Waves of sample videos have followed the release of the recent Nintendo DS port of the Korg MS-10 synthesizer (aqi.co.jp, disquiet.com), which took an early mass-market synthesizer and put it inside a popular video game cartridge format. As a kind of proof-of-concept jam, a dozen musical acts each answered the call for MP3s from the mp3death.us/diplodocus.html website and submitted their DS-10-engendered music. The results range from slurpy beats and twerpy melodies (by White Kundalini), funky space music (Starpause), disco-tinted electro-pop (Tibitekutyan), an arcade-score take on “Flight of the Bumblebees” (Nitro2k01), and a more blippy techno than you can wave a stylus at. The compilation is named Diplodocus, a nod to the dinosaur-like status of the original Korg MS-10. The album available for free as a zipped archive of all 12 tracks (ZIP), and as a mix by Starpause (MP3).
Image of the Week: Tenor-iPhone
This is a screenshot of PaklSound1, an iPhone music-making application developed by Patryk Laurent:
Laurent explains that the synthesizer is inspired by the Tenori-On. More details at pakl.net/iphone/PaklSound1 (via the-palm-sound.blogspot.com).
Quote of the Week: Noise v. Sound v. Noise
From a brief essay by artist Haroon Mirza at nyartsmagazine.com:
Noise, like other sound, is the result of physical events that take place through space and in time, but unlike other sounds, noise is a nomad; it has no place to go once it has departed; it just gets absorbed into the materiality of the space that surrounds it. Sound, on the other hand, has a destination. Sound is more than often generated to perform functions of communication and affect. Although both sound and noise are always unwillingly received, it’s only sound that is welcome whereas noise is a repellent or is destroyed. However, the ear of the beholder governs the distinction between noise and sound. Noise and sound mutate in and out of one another. Structures, intensities, documentation, reverberation, manipulation, and many other intended or non-intended interventions dictate whether vibrations are received or dismissed as noise. Both can be structured to create music but music itself can be received as either music, sound, or noise depending on the ear of the beholder.
More onMirza at clickfolio.com/haroon.
Other Music—Sponsored Drone-Pop MP3
The website of the record label Kranky, kranky.net, hasn’t updated its free download, a slice of Stars of the Lid, since January 2007. But a free Kranky-derived track popped up today at the digital online storefront of Other Music (digital.othermusic.com), the great retailer in Manhattan on East 4th, not far from New York University. The track in question is from a half year earlier still, a pulsing bit of post-rock minimalism replete with chanting (imagine Donovan teaming up with La Monte Young), but it’s an excellent reason to sign up for a free Other Music account and to check out the store and try out its interface. The track (encoded at a hearty 320kbps) is “Green Vines” by Bird Show (aka Ben Vida), off the 2006 album Lightning Ghost. No direct link is available, but just click on the Other Music link above; this is likely a short-term offer, so do so soon. Registration is required, and each weekly email newsblast from Other Music includes a new free download.
A Little Rain Music MP3 from C.P. McDill
In this hour-plus recording, C.P. McDill mixes slow, long, held tones with raw nature sounds (MP3). The contrast is between the gently meandering music and the inclement weather just outside. The immediate impression is of a church organist stuck in a storm, and keeping himself busy until the storm passes. The rain has a nice spatial dimension, providing further depth and contrast between the nearby drops and the distant thunder. And when birds chirp, as they do on occasion, they provide a kind of hybrid point of view: on the one hand, they’re part of the field-recording half of the equation, but on the other they’re certainly trying to stay out of the rain and they’re making their own birdsong, so they have just as much in common with the “musical” portion of the track. More info at the releasing label, webbedhandrecords.com, and at the recording’s page at archive.org. More on McDill at cpmcdill.com.