I know a few people who have actually left social media behind, but a lot of the time people who argue for exiting social media mean one thing by it, while participating — sometimes quite heavily — on another: no Facebook, but plenty of Mastodon; no Twitter, but loads of Instagram; no TikTok, but knee deep in Reddit. It’s a bit like people who mention with some frequency how there’s no TV in their home, but thanks to the “it doesn’t count” screen called a laptop or a tablet, they’re more than fluent when it comes to the latest prestige series.
Like many things, social media in moderation — both in frequency and subject matter — can be fine. This was all on my mind as conversation unfolded on a post I made the other day about a hand-me-down Sony cassette player-recorder — not here, but on Instagram, where the benefits of #hashtags brought people I didn’t even know to the post. And they, along with others I do know, shared their experience with cassettes, including (see the screenshot above) tips about the object in hand.
Email Announcements: This Tinyletter webapp is become less usable as we get gain members. We’re nearing 2,000 subscribers. I will likely switch to Substack or to another (free) service at some point this year. Suggestions appreciated. No matter what service I end up using, subscription to this announcement list will, absolutely, always be free. (The main issue with Tinyletter is I now can’t send more than five emails a month without going over the limit of recipients, and that means I can’t send out occasional other important news, which I’d like to do sometimes.)
Profile Series: Earlier this week I posted the sixth in the currently weekly series of Junto Profiles, this one with longtime Junto member Jason Richardson. I have a bunch all set to go, and more in the works. If you’re interested in being interviewed for the series, just let me know. I ask that you wait until you’ve been a regular participant for nine months. Much appreciated.
Collaboration Projects: One of the most popular Junto projects each year has been, in fact, three or four projects — the sequence where we create trios asynchronously one week at a time. We haven’t done this yet in 2023, but we will in the near future. Also this year, I’m thinking about either doing it as a quartet, or doing both a trio sequence and a quartet sequence at different times during the year. In either case, one such sequence is coming up soon. Or soon-ish.
The Assignment: Fast forward an old track to make a new one.
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, 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. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 16, 2023.
These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).
Disquiet Junto Project 0585: F9
The Assignment: Fast forward an old track to make a new one.
Step 1: Many media playback apps for laptops (among other devices) include the option to fast forward through a track manually. Some apps have settings that allow you to adjust the length of the gap that will be jumped. Find a tool that can do this. VLC (videolan.org/vlc) is recommended. In VLC you can jump forward in set lengths of time by repeatedly pressing (not holding, but repeatedly pressing) the right arrow on your keyboard.
Step 2: Try this process with a few of your own recordings: hitting the right arrow at a steady pace (as quickly as every split second, as slowly as every two or three seconds).
Step 3: Locate a track of your own where doing what is described in Step 2 yields a result you find pleasing.
Step 4: Record what the result of Step 3 sounds like for one of your pre-existing tracks. (This may be old hat, if you have used Loopback or similar software. You could also just record the output from your laptop’s speaker.)
Step 5: Use the result of Step 4 as the foundation for a new piece of music. You can add as little or as much as you would like to it.
Notes: (1) You may find you can simulate this effect. (2) You can loop the result of Step 4 if what it yields is too short.
Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:
Step 1: Include “disquiet0585” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.
Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0585” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.
Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.
Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:
Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.
Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.
Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.
Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to [email protected] for Slack inclusion.
Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.
Additional Details:
Length: The length is up to you. Just because it’s fast forwarded doesn’t mean it needs to be short.
Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 20, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 16, 2023.
Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to 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. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.
Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).
For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:
More on this 585th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Generations (The Assignment: Fast forward an old track to make a new one), at: https://disquiet.com/0585/
A friend passed this old Sony cassette player/recorder to me. It’s in perfect shape, and it has some nice extras, like double speed, variable speed, and reverse. It’ll be fun with some tape loops. (For those playing along at home, it’s the Sony TCM-500DV.)
From Leeton, New South Wales, Australia: drafting, redrafting, and collaborating
/ By Marc Weidenbaum
This Junto Profile is part of a new series of short Q&As that provide some background on various individuals who participate regularly in the online Disquiet Junto music community.
What’s Your Name? Jason Richardson, releasing music as Bassling since 2003 or so.
I arrived at that name after misreading “hassling” and thinking it summed up my musical interests.
Where Are You Located? Leeton, New South Wales, Australia, since 2009. It’s a small town in an agricultural region, so my suburb has this quiet hum from the nearby rice co-operative most of the year.
In summer you can sometimes hear the air-cannons firing to scare birds from fruit trees and in winter you get the drone of frost fans.
Then there’s a diversity of bird calls that provide some balance.
My favourite is the Pied Butcherbird, which is has this minor key lilt that I’ve heard compared to Miles Davis.
It usually comes through my neighbourhood around the start of autumn and spring.
What Is Your Musical Activity? Started playing bass guitar at age 15, which led to bands and then I discovered the recording studio inside my computer.
At the time it was an Amiga 500 and I’ve tried lots of things, but Ableton Live has been my main instrument since 2002.
My musical activities change regularly and sometimes there’s a theme in an environmental focus, which began when I met Alan Lamb at the 2004 Unsound event.
His large-scale installations resonate with elements from the landscape and the introduction to contact microphones helped me find ways to make instruments from everyday objects.
In hindsight that opened my ears to the environment and I also became interested in field recordings, which led to creating work for galleries and then curating exhibitions.
Lately I’ve been playing with synthesisers and drum machines, but most days I make music by picking up a guitar or hitting the drums.
Over the Rainbow: Australia-based Jason Richardson
What Is One Good Musical Habit? Aside from undertaking the Disquiet Junto whenever possible?
Drafting and redrafting are good habits for any creative endeavour and it’s worth considering them broadly within a musical context.
For example, I’m often surprised how a remix can be more successful than the original recording.
Sometimes it’s a good habit to challenge yourself to get better use from a recording, even if you’re not redrafting the whole song.
What Are Your Online Locations? I’ve been losing interest in social media but keep a few blogs for publishing an archive that I can easily search through and share.
My ShowcaseJase blogspot has passing interests, more personal stuff and a portfolio to catch projects for posterity.
Recently my partner and I established an incorporated group for our community projects, which is called Red Earth Ecology and we’re involved in the local Burning Man community through that too.
What Was a Particularly Meaningful Junto Project? There are many meaningful Juntos and I’ve written about some of them already, so I’ll circle back to my good musical habit.
Last year the prompt for disquiet0529 led me to sample from projects that were separated by 23 and it created an unlikely track, featuring a typewriter and field recording supported by guitar feedback and a rhythm section. It was one of those lessons about how a whole is more than its parts, although there were some good parts I think.
It was also meaningful for me recently when I was reflecting on incorporating aleatory techniques within creative practices and realised the result was something I probably wouldn’t have arrived at on my own.
So, yeah, thanks for collaborating!
I may be entirely mistaken about this, but I’ve come to imagine that where you live is fairly remote, and that online communities have provided camaraderie and collaboration you might not have had otherwise. Is this the case? It’s true that Leeton only has one set of traffic lights and my creative projects are sometimes multinational.
About a decade ago I found Disquiet on Twitter and it took me many weeks to publish a response to the projects, which is funny now I’ve done so many of them.
The Junto soon introduced me to Naviar Records’ haiku prompts, which led to exhibitions in London and also nearby in Narrandera.
Online collaborations have developed with those communities and also in real life.
Last year I met someone in a neighbouring town who was also producing electronic music and developed a live show to take on tour.
Before that it’d been a long time since I’d had a chance to play my music outside of my home.
I really appreciate your prompts for keeping me active and trying new things.
