Disquiet – Page 458 – Listening to culture. Playing with audio. Sounding out technology. Composing in code.

Drumcorps’ Glitch-Mediated Metal

RIYL your fond memories of Prong, Slayer, Fugazi, and Godflesh processed by Max Headroom's digital-native grandkid

March 5, 2021 / By Marc Weidenbaum

<a href="https://drumcorps.bandcamp.com/album/better-days">Better Days by drumcorps</a>

To say this isn’t ambient would be an understatement, and it’s noted here simply because I veer less and less in my writing about music from the quiet zone, whether unnatural or natural or hybrid environments. So, yeah, don’t sit too close to your speakers, and attenuate that volume if you’re using headphones. This is, on a Friday, exactly what I needed. It’s Drumcorps hitting hard with not just his trademark glitched-up drum’n’bass-mediated metal, but the raw thing, as well. It’s RIYL your fond memories of Prong, Slayer, Fugazi, and Godflesh processed by Max Headroom’s digital-native grandkid. The first track is a trick, a sleight of ear, in which the metal starts off without the seams showing, cut and plastered so suddenly that it could be mistaken for (heck, maybe it is) simply a break-neck live performance by someone capable of playing back in realtime what we once craved software to accomplish for us. Either way, the realism soon enough fades in favor of the computer-addled automatic mash-up that Drumcorps is so good at.

It’s interesting how songs like Prince’s “Dance On” and Prong’s “Prime Cut” (prime aesthetic examples to me of human-machine music interface) once seemed so intense, and now don’t. They broke norms at their time, but they’re more (easy) listenable now, the tension gone. What’s great about Drumcorps is it has some of the intensity those songs had when I first heard them. And he’s been at it a long time, and still keeps it fresh.

Drumcorps is Aaron Spectre, originally from Massachusetts and now based in Amsterdam. More at [drumcorps.co](https://drumcorps.co/).

Disquiet Junto Project 0479: Truck Radio Rain

The Assignment: Locate three sound sources and make something with them.

March 4, 2021January 16, 2023 / By Marc Weidenbaum

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto group, 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.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 8, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 4, 2021.

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

Disquiet Junto Project 0479: Truck Radio Rain

The Assignment: Locate three sound sources and make something with them.

Step 1: Locate online (freesound.org, for example) or record by yourself the following three sounds: a vehicle driving speedily, static between radio stations, and rain.

Step 2: Make an original piece of music using those three sounds. Do what you want with them, but only use those three sounds.

Background: “Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating,” John Cage said in his 1937 lecture, “The Future of Music: Credo.” He continued: “The sound of a truck at fifty miles per hour. Static between the stations. Rain. We want to capture and control these sounds, to use them, not as sound effects, but as musical instruments.” In this week’s Disquiet Junto project, we take the proposition literally.

Seven More Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0479” (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 “disquiet0479” (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 tracks in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

[https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0479-truck-radio-rain/](https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0479-truck-radio-rain/)

Step 5: Annotate your tracks 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.

Additional Details:

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, March 8, 2021, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, March 4, 2021.

Length: The length is up to you. Yes, 4’33” is a not inappropriate length.

Title/Tag: When posting your tracks, please include “disquiet0479” in the title of the tracks, and where applicable (on SoundCloud, for example) as a tag.

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 479th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Truck Radio Rain (The Assignment: Locate three sound sources and make something with them) — at:

https://disquiet.com/0479/

This Is What It Sounds Like When Dunes Groan

George Vlad files a report from Namibia

March 3, 2021March 4, 2021 / By Marc Weidenbaum

George Vlad reports from the desert of Namibia, where he recorded this hour of what sand dunes sound like. He identifies the locations as Dune 45 and the Skeleton Coast, and explains that the audio was taped both above- and belowground. The extended length of the document suits Vlad’s experience, which he says involves the ears adjusting over time to the environment and recognizing detail that at first is invisible:

>”Spend a little time letting your ears become accustomed to the sparse soundscape though. After a few hours you’ll start hearing more and more detail where previously there seemed to be none. There’s a constant low frequency energy caused by the movement of air and sometimes by the sand dune itself resonating. The wind ebbs and flows at various speeds, occasionally spraying sand on to the hard crust of the sand dune. The insects flying by offer a sense of scale and immediacy.”

Two thirds of the recording was accomplished with microphones designed for use underwater, what are called hydrophones, here pushed deep into the sand. The result is, as he notes, often “abstract,” the wind muted at the surface, and the audio less immediately identifiable. Where above there is air and texture, below there is an ever-threatening churn, what Vlad likens to a “groan.” On his website, [mindful-audio.com](https://mindful-audio.com/african-desert/), he explains that these are a subset of audio captured at almost a dozen sites around the country.

Audio posted at George Vlad’s [YouTube](https://youtu.be/cRkK0bIfrAc) channel. He’s based in Guildford, England.

Sound Ledger¹ (Atypical Speech, Tokyo Noise, Virtual Synths)

Audio culture by the numbers

March 2, 2021March 2, 2021 / By Marc Weidenbaum

7.5: The number of people, in millions, living in the U.S. who have difficulty using their voices.

30: The percentage rise in Tokyo noise complaints to police between March and April 2020, after schools were closed due to the pandemic.

2,217: The number of free synthesizer modules (out of 2,504 total, the others requiring a one-time fee per user account) in the module library of the free VCV Rack virtual emulation of a modular synthesizer (vcvrack.com). Other modules are available outside the library, as well.

▰ ▰ ▰

¹Footnotes: Voices: [wsj.com](https://www.wsj.com/articles/tech-firms-train-voice-assistants-to-understand-atypical-speech-11614186019). Tokyo: [nytimes.com](https://www.nytimes.com/2021/02/25/world/asia/japan-noise-map.html). VCV: [vcvrack.com](https://library.vcvrack.com).

*Originally published in the March 1, 2021, edition of the This Week in Sound email newsletter ([tinyletter.com/disquiet](https://tinyletter.com/disquiet)).*

Magenta Haze

Dave Seidel channels La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela

March 2, 2021 / By Marc Weidenbaum

If you’re familiar with the work of La Monte Young and Marian Zazeela, then the color alone of Dave Seidel’s video is a dead giveaway right from the start. The dreamy magenta is the duo’s signature color, a common theme in their wardrobe and installations alike. Here the magenta is a pale shadow cast on Seidel’s equipment as he unveils ream after ream of raga-like drones. The performance is titled “For LMY and MZ” (note the initials), and he explains in an accompanying text that it draws inspiration from some central works of theirs. This is both deeply beautiful and deep work, the beading, undulating patterns shifting and cycling in slow motion.

This is the latest video I’ve added to [my ongoing YouTube playlist](https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PLAgCxRbmR1MJxihgJkCPEnehAPvjoF71-) of fine live performance of ambient music. Video originally posted to Seidel’s [YouTube](https://youtu.be/OKEa4xfCEco) page. More from Seidel (aka Mysterybear) at [mysterybear.net](http://mysterybear.net/).