New Toy

Just got hold of a Swissonic MDR-2, so I've spent the day messing around with it. I think it's pretty cool. I made one recording in mp3 mode, on-board mics. There is a level control for external inputs, but but not for the internal, which is probably a failing but I'm not not too bothered about it. Figured I'd post said mp3, just because I can! It's so so hassle free...




The automatic level control is pretty sharp; yes it clips, but it recovers really quickly. Besides, I quite like the way it distorts :)

BTW - the low hum you can hear is part of the charming E.M.R. signature of this house not the recorder.

A Sturdier Bruitisme

The teenage origami nazis are a fiction created by me in a spur of the moment decision. I think it took less than an hour to set up a myspace, record and upload a track. Voila! Instant band!

It's part of a larger intent to create several other flights of whimsy, each a 'band' operating within the constraints of genre. I've become fascinated lately with the non-musical aspects (conventions of style, presentation, etc.) that surround and mark off as distinct otherwise formally similar genres.

It's also an exercise in composition. I'm the 'author' of a system of conditions and relationships - the 'band' - and it's this system which produces the music. It's just like playing with dolls; each instrumental voice is a character with an emerging personality, and their pseudo-social interactions are an important determining factor in the construction of the musical content. With hindsight, I guess it's similar to the experience of some novelists; the characters write the story.

It's been fun too! I have a whole new understanding of the potential of reeds as weapons of mass irritation. But I've achieved my initial goals, so I'm shelving this before I become bored. I've some unfinished "L after I" business to attend to for now, plus a few more make believe projects that I'm eager to get my teeth into, but I'm sure I'll need to scratch this particular itch again someday...

http://www.myspace.com/teenageorigaminazis

Panegyric

A doctor of nothing, I have firmly kept myself apart from all semblance of participation in the circles that then passed for intellectual or artistic. I admit that my merit in this respect was well tempered by my great laziness, as well as by my very meagre capacities for confronting the work of such careers.

- Guy Debord

The overly-examined life (Saints Days, 2007)

Recorded throughout 2007, Saints' Days was an attempt to overcome some 'mental blocks' I had developed. The idea was to record and publish (via my blog) one audio piece every day for a year. The plan went awry almost immediately, and I lost interest well before the 12 months had elapsed, but I'm still fond of some of these things; postcards from a a time and from a person that I'm no longer certain existed...



Saints' Days on The Internet Archive

from 'Elegy in Exile'

They say my song is strange
because it has no echo.
They say my song is strange
because I never dreamed
myself awake on silks.
They say I disbelieved the prophesies,
and it was true,
and it is still and always true.

Adonis

J.H. Prynne

What is being concealed by these habits of idealisation? Simply, the class advantage that produces and supports this underlying remission of hard work in the enjoyment of daily life. The leisure is produced by ensuring that the supportive work required to produce lunch is done by others, who lack the refinement to cultivate these ideals of harmony because they are excluded by class barriers: they are not gentry, not literati, not educated, not rich. At root, the division between man and nature is indicated by a stratified money economy, and harmony is reserved for those who can afford it. Harmony is not a principle of nature, it is a function of money, and all further discussion should begin here.

J.H. PRYNNE : A BRIEF COMMENT ON 'HARMONY' IN ARCHITECTURE
XI'AN, P.R. CHINA, 23RD SEPTEMBER 2006 (pdf)

A Christmas Gift to You

Only another 180 days until Christmas! I can't handle the excitement!

A Christmas Gift To You (courtesy of The Internet Archive)

A selection of compositions originally released in 2005. No cover.

1. New and Pristine Appliance Returns to Warehouse is a meditation on life after death. Sorry Arvo.
2. Parallel Lives was my first attempt at writing for a quartet. At the the time, I thought it was really cool and radical, but now it just sounds juvenile.
3. Untitled is an attempt to re-create the atmosphere of early electronic music. Sorry Karlheinz.
4. Ashes Wither (a.k.a. 'I know a song that'll get on your nerves') displays my awesome D.J. skills during my minimalist period. Sorry Ozzy.
5. Mare Nostrum is a love song, sung by the Moon to the oceans of Earth.
6. Hoots! was an unused piece written for a play by Mike Mallett. Sorry Mike.
7. Untitled 2 is a guitar, violin bow and delay pedal. Why has no-one else thought of doing that?
8. Lachrymae is an attempt at an arrangement of the Dowland piece. Sorry John.