tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-144820442024-03-13T11:06:31.842+01:00Brut SmogThis blog is where works in progress by Philip Sanderson are posted along with thoughts on the moving image, sound, photography and anything else. Scroll down for an index of previous posts.Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.comBlogger235125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-78930126794398149802023-12-12T07:53:00.004+01:002023-12-12T07:59:30.172+01:00Rounded (2023 Round-Up)<p><span style="font-family: arial;">So what have we been up to musically in 2023? Well - 2 lathe cut LPs, 2 CDs, a new Storm Bugs release (download only), a download only Sanderson Bandcamp release, a couple of gigs, four reviews The Wire, Sound Projector and Vital Weekly, a good few radio spins mostly courtesy of WFMU but not forgetting Zaph Mann and Lumpen Nobleman. A fair haul as a record collector would say clutching his groaning bag of goodies. So thanks to everybody who supported the project.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAAM9yPL5GIaghahK49833dZYqJZjA46O4DpDzWUg_6opnJa1kcrXR6pR5avKY93XeL6WaAG4OrPg4ZEUdLx6IrWzdMbn0nF1-d3hXJj6_zuYGs8hJ6wIYKXAFiytplJB5X06H3ZvtwLE8qwx5GeGrxHpenm8nARTfT5R3DIttcUAQR82TLHx/s599/R-26845292-1682247774-1376.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="591" data-original-width="599" height="316" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgVAAM9yPL5GIaghahK49833dZYqJZjA46O4DpDzWUg_6opnJa1kcrXR6pR5avKY93XeL6WaAG4OrPg4ZEUdLx6IrWzdMbn0nF1-d3hXJj6_zuYGs8hJ6wIYKXAFiytplJB5X06H3ZvtwLE8qwx5GeGrxHpenm8nARTfT5R3DIttcUAQR82TLHx/s320/R-26845292-1682247774-1376.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgsPKhbFH7LAPaQDsjLc7L4ba70lD2i867X1nMnMbbhZ2FEexDZBpsbml9htReocL5Dt6SO7U7Krs2wKv6eEwSFfa7piiyai0yMR_UhBZCQd63DtIKDwpP2ktrw-WnJy4AWUgxN059N8dfu3ZH9QwtkGjM_m1z054M0_56spwDuPnyoHF4FUFCg/s599/R-26845292-1682247771-6980.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; 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text-align: center;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYNVYB_Iqa9nrntWB7IOIW0lEDpaXHcx2-3ZhULpC9Lv6FWxiX_H3M_xAH6L7c2W1LxJsdXIzEtl7aWOWGqmQnNb-cH7izYCYY_7mABAoTkYj5GFmg-B1Os5wUcrJJzHfmwFM_ADs-dEMt0MkV-dnfytJhc_CdR3Oh9CM7seWA0_N9vYbEUoo/s1200/a1344850607_10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgPYNVYB_Iqa9nrntWB7IOIW0lEDpaXHcx2-3ZhULpC9Lv6FWxiX_H3M_xAH6L7c2W1LxJsdXIzEtl7aWOWGqmQnNb-cH7izYCYY_7mABAoTkYj5GFmg-B1Os5wUcrJJzHfmwFM_ADs-dEMt0MkV-dnfytJhc_CdR3Oh9CM7seWA0_N9vYbEUoo/s320/a1344850607_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br />Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-14172910288638665702023-10-22T10:41:00.003+02:002023-11-27T19:41:27.088+01:00Underneath The Underneath - CD by Philip Sanderson <div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidl56yj_SGSwac910_VQX1N6-3gFDj0GGFKawclB9Mfi7Gh4w58lJMkHWg3w-pQiu2yZ2-_jcxJpUk9YujgnySZXB0tZ3Z2LJFTbBIWqEysdT5nDeQHitVPwWSjfSuqJ_LOijQS24QpJnb2TcUsrYu7T5t5dxQkeR2q05l2ibCe6ogNskAqgCW/s1645/utustill.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1505" data-original-width="1645" height="293" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEidl56yj_SGSwac910_VQX1N6-3gFDj0GGFKawclB9Mfi7Gh4w58lJMkHWg3w-pQiu2yZ2-_jcxJpUk9YujgnySZXB0tZ3Z2LJFTbBIWqEysdT5nDeQHitVPwWSjfSuqJ_LOijQS24QpJnb2TcUsrYu7T5t5dxQkeR2q05l2ibCe6ogNskAqgCW/s320/utustill.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">So following on from the last post about Klang 30 there is now a new CD out on the Klanggalerie label entitled <i>Underneath The Underneath - A Vienna Souvenir</i> which as the title suggests is a document of my time at the mini festival. The gig on the night was recorded on video and these can be found on YouTube but the sound quality is that of the built in camera mics so a tad tinny. Fortunately I had recorded numerous rehearsals and as these were given the odd bit of improv pretty much identical to the set so these were used for the CD. Alongside this whilst in Vienna I recorded various street sounds, the church bells ringing on a Sunday, the marvellous trams as they clattered by, the chinking of coffee cups and so on and these formed the basis for some new tracks. In a little more detail then.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">01 Line D: The opening track is one constructed pretty much entirely from sounds captured in Vienna. Walking down one of the main shopping streets we came across and oom-pah band playing various well know songs such as the "Rivers of Babylon" all accompanied by elderly couples dancing. The drum sound from the band was used as the basis for the number and then overlaid with the St. Stephen's Cathedral church bells and parts of the Sunday service all suitably manipulated oh and a touch of creepy Crowley for good measure. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">02 Coffee House Calculations: As the title suggests sounds from the many Vienna coffee houses forms the starting point for this track combined with a little synth doodling. </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKXYXUomZ13KQHO4KJpGPyXVRLMn4uK6Nlr0eXuuAXT5YlQ6d_JesFa18EfCi_zajmPL9zsYhIdjNZrO22nbb5bHotv4ewnDG_KTml1tnzkfCkwnZKmS4-UVa3vcn7qvuT-JPSi44xuJrMx494DB2-NZ5lNhjSr7ZU67tl59as6MLw1GZchcz/s1200/0033803565_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="1200" height="187" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjlKXYXUomZ13KQHO4KJpGPyXVRLMn4uK6Nlr0eXuuAXT5YlQ6d_JesFa18EfCi_zajmPL9zsYhIdjNZrO22nbb5bHotv4ewnDG_KTml1tnzkfCkwnZKmS4-UVa3vcn7qvuT-JPSi44xuJrMx494DB2-NZ5lNhjSr7ZU67tl59as6MLw1GZchcz/s320/0033803565_10.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">03 Underneath The Underneath: The title track and one that formed the main part of my set. The track is loosely a variation on the number of the same name that appeared on the Ice Yacht <i>Noisy Nylon</i> tape last year. Loosely as it uses some of the same underlying structures but to slightly different ends. The main software used on this one is called Audiomulch a rather ageing app that hasn't been updated in a few years but with its unique granular synthesis tools can do things that the latest whiz band apps can't </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">04 Lime Lament: Ah Harry Lime when was he going to make an appearance? I did toy for a while with using a number of samples from <i>The Third Man</i> but even subtly it seemed a little too obvious. Nonetheless dedicating track to him seemed appropriate. This is a variation on the opening number played on the night. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">05 Hodge (revisited): I recently on the <i>Snatch Tapes Symphony lathe cut LP </i>did a reworking of the old (as in 1979) Storm Bugs track "Hodge" and a live version seemed in order. Manipulating the original recording of a Soviet Block radio jamming signal through a software VCS3.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">06 Funf Minuten: As with "Underneath The Underneath" a version of this track first appeared on <i>Noisy Nylon</i> here it is extended and the underlying Krautrock homage leanings teased out. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">07 Swing: A song - the only real song as in verse and chorus of the set, a one too many beers bierkeller version of the number from the <i>Not Even My Closest Friends</i> tape.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The images for the sleeve come from a recent bout of collage work.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHScxAux6TR03-9KIurfUP2SbB5kPeziduBeHSsqgwVe4VlLoM_nxRvHem6xWjl3VzMGUX7FgeeaLlz0uG4nX15tOFwRqkS9DQFaHIJ-JzfWmIFDE3YxlwdhoLrsCPurb1mEK31MmrE9sCbleAH_UKuooWq76YO0vWf4b9vDgQgSmhY-gqNuyz/s1200/0033806186_10.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1043" data-original-width="1200" height="278" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhHScxAux6TR03-9KIurfUP2SbB5kPeziduBeHSsqgwVe4VlLoM_nxRvHem6xWjl3VzMGUX7FgeeaLlz0uG4nX15tOFwRqkS9DQFaHIJ-JzfWmIFDE3YxlwdhoLrsCPurb1mEK31MmrE9sCbleAH_UKuooWq76YO0vWf4b9vDgQgSmhY-gqNuyz/s320/0033806186_10.jpg" width="320" /></span></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">OK so can we hear some of this please? Well it is not on Bandcamp currently but here is a teaser. </span></p><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="376" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/SZCVE8SXp2U" title="Underneath The Underneath by Philip Sanderson" width="668"></iframe><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Where can you buy it? Pretty much everywhere on line as Klang's distribution reaches far and wide. You can also <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/merch/underneath-the-underneath-cd-by-philip-sanderson" target="_blank">get copies of the CD directly from me here in the UK. </a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">and here is a nice review from Vital Weekly issue 1412</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">PHILIP SANDERSON - UNDERNEATH THE UNDERNEATH - A VIENNA SOUVENIR (CD by Klanggalerie)</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I recently revisited Vienna, after thirty or so years, and, as before, I find this a charming city, with a lot of historical stuff to see and many places for coffee and cake. Judging by the musical content of this new Philip Sanderson CD, I am not the only one. In June 2023, he played at 'Klang 30', the annual (I believe) festival organised by Klanggalerie, a label that released more work by Sanderson and his previous Storm Bugs project. Three songs contain samples from the city, church bells, coffee cups, trams, and such. Three pieces were recorded during rehearsals, and "track 7 is a cabaret version of 'Swing'". I very much like his music, as it is a curious collision of styles; there is the musique concrète-like use of field recordings sitting next to rhythms, sequencers and vocals. I don't think pop music is the right word, but it's along those lines; a piece such as 'Hodge (Revisited)' could lean towards industrial music. When Sanderson sings, it is very accessible music, such in 'Line D'; when not, it becomes a bit more abstract, such as the 'Coffee House Calculations', with its coffee house sounds. As before, Sanderson's music isn't upbeat, necessarily, and yet it is also not dour. It's atmospheric and lighter than your usual dark drone music. The music is more instrumental than vocal, and once again reminded me of The Residents (in as much as I know of their recent work, which isn't a lot). The cabaret version of 'Swing' is, I think, an ode to the twenties of a century again, and maybe also an ode to the somewhat conservative life in Vienna, where everything seems a bit more formal. It's a fine CD, not his best, which accolade I reserve for his 'On One Of Those Bends' (Vital Weekly 1177), but a continuation of great music. (FdW)</span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-81360844051558752912023-07-20T16:50:00.004+02:002023-07-20T16:50:57.564+02:00Klang 30<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> So I received an offer from Walter of Klanggalerie to go to Vienna to take part in a two-day mini festival he was organising to celebrate 30 years of Klang. After some hesitation - this would after all be only my second solo live outing I said yes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Not being a regular live act, there were the usual doubts about what exactly to play but after much experimenting I settled on a selection of recent instrumental tracks all of which could be performed/generated on the spot without recourse to backing tracks. I would primarily be using the laptop as taking a whole analogue set-up to Austria would have been impractical. Watching a bloke hunched over and squinting at a laptop screen is never going to be that sexy and so there was the temptation to slap together some sort of accompanying video, but having seen too many wallpaper video backdrops one knows that these just add a kind of distraction unless there has been a real co-ordination/relationship between sound and image. So it would be just me then I recalled a little patch I had made that allowed one to switch between presets using a computer keyboard. Effectively every single key can be allocated to a variation and one has 50 plus keys to cut between adding a certain performative and visual what have you especially on rhythmic tracks. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">On the two-day bill were quite a few notable souls from the avant/noise scene though many like myself - Philip Sanderson (from Storm Bugs) were performing as solo iterations of their perhaps better known bands. A few minor technical difficulties on day one aside all went well and there was a healthy and appreciative crowd. I was first on on the Saturday and was a little worried that nobody would have arrived by 7.30, but the place was pretty much full and the set went down well with a appreciative comments being made after. Here are three videos taken on the night the sound is presumably recorded via the cameras microphone so isn't hi-fi but heh you get a good sense of the occasion.<iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="460" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/RLzUnnDdbHg" title="Philip Sanderson / Storm Bugs - Hodge [1979] - Live at Klang 30 Vienna - 10 June 2023" width="818"></iframe><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="460" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/s1S2xphSL_M" title="Philip Sanderson - Underneath the underneath - Live at Klang 30 Vienna - 10 June 2023" width="818"></iframe><iframe allow="accelerometer; autoplay; clipboard-write; encrypted-media; gyroscope; picture-in-picture; web-share" allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="460" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ASAXT2PbWJ0" title="Philip Sanderson - Vienna - Live at Klang 30 Vienna - 10 June 2023" width="818"></iframe></span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-89901665589018682272023-07-16T10:28:00.003+02:002023-07-16T10:30:59.721+02:00Playing Catch Up<p><span style="font-family: arial;">A few things to bring you - working chronologically backwards so to speak first up we have the newly published review by Ed Pinsent in his Sound Projector of the Ice Yacht release - Noisy Nylon. </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbeB9VqnBANPCFg3AFsOAfMRmeX8CId72u3SfI6Q2zhrrQyLim4g4RokrKkemT6pM2VhprL_f5x2803A6Shu8iwdppHCKDwAxjKDEzwiA4YwVyo0VYfeoK7r7FYt4Gccf_ZCghxLhAMJf8c_GCD8a0QbC_aOjKyiPSMJeSCnP5MwnU_u0JAgPN/s600/noisynylon-600x600.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="600" data-original-width="600" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgbeB9VqnBANPCFg3AFsOAfMRmeX8CId72u3SfI6Q2zhrrQyLim4g4RokrKkemT6pM2VhprL_f5x2803A6Shu8iwdppHCKDwAxjKDEzwiA4YwVyo0VYfeoK7r7FYt4Gccf_ZCghxLhAMJf8c_GCD8a0QbC_aOjKyiPSMJeSCnP5MwnU_u0JAgPN/s320/noisynylon-600x600.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Bride Wore Pink</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This Noisy Nylon (SNATCH TAPES tch 223) tape by Ice Yacht sure is “noisy”. Philip Sanderson adopts one of his many aliases, Ice Yacht being by far the most experimental and daring, to produce seven new cuts on a very limited cassette which came out in May 2022 and is already sold out.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Other online voices have found this music to be somewhat “industrial” in nature, stressing the opinion by underlining it with their green biros, but to me Noisy Nylon sounds more like a very wayward form of electro-pop, a wilful misunderstanding of dance music, wanting only a Pet Shop Boys style singer to appear from behind the curtain and cavort lasciviously under the red spotlight. Interestingly, Sanderson felt compelled with his previous Ice Yacht item to provide plentiful written screeds describing his artistic aims and intentions (and pointing meaningfully to historic and cultural landmarks in experimental and pop music genres the while), but he remains pretty much silent about Noisy Nylon. Matter of fact, it might even be regarded as a transitional album in his recent prolific output; “this turned out to be a stepping stone to doing more long form musique concrete-ist style work,” is all he can tell us, pointing to the works which emerged after May 2022. So, after the four raucous pop-song stompingtons with which this album is front-loaded (some of them with wacky titles, like ‘Nitty Nora (Head Explorer)’) we reach the end of side two with ‘Break Their Legs so they can’t lay eggs’, one of the few cuts with a vocal refrain, and characterised by a slightly lighter touch after those four bangin’ tunes of keyboard hammering…it also has a haunting and evocative “theme”, something too dispersed and nebulous to be called a “melody”, so evocative that I would liken it to a missing segment from ‘Supper’s Ready’ except that I know Sanderson isn’t really that much of a Genesis fan.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The main event – length-wise, anyway – shows up at the start of Side B, with the Jim Jupp-styled title of ‘Running From Ghosts’ and lasting for a gorgeous 13:09 mins. Here Ice Yacht throws out some delicious experimental shapes, synth textures and crazy sounds, doing so in the framework of a drum-machine rhythm track that resembles Cluster fused with a microwave oven, or Ralf and Florian the day after that disastrous picnic in Hamburg. Yes, I can see how a track of this spiky ambiguity and remorseless drive could earn the “industrial” epithet. Me, I could happily listen to ‘Running From Ghosts’ on a perpetual loop for two weeks, in the certain expectation that I’d get a lot more work done around the house. There’s also ‘Jizzy Jazz’ tacked on the end, feeling a tad anomalous in this context – tasteful piano chords and disco beats, amounting to a slightly wacky and queasy take on soul-funk easy listening, spliced with experimental globulets and noisy-splatterfons…kinda misfires for me. No matter, as the bulk of Noisy Nylon delivers the oats to the virtual stable.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">It remains to mention the cover painting – I thought “noisy nylon” was a cute way of referring to magnetic tape in a cassette shell, but as you can see the subject matter is about nylon stockings on a shapely pair of female legs – not exactly painted the way that Allen Jones would have done it in the 1960s, but there it be. A splendid tape…hear it on Bandcamp or demand a repress… </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.thesoundprojector.com/2023/07/14/the-bride-wore-pink/">https://www.thesoundprojector.com/2023/07/14/the-bride-wore-pink/</a></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">A few anecdotal afterthoughts.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The title 'Nitty Nora (Head Explorer)' was inspired by an exhibition I saw at the Conductors' Hallway gallery by Jenny Jones back in 1997. The exhibition included some knitted or crocheted computer monitor covers and I always assumed the title was a pun on knitting. Only later did I find that Nitty Nora - Head Explorer was a nickname given to the nurses who used to visit schools in the 1980s to deal with the pupils' head lice of which there were several outbreaks across the land. From the same source comes the title </span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: arial;">‘Break Their Legs so they can’t lay eggs’ which was a guidance for dealing with head lice by using a steel comb. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Talking of 'Break Their Legs so they can’t lay eggs’ whilst not an overt reference to Genesis I am now rather fond of the Gabriel albums even if throughout the 1970s they epitomised everything that seemed to be wrong with the music industry. I even met Gabriel albeit very very briefly when I was staying in the flat above Crescent Studios in Bath one summer. He seemed quite down to earth and un-diva like - he was later given a copy of the first Storm Bugs single - which I'm guessing he probably hated but he managed to make a few positive noises about. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Going back to Ed's review i</span><span style="font-family: arial;">t is interesting that he "</span><span style="font-family: arial;">could happily listen to ‘Running From Ghosts’ on a perpetual loop for two weeks" whereas in the Avant Weekly review it was the track</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> the reviewer was "least enamoured with". Curiously (or not) this is the track on the tape I most change my mind about. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Lastly the sleeve and title. For a long time I had named the painting on the cover 'Hockney's Sister' as the style was a tiny homage - though don't ask me to name a specific picture. The title came from eBay searches for vintage overalls - I have a small thing for old British Workwear cotton drill jackets and the like - these eBay searches along with faded boiler suits would often come up with lots of nylon house coats described as being either "rustily" or "noisy" nylon popular it seems in certain quarters and commanding surprisingly high prices. There seemed a tangential link between Noisy Nylon and the cover image and yes also with the tape itself though strictly speaking I think tape backings are made of polyester. </span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-80503571409147012172023-04-12T10:20:00.003+02:002023-04-12T10:20:29.383+02:00Best Before 2027 - The Storm Bugs Wire Review<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-M2x9NxpTXcT3GhZ7zoSYPbjM69KjOULZPkhgUjcSyAOmjnx5GObNLbH0mDZBKglT1xUtX9rs_M1EuE6KZ_4ePgwPWtDxtrmp_HNkxFGhpo_NpV4thZcfIQ4OxXL6dB7zspVgOvaAmKc31uB2oPk8uNJ6N0h5Bqh-7DpdpH4ghKuw4jWhiA/s1200/a3048718381_10.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi-M2x9NxpTXcT3GhZ7zoSYPbjM69KjOULZPkhgUjcSyAOmjnx5GObNLbH0mDZBKglT1xUtX9rs_M1EuE6KZ_4ePgwPWtDxtrmp_HNkxFGhpo_NpV4thZcfIQ4OxXL6dB7zspVgOvaAmKc31uB2oPk8uNJ6N0h5Bqh-7DpdpH4ghKuw4jWhiA/s320/a3048718381_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">just in this review from edition 471 of the Wire music magazine.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The Storm Bugs Best Before 2027</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Bandcamp DL</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Philip Sanderson and Steven Ball first started making music as Storm Bugs in 1978. creating DIY pop and tape collage, putting out cassettes on their own Snatch Tapes label until 1981. Using old reel-to-reel machines, scratched/ locked groove records, fuzzy radio recordings, poetic half-spoken lyrics warped by tape manipulations, their work tapped into a surreal and distinctly British sort of gloom, laced </span><span style="font-family: arial;">with dry humour. In 2002 they revived the project with The Bugs Are Back EP, and in 2017 with Certified Original &Vintage Fakes.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Now arrives Best Before 2027. Like their earlier work, the album sounds as though it was made with rickety recording gear, only now the aesthetics are early DIY </span><span style="font-family: arial;">digital - endearingly lumpy DAW production, preset reverbs and hyperactive, babbling vector synths. Opener "Table Matters-la reference to their 1980 EP of the same name) is a disoriented stomp pinned in place by </span><span style="font-family: arial;">a monotone rhythmic vocal: Dull, bored, numb, grey, frazzled, sitting in a ditch/A hat, and a bottle, and a creeping sense of dread". "European Coffee Lounge" continues the sardonic mood, boasting a ridiculously catchy chorus framed by churning, spasmodic </span><span style="font-family: arial;">synth sequences.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">"Syntax" is a highlight, seven plus minutes of chilled synthpop with a softly crooning voice wrapping itself around lines like Cadge•gloak, curtal, palliard, patrico, jackman,whip-jack, </span><span style="font-family: arial;">drummer, click track", lending the words a ridiculous erotic charge. Keeping with </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the wordy theme, there's a loose and lumpy reading of "Leary Mann from The Vulgar Tongue 118571 by Ducange Anglicus, which works surprisingly well as an ode to contemporary British masculinity. "Pigeon In My Pocket" is a stranger, speedy muddle of noisy electronics and semi-nightmarish post-punk poetry.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The best gag on the album is "Generic Ambient Music", twinkling digital bells and a Vocodered voice cooing, "There's years, literally years, of it, that can be streamed </span><span style="font-family: arial;">online". Cheeky, clever and a silly bargain for £l on Bandcamp. Go get it.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Leah Kardos</span></p><div><br /></div>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-17296525280905352212023-04-01T11:37:00.005+02:002023-04-01T18:20:53.342+02:00Dilly Dreamers by Philip Sanderson<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQicKdrMM2cYDGjuI_adrTCE8OkAJHOgnNx-T6vDYmH_D3zGxhwvMJOBFxoCevCmgZyUuteKHBKbpeAZSwbDgNYVmGp2sz_aVEWBMFwqUJuT4RN7M52mTY8Qvd8IX5b_wlo1bOy0n97Ix-_p0ehavdBldVQ3qbF4_fXdK6mIV7Sw8JpRKXzg/s2560/IMG_0262-scaled.jpeg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2560" data-original-width="2560" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjQicKdrMM2cYDGjuI_adrTCE8OkAJHOgnNx-T6vDYmH_D3zGxhwvMJOBFxoCevCmgZyUuteKHBKbpeAZSwbDgNYVmGp2sz_aVEWBMFwqUJuT4RN7M52mTY8Qvd8IX5b_wlo1bOy0n97Ix-_p0ehavdBldVQ3qbF4_fXdK6mIV7Sw8JpRKXzg/s320/IMG_0262-scaled.jpeg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">A new release today on </span><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://www.astres-dor.com/category/philip-sanderson/" target="_blank">Astres D'or</a></span><span style="font-family: arial;"> namely Dilly Dreamers by Philip Sanderson. It is my first lathe cut - each record and sleeve made by hand. There are 25 of them, 12 are available now from Astres D'or and 12 will be available directly from the Snatch Tapes Bandcamp in due course. The 25th copy goes into the archive.</span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Thematically Dilly Dreamers is four long form sound pieces loosely inspired by the movement of bodies and trains through, in and around the circulatory spaces of Piccadilly Circus underground station. The sleeves were made using a kind of frottage from a braille map of the underground which was produced for a short period by TFL in tech 1990s. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The snippets of text are 'riffs' on written guides/instruction intended to help the blind negotiate tube stations by highlighting the number of steps between features such as stairs, seats, vending machines and other tactile features of the underground landscape. The texts have a clipped dry poetic quality a tad reminiscent of the shipping forecast. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">At 80 euros this is my most expensive release to date but you are getting a one-off in all senses of the word.</span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-63718727703563531002023-02-26T09:37:00.000+01:002023-02-26T09:37:10.623+01:00New Storm Bugs<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr89ZPL86cYRuOQLElN8LnArwHXvxJLFUUnCUKnujkPV4rFLk-UEugV82gABGnYkH0KJasmyP-wt1uuD9i0JFiGl6-ryADrC7zEuGS8_QAj3q2H-PX8YT8ITrTDQwIomKCGphwpThsQex04k44VODPJ_M8wRduQ2ZWQhvLL1SUNBBjCLGOeA/s1200/bestbefore.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjr89ZPL86cYRuOQLElN8LnArwHXvxJLFUUnCUKnujkPV4rFLk-UEugV82gABGnYkH0KJasmyP-wt1uuD9i0JFiGl6-ryADrC7zEuGS8_QAj3q2H-PX8YT8ITrTDQwIomKCGphwpThsQex04k44VODPJ_M8wRduQ2ZWQhvLL1SUNBBjCLGOeA/s320/bestbefore.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">There is a new album out by The Storm Bugs entitled Best Before 2027. </span><a href="https://stormbugs.bandcamp.com/album/best-before-2027" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Listen here.</a><p></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-47758249462331678112023-01-09T22:26:00.003+01:002023-01-09T22:29:37.375+01:00The Postman's Hut<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> There's something infinitely poetic about a small corrugated iron shed positioned seemingly at random in the corner of a field or for that matter a pillbox listing gently one a sea shore. Despite the privations that living in one of these structures would entail some part of me quite fancies the idea. Well it turns out that in the case of the corrugated shed for a couple of hours a day that's just what postmen in rural areas did in the aptly named postman's hut. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The postman of yesteryear hard a hard life they would set out either on foot or if lucky on a bicycle with often both a very large weight in their sacks and a wide area to cover to deliver the mail. The rural postman's role involved not simply delivering but also collecting and as such there would often be a lengthy gap between the delivery of the last item of post and the time of the last collection. What to do to keep warm and dry during this time - enter the </span><span style="font-family: arial;">postman's hut or shelter.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Lets quote from Hansard and the debate on </span><span style="font-family: arial;">Friday 24 February 1899 of </span><span style="font-family: arial;">the of Rural Postmen's Shelters. "</span><span style="font-family: arial;">What has been offered is to put up a hut for any walking rural postman who may need it at the end of his outward walk, provided that he is required to wait for not less than two hours, and that he undertakes to use the shelter provided. This is contemplated as the normal arrangement, but in cases where the outward walk ends at or near a post-office, it is sometimes found that the postmaster is able to provide the postman with shelter on his premises, and for doing so the postmaster is to be granted an allowance not exceeding 30s. a year. Stoves are provided in the huts, but the postmen are expected to find their own fuel. Some of the men are able to earn money by doing other work"</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">The </span><span style="font-family: arial;">postman's hut </span><span style="font-family: arial;">it would seem survived well into the 20th century and was a common sight in the countryside. One or two example still survive today. Here is a Postman's hut near Asterton photographed by Jeremy Bolwell.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p><p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVB0zdFFxX5-_bQ8guqeuqkIl8Usa4hJy5uP9zfxNwEg-s9V0Qba34E1jMM6fukW8tOHYBC8MigUKLCl9rpnrEyRao92o7eRI-lkwMN6ZQTWxi7hDNjvCVmbuGCIaXjYsU7pElHfFyL7Z2hydqgtYAjoaRykniXADt36hDiTC_Gi-iVZevvw/s640/5636806_4ce2aa26-2.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjVB0zdFFxX5-_bQ8guqeuqkIl8Usa4hJy5uP9zfxNwEg-s9V0Qba34E1jMM6fukW8tOHYBC8MigUKLCl9rpnrEyRao92o7eRI-lkwMN6ZQTWxi7hDNjvCVmbuGCIaXjYsU7pElHfFyL7Z2hydqgtYAjoaRykniXADt36hDiTC_Gi-iVZevvw/s320/5636806_4ce2aa26-2.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnC-n9cG868LTnEqeCVH3TVnsQ-SvSJnukwLliBCvPz8DmsLD7IcVfNOqVfHK_vRNpMg7FzdEao8vaf3OX-K9mYm_fcBpF4vOhRQ_t-uiDbo2RcXEeKINHKBuZVO2RIfdbdppU41P5ZH5IcxG6_5QmgDC8XLURRHJalQnUM5ZCpGuPns0-GA/s640/5121744_c4f80248.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="480" data-original-width="640" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgnC-n9cG868LTnEqeCVH3TVnsQ-SvSJnukwLliBCvPz8DmsLD7IcVfNOqVfHK_vRNpMg7FzdEao8vaf3OX-K9mYm_fcBpF4vOhRQ_t-uiDbo2RcXEeKINHKBuZVO2RIfdbdppU41P5ZH5IcxG6_5QmgDC8XLURRHJalQnUM5ZCpGuPns0-GA/s320/5121744_c4f80248.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Another fine example complete with GPO sign near Birtley, Herefordshire by Michael Dibb.</span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMFheMD909-dOYru-yHnWCMZQg4kmxgjyD2jABJapB8ru_j8vaIJNxWhBzw4tWpDiWu4Lm00uV7l9vuXizGA__vQcGjPNXFPgiV_4A57a3p6h4ivLm2Oe4wzfDLiMNTE3TTt1fF41x3NABtOVE9chFQmjHcIHk-8pQlZzCoi7sx1BoxUSe8A/s1024/6903112_2401de09_1024x1024.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="768" data-original-width="1024" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiMFheMD909-dOYru-yHnWCMZQg4kmxgjyD2jABJapB8ru_j8vaIJNxWhBzw4tWpDiWu4Lm00uV7l9vuXizGA__vQcGjPNXFPgiV_4A57a3p6h4ivLm2Oe4wzfDLiMNTE3TTt1fF41x3NABtOVE9chFQmjHcIHk-8pQlZzCoi7sx1BoxUSe8A/s320/6903112_2401de09_1024x1024.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;">And lastly one in Cwmystwyth (via Google maps)</span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></div><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N8OyThO7rTazrUXqXIEe0uMPX_EMyrqjvUS8Nl5uDw0DeXUaxJtucf-3YizswXOcq9xog5adex0GJpZHFt508o3B8ql54urS8ayOXvCG6xEZdDgfKmFpthNQdjT1o2f8vFksv0dYqiQqZXC41r_hDv3qwjppSvofOQGslYK94mDgDGOmtw/s778/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-09%20at%2021.20.22.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="626" data-original-width="778" height="257" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj0N8OyThO7rTazrUXqXIEe0uMPX_EMyrqjvUS8Nl5uDw0DeXUaxJtucf-3YizswXOcq9xog5adex0GJpZHFt508o3B8ql54urS8ayOXvCG6xEZdDgfKmFpthNQdjT1o2f8vFksv0dYqiQqZXC41r_hDv3qwjppSvofOQGslYK94mDgDGOmtw/s320/Screen%20Shot%202023-01-09%20at%2021.20.22.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><p></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-52111391605194905842023-01-06T10:42:00.004+01:002023-01-06T14:55:45.986+01:00Just what is a music release?<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQH9r7R3feiFpiabDm7SnMR-I4ER13v8jkjz0fOXrKJoHj4kfY_WeuMmJ_t7kSmTmwossVBIJsz7EdsSHV-e6mE5WzS5DUTafIMBBJABWbqrWvLFT_TV9wBQ17zE8vwQS2CiL_RA4WwHaS6CqyneLmU3U9nlymJusFeKALA2I529ejLwFAA/s2560/IMG_7661-scaled.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1920" data-original-width="2560" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEjjQH9r7R3feiFpiabDm7SnMR-I4ER13v8jkjz0fOXrKJoHj4kfY_WeuMmJ_t7kSmTmwossVBIJsz7EdsSHV-e6mE5WzS5DUTafIMBBJABWbqrWvLFT_TV9wBQ17zE8vwQS2CiL_RA4WwHaS6CqyneLmU3U9nlymJusFeKALA2I529ejLwFAA/s320/IMG_7661-scaled.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial;">So a welcome start to the New Year in the form of an <a href="https://www.thesoundprojector.com/2023/01/03/molecular-bonding/" target="_blank">upbeat review</a> of my Passionate Particles CD in the Sound Projector. The CD was released almost exactly a year ago and a 12-month gap between release and review might seem quite lengthy but it helps conjure the question for today’s post of what exactly is a music release in 2023?</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The word ‘release’ implies something pent up that is then let loose like a horse from out the stables. Time was in the heady days of pop music pomp that that was indeed a reflection of how the industry worked – there would be a build up to a record’s release followed by a blitz of media interviews, live appearances, poster campaigns, radio plays, pluggers working their patch, adverts and reviews all within a week of the disc coming out.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This was for the lucky few of course at around this time in early 1972 (Jan 7<sup>th</sup>) the single Changes by David Bowie was released in support of the LP Hunky Dory that has been released in mid December 1971. RCA were apparently wary of spending too much money and energy on promoting the album aware that an image change for Mr B was in the works nonetheless a December and January release were the sure way to bury a record.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Arguably today for the big hitters little has changed a new release by the carrot topped one will be marketed in a very similar way albeit using social media in all its permutations. With so much to divert our attention a record company will have to work just that bit harder as the attention window has contracted. The intention now though is not so much to shift discs, which are little more for major artists than a nice sideline but peak streaming which is the only sort that makes money. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But outside of the chosen few how has the model changed? For artists not in the top 5% physical sales are important and each week as the weekend looms the myriad of online stores will trumpet the release of a batch of new records with fancy die cut sleeves, coloured vinyl anything and everything to attract one’s gaze. The weekly music press so influential up until the early 1990s has evaporated and outside of the Wire music magazine the monthly magazines are retro focussed so who will write about a new release? Websites such as the Quietus have to some extent stepped into the void left by the demise of the music press. The Quietus claim to be independent but how and why certain releases get written about and others don’t is opaque they don’t even publish an address you can physically send a copy of your shiny new LP to. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The Quietus does however produce original copy in contrast many music websites run on a shoestring are little more than fronts for online stores and don’t review releases so much as regurgitate sometimes verbatim the press release. Everything is of course brilliant and a must have purchase. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">If the written word doesn’t have the impact it once did what other ways can one get a release to have any traction. There are a myriad number of ‘radio’ stations, podcasts, Twitter feeds, YouTube channels, Instagram, Bandcamp pages and so on all of these will need to be worked to stand any chance of selling 5000 physical copies of anything. This number is coincidentally the initial disappointing sales of Hunky Dory before Ziggy. In most cases nowadays a couple of hundred copies will be shifted with warehouses groaning with unsold stock. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But does any of this matter? There are in truth too many releases chasing the small number of people who still buy music either digitally or physically as opposed to streaming it. Right about now there will be an article somewhere championing the increase in vinyl sales and yes every year the sales do increase but from a very small base. Unless the internet collapses neither vinyl or CD sales are ever going to return to what they once were. There is also a very restricted capacity on new vinyl production and a large percentage of that is given over to repressing old releases. If you want to put out your latest effort on pressed plastic expect to wait almost a year.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So we return to the original question what exactly in 2023 is a release? From the afore mentioned one can see that the industry maintain a digital facsimile of what was once mainstream practice but does that have much relevance to anybody else making music especially in the more left field fringes. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">From my own (anecdotal) experience with recent release ‘audience’ is quite a fickle thing. Releases on labels which have worked all the social media bases such as my On One of These Bends LP put out by Séance Centre have sold 300 copies fairly quickly whereas releases on other labels have struggled to get much beyond the 100 mark. Snatch Tapes has in the last three years put out cassettes (once more) but these despite good reviews have achieved (?) little more than sales of 30 copies. A digital only release will be lucky to gat to that number in terms of sales though in both cases streaming of tracks usually via Bandcamp is much higher and in many ways constitutes the audience. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In this context the physical release then is more of a pretext to get/let people hear the music than to sell anything. Two or three plays of a track on WFMU will reach a much larger audience than the physical copy will. One guy who regularly does buy Snatch Tapes releases goes on to then post a track on his YouTube channel this has no noticeable impact on sales but does mean another couple of hundred plays. So a release that has negligible sales may over time reach and audience of a few thousand via various channels and in that context a review a year after release makes as much sense as one a week after.</span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-9786657724239897772023-01-05T09:53:00.001+01:002023-01-05T09:53:30.975+01:00On Repeat<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1jAwbXMv_VVenQ5wSQf2L3Q_8x2q8Yu5paR6sxOMt9X8Hlx-kWNwH5LD7Mb-WZ3Z4pr0BWbsU9G3qDIxDItqpzFEF9BfK5SKBsmI5JryVFDoyYrh539u2ylSIc7qUge5hBHxJzQqwICrp3KrZR0ERwpWM5m4CZJP-UvA8192RsKKXgP2JA/s1600/s-l1600.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1600" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiI1jAwbXMv_VVenQ5wSQf2L3Q_8x2q8Yu5paR6sxOMt9X8Hlx-kWNwH5LD7Mb-WZ3Z4pr0BWbsU9G3qDIxDItqpzFEF9BfK5SKBsmI5JryVFDoyYrh539u2ylSIc7qUge5hBHxJzQqwICrp3KrZR0ERwpWM5m4CZJP-UvA8192RsKKXgP2JA/s320/s-l1600.jpg" width="240" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial;">Looking at the Snatch Tapes Spotify Artists page the other day I noticed that a couple of songs had had in one 24 hour period quite a few plays – oh but hang on this wasn’t the seeds of a viral spread that would rival Kate Bush (only jesting) these were all attributed to one listener.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">For a moment I wondered what madness might cause one person to want to listen to any track let alone one of mine over and over again before recalling that that was exactly what I used and millions of other people did and still do in their youth.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Playing a song on repeat is in inherent feature of pop music. In days of yore it meant buying a 7-inch single and literally playing it till it began to wear out now one can just set the digital stream to loop. Whether analogue or digital the option for repeated playback of the same track is technologically determined. Before the record there were of course popular songs that musicians would repast on request. The family or wider social group might gather round the piano and go through favourites old and new. The number of times a song might be repeated was however limited by the musician’s willingness or physical ability to play a tune over and over. Technology changed all of that one could play a song 30 or even more times a day if one so choose and often as a teenager when a new release by say T.Rex was released one would do just that and no doubt contemporary youth might play Adel’s latest in just the same way.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But what happens during the process of repeated plays? There are various stages – firstly there is getting acquainted – learning the ins and outs of the song its melody verse chorus and lyrics. These underlying musical fundamentals are filtered through the delivery and production of the track, the grain of the voice, the particular twang of the guitar or the drum break before the final chorus, etc. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Most pop music is itself quite repetitive sticking whatever the genre to a verse/chorus/middle eight formula and so one is repeating something that is already quite repetitive. Getting to know the song and the nuances and inflections of every groove might only take five to ten plays and then what? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The pleasure derived from the playback – and one wouldn’t be listening in the first place if the record wasn’t in some way intoxicating becomes mildly additive. No sooner is the track over than one wants to repeat it again and again though the rush can quickly diminish into a dull fix that barely maintains the high. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Eventually the hit is dulled and one moves on to the next song. The groundwork has been laid however and with a little space and time hearing that same song again indeed even the opening bars many years later can re-trigger many of the same emotions. It is a form of self-indoctrination and guarantees some artists an income stream from plays of a song decades after they have been recorded as we want to hear that son just one or two or three more times. Noddy Holder has mentioned in interviews that the Slade hit Merry Christmas Everybody he helped pen is in effect his pension scheme as every year it provides a surprisingly large income. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Playing old hits live can also be highly lucrative though one can see in the faces of some artists the pain in having to play that tune just one more time as they become a physical embodiment of a looped playback. “Please let me play something different, heh look I have a new album out” all falls on deaf ears as the crowd wait for the songs they know and played on repeat way back when. And lets not think this is just limited to the likes of Paul McCartney I recall a Faust gig where we nodded appreciatively through new material until almost reluctantly the band broke into It's a Rainy Day...</span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-52307350274473631522023-01-03T18:01:00.006+01:002023-01-03T18:07:05.568+01:00Happy New Year and is that pop itch finally scratched?<p><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtXrxzHkhAkzvsgZO72VbGDmCH8PGTcx6oIhvTRJ4lQh-DolHNXZGCju2bVapmfJle3678c6Jf34TgKg7qVRSb5qyF4WaZPBPYpWbjw5Hf8vpu2h9UGlf5aqEmWBhwg7DHvelsSbuigdXWQrJGd17LaBWeZyarQANtNaeHr_iR7jKAmU2iA/s700/hoarding.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="567" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiQtXrxzHkhAkzvsgZO72VbGDmCH8PGTcx6oIhvTRJ4lQh-DolHNXZGCju2bVapmfJle3678c6Jf34TgKg7qVRSb5qyF4WaZPBPYpWbjw5Hf8vpu2h9UGlf5aqEmWBhwg7DHvelsSbuigdXWQrJGd17LaBWeZyarQANtNaeHr_iR7jKAmU2iA/s320/hoarding.jpg" width="259" /></a></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So a happy new year and all that. Anyone paying attention will have noticed that in the last 9 months or so the Sanderson Snatch Tapes output has gone all 'long form', shifting away almost completely from the 3 minute pop song based format of Rumble of The Ruins and Closest Friends to a more musique concrète focus on noise sound (to use the Russolo term). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Though this hasn't come completely out of the blue - the Ice Yacht releases have been all instrumental you could make a case that this is a return to something - maybe the more electronic days of early Storm Bugs but I'd prefer to see it as a forward rather than reverse gear. In truth the noise sound thing has been there all along but to get to the current location the pop itch had to be scratched. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">For the first ten years of my life music played very little part. There were no instruments at home aside from a mouth organ on which my father could play a tune but rarely did. My mother watched Top of The Pops and there was a mono dansette but it rarely got switched on, my parents had maybe 20 LPs - probably less. My convent primary school which I attended from 1963 to 1971 had many virtues but music education was not one of them. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Come eleven and a a move to a new school, mix in some stirring hormones and I rapidly became intoxicated by pop music. I can recall a party at my next door neighbour's hose in 1972 in which alongside ice cream and jelly a couple of T.Rex singles were played over and over. Soon I had a copy of Slider and the infatuation was in full flow. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Of course one wanted to not only consume pop music but be consumed by it and make one's own. This remember was when Ziggy Bowie shaped the agenda and when pop music offered not only the three minute rush but the promise of a total reinvention of self. "Gotta make way for the homo superior" <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I was bought an acoustic guitar for my birthday. it was a spanish classical guitar with impossibly high action and a wide fretboard which I could barely get my hands around. There was also a guitar book that promised you the pleasure of after a couple of weeks being able to play Greensleeves. I did learn the basic chords but the acoustic guitar didn't really inspire or rather I was more captivated by the idea of pop than learning how to play scales. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There was also something else going on and that was a nascent interest in sound and electronic music. There wasn't much to go on. Stockhausen may have recorded Kontakte in 1960 but you'd be hard pressed to find a copy in the Medway Towns or anything else similar. What one did have was Faust, Neu, Kraftwek and of course Eno all radical in their own way though perhaps more musically conventional than one thought at the time. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Alongside lamentable strumming on the acoustic guitar I also began "plugging inputs into outputs" experimenting with old reel to reel tape machines bough at the market and making the first steps towards something. Without any guide aside from what sounded interesting to my ears I began recording some nascent noise sound tracks. These were decidedly not pop songs even if that was the wider frame of reference or the field of activity. I had already recorded quite a few 'noise' pieces before hearing Throbbing Gristle but it is fair to say that TG made a sense of it all, somehow melding electronics and song. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And thus we have the ingredients for Storm Bugs 1978-81 a sometimes curious combination of sound exploration colliding with or tainted by a pop sensibility. There was an early peak with the Second Storm Bugs single a kind of industrial rockabilly powered by a drum loop, but a ridiculous sleeve, non existent marketing and an absence of live gigs meant it all but disappeared without trace. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Steven Ball (my fellow Storm Bug) and I took things a step further in the early 1980s when a session to record a local (to the Medway Towns) guitarist to play along to a VCS3 track we had made at West Square ended with almost a year spent making jangly pop music as Swoon Baboon. And so it would continue throughout the first half of the 1980s - on the one hand I would make occasional forays into noise with David Jackman and the boys from Alien Brains and The New Blockaders but then would spend the best part of 1985 working on pop songs in a flat in Islington with one of Nigel Jacklin's old school chums.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ironically the best music from this period wasn't the pop music (which was with the exception of one or two tracks was mostly just competent) but the little bits of film music I did for arts school friends. By 86 I had tired or even exhausted myself trying to make pop music and/or become a pop persona. Experimental film and then installation projects beckoned and I made no attempt at pop music for another ten years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">But still the itch needed scratching and when I got a Mac in 1997 and began again to make music for its own sake though the majority of the output was short electronic pieces I was to an extent still beguiled by the three minute song, a soaring melody and a rousing beat. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So in the last ten years the odd song began to creep in both with the rebooted Storm Bugs project and my solo output. By 2000 with Rumble of The Ruins and the 2001 Even my Closes Friends the releases were predominantly song based. It is too simplistic to say that this was the music I had been striving to make in 1986 for there had been a lot of listening to all manner of songs in between. I had always know that pop music is inherently simple even simplistic but that is part of the beauty and appeal. It just took a long time to make something I was happy with.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Neither Rumble of The Ruins or Even my Closes Friends was any kind of commercial success and maybe just as well as I would have had to tour my sorry self around venues playing them and the whole live thing always seemed a lot of work - not the playing to an audience per se that can be quite enervating, but all the arranging/travelling/staying in hotels stuff. So the afore mentioned releases are not really pop as really pop music should be on some level popular but musically they finally scratched the pop itch to my own satisfaction - it only took 40 years. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Since then it has been a process of clearing my head and making the space for some new noise sound music.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-55192967514345408412022-12-07T08:44:00.003+01:002022-12-07T08:48:37.404+01:00Snatch Tapes 2022<p style="text-align: left;"><span style="color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">So it is round up time. It has been been a busy year for releases over at Snatch Tapes. 2022 started with the <a href="https://www.klanggalerie.com/gg378" target="_blank">Passionate Particles CD</a> released by </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/volt.aire.9?__cft__[0]=AZV1Ep5IxD5oKUUD32TPfex1iWYPMMVA1vNmOL3PdgJY2FJs-gKwfehZuL9Fd1ftOCEgld-ALPpPQ3_qzPLa049mtkrq4t9IioN6lEyeuFOLCfKWrNP2FHsc5CPhjloC3Xvo7xtVV-nsTgeO89OkZMOSkqW_VocUlMV8u3jp6jcQXg&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;">Walter Robotka</span></a></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"> on Klanggalerie - a selection of tracks from the last twenty years. I thought this might introduce the Sanderson oeuvre to more people - It didn't but the CD had an upbeat review in Avant Weekly by </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/fransde.waard?__cft__[0]=AZV1Ep5IxD5oKUUD32TPfex1iWYPMMVA1vNmOL3PdgJY2FJs-gKwfehZuL9Fd1ftOCEgld-ALPpPQ3_qzPLa049mtkrq4t9IioN6lEyeuFOLCfKWrNP2FHsc5CPhjloC3Xvo7xtVV-nsTgeO89OkZMOSkqW_VocUlMV8u3jp6jcQXg&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;">Frans de Waard</span></a></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"> and got a few spins on WFMU and other fine radio stations. <br /></span></span><span style="color: white; font-family: arial;"><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">Undaunted by the slightly underwhelming response to the CD in Spring came the next Ice Yacht cassette <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/noisy-nylon" target="_blank">Noisy Nylon</a> </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a style="cursor: pointer;" tabindex="-1"></a></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;">limited to 30 copies - described by </span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/keith.rodway?__cft__[0]=AZV1Ep5IxD5oKUUD32TPfex1iWYPMMVA1vNmOL3PdgJY2FJs-gKwfehZuL9Fd1ftOCEgld-ALPpPQ3_qzPLa049mtkrq4t9IioN6lEyeuFOLCfKWrNP2FHsc5CPhjloC3Xvo7xtVV-nsTgeO89OkZMOSkqW_VocUlMV8u3jp6jcQXg&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;">Keith Rodway</span></a></span><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"> as sounding more 'industrial' this turned out to be a stepping stone to doing more long form msuique concrete-is style work. The first manifestation of this was </span></span><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/snatch-tapes-redux" style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;" target="_blank">Redux</a><span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"> a 30 minute reworking of Snatch Tapes material described by </span></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"><a class="x1i10hfl xjbqb8w x6umtig x1b1mbwd xaqea5y xav7gou x9f619 x1ypdohk xt0psk2 xe8uvvx xdj266r x11i5rnm xat24cr x1mh8g0r xexx8yu x4uap5 x18d9i69 xkhd6sd x16tdsg8 x1hl2dhg xggy1nq x1a2a7pz xt0b8zv x1qq9wsj xo1l8bm" href="https://www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100011678002600&__cft__[0]=AZV1Ep5IxD5oKUUD32TPfex1iWYPMMVA1vNmOL3PdgJY2FJs-gKwfehZuL9Fd1ftOCEgld-ALPpPQ3_qzPLa049mtkrq4t9IioN6lEyeuFOLCfKWrNP2FHsc5CPhjloC3Xvo7xtVV-nsTgeO89OkZMOSkqW_VocUlMV8u3jp6jcQXg&__tn__=-]K-R" role="link" style="border: 0px; box-sizing: border-box; color: var(--accent); cursor: pointer; display: inline; list-style: none; margin: 0px; outline: none; padding: 0px; text-align: inherit; text-decoration: none; touch-action: manipulation;" tabindex="0"><span class="xt0psk2" style="display: inline;">Eric Lanzillotta</span></a></span><span style="caret-color: rgb(5, 5, 5); white-space: pre-wrap;"> as being a little like Pierre Henry. Then came <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/.../lost-with-all-hands..." target="_blank">Lost With All Hands (the Legend of Goodwin Sands</a>) an album of two 20 minute pieces. The title track was played by Carol Crow, Daniel Blumin and Tony Coulter at WFMU and was heard in one of the listening towers at the recent Sonic Cartogarphy conference at Chatham Dockyard. Then the Queen died and using a single bell toll as source material a 17 minute piece called <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-ringing-of-a-bell " target="_blank">The Ringing of a Bell </a>was conjured. Lastly there was <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-sunken-features-of-a-satellite" target="_blank">The Sunken Features of a Satellite</a> - more long form soundscape that reworked the previous Pillbox release.<br /></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span style="color: white; white-space: pre-wrap;">For what its worth my own favourite of the year was </span></span></span></p><p style="text-align: left;"><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=72400940/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 42px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-ringing-of-a-bell">The Ringing of a Bell by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-91204735401496722892022-11-22T17:41:00.006+01:002022-11-22T19:27:33.222+01:00Green on The Horizon at BFI Southbank NFT3<p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiO6fjeoewmFomybok4LrduiUbN2kpMgnA5weJOhUgUuaf2RaUuSB-I33NPG2QBhiKLE-djKFlMCnDkfi76I2U3j5wnRJSJGsjxq-rtXEmZWdeGPfRQXM2WaUTnmaeu4TfY9Cv0259L4VkL20FpNfiaFWQDuj7-d3B8ZJrVHqrNALltysLcA/s720/GOTH4.jpg" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="576" data-original-width="720" height="256" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhiO6fjeoewmFomybok4LrduiUbN2kpMgnA5weJOhUgUuaf2RaUuSB-I33NPG2QBhiKLE-djKFlMCnDkfi76I2U3j5wnRJSJGsjxq-rtXEmZWdeGPfRQXM2WaUTnmaeu4TfY9Cv0259L4VkL20FpNfiaFWQDuj7-d3B8ZJrVHqrNALltysLcA/s320/GOTH4.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></span></span></span> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;"><span style="font-size: small;"><span> </span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>That old Sanderson & Ball 'classic' Green on The Horizon gets a screening this week at NFT3 as part of a programme of Peter Greenaway related shorts entitled <a href="https://whatson.bfi.org.uk/Online/default.asp?doWork::WScontent::loadArticle=Load&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::article_id=461C5083-15A3-40BC-B3C7-0BD562B14D75&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=27018AD4-60D9-4ABC-AD2B-B4ADC7123D04" target="_blank">The Unreliable Narrator: Adventures in Storytelling, Documentary and Misinformation.</a></span></span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span><span>To quote from the programme notes: Ve</span>racity and doubt play off each other to uncanny, witty ends in
imaginative films by Greenaway, John Smith, Patrick Keiller, Steven Ball
and Philip Sanderson. The voice illuminates and obscures in equal
measure, dryly satirising the authority of the documentary narrator, and
interrogating film language and the relationships between sound and
image. Weird tales and odd instructions seep up through the gaps.</span></span></span></p><p><span style="font-size: small;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Steven and I shall be at the screening to make a brief introduction. </span></span></span> </p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-42756194371684150832022-11-16T18:26:00.004+01:002022-11-22T17:25:09.482+01:00New Website<p><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7Ea5ATzQgva4zWfYgNDLIclChny7karcZCqtWs7QOaexAlFPj6BksduFbqbu7-7Dyo4i7bS-XqB9LChAr-M-_-cRX-2Cu0LaXcr_y73Eu-Ip45Ri0kmnqXJOtRjvbSK8gEpldohpcb1ut7xA9JhoJlwlJr24HnWXsWpNlU2mhNOzS9h_dQ/s312/over.jpeg" style="clear: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="207" data-original-width="312" height="207" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhn7Ea5ATzQgva4zWfYgNDLIclChny7karcZCqtWs7QOaexAlFPj6BksduFbqbu7-7Dyo4i7bS-XqB9LChAr-M-_-cRX-2Cu0LaXcr_y73Eu-Ip45Ri0kmnqXJOtRjvbSK8gEpldohpcb1ut7xA9JhoJlwlJr24HnWXsWpNlU2mhNOzS9h_dQ/s1600/over.jpeg" width="312" /></a></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I have a new website documenting all my various art work, be it <a href="https://rumbleoftheruins.blogspot.com/2022/10/snatch-tapes-chronology.html" target="_blank">music,</a> <a href="https://rumbleoftheruins.blogspot.com/2022/10/single-screen-videos.html" target="_blank">single screen video,</a> <a href="https://rumbleoftheruins.blogspot.com/2022/10/installations.html" target="_blank">installation</a>, <a href="https://rumbleoftheruins.blogspot.com/2022/10/chronocuts.html" target="_blank">Chronocuts</a>, etc. It is called Rumble of The Ruins and you can find it </span><a href="https://rumbleoftheruins.blogspot.com/2022/10/blog-post_27.html" style="font-family: arial;">here</a><span style="font-family: arial;">. </span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-54365801397784393272022-09-18T15:12:00.001+02:002022-09-18T15:12:07.975+02:00A ringing of a Bell<p><span face=""Helvetica Neue", Helvetica, Arial, sans-serif" style="caret-color: rgb(54, 54, 54); color: #363636; font-size: 12px;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><br /></div><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=72400940/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/the-ringing-of-a-bell">The Ringing of a Bell by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe><div><div class="tralbumData tralbum-about" style="margin-top: 2em; word-wrap: break-word;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">And so the Queen is dead, and the bell tolls 96 times – what can be drawn from this dull and dutiful repetition, dong, dong, dong, neither building nor climaxing, an endless anticipation, a ceremony of the senses, an everything of nothing, a shrill shell. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Let us take just one single toll of the bell and see if out of that metal on metal we can conjure something befitting… </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">I give you The Ringing of a Bell</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">released September 12, 2022 </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Philip Sanderson: treatments. Unknown Bell Ringer: Bell</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0); color: black; font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p></div></div>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-90698064245384075912022-09-05T13:18:00.001+02:002022-09-05T13:18:08.596+02:00LOST WITH ALL HANDS (The legend of Goodwin Sands)<div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPWLFFksO-PFgjXpTRACjz5nzA8Zn6dhoTQrwGjVNwNDQBVSvAtiMB98eTHr_ZxuDVh6VYpKK33msHIg6-HPqmKxn1AcRCYXEVNBHG3lWTKdoKs0fQ-A83Kdqbn_TOzGuIcyuF7IqXFbkoCMc23dYiTRyfXXJCsV92vAsxMYHGIC0oUG6kQ/s1200/a3328079828_10.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1200" data-original-width="1200" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEgcPWLFFksO-PFgjXpTRACjz5nzA8Zn6dhoTQrwGjVNwNDQBVSvAtiMB98eTHr_ZxuDVh6VYpKK33msHIg6-HPqmKxn1AcRCYXEVNBHG3lWTKdoKs0fQ-A83Kdqbn_TOzGuIcyuF7IqXFbkoCMc23dYiTRyfXXJCsV92vAsxMYHGIC0oUG6kQ/s320/a3328079828_10.jpg" width="320" /></a></span></div><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">So in pursuance of my (further) investigations into noise-sound I have been working on a couple of new long form pieces namely ‘LOST WITH ALL HANDS (The Legend of Goodwin Sands)’, and ‘The Mourning After’.</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Goodwin Sands is a sandbank off the coast of Deal in Kent notorious as the site of shipwrecks and the loss over centuries of thousands of seafarers’ lives. At first Goodwin Sands was nothing more than a handy working title for a piece I was making using various noise-sounds such as squeaky gates and bowed cymbals treated using granular synthesis. The shifting patterns and textures had some loose approximation or analogue with the dynamics of the sandbank and having seen a copy of a second hand book about the Goodwin Sands in a local shop I adopted the name, but the initial idea was not to represent or make a piece about the sands per se. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">The piece was taking form and as part of the general research one does around such things I came across a folk song by George Gilbert entitled ‘The Legend of The Goodwin Sands’ (1974) which originally appeared on the 1974 LP Medway Flows Softly - Songs of Kent by George Gilbert. The LP was one of those privately pressed LPs of folk music that were released in the 1960s and 70s. It contains a number of often humorous songs many of them based in and around places or events in the Medway Towns where I grew up. George Gilbert wrote all the songs and provides the inter track introductions. Many of the numbers on the LP feature a full band and other singers though ‘The Legend of The Goodwin Sands’ is just Gilbert himself on vocals and a wind/water background sound. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">With some suitable treatment the song fitted well overlaid in the centre of the piece I had already made. Fitted almost too well for no sooner was it part of the composition than the various noise-sounds which previously had maintained an abstracted relation to one another began to morph into representations of location sounds. A bubbling sound became water, the overlaid granular synthesized bowed cymbal the creaking of the vessels, other tones took on the mantle of wind and waves. In short the noise-sounds began to before my ears loose their autonomy and become illustrations of the text of the folk song. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">With some judicious mixing and copious editing I found a sufficient tension and distance between the song and the noise-sounds could be maintained to make the piece ‘work’, but it was close, had I started with the song and then added the noise-sound I fear all would have been lost (at sea) as it would have been difficult not to hear the noise-sounds as nautical sound effects from the off. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">In contrast with side A which as has probably been inferred took some time side B, ‘The Mourning After’ was a relatively quick affair employing pulse comb filters excited by a range of audio sources including location recordings in Kent, vocals and shortwave radio. I had been experimenting with the pulse comb patch for a good six months and had a number of takes none of which seemed to quite hot the mark, but having completed side one and with its theme in mind I had another go and managed to improvise the track in a couple of takes. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br /></span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span><iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=3970061296/size=large/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/tracklist=false/artwork=small/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 120px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/lost-with-all-hands-the-legend-of-goodwin-sands">LOST WITH ALL HANDS (The Legend of Goodwin Sands) by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-56002303274490542162022-07-31T17:20:00.003+02:002022-08-02T11:20:42.246+02:00The Sunken Features of a Satellite <p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Revisiting noise.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Contents<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 The Industrial Revolution <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2 Revisiting Russolo – The Art of Noises<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3 From Russolo to Schaeffer<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4 Composing Noise-Sound<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1 The Industrial Revolution <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">It is over a hundred years since the idea of noise as something to be desired rather than kept to a minimum was first advocated. We can point to Marinetti’s 1912 Zang Tumb Tumb celebrating the rat-a-tat-tat of gunfire, which in part inspired Russolo’s Art of Noises. Across Europe be it Futurists or Russian filmmakers such as Vertov and Avraamov noise and in particular the sounds of the industrial revolution were embraced as not only offering new possibilities beyond the then canon of Western classical music, but in some way signalling the modern and a confrontational cleansing of all that went before. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Great - lets bow an old hubcap, scrape that oil drum across the floor, make some noise and welcome the future. But wait pitfalls a plenty are to be found in making noise. The first lies in the original act of inversion, the reversal of the term noise from unwanted to desirable. We might categorise this change as an example of linguistic amelioration. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Linguistic amelioration of adjectives such as ‘bad’ and ‘sick’, become quasi-ironic positive endorsements enhanced by the negative shell they inhabit. Such ameliorations are not permanent transitions of meaning but require a degree of hip insider knowledge and are thus tied to small generational shifts in language use. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">More culturally charged linguistic ameliorations of nouns such as say ‘queer’ signal a reclamation of the word from its original negative and pejorative usage into an emphatically empowered positive. Here the ameliorations is usually initiated by those who were the subject of the intended abuse and the power of the relocation and repurposing of such terms lies in both their inbuilt historical memory of having been negative and in an ongoing recognition that many in society still view them as such and so they contain a continued act of defiance. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Aside from occasionally being booed off stage noise makers and musicians are hardly a persecuted segment of society indeed it could be demeaning to those who are to make such a comparison and yet the investment in ongoing linguistic amelioration of ‘noise’ follows the process found in nouns far more closely than that of adjectives. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Despite noise’s over a hundred year pedigree many noise artists who operate in what might loosely be called the popular music field (i.e. outside of academia and state funded studios) exhibit a strong desire to maintain the memory of noise as undesirable tied to an ongoing belief and indeed celebration of its perceived inherent provocative nature. We are noisy and proud of it. As such the sounds of the industrial revolution can all too easily become not so much empowered or a new vocabulary of sonic possibilities as imprisoned pawns in a parody of more culturally charged linguistic ameliorations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Nowhere can this be seen more clearly than in the development in the late 1970s and early 1980s of noise and industrial music in Britain. It was Throbbing Gristle (TG) who coined the phrase industrial music, and though nearly all TG concerts would end with a vibrating wall of distorted sound TG were arguably a proto noise group rather than not a noise band per se. Outside of the full-on live finale regular rhythms, beats, vocals, lyrics, etc can all be easily distinguished in TG’s output, which for all the confrontational pose of the band was readily distinguishable as music/songs within the parameters of the day. The creation of TG relocated the activities of their front man Genesis P-Orridge from the (fine) art world that he and his then partner’s Cosey Fanni Tutti’s, COUM Transmissions project had inhabited into the stream of popular music. For though TG were never to trouble the charts their releases and gigs were reviewed in the mainstream music press (Sounds and NME) and their records were largely bought by listeners who also purchased the likes of PIL or Joy Division. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If TG were a pro-noise band then it was to be a younger generation inspired by TG such as Whitehouse and Merzbow who would strip out the more conventional musical elements and focus on the remaining shell of noise. Following on from TG’s siting of their project within popular music the noise bands that followed were framed within the same context. Noise bands would often play at the same venues where rock bands played. This was significant in so much as it created an (oppositional) frame of reference with regard to popular music as opposed to say locating practice closer to Cage, Musique Concrète, Jazz, etc. Such framing helped encourage the repeated restatement of the original linguistic amelioration of noise as if it were a constant shock trooped antidote to popular music and culture. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A thriving underground scene developed in the early 1980s of noise bands with matching graphics/artwork which taking their cue from the collages of leading TG member Genesis P-Orridge variously depicted death and destruction, mutilation, factories and urban architecture, bondage and fetishism, etc all photocopied in a reduced tonal range. If many involved with Futurism and in particular Marinetti had prior to World War 1 embraced the machine age and the cleansing effects of war and destruction DaDa responded to the horrors of World War 1 by a rejection of capitalism and the rational. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Whilst Genesis P-Orridge’s collages were heavily influenced by DaDa TG’s overall image often tended towards the militaristic proto-fascist tendencies of Futurism. This mixed cocktail part Futurist, part DaDa with some added Burroughs and Lou Reed added in for good measure seeped into the very veins of noise music. The imprisonment of noise in a continual restatement and reinforcement of the original linguistic amelioration was now also inexorably linked with a visual and metaphorical depiction of destruction, death and decay hovering somewhere between celebration and condemnation. At times the emphasis would be more playful and DaDa whilst others would openly flirt with the more fascist overtones such as with Boyd Rice/NON. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">These tensions and tendencies are embodied in the sonic and visual output of almost every noise artist that emerged post 1980, and remarkably perhaps persist to the present day in the work of contemporary artists such as Wolf Eyes. Different artists of course respond in their own way to this approach and there are many subtle different sonic variations to be had, nonetheless the original linguistic amelioration and conceptual wedding to noise as noise frames so much of the output and restricts the creative possibilities and potential. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The critical and audience framework in which noise music is received has tended to further reinforce the straightjacket that noise found itself in. Reviews of work containing noise will inevitably fall back on a range of nouns and adjectives the sounds is: spiky, deranged, glitchy, lo-fi, damaged, fucked-up, distorted, the beat: grinding, queasy, broken, disjointed, disfigured, the atmosphere created is woozy, bleak, dystopian, and so on. Similarly many audiences demand their noise gigs to be loud, confrontational, dark and dirty with stomach churning volume. Noise artists are expected to be at the very least self-declared bohemians edgy and excessive both in their habits and output, with many releasing literally hundreds of records and fans’ shelves groaning under the weight of vinyl box sets. What has noise done to deserve such a fate, and is there another way or other ways…?<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2 Revisiting Russolo – The Art of Noises<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So can noise be liberated from the straight jacket of linguistic amelioration and linked visual and metaphorical depictions of destruction and dystopia? Lets go back to the beginning and Russolo and his Art of Noises.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Whilst Russolo has become part of the historical telling of the birth of noise aided by that photo of the enigmatic boxes the Intonarumori which with their sound horns look for all the world like an early Reggae sound system Russolo’s contribution is nonetheless somewhat marginalised. Often depicted as a Futurist agent provocateur whose performances were accompanied by riotous response superficially it would seem that Russolo and The Art of Noises fits into the straightjacket of noise for noise sake. A closer examination reveals a lot more depth to the Russolo project than he is given credit for.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Though audio recordings (onto wax cylinder and then disc) were regularly being made during Russolo’s lifetime only a few muffled minutes exist of a performance from 1921. Similarly no original Intonarumori/noise machine survives and a couple of bars from a score. For a proper assessment of Russolo’s importance we must turn then to Russolo’s writings his Art of Noises (the Art of Noises Futurist Manifesto published in 1913, and subsequent publications in 1916 all translated from the Italian by Barclay Brown 1983). <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo’s writing is in keeping with the Futurist manifesto style polemic nonetheless it is also analytical, unfortunately the power of the former often obscure the clarity of the latter. Many times when reading Russolo we have to go beyond the eye-catching Futurist rhetoric to read the finer implications of what is being said regarding noise-sound. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo starts The Art of Noises by heralding the new world of sound that the industrial age had ushered in “Ancient life was all silence. In the 19th Century, with the invention of machines, Noise was born. Today, Noise is triumphant and reigns sovereign over the sensibility of men”. Russolo then proceeds to a very short description of the evolution of music tracing its development over the centuries from the first single tones obtained from a plucked string up to an ever greater complexity of chords and finally “musical art seeks out combinations more dissonant, stranger, and harsher for the car. Thus, it comes ever closer to the noise-sound”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">From the start then Russolo is not positioning noise in opposition to music per se so much as locating aspects of the “noise-sound” as embodiments of the trajectory in music’s development. “In order to excite and stir our sensibility, music has been developing toward the most complicated polyphony and toward the greatest variety of instrumental timbres and colours. It has searched out the most complex successions of dissonant chords, which have prepared in a vague way for the creation of MUSICAL NOISE”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Following this analysis it is not surprising that Russolo then makes the call for the traditional orchestra instruments and the orchestral music played to be replaced by a new range of noise-sounds (produced by his own Intonarumori.) There is a degree of Futurist declamation regarding the demise of Beethoven and Wagner and of the need to shake up the Buddha-like audience but, in keeping with Russolo’s belief in noise-sound having the potential for much greater tonal and pitch variation than traditional instruments he then goes on to describe the sheer range and diversity of noise-sound. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Somewhat paradoxically before listing as one might expect the soundscape of the city “the throbbing of valves, the bustle of pistons, the shrieks of mechanical saws, the starting of trams on the tracks, the cracking of whips…” he firstly turns to the naturally occurring sounds of thunder, wind, gurgling brooks and waterfalls. Putting aside the slight contradiction here with Russolo’s previous assertion of the world being all but silent before the industrial revolution. Though the headline is all about the more abrasive auditory pulse of the city and of war (reported via a letter from Marinetti as at the point of writing Russolo had yet to experience the horrors of war himself) the detail is that all noise-sounds be they man made or naturally occurring are worth exploring. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo without the aid of contemporary audio analytical tools identifies what it is that makes noise-sounds of musical interest and different from the tones produced by traditional instruments is “that the vibrations that produce it are confused and irregular”. This complexity and changing nature of the components of noise-sounds be they timbre, microtonal pitch, harmonics and off beat rhythms are what set them apart and are what the designers of and players of traditional instruments had over the years of refinement often sought to minimise.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Though Russolo is inspired by the complex tonalities in a range of noise-sounds that he hears a key aspect of his project is that he is not seeking to directly imitate or replicate them. Unlike many contemporary noise artists who bring on stage large sheets of metal, hammers, chainsaws, road drills and all the rest Russolo’s intention was to create a series of instruments that could extract what is of interest in a noise-sound and enable it to be played with the operator having control of a range of parameters. By harnessing the essence of what makes a particular class of noise-sound of interest be it made by man, machinery, or nature an instrument could be created that would then allow for the musical permutations and variations to be explored in a concert setting. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Having indentified 6 families of noise-sounds Russolo then set about building a series of Intonarumori to generate them including the howler, the roarer, the crackler, the rubber, the hummer, the gurgler, and the hisser. The mechanical workings of the instruments were shrouded in secrecy concealed inside large wooden boxes from out of which only protruded the sound horn and the handle and levers used to operate them. The reasoning behind this enclosure was arguably twofold, firstly Russolo was approaching the project not only as a musical one but hoped to be able to make and sell the Intonarumori as a business and indeed at various points financial backers were close to supporting the project. As such patents were taken out and thus Russolo was keen for commercial reasons to keep the precise workings of the Intonarumori secret. The second reason for boxing in of the Intonarumori is more speculative but in keeping with Russolo’s desire not to imitate the sounds that had inspired him the concealment of the components was intended to focus attention onto the abstract audio quality of the noise themselves rather than the visual operation of the mechanism. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Far from being just a Futurist agent provocateur seeking a linguistic amelioration that continually restates the abrasive nature of noise. Russolo set himself the almost impossible task of not only identifying a new sphere of noise-sounds but then also building the instruments to play them, composing and scoring music for the Intonarumori and, lastly staging concerts of the new music. All attempted needless to say with minimal funds and support. That the project was only partially successful in its execution is not surprising - Russolo’s descent in later life into poverty making a living from palmistry whilst living in a small attic all reinforce the legend but do little to enhance the intellectual contribution which was nothing short of a manifesto for a whole new way of approaching music through the exploration of noise-sounds. Lets just recap the key points.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1. Noise and specifically noise-sounds are not defined by their anti-music or non-musical status, but rather can be viewed ”as embodiments of the trajectory in music’s development”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2. That though Russolo was inspired by the new vibrant sounds of the industrial revolution, the categorisation of noise-sounds also includes naturally occurring sounds such as “wind, gurgling brooks and waterfalls”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3. For Russolo what differentiates noise-sounds from the tones of traditional instruments (played in a conventional fashion) is “that the vibrations that produce it are confused and irregular”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4. The purpose of creating a range of new instruments (the Intonarumori) was not to imitate specific sounds (say a car engine) but rather to offer a way of generating and playing noise-sounds giving the creator/musician control over a range of expressive parameters such as microtonal pitch and timbre.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3 From Russolo to Schaeffer<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo’s ideas are echoed (if not always acknowledged) throughout the 20th century in the work of John Cage, the Musique Concrète of Pierre Schaeffer and Pierre Henry, and the electroacoustic practice of Trevor Wishart (to name just a few pivotal players). Many popular noise artists have also name-checked Russolo whilst not pursuing any of the ideas in the manifesto. A good example is Einstürzende Neubauten who for the accompanying video to their 1993 song Blume executed a nice recreation of the Russolo photograph of the room filled with (imitation) Intonarumori. In the background suitably suited gentlemen slowly turning the handles whilst in the foreground a woman rotates on a small dais whilst the lead singer sings to and around her. It is all very entertaining in a cabaret mecanique way, but has vey little to do with Russolo or his ideas. The music with its slow chord progression has a dusty romantic world-weary fin de siècle whimsy but there is no noise-sound to be heard anywhere. This is noise as style not to far removed from mainstream bands such as Depeche Mode who would flirt with adding a little noise to their percussion on tracks such as Master And Servant.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Going back to those who most clearly owe a debt to Russolo a key paradigm shift is away from music being something solely played by traditional instruments to it being created from noise-sounds. In 1976 Schaeffer wrote (distilling ideas he had been refining for 20 years) ‘The sound object, which may be any possible audible sound, is that which ranges from natural sounds to the noises of civilisation, from animal cries to human words”, meanwhile Trevor Wishart begins his 1994 book Audible Design by stating “Any sound whatsoever may be the starting material for a musical composition”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">An obvious difference between Russolo and those that followed is in the means of producing noise-sounds with the former creating sounds from scratch in a perfomative setting with his hand cranked Intonarumori whilst in much Musique Concrète and Electroacoustic music pre-recorded sounds are manipulated. The manipulation of the Concrète would seem to be fundamental to the very identity of Musique Concrète, but as with Russolo the aim was never to imitate the sound by for example simple playback (with all the caveats about recorded sound being a representation of a sound and not the sound itself) but rather to create source material with which to experiment. As the practices of Musique Concrète morphed into those of Electroacoustic music computers rather than tape machines began to have an ever greater role and effectively became sophisticated instrument to ‘play’ noise-sounds. So if Russolo can be credited with the ‘invention’ of the noise-sound what of composition. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4 Composing Noise-Sound<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">How might we organise noise-sounds. Though the origin and inspiration for noise-sounds be it in the roaring city or the babbling countryside may be chaotic or even random Russolo is clear that in terms of composition noise-sounds are to be tightly organised writing of “combing noises” and “selecting, coordinating and controlling all the noises” which “through a fantastic association of the different timbres and rhythms…will obtain the most complex and novel emotions of sound.” On timing in particular Russolo argues that “musicians, being freed from traditional and facile rhythms, must find in noise the means of expanding and renewing itself, given that every noise offers a union of the most diverse rhythms”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo’s writing conjures an image of layered, controlled and composed noise-sound, alive with rhythmical excitations inspired by noise. Such is the exuberance of Russolo’s polemic one can almost hear this new music just out of earshot – almost. We shouldn’t however underestimate the task that Russolo was setting himself for though he positions noise-sound in a trajectory of the then developments in classical music the new vocabulary of noise-sounds would presumably require whole new forms of assembly. Russolo was keen to identify a dominant pitch in the noise-sounds produced by his various Intonarumori, but countering this was an encouragement of the exploration of microtones and glissandi with the instruments having two controls a simple crank handle to activate the mechanism, and a lever to vary the sound. If the Intonarumori would be unsuited to playing Beethoven’s 5th then equally all the musical apparatus of harmony, counterpoint, indeed the very language of music (up to that point) would need rethinking for noise-sounds. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In most (conventional) music(s) several sounds/notes/instruments will occur simultaneously, but this is made possible in the context of a tightly controlled musical structure that defines the relationship between the sounds both vertically as in say the notes of a chord, and horizontally as in a chord progression. This is the beauty and the tragedy of much conventional music as once we know the formula and even internalise the logic it can quickly excite and fizz pulling us along in its train, but it can then also just as quickly tire as we find ourselves musically and emotionally dragged from one chord to the next in an increasingly predictable progression. Whilst nuances of execution and production can provide even the simplest of structures as those found in pop music with seemingly endless variations in the end it all becomes rather like drinking fizzy cheap lager in the hot sun - you just end up more thirsty. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If noise-sound offers the promise of a quick escape from such strictures and structures we are left with the question of how exactly do we compose both horizontally and vertically. What are the parameters, why should any noise-sound go on top or under another, or indeed precede or follow it? <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo looked to adapt the traditional methods of music scoring to suit the new music he wished to create and provides a couple of pages of examples along with a supporting commentary that suggests not only the limitations of conventional scoring without the addition of complex extra notation, but that Russolo favoured an overlaid form in which one set of sounds slide into another. Russolo’s compositional techniques, was underpinned by a classification of noise-sounds into "six families of noise": <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">1: Roars, Thunderings, Explosions, Hissing roars, Bangs, Booms<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">2: Whistling, Hissing, Puffing<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">3: Whispers, Murmurs, Mumbling, Muttering, Gurgling<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">4: Screeching, Creaking, Rustling, Buzzing, Crackling, Scraping<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">5: Noises obtained by beating on metals, woods, skins, stones, pottery, etc.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">6: Voices of animals and people, Shouts, Screams, Shrieks, Wails, Hoots, Howls, Death rattles, Sobs<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Russolo felt these groupings represented sets of fundamental noises or building blocks from which all or any noise-sounds could be constructed through combination. Each Intonarumori was designed so as to be able to play or create sounds inspired by but not imitative of those in each family.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">This model provides for a basic logic to noise-sound production though still offers little to answer the hows and whys of composition. We should of course be careful in suggesting that there might be a single answer or method to noise-sound composition, but a methodology or methodologies is needed if we are to achieve more than washes or walls of sound.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In industrial and post-industrial music the restatement of noise as noise often as not provides its own structure with sounds simply overlaid and/or overdriven to create walls of self-consciously abrasive texture. There is usually movement in the blocks that comprise the wall of sound indeed there needs to be sufficient to maintain an ongoing sense of edge throughout the 20 minutes or so of an LP side, but whilst continually refreshing the cacophonous energy is more difficult than it might seem nonetheless composition per se is often eschewed. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The vacuum created by this lack of compositional engagement is in part filled by the continual restatement of noise as noise epithet and the previously mentioned accompanying dystopian visual and aesthetic contextualisation. Audiences often declare that such recordings and live performances offer a cathartic cleansing and there may be something to be said for this form of alternative ambient assault on the senses. A live noise performance on a large high quality sound system can be something like a fairground ride as one’s insides are literally shaken and jiggled by the audio with the performers intently twiddling knobs or screaming into microphones and/or labouring over metal sheets. It can be a grand coup de theatre that foregrounds the physiological effects of sound above and beyond other more musical properties. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So what of other approaches to the composition of noise-sound? The inheritors of the Russolo approach would logically be the Musique Concrète of Schaeffer and Henry. Schaeffer writing in his journals in 1948 as he begins to explore the possibilities of sound echoes Russolo in his quest for a “symphony of noises”. Exploring a range of sound making possibilities from traditional instruments to bicycle bells, and trains as with Russolo and his six families of noise Schaeffer moves towards a categorisation of sound in a bid to establish a new vocabulary. Through a period of extended experimentation with recordings of various sounds Schaeffer gradually formulates a definition of a unit of sound he calls the ‘sound object’. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">The theorisation of the sound object was refined and developed over the rest of Schaeffer’s life and required a number of intellectual somersaults The root cause for this somersaulting is that unlike Russolo who was inspired by the noises he heard around him but sought not to imitate them but to extract what was of interest and create noise-sounds (using new instruments) Schaeffer was working with actual recorded sounds – originally on locked groove discs and then magnetic tape. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">A recorded sound is a representation of a sound rather than the original sound itself, mediated on a technological level by the apparatus of recording and playback, and on a phenomenological level by the context of playback. Nonetheless the recorded sound speaks to and seeks to be imitative of the original sound. Not only that but it repeatedly calls to a causal relationship between the original vibratory source of the sound and what we are hearing – be it somebody striking with a hammer, playing a guitar, the creaking of a door, the puff of the engine as a train leaving the station and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Far from being made available as a potential flexible contributor to a symphony of noises the recorded sound is by definition captured and constrained. Like a specimen awaiting dissection Schaeffer found that through a range of processes such as editing fragments of the sound and then repeating them, or removing the attack portion of a bell sound he could to an extent liberate sounds from their imitative causal relationship. The manipulated sounds could then be put to the service of composition as Concrète elements. The process was far from straightforward though and Schaeffer was continually seized with doubts and caught in a double bind whereby he firstly found interest in a particular set of sounds such as those of a train (for his Etude au Chemin de Fer), and then was frustrated by not being able to easily free the sounds from their causal origins with the results in danger of becoming either “anecdotal” an/or “dramatic”. It is perhaps a little uncharitable to suggests that if you use railways sound as yours source material and then call your piece Etude au Chemin de Fer that then one shouldn’t be surprised if it impels the listener towards recognition of the original sound and potentially a dramatic reading of it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">In practice Etude au Chemin de Fer which is credited as being the first ever piece of Musique Concrète is delightful but compositionally relatively straightforward in first isolating and then looping the off-beat rhythms (steam) trains make as they rattle over the tracks, puff and stamp as they tackle gradients, heave and pull out of stations and so on. The rhythmical sections are cut together with assorted whistles and steam exhalations, which provide short pauses between. The source material is instantly recognisable as being railway sounds, and indeed this would continue to be the case in a significant proportion of Schaeffer’s output. The theoretical abstracted sound object freed from its causal source recording would seem to have been more an aspiration than an actuality, what is of interest is how the off-beat rhythms would influence and one might go so far as to say unintentionally provide a template for how the samples in subsequent Musique Concrète pieces would be structured.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Turning to Schaeffer’s diary detailing his research as he starts to assemble the sections of Etude au Chemin de Fer he is at first dissatisfied with the rhythms of the engines “We are momentarily filled with enthusiasm. In reality, when we listen again, impartially, to what we have composed, obtained after long hours of patience, all we find is a crude concentration of rhythmic groups resistant to any regular rhythm”. Schaeffer is seeking to impose traditional musical value on the material “I imagined I had extracted a three-four, a six-eight from the moving coach”. Specifically it is the irregularity of the train rhythm that is seen as a disadvantage “The train beats its own time, perfectly clear but perfectly irrational. The most monotonous of trains has constant variations of rhythm. It never plays in time. It changes into a series of isotopes”. But then there is a moment of revelation “what subtle musical pleasure a practiced ear could find learning to listen to, to play this new-style Czerny! Then, without the help of any melody, any harmony, you would only need to be able to discern and savour, in the most mechanistic monotony, the interplay of a few atoms of freedom, the imperceptible improvisations of chance . . . “. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">It is a good few chapters on in the diary before Schaeffer fully acknowledges “that my mistake had been in going back to musical instruments, musical notattion, musical thought patterns. Going back to noise would in fact have been the surest way to find solid, and at least unexplored, ground.“<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">If we attempt to represent the train rhythms in Etude au Chemin de Fer as text we might get – ratata tat ratata tat ratata tat tat, thwump, chop, huff, hump, thwump, chop, huff, hump, titoo, titoo, titoo, titoo, and so on. Two quick observatrions can be made the first would be the similarity such text has with Marinetti’s Zang Tumb Tuuum, which of course inspired Russolo the second would be that these machine rhythms are precisely what Russolo had in mind when he spoke of “every noise offers a union of the most diverse rhythms”.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Somewhere between the irregular train rhythms and the vinyl locked grooves and tape loops of Schaeffer’s repeated phrases we get the origins of the rhythmic patterning one finds in so much electroacoustic music. It has a start-stop feel often punctuated by sudden rapid accelerations and then descending crescendos. Variations on this style of rhythmic patterning can also be found in improvised, algorithmic, generative, and electronic music. It is so prevalent that hardly anybody ever mentions it. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">Contemporary software such as Max/MSP and Pure Data offer a host of tools and patches to help produce sequences with varying degrees of randomness in terms of pitch, rhythm, tone and texture. Similarly what Schaeffer was striving for in terms of breaking sounds up into fragments or atoms that could then be re-arranged to create new sounds separated if not divorced from their sources is the principle behind a host of granular synthesis apps. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 10pt;">So making music that embodies aspects of Russolo’s quest for an exploration of noise-sound and indeed his and Schaeffer’s imagined orchestra of noises has become from a technological perspective much easier. The would-be noise-sound composer may have been technologically enabled, possibly even too much so, but still faces the key compositional challenge of how to assemble noise-sounds vertically and horizontally.</span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-8489951068328761422022-03-11T21:33:00.003+01:002022-03-11T21:33:58.741+01:00Recent Reviews<p><span style="font-family: arial;"> A couple of recent reviews to keep the spirits topped up. Firstly <a href="http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2022/03/09/songs-of-friendship/" target="_blank">Ed Pinsent's</a> take on Not Even My Closes Friends. </span></p><header class="entry-header" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><div class="entry-meta" style="box-sizing: inherit; margin: 0.5em 0px 0px; padding: 0px;"><span style="text-transform: var(--title-text-transform);"><b><span style="font-family: arial;">Songs of Friendship</span></b></span></div></header><div class="entry-content clearfix" style="box-sizing: inherit; caret-color: rgb(48, 48, 48);"><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 0.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Latest gem from <strong style="box-sizing: inherit;">Philip Sanderson</strong> is <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Not Even My Closest Friends</span> (<a href="http://www.snatchtapes.co.uk/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">SNATCH TAPES</a> tch 221), this time released as a limited edition cassette tape. In some ways following on <a href="http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2020/07/27/fragments-shored-against-my-ruins/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">previous outing</a> <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Rumble Of The Ruins</span>, it’s another set of electro-pop songs, carefully composed and layered, all performed and sung by Sanderson.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Once again assured melodic tunes and a user-friendly surface hook the listener in, and at one level the closest comparison might be Sparks (as already identified by another online reviewer), and not just because of the keyboards and multi-tracked vocal parts but also the shrewd knowing tone in the semi-ironic lyrics, which just happen to be littered with enough pop culture references to fill Greil Marcus’ <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">Dustbin Of History</span>. It so happens that our man has blogged about the creation of this album and those inclined to learn more can view a <a href="http://stormbugblog.blogspot.com/2021/07/" rel="noopener" style="box-sizing: inherit;" target="_blank">series of posts he wrote in June-July 2021</a>, printing the lyrics to each song and detailing the circumstances of its creation. Even a cursory skim here will yield a rich harvest of unexpected influences and ideas, including Genesis, Throbbing Gristle, sea shanties, British Cinema of the 1950s, Kraftwerk, Aleister Crowley, Marc Bolan…and that’s not counting the “shopping list” styled song ‘Idol Ferry’ which drops so many ultra-charged names into the magic hat that previous contenders Bill Joel, REM, Paul Simon, and Bob Dylan just wither into tiny raisins…and all this is without taking into account the song-craft, studio technique and technical ability with synths, software, drum machines and sequencers that Sanderson weaves together with an almost invisible skill.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">There’s a certain modesty and charm that conceals this skill; there’s no keyboard solos or other musical flourishes, and all the effort is poured into the song’s construction, each layer adding the precise degree of desired inflection or musical mood to the overall piece. When faced with the familiar producer’s dilemma of having too many good tracks to work with, the composer stoically sighs “you have to choose which child to sacrifice” as he shelves an immaculately recorded instrumental part simply because it doesn’t fit the overall scheme. (Perhaps Brian Wilson should have applied this line of thought in 1966, instead of allowing those multiple takes of ‘Good Vibrations’ or ‘Heroes and Villains’ to grow out of control). Elsewhere, our self-effacing singer comments on how he keeps his own vocal mannerisms in check with a simple “you can have too much chocolate in your box”. The net result of all this work is a number of imaginative and distinctive pop songs (and one instrumental) which will bear repeated listening for many years, and even on early plays one can discern the slightly dark and discordant elements lurking in the background of these otherwise brightly-coloured pop tones, elements which have evidently been layered in with consummate care.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;">Conceptually rich, <span style="box-sizing: inherit; font-style: italic;">NEMCF</span> deserves to be regarded as an intelligent, informed recasting of selected moments from pop/rock music history into new and exciting forms, in a process which has to my mind been matched only by such luminaries as David Thomas and Kraftwerk. <span class="meta-date" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a href="http://www.thesoundprojector.com/2022/03/09/songs-of-friendship/" rel="bookmark" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="7:05 pm">09/03/2022</a></span><span class="meta-author" style="box-sizing: inherit;"> <span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><a class="url fn n" href="http://www.thesoundprojector.com/author/editor/" rel="author" style="box-sizing: inherit; text-decoration: none;" title="View all posts by Ed Pinsent">Ed Pinsent</a></span></span></span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span class="meta-author" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span class="author vcard" style="box-sizing: inherit;">...</span></span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">and Frans De Waard from </span><a href="http://www.vitalweekly.net/1322.html" style="font-family: arial;" target="_blank">Vital Weekly 1322</a><span style="font-family: arial;"> on the Passionate Particles CD.</span></p><p style="box-sizing: inherit; margin-bottom: 1.5em; margin-top: 1.5em; overflow-wrap: break-word;"><span class="meta-author" style="box-sizing: inherit;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);"><b>PHILIP SANDERSON - PASSIONATE PARTICLES (CD by Klanggalerie)</b></span><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" /><br style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);" /><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">I like Austria's Klanggalerie label because they are not strictly a re-issue label, even when a considerable part of their catalogue is about giving old releases a new life. They also like their old artists to release new music, which is great. Please don't stick to your old guns, but also care about new music, as we will see today and in the next few weeks; I got a few of their recent releases. Today I'd like to start with Philip Sanderson. As you may know, Sanderson began his musical career in the late 70s with the Storm Bugs and his Snatch Tapes label. For many years he worked his own name (next to a more ambient oriented side project as Ice Yacht), and 'Passionate Particles' can be seen as a re-issue but not of one particular old release. Rather, it is a collection of pieces from the last twenty years that found their way to a plethora of formats (LP, cassettes, downloads, CDR). I enjoyed Storm Bugs in the past, but Sanderson's work is totally my thing. It is a no-brainer that I picked his album first from the bundle of Klanggalerie. Since the release of 'On One Of Those Bends' (Vital Weekly </span><a href="http://vitalweekly.net/1177.html">1177</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">), I have paid particular attention to his work. There is something lovely pop music about his work. I recently (Vital Weekly </span><a href="http://vitalweekly.net/1290.html">1290</a><span style="caret-color: rgb(0, 0, 0);">; two of the pieces from that cassette are also on this CD) connected to Sparks, especially in his vocal delivery. That is not yet as strong on the sixteen pieces on 'Passionate Particles', except for the two pieces from Not Even My Closest Friends', but poppy it certainly is. Not the naff kind that is popular with the kids these days, but lovely music for adults. All electronic and sometimes instrumental bring a fine balance to the album. I would think that if you love Sparks or The Residents (who have a strong presence in the Klanggalerie as well), Sanderson's music will go down well, even without the guitar parts that these days seem to play a more significant role with The Residents (so I am told, not being the biggest fan there; odd, come to think of it). Sanderson's music isn't per se uptempo and upbeat, but moody and introspective, next to being quirky and pleasant; another excellent act of balancing there. Obviously, you'd find none of these tunes in any top ten, which is a great pity. This is precisely the sort of music that deserves a bigger audience; if only the world would listen! Today it rained a lot, but this release put a big smile on my face. It went straight to repeat, just as yesterday. Next up is some more of his music, as I call it a day and I want to enjoy some more wacky tunes! (FdW)</span></span></span></p></div>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-52786059414961135432022-01-22T14:55:00.027+01:002022-03-18T20:02:50.993+01:00Passionate Particles CD<p><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"></span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRHJXErfcFMeq2C-npwlerZ421Rcx_0DFVIQOCv4mMgJrX1qc0FpZZ7nBctR8KMlEGtHYthIpfwso11nQE480MADIUOUJWusR5QsNeaqEPdzf58Y4YhdS0BmnfHZFp0GWubByHVlzk24bKhGnMz89gNNAe4BUFF2MfDnbDt70HNxAsCzdSiw=s4064" style="clear: left; float: left; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="1908" data-original-width="4064" height="254" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEjRHJXErfcFMeq2C-npwlerZ421Rcx_0DFVIQOCv4mMgJrX1qc0FpZZ7nBctR8KMlEGtHYthIpfwso11nQE480MADIUOUJWusR5QsNeaqEPdzf58Y4YhdS0BmnfHZFp0GWubByHVlzk24bKhGnMz89gNNAe4BUFF2MfDnbDt70HNxAsCzdSiw=w542-h254" width="542" /></a></div><br /><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: center;"><br /></div><div><span style="font-family: arial;">As part of a bunch of new-year CD releases from Klanggalerie which includes archive recordings by Robert Rental, and Frith’s Skeleton Crew comes </span><i style="font-family: arial;"><a href="http://www.klanggalerie.com/gg378" target="_blank">Passionate Particles</a> </i><span style="font-family: arial;">an hour-long compilation of instrumentals and songs by yours truly from the last 21 years. </span></div><div><span style="font-family: arial; font-size: small;"><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">The16 tracks, which are drawn from LP, CD, cassette, and download releases made between 2000 and 2021 reflect the various strands of my output, so as well as Sanderson tracks one also gets four Ice Yacht numbers, and two pieces that originally appeared on Storm Bugs releases.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiaXYr00CDfodzDTwXNQZQmhKn05SWSctwOqgU6cv3kzFn3Zovv9gbZMqt5Q7aNDZrY06s_TeRd13ZQjWcEw7zkI8mXzVfycUoMjWPY2C-nFUJwouQ0hPDjd7FsjOh32oyqxh8-GlEt43RO7-8WWv7Fxg4Yih6UZVnw15Xnz5Xg9YTbx2PAqA=s4125" style="clear: left; display: inline !important; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-right: 1em; text-align: center;"><img border="0" data-original-height="2071" data-original-width="4125" height="274" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/a/AVvXsEiaXYr00CDfodzDTwXNQZQmhKn05SWSctwOqgU6cv3kzFn3Zovv9gbZMqt5Q7aNDZrY06s_TeRd13ZQjWcEw7zkI8mXzVfycUoMjWPY2C-nFUJwouQ0hPDjd7FsjOh32oyqxh8-GlEt43RO7-8WWv7Fxg4Yih6UZVnw15Xnz5Xg9YTbx2PAqA=w543-h274" width="543" /></a></p><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Throughout the 21 years various pieces of hardware and software have come and gone, but the overall methodology has remained largely unchanged. Whatever the set-up almost every track began life as a quick ‘live’ (live in the studio that is) take. In a couple of cases namely "Lay-by Lullaby" and "Feeding Time" the original single take is what you hear, but in most cases there followed many hours of editing. This is especially true of the songs. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">Given that editing and selection is a key element in the process I have favoured computer programmes that facilitate cutting over multitrack recording. Back in 2000 I was using Sound Edit 16 whose real world paradigm was a film magnetic sound stripe. It is what is known as a ‘destructive’ editor. Once you change something that is pretty much it. I liked the way this forces you to make decision (even if you regret some later) and when Sound Edit 16 disappeared along with OS9 I embraced Sound Studio which is very similar, but has endless undos, the ability to use Audio Unit plug-ins and so on. </p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;">So lets run through the tracks.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">1. Lay-by Lullaby </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">My ‘return’ to music making (after 7 or so years concentrating on installations) was made on a Mac bought in late 1997. I had no other hardware to speak of and anyway liked the idea of doing everything in/on the computer. The Mac didn’t come with any music making software but the programmer at Apple David Van Brink who had overseen the implementation of QuickTime music had independently made available a small app called wbl4014. The wbl4014 allows you to access all the QuickTime Musical Instrument parameters and sequence them. A quirky programme without instruction one can do a surprising amount with the wbl4014 albeit the app doesn’t record so one had to organise one’s sequences and then play them back live recording the output to another machine or in my case a mini disk player. The wbl4014 is well suited to short repetitive phrases and is mildly addictive I recorded numerous tracks with it but found myself distilling many of the ideas down into one piece that reminded me both of some of the soundtrack music I had recorded in the 1980s as well as aspects of Ralf and Florian era Kraftwerk when they still combined acoustic with electronic instruments. I decided to make the Dusseldorf suggestion overt and go with the parody motorik title "Lay-by Lullaby". The somewhat thin sounding QuickTime Musical Instruments are supplemented by Moog bass and Melotron string samples. Watch out for the banjo part. Original released as a <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/lay-by-lullaby-2000" target="_blank">CD-R</a> in 2000 and mostly sent to friends.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">2. Omeletto </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Following the release of the Storm Bugs archive recordings on the CD <i>Lets Go Outside And Get it Over</i>, Steven (Ball) and I felt the inevitable urge to make some new Storm Bugs music. We didn’t collaborate on the recordings in the conventional sense, but both of us recorded our own tracks with Storm Bugs’s hats on with the 'idea' of Storm Bugs as a loose frame of reference. An album’s worth of material was recorded from which Walter at Klanggalerie selected 4 tracks for a vinyl EP released in 2002. "Omeletto" is one of the numbers from the <a href="https://stormbugs.bandcamp.com/album/the-bugs-are-back" target="_blank">EP</a> and is made up from loops assembled in Soundedit 16. The vocals sounds are all manipulations of the word egg.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">3. Feeding Time</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">I continued to use the wbl4014 for a number of years When talking about equipment it is easy to slip into technological determinism, but it is more a case of finding software (even if limited) whose underpinning paradigm in some way resonates with one’s musical thinking. I tried umpteen apps at this time, but found myself coming back to the wbl4014. "Feeding Time" is the second track on the CD recorded in one take using the wbl4014. One reviewer compared aspects of the track to chip tune music used in early video games, but having never played video games I was thinking perhaps more of the little runs and riffs that fruit machines make between payouts, or to entice you to put in more money. The jaunty tune designed for feeding fish to seals at the zoo nods to Delia Derbyshire and the BBC Radiophonic Music Workshop. Originally released on The <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/seal-pool-sounds-2005" target="_blank">Seal Pool Sounds</a></i> CD on Seal Pool records with thanks to John Podeszwa.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">4. Body Snatcher & 5. Crystal Set </span></p><div style="text-align: left;"><span lang="EN-US">Crystal Set was recorded around the same time as the S<i>eal Pool</i> material (2005/6) but was not included on the CD as there was a touch of noticeable distortion at the beginning of many of the lead line notes. Six years later I still liked the track and its Kraftwerk as played by Joe Meek feel and tried editing out the distorted sections. This was harder than it should have been as the tracks was recorded in one take and mixed down so it meant losing part of the rhythms as well. A slight jump then occurs here and there rather like an old film slipping in the gate, but this seemed in keeping with the overall period feel. Originally released on the <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/hollow-gravity-2012" target="_blank">Hollow Gravity </a></i>vinyl LP in 2012 on the Puer Gravy label (a short lived enterprise by Eric Lumbleau and Matt Castill th<span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">e</span> people behind the Mutant Sounds blog). <br /></span><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span>6. Down A Denny Lane & 7. Kite</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">The first songs on the compilation. I had written songs (of sorts) for the original incarnation of Storm Bugs as well as the Naomi, Swoon Baboon and subsequent projects, but from 2000 to 2014 my solo output was exclusively instrumental (if one discounts sampled voices). I was initially a little cautious about singing worried my voice was too reedy, out of tune, etc. There was also the concern that the small audience might be alienated by the more ‘poppy’ aspect of the songs. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Writing the songs was relatively straightforward for rather than working with a chord sequence I found that by simply singing over a sequence some kind of tune would quickly emerge that could then be honed down. The lyrics were often shaped by then repeatedly singing the tune back to myself as I walked to work (or wherever), quickly scribbling the words down in a notebook before I forgot them. "Down A Denny Lane", and "Kite" are also the first tracks on the CD to use analogue hardware rather than software, though sonically you would be hard pressed to notice the difference from the tracks on which software synthesizers are used. Originally released by Snatch Tapes on the <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/back-projection-2014" target="_blank">Back Projection</a></i> album. This was my first download only release, which as I soon learnt was something of a guarantee or reaching as small an audience as possible. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">8. Racing The Arctic Shadow & 9. Summer With The Snow Bees </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Having now developed a song based output I still was recording numerous sometimes lengthy instrumentals. I revived a pseudonym from the old Snatch Tapes days namely Ice Yacht (who appeared on Snatch 3) as a vehicle for releasing the material. A fanciful narrative was constructed about the master tapes having been discovered in some permafrost after Ice Yacht had gone on a trip sometime in the early '80s to retrace the journey of Norwegian explorer Fridtjof Nansen to the North Pole. The story was implausible and I doubt one person believed it to be true unlike the Claire Thomas & Susan Vezey saga. Appropriately enough cassettes were once more back in fashion and Fragment Factory in Germany released <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/pole-of-cold-2015" target="_blank">Pole of Cold</a></i> on a snow white tape. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">10. Pity The Small </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">A late addition to The Storm Bugs <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/certified-original-and-vintage-fakes-2017">Certified Original and Vintage Fakes</a></i> album. The track began as an instrumental nod towards Laurie Spiegel and uses the Metasynth slicer to rearrange a short synth sequence into numerous different patterns which were then overlaid. It is that continuously evolving whilst standing still paradigm. The lyrics are reworked and developed from an early (and rather different) version of the song recorded in the early 2000s. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">11 View From A Hill & 12. Rumble Of The Ruins </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">I contributed an early version of View From A Hill to a Linear Obsessional Christmas 2017 compilation, which had as inspiration the MR James ghost stories. The idea of the landscape as palimpsest infuses and informs many of the lyrics I’ve recorded. The whole idea of the hauntological has been very much into vogue in recent years. I view the enthusiasm for all things Weird Britain with a little bemusement as of course Steven and I were exploring such themes albeit on Super 8 film back in the 1980s before such things were fashionable. Both tracks are from the <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/rumble-of-the-ruins-2020">Rumble of The Ruins </a></i>cassette released in 2020.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">13. Slow Water </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Somebody somewhere is no doubt already working on a thesis whose subject is the moody and reflective albums made during lockdown. In my case I was taking longish walks including across Rye harbour, which obliquely fed into the making of the instrumental Ice Yacht <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/pillbox-2020"><i>Pillbox</i> </a>cassette in 2020. Comparisons will possibly be made with the work of Mr. Brian Eno, but the loose inspiration for the track was not the big E but Walt Rockman’s library record <i>Underwater Vol 1.</i> Indeed there is a whole sub genre of underwater library records presumably to compliment the increasing amount of Jaques Cousteau type underwater footage that was shot from the 1950s onwards.. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">14. Morphover & Curl, and 15. Swing </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">Two songs from the 2021 album <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/not-even-my-closest-friends-2021" target="_blank">Not Even my Closest Friends</a></i>. Both are good examples of how songs were conjured from the smallest of fragments. In the case of "Swing" the stating point was the ¾ electronic sequence you hear right at the end of the track and for "Morphover & Curl" it was a 4 note bass line that was overlaid on itself multiple times, each time at a higher frequency until a sequencer type patter emerged. A few weeks and countless overdubs later and the tracks took shape. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">16. Colour Buffer.</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US">The early Storm Bugs tracks made extensive use of the VCS3. It is many years since I have fondled the knobs of the ‘real thing’ but the paradigm of the matrix patch bay and joystick translates well into software and "Colour Buffer" </span>(taken from the 2021 <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/colour-buffer" target="_blank">album of the same name)</a> uses a software VCS3, a sequencer and a previously made recording of some interference. The VCS3 envelope was set to self-trigger (or loop), this then interacted with the trigger from the external sequencer creating a more fluid rhythm than the simple repeated pattern one gets with just a sequencer alone. The recorded interference was fed to various parts of the VCS3 so it is filtered and shaped dynamically with the signal. The whole thing was recorded in one 17-minute take, which was then edited down to the length you hear here.</p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><o:p> </o:p></span></p></span></div>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-30852328970100644092021-08-27T12:36:00.121+02:002021-08-27T20:20:08.213+02:00Turn the dial with your hand<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wBu2hmPek5jpapmDhEwvcunBslbEHBzQ_ezK2S-7OAIGv0jbZYCjfxeJir-WvTt1VcFPcY7-yDuXm9ikdTN1u3_PBe_Ejij_egjmJcblhB52q76XLxE0vN8FLD7tFSt1Z6B5/s400/464762465_7de15dc0f6_o.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="300" data-original-width="400" height="240" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEj_wBu2hmPek5jpapmDhEwvcunBslbEHBzQ_ezK2S-7OAIGv0jbZYCjfxeJir-WvTt1VcFPcY7-yDuXm9ikdTN1u3_PBe_Ejij_egjmJcblhB52q76XLxE0vN8FLD7tFSt1Z6B5/s320/464762465_7de15dc0f6_o.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: Arial;">Continuing the<a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/colour-buffer" target="_blank"> Colour Buffer </a>sleeve notes lets look at the use of shortwave radio on the first three tracks. </span><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The only electronic music available to many in the first half of the 20<sup>th </sup>century was to be found on the shortwave band. To some the modulating, phasing, pulsing and distorted sound of shortwave was simply unwanted noise, but a few recognised that the ‘noise’ was in itself a kind of music. The exotic otherness of such interference was added to by the voices in foreign tongues, together with music that even the most intrepid of collectors would never find. Then there were the unidentified utterances, lists of numbers, calls to prayer or declamations by preachers spirited into the air for who knows what if any intended audience. A listener could dial through the same band over and over and each time find something different, even fractions of an inch of rotation of a dial around a busy node could bring several different mixes in and out of play. A shortwave radio provided invaluable hand ear training for any future sound artist. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Given the sonic possibilities of shortwave radio it was taken up by both the heroic figures of the avant-garde such as <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXFd_yR7pck" target="_blank">Stockhausen</a><span style="color: black;">, <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=453zupHVV9c" target="_blank">Cage</a></span><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=453zupHVV9c" target="_blank"> </a>and bands including the <a href="https://youtu.be/t1Jm5epJr10?t=210" target="_blank">Beatles</a>, Pink Floyd, Kraftwerk and Can. In avant-garde or experimental contexts shortwave sounds were treated as an instrument in its own right whilst for more popular music contexts it is nearly always an addition to the mix. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In Can it was Holger Czukay who was the shortwave man, recording hours of it late into the night onto Dictaphone tapes. There is a certain circularity here as Czukay in the 1960s was a student of Stockhausen and it was supposedly hearing “I am the Walrus by the Beatles” with its AM dial surfing towards the end of the song (itself a nod towards Stockhausen) that inspired an interest in Czukay for the possibilities of popular music with him becoming a founder member of Can a year later. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Czukay’s shortwave tour de force was <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x4C7sXuAojc" target="_blank"><i>Movies</i> </a>released in 1979 with its loose structure built around steady percussive patterns provided by Can drummer Jaki Liebezeit over which are collaged painstakingly edited shortwave recordings. Persian harmonies and snatches of trumpets drift in an out colliding with voices and unexplained crashes and bangs. Woven around this Czukay adds a further layer of instrumentation including keyboards and double speed guitar (which then sounds positively Highlife). It is a tour de force and the template of a rhythm groove over which radio or other ‘found sound’ samples are overlaid would be employed not only for Eno and Byrne’s My Life in The bush of Ghosts which followed a couple of years later in 1981, but the use of sampling in general in popular music. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In this context it may be useful to distinguish three distinct sources: </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">1. Sounds recorded directly from the radio and/or live radio broadcasts.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">2. Found sound usually from tape or record – this may include spoken word such as say an instruction or information record, and non-mainstream musical recordings. This latter category could encompass music by folk or indigenous artists, or simply artists that are out of fashion and/or from a different era. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm; text-indent: -18pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">3. Voices and instruments treated in a way that to some degree emulates what happens through the broadcasting process.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Though distinct in their origins and sociocultural what have you the first two categories have often been used interchangeably or combined. Think "nineteen" by Paul Hardcastle, or M|A|R|R|S’s "Pump Up The Volume", and possibly the epitome Eric B. & Rakim’s <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5iiEtFL69I" target="_blank">"Paid in Full" </a>We are talking here of the Coldcut remix of "Paid In Full". British duo Coldcut would have known all about Czukay, and their remix owes so much to spirit of Movies that royalties should have been paid to Czukay along with all of the other snippets that no doubt had to eventually be reimbursed. "Paid In Full" uses little if anything recorded from the radio but the samples share the same audio quality and sense of displacement. So whereas Czukay takes snippets of Persian singing from the shortwave Coldcut use a recording of Israeli singer Ofra Haza treated to sound as if broadcast. Where <i>Movies</i> contains what sound like extracts from a radio or TV drama Coldcut take lines from Humphrey and The Big Sleep. The opening line “This is a journey into sound!" is the voice of British actor Geoffrey Sumner from a stereo demonstration record, and so on. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The essential difference between Czukay and Coldcut is less the source of the samples but that whereas Czukay weaves his radio samples in and around the (hand played) beat, and then adds instrumentation to further intertwine with the samples, in contrast Coldcut are bang on the drum machine beat. Everything becomes sublimated and slave to the drum track even Eric B. & Rakim become samples on their own records - something which perhaps encouraged their initial dislike of the remix. In this context the samples state and self declare their otherness, there is an element of “heh listen to this weird shit I found” – how quaint and old fashioned Geoffrey Sumner “This is a journey into sound!" sounds, how exotic Ofra Haza is, and heh Bogey’s still got it. This the beginning of sampling less as celebration and more as cultural appropriation, reaching a bastardised popularity in the work of artists such as Moby. But lets not be too damming it is an easy line to crossover.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Moving on to the third category - voices and instruments treated in a way that to some degree emulates what happens when broadcast. There is some crossover here with existing recordings manipulated to make them sound shortwave, but there is a whole further class which is the production of sounds from scratch that emulate shortwave radio. 1970s Hawkwind come to mind with Dik Mik and Del Dettmar using a combination of VCS3 and tone generators to generate a wash of bleeps and bloops combined with rising and falling frequencies that sounded like (barely) controlled shortwave as one was transported to the further reaches of inner and outer consciousness (see <i>Space Ritual</i>). </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">A more specialist form of shortwave generation is to be found with Kraftwerk. A cursory listen to their 1975 album <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VPymqvtbFSA&list=PLiN-7mukU_REXqmXgkR6tJrDaAWZ34wSX" target="_blank">Radio-Activity</a> suggests that it combines classic and characteristic shortwave static and noises with vocals and simple melodies that could be radio station idents or call signals. Except that unlike Czukay’s Dictaphone recordings it is entirely manufactured, with the shortwave sounds being created in the Kling Klang studio using synthesizers, and the ethereal voices and strings coming from the newly acquired Vako Orchestron (a form of optical disk Mellotron), and the vocals being processed through a vocoder. On close examination it seems there is possibly no radioactivity on <i>Radio-Activity</i>.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">As always Kraftwerk are tight lipped about their compositional choices, but there is a continuity of logic from the synthesized cars on Autobhan, the synthetic ‘natural’ sounds on Morgenspaziergang, and then the artifice of <i>Radio-Activity.</i> It is as if Kraftwerk listened to shortwave, analysed the atoms of musicality before re-imagining them in the studio. Conceptually it is a very clear statement, and eliminates chance and replaces it with determination. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So where does my own practice fit into all this? Not surprisingly I was drawn to the sounds of the radio and in the mid 1970s mixed it into a few nascent experimental tape pieces, subsequently snatches of phone-in programmes, and various ring modulated voices are to be found on the 1980 release </span><i style="font-family: Arial;">Table Matters EP.</i><span style="font-family: Arial;"> This mirrored the way that shortwave and samples were often used in the post-punk DIY industrial context which is to add a dystopian je ne sais quoi. Throbbing Gristle were the masters of this combination of noise and found sound, but by the early 1980s when combined with photocopied sleeve art depicting bondage, mutilation or some other horror art is soon became gratuitous. The Storm Bugs track <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/hodge" target="_blank">"Hodge"</a> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;">recorded in 1979 employs a different approach. On one of the radio bands at the time was a particularly thick and ominous drone. Legend had it (and I don’t recall where this information came from) that it was a blocking or jamming signal coming from somewhere behind the iron curtain designed to obliterate or make unlistenable stations such as Radio Free Europe. It may have been something else entirely as I recorded the drone on a little cassette radio in Deptford in the halls of residence, which was a short distance away from Deptford power station. So it may have been some kind of electrical generator signal. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Whatever the truth it was a ferocious roaring wave which was given shape in "Hodge" not by placing it over a beat but by feeding it through a VCS3 and using a combination of the self triggering envelope, and ring modulator to chop up the drone into various overlaid rhythmical pulses. It is a very simple method but one that would be difficult to achieve on another synth, and which I have had trouble replicating. As was so often the case with the VCS3 you would find a certain sweet spot and everything would fall into place and one would then commit the piece to tape as quickly as possible knowing that even if you painstakingly wrote down all the knob positions it would never sound quite the same again.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">So "Hodge" did something different from the shortwave over a groove paradigm instead it foregrounded elements that were inherent in the sound teasing out a certain musicality from and inherent in the material, and using only that to create a track. In this sense Hodge has more in common with the avant-garde approach to shortwave however in its self-consciously pedestrian and straightforward parodying of a rock beat and/or Tony Visconti T.Rex string arrangement it would have found little favour with the more academic experimental practitioners of the day. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">From 1981 onwards my use of shortwave began to echo certain elements of the Kraftwerk approach. I too shared a fondness for the simple radio ident melodies played on vibraphone or marimba and these began to appear on many tracks both instrumentals and songs, and do so until the present day. The other Dusseldorf related element is the creation from scratch of broadcast type sounds, specifically radio voices.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">For the soundtrack of the 1988 short film <i><a href="https://player.bfi.org.uk/free/film/watch-green-on-the-horizon-1988-online" target="_blank">Green on the Horizon </a></i>(made with Steven Ball) snippets of shortwave radio are interspersed between the voices of a male and female announcer who provide opaque instructions on how to negotiate a landscape. The recordings were inspired both by the prosaic and yet poetic sound of the BBC shipping forecast, and of the radio broadcasts in Cocteau’s film <i>Orphée</i>. Jean Marais as Orphée spends an increasing amount of time in the Rolls Royce parked in the g</span><span style="font-family: arial;">arage <a href="https://www.blogger.com/blog/post/edit/14482044/3085232897010064409" style="color: blue;">l</a><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Dn8m6GwC-jA" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">istening to the car radio</span> </a>fr</span><span style="font-family: Arial;">om which comes enigmatic phrases</span><span style="background-color: white;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">.</span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: Arial;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">Cocteau took the idea for these phrases from the coded messages broadcast during WW2 from the British military intelligence intended for French resistance fighters. There is another (pleasing) circularity here as the voices (especially the voice of energy) on Kraftwerk’s <i>Radio-Activity</i> owe a debt to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Dl9E1osfs" target="_blank">Alpha 60</a></span><span style="color: #202124; font-family: Arial;"><span style="color: blue;"><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=89Dl9E1osfs" target="_blank"> </a></span></span><span style="font-family: Arial;">computer in Godard’s <i>Allpahaville </i>which itself draws heavily on Cocteau’s Orphée. For Green on the Horizon two English language teachers (TEFL) provided the voices with a few takes needed to get just the right deadpan delivery. The introductory section of the film was included on the <i>On One of These Bends </i>LPs, and has received a modest amount of airplay. Interestingly a few comments have suggested that the voices are sampled old BBC archive recordings or similar.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">There was very little if any shortwave in my installation work of the 1990s but the return to music making in the early 2000s produced <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/lay-by-lullaby-2000" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">"Lay-by Lullaby"</a> and <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/crystal-set" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">"Crystal Set"</span> </a>both nods to Kraftwerk, and radio land. Shortwave was reinvestigated on the short film<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bFn9g8BmP04" style="color: blue;" target="_blank"> <i>Pebble Dot Dash </i></a>(2018) whose soundtrack is comprised almost entirely from radio recordings. In <i>Pebble Dot Dash </i>the camera takes a series of elliptical walks on and off the beaten track around my hometown of Hastings. The moving images are married with shortwave transmissions from across the globe including China, Pakistan, Russia, the USA, and elsewhere. Though long since superseded by other forms of electronic communication shortwave still has a place and many of the transmissions reflect contemporary concerns and anxieties; deals and scams, the financing of the second coming, aspiration and desire. The idea was to offset the local as caught by the hand held camera with a global shortwave audio, which was ‘in the air’ at the time of the filming.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: #15222d; font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This rather long (but hopefully interesting) preamble brings us to the use of shortwave in </span><i><span style="color: #15222d; font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/colour-buffer" target="_blank"><span style="color: blue;">Colour Buffer</span>.</a> </span></i><span style="font-family: Arial;">The first three tracks employ shortwave but all in different ways. The title track as noted in the last blog entry was recorded with an emulation of the VCS3 and indeed uses a variation/development of the "Hodge" patch. I was keen to see if there are ways to develop the paradigm of extracting the musical essence from the shortwave, and/or leading with it as opposed to working over a beat. The VCS3’s self-triggering envelope and ring modulator are once again at the heart of the sound shaping, but this time contouring a shortwave recording together with the synth’s white noise/oscillators. The shortwave loop is more minimal than that of "Hodge" and acts something like a background constant or drone that colours, and interplays with the synthesized components. An external sequencer imposes its own notational pattern, further modified in real time using the joystick and the individual knobs to create a series of crescendo moments or events. As is nearly always the case with a VCS3 or this case an emulation a ‘sweet spot’ was reached where the different element began to interact and to a degree play themselves. </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/over-the-horizon" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">"Over the Horizon" </a>used what to me was a new piece of equipment the Moog DFAM. I was drawn to the DFAM as its combination of sequencer and oscillators and white noise echoes the way one can make percussion sounds with a VCS3. It also has an external input and though lacking the possibilities of a self triggering envelope there is a lot of scope for cross modulation between a radio input and the onboard sound sources. I found that classical music stations worked well and added colour and melody to a simple 8-step pattern. The melody is not that of the original classical piece as one is in effect sampling small slices of it, but something in-between that and the sequencer pattern. One plays with the DFAM’s setting to reach some optimum combination. In this instance a lolloping Krautrock sound began to emerge somewhere between Can and Ralf & Florian. I decided to go with a small element of homage, after all we are well past the point of cutting edge. Subsequently a bass and drum pattern were added but kept low in the mix so as to avoid the track falling into the sample over a beat formula.</span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="color: #15222d; font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span>Lastly <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/velvet-coordinates-in-the-park" style="color: blue;" target="_blank">"Velvet Coordinates in the Park"</a></span><span style="color: #15222d;">. </span><span>I</span><span> found a Yamaha CS-15 in a local music shop in Hastings over ten years ago. A rather polite synth for my tastes it does however feature an external input which can be used to trigger the envelope. In this instance shortwave radio sounds were used to do just that thereby reshaping and colouring them. I long since sold the Yamaha to a collector, and the recordings were left on the hard drive. Recently with my renewed enthusiasm for shortwave I began to experiment with time and pitch shifting the sounds, and this seemed to pull the audio in two directions – with certain aspects of the original shortwave being brought to the surface whilst simultaneously whole new sonic characteristics began to emerge. </span></span><span style="font-family: arial;">Ah the old alchemical promise </span><span style="font-family: arial;">of musique concrète</span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";">.</span><span style="font-family: arial;"><span> </span></span><span style="font-family: "Times New Roman";"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span face="-webkit-standard"><o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0.1pt 0cm;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">All three colour Buffer shortwave pieces whilst different from one another seek to extend the paradigm a little - extracting the musicality from within the shortwave, avoiding the sample over the beat trap, or the gratuitous dystopian, not to mention the sometimes too pompously academic. </span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-9483635056947048882021-08-16T10:11:00.001+02:002021-08-16T10:11:58.606+02:00Enter The Matrix<p><span style="font-family: Arial;">So to continue the sleeve notes for <i><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/colour-buffer" target="_blank">Colour Buffer</a></i> and the questions raised during its making lets look at the<a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/colour-buffer" target="_blank"> title track</a> that exclusively used PHILTHY by Phuteretone a Reaktor software emulation of the VCS3.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The EMS VCS3 is an analogue synthesizer produced in England from 1969 to the present day. In research terms we can view it as a paradigm in which the specifics of the layout and of some of its components encourages a different mode of composition from both more conventional keyboard synthesizers, and modular synths.</span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Objectively there are no good or bad synthesizers, each will facilitate a certain type of sound making, sometimes just one element such as a filter may be what is characteristic about a piece of equipment. The most striking aspect of the VCS3 (and the suitcase version the Synthi) is the patch matrix. No modules are hard wired together, and to hear a sound a connection must be first made between a sound source and an output. This is done not by using a cable as is the case on a traditional modular synthesizer but by using pins on a 16 x 16 matrix panel. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Ergonomically a matrix is much neater, each pin replaces a cable and two jack sockets and even a relatively simple patch on a VCS3 would if translated to a modular synth become a tangle of cables. Neatness aside what the matrix does is encourage one to think in a different way. On the Synthi and on all software versions of the synth the matrix rather than the control knobs is at the visual centre of the synth. This not only serves as remainder of the signal pathways – something that is all too easy to forget amidst a jumble of cables, but also encourages one to think of patches as lateral rather than linear, connecting one output (be it signal or control voltage) to several destinations at once.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzME_Eqy5F_gRzm2ZhYczIHctGqcQfzYWgICf64UFc22z2l112UAb9ykNS4TEI4nPYMIQwXOJySQ1KYBA5PfvgFCfwNKhuvejVZiHZ9lXHntjNQtYbhtrEZX1Y-FzBw4Tg2spD/s979/Screen+Shot+2021-08-15+at+08.01.45.png" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="651" data-original-width="979" height="414" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhzME_Eqy5F_gRzm2ZhYczIHctGqcQfzYWgICf64UFc22z2l112UAb9ykNS4TEI4nPYMIQwXOJySQ1KYBA5PfvgFCfwNKhuvejVZiHZ9lXHntjNQtYbhtrEZX1Y-FzBw4Tg2spD/w621-h414/Screen+Shot+2021-08-15+at+08.01.45.png" width="621" /></a></div><br /><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">In the above picture (taken from the PHILTHY) if one looks down the matrix on the left hand side to the osc 3 triangle and then across in the pink highlighted row one can see it is doing several things at the same time. As a sound source it is being fed into the ring modulator, as a control voltage it affecting the frequency of oscillator 2, the wave shape of oscillator 1 & 2, the filter frequency, the envelope release time and the reverb mix. So several aspects of the sound are being impacted simultaneously. Oscillator 3 is itself being controlled by the x/y joystick, which is patched so that as you move the stick certain values increase whilst others decrease. Thus with just the action of the triangle wave and a few movements of the joystick a number of parameters are changed. It is this potential for simultaneous transformation of multiple parameters that is at the heart of what makes a VCS3 different.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfF21ENFy58susCz5VvzuoF1JHveQTaMVp1zWG3IUdwQjvYYSm-ovqeWPO5QICaxCw3mnYifznCS5Os9IxhBSECmaWzwIX8MyHIX_IvuEpkHbN6iL1Q5aFR_UHiqraXIwHtkr/s302/cusp.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="275" data-original-width="302" height="275" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhpfF21ENFy58susCz5VvzuoF1JHveQTaMVp1zWG3IUdwQjvYYSm-ovqeWPO5QICaxCw3mnYifznCS5Os9IxhBSECmaWzwIX8MyHIX_IvuEpkHbN6iL1Q5aFR_UHiqraXIwHtkr/s0/cusp.jpg" width="302" /></a></div><p></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">These transformations may progress smoothly or may be clustered around rapid and sudden changes in the sound. A useful analogy can be drawn with the three dimensional models found in Catastrophe Theory (see above diagram) in which periods of smooth transition lead to dynamic state changes at cusp or nodal points are encountered and the movement of direction shifts to another plane. Think of the process of bending a piece of thin metal. One can twist it back and forth in a regular and repeated motion several times until at a certain point the metal snaps. Catastrophe Theory can be usefully applied to map everything from physical processes to social situations. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Together with the joystick the one module of the VCS3 that is unusual is the envelope/trapezoid generator. Unlike the more common ADSR used to shape sounds in 99% of synthesizers the EMS envelope can be set to self-trigger or loop. Sounds can be fed into the envelope and shaped by it, and the trapezoid output used to voltage control say the pitch of an oscillator or the filter frequency. With the envelope release itself being voltage controlled one can set up control loops in which the speed of the self-triggering is dynamically changed by say a triangle wave from one of the oscillators.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">What is being described is in effect a system that incorporates elements of self- determination. Referring back to the blog post on the tape delay system and the Riley notion of it as “Phantom Band” the VCS3 similarly can be configured to not so much play itself as be a springboard against which one bounces. The user is directing the flow of events as they are being generated by the synth, working with and against the flow.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">This was precisely the process used in the title track Colour Buffer. The patch uses the self-triggering of the envelope to shape a pulsing snare like sound and tone. An external sequencer interacts with and imposes its own notational pattern on to this train of pulses, and these are further modified in real time by hand using the joystick and the individual on screen knobs to create a series of crescendo moments or events. The track was recorded in one 30 minute take before being edited down to the seven minute version heard here. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Notes:</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">The VCS3 was the first synthesizer I used after moving to London in 1978. The electronic music studio at Goldsmiths college was at that time equipped with 2 VCS3s and a Synthi. Prior to this I had used rewired (or circuit bent) radios and cassette players as sound sources. The VCS3 seemed a natural progression from that approach. It was the VCS3 that enabled the recording of much of the Storm Bugs and solo output from 1978-82. I last used an actual VCS3 in around 1991 when working on the Shadowman soundtrack at Morley college. I was looking for a touch of reverb and ring modulation to add to a sound and dragged one of the VCS3s out of the cupboard where it was sitting unused and unloved. Ron Briefel the then technician at Morley wasn’t sure if it would work but sure enough it fired up nicely.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">VCS3s are nominally still in production by EMS – there is however a waiting list of many years for one of the synths made in very limited numbers down in Cornwall. On the second hand market original VCS3s are around £12,000. A number of cloning projects exist using replica circuit boards to the original, these can be bought for around £5,000. The once affordable synth is now a collector’s item. It may seem counter intuitive for this most analogue of synths to be rendered in software, but many aspects of the VCS3 paradigm can not only be easily emulated they to an extent work better as matrix patches can be stored and sounds recreated in a way which was not possible on the original. Over a 10-year period I worked on and off on my own software version built in Max/MSP. This gradually gained a number of enhancements culminating in a version in which the pins are replaced by small dials allowing one to very precisely control parameters. This Synthi P as I dubbed it was used on numerous solo, Ice Yacht and Storm Bugs tracks. Last year however I came across another emulation built in Reaktor which though having less functionality sounded in some way ‘better’. I was initially a little nonplussed what exactly was it making the difference? A side-by-side comparison of the sounds didn’t reveal too much, but the Reaktor synth was somehow easier on the ear and to use the cliche 'warmer' especially when used over an extended period. After much digging around on forums I found a post from an old Max/MSP hand which conceded that it was acknowledged (at least by high end users) that though Max offers greater flexibility when it comes to sound design its oscillators and sound engine are simply not as good (at reproducing the sound of analogue circuits) as those of Reaktor. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><br /></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-71272833368297283522021-08-10T10:36:00.006+02:002021-08-10T13:13:38.210+02:00Time keeps on slipping - into the future.<p></p><div class="separator" style="clear: both; text-align: left;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1HcZClwSCs9rOmGzyd7r7raTUwUUMkPwlKas0wZlx18hmZUzOUrQDQ943k2aM7UT_V4eiVw7DjkdrWB800ofn67f4CX5r6i4En-g2JkVW_NmGVeg-hPMs6en-geYPmiaFCzU/s700/buffer.jpg" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" data-original-height="700" data-original-width="700" height="320" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEh-1HcZClwSCs9rOmGzyd7r7raTUwUUMkPwlKas0wZlx18hmZUzOUrQDQ943k2aM7UT_V4eiVw7DjkdrWB800ofn67f4CX5r6i4En-g2JkVW_NmGVeg-hPMs6en-geYPmiaFCzU/s320/buffer.jpg" width="320" /></a></div><span style="font-family: arial;">Having indulged my pop ego with April's song based release </span><i style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/not-even-my-closest-friends-2021">Not Even My Closest Friends</a> </i><span style="font-family: arial;">we can now return to exploring issues and debates within contemporary electronic music by way of the new Ice Yacht </span><i style="font-family: arial;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/colour-buffer" target="_blank">Colour Buffer</a></i><span style="font-family: arial;"> album. OK only joking - well to an extent, as whenever I make instrumental music there is a sense of in some way seeking to resolve or answer a number of questions. These questions are unspecified in the academic sense, as without going round the "is practice research" roundabout - the idea that an artwork can ever be an answer to a research question reduces the creative process to something likely to make for an interesting paper, but an uninteresting artwork. Nonetheless questions there are, many of them dating back to the early 1980s. </span><p></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">For example how might one extend the rhythmic use of the tape delay (paradigm)? To which a possible answer might be "<a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/kicky-bang-bang" target="_blank">kicky Bang Bang</a>".</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">To um 'unpack' this a little. Lets start with the tape delay paradigm. As used by Fripp and Eno (who had borrowed the idea from Terry Riley who first used it in the early 1960s) a tape delay is an extended from of echo using two tape machines (one recording the other playing back). Instead of delay time measured in milliseconds as typically found on an echo pedal, tape delay can produce much longer repeats of say 4 or 8 seconds, with the delay being dependant on how far apart the record and playback machine are positioned. Inevitably the exact length is a little imprecise and so one tends to play to the repeat, laying down one note or short phrase and waiting for it to repeat before counterpointing or adding to it with another note or phrase, slowly building up a looping pattern. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Terry Riley/Pauline Oliveros called their tape delay system a "time lag accumulator", reflecting perhaps the odd way in which the system takes the (musical) past, layers it and then transports it (literally in the case of the tape as it stretches from one machine to the other) into the present. There is the paradox of the sounds apparent retreat into the distance, which is actually a projection into the future.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Another way of looking at a tape delay is as a realtime version of multi tracking whereby the process of overdubbing takes place without having to start and stop the machine (or DAW). You are automatically overdubbing yourself, you can become your own lead and accompanist, a shadow band if you will as reflected in the Terry Riley title "<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mgIT5xh1nJE" target="_blank">Poppy Nogood and the Phantom Band<span style="background-color: white; caret-color: rgb(77, 81, 86);">"</span></a>.</span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This Phantom Band quickly takes on a life of its own, and absorbs player and listener alike. The result is often a series of languid long notes creating a looping wash of sound, encouraged by the decaying quality of the analogue repeats. Eno's <i><a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tLZtnadL1s0" target="_blank">Discreet Music</a></i> would be a perfect example of this. There is a certain mesmeric aspect as the ear anticipates the repetitions. You can even try this for yourself as there is a <a href="https://codepen.io/teropa/full/WjPEBw" target="_blank">very nice online app</a> that recreates the process. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">This shall we say traditional approach to tape delay I pastiched on the 1980 <a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/bright-waves" target="_blank">"Bright Waves" </a>track, but had ambitions to try something different - faster and more rhythmic. This was the basis of "<a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/track/reprint-one">Reprint" </a>1 & 2 using a sequencer and VCS3 to feed short percussive patterns into the delay. The process was somewhat hit and miss working on the fly to create new patterns to compliment or offset what was in the loop. At points percussive poly rhythmical interplays are achieved at others the loop becomes overloaded sounding more like a cave with melting ice spikes. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">I last set up an analogue reel-to-reel delay in the early 1990s for a soundtrack project but in the early 2000s feeling there was possibly more to do, returned to the idea in the digital realm. At that point most digital delays produced either 100% accurate repeats (within the boundaries of bit rates, etc) or mimicked bucket brigade guitar stomp pedals in which the repeats get progressively darker or murkier. For a tape delay the opposite is true the repeats get thinner and brighter as the bottom rolls off which each return. The 100% accurate repeat it turns out produces a very sterile sounding loop, it seems that colouration you get with a reel-to-reel is as with much analogue equipment a technical failing that the ear rather likes. It was a while before I found a plug-in with a filter setting that one could adjust so as to colour the repeats. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Unlike the analogue tape delay one can with a digital delay accurately set the delay length and if using a sequencer set that to a specific time or BPM. So one has the basis for creating complex evolving patterns, well up to a point. One can divide and subdivide the beats so as to achieve a range of rhythms and yet there is still a fair degree of trial and error. There is an offset between making mathematical calculations as to where beats will fall and interact, and simply playing with the sequencer pattern and speed until something interesting happens. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">'Interesting' is of course highly subjective, but there is an optimum moment when the phantom band seem to be cooking up an evolving rhythm that has a life of its own. There is another tendency however and that is for a delay piece to engross one whilst recording, but for it to sound pedestrian when played back an hour later. I must have deleted 99% of the delay pieces I have recorded for this reason. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">Partly this may be due to delay pieces not responding well to the 'needle drop' style playback one might use when listening back to other tracks You really need to start at the beginning and listen all the way through. So occasionally I have erased tracks that may have had more merit than I thought. Indeed this is exactly what happened with "Kicky Bang Bang" which I has transferred to my phone to listen to on a train journey earlier this year only to then delete it from my hard drive and forget about it, before then rediscovering it on a subsequent train ride recently. </span></p><p><span style="font-family: arial;">That's it for now - lets do more unpacking of other questions on future posts. </span></p><p><br /></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-345088497904164422021-07-06T08:50:00.003+02:002021-07-10T14:36:07.267+02:00Not Even My Closest Friends - sleeve notes – Day For Night <iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4262636314/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=922925520/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 42px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/not-even-my-closest-friends">Not Even My Closest Friends by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Day for Night <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The sunken features of a satellite <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The moon tide turning as two stars collide</span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 12pt;">And love ignites </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Depth of field <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">An image caught inside a Catherine wheel <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Rotating, turning now you can’t conceal <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Just how she feels <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The day is dressed, but still unlit <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The benzy buzzing of fingertips <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">That spark a thought into a sound <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">As the motorcade drives underground <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Edge of frame <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Peep through the curtain to that other plane <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Rewind forwards, and then backwards again <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">In a looped refrain. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Fade to black <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The film is over, and the screen retracts <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">We leave the theatre in our stove pipe hats <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">As the stars collapse <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The day is dressed, but still unlit <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The benzy buzzing of fingertips <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">That spark a thought into a sound <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">As the motorcade drives underground<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">This track is the closest to the small group of songs I recorded at West Square almost 40 years ago with Naomi. Back then it was a simple VCS3 pattern over which I laid vocals and vibes before then asking Naomi to sing them as her vocal style seemed more suited to the tongue in cheek cinema inspired tales of “mixing drinks and aeroplanes”. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Here the first phrase that came to mind whilst singing over a synth pattern was “day for night” a film term that describes a now largely redundant technique of shooting what are ostensibly night time scenes during the day, but underexposing them. Rather like back projection, day for night is far from convincing, but has its own charm. The phrase itself is perhaps more evocative than the technique. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Having chosen the first phrase I decided to begin each verse with some kind of film term. As with the Naomi tracks the lyrics are mini melodramas - they could be outlines for 1980s pop videos in which lots of stylised action takes place with a performative vacuousness. There are plenty of nods to that and this, “the sunken features of a satellite takes in Bowie, Bolan and Reed in one go, “caught inside a Catherine wheel” is “Windmills of Your Mind” and so on. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Musically it went from a simple backing, vibes and vocals to a full on orchestration, so much so that I had to start cutting back the velveteen layers to make any kind of sense of the mix. Vocally I tried to keep the delivery as unmannered and plain as possible, you can have too much chocolate in your box. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">This is the last track proper to be covered from the album which leaves "Bye", suffice to say it is not my dad speaking. </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> <o:p></o:p></span></p><p><span style="font-family: Arial;"> </span> </p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-2450078984787431872021-07-05T08:10:00.001+02:002021-07-05T08:11:08.652+02:00Not Even My Closest Friends - sleeve notes – Swing<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4262636314/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=433863251/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 42px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/not-even-my-closest-friends">Not Even My Closest Friends by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe> <div><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Dance a furry foxtrot </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">In your puss in boots shoes </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Hobble as you hopscotch </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now late Chelsea muse </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Saucy little swindle in </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Cigarette tight pants </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">All of a giggle </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Out blowing the ranks </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Swing why dust she swing thee </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Swing thee round the house </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Bring why dust she bring thee </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Crashing to the ground </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Reflecting on a fortune </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Now in the looking glass </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Cream on the wrinkles </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Blur on the past </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Plotting every movement </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">With glass headed pins </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Waiting for the moment </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Knowing when to give in </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Swing why dust she swing thee </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Swing thee round the house </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Bring why dust she bring thee </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">Crashing to the ground</span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">As with so many of the tracks “Swing” started life as a sequencer pattern, this time a ¾ tango type pattern which you can hear at the beginning of the track. Over this I quickly improvised a vibraphone and matching vocal line and the core of the song was there so to speak, bar the usual challenge of working out what if anything the song was about - filling in the gaps between the few phrases I had already mouthed. I usually do this by repeatedly singing the lyrics to myself as I walk along the road, stopping every now and then to scribble a new line down in a notebook. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;">The scene is 1950s Chelsea – the model is perhaps Major Rupert Rutland-Smith from the film The League Of Gentleman. In the film Rutalnd-Smith’s wife makes little attempt to disguise her unfaithfulness talking to her lover on the phone whilst taking a bath with Smith in earshot. “The war’s been over a long time” - “Nothing’s rationed anymore, there’s plenty to go round” she says provocatively. This and a host of other B & W 1950s British films provided the role models for the different characters that pop in and out of the song. For a singer prone to sibilance the lyrics are almost a self-directed/inflicted challenge. </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="font-family: arial;"> </span></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: arial;"><span lang="EN-US">Musically a top of the ¾ synth pattern I added various layers of tango type instrumentation albeit warped and morphed. So in the mix one has organ, brass, vibes, piano overly foregrounded drum all building to something of a New Orleans funeral march on the chorus. </span>In all of this the original synth sequence got a little lost so on the final mix I poked its head through here and there.</span></p></div>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-14482044.post-58211765376777430662021-07-04T08:08:00.001+02:002021-07-04T08:08:10.135+02:00Not Even My Closest Friends - sleeve notes – Before The Mast<iframe seamless="" src="https://bandcamp.com/EmbeddedPlayer/album=4262636314/size=small/bgcol=ffffff/linkcol=0687f5/track=366466412/transparent=true/" style="border: 0; height: 42px; width: 100%;"><a href="https://snatchtapes.bandcamp.com/album/not-even-my-closest-friends">Not Even My Closest Friends by Philip Sanderson</a></iframe>
<p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span style="font-family: Arial;">Upon the rocks where the winter waves dash </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Along the shoreline with its twinkle lightning flash <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">It all happened a long song ago <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">When we were drifting, our powder running low <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"><br /></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">And all the while you were waiting on the drum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">But nowt to hear but the sad and dirty hum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">All dressed up in your bright blue uniform <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Before the mast and waiting for the storm <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">And when it came it hit just like a fist <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The bow it buckled, and broke just like a stick <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">We were tossed high into the air <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Our mouths were gagged by wind and rain and hair <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">And all the while you were waiting on the drum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">But nowt to hear, but the sad and dirty hum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">All dressed up in your bright blue uniform <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Before the mast, and waiting for the storm <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">The morning after, the waters still and slow <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Just a little debris in the ebb and flow <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">No sign of bodies, and no sign of blood <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">All hand were lost, taken down to the mud <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">And all the while you were waiting on the drum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">But nowt to hear but the sad and dirty hum <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">All dressed up in your bright blue uniform <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Before the mast and waiting for the storm<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">In 2012 to coincide with the release of the Hollow Gravity LP I recorded a session of nautically inspired instrumentals for Daniel Blumin on WFMU. One of the tracks “Running The Rigging” is a lively number using the MFB Nanozwerg and the Rota-Synth sequencer. It has a crashing through the waves, tossed on the high seas feel, and over the years I have returned to it adding more sonic layers, but to no real effect as after a while it seemed to merely drown out the riff. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">One approach I did try in 2013 was to add a vocal line with sea shanty phrasing. This was well before the shanty became all the rage in the pandemic, but even back then I wasn’t convinced that it wasn’t a tad contrived. Last year (I don’t give up do I) I tried again but this time instead of more atonal noise I added a simple set of chords. This provided the foundation for a verse/chorus structure. I kept a nautical theme to the lyrics borrowing the title of one of the other WFMU session tracks as a chorus lynchpin. The three verses are a relatively simple tale of a boat and all hands lost at sea with the chorus returning us repeatedly to a figure “all dressed up in your bright blue uniform, before the mast and waiting for the storm”. Is it a metaphor for something, for the pandemic, for impending doom, tempting but I’m not sure that it is. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">Once a song structure was in place and the BPM established extra musical parts could be added and there is veritable orchestra of vibes, piano, brass, strings, scaffold poles (from an old improv session) and other sundry noises. There were so many tracks that I ran into those mixing dilemmas they earnestly discuss in muso magazines and on line. Basically you reach a point of having to decide which instruments to foreground and which to leave in a supporting role. So one may have a great vibe pattern, but even though it is counterpointing the strings, and in a different register to the brass not everything can be equally loud, and even with all the compression gizmos in the world pushing the vibes (for example) ultimately means making something else less audible. So you have to choose which child to sacrifice.<o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;">As an aside I think Tom Jones would make a decent fist of covering this track, one could just imagine him belting it out with that voice of his as the waves lash the deck in the accompanying video. Probably be a number one. <o:p></o:p></span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p><p class="MsoNormal" style="font-family: "Times New Roman"; margin: 0cm 0cm 0.0001pt;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: Arial;"> </span></p>Philip Sandersonhttp://www.blogger.com/profile/18425749272192387194noreply@blogger.com0