the Park on 26 October, and then the Beat-Route Launch on November 8. Judging from the first rehearsal, it's going to be fun. I'm really getting back into guitar-based music as a result. Maybe I've had techno tunnel vision for the past few years.

posted by deprogram @ 12:52 AM

Lots of rain in Sydney this week and not much going out. What's kept me going? Possibly the advent of new Sydney radio station FBi 94.5fm? Don't know, but it's definitely refreshing and unusual to hear so much Australian plus Sydney music - I'm catching up on all the underground music I haven't heard since being cooped up in the studio for months. Listening to a drum & bass show called 'Velocity'. Finally a soundtrack for Friday nights surfing the web. Tired of download restrictions that stop me from streaming mp3s 24 hours a day.

What else has got my interest going? A couple of brilliant sites;

http://another.girlatplay.com/
Another Girl at Play profiles women artists, from illustrators to musicians and writers. There are some great resources for starting up a creative business, getting inspiration and trying to stay focused. I've picked up a lot of links to artist websites and weblogs, with funny little personal insights by female artists.

http://web.media.mit.edu/~jpatten/newaudiopad.html
Audiopad is "a composition and performance instrument for electronic music which tracks the positions of objects on a tabletop surface and converts their motion into music." It's extremely interactive, allows you to literally pull sounds from different parts of a colourful, luminescent surface. The display is created by a video projector aimed at the tabletop.

The audiovisual quality of this instrument makes it more exciting for the audience and performer.

No more staring at and concentrating on the gear or computer screen, not being able to connect with the crowd. It's a visual demonstration of making music. You can move between preprogrammed tracks, banks of samples and digital effects without twiddling knobs and dials. It's worth checking out the demonstration video. I'd love to try this interface live. It's not commercially available at the moment, but the developers give hints for designing something similar on their site.

posted by deprogram @ 10:25 PM