Recent interview with me at freemusicarchive.org on Creative Commons, Disquiet Junto, and more • Projects: Instagr/am/bient + LX(RMX): Lisbon Remixed • Key Topics: #sound-art, #classical, #generativeHow to Submit for Review • Elsewhere: Twitter (Disquiet + Junto), SoundCloud (Disquiet + Junto).

Listening to art. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Decanting Dirty Beaches’ Embalmed Spirit (MP3)

A rework by Heathered Pearls

Heathered Pearls was exactly the right remixer for the Dirty Beaches song “Casino Lisboa.” The original, off the new album Drifters/Love Is the Devil, is like some latter-day, slow-motion amalgam of the Cramps and Consolidated, a world-weary dirge vocal amid the clank of self-consciously routinized industrial rock. In the Heathered Pearls edit (referred to somewhat casually as “Heathered Pearls’ dead time rework”), it is as if the track is being revisited in the memory of its remixer. Slivers of the vocal repeat like a song can when caught in the gears of the lizard brain. It ekes out a sense of forward momentum, but really just gets caught in its own circuitous loop. The result loses none of the embalmed spirit of the original, if anything emphasizing it. It does lose some choice moments from the source material, including a brief excursion into a guitar solo that sounds more like the wind brushing a metal fence, but the trade off is worth it.

Here is the original “Casino Lisboa,” in the form of its mesmerizing video:

Remix originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/heathered-pearls. Heathered Pearls is Jakub Alexander. Dirty Beaches is Alex Zhang Hungtai. More from Hungtai/Beaches at dirtybeaches.blogspot.com.

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Duane Eddy Meets Robert Moog (MP3)

A dense guitar spectacle from Babel Ensemble

The opening strum is pure Duane Eddy, the deep swelling rumble that summons up vast empty geographic spaces, but the way the tremulous tone continues to reverberate sounds more like something out of Robert Moog’s workshop. That wavering in Babel Ensemble’s “MD13Xc2″ is thick, robust, and on a short cycle, and as it proceeds it veers back and forth between melodic component and rhythm. Slowly the guitar overlays gain collective density. They don’t obscure each other so much as lend increasing depth — the original tones sound further away, as if with each step the guitarist leaves early chords churning in place in the ever-receding distance.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/babel_ensemble. Babel Ensemble is a project of Jakob Rehlinger, who is based in Toronto, Canada. Thanks to the excellent listener who goes by Roamin (roamin.ca for having drawn my attention to this track by reposting it on Soundcloud.

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Modular Flurry (MP3)

A Serge piece by Handhewn

The notes fling like they’re ringing out on a digital hang drum. The phrases seem to pause long enough to suggest a momentary ease, before launching again into serial flurry. The track modulates occassionally, the full tonal setting shifting entirely between different foundations, between relative extremes of shrill and muted, sharp and dull. The track is credited to Handhewn. The brief note associated with the track, “Mayhem + Creature,” relates to the Serge modular system employed.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/handhewn. More from Handhewn at twitter.com/handhewn.

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Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

  • Today’s work powered by CTRL ; (in Google Docs) and OPT CMD H (in OS X). ->
  • Makes me so happy. RT @colab_toronto: the latest @djunto project has made me more excited about making music than I've been in a long time. ->
  • I keep my eye on @indabamusic remix contests. The website's favicon always makes me think Twitter's favicon exploded: http://t.co/ksChNh3c8S ->
  • So, with Android 4.3 due for likely announcement next week, when are folks guessing it’ll be released? ->
  • Latest version of Android app Draft (@mttvll) is great. This and Keep are the apps I write in on my tablet and phone: http://t.co/H3FrUusjxJ ->
  • Fog horns are out in force. If these were the sounds of actual animals, the beasts would be majestic. ->
  • Fog horns pulled an all-nighter. ->
  • Stock up. RT @wifsten: Audio supplies you didn’t know you needed http://t.co/APVzz79BWS ->
  • Read more »
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Human White Noise Machine (MP3)

Sample track from forthcoming People of the North album

The psychedelics are confirmed at about two minutes in, when echoed vocals warble and waft and turn back on themselves, like some ancient recording-session outtake from a forgotten Led Zeppelin album. Until then it is all tumult and sporadic drumming, and after as well. What it is is “Drama Class” from People of the North, off the Sub Contra album, due out June 11 from Thrill Jockey. The band is an offshoot of Oneida, featuring that group’s Kid Millions (drums) and Bobby Matador (“keyboard, synth, vocals”) and various guests, all apparently also from Oneida. The track in question has the slow head-bobbing drone-ness of doom metal, even as the percussion brings to mind something European and free improvisatory. It’s maximalism, writ small, like a human-powered white-noise machine.

Track originally posted for free download at soundcloud.com/thrilljockey. More on the album at thrilljockey.com. More from the crew at enemyhogs.com, the rare band website is beautiful enough to make you bypass your RSS reader once in awhile.

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