It wouldn’t be a week without a new riff on the Buddha Machine, the inexpensive sound-art gadget produced by the China-based duo FM3. The Iowa City, Iowa-based musician Mark Rushton has posted another in his ongoing series of free downloads, and like the one featured as a Disquiet Downstream entry back in May 2006 (disquiet.com), this one builds an original composition out of one of the nine loops contained in the Buddha Machine. The piece’s title, “Pulse Detector,” gives some hint at its compositional strategy. By propagating, during the course of five minutes, the warm, enveloping Buddha loop with swelling tones that appear at a slow, metronomic pace, Rushton draws attention to the seams in the raw loop’s repetition — which is to say, he amplifies the original, even as he covers it with other sounds (MP3). More at markrushton.com.
Current Activities
• October 13, 2016: This day marks the start of the 250th weekly Disquiet Junto project. • November 16, 2016: I'll be sharing the mic at Adobe Books in San Francisco with my fellow 33 1/3 author Evie Nagy for an evening hosted, from 7pm to 10pm, by Marc Kate (facebook.com). • December 1, 2016: A likely speaking engagement. Details to come. • December 13, 2016: This day marks the 20th anniversary of Disquiet.com. • January 5, 2017: This day marks the 5th anniversary of the Disquiet Junto. • Ongoing: The Disquiet Junto series of weekly communal music projects explore constraints as a springboard for creativity and productivity. There is a new project each Thursday afternoon (California time), and it is due the following Monday at 11:59pm: disquiet.com/junto. • My book on Aphex Twin's landmark 1994 album, Selected Ambient Works Vol. II, published as part of the 33 1/3 series, an imprint of Bloomsbury, is now in its second printing. It can be purchased at amazon.com, among other places.