Month: May 2013

Human White Noise Machine (MP3)

Sample track from forthcoming People of the North album

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

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.

https://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/people-of-the-north-drama

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/thrilljockey](https://soundcloud.com/thrilljockey/people-of-the-north-drama). More on the album at [thrilljockey.com](http://thrilljockey.com/thrill/People-of-the-North/Sub-Contra#.UZbRZyuKI8F). More from the crew at [enemyhogs.com](http://www.enemyhogs.com/site/), the rare band website is beautiful enough to make you bypass your RSS reader once in awhile.

Disquiet Junto Project 0072: Domestic Score

The Assignment: Make a domestic score from sounds recorded in your own home.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130516-doorbell

*Each Thursday at [the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/) a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just over four days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: [just join and participate](https://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/).*

This assignment was made in the afternoon, California time, on Thursday, May 16, 2013, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, May 20, as the deadline.

These are the instructions that went out to the group’s email list (at [tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto](http://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto)):

>Disquiet Junto Project 0072: Domestic Score
>
>This week’s project is based on field recordings of wherever it is that you live. The goal is to produce a relaxing score to your domestic life by employing noises that intrude on that life.
>
>Step 1: Make a recording of your doorbell, or whatever noise it is that someone would make when announcing their arrival at your residence. If you don’t have a functioning doorbell, then, for example, record the sound of a knock on your door.
>
>Step 2: Record between one and three additional sounds that intrude on your life: your phone’s ring, perhaps, or the alarm on your microwave oven.
>
>Step 3: You will now have between one and four sounds recorded. Using those sounds as source material, compose a new, original piece of music that could easily be described as gentle or meditative. You can transform them as much as you choose, but each should in some way still be evident and recognizable in the mix. You cannot add any other sounds to the project.
>
>Deadline: Monday, May 20, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of between two and six minutes.
>
>Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
>
>Title/Tag: Include the term “disquiet0072-domesticscore”in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
>
>Download: Please consider employing a license that allows for attributed, commerce-free remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
>
>Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
>
>More on this 72nd Disquiet Junto project, which involves making a domestic score from sounds recorded in your own home, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/05/16/disquiet0072-domesticscore/
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Image found via [wikimedia.org](http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:DoorBell_001.jpg).

16°30’37″N, 88°22’1″W (MP3)

Belize field recording by Tony Myatt

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130515-placenia

The 95th Touch Radio entry is by **Tony Myatt**, and it is another in the series’ enticingly detailed field recordings. This one was made in Placenia Bay, in Belize. The entries in the Touch series tend to fall into one of two camps: pure field recording and sound in which field recordings serve as source material (though there are, increasingly, also documents of humans that we call live concert recordings). Myatt’s presents itself as a subset of the pure field recording approach, in that it appears not to be a single event but a sequence of sonic shapshots collected into one [MP3](http://www.touchshop.org/touchradio/Radio95.mp3).

[audio:http://www.touchshop.org/touchradio/Radio95.mp3|titles=”Placnia Bay”|artists=Tony Myatt]

Writes Myatt at the opening of his journal of the recording event:

>After a long day of finicky experimentation in the sun, I returned to the bay to wash salt water from the equipment and to hose down. From 16°30’37″N, 88°22’1″W I looked out on a tranquil evening scene and decided to attempt one last recording.
>
>I had recorded throughout the day in shallow coral seas off the coast of Belize. I’d attempted to capture a spatial impression of the clouds of clicks and pops produced by crustacea and who-knows-what; a sound present at almost every ocean location on Earth.

Track originally posted for free download at [touchradio.org.uk](http://www.touchradio.org.uk/touch_radio_95_tony_myatt.html).

Peak Organ (MP3)

A solo improvisation by Kyoto-based Nobuto Suda

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The peak, or peak out, used to be the sound that signaled that a signal had gone a little out of control. That the peak has moved from signifying emergency to being a grace note has been a fascinating transition. Once upon a time, when something peaked out, it had risen above a comfortable threshold and yielded an unintended effect. In time, those unintended effects became purposeful affect, a subset of a broad realm of feedback techniques employed with artistic intent. Today a peaked-out sound can be the aural equivalent of a lens flare: a sonic skeuomorph. In the hands of **Nobuto Suda**, as heard on “Improvisation on the organ for Quiet wonder #1,”the sound that flares up is experienced like a reflection in a blissfully still pool:

https://soundcloud.com/nobutosuda1101/improvisation-on-the-organ-for

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/nobutosuda1101](https://soundcloud.com/nobutosuda1101/improvisation-on-the-organ-for). More from Suda at [nobutosuda.org](http://nobutosuda.org/). Thanks to the excellent listener who goes by Roamin ([roamin.ca](http://roamin.ca/)) for having drawn my attention to this track by [repost](http://help.soundcloud.com/customer/portal/articles/527370-what-are-reposts-)ing it on [Soundcloud](https://soundcloud.com/roamin).

“Project for an Apartment Building”

A multi-track ambient expanse from Pan-American

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Out late last month from **Pan”¢American** was the album *Cloud Room, Glass Room* on the label Kranky. As a promotion, Kranky has posted one track, “Project for an Apartment Building,” for free download (MP3). Ostensibly it is a single download, but the piece of music is so dense with activity that it could count as multiple simultaneous listens. There is the undulating bass line, which in the context of instrumental electronic music has enough buoyancy and hazy aura to count as a composition unto itself. There is a sing-song lull that comes and goes. There is a rough field recording, or something akin to one, that sounds like the scrapings of someone undertaking a hesitant journey. There is rattly percussion, and a sonar pulse, and so much more — so much, in fact, it is remarkable just how circular, if not static, the track ends up presenting it self as. (For those who don’t read this site often, “static”is a compliment.) That percussive element is likely due to the presence of **Steven Hess**, who is now a full member of **Pan”¢American**, along with founder **Mark Nelson**. Also, **Bobby Donne** (who, like Nelson, is a former member of Labradford), guests on some tracks.

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/kranky](https://soundcloud.com/kranky/panoamerican-glass-room-at-the). On the record, “Project for an Apartment Building” is the album’s sixth of seven tracks. More on *Cloud Room, Glass Room* at [brainwashed.com](http://brainwashed.com/common/htdocs/discog/krank175.html)