- There are 13 duets for fog horn and steam whistle in the Junto, and midnight Monday, the deadline, is a long way away: http://t.co/anQFre9l #
- Jan 14 = Instagr/am/bient Track 14 = @atlastop's rendering of an @instagram by @mapmap : http://t.co/UQhCnz1W #
- All but 2 Instagr/am/bient tracks have over 300 plays on @soundcloud. One has over 3,500. Three others have over 1,000: http://t.co/I0nPVLla #
- RIP, prolific Japanese composer Sadao Bekku (b. 1922), whose work included the score to Matango (aka Attack of the Mushroom People). #
- Already 7 duets for fog horn & train whistle in second Junto. Looking forward to new ones between now & midnight Monday http://t.co/anQFre9l #
- Jan 13 = Instagr/am/bient Track 13 = @markrushtoncom's sonic "floatation tank" inspired by Oootini's @instagram: http://t.co/Hs3wcUc4 #
- "post processing was extensive": @atlastop on his Instagr/am/bient track: http://t.co/gSa80oNc #
- Noon bells against the brakes of an 18-wheeler making a sudden stop. #
Month: January 2012
Hairshirt Industrial (MP3)
The tribal, droning, fuzzy beats of Would-Be Messiahs‘ “Broken Teeth (Small Rock Movement)” move steadily between past and present as they proceed forward. The monotone quality, the prevalent white noise, the whip-fast sonic artifacts, are all quite of the moment, drawing from the danker realms where dub and techno intersect uneasily albeit with mutual benefit. Yet the track’s overall aura, especially the abraded spoken snippet (“Why? Why is this all so painful?”) and the willfully plodding beat, are all hairshirt industrial music from the 1990s, the heavily burdened vibe of Consolidated having come particularly to mind. The result is a song that for all its blissful stasis seems to undergo broader temporal phase shifts as reference points cycle by.
Track originally posted at soundcloud.com/would-be-messiahs. More on the Messiahs, aka John Ryan, at unlessyougotlostonpurpose.blogspot.com.
Sonic Incense from Antwerp (MP3)
The music that comprises DhÅ«pa, the new release by Dirk Driesen under the name BpOlar, brings rich texture to dark tones. The effect is appropriate for an album named for the word, in Hindi, for incense. The sounds are ritualistic and dread-inducing, and while the effect is monastic, the feel is entirely modern. Here, by way of example, is the second of its four tracks, “Nag Champa,” which mixes industrial drones, field recordings of uncertain provenance, and distorted verbal communication (MP3). Get the full set feedbacklooplabel.blogspot.com at and archive.org. More on Driesen/BpOlar, who is based in Antwerp, Belgium, at soundcloud.com/bpolar and his mac.com page.
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/fbl022Bpolar-Dhpa/02NagChampa.mp3|titles=”Nag Champa”|artists=BpOlar]
Sketch of a Drone / Drone as Sketch (MP3)
The Canadian musician who goes by the name Pacers semi-dismisses a recent track of his own making — it’s titled “Myra” — as mere “faffing about.” Presumably “faffing” is a euphemism for one or another word that starts with the same letter, but neither applies here. It’s a steady drone just under five minutes in length, and it hovers like the sound of a church organ being tuned by an especially patient and exacting workman. At times it gains in density and internal momentum — becoming less like an organ, and more like a full orchestra — but it never loses its grip on its singular spectral droning center. According to a brief liner note, it’s a sketch of a work in progress. Writes Pacers, “Helped me work out a process for something else though, so not all is lost.” We’ll see what is next up for “Myra.”
Track originally posted a soundcloud.com/pacers. There’s no image associated with the MP3, so the above photo, which seems aesthetically aligned with the music, is selected from Pacers’ twitter.com/p_cers account. More on Pacers at pacersmusic.tumblr.com.
A Variety of Noises, White and Otherwise (MP3)
[audio:http://www.archive.org/download/PhilJulianrecentErrors/phil_julian_recent_errors.mp3|titles=”Recent Errors”|artists=Phil Julian]
White noise is a common enough staple of sonic experimentation. What surprises, and engages, in Phil Julian‘s “Recent Errors” is when, at around two minutes in, the track suddenly shifts states. It goes from grey drone to scintillate whine in a split second. And that subsequent section itself has reveals transformations as it progresses, dipping down in volume, sending out thin contrasting lines of sound (MP3). These aren’t the last shifts in the piece, by any means. It continues on to include industrial churn and 8bit cicada chirping, among other phases. Track originally made available at the netlabel Absence of Wax, at devinsarno.com/absenceofwax. Track housed at archive.org. Julian, who also records as Cheapmachines, makes his home in the UK and at cmx.org.uk.