Electronic music is not my genre of expertise, so it came as a surprise to me when I heard AO’s soothing and ambient tones on his solo release.  I had the good fortune of then, seeing him live at the Dropping Gems Showcase at Decibel Festival, where he was joined by friend and frequent collaborator, Zuri Biringer, whose lilting guitar riffs added a grounded sense of nature, invoking images of sky and water.  It’s impossible to listen to the Seattle native’s sound without being drawn to the beats.  However, while they ultimately drive the music forward, they aren’t the primary focus of the songs, which create a vivid mood through crooning vocals, guitar, and keyboard.  In combination with some incredible imagery that accompanied the performance, the set was nearly transcendent.

Not long after his show that night, I was able to sit down with Alex to discuss his development as a DJ and find out where he draws his inspiration from.  His ambient sound was a divergence from the sounds that I had heard from him previously and I had many questions.  Eloquently and in fascinating detail, he was able to give me answers to questions that I didn’t even know that I had.  To an electronic media newbie, like myself, I found him to be incredibly informative and insightful; even providing hints on where to start my own exploration of the vast genre.  In the end, he was even so helpful as to give a demonstration of how he creates his unique style.

The following is the transcript from that conversation.

PARVANEH: I guess my basic question would be, when did you get interested in electronic music and where did you see yourself going when you started?

DJAO: So, I don’t really know where to begin really.  I guess the first time that I ever heard an electronic music song that I thought, “Oh shit this is really incredible,” I heard- yeah, I guess it’s like the first track from the Beastie Boys album, Hello Nasty.  Yeah I heard it in like sixth grade.  We were sitting on a bus.  We were on a school trip and they had the CD and that was when that album came out, and I remember hating on it quite a bit.  -I’m sorry, I’m really OCD, I just need to make sure this is recording right.

[Checks on the recording]

Anyway so sixth grade on the bus?

So, sixth grade on the bus.  I remember I saw- I don’t know, it’s a long story, but I saw the Beastie Boys album cover and I was like, “I bet that sucks!”  and I was on this bus ride, and a friend of mine lent it to me.  I thought that them rapping was pretty cool, but the beat… everything about it was just so crazy to me.  It was like, “Wow, this is one of the hardest pieces of music I’ve ever heard”.  Up until then, I was just listening to 90s alternative.  I was really into Rage Against the Machine and stuff like that.  Then, through the Beastie Boys…  Their DJ is one of the best scratch DJs, his name is Mixmaster Mike and is one of the craziest musicians who uses a turntable, basically.  He’s really out there and really experimental and the crew that he’s from is really experimental.  They’ve done a lot of work.  They’ve released albums around turntables, using them to produce sound that I don’t think anyone’s really matched…  The whole turntable thing really died out.  That’s the way I really came to it, ’cause I really started DJing sophomore year of high school.  I wasn’t even DJing for people.  I was just, literally, in my room with the turntables just scratching for like ,two years probably…  Just scratching, listening to really, really weird beats made by other DJs and scratching with no purpose and no plan whatsoever.

Then I started DJing high school parties and dances and stuff, but I was still basically listening to all hip hop.  So, then I started DJing out.  Playing shows and stuff, just doing dances for friends at their houses and fundraisers.  You know, high schools.  Then, I went to college and I was still pretty much just listening to hip hop all the time and DJing and all that, and my style of DJing just started to get weirder -like the chopped and screwed stuff that I do now when I DJ, as opposed to my live show- started freshman and sophomore year.  I mean, it started in High School, but that’s when it really started to flourish.

And then, it was my junior year, when I studied abroad in London, where I really got exposed to-  Well, I was kind of eclectic, but when I moved to a different city where no one listened to hip hop, or most of my friends didn’t listen to hip hop, I suddenly learned about just so many different kinds of music and started to go out and see it live, which had a lot to do with me starting to catch on.  Especially when, around that time, that was…  that was 2007-2008…  That wasn’t when dubstep first started, but it was right when it was blowing up in-  Before it had blown up in America, but when it was becoming really developed and popular and a lot of people were starting to accept it as cutting edge and interesting.  And a lot of my favorite artists are dubstep artist who are from that era and who I saw live.  Like Benga,who I saw live before his album came out.  I only knew him through the internet.  I didn’t come to London knowing anything and, sitting in my room in London on the internet and realizing that all these super cutting edge dudes, who are so interesting and fascinating to me, are all in the city I was in, I was like, “Oh my god, I have to go to some of these shows”.  I remember, when I went to see Benga -I couldn’t find anybody to go with me- and, I remember I was just lying in bed that night and I was like, “Well, what am I gonna do tonight?  Am I just going to smoke and pass out, or am I going to go to this show by myself?“  And I went and, first of all, I met him and then, that is where I met my British girlfriend, totally randomly.

So it worked out well.

Turned out to be a good choice.  But I came back and my senior year just completely changed the music I DJed.  I started listening to electro, started listening to way more dubstep, and started listening to futurebeat.  Which is I guess is where you’d put me now, sort of.  But there’s a lot of words for it, like IDM.

What would that stand for?

That stands for “Intelligent Dance Music.”  It’s for like, experimental 90 beats per minute roughly.  It’s a pretty nebulous term.  It has a lot of connotations with music that came out in the mid-late 90s, or early 2000s.

I know when I saw you at the Baltic Room last fall, it definitely sounded like-  I mean, I’m sure it also had to do with the theme of the night, but it sounded much more dubstep-style.  A lot of heavy beats, but definitely pretty scratchy, do you feel like you were influenced by glitch at all, either?

You know, I think I was more influenced more by J Dilla than I was by any hard IDM or hard glitch, and I have friends who are really into glitch, like Calvin from Ghost Feet…  We did a Portland show recently and he drove me down from Olympia and he said, “You should check out this hard minimum glitch that I got from France.”  He said, “This stuff is so computer error,” and I was like, I like this stuff, but I don’t.  I don’t seek it out.  It definitely influences my music but it’s not like…

Not one of your main influences…

Not one of my main influences.  I think mainly it influences me through other artists that inspire me.  But that particular show was a DJ set, right?

Yeah

So yeah, I remember that set, that was really fun.  That was a lot of hip hop and chillwave and future beat and there was definitely some really crazy dubstep in there too.

*laughing* Yeah.

Yeah, the guy who booked me, Ill Cosby, is a future bass DJ and so, I pulled out more of my upper tempo- you know, strange, really mindblowingly arranged dance tunes for that one, more than I normally do.

I think…  I want to go back to that, too, but for your current stuff -like your Ep and the stuff you played at Decibel Festival- is much more low key, kind of with Zuri playing guitar and the singing aspect of it…  I’d been keeping up with your pieces coming out on the Dropping Gems compilations and, when your EP came out, I thought, “Wow, where did this come from?“  It sounded like a completely different style.  Was this something you were building up to, or was it something you didn’t really have the opportunity to do with the Dropping Gems Collective, or….?

Well all of that music is definitely like Dropping Gems music-

Really?

Yeah, because I make a lot of different kinds of music, but I have my more up-tempo stuff coming out on Car Crash Set in the middle of November, and I also have just straight dance music, like just regular dance music…  I guess it’s not regular, but to me it is, I just sit down and I think, “I’m gonna make a Baltimore club tune” and it just comes out however it comes out.  But, like the first song on the EP, “Underbrush,” when I sat down to make that, I thought, “I’m gonna make a dubstep tune” and that’s what came out…  So, I don’t always know. *laughter*  But, in my head, I classify it one way, but people…  But, that material is mostly over a year old.  Like “Green Lake” was a song I made right when I got a computer.  Like, I was in Seattle a while without a computer.

I guess I didn’t finish explaining…  When I graduated from college, I started working at a production company and started using the studio there and that’s how I actually started making beats.  I mean, I made beats in high school in the digital media lab on GarageBand and so, then using Logic -which is the professional version of GarageBand- which was at the studio I was working at, was not difficult.  And I still have tons of material from that time that hasn’t been released and I don’t know if it will ever be released and what I’ll do with it.  It doesn’t really matter, but all that stuff is really different.  But, I moved back to Seattle and, a couple months later, I got a computer; it was that summer.  Summer of 2010.  So, a little over a year ago.

So do you feel like you identify with some of the kinds of music that you’ve put out any more than others?  Like, do you feel like the stuff that came out on your EP was maybe stuff that expressed more of an individual style, or…?

Well, it’s hard to say with that, specifically.  I mean, all of that is really, really personal stuff, but, like I said, it’s pretty much a good record of the last year.  “Green Lake,” I made it last summer.  I made “Taigamoss”…  I made it last fall or winter.  “Underbrush” I’ve literally been working on for a year, at least.  “Moon Sun Ravine” just started as a beat with those voices, and that shit is really old too.  “Through The Field” is relatively recent, but couldn’t be any newer than the Spring.  The only thing that really I made this summer would be the second half of “Moon Sun Ravine” with Zuri playing the guitar, which I just made while I was living on Capitol Hill and I just called Zuri and said, “Man can you come over and play?  Bring your guitar I need to finish this goddamn EP.”

So how did the partnership…?

Yeah, the collaboration, the collaborative partnership-

…the collaboration with Zuri come about?

We’ve just been friends for a long time- Man, when was the first time we jammed?  I don’t even know… the first thing that comes to mind is a song called “Forest,” which I played live at the Decibel show…  No, there’s another song, it’s called “Pacific City”…  Me and Zuri went down to Portland.  I think Zuri actually just came down to kick it, just the two of us went down to kick it with the Dropping Gems people.  This is like when I was first getting to know all of them.  And we just hung out and, at one point, we went to the Oregon coast and we went to this place called Pacific City, which was really, really, really incredible.  But yeah, at a certain point, he came over to the house and I had just put together-  Well, I think I might have actually, just done it all at once…  I just played some pads, played some noises, I had a couple different sounds, just a couple different chords on top of each other, or maybe just one chord, and I said, “Hey Zuri, just play some guitar over this” and a week later, I just went in and just chopped up what he had played and put it into a sampler and just played it.  And, because I don’t know how to play piano and I don’t know how to play guitar and, because like of all these things… collaborating with people who are really talented like Zuri, who is, first of all, unbelievably talented, but he’s also got exactly the same (well not exactly the same) but in the exact same continuum that I am, in terms of taste and definitely in terms of melodic sensibility, is great.

Of course.

And, during the Decibel show, he was really blowing me away.  He recorded that set -or, someone did- and I don’t know where it is.  I meant to record it, but was too flustered in the process of getting everything set up.  It just turned out to be just a really happy accident.  It wasn’t really an accident, but really an organic thing that I didn’t have to plan at all.  He would just come in and play over the things I made, I’d chop it up in the sampler and it would add so much.  We did a couple more songs that way and it developed into a thing that was just really, really fruitful from a production standpoint, and I realized, if we can do this in the studio, this would be perfect live, too.  He came through and played at the Electric Tea Garden and it was amazing.  It really helped my anxieties, ’cause there’s a general sense of anxiety when you’re playing music like this that is generally done in a studio ahead of time.  When you’re not like, just pressing play on an Ipod, which I have literally seen people do before…

Right *laughing*

So, having it be done as much live as possible is really important thing for me and I’m not anywhere near where I want to be in terms of that.  Like, I just do what I can at the moment and, as I get to be a better musician, I’ll add more.

Well, I think the stuff you’ve done with Zuri always sounds really natural.  I think, a lot of times, when people have another instrument come in, it can sound weird, but I was actually playing your EP with my boyfriend -this is kind of an aside- but he said, “God, this would be really great with some guitar over it,” and then all the sudden Zuri comes in and he was like, “oh! Perfect!”  So, I think it feels really natural and makes a lot of sense.  And, I guess I have a lot of questions, too, about how you put your music together on a technical level.  I mean, I have NO knowledge about the process of making electronic music; like what programs you use or how you put it together, but I guess I’ll save those for later when you show me how it works.

Having seen your previous show and having heard the stuff that’s been coming out on compilation CDs, I think I heard a much more obviously complex kind of a sound from you, like you were saying about the show that I saw; that you were really kind of throwing everything out there.  And it seems like a lot of your recordings have been showcasing a lot of different skills that you have technically as a DJ.  When you came out with your EP, or your stuff that you’ve been working on longer term, the sound seemed to be a lot simpler on the surface.  Though, seeing you live, I feel like I could tell the complexities in the beats, which kind of moved around a little bit, subtly changing tempos.  Why did you make that change in your sound?

Well, it wasn’t that much of a change for me, really, because that’s how I’ve always done it.  I just hadn’t released any of it, so no one really knew.  When DJing, I’m so eclectic and I’m drawn to so many different things…  The biggest distinction, though, is that I’m playing other peoples’ music and not, you know, not mine.  I’m not creating that stuff that I play.  Anyway, the thing about my live shows is that I don’t have a template or formula for making song, and I don’t have a formula for structuring songs in the middle of making them and, especially if I come back to something that I was working on… anything new that I do will be different than what I was originally doing.  It’ll be in the same vein, but… you can really tell on the fourth track of the EP, “Moon Sun Ravine,” there’s the part where the voice is and then, there’s the part with the guitar.  And they were both made months apart from each other.  And so, you can just tell.  And, for some people, the switch may be too much.  I know I had long conversations with people, in Dropping Gems specifically, who just said,”the guitar is too much, it’s too jarring.”  I agonized about that for a little while, but eventually, I decided to keep it.  But, in any event, the reason why tempos change and beats change is because that’s just what happens when I play the songs.

Right, I wasn’t meaning that in a negative way.  I really like that, actually.

Yeah.  No, I mean, I have plenty of thoughts about what to say like, “Well, you know, life is always changing.”

*Laughter*

But seriously, life is never in a lock-step meter.  You know, every day could potentially be a revolutionary day.  Like, if something crazy happens and you have to upend your whole life… that’s kind of what this summer’s been like for me a little bit.  Things have finally settled down, but also there’s a lot of points on the EP and in my live set where there aren’t any drums at all.  It’s just ambient.  And then, drums come in and that’s kind of similar to the patterns of life, you know.  Activity and inactivity, or inspiration and depression, or whatever else you want to say.  So, the EP is also narrative, so it really has a specific narrative…  It’s like a trip, like a walk in the woods, you know?  And there’s stops and starts to that experience, too.  There’s parts where you’re walking down a hill and you might trip, or other times where things are just mundane and you’re trying to stay in line.

So, just to clarify, the narrative is the movement of someone through….?

Well, it’s just natural environments, forests, specifically.  Obviously, it’s not a specific place, it’s more fantasy-based than that.

I think you can definitely feel that in the EP.   Obviously, the names of the songs tend to imply that naturalness.  I guess that, to me as a listener, hearing some of your stuff that’s more rhythm-heavy and complex, compared to the ambient sounds that you have on the EP, it definitely seems to be much more reminiscent of nature as opposed to mechanics.

Yeah, definitely.  I mean, that’s the thing about… I love electronic music…  I was thinking about this the other day.  It’s probably the genre of music where the most exciting things are happening, just in general.  But, you know, there’s a significant history to electronic music and a lot of the pioneers…  I’m not like a hard electronic music nerd.  Especially with pioneer stuff.  I mean, I might get myself in trouble for saying this, but… I don’t like rigid, harsh, computer sounds.  I just don’t.  That’s what a lot of people make and that’s actually what’s popular, essentially.  Mid-range dubstep that has a lot of spikey computer sounds and huge over-compressed kicks and snares, it sounds like robots screaming and stuff.  There’s definitely a nice, enjoyable side to that music, but it seems like there’s way more bad than good and there’s way more inorganic electronic music.

Do they do that to put an emphasis on skill?

Well, not so much that, it’s just an aesthetic.  It’s a harsh aesthetic, and it’s an aesthetic that lacks a lot of mechanic rhythm.  It honestly, just has a lot to do with people partying.

It’s different for me, because I use a computer as my main instrument, but I don’t want to express robotic ideas or cold, synthetic ideas, or rigid ideas.

One of the cool things, I think, about the EP is that, because of the ambient sounds and getting away from the more mechanical aspects of electronic music, where the beat isn’t the emphasis, but has a large effect on the feeling of the music, it seems to have an appeal to more people who are outside of the electronic music world.  Were you intentionally trying to reach outside of that scene?

Well, not really.  It’s something I want, but it’s not something I’m explicitly aiming for in my head when I am making the music.  Part of it’s just that I have pretty eclectic taste and I like seeing a lot of different things live, you know.  I actually went to my first death metal show on Friday and it was a really extreme scene, but it’s really awesome, too.  I just got booked for a show in Portland and I’m playing right before the headliner and it’s just an indie band.  No one else on the bill is electronic and to me that makes perfect sense.  I don’t want to appeal to just one crowd and… there’s people I know I won’t appeal to, but…  I mean, I would love to appeal to everyone.  I guess I’m kind of insecure that way, you know, I’d love if everyone liked me.

*Laughter*

But, I don’t think that I want one scene or audience versus another.  And I like to make people feel comfortable and to communicate positive information and feelings, especially in a live setting where people are congregated together.  It’s nice to be able to communicate that individually to people through their headphones or whatever, but specifically when I’m physically there performing and creating sounds where there are a lot of people congregated to hear it, I really, really want what I’m transmitting to be positive.  I mean, I have a lot of music and I play these things that communicate a negative state of mind, but I try to do it in a way that’s enjoyable or at least uplifting.

There are a lot of artists, in my genre specifically, who are about being as harsh and nasty as possible and people go to those shows and are like “Yeah play the crazy shit!” and I totally respect that and sometimes I feel like that.  Like I said, I went to this metal show and it was awesome, but it was definitely some of the heaviest and most brutal stuff I’ve seen live.

Well, that kind of leads into what I think is going to be one of my final questions.  For you, what do you think are the advantages to playing a live show vs. a studio recording and vice versa?

Well, live shows are totally different, because (with) in studio recordings, I’m spending hours and hours and hours trying to find the right sounds and put them together correctly and getting them all mixed and balanced correctly, and to get the thing I’m looking for, which I only have the vaguest idea about and don’t really know it until I find it.  It just takes forever and it’s emotionally kind of harrowing and it’s just a mess and it takes a while.  And then, once I’ve found it, I’ve found it and it’s like a happy accident and I can enjoy it.  And in a live performance, it’s just about communicating that hard work to people in the most accessible way possible.  The most important work happens in the studio and the live show is like a celebration of what I’ve managed to find.  And I get to do some of it live, so it’s interesting to watch, but mostly it’s like, “Look what I found, guys!”

I know you mentioned this earlier and you didn’t really have a chance to talk about this, but you brought up that there were certain people who (you) felt like witnessing their live shows was really influential to you and (I was wondering) if you’d like to talk about it and how it influenced you….

Well yeah, James Blake is the pinnacle to me, as far as this section of electronic music goes, and he is a polarizing figure, I guess.  But to me, he’s the only person who has taken, well… I mean, I read an interview with him once and people asked him, “What’s your live show going to be like?” ’cause he was still developing it, and he said, “Well I just want it to be like Mount Kimbie’s philosophy on it.”  They’re another British group and they’re similar, but they don’t take it quite as far as James Blake, which is for him to basically play every note live.  Which is… it’s electronic music.  It’s made over multi-track on a computer -he makes it himself in his bedroom- but when he tours, he has a guy playing the drums and a guy playing the guitar and using a sampler, and he’s singing and playing the keyboards, and every sound that you hear on the record (and it may be slightly different) is being made live and being produced live and, to me, that’s the ideal.

So, do you see yourself moving in that direction in the future?

I have so many plateaus I have to reach before I can do that.  I have to learn to play the piano, I have to learn how to arrange for a band and I have to find…  I think Zuri would be a perfect person to tour with, which is why I do, but I’d have to figure out where I fit in and how I could have control over the sounds that I want to have control over.

Flying Lotus is another person who tours with a drummer and Thundercat is a bass player from LA who’s like, amazing.  He’s at a computer consul doing stuff and controlling the sounds and letting the band members go wild, which is kind of what I do, but way, way, way less talent and control in my situation.

Mount Kimbie are another good example, but they run a lot of stuff off samplers.  They play guitar live and they play drum pads live and stuff, and they have a snare that they hit every once in a while, so they’re another good example of that.

Shlohmo’s newest album is really organic and he uses loops, which is another option potentially, but I like playing with other people.  It’s basically, translating what my really personal ideas are and having control over them and then expanding that to include other people.  It’s a tremendous challenge…

Also Brown Bear, who is in Dropping Gems, has a project where he plays with a full band.   And Toro y Moi, one of my favorite beatmakers, had one of the best albums in 2010, and now he plays with a band and his music is different, because he plays with a band, and it’s amazing, but it’s just not what I would have wanted him to do, just because I love that one album so much… but, it also reminds me that it’s just not something that I think I’d be able to do to full satisfaction for a few years.

Thanks so much for talking to me about this.  I think we should wrap up this section of the interview and head over to see how you make your music.

Sounds good.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………

After the interview, Alex let me come check out his studio, where he demonstrated how he creates a track from scratch.  It was a really great way to end the day and to round out some of my newfound knowledge of the electronic music artform.

[Unfortunately, the flip cam recording the footage doesn't capture the bass very well.]

LINKS:

Find out more about DJAO from the following links…

DJAO on Facebook
DJAO on SOUNDCLOUD
DJAO Dropping Gems Profile

His EP, Wuhn, can heard and/or purchased by “name your price” through here: http://droppinggems.bandcamp.com/album/wuhn

His more recent release is an installment of the No Northwest series put out by the Car Crash Set Label.  The series is an effort to spotlight Northwest producers and is a split EP, which he shares with HxdB, a Vancouver producer.  Two of the tracks are from DJAO; one being a solo piece called, “Just For Today” and the other, “Meditation,” being a collaboration with Yuk.  It is his first “for-money,” wide-release EP and is available for purchase at the following links:
BeatPort
AMAZON
Boomkat

Photo Credit:

Header image taken by Parvaneh Angus.

All other images are provided courtesy of Lara Schneider.

EL-P (aka: Jaime “El Producto” Meline) is, arguably, one of the most important hip-hop producers of all time.  I use the term “arguably” because, I’m personally willing to argue that fact, if anyone really wants to get into it.  In the 90s, Meline started the highly influential rap crew Company Flow and released the doom-laden classic Funcrusher Plus (an extended version of their independently produced Funcrusher ep), the very first album ever put out by the then-upstart “underground” rap label RAWKUS Records.  Eventually, EL-P told RAWKUS to eat a dick and bounced, opting to form Definitive Jux, with the intention of maintaining an artist friendly label, helping to develop the artists’ careers while making sure that they received both the credit and monetary compensation that they were owed (something that he didn’t feel was happening with RAWKUS).  Using DEF JUX, EL-P went on to help make household names out of artists like AESOP ROCK and RJD2, while releasing 2 remarkable and highly innovative solo albums of his own.

A little over a year and a half ago, we posted an article which included a statement from EL-P announcing his intention to officially and indefinitely place Def Jux on hiatus.  Part of his main reasoning behind the decision was to focus on becoming an artist again, because all of the time and effort put into producing albums for others and running a label was beginning to interfere with his abilities to do so effectively.  The silver lining for Def Jux fans is that EL-P has been making good on that promise.  Since the announcement, Company Flow has reunited to perform Funcrusher Plus in it’s entirely for ATP in London (plus, a few other select dates),  Producto has released another mixtape, and even produced and/or appeared on tracks for artists like Killer Mike and Das Racist.  Seeing as the rapper/producer hadn’t released a proper solo album since 2007‘s I’ll Sleep When You’re Dead, the main question for a lot of us was when that was gonna happen.  That answer came back in August with the news that EL-P had signed to Fat Possum records for a 2012 full-length titled Cancer for Cure, and the free download of the sample track, “Drones Over Bklyn.“  Now a remix of Drones has arrived with an extremely well-known and recognizable sample; one that Meline never bothered to disguise in the slightest.  What’s more is that he’s actually openly selling it -albeit for for charity (Mr. Dibbs hopital fees)- without ever getting the sample cleared and, thanks to a new service known as LEGITMIX, he may not even have to.

This new remix, “RUSH Over Bklyn“, features a very blatant sample of the Rush classic “Tom Sawyer“.  That alone is a fascinating concept, because EL-P is known for digging pretty deep to pull out/use samples by more obscure artists like 1960s cult psych phenoms, Silver Apples and early electronic pioneer Raymond Scott.  There’s something refreshing about hearing him take such a classic sample of a rock epic as famous as “Tom Sawyer“, especially since it seems like one of the last songs that someone would be able to easily get cleared for use.  “RUSH Over Bklyn” is a great reminder that, if you’re good at what you do, it doesn’t matter if you use what would seem like an, otherwise lazy sample.  Producto uses a fairly straight ahead approach with the remix by swiping the infamous phaser blast intro outright and lyrically stomping across it, while still magically making it his own.

Obviously, sampling an already legendary track for a rap song isn’t the most revolutionary concept.  The groundbreaking aspect comes with the fact that, although LEGITMIX isn’t an entirely new process, no one’s really been willing to test out the copyright laws and use it in this manner; chopping up an uncleared track like this and then immediately trying to turn around and sell it.  Up until now, songs that have been created with “borrowed” material like this have been doomed to limited distribution -if any, at all- made solely to be spread amongst friends or for free mixtape downloads.  The LEGITMIX mission statement and software approach the idea of sampling and copyright laws from a really unique direction, more or less, circumventing the system and the need for clearance on copywritten audio material.  This is great but, until their ideas are actually put into practice, it’s little more than a theory and no one has been willing to step in as the guinea pig.  That’s where EL-P comes in.  And if he’s gonna test out the legality of swiping a samples, he might as well go really big and use one of the most famous rock songs of all time.  In fact, he goes so far as to unabashedly chop up Geddy Lee‘s vocals right into the song, as well.  Sure, it seems like a ballsy move, because… how can this actually be legal?

Here’s how LEGITMIX describes both the use of their service/software and how it works with EL-P and this particular project”

“When a consumer purchases “Rush Over Bkyln”, the browser-based Legitmix software searches their computer for the “Tom Sawyer” track. If they don’t have it they can purchase it from Legitmix or any online music store. With a few mouse clicks, the Legitmix software recreates on the binary level “Rush Over Bklyn” on the consumer’s computer using their copy of “Tom Sawyer”. The price of “Rush Over Bklyn is $0.70 plus the retail cost of the “Tom Sawyer” track (if the consumer doesn’t have it).“

as well, as…

“Normally, “Rush Over Bklyn” would have been leaked on the Internet or left on some dusty hard drive. Now with Legitmix, El-p can sell his creative work and generate new sales for Rush. For this pioneering releasing, El-p has chosen to help out a friend in need and is donating all proceeds from the sale of “Rush Over Bklyn” to a fund established for the legendary DJ/producer Brad Forste aka DJ MR DIBBS who is battling liver disease. As hospital bills rise, El-P and Legitmix hope to relieve the burden of family and friends that a half a million-dollar debt can produce.“

So… basically, as I understand it, you’re not technically buying a song with a sample of RUSH‘s music in it.  Instead, you’re actually just purchasing the ingredients or framework around the sample, minus the sample.  From there, the song is being generated on your computer by using a copy of the sampled song that you already own with the LEGITIMIX software, as it incorporates and processes the corresponding segments into that framework to create the same finished product of the song that you want which is featuring that sample.  The reason that RUSH, or any other band being sampled, would benefit financially from this, is because, if you do not already have that sample of their track, you’ll need to purchase the song from the artist, so that it exists on your computer and can be siphoned and mixed by the LEGITIMIX software.  The software just takes what it needs from the copyrighted songs that you already own in your digital library to fill in the necessary samples to recreate the tracks with your own computer.  It’s a lot like that Eighties movie KidCo, where the kids create a highly successful company selling manure and, after their corporate rivals try to get them audited by the IRS, they win the case by convincing the courts that they shouldn’t have to pay taxes for the feed that their parents already purchased and paid taxes on, all over again, just because it’s been processed through the excretion of the horses they own.  In this case, your copy of “Tom Sawyer” is the feed and the LEGITIMIX software is the horse’s digestive system.  At least, that’s what I’m gathering from reading these explanations.  This is a concept that could only ever work in the present digital music-based age that we live in.

With “RUSH Over Bklyn,” EL-P and LEGITIMIX are setting a precedent and could be signaling a huge shift in the manner in which sampling and music copyright laws operate.  By formatting the system in a manner which the sampled artists themselves are making money, this could pose a win win situation for all parties involved.  Of course, it’s only a matter of time before someone does something like sample a hardcore Christian artist with the intention of creating a demonic, beastiality, murder ballad to insult and offend them with the use of their own music (feel free to use that one.)

We encourage everyone to listen to the track below and then to go purchase it from the link which will be provided below.  Not only will this show support for the LEGITIMIX project as a whole, but all of the proceeds will go directly to help with the medical bills accrued by Meline‘s friend/fellow-producer Brad Forste (aka: MR. DIBBS).

Here’s what EL-P, himself, has to say about his participation in the project:

“I did this because I think it’s an interesting idea and approach to the sample clearance issue. Most importantly I hope this raises awareness and money for my good friend, collaborator and hip hop legend Brad Forste aka DJ MR DIBBS. He is suffering from cirrhosis of the liver and (like so many of us) uninsured. He has racked up almost a half a mil in hospital bills after just one month, and he needs help. All proceeds from this song go to him.“

Check out “RUSH Over BKLYN” below.

To purchase the track and help out MR.DIBBS, please use THIS LINK.

DONATE TO PAYITFORWARD2MRDIBBS

http://www.facebook.com/pages/PayItForward2MrDibbs/231083543618198

To donate with PayPal click “Send Money” and the email address: hellkitchen@netzero.com. The email address belongs to Kristin Rose. She is Mr. Dibbs’ wife. For those who don’t use PayPal you can send a mail check or money order payable to Kristin Rose. Address envelope to: Brad Forste 4830 Poplar St Cincinnati, OH 45212

In the early days, Amon constructed groundbreaking works like Bricolage (1997) and Permutations (1998), which were jazzy,  downtempo, drum n bass-heavy releases with vinyl samples full of shambolic jazz kits and breakbeats.  Tobin‘s choice of titles are always telling and, by the time that albums like Supermodified (2000) and Out From Outwhere (2002) were released, the samples were becoming so altered  (“modified”) and were becoming so unrecognizable that it was sounding a lot more like the artist was siphoning his material directly from the outer limits of the cosmos, rather than mining it from anything terrestrial; let alone, dusty old jazz records.  From there came remixes, compilations, a “soundtrack” to the highly successful Tom Clancy video game, Splinter Cell: Chaos Theory (marking a shift into the use of self-created samples), and another soundtrack for a Hungarian film about competitive “speed eating” and taxidermy ( the album cover art is of a shack-dwelling man shooting flames from his dick).  The next proper follow up for the Ninja Tune golden boy, however, wouldn’t arrive until 2007‘s FOLEY ROOM.  Being a full 5 years since his last “real” studio album, I wasn’t even aware that it was on it’s way until I accidentally stumbled across it.  It was immediately engaging and I listened to it at least a half dozen times before learning that Tobin had approached the project with the intention of utilizing nothing but field recordings, in the tradition of the foley artists that create sound effects for film.  The CD came with a bonus DVD documenting Amon as he collected the samples from sources like roaring caged lions, electric toothbrushes on banjos, and buzzing swarms of hornets in a balloon made of foil.  These effects were masterfully stacked, mixed, and blended, achieving much more than mere novelty, but actually exposing the musical potential for such things as motorcycle engines and splashing water.  Realizing that there was a missing element, Tobin eventually recruited the talents of the legendary Kronos Quartet to fill out the sound by supplying the eerily haunted string arrangements, breathing into the songs with a wispy undertone of beautifully hypnotic doom.  Now, with his obsession to constantly move forward and continue to explore new avenues in sound, the electronic innovator has continued to alter his creation process and push his sampling/production methods even further with the release of the multi-media ISAM project earlier this year.

Click here to view the embedded video.

The video above demonstrates Tobin‘s use of a super wacky,  hi-tech fingerboard/midi-controller known as a “Haken Continuum” to create the sounds for ISAM.  You’ll notice that he’s sampling simple items around his studio before mutating and blending them to create something new and multi-dimensional.  This time around the man seems to have found ways to work smarter, instead of harder (although, any time that he saves is, undoubtedly, channeled back into some other element of tedium for the project).  Instead of hunting out field recordings from obscure locations, the producer recognized that, if those sounds created by various unorthodox outside sources could be harnessed for melodies and rhythms, finding new life in a musical context, then any unassuming item that’s already within reach in his studio or simply sitting on the coffee table in his living room should be utilized to operate just as well.  From there, the noises were processed, often being pushed through multiple filters each.  The above video shows such examples as a chair creak being synthesized or the ding of light bulbs being morphed into the twang of another sample.  Once the sounds of those original items are collected, they can be intricately manipulated through the continuum finger board.

The tracks on ISAM are definitely new explorations in sound and song structure, but they are meant to be listened to and enjoyed, first and foremost.  What I mean is that it is a project that is much more about the final product than the gimmick behind it’s construction or the individual elements that went into creating it.  Anyone can play you a recording of railroad nails being hammered in and instruct you to find the rhythm in it, but Tobin is a composer at heart, aside from being an audio scientist.  His means of creation are as much a method to construct elaborate soundscapes that listeners can interact with and become submerged in, as they are opportunities to indulge his own personal needs to expand his skill set and tinker with whatever newfangled contraptions that he has access to.

The song “Mass and Spring” (falling dead center at track #7 of 12) is one of the most fragmented start and stop-style offerings on the album, often coming through like a game of Sonic the Hedgehog, only if the main character was stuffed full of ambien and dramamine.  Propeller-esque shuffling is catapulted forward, only to reverse like a batarang.  It could often be difficult to decipher the individual field recordings on Foley Room, but they still seemed slightly more untouched and there were moments where an engine rumble or lion roar was definitely recognizable as such.   For the most part, every noise is used to meld into and enhance the music -for both projects- but if any of the samples do expose themselves and stand apart as individuals within the singular blanket of woven sound on ISAM, some of those moments definitely appear in “Mass and Spring“.  Busted jack-in-the-boxes pop up at random; their loosened heads fling off and plink down through bottomless wells.  Racketballs richocet off of plaster and sink into vats of  dense pudding after being launched from a bug zapper.  An antique elevator strains it’s weathered cables and the echo of rusty harp strings vibrate from the damp basement level and up through the hollow shaft.  It’s beautiful and dark, like the rest of the album, like the album before it, and like select moments on every piece of work that’s preceded it.  It’s entirely new, but it still has it’s creator’s stamp all over it.  It’s oddly foreign, but even more oddly familiar.

Early on (April?), Amon Tobin uploaded a full soundcloud stream of ISAM with written commentary of the album throughout.  Of this particular track, Tobin states the following:

“mass and spring is based on acoustic modelled ‘made up’ string instruments that behave very strangely when played due to the conflicting physical properties I’ve assigned to them.“

He continues with this train of thought in other comments on the stream, referring to the fictional instruments that he’s envisioned in his own mind.

“no samples featured on the album instead sythesised instruments are combined with multi-sampled instruments all of which are playable.“

“I love the idea of playing futuristic non existent instruments built a high level of detail in their construction but playing them actually quite badly : )“

Also featured on “Mass and Spring” are the “ooohs” of a “female” voice.  This voice also appears in the previous track “Wooden Toy“, with the “woman” singing actual lyrics.  Later, a separate feminine vocal appears on “Kitty Cat” (track #9).  Even prior to this, delicate “aaahhs” are introduced as early as the second track, “Piece of Paper“, continuing into “Goto 10” (track 3), with the addition of subtle “doot-do-dos“.  The “aaahhs” return later, buoying throughout “Lost & Found” (song #5) and adding an eerily angelic atmosphere to the track, but it isn’t until “Wooden Toy” that we actually hear it as an undeniably human voice beckoning our attention to actual verses.  Before that point, the vocals are little more than a additional instrumentation and/or used as accents, providing a slightly less robotic counterpoint to the various hydraulics, recoils, glitches, sonic thrusts, ruptures, and teleports that they assist in adhering together.

A lot of electronic musicians will try shit like this, throwing a random -generally female- vocal into the mix on an otherwise instrumental effort.  It’s similar with instrumental hip hop records, except that those generally have one of the artist’s pals stepping in to add a speedbump by awkwardly rapping over a track, while female singers typically sidetrack these sorts of releases by taking them into more dancey, house music-oriented territories.  In both circumstances, if done poorly (as they usually are), the introduction of an outside vocalist can really toss a temporary twig into the spokes of an otherwise fluid release, forcing it to attempt to regain it’s continuity after a disorienting hiccup.  Introducing multiple separate voices at different points can increase that possibility of disjointedness further.  One of the rare situations that such accompaniment actually works amazingly well is on Daedelus‘ Righteous Fists of Harmony EP, with the artist’s wife and Long Lost collaborator, Laura Darlington, appearing on various tracks seamlessly.  This is likely due to their close knit, intimate working relationship and understanding of each other’s abilities as artists.  Tobin finds a similar benefit with ISAM, which manages to become another such successful undertaking… almost.  I don’t mean that it doesn’t work, because, from the first time that I heard the album, I was incredibly impressed and surprised by how the introduction of vocals could benefit Tobin‘s tracks so remarkably.  The only reason that I use the term “almost” is because -previously unbeknownst to me- there technically isn’t any “accompaniment” or “outside vocalist” on the album whatsoever.  In fact, both of the “women” that appear on ISAM are nothing more than Amon himself, only with his voice pumped full of a convincing dose 0f electronic-based estrogen through some sort of SRS-inspired production wizardry.

Amon says the following of “Goto 10“:

“my own vocals synthesised and gender modified here.“

…and “Lost and Found”:

“My own vocals analysed and gender modified.“

Regarding his singing on “Wooden Toy“, he states:

“so here we have the first of two imaginary characters I’ve featured on the album. I performed the vocals which were then synthesised and turned into a female.“

Then, for “Kitty Cat“, he provides the following insights:

“here’s the second made up character vocalist on the record. this time she’s supposed to be older and has an american twang like some folk singer.“

“probably best to ignore the words.. they are pretty silly and more of a necessary biproduct of the experiment with synthesising vocals to create convincing characters.“

The other largely impressive and immediately noticeable aspect of ISAM is the severe lack of drums.  This is, perhaps, the biggest difference from the composer’s early work that relied so heavily on the beats to create a skeleton to drape the doom-laden flesh across.  You can’t spell “drum n bass” without the drum.  This release demonstrates the musician evolving into a completely different animal.

There are definite rhythms on the album, but they are far less overt than that of a wily jazz break or even a schizophrenic drill n bass gatling attack.  Moments of heavy impact do appear, like cannon balls thumping into a wet lawn, but even during these instances, no “real” drums or drum samples were ever utilized.  It’s not only impressive that he’s able to pull off such an undertaking, but also in the multitude of ways that he’s been able to make it work so fantastically.  The song “Calculate” relies primarily on glistening tonal bells and warm computer-like blips to create its’ framework over the occasional minor click and understated intermittent electrical surge.  “Bedtime Stories” threads the rustling clink of metal thumb tacks in a mason jar throughout the discharge of toy rockets, the reeling zip of a penny racer, and enough atmospheric pressure flux to make your ears pop.  All of this is supplied with a lathering of gentle bells from a music box lullaby.  “Night Swim” is a thoroughly cinematic piece, evoking images of stepping barefoot and sopping wet across jagged rocks to take shelter from the increasingly brisk night in a dark musty cave.  The music itself sounds like you’ve tucked your ears under water while listening to a recording of wind chimes through speakers that occasionally show static evidence that they’ve been slightly blown.  Or, as Tobin puts it…

“grains and fragments cluster together to make something that resembles a beat.“

and…

“fragments disassemble and they fall apart again.“

As with the Miles-esque approach to “the notes you don’t play“, much of the structural elements on ISAM are formed by the moments of absence or the spaces between the more defining sounds.  At other times, it’s the sheer and consistent amplification or deceleration of one sound in relation to those adjacent to it.  This is never more apparent than on the lurch and collapse of the track “Surge“.  Many of us might have memories employing a similar approach to formulating rhythms, by rapidly twisting back and forth on the volume dials of your parents radios, as makeshift childhood DJs.

The last track on ISAM, “Dropped from the Sky“, is like softly hang-gliding past the ends of physical space and into stark whiteness, only to see a new extension of uncharted Earth being created in real time all around you.  The outline of rigid cliffs and majestic peaks sharply cut through the nothingness and come into focus.  They are coated with rich moss and wild flowers that, just as swiftly, sprout in blankets across their surfaces.  First there’s an anonymous mist and then the waterfall that didn’t even exist a moment before.  Circling birds.  Prisms rainbow out from the water.  This space is so pure and untouched that there has been no need to furnish itself with these elements until you’ve entered them.  Now, as you do, we’re popping the tags on some fresh nature one cubic foot at a time.  It’s arguably the least bleak and most encouraging effort on the entire release, floating the album out on a memory foam cloud until the brief discordant plucks of, what is literally, the last few notes close the lid on the box.

“so now we have a melting pot of various elements and techniques employed throughout the album. electronics, vocal synthesis etc.etc.“

Tobin‘s intention to wrap up the release by revisiting all of the different aspects that have been explored throughout the rest of the album is in direct correlation to ISAM being an accumulation of all of the styles that the composer has experimented with and perfected over the course of the previous albums that have led up to it.  The dark beauty, calculated transitions between tracks, live samples, processing, synthesizing, etc. are all present.  It wouldn’t surprise me if the next release is his most minimal work to date.  Then again, it wouldn’t surprise me if it were even more elaborate, either.

Click here to view the embedded video.

ISAM has been released in a few different versions and packaging options, including a “6 panel gatefold CD, double heavyweight LP with printed inner sleeves, and a limited edition CD artbook featuring exclusive images“.  As with the general ISAM cover art (along with the rest of the images in this post) the photos in the artbook are of sculptures created by the UK-based artist Tessa Farmer, who has her work featured in such prestigious collections as the Ashmolean Museum and the Saatchi Gallery.  These new artbook featured works in particular -”constructed from bits of organic material, such as roots, dead insects and bones“- were created explicitly for/inspired by the music of ISAM and were actually part of a collaborative installation between Tobin and Farmer earlier this year.  The exhibit, titled “Control Over Nature“, was held at The Crypt Gallery at the St Pancras Parish Church in  London (originally “designed and used for coffin burials“) and entailed the music from ISAM and Farmer‘s displayed visual work complementing each other to create a collective experience where sight and sound overlap, merging into territories that transcend the typical physical senses.

Tobin‘s audio, on the other hand, was not created with the intention to accompany Farmer‘s sculptural work, whatsoever.  His sound collages are painstakingly manufactured to be visual enough on their own.  The idea to incorporate the sculptor’s work came after the fact, based on commonalities that the two artists share and recognized in relation to their current approaches to each of their respective fields.

AMON TOBIN:

“we’re both re-arranging and augmenting natural elements to make something imagined but tangible. We are both exploring new uses for familiar materials, or in Tessa’s case familiar creatures.  I’m trying to take an objective approach to all my source material, whether it’s field recording or synthesis based or a mixture of the two.  I’m treating it all as musically/creatively relevant and useful.“

When asked by NewScientist.com about presenting her work alongside Amon‘s music, Tessa simply states:

“It’s how my work sounds“

While stumbling around the internet -searching out a reference, video, image source, or verification for some random aspect of this article- I came across a link to Pitchfork‘s review of ISAM and, uncharacteristically, decided to go ahead and read it.  I can’t remember everything that it said, but I do remember a few key elements.  The first is that they gave it a relatively low rating (checking now, I see that it was a mere 5.9) and that score was the primary factor prompting me to reading ahead.  The second thing that I recall is that the actual content of the review felt somewhat favorable and didn’t really seem to support that final determination.  Maybe it depends on what you’re looking for, because the writer describes various aspects that I saw as positives with the project, while commending Tobin‘s capabilities as an innovator to move forward, but then seemingly contradicts himself by complaining about the artist’s structural tangents and that the album isn’t an accessible, head-nodding effort full of songs that are tightly packaged like little snack treats, more akin to some of his previous work.  The last point -and the one thing that really stuck out to me- was that the entire effort was dismissed by the reviewer as nothing more than a “transitional” album.  This is a claim that I find to be both semi-accurate and absurdly misguided.  Misguided, because I find nothing within ISAM that feels unfinished or like a work in progress.  This is a fully realized and expertly developed project that is fascinating and engaging for both it’s emotional qualities, as well as it’s technological accomplishments.  I find the claim to be semi-accurate because, with such an innovative and forward thinking artist, everything created is destined to be a “transition” to whatever he opts to tackle next, in one fashion or another.  That doesn’t mean that it isn’t also a destination of its own.

The one other dissatisfied accusation that is likely to be directed towards the ISAM project is that Amon Tobin is simply just too self-indulgent.  I, myself, might argue that any “real” and “genuine” art is.  If others feel that the work is too scattered and unfocused, like that previous reviewer, I have to question how engaged they have really allowed themselves to become with the piece.  A certain level of objectivity is definitely necessary to sufficiently analyze and critique something, but I feel it’s important to remember what/who you are actually writing these reviews for.  Shouldn’t there be some effort to try and experience the work in the same way that others who would look to you for your interpretation might?  How important is it to be able to share what you’ve discovered with the world?  How important is it to just have the soapbox?  I guess that what I’m asking is, “how self-indulgent is it to scrawl out your own critical opinions like this, just to toss them at the world like a raw slab of meat, in the first place?“  My assumption is that, to Amon Tobin, that opportunity to share what HE’s discovered with the world is probably the most important thing there is.  I feel that any mind-numbing technical legwork put into the project, that might be interpreted as general pretentiousness, has been more than validated by their end result.  His ability to finely tune and control each tiny fragment wasn’t simply used as a gimmick, it’s actually allowed him to form little moments of sound and pure emotion that, although they may have already existed in his head, would have been unavailable to him (and us) otherwise.  It’s like an amateur guitar “virtuoso” churning out some intricate Eddie Van Halen finger taps or cornball Joe Satriani licks.  If there’s no deeper connection to the music or what they’re doing besides the recognition of the difficulty involved -as is often the case- it can come across as the self-indulgent equivalent to flexing with one arm and smearing your own load into your belly flesh with the other.  But, what if that technique is utilized in a way that actually benefits the music and you connect to it; finding yourself traveling in a loin cloth through a firey swamp on the back of a pegasus, your experience is actually transformed, and you’re really into that type of shit?  Well, then it’s hard to argue that, at the very least, some of that showboating wasn’t self-indulgent at all, but was actually created for your benefit.  The level of self-indulgence that someone finds in a work might just be solely reliant on each individual’s level of personal connection to it, which -if you think about it- is actually somewhat ironic.  It’s difficult to fault someone for putting in such tremendous research, time, and efforts of tedium to be able to construct elaborate worlds, simply for our exploration.  And that’s what they are, open environments built for the listener.

As a reviewer, I find it nearly impossible to stand back and attempt to summarize this album through nothing, but logic and assessments restricted to it’s individual components.  ISAM is far too emotionally driven for that.  This is the type of project that you actually have to get inside of and wear for a minute.  Tobin has stated time and time again that it was not intended to be a “concept” album or even one of abstract experimentation in musique concrète.  It’s supposed to be an album that can be enjoyed by the listener on a level beyond intellectual appreciation.  You know… musically.  It’s hard to deny that there are fragmented moments and disjointed components throughout the album, but it’s the listener’s duty, as well as privilege, to be able to connect those dots themselves and fill in those gaps through their own personal experiences with, and reactions to, the material.  Real art exists off of the page, or canvas, or even the soundwave, or… whatever the medium.  Whether it’s through his music, Tessa Farmer‘s sculptures, or the elaborate and groundbreaking mutli-media live performance created for ISAM (covered/reviewed in part 2), a simple concrete narration is never provided; there’s always space to interject your own highly specific and personalized outlook into it.  Everything from the processing to the arrangements on the album are used to agitate and stoke the embers of the listener, beckoning them to follow the electronic piper like Victorian spectres through environments that unfold like a crossover episode of Ghost Hunters and American Pickers set on Cyberton.  With ISAM, Amon Tobin has managed to ride a very delicate balance; neither shamelessly pandering to his audience’s expectations or completely abandoning them in the woods without a handful of breadcrumbs.  If there’s one thing that’s become predictable about the electronic pioneer throughout his decade-and-a-half career, it’s that you can never predict exactly what he’s gonna do next.  He’s one of the most consistently forward thinking artists out there, in electronic music or any genre.  With ISAM, he has produced, what I believe to be, one of the most impressive projects of the year and I enthusiastically welcome whatever direction he chooses to venture into next.  I’m sure that there are others who would disagree with that sentiment, but Tobin doesn’t seem overly concerned if members of his fanbase do choose to jump ship.  It’s like he states with the comment that he’s chose to lead off the soundcloud stream with:

“anyone looking for jazzy brks should look elsewhere at this point or earlier :). it’s 2011 folks, welcome to the future.“

A couple of months ago I upgraded my cell phone to an “Android” device.  My motivation for choosing the particular model that I did was solely for its name, ‘Optimus’, which for me is a reference to Transformers leader, Optimus Prime.  I don’t really use the blue-tooth capabilities but the way people walk around with that bug in their ear reminds me of the technology portrayed in the old school Star Trek episodes.  If those little things that go in your ear went on your chest instead, it would be just like a communicator used by the crew.  In fact, the technology of my phone is better than that of Captain Kirk’s outdated flip-phone, especially if I were to duct tape a Tazer to my cellular device.  In this age of technology, life is imitating art more and more and what we once thought could only exist in worlds of Science Fiction is rapidly becoming a reality that we take for granted.  Some of you may scoff at this notion and point out that there are no flying cars, faster-than-light travel, or hover boards, but people are working on it.  What we do have is cars that parallel park themselves, bionic limbs, and, as we have seen recently, holographic technology that would put R2D2 to shame.

The “world’s first 3D performance” occurred way back in 2005 at the MTV Europe Music Awards when the Gorillaz, a band that traditionally perform as silhouettes on a giant screen combined with images of their cartoon alter egos, were able to perform in full holographic wonder thanks to the “Eyeliner” projection system.  The Eyeliner is a high definition 3D holographic video projection system, which allows moving, life-size holographic images to appear within a live stage setting.  Most of us can picture that grainy image of Princess Leah begging Obi Wan for his help in the fight against the Empire from the original Star Wars movie.  The holograph being projected from R2’s dusty circuits looked similar to a signal being picked up by a cathode ray television with rabbit ears.  The images projected by the Eyeliner, on the other hand, make me wonder how soon holodecks could become the next amusement parks.

This clip from 2009 is a mind-blowing example of the possibilities and current capabilities of holographic technology.  In this video, director Chris Cairns uses holographic projection to create a live performance based on his original Neurosonics Audiomedical Labs film, which starred disembodied rapping heads and the talents of DJ crew Scratch Perverts.  For this revised demonstration video, Cairns utilizes the gifts of drummer, Will Clark and turntablist/DJ/producer, JFB out of Brighton, UK.  As a 2007 DMC DJ Champion, JFB has made a name for himself across Europe for his abilities as a beat juggler.  The holographic heads in the clip are projections of London‘s Beardyman, a 2006 & 2007 UK Beatbox Champion whom the BBC has dubbed as the “King of Sound and Ruler of Beats“.  Beardyman is widely celebrated for his beatboxing skills coupled with his use of live looping technology.  The beatbox master and JFB had collaborated together previously through the innovative Battlejam club nights that they hosted together, where live looping technology is augmented with live audience sampling to create instant hooks and spontaneously composed tracks.  The actual holographs, of course, were courtesy of the Eyeliner, which was invented by Uwe Maass and is exclusively licensed through Musion Systems Limited, an intellectual property licensing company.  The technology is based on a theatrical illusion from the 1860’s known as Pepper’s Ghost, that uses a plate of glass in combination with special lighting techniques.  One of the most famous uses of this technology is in the Haunted Mansion ride at Disney Land.  Musion Eyeliner replaces the plate glass with a specially developed foil that is placed across the front of a stage at a 45 degree angle, facing the audience.  Recessed above or below the screen are high definition video projectors, making it possible to produce virtual holographic images of “variable sizes and incredible clarity” that are “infinitely configurable“.  Although the video is said to showcase exactly what the audience in attendance was exposed to, Clark and JFB were, apparently, unable to see the Bearyman heads while they were performing.   The following quote, via a post on Wired.UK.com. further explains some of the technical logistics of the video :

“…the foil is stretched over where the instruments are, with projectors aimed down from above creating the heads. The instruments are linked to a computer hooked up to the projector, though, so when they’re manipulated, the image changes. That’s how the heads are able to spin at the same speed as the turntables and react to drum hits.”

Click here to view the embedded video.

Musion Eyeliner is being employed more and more since its introduction in 2005.  Japanese band Genki Rockets – whose lead singer, Lumi, is a fictitious character- use Eyeliner for all of their “live” appearances.  Jeff Wayne’s Musical Version of the War of the Worlds was a concept album released in 1978, but has spawned a 30th anniversary live tour.  As a substitute for actor, Richard Burton , who portrayed the journalist/protagonist on the original album, Eyeliner is used to project an image of the now deceased performer during the live show.  German pop/rock band Tokio Hotel even performed an entire tour as a holographic band in 2010!  Apparently thousands of people were in attendance for their shows, but I don’t know if I would be impressed by that or if I would just feel like I got ripped off.

The technology has many other applications, as well, and is being used more frequently by companies and organizations to promote product launches such as Toyota’s Auris and the Samsung Corby, host global seminars like 2009’s Live Earth Conference -which featured holographic key-note speakers like Al Gore- or put on ceremonies like the British Fashion Awards.  In 2010, animation company, Square Zero re-produced a rendition of “Pennies From Heaven” by departed crooner Frank Sinatra, for former American Idol judge, Simon Cowell’s 50th birthday celebration, as well as a speech by dead author/former-creative director of global advertising agency, Saatchi and Saatchi, Paul Arden, at Cannes Lions advertising festival.

Plan on seeing holographs at your local malls, airports, and information counters soon, because Musion announced the launch of EyeSay, a “virtual assistant” in February 2011.  It is basically a cheaper version of Eyeliner and is already being beta-tested at Manchester Airport in the UK as part of their “passenger security preparations“. The Musion website describes it as ‘

“…a clever holographic projection setup for the public environment: designed to work in high ambient light. The EyeSay is compact, stationary and ideal for airports, retail outlets, point-of-sale, exhibitions, shopping malls and road shows.”

My half-joking predictions about a genuine inter-active holodeck ala Star Trek: The Next Generation may not be too far off actually.  After doing a little research into the Eyeliner and Musion Systems, I found this quote from the web-site to be most interesting:

“Musion Systems partners with other company’s technologies to enhance the audience experience. Eyeliner works well with interactive touch-screen user interfaces, motion tracking, augmented reality (AR), customer product configurations and web-based content“

It looks like they are already working on it…

Last year, the Vermont 4-piece, PHISH triumphantly returned to the stage with a full tour, culminating in a 3-day extravaganza over Halloween weekend, entitled FESTIVAL 8.  The event was held at the Empire Polo Grounds in Indio, Ca, where the band played 8 total sets; including one acoustic set and one which featured them covering the Rolling Stones masterpiece Exile on Main St in its entirety, with the assistance of the remarkable Sharon Jones and the Dap Kings.  It was an impressive weekend overall, but one thing that really stood out was a lighted sculpture that took flight and boggled the minds of many of us that were in attendance.  Being the inquisitive and science/astronomy/technology obsessed little gent that he is, our writer ONSEN took it upon himself to track down the creators of the structure and compile the intriguing and fascinating piece that we have presented below for you. Since it was originally written, the 3-dimensional FESTIVAL 8 film was released in theaters, offering many of you who weren’t in attendance at the actual festival to have the opportunity to get a glimpse of the crazy lighted device in action.  For whatever the reason (timing, sloth, misguidance, etc) this article never made it onto the site until now.  Tomorrow night, PHISH will be unveiling and performing another cover of another artists’ legendary work, in their typical Halloween tradition.  This time their performance will be held at the Atlantic City Boardwalk Hall in NJ.  For everyone that’s there, we say, “have a great time, set something on fire for us, and don’t steal anybody else’s shit“.  Posting this article the day before Halloween may mean that we have waited and pushed this topic out right at the very last possible moments of relevance, but I hope that you will feel about it as I do.  This is an interesting piece, presented in a concise, informative, and entertaining fashion by a friend of ours who put in a lot of extra work to bring some fascinating information to light, and it still reads as such.  To you, I say thanks for reading it.  To ONSEN, I say, thanks for writing it.  And to everyone… sorry it took so long.

-DEAD C

{simply click on them to enlarge any of the images below & view at full size}

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My sea-urchin costume now litters the earth in a fragmented ring between Seattle and Los Angeles. I’ve long forgotten the anticipation of which musical costume Phish would don for their Halloween show, for all intents and purposes, I’ve moved on from Festival 8.  Yet, laying in bed, quietly picking my nose, I began to wonder, drift, speculate, my thoughts turning to that large floating blob in the sky at the festival, that balloon blimp that could color change like the chromatophores of a courting Caribbean cuttlefish, I whispered to myself, “WHO THE FUCK THOUGHT THAT UP? ”

After patiently awaiting email responses from the creators overseas, I give to you the definitive answer to your mental pondering.  Perhaps on Friday or Sunday night, a higher version of yourself may have also looked to the skies and askied yourself, “????!!!“.   Well my friends, the answer you sought is finally here:

“Borealis”, the name given to the psychedelic jellybean, was created by Hector Serrano studio, in collaboration with Javier Esteban.  Serrano wrote to me from London, explaining that Goldenvoice, the organizers of both Coachella Music Festival and Festival 8, had contacted him to create an art installation for Coachella 2009.  Serrano and his team design tons of amazing stuff, as evidenced through browsing their hyper-creative website.  Hector had originally proposed Borealis for Coachella, but, due to a variety of  issues at the time, he wasn’t able to make it a reality.  However, when Phish decided on the warm, dry, relatively stable climate of Indio Polo Field, where Coachella is also held, Goldenvoice and Serrano decided to try again.

Serrano explains:

“The concept came from the interest of creating an installation that made the concert a more engaging experience, something that celebrates music in a unique way.  As we had to build it in London and then fly it to California, we thought inflatables were a good starting point and balloons are perfect diffusers of light. We knew the object was going to be seen from every point of view so it made sense to do it in 3 dimensions. The organic shape was the perfect way to visualize the music as it offers us infinite patters, some how it was a colorful cloud dancing with the music, so we named it Borealis.  After creating a CGI movie of the project, we started work and development and 3 months later we installed it in California.“

To me, it felt like a friendly whale was swimming over the crowd, an alien acoustic ear translating the music into color, the collective conscious of the fans, the future of band/audience interaction, or simply…  just a blimp on acid.  For those not present at Festival 8, the included photographs and following video (inexplicably set to Radiohead) may have to suffice:

Click here to view the embedded video.

At its best, Borealis seemed to react to every note sliding off of Trey‘s guitar.  At its worst, it still showcased its remarkable versatility in-between songs, as if its operator had no regard for the set list.  I tracked down Christopher Rowell, of Architen Lighting, also based in London.  He was the man who operated the Borealis on Friday night and I wanted to get his perspective.  As Christopher explained, “its all about fore-play and not shooting all your guns at the beginning.  I love the reaction of the light change and the crowd.“  Rowell had written an app. the night before the festival and, believe it or not, he controlled the Borealis with a simple Iphone.  For Halloween, Borealis had the night off and on Sunday it was controlled with a much more complicated system involving 3 DMX Universes and Pharos controls.  Because of the illuminated beast’s nomadic nature, the light board needed to remain mobile.  On Sunday, Borealis was capable of 24 different sequences sent from a “button box“.  Microphones were tested to allow for automated response, but Rowell said the effect looks tacky and cheap.  Still, I believe it is this technology that could usher in a new era of concert lighting.

The basic composition of the piece’s framework consisted of a jumbo structural balloon that was filled with helium and then surrounded by 500 36” air filled balloons.  The whole inner structure was covered with FLEX-4 LED Mesh, designed by Architen Lighting.  This innovative mesh allows for both electronics and structure to be accomplished with just one wire.  The LEDs broadcasted light 110 degrees to illuminate the whole balloon.  Borealis was tethered to a dolly that had a 1.5 kW generator and controls.  4 additional staff members walked with the inflatable creation to monitor it and prevent any wooks from going “danny deck chair“.

Check out this wonderful video by Hector Serrano, which demonstrates the creation process:

Click here to view the embedded video.

Festival 8 was the first to use Borealis, but I expect to see it down the road; hopefully with a designated control board and synapse-fast response.

In an odd twist to the story, there was another undulating balloon sculpture present in Indio. Known as the “Burble“, it was especially noticeable on Sunday night, stage left.  Burble, reminiscent of an unfurling hand, was built by Haque Design, surprisingly, ALSO based in the UK.  “Excuse me sir, Ill have my fish and chips dipped in balloon toys“.  Burble has taken many forms and shown up all over the world.  In contrast to Borealis, the Burble felt more diffused, reef-like, and was controlled using infrared.  Scope out Haque‘s website to see computer models and an archive of Burble‘s near celebrity appearances.  We were lucky to have a Burble at Fest 8, even though Borealis was what truly stole the show.  Haque and crew also designed an amazing piece called Primal Source, set-up in Santa Monica in 2008, which looks aurora-esque and should be at the next Phish festival.

To float, inspire, and celebrate. Cheers to Phish, Goldenvoice, Serrano and Haque‘s crews for reaching to new heights in technology and, most importantly, fun.

BONUS:

(“SCIENCE CORNER” w/Onsen)

Now to examine the name, “Borealis” and its connotations in the larger world.   Borealis is Greek for the “North wind” and the phenomenon of the Northern or Southern lights has been the catalyst for many a young astronomer and myth-weaver.  Undulating ribbons of shimmer, it’s as if the earth sometimes goes out to a sweaty disco for the night, cracking glow sticks on its head like a freaker by the speaker.  The Aurora is actually the result of solar storms bombarding earth and influencing the earth’s magnetic fields.  The ancient Chinese knew it and even Midwestern farmers notice it: the Sun is on an 11-year solar cycle, observed using sunspots or outrageously expensive solar observatory satellites.  Most often seen climaxing around the equinoxes of the 11th year (Solar Maximum), the sun begins to shed energy, huge CMEs or “coronal mass ejections” radiate out into Earth, geomagnetic storms that expand the auroral ova.  It is as if the sun is a rambunctious adolescent every 11 years or perhaps a plasma-Buddha, rhythmically broadcasting Dharma mega.  This energy, composed of particles stripped of electrons, bombards earth, interacting with stuff in our atmosphere (oxygen generally produces long-lasting red or green, helium often shows light green).

For More information, we encourage you to check out this terrific podcast on Aurora from UniverseToday.com

PODCAST LINK

The next Solar Maximum is in the year 2012, so it is reasonable to expect above-average aurora to be noticeable around the equinoxes of that year.  Astronomers forecast this aurora could extend well into the corn-belt and will be highly visible.

The sun burns in ways we cannot simply comprehend and for whatever reason from August 28th to September 2nd 1859, the sun was REALLY ripping.  Often referred to as the “Carrington Event” there was so much energy that telephone companies could turn off their batteries and let the solar energy oscillate the magnetic field of the lines, running the network off of the sun.  While novel, this is unusual and it is possible that another above-average geomagnetic storm could take place in 2012, with the high-powered telecommunications grid stretching across the planet, transforming into the sun’s play toy.  It is realistic to think blackouts and overwhelmed transformers could result.  If they are savvy and adventurous enough, perhaps the designers of Borealis could also harness this solar radiation and run Borealis off nothing more than the energy of our star, staying true to its name.

William Bensussen (aka “The Gaslamp Killer”) has been tearing up stages and DJ booths since he was 17, infiltrating and wrecking the, otherwise, fairly orthodox “dance club” scene of San Diego‘s Gaslamp district.  In 2006, he relocated to Los Angeles and helped found the Low End Theory weekly that now serves as the epicenter for U.S.-based experimental beats.  Generously borrowing from a wide range of genres, GLK blends hip-hop, dubstep, jazz, and just about anything else into high-energy, schizophrenic sets characterized by fast cuts, chest-crushing bass, and gritty top-shelf beats.   Although mostly known for his DJ sets and mixes, Bensussen has also dabbled in production, collaborating with label-mates Flying Lotus and Daedelus in the past, and, more recently, with Gonjasufi on the critically acclaimed A Sufi And A Killer.   His most recent project, the Death Gate EP, just came out on Flying Lotus’ Brainfeeder label this past month, and blends deep bass lines with dirty analog drums patterns, twisted ethnic samples, and dreamy, distorted synth lines.  The album includes guest appearances by Gonjasufi, San Francisco-based DJ/producer Mophono, and LA keyboard wiz Computer Jay.

I sat down with The Gaslamp Killer before the “Magical Properties” show at 103 Harriet in San Francisco on October 15th.  The tour featured other Brainfeeder/LA acts such as IDM pioneer Daedelus, dubstep producer/DJ 12th Planet, and Brainfeeder newcomer Teebs.  The lineup encompasses much of what is so exciting about the LA scene- off-kilter beats, powerful bass, record-crate samples, and plenty of weirdness.

- Davis Memes

DM: So, you just released the ‘Death Gate’ EP this week, right?

GLK: Yeah.

DM: Is there anything you want to tell us about that?

GLK: Well, the ‘Death Gate’ EP has Gonjasufi, Computer Jay, and Mophono from San Francisco on it.  It’s kinda like ‘My Troubled Mind,’ but a little different.  It’s got a lot of my live drumming on it, and a lot of my live sounds that I’m making with some modular synths; a lot of keyboards by Computer Jay again.  It’s on Brainfeeder, you can get it on iTunes, you can get it on thegaslampkiller.com, you can get it at Amoeba…

DM: Limited edition…?

GLK: Only 2000 copies on vinyl, but digital is endless.  Never-ending digital…

DM: It seems like you often do a lot of collaborations with people on productions- how does that usually go down?   Is it sending tracks back and forth, or are you guys actually in the studio together..?

GLK: With Gonjasufi, it’s just sending stuff to him.  With Mophono, we got in the studio together.  With Computer Jay, we got in the studio together.  Daedelus and I got in the studio together- that’s on a tour-only 7” available on this tour only.   It’s called “Impulse” and it’s a Gaslamp Killer and Daedelus tune that we made together, we recorded it together- did the whole thing together.  Yeah, I love collaborating with people because I don’t really have my production formula down as much as I would like, but I’m pretty fucking good with Pro Tools, and it’s all kind-of DJ edit style- it’s cool, but it’s not- I haven’t found my voice yet.  I know what I like- I have a good ear- but I haven’t determined my own sound yet, so I’m still working on it.  And I think working with other producers can help you find out what you like and what you don’t.  People like Daedelus have been producing ten years longer than me, so…

DM: So most people know you as a DJ, but you do production as well- how would you relate the DJ’ing aspect of your career compared with the producing part- like, percentage-wise, or importance-wise…

GLK: Well, I’m a DJ first and foremost, and I don’t find the time to produce as much as I would like to because I’m on tour all of the time.   But I’m taking four months off to record my album now, and I am finding it hard. <GLK is distracted by someone across the room for a minute; an inaudible exchange occurs and we’re back to our conversation>

Alright, so I’m definitely a DJ more than a producer, but I’m trying my fucking darndest, man- that’s for damn sure.

DM: Yeah, it sounds great.  One thing I’ve noticed about you and a lot of the other LA producers or American producers in general in the whole ‘bass’ scene is that you guys are more ready to use samples; samples of real drums and breakbeats and vinyl samples and things like that than some of your European counterparts- do you agree with that?

GLK: Definitely.  I think all of us- well, I’ve been collecting records for so many years that the thought of just using whatever came with my machine or my plug-ins in Pro Tools- I mean, it’s cool that it’s there, but it’s not the raw shit.  It can be made into raw shit, but it’s just not- I think all of us are into drums, you know?  We don’t want to get all of our drums from drum machines. <Phone vibrates>
Sorry- I told people the show starts early so they’re already…
<Trails off as he writes a text>

DM: <Commenting on the the 60Hz hum that is plaguing the loudspeakers>
Listen to that hum!

GLK: It’s fucked up, right?   We can’t get rid of it either.  Not even the owner or anything…

DM: Really?

GLK: It’s in the DJ booth right now. I told everybody to get here so early, now I feel like an idiot. <Continues to text>

DM: Yeah, this place definitely starts pretty late… historically.
<Referencing the light show in the downstairs lounge>  I don’t think I’ve ever seen this light show down here.

GLK: It’s fucking dope as fuck, dude!  I wanna do a party down here just for that!

DM: Yeah, exactly- they must have redone it down here or something.  Or I haven’t been down here in a while.

GLK: <finished texting>  Alright, let’s do this!

DM: Okay, so you’re known to be a very diverse DJ, spinning a lot of different genres- hip-hop, dubstep, psychedelic, jazz- how important do you think it is for younger producers and DJ’s to listen to different types of music outside of their main or preferred genre?

GLK: I think it’s really important.  A lot of these cats are not educated in music at all- they just got a sampler and started making beats from drum machines and presets and shit like that…

DM: …sample libraries…

GLK: …it’s totally fucking bizarre in my book, and some of my favorite producers that are younger- I won’t mention any names- but they have no fucking idea about records or music at all.  And they have not been exposed to shit, but they’re still making really dope music, so that just shows how genius is what it is, you know what I mean?  It’s fuckin’ impossible to determine who’s going to be the next fuckin’ Dilla or whatever, or the next fuckin’ Beethoven- fuck, who knows who it’s gonna be?  Someone with little or no knowledge might be- they just might have the fuckin’ gift, you know?

DM: Definitely.

GLK: But I definitely think it’s important for a well-rounded sound, but…that’s just me.

DM: So I interviewed Daedelus a while back, and he sort of expressed this idea that with all of this influx of digital music and people making home recordings and everything, that there’s this lack of taste-makers now, like John Peel and people like that.  But I’ve always lumped you and, say, Mary Anne Hobbs as taste-makers…

GLK: Totally, man- that’s our job!   I’ve broken a lot of records in clubs in my communities- playing Eprom’s shit, playing FlyLo shit, and playing unreleased guys- Samiyam, 16Bit back then, and playing a lot of John Wayne stuff.  It’s our job to get this new stuff out to the kids.  I think it’s the best we can do- I don’t have a radio show- I’d love one, but I don’t have one, so…

DM: So how do you find new music and new artists?

GLK: Friends, man- we’re all just passing files, you know?

DM: Is there anything specific you listen for when you’re hearing something new?

GLK: Yeah, it has to have a certain energy, a certain umph!  I’m listening to a lot of music for listening purposes, you know, a lot of African, Peruvian, Indian- all kinds of Turkish and shit like that- Rock ‘n Roll and stuff…

DM: So if you can’t enjoy it…

GLK: It needs to be powerful.  It needs to be heavy and as intense as the last song I played in my set and keep moving forward, you know?  I’m trying to find songs that- each song I want it to be that dope- as dope as the last or better, you know?

DM: So LA has sort of become a capital of this future sound, or bass sound, or whatever you want to call it.

GLK: Beats!

DM: Yeah, at least in the United States (LA) is.   Why do you think its LA specifically?

GLK: I have a different idea than most, but I honestly think that it’s because nobody gives a shit, or nobody gave a shit for so long, that we were just able to do our own thing, and ANYTHING goes.  Dilla was doing ANYTHING, and when he moved to LA, and him and Madlib started teaming up, and Dilla’s sound changed 360 degrees, man.  And he was influenced by the people around him, and LA has that kind of vibe.  Like, I play dubstep, and I play beats, but I listen to fuckin’ cumbia and I listen to jazz, and I’m driving around listening to fuckin’ female folk, and fuckin’ soft-ass shit, like string shit.  We’re all listening to different stuff, and I think that it all- it helps us.   Like, all of us are just super spoiled and nurtured in LA with music and culture all around us all of the time.  And everybody’s doing whatever the fuck they feel like.   And that’s why it’s so dope and so original- cuz anything fuckin’ goes in LA.  And it’s always been that way, and nobody’s given a shit.  We’ve never had our own fuckin’ sound, so now it’s time- it’s like, “Yeah, we have our own sound. It’s the sound of dope-as-fuck, because we do it all!’  We have fuckin’ cumbia crunk producers, Latino guys that are killin’ the game down in LA, to electronics in TJ and shit.   Like, in Tijuana, Mexico they have crazy electronic parties, and this amazing crew called the Nortec Collective that are fuckin’ huge.  Mexico City is poppin’ off, so we have this whole Latino culture, we have this thick strong black gang-banger repertoire- the violent South Central stuff, and Highland Park, and East LA- all of these places are just thick and rich with culture and diversity and awesome people making awesome shit.   And it’s still like that.

DM: Yeah, different people coming from different places with different music, and blending those together…

GLK: Yeah, exactly.

DM: So, what’s next on the horizon for you?

GLK: My album, more Low End Theory podcasts, <looks at ceiling> staring at this fucking light show!  This Magical Properties tour is going to lead into a short European/UK run, and that’s going to lead into New Years in Australia and New Zealand…

DM: “The Gathering?“  Is that what that’s called?

GLK: There’s a bunch of shit.  I don’t know if that’s the one I’ll be playing, but it’s going to be gnarly as fuck, and then I’m going to come home and work for four months on music and not go anywhere or do any parties.  I’m going to play my friend’s wedding…

DM: More of your own music?

GLK: Yup, I’m going to make my album…

DM: Full length album?

GLK: Yup, 40 minutes.   I have an official newsletter coming up- you can sign it at thegaslampkiller.com.  I’m going to revamp the website and make it really poppin’, just so you can find my merch and my schedules and you can read my shit all in one place.  See the videos, the photos- everything integrated.  It just fuckin’ takes forever, man, and I’m so not a web person.

DM: So you’re doing this (website) all yourself?

GLK: Pretty much, yeah.

DM: Wow…

GLK: I have a little help- I have an agent.  Well, I have two agents- one in the UK and one in America, and I have an administrative guy, an assistant, whatever…

DM: Nice…

GLK: I can’t let go of this shit- it’s my life.   It has to be perfect.  Well, it’s never perfect, but it has to be on fucking point, and nobody gives a fuck the way you give a fuck about your business.   And that’s just the way it always will be, it’s the way it always has been.  If you leave it to an intern that doesn’t have any stake, they’ll just drop the fuckin’ ball.  Some will work and be diligent, but I haven’t found one I can really trust yet.   I hired a guy recently, just to do a few things, and five customers complained that they only got one of their two records.

DM: Oh, man…

GLK: Shit happens.  It’s all good. <to manager> You guy’s ready?!  Alright, then.
<pointing at the questions in my notebook> I saw that was your last one.

DM: No worries- thanks for taking the time.

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TOUR DATES:

Catch The Gaslamp Killer with Daedelus on the following Magical Property tour dates…

10/29 – Double Door, Chicago, IL w/ 12th Planet & Teebs
10/30 – Sound Academy, Toronto, ON w/ 12th Planet & Teebs
10/31 – Grog Shop, Cleveland, OH w/ 12th Planet & Teebs
11/2 – Le Belmont, Montreal, QC w/ Samiyam & Teebs
11/3 – Harpers Ferry, Allston, MA w/ Samiyam & Teebs
11/4 – Le Poisson Rogue, NYC, w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/6 – Bourbon Street, Baltimore, MD w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/7 – DC9, Washington, DC w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/9- Club 828, Asheville, NC w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/12 – The Masquerade, Atlanta, GA w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/13 – The Howlin’ Wolf, New Orleans, LA w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/14 – Barcelona, Austin, TX w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/16 – Trees, Dallas, TX w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/17 – Ground Hall, Houston, TX w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/18 – Club 101, El Paso, TX w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/19 – Club Red, Tempe, AZ w/ Free the Robots & Samiyam
11/20 – House Of Blues, Los Angeles, CA
w/ Free the Robots, Samiyam & Teebs

LINKS:

GLK’s official site
GLK’s official blog
GLK on Myspace
GLK on Facebook

Image Credits:

The header image was created by Augustine Kolfie (aka: “Kolfie One”/”The Draftsmen”)
It was based on a photo by Theo Jemison
They both have crazy portfolios, worth checking out

The amazing “Octa-Killa” photo was used with permission from Tina “T-Fail” St. Claire.
Check out more of her work at TinaStClaire.com

2010 marks 12 years since Blur frontman, Damon Albarn and cartoonist, Jamie Hewelitt (Tank Girl) first teamed up to create their world famous “virtual band” Gorillaz.  Since then, the animated music project has gone through various changes, lineup and otherwise.  Albarn has remained the only consistent musical contributor to the group, with the projects self-titled debut incorporating the talents of Del The Funky Homosapien and producer, Dan the Automator, of which Damon had collaborated previously on the Deltron 3030 album.  2005 brought the sophomore release Demon Days, featuring appearance by such artists as De La Soul, MF Doom, and Dennis Hopper with production work by Danger Mouse.  The incorporation of fictional animated characters with the reality of the live musicians who’ve created them and rotating guest musicians has been a lofty concept since day one and has forced the group to make numerous adjustments in a variety of areas since their inception.

Over the years there has been repeated talk about making an animated film, but that was eventually abandoned, then pursued temporarily, and then abandoned all over again.  Around the time of DEMON DAYS, the duo took on a larger-than-life venture, attempting to perform “live” shows with 3-dimensional holographic versions of the characters/band members that they’d created.  Their abilities to manifest these visual-centric performances were first demonstrated at the MTV Europe Music Awards in Novemeber of 2005, with a follow up performance at the 2006 Grammy‘s, which included an aging Madonna writhing in a leotard.  They announced plans to embark on a full-blown holographic world tour in 2007 – 2008 but, due to cost issues and the unreliability of the technology, that entire idea was eventually bagged.  In fact, by 2006, Albarn announced his intention to scrap the entire idea of Gorillaz as a  functional “band” altogether.  With the help of Terry Gilliam (Monty Python, Brasil, 12 Monkees, etc), the idea for a movie had resurfaced again, with Albarn focusing on that film as the primary vessel for the Gorillaz project.   “As far as being in a big band and putting pop music out there, it’s finished.” He Stated, “We won’t be doing that any more” (Uncut Magazine, Nov. ’06).  Of course, the animated film idea was scrapped yet again and the group did, in fact, release another pop album for the masses this year.  Now Gorillaz has even taken to the road to begin promoting the release but, after over a decade-plus of ups and downs, left turns, and the creators themselves losing interest, should we even be paying attention to this generally, overly-ambitious project at all anymore.  Based on their recent Oct. 7th appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman and the following 45 min. multi-media performance that they treated the audience to [featured below], the answer to that question is a resounding “probably.”

For their latest concept album, Plastic Beach, Albarn and Hewelitt have recruited such varying talents as Mos Def, Bobby Womack, and Lou Reed, while reuniting on a song with former collaborators, De La Soul.  The title track even features Mick Jones and Paul Simonon of The Clash, who have now both become part of the official touring band.  My only reference to Gorillaz as a live act, is from their abandoned holographic performances, so I was thoroughly intrigued about how elaborate their live shows would be and what they would actually consist of?  Plus, with an album that is so heavily reliant on guest appearances, what would they do about their absent collaborators?  Last Friday, October 8th all of those questions were answered for those who were lucky enough to attend the groups highly anticipate performance at New York City‘s famed Madison Square Garden, which actually did include appearances by Mos Def, Lou Reed, Bobby Womack, and more.

On the night prior to this, now-critically-acclaimed, MSG performance, however, Gorillaz treated the audience of The Late Show with David Letterman to a full 45 minute show at the famed Ed Sullivan Theater.  With additional Late Show guests Stephen Colbert and Johnny Knoxville, this was arguably, one of the most impressive lineups that the show has ever seen.  I watched the episode when it aired and remember that, as Dave attempted to announce the group, he was humorously interrupted with the squawks and noises from them trying to organize their extensive setup.  I had wondered why they would go through such elaborate lengths for a simple late night TV performance, but the answer is obviously that they intended to pull off much more than a one-song routine.  The following “mini-concert” is a full 9-songs in length and includes guest appearances by De La Soul, Yukimi Nagano (Little Dragon), Bootie Brown (Pharcyde).

First off,  here’s their performance of “Rhinestone Eyes” that originally aired.

Click here to view the embedded video.

…and here’s the 45 min. performance that went down later.

SETLIST

Kids With Guns

O Green World

Superfast Jellyfish

On Melancholy Hill

Empire Ants

Dirty Harry

Glitter Freeze

Feel Good Inc

Clint Eastwood

Upcoming Tour Dates

When DFA records founder, James Murphy dropped his debut LCD Soundsystem full-length, it’s lead off track was “Daft Punk is Playing at my House“.  Now it’s 5 years later and the electro-dance maestro is continuing to demonstrate his affinity for cybernetic organisms and house parties.  The latest LCD release, This is Happening is a really solid album (especially, the opener “Dance Yrself Clean”), but I wasn’t immediately sold from the first single, “Drunk Girls“.  The song “Home“, on the other hand, is much more representative of the overall sound on the new release.  What makes it even better is the crazy new video for “Home” that has just hit the interweb like a busted computer monitor .  As you’ll see for yourself, it’s part Pinnochio, part Iron Man, and entirely pretty awesome.  It’s got everything: cocaine, robots, lite brite pegs, foil, orgies… everything.

If you pay attention at the :46 and :52 minute marks, you’ll even notice that the Geppetto-looking bastard in this video has a grenade just chilling out on the trunk by his desk lamp.  You may also recognize the Tron shirt that the party goer is wearing at the 5:12 mark from the post that we featured about the design back in April.  Furthermore, you may remember from our post about the Tron Legacy trailer/updates from last year that none other than Daft Punk will be scoring the soundtrack to the new film [see how I tied that altogether like that & took it full circle?].

Alright, then… here it is:

Click here to view the embedded video.

DETAILS:

Directed by Rick Darge / Funwunce

Produced by Mark Armes / Funwunce

Concept by Rick Darge & Mark Armes

Art Direction- Shelby Hohl & Mark Armes
Assistant Director – Mark Armes
Shooter/Editor – Rick Darge
Colorist – Jake Blackstone, MOD Color
Gaffer – Jeff Fountain

Starring Rick Armes, Fabian Vargas, Elena Vann, Arthur & Felicia Bates, Tom & Josh, Osker Koranad0

Shot on location in Houston, Texas 2010

To peep more work by the Funwunce art/design collective CLICK HERE
To visit the LCD SOUNDSYSTEM website CLICK HERE
You can purchase This Is Happening from HERE”
To buy the shirt “My Other Ride is a Light Cycle”, use THIS LINK
Get the book Build Your Own Robot from HERE

Tom Jenkinson (aka: SQUAREPUSHER) is the type of rare artist that I can’t imagine doing anything else except for working at his craft.  What I mean by that isn’t that I couldn’t see him having any other occupation because he is destined to give birth to some of the best electronic music ever and that it is his calling… blah, blah, blah, etc, etc.  What I mean is that I can’t imagine him doing ANYTHING else, as in going to the grocery store or playing boardgames at a dinner party with lifelong chums in his living room.  His sonic creations are so elaborate, complex, and multi-dimensional that they often splinter into so many directions at once that the listener’s mind has no other option but to do the same.  Separate corridors and paths open and close; platforms lift, raise and disintegrate.  No one else is better at actually providing depth, layering, and a visual element to their music; seemingly creating something tangible and solid from simple audio.  No one is better at making music that has the potential to physically give me an anxiety attack either, which is why my girlfriend hates it so much when I want to play it.  Over the last decade and a half, the Englishman has twisted and mutated sound into so many varying directions that his only limitation appears to be his own imagination.  His proficiency is ridiculous and his delivery suggests an obsession with perfection.  This is why I have difficulty imagining him in any other element than in one of methodical experimentation, constant restructuring, and focus.  I imagine that even when he’s making a sandwich, his mind is off trying to work out some ridiculous algorithm and, after he puts the bread away and the cheese back in the crisper, he immediately returns to his dungeon, eating with one hand and tweaking knobs with the other.  He’s always appeared to me as some sort of crazy reclusive electro-alchemist, hibernating simultaneously in a futuristic lab and in a Medieval basement.  Both hermitic and hermetic, residing in a hybrid yurt/hovercraft.  As evidenced by the promotional image/album cover (above), Jenkinson’s latest project, SHOBALEADER ONE, is doing very little to dispel such outlandish suppositions of this character as a futuristic cyber-jazz druid.

Those truly familiar with Jenkinson‘s work know that he is not only an incredibly skilled producer, but a confoundingly proficient bassist as well.  In fact, last year saw the release of the SQUAREPUSHER‘s Solo Electric Bass 1, an album of 12 live tracks, recorded at the 2007 Jazz à la Villette festival in Paris, France.  The entire performance of impressive live orchestrations was presented with nothing more than an electric bass and a small amp on the stage.  A SQUAREPUSHER release has generally suggested that Jenkinson will be operating as a one man studio, handling all of the instrumentation and production by himself.  This hasn’t changed, however, it’s important to take note that the upcoming SHOBALEADER ONE release isn’t exactly a “SQUAREPUSHER” album, per se.  Instead, the project makes sure to point out that it is only “presented” by SQUAREPUSHER.  Jenkinson is back to throwing down his typical bass funk, but this time it seems that he isn’t coming at it alone and that SHOBALEADER ONE is actually a whole different monster featuring a whole new set of anonymous collaborators.

When the first SHOBALEADER ONE single, “Cryptic Moon“, was released last month, it caused quite a bit of confusion.  The first question raised was about the record label that released it.  For years, the names WARP records and SQUAREPUSHER have been so closely linked that it’s been difficult to name one without thinking of the other.  This single, on the other hand, was released by French electronic label and home to Mr. Oizo, ED BANGER Records.  The second question dealt with why the release was  labeled as being “presented” by SQUAREPUSHER at all.  A quick listen to the single makes it immediately clear that Jenkinson‘s finger prints are all over it and it left many assuming that SHOBALEADER ONE was simply a new moniker being used by the electronic genius.

[We've included both the "Cryptic Motion" single and the Mr. Oizo remix of the song that it was backed with here for those who haven't heard them]

A new quote from SQUAREPUSHER regarding the project has now appeared to help to bring some clarity to the story behind SHOBALEADER ONE.  Back when his last official studio release, Just A Souvenir came out two years ago, Jenkinson offered the following super-elaborate explanation for its inception:

“This album started as a daydream about watching a crazy, beautiful rock band play an ultra-gig.

At first, a giant fluorescent image of a coat hanger appeared at the back of the stage. A couple of seconds later a full size replica of the Camden Falcon backroom materialised around the glowing coat hanger. Upon the stage was a group composed of five musicians. They seemed to be of differing ages, some young, some old. I noticed that the drummer was an Eskimo. They played instruments either of their own design or conventional ones that were modified such that they could be used to generate a range of sounds not typically associated with a rock band. For instance, one of the musicians appeared to be using a device attached to the body of his classical guitar that allowed him to accelerate or decelerate time in his immediate vicinity. At a certain point he seemed to quickly reverse back to a couple of months ago. My suspicions were corroborated by his hair and beard temporarily looking rather shorter. Sonically, this had the effect of extruding certain melodic phrases into shimmering monoliths and slow emotion wave fronts. Other sounds being generated near to him on stage also got partially sucked into the time sponge and were
returned at high speed as imploded sonic pin cushions.

The coat hanger started glowing emerald green. At the same time, a river emerged on the stage and appeared to be running under the drum kit. I was concerned for the safety of the musicians being as it was that they were powering their other-worldly equipment with electricity. Just as I began to venture a comment, the members of the band that weren’t kayaking were enveloped in a localised electrical storm. As the electricity arced around various nodal points such as the drummer’s left hand, the guitarist’s teeth and a
Venus fly trap that was sitting just behind the bass amp, I noticed to my relief that they weren’t being incinerated by this high voltage extravaganza.”

Now it appears that this vision which sparked the previous release is actually playing a large role in the creation of the new one.  SQUAREPUSHER is now providing the following explanation behind the SHOBALEADER ONE project:

“Last summer a bunch of kids got in contact with me. They were talking about forming an ensemble, which I thought was a ridiculous idea, but I was impressed by their perseverance, so we met up. The idea was that they wanted the ‘fantasy group’ I had written about in connection with Just A Souvenir to become a real entity that would record and tour…Part of the idea is that this music is a completely clean break with whatever they’ve done in the past, so I’m not going to mention any names. I can tell you that they are pretty frightening players.“

That, along with the following video, is our first real taste of what we can expect when the 9-song SHOBALEADER ONE mini-album, d’Demonstrator is finally released on October 18 by Warp Records. Sure… it’s a “taste” but, in typical SQUAREPUSHER fashion, it seems to raising even more questions about what’s to come than it answers.  Whatever it is, we’re interested.

Click here to view the embedded video.

SHOBALEADER ONE pre-orders are currently available through HERE.

and

Here is the complete TRACKLIST

1. Plug Me In
2. Smash Unreason
3. Into the Blue
4. Frisco Wave
5. Megazine
6. Abstract Love
7. Endless Night
8. Cryptic Motion
9. Maximum Planck

Back in March, we posted a review about the Spike Jonze-created short film, “I’m Here“.  The project, which is provided for free of charge on it’s own specially designed website, focuses on the love connection between a pair of robots, inhabiting some alternate version of Los Angeles.  Of course, there are underlying elements in the film which are much deeper than that.  The complexities of love, self-worth, social hierarchies, risk, trust, and even life itself are all explored throughout its half hour running time.

After reviewing the film we got a few comments, all relating to the soundtrack which accompanied the piece.  For those who haven’t read that last article about the project, the following excerpt should bring you a little more up to speed on the subject.

“One more thing that I feel is important to bring attention to is the soundtrack.  Given equal consideration as the actual film, it features music by Sleigh Bells, Girls, Animal Collective, Gui Boratto, and the “fictional” group, “The Lost Trees Band” which includes Aska Matsumiya (Moonrats, ex-Your Enemies Friends,) and Nick Zinner (Yeah Yeah Yeahs).  Also credited with being part of  Lost Trees is “Nick Thelan“, which I’m assuming is a typo for Nick Thelen, who is formerly of Pretty Girls Make Graves and currently works with Matsumiya in Moonrats.  The credits also make note of a “cover” of Of Montreal‘s “The Past is a Grotesque Animal” by the listed members of The Lost Trees Band with Kevin Barnes (Of Montreal) himself.  Additional music/production was also contributed by Jonze‘s brother, Sam “Squeak E. Clean” Spiegel.“

Since this information was already provided by us, it seemed that the real question for everyone was about how they could actually find and obtain the music for themselves.  Being as it was a free short/side project, it wasn’t clear if the music would ever be available in any truly official form [Ironically enough, the short about cybernetic organisms is presented by Absolut Vodka.]  This week, however, I received a press release that answered that very question and, since our readers have been expressing interest about the topic, I’m very pleased to be able to provide the following news that the Chicago-based label Chocolate Industries will be collaborating to make the official soundtrack available to the public.  Further information was also provided, as follows:

“In creating the soundtrack for the film, Jonze enlisted the help of Red Hot Chili Peppers’ bassist Flea, Nick Zinner of the Yeah Yeah Yeah’s, and Aska Matsumiya to compose original music under the moniker The Lost Trees, the remainder of the soundtrack boasting the current cream of the crop of the indie world, including Animal Collective, Sleigh Bells, and Girls, amongst others..“

The press release further states that the official release date is marked for OCTOBER 5th, but it appears that it may have already been pushed forward.  Pre-orders for the digital version, currently available on iTunes ($7.99) and Amazon.com ($8.99), both have the release date listed as August 31st, with Amazon listing an additional CD version ($10.99) as officially dropping on September 14th.

Here is a complete list of what is slated to be featured on the album,
whenever it does finally become available

TRACKLISTING

1 There Are Many Of Us – The Lost Trees
2 Beautiful Life – Gui Boratto
3 AB Machines – Sleigh Bells
4 The Past Is A Grotesque Animal – The Lost Trees
5 Did You See the Words – Animal Collective
6 Hellhole Ratrace – Girls
7 There Are Many Of Us (Electric Dream Version) – Sam Spiegel
8 Lonesome Robot Theme – Sam Spiegel
9 Y.O.U – Aska Matsumiya