mmd

I’ve been making quite a few new friends over at the #Renoise IRC channel (including a few names I’ll mention later). One of them is BeatSlaughter, a Berlin composer with an ear for cinematic, dark mood-scapes and tasteful innovative beat work. Do go have a listen:

BeatSlaughter’s home.
BeatSlaughter on Virb.

He was nice enough to help me with some of the css on this blog, as I’m a bit slow when it comes to code. We’ve also been swapping tunes and demos quite a bit. And, we have a few possible collaborative projects planned for, of course, when I get my RAM back. This may include vocals.

Who needs major label music? The juice is here right in front of you, and it’s free.

There’s nothing like a gig-date to get us into action! This time I didn’t even have a say in the matter: Iain Mackay informs that we’re playing on the 11th of May for Tune!FM’s 37th birthday bash at Tatts Hotel, Armidale. It is so.

Between Iain and I, for a while now, there has been discussion of using the old “In The Studio” art space in the Armidale Mall for rehearsals and other projects: prompted by fact that his flat cannot be used as much as we like due to noise restrictions. Now with the gig pressure this proposed arrangement has been made- a small rental for unlimited usage with no noise restriction. We went to have a look last Market Sunday:

A busy Market Sunday going on, while up and too the left a secret space lies waiting to be used. Our drummer warrior lets us into the zone:

Upstairs is left relatively empty and in transition:




Having sussed the space we took note of what we needed to do start musical operations there. For Iain this specifically has to do with insurance and getting better locks for the store-room. But some musical work had to be done first, with time on hand. So it was back up to our usual location at Iain’s basement flat:

Then something funny happened. I had packed all my usual guitar gear to use, but ended up not even opening the bags. Instead I got straight on the keys, hooked up to Iains new MacBook with Live providing some simple unglamorous synths. With Iain exploring his new electronic kit patch inventions I stuck to playing keys for about 3 hours. The funny part is that I’m not a keys player. Not even a good one. But the flow was good and my attitude is that if a minimal simple bass and melody works, the roll with it. Focus on variation and lock on groove. For two people who have not jammed for over 4-5 months the results were surprisingly strong. Even with my keyboard handicap, Iain and I have developed a working musical language that applies for any instruments. This exists outside of words, outside of the usual endless empty talk of ‘desirable musical aspects’. Feels good.

The music is sounding more electronic and effectively minimal than before, probably due to the simple keyboard sound in place of our older acoustic sources of accordion (care of Becky) and guitar. I think I will bring the guitar back into the mix for the next jam, as with a microphone for my vocal improvisations. I do not think we’ll have any trouble at all with filling whatever time they allocate to us: Iain’s song ideas hold enough space in them to allow for all sorts of healthy explorations.

After 3 months of drama and obscure communications the SPL GoldMike 9844 has arrived!

Now the trio is complete with the Rode K2 and sE Reflexion Filter. Straight away Simon and I got into testing it: the smooth performance was better than my memory’s impression! It’s a joy to be working with a recording set-up that will capture any sound with musical clarity, having the flexibility to go from micro-sonic whispers right to bleeding-lungs screaming. The tube processing half of the equation gives that ‘vintage warmth’ (to refer to the often cited cliché), but the modern digital component ensures an ultra clear and strong signal. To put it in plain-speak, this set-up is good as any professional studio equipment for vocal recording. The end product should be world class – no more compromised audio!

Now it is truly up to me as a performer to deliver the goods. There can no more blaming my gear hiding my intention. It’s a matter of practice, purpose, and waiting for the sincere moments to arrive.

It’s down to waiting for just the RAM…

The last two weeks since the equinox can fairly much be described as ‘photo sessions’. My Mother is getting deep into the craft of photography, so there have been quite a few excursions out and about the place both down in Taree and up here in New England. Keep an eye on her gallery for her most recent work, including some odd ‘light drawing performance photography’. This has meant that I’ve got zero work done on any projects, save for practising guitar heavily.

Obviously my RAM has not turned up yet, otherwise I would be posting with much more joy than I have now! I have been assured, however, that it is on it’s way soon: PC Case Gear stated that it would be two weeks. There are so many projects to get back into it may be a little daunting deciding which one to knock over first! If the pre-amp does not turn up beforehand then I will quickly get on with the Audiophonica Podcast – the now named release stream of old songs 1996-2000.

And speaking of giving songs away for free, the combination of NIN’s Year Zero giving away the songs online for free as well as reading this article has caused me to consider doing the same myself. A possible solution may be to offer all the albums (listed up the top of this website) for free in mp3 form – and then manufacture a small batch of hard-copy CDs for commercial purchase. This could be more in line with my current small public presence and realistic for the mission of ‘getting the art out there’.

Consider the issue from the point of view of people’s level of consciousness evolution:

• Some people, being most people, are at the level of only needing a song or two to have fulfilling engagement with an artists work. This has always been the case with CDs and Records – buy the album or single and only really listen to or like one or two songs.
• Some people are at a deeper level where they may engage with a body of songs (traditionally ‘the album’). They are fewer in number, but tend to be going through a period of evolution where the art matches their realisation process. After a short while the fascination fades as they move on. These people used to buy popular albums and rarely work from outsiders of popular culture. In these transitioning times the tech-savy will download a body of songs in a brief moment of dedication, and spend a short time studying them as a group.
• An even smaller group of people are active seekers of art within the context of their consciousness narrative. These people will ‘click’ with an artist after experiencing a body or bodies of work. These people will not be satisfied the songs alone. They need additional media – this used to be the sleeve art, now it is the online web experience (or other new-media content). If the artist manages to continue a body of work across the years then these people will attempt to follow. Depending on the strength of the art, the people will network the art to new people socially thus increasing the range of influence of the artist. This is the group of people who an artist is most interested in, and possibly where an artist can derive a small amount of commerce.
• An even smaller group within the above group is that of the fanatic. These people are completionists and will like the artists’ work irrespective of it’s strength or purpose. Therefore, they should be not taken seriously, but all the same acknowledged.

In looking at the above groups when the artist is an active online participant, then it quickly becomes apparent that coming at the project of spreading the art from a totally commercial point of view is entirely missing the mark. The project becomes more about producing consistent strong art and networking that to receptive social networks online. Only then, in favourable circumstances where enough numbers is achieved in the above third group, can commerce be taken seriously as an aspect of an artists work. In the meantime, get on with making cool genuine art with the intention of it being as strong as possible and true to yourself.

…Some things to think about.

I’ve been into a great ‘myspace alternative’ project called Virb. My page is already up here. Hopefully the network will rise to be popular and cause a movement away from myspace as the sole community web gateway for underground artists. If you are an artist yourself and would like a ‘virb invite’ please send me a message.

Still no RAM…