Speech Jam: Geeta Dayal, author of the 33 1/3 book on Brian Eno’s Another Green World, has taken residence at Wired’s website, which is good news. In one of her first wired.com posts, she covered the “Japanese speech-jamming gun” and smartly highlights precedents ranging from J.G. Ballard to Karlheinz Stockhausen. (Additional coverage at technologyreview.com and io9.com.)

App Updates: These are all iOS, though some if not all also apply to their Android versions. Thicket has added three new modes. NodeBeat has added MIDI support, and expanded the number of savable recordings. Ambiance has added the ability to record sounds and to play sounds in “background” mode, among other things. The eDrops app has added new sounds and the ability to load and save patterns. Audioboo seems to have mostly focused on infrastructure for its latest update. Air has added AirPlay support. Reactable has added access to the community area, “save and view” performances, and more.

Social Bullet: I wrote the following to someone asking for how to “use” “social media” to “promote” their music: “The whole social media thing is complicated. There is no generally applicable answer. I would say the following, broadly: make sure you participate. For example, the Junto project had rules, and to have posted on it without reading the Info page was a matter of not really participating. Make sure if you’re on Twitter and Facebook and SoundCloud that you actively participate: post, reply to other people’s posts, comment on their music. This will, in time, lead to a stronger sense of community. You’re find musicians with whom you have things in common, and you’ll support each other in your pursuits.” (The context was correspondence with someone who had posted a track to the Disquiet Junto project on Soundcloud.com that didn’t have anything to do with the current project.)

1. Feature more streaming-only music. True, there is arguably no such thing as streaming music. It’s all downloadable, since the audio you’re hearing is on your computer (or other web-enabled device) by some means. In many cases, all you need to do is look at a streaming-only page’s source code (Ctrl + U in the Firefox browser) to locate the URL for the streaming media.

But even if the distinction between downloadable and streaming is artificial, an illusion, it is still a distinction made consciously, one way or the other, by people who post their music online. This site honors such decisions, aside from the occasional gray-market tip regarding particularly remarkable items that have long been out of print. This site also favors, to a great degree, downloadable music over that which is only intended for streaming. (There’s a whole department dedicated to it, Downstream, much as there is for commercial music, The Crate, which has far less coverage, and there’s no section for streaming-only.)

Part of this decision to pay more attention to streaming audio is curatorial: There’s an enormous amount of streaming-only music available. Part of the decision is practical: Once upon a time, the distinction between downloadable and streaming-only was a matter of what was and wasn’t portable: downloadable music you could pop onto your iPod (or semi-equivalent MP3 player), whereas streaming music was only available while you sat in front of your computer. With the rise of the smartphone, especially in our age of 4G/Mobile-WiMAX/LTE/etc. connections, it’s arguable that the tables have turned: the downloadable file is now a weighty object that needs to take up precious space on a device, whereas streaming audio is available (allowing for some hyperbole) in any place at any time.

In the past, there’s been this sense that downloadable music is part of a community that takes open-source culture seriously and that non-downloadable (i.e., streaming-only) music can, as a result, have a sense of being promotional, but that divide no longer seems to hold. (Please don’t read anything into this about the fate of the Downstream section — it will continue to exist, a new item each weekday.)

In any case, I’m hoping that in 2011 I’ll spend more time acknowledging, critiquing, recommending, and otherwise paying (and directing) attention to audio that is streaming-only … such as this track by Chris Herbert, titled “Shortwave Study for Scott Morgan.” Scott Morgan is better known loscil, and he and Rafael Aton Irisarri are compiling a compilation titled Air Texture II for spring 2011 release, and this is a rough sketch of something that Herbert is working on for them. It’s a lovely, low-key bit of near-silent ambience, all slow gusts of aether with occasion additional tones and textures and bits of voice.

More on the track on the page where it is hosted, soundcloud.com/chrisherbert.

4. Can I send you music for review consideration?
I would love to hear your music. However, just to get this clear from the outset, I am a horrible correspondent. I simply don’t have the time to engage in ongoing back and forths via email about whether I plan on covering your music. I get an enormous amount of music from musicians and their record labels, and that doesn’t count all time I spend seeking out music (and sound-related art), so I can’t promise to write back in a timely manner. Honestly, I can’t promise to write back at all. What I can promise is the following: I will listen to what you send to me, and I will consider it for coverage. So, how do you send me music? My preference is that you email me a link to a Zip file containing 320kbps MP3 files. If you feel the need to send me a CD (or vinyl, or some other physical format), you can email me (visit the Contact page) to get my address in San Francisco, where I live. Do not send MP3s as attachments: they clog up my email, and I just delete them. In closing, I do want to hear your music — but I also want to hear other people’s music, and the less time I spend in correspondence, the more time I can spend listening.

5. Do you review sound/audio/music-related apps?
Yes, certainly — apps as well as applications. The intersection of sound and interactivity (aka games) is an important one. Since at least July 2000, I’ve been tagging such content on the site with the term “audio-games.” I can currently review apps written for Apple’s iOS operating system (I have an iPod Touch) and for Android (I have an Android mobile phone), and applications written for the Apple and Windows operating systems (I really should have a proper Linux set up, but currently do not). Just get in touch with me via the Contact page.

Full F.A.Q. at disquiet.com/faq.

Just a reminder that this coming Sunday, July 18, will be World Listening Day: worldlisteningproject.org. The date was selected because it is the birthday of composer and sound ecologist R. Murray Schafer. … Peter Kirn at createdigitalmusic.com looks into whether, and if so to what extent, Apple’s iOS is allowing apps to access the iTunes music library. … In related news, an iOS (aka iPhone/Touch) app, Soundstations, that allows you to mix nature sounds with your music: appscout.com. … Now this is noise-metal, all the songs on a single Slayer album played simultaneously: noiseforairports.com. … An installation by artist Luke Jerram, in coordination with the charitable organization Sing for Hope, brought 60 pianos to the streets of New York City: cnn.com (via twitter.com/soundscrapers). … Details on the Christian Marclay exhibit running at the Whitney through September 26: whitney.org (plus a photo essay at nytimes.com). … Alan Wexelblat at copyfight.corante.com continues the discussion about my position that, as he puts it, “even if the current record industry structure went away there would still be music, still be musicians.” … I weighed in on a discussion about ASCAP’s absurd targeting of Creative Commons as some sort of enemy of musicians, over at Molly Sheridan‘s artsjournal.com/gap.

The developers of the iOS app Sonorasaurus weigh in on Apple’s restrictions on developers. Let’s just say the situation is a tad more complicated than Steve Jobs suggested in his presentation today (via engadget.com: “10:14AM What about the ones we don’t approve? Well why is that? What are the reasons? 1: the app doesn’t do what you said it would. 2: It uses private APIs… and if they change the app will break… and the third reason? They crash.”) Here’s Sonorasaurus’ take, from sonorasaurus.com:

Why can’t I use the music from the iPod section? Why do I have to add files and maintain a separate library for Sonorasaurus?

The answer to this is basically that Apple does now want you to be able to use your iPod library. Applications like Sonorasaurus, and many other music apps, are restricted from using the songs in the iPod library.

We have done everything we can in terms of compromises by including iTunes File sharing and an HTTP Server, but until Apple lifts the iPod library restriction we are not able to give you the most convenient option possible.

Why the restriction is in place continues to baffle us. We have sat and tried to think of pros and cons to give the issue a sense of purpose and balance, but so far nothing seems to go in the CONS column.

News courtesy of Roddy Schrock of eyebeam.org in Manhattan: some codes for discounts on the institution’s summer classes (info at
eyebeam.org). “SUMMER” will get you $100 off; for two people taking a class together, “COLLAB” will reduce the cost to $300/person; and for three people taking a class together, use “GROUPIE” to get the cost to $250. Classes include Kaho Abe‘s alternative controls for game play.

SoundWalk2010 will be held in Long Beach, California, on October 9 of this year. Deadline for submissions is Sunday, August 1. More info at soundwalk.org.

Alan Lockett‘s write-up at furthernoise.org of the Moritz von Oswald Trio draws from the Disquiet.com “MP3 Discussion Group” of the group’s recent work (see disquiet.com).

The website rebakery.com is an ongoing “recursive remix project” (along the lines of the “remix tree” at freesound.org).

The website ohio.com notes a great New York Times correction: “A dance review on Friday … misidentified the author of the text to which David Neumann‘s Tough the Tough (redux) is set. The author is Will Eno — not the musician Brian Eno.”

Martyn Ware (of Human League and Heaven 17) is a partner in sonicid.com, along with Noel Franus and Dan Kirby. Their mission? “[T]o demystify sonic branding and identity and give it the same credence as other design disciplines.”

The majority of the most popular posts this past month were drawn from the site’s week-daily free (and legal) download recommendations, the Downstream department: (3) a Grassy Knoll demo circa 1998, (4) one minute of instrumental hip-hop bliss, (5) a sample track off the Oval album O (due out later this year, to follow up the album Oh), (6) a slice of Bruce Kaphan pedal-steel atmospherics, (7) a sample of the collaboration by experimental electronic duo Matmos and percussion quartet So Percussion (plus guests), (8) electronica lullabies from Athens-based Naono (that’s Greece, not Georgia), and (9) news (and free WAV files) of a Peter Gabriel / “Games without Frontiers” remix contest.

And, finally, (10) a brief bit on the return of the patch cord, which is cementing its role as a visual metaphor in software-based instruments — such as this screenshot from the iPhone/Touch app Circuit Synth by Michael Daines:

The most popular post of both the last 60 and 90 days was the Despite the Downturn: An Answer Album link noted above. The second most popular post of the last 60 and 90 days was the initial response I wrote to the McArdle article, “What, After All, Is the ‘Music Industry’?”

The top 9 search terms on this site for the month of May were: “rss,” “performances,” “oval” (as in Oval, see above), “drone,” “oversteps” (as in the album by Autechre), “autechre” (as in the duo that just released Oversteps), “loops,” “topic,” and “mcardle” (as in Atlantic writer and editor Megan McArdle, as noted above). Tenth place had so many words tied, it’s just silly to list them all.

Original post at macrumors.com, found via the-palm-sound.blogspot.com.

I’ve yet to hold an iPad, and will soon (not today, but once the crowds dissipate) make my way over to the Apple Store, or the nearer Best Buy, to check it out. (For the record, its strict DRM system and the absence of true multitasking, not to mention the fact than any 1st-gen Apple device is likely to be improved upon relatively quickly, should it prove to be successful in the marketplace, means I will likely not be an early adopter.) One thing I’m paying attention to in particular is how the expanded screen size is adapted to by developers. Here are two images of Sonorasaurus, one of the better DJing apps, originally made for the iPod Touch and iPhone (below) and now available on the iPad (above):

The relative size of the images doesn’t do justice to the amount of space available for developers to play with on the iPad, as compared with the iPhone/Touch. But sometimes more is too much. One thing that’s made the iPhone/Touch such an enticing tool and toy for users is the relatively high quality of the apps developed for it. The small size of the device combined with its excellent touchscreen quickly led to a mutually appreciated sense of design standards shared by numerous app developers — interfaces have, by and large, been elegant, uncluttered, intuitive.

With the larger space, there is now room for navigation aids, for multiple windows, and for divergent styles. The latter isn’t of concern — the more the merrier — but the elegance that is inherent in so many iPod apps may prove to be in shorter supply on the iPad, and what ramifications that might have for users will be interesting to gauge.

Sonorasaurus has started off conservatively, bumping up the size of the original app, which will be a welcome development for anyone who has tried to manipulate its tiny controllers. It also adds waveform visualization (which shows BPM as spikes in the audio), along the lines of the Touch DJ app.

More on Sonorasaurus at sonorasaurus.com.

Following up on the Chris (Cabaret Voltaire) Watson South Pole entry earlier this week (disquiet.com), here’s streaming audio from below the Antarctic ice: “Providing an acoustic live stream of the Antarctic underwater soundscape is a formidable challange. (sic) … Underwater sound is recorded by means of two hydrophones by PALAOA, an autonomous, wind and solar powered observatory located on the Ekström ice shelf”: awi.de/en/research.

A visual interface collecting numerous radio stations from around the world that stream their signals, from ABC Classic FM 93.9 on Norfolk Island in the South Pacific to Africa No.1 106.7 in Yaounde, Cameroon: bcdef.org/antenna (via appscout.com):

Forget the “Funky Drummer” sample and the “Amen break.” Check out the folk music that Béla Bartók used as compositional launching points: “The composer’s vast archive of Hungarian folk music has been digitized,” writes The Rest Is Noise author Alex Ross, and a fair number of his phonographic recordings have been uploaded in MP3 format”: db.zti.hu (via newyorker.com).

Oddly old-fogyish comment from Geoff Dyer in his New York Times review (nytimes.com) of Don DeLillo‘s new novel, Point Omega: “This prologue and epilogue make up a phenomenological essay on one of the rare artworks of recent times to merit the prefix ‘conceptual.’” Which begs this question: “Rare”? The subject of his comment, and of DeLillo’s book, is “24 Hour Psycho” by Douglas Gordon, who has produced a vast body of work that employs similar approaches to retooling existing familiar film — an approach that is, while often humorous and sometimes revelatory in Gordon’s hands, a fairly common approach in video art, and needless to say an even more familiar approach in remix- and appropriation-friendly contemporary music (witness the 24-hour rendition by Leif Inge of Beethoven‘s 9th Symphony, aka “9 Beet Stretch”: park.nl).

Cory Arcangel, Sam Durant, Christian Marclay, Carsten Nicolai (aka Alva Noto), and Pipilotti Rist are among the artists participating in this project of using the Frank Lloyd Wright‘s interior design of the Guggenheim Museum in Manhattan to their own ends. The show Contemplating the Void: Interventions in the Guggenheim Museum will allow them, and many others, to “imagine their dream interventions in the space for the exhibition.” Also part of the show is Hypermusic: Ascension, a March 11 rotunda collaboration by Harvard physicist Lisa Randall, Spanish composer Hèctor Parra, and artist Matthew Ritchie (guggenheim.org).

Documentary coming this summer on industrial-rock band Ministry, titled Fix: fixtheministrymovie.com. (It doesn’t appear to be listed in the IMDB.com database yet.)

An album of music made on the Monome, created to raise funds for Haiti (einpuls.bandcamp.com).

Review of Kenneth Kirschner‘s album Filaments & Voids, for which I wrote the liner notes, alongside Radu Malfatti‘s Wechseljahre einer Hyäne. The author suggests, quite rightly, that the “the importance of silence can easily be overstated here”: tokafi.com.

New blog from the prolific creator of Palm Sounds: mobilemusicmarketing.blogspot.com (via the-palm-sound.blogspot.com).

A lot of coverage coming out of New York on the Unsound festival, including this review of the Moritz Von Oswald Trio: “Their shared improvisation only hinted at the dance floor. It was sci-fi ambient music, with a background wash of pink noise like interstellar dust and puffy tones, pitched and unpitched, arising out of the static”: nytimes.com. (Previous Unsound overview: nytimes.com. More recent coverage of Andy Warhol footage set to music: nytimes.com.)

Bang on a Can composer Michael Gordon reflects from a very personal perspective on his return to his native Miami for a concert of his work, as part of the New York Times’s blog (opinionator.blogs.nytimes.com). … Another Bang on a Can associate, composer Peter Wise, has posted streaming audio for a project at MASS MoCA (muziboo.com, via blog.massmoca.org).

First podcast from the creators of RjDj: more.rjdj.me. … A petition that Apple allow audio-file sharing for music apps. I strongly support this initiative: petitionspot.com.

Art critic Joseph Masheck on an exhibit at Minus Space in Brooklyn (minusspace.com) of Josef Albers‘s album covers for the old Command Records label. The exhibit ran through the end of January: “Albers was doing a job, and took it seriously.” (brooklynrail.org, via tommoody.us). I’m not sure Masheck does justice to how well the geometry and implied motion of the Albers covers reflect the ecstatic stereoscopic experimentation (by lite-music star Enoch Light) contained on the records they adorn.

The Lifehacker.com website has been including background sounds as part of its ongoing attention to improving work productivity, including recent posts on whether its readers “use ambient sounds to concentrate” (lifehacker.com) and a Mac-only piece of software titled Ommwriter that combines a blank writing space and ambient noise (lifehacker.com).

The netlabel astorbell.com/remix has set a May 1, 2010, deadline for its open-source remix project.

I’ve finally got proper vimeo.com/disquiet and youtube.com/mwd1 channels going, with “favorited” recommendations popping up on a regular basis. Twitter, as always, is at twitter.com/disquiet. More social-network coordinates at disquiet.com/faq.

Also making the top 10: (8) a news report that included information on why Brian Eno likely won’t be nominated for an Oscar this year (for his work on director Peter Jackson‘s The Lovely Bones), the forthcoming new Autechre album, and Nortec Collective‘s symphonic aspirations; (9) a “Quote of the Week” by sound artist Andrea Polli describing where art and science do not overlap; and (10) thoughts on issues in “interface lag” (or iteration lag) in the ongoing development of casual music-making apps.

The most popular post of the last 60 days was an overview of the, in my opinion, 10 best iPhone/iPod Touch Music/Sound Apps of 2009.

The most popular post of the last 90 days was of field recordings made at a church in Rye, England.

The most popular post of the last year is a streaming playlist of guitar-based electronica.

The 10 most searched-for terms during the month of January were, in declining order of popularity, with some ties in there, “brian” (as in Brian Eno), “commercial,” “performances,” “eno” (yeah, the other half), “mention” (I have no idea what that’s about), “autechre” (whose new record, titled Oversteps, is pictured at left), “banks violette,” “broad,” “drone,” and the especially peculiar “info wedding.” (Right after those 10 came “basinksi,” as in William Basinski, “bush of ghosts,” as in the compilation Our Lives in the Bush of Ghosts and the Brian Eno / David Byrne album My Life in the Bush of Ghosts, and “cicada,” as in the insect that is often used as a point of comparison for electronic background noise.)