Aaron Ximm came up with the idea of a “one-minute vacation” — 60-second sound clips that allow the listener to escape to somewhere else, thanks to the immersive properties of headphones. “Surely you can spare a minute to clean your ears?” he writes on his website, quietamerican.org. Ximm posts a new MP3 file just about every Monday, from a variety of contributors, including Andrew Duke (a walk in the snow in Halifax, Nova Scotia) and jhno (the Blue Angels thundering through the San Francisco sky). The two most recent vacations are: from March 1 (here), a July 2003 recording of the New York Public Library’s Reading Room by John Kannenberg, who runs the Stasisfield netlabel , and today, March 8 (here), a summer 1994 recording of a child wheeling her tricycle by — it gets louder as it approaches, braying like an asthmatic donkey. Though the vacation soundclips are unedited documentary records of a specific time and place, they do leave room for interpretation. Kanneberg notes that “moving chairs echo like thunder throughout the room” of the library. And Xavier Briche, who recorded the tricycle, says that he later used its creaky noise in the sound design for “a torture scene in a theatre play.” (More on one-minute vacations at quietamerican.org/vacation.html.)
Month: March 2004
Astralwerks Streams
One cannot subsist on abstract sound art alone, so let’s close the week with streaming audio from the Astralwerks Records compilation, freq.beats. On the double album’s promotional page (astralwerks.com/freq_beats), there are full-length streams of 10 of the set’s tracks, including Fatboy Slim’s “The Pimp,” David Guetta’s house remix of David Bowie’s “Heroes,” and Royksopp’s gleaming “Eple.” The big-eared, pop-minded compilation also features Dirty Vegas, Postal Service, Gorillaz, Fischerspooner, Daft Punk and others.
Colongib Electro-Acoustic MP3
This month’s free MP3 on the Kracfive label’s “MP3 Rotor” is Colongib‘s “Nrack.” It’s a singsong bit of electro-acoustic music, swaying back and forth between two opposing elements (a child’s death rattle and a plaintive synth tone), until they join together in, if not perfect harmony, then certainly dynamic cohabitation. (Label at kracfive.com; track here.)
Ninja Mix Stream
Coldcut spun a two-hour mix along with fellow Ninja Tune Records act Strictly Kev on the BBC’s 6 Music show this past Sunday, February 29. The pop-minded affair starts off, gently, with Hall and Oates, of all things, and moves in typically big-eared Ninja style through Missy Elliott, Telefon Tel Aviv, Robert Wyatt, Pia Zadora, the Cure, and dozens of others, including the label’s own Cinematic Orchestra and DJ Vadim. (6 Music homepage at bbc.co.uk/6music, and the mix launches here in Real Audio format.)
Quote of the Week: Berklee Turntablism
Berklee College of Music professor Stephen Webber explains to the Boston Globe about his new turntablism class at the school
It seemed like everything we were doing in the studio in terms of record production was based on what the Beatles were doing 40 years ago.Â
From “Berklee Professor Takes DJ Class Out for a Spin,” February 17, 200 (boston.com).