Super-Refined Afrobeat MP3s (Tony Allen)

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

The masterminds behind the remix contest focused on famed Afrobeat drummer Tony Allen (best known as the backbeat of legend Fela’s band) want us to download the 15 constituent parts of the single “Secret Agent,” the title track off his new album on World Circuit label. And no doubt the promise inherent in those tracks will draw in participants. But there’s much pleasure to be had in the raw materials — how often, when you think about it, do we get nearly six straight minutes of Tony Allen drumming, which is freely available here, a trenchant rhythm that’s liked the most stripped-down Meters metric you’ve ever heard? Likewise, amid the emotive backing (and foreground) vocals and syrupy-slick guitars, there’s a fine synthesizer line available all on its delectable lonesome. And for those truly looking to Zen out, there’s even five-plus minutes of a low-volume shaker, rattling along as steady as can be.

The contest is hosted at soundcloud.com, which provides the following handy interface for accessing the goods:

For those who want to make something of the available mixing-board tracks, the due date for the contest is July 7. More details at tonyallenremixcontest.blogspot.com. More on the release at worldcircuit.co.uk.

Image of the Week: Guggenheim’s Orbit

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Photo shot during performance of late spatial composer Henry Brant‘s “Orbits” at the Guggenheim in Manhattan a week ago today.

Photo by Robert Stolarik. It originally appeared in June 22 issue of the New York Times, accompanying an article by Times critic Anthony Tommasini (nytimes.com). The caption reads: “Neely Bruce, at bottom of photo, leading 89 trombones, a soprano and an organ in the East Coast premiere of Henry Brant’s ‘Orbits’ in the rotunda of Frank Lloyd Wright’s Guggenheim Museum on Sunday night, part of both the museum’s Works & Process series and the citywide festival Make Music New York.”

Quote of the Week: Hardcore of the Infinitesimal

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

How musician Christof Migone describes his conceptually driven, often microsonic music:

    “A hardcore of the infinitesimal”

From an anecdote in a report by Carl Wilson on the belated reception of Mignone’s 2004 album Escape Songs, a collaboration with Veda Hille, in the Globe and Mail (theglobeandmail.com). More on Migone at christofmigone.com, and on Hille at vedahille.com.

Past Week at Twitter.com/Disquiet

/ By Marc Weidenbaum
  • Doing lawn work in backyard. Flashback thought: "After these chores, I can go to my friend's house and play Steve Jackson's Melee & Wizard." #
  • Back from gym, where yet again I found myself listening (on Android phone) to two things at once: consonant, interesting, believable as one. #
  • Pretty much done with our dissection of Dave Hickey's book The Invisible Dragon at artsjournal.com/gap. Conversation better than the book. #
  • Foghorns out of control in San Francisco Richmond District today. Need to get good mic to record them, to play on dreadfully sunny days. #
  • What music without Michael Jackson sounds like: memorial playlist of MJ & (Jackson 5) instrumentals, lacking his vocals: http://is.gd/1ep3p #
  • If you Twitter it's #followfriday: metal/breakcore monster @drumc0rps & sound artist @kabircarter & sound designer/musician @hugoverweij #
  • Listening to various Michael Jackson instrumentals, in light of his reported death today. None of them sound particularly good without him. #
  • Excellent music-making news for Nintendo DSi: an expanded Korg DS-10 cartridge is coming its way http://tinyurl.com/lpzwu8 — RT @Nobuooo #
  • Afternoon sounds: electronic whine, engorged photocopier/printer, patterns of overlapping typing, murmur below, radios inside and outdoors. #
  • A bunch of us are discussing Dave Hickey's book The Invisible Dragon over at artsjournal.com/gap. Feel free to join in. (Hickey has.) #
  • Quite likely I am addicted to habanero. I start salivating at the word. Goes well with cold beer. And Madlib, Royce da 5'9", & Prefuse 73. #
  • Morning sounds: typing, refrigerator whir, laptop fan, and the more frequent occurrence of buses during the commute window. #
  • After 13 years of constant use my Dell Quiet Key keyboard is being retired. There's no repairing it. Words don't fail me, but characters do. #
  • For all my love of movie scores, there are days when I wonder if, even at their most subtle, they're not much different from laugh tracks. #
  • Thousandth Twitter post / Haiku of the Internet / Data ricochets #
  • 20 years ago today near dawn, I stood — with buddy Andrew Jaffe, aka @defjaf — in Manhattan's Battery Park taking in Sun Ra & Don Cherry. #
  • Wind's been so strong today, it hadn't even occurred to me until now to put on any music. #

8-bit MP3 Michael Jackson Tributes

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

No better way to close the week than with some 8-bit renditions of hits by suddenly deceased, long troubled pop legend Michael Jackson, who passed away on Thursday at the age of 50. There’s a handful of such covers floating around, and no doubt more will surface in the coming weeks and months. 8bit versions turn anything into a video game, which is to say, in the case of a dead public figure like Michael Jackson, they turn the subject into a video-game character.

This seems particularly fitting for someone who, like Jackson, spent his life in a self-imposed exile from reality and adulthood. 8-bit covers also fit Jackson because the retro technology was state-of-the-art back when Jackson he himself making some of his biggest records; thus, the arcade sounds have a fitting temporal association with him. (Truly diligent computer-music fans can dig out copies of the old Sega game Michael Jackson’s Moonwalker.)

Songs like ShnabubulaEX‘s blippy little take on “Man in the Mirror” (MP3, at 8bdaily.blogspot.com) render the legend in pixelated amber. That same blog page links to an 8-bit “Billie Jean” version, by 486, that layers Jackson’s a cappella over a brittle little video-game rendition of the instrumental track (MP3, at 8bitcollective.com). The contrast between Jackson’s hyper-articulated singing and the antiseptic funk of the backing music is striking, and despite the potential for irony, pretty darn effective.

[audio:http://8bitcollective.com/items/music/mj.mp3|titles=”Man in the Mirror”|artists=ShnabubulaEX] [audio:http://8bitcollective.com/items/music/Michael%20Jackson%20%20-%208-bit%20Billie%20Jean%20%5B%20over%20the%20hill%20mix%20%5D.mp3|titles=”Billie Jean (8-bit)”|artists=486 vs. Michael Jackson]