I once also owned every single Front 242 record. I wish they still made song structured songs with Jean Luc DeMeyer on lead vocals. Even still, I am glad for the amazing albums they gave us such as Official Version and Front by Front. I saw them perform at the Palidium in the late 80s. It was awesome.

“Belgian industrial group Front 242 were at the crest of the Electronic Body Music wave, carrying the baton from groups like Throbbing Gristle and Caberet Voltaire, combining their post-punk aesthetic with strong backbeats, slices, samples, and ominous vocals. Their raw sound is married with strong militaristic imagery, chopped-up scenes from television, and even evangelical leanings.” – redbullmusicacademy.com

For more info: front242.com

Tweet This Post

Depeche Mode has long been one of my most loved bands. If you didn’t already know I won a contest and went on tour with DM which ended up as the movie Depeche Mode 101. You can see me in it as a young mohawked 17 year old. I personally feel there best work was when Alan Wilder was in the band so it was so very nice to see he took the stage this yesterday with his old mates.

Former Depeche Mode keyboardist Alan Wilder appeared on stage with the British synth pop band for the first time in 16 years…. Wilder appeared with the band during the encore to help perform “Somebody,” which appears on 1984’s Some Great Reward. “Dave contacted me a few weeks back and asked if I’d be willing to join them on-stage,” Wilder wrote on his website on Thursday (Feb. 18). “He assured me that everyone in the band was into the idea. I was very happy to accept, especially as it was all in a good cause and we were long overdue some kind of reunion of this sort. “It was great to see everyone again and catch up a bit, and it was also the first time I have actually ’seen’ Depeche Mode perform!” – chartattack.com

via Maurice Roy

Tweet This Post

Like myself Gavin returned from Berlin back to the states. Hip Hop, psychedelic music to homebrew analog synths it’s always good to peak into other’s likes and studios!

“Gavin Russom is a wizard, and not just because his long red flowing mane is reminiscent of a medieval alchemist or because he was once a stage magician. The composer and former engineer for dance label DFA (where he earned the “Wizard” moniker) has been making and unmaking synths since a young age. Gavin thinks of the analog machines as works of art in their own right, blending the aural, visual, and the sculptural.” – motherboard.tv

For more info: myspace.com/gavinrussom

Tweet This Post

Ethan Winer from RealTraps grabs a panel of knowledgeable people at AES to show you what you think you hear may not be reality. Ethan makes some respected sound treatment products in Connecticut. You can download the non-YouTube compressed audio files to go along with this video here: www.ethanwiner.com/aes

“This is a video version of my Audio Myths workshop from the October 2009 AES show in New York City. In this video you will hear what phase shift sounds like, compare high- and low-end converters, learn about proper test methods, understand why hearing is not as reliable as test gear, and much more.” – EthanWiner

So what do you think? Is it real or is it Memorex?

via Miro Pajic

Tweet This Post

I think it’s pretty interesting to see where the samples came from. This song also has one of the best music videos ever made attached to it.

“How to make Prodigy’s legendary track “Smack My Bitch Up” in Ableton. Video describes, which samples were used by Liam in this wonderful track.” – jimpavloff

Download the original song: click here (iTunes)

Tweet This Post

I was reading an interesting article on Wikipedia about a long gone practice called “Song Sharking”. Essentially there were businesses who ran ads asking poets to send in their poems which would then be turned into songs by professional musicians. In 2003 PBS produced a documentary about Song Sharking called “Off the Charts”. To see a full preview: pbs.org/independentlens/offthecharts/ It’s also available on Amazon: click here I wonder what other old music business practices that have long been forgotten.

“The business of recording song poems was promoted through small display ads in popular magazines, comic books, tabloids, men’s adventure journals and similar publications with a headline reading (essentially) Send in Your Poems – Songwriters Make Thousands of Dollars – Free Evaluation. The term lyrics was avoided because it was assumed potential customers would not understand what the term meant. Those who sent their poetry to one of the production companies usually received notice by mail that their work was worthy of recording by professional musicians, along with a proposal to do so in exchange for a fee. The early 20th century versions of this business involved setting the words to music and printing up sheet music from inexpensively engraved plates.” – Wikipedia

Read the full entry: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Song_poem

Tweet This Post

I’d like an installation like this permanently in my living room. Created in Berlin by Joerg Piringer he calls this work [untitled] and describes it as “an interactive sound poetry installation”. Be sure to check out Joerge’s other interesting installations too. I like the one’s that spit out random Twitter feeds.

“the visitors speak, shout and cry into a microphone to evoke a dynamic world of letters and vocal sounds. image and sound are created immediately by speaking and vocalizing into a microphone and modifying the voice through signal processing while the software is analyzing the sound to create animated abstract visual text-compositions.” – jörg piringer

For more info: joerg.piringer.net

Tweet This Post

SoundCloud iPhone App from Oliver Chesler on Vimeo.

SoundCloud has become the best place for musicians to store and share music online. The Berliners have continutally upgraded their site’s services listening to it’s customers. Beyond the new features the site is managing to scale well and it looks very pretty. Here are some of the new tools in the latest release “Taylor”.

SoundCloud already had the best embeddable audio player with a great waveform display and comments along it’s timeline. Now there are two new player widgets called “Artwork” and “Mini player”. Here they are:

Artwork Player (Roll/click your mouse over for effect):

Mini Player (Click Play to expose mini waveform):

Sharing is much better now too as they follow Flickr a bit here allowing users to grab a Secret Link to send out. Stats is greatly improved (where there even Stats before?). Just take a look at these Stats from the past seven days:

Here we go with a big one: an official SoundCloud iPhone app! Take a look Ma no flash (Video above).

Finally there is a new pricing structure that could make more sense for the unemployed and skeptical. For more info: click here

Follow me on SoundCloud: soundcloud.com/thingstocome

Tweet This Post

Here’s a nice look at Moby’s Noahs Ark of vintage drum machines. He also goes into the virtues of replacing your band with electronic instruments. I agree completely. I once performed at an early “rave” in Washington DC with Moby. Before fame he used to DJ a small bar near Suny Purchase (my alma mater).

“Motherboard heads deep into the bowels of Moby’s Manhattan apartment-studio, where he unveils his prized assemblage of rarified gadgets, bizarre synthesizers, and outré drum devices.” – Motherboard.tv

For more info: www.moby.com

Tweet This Post

I received an email yesterday from Christian Bannister of Subcycle Labs asking me to view a video of a project he is working on. This is another example that shows how transforming touch screens are going to be for musicians.

“This is part of a series of sketches exploring the potential to bridge the gap between sound visualization and musical instrument. With multi-touch interaction it is possible to manipulate multiple characteristics of a sound—visually, and simultaneously. This shift has the potential of bringing the experience of synthesizer as music instrument to a whole new place. This approach allows the performer to have a more tactile and immediate experience of the synthesizer and also creates a visual reference for the audience. In the performance of electronic music it is fairly common that the audience is alienated from the process and performance of the musician. This project hopes to create a common visual language and experience for the electronic musician and the audience by enhancing the perception of sound and music on both sides.” – Christian Bannister

For more info: www.subcycle.org

Tweet This Post