Sublimated Shoegazing

Dense pop white noise by San Francisco's Black Thread

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Another thick mass of deeply sublimated tape noise has emanated from the
excellent [soundcloud.com/turmericmagnitudes](https://soundcloud.com/turmericmagnitudes/black-thread-crude-shrine) account, based in San Francisco. The 10-plus”“minute “Black Thread – Crude Shrine” (Black Thread being the act, “Crude Shrine” the song) sounds like someone is playing a My Bloody Valentine album that’s been recorded at half speed over and over on the same cassette until it makes Alvin Lucier’s “I Am Sitting in a Room” seem like an audiophile’s stereo-system dynamic-range test track by comparison. The whorl of deeply punished pop melodicism increases as it proceeds, until what could very well be a rough wave carries it out to sea.

https://soundcloud.com/turmericmagnitudes/black-thread-crude-shrine

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/turmericmagnitudes](https://soundcloud.com/turmericmagnitudes/black-thread-crude-shrine). More from Black Thread at [soundcloud.com/blackthread](https://soundcloud.com/blackthread).

Everything Medleys with the Night (MP3)

"Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno" by Timo Andres and the Metropolis Ensemble

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

timothy-andres-tim-cragg-1

Timo Andres’ album *Home Stretch*, due out tomorrow, July 30, includes variations on work by Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart and Brian Peter George St. John le Baptiste de la Salle Eno, as well as the fully original composition from which the release takes its name. A live recording from 2010 of the Eno piece, titled “Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno,” is available for free download at Andres’ site ([MP3](http://andres.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/eno_paraphrase.mp3)), performed by the Metropolis Ensemble, conducted by Andrew Cyr. The composer [describes](http://www.andres.com/works/paraphrase-on-themes-of-brian-eno/) it as “a 19th-century style ”˜orchestral paraphrase’ on the subject of Eno’s music, focusing on the albums *Before and After Science* and *Another Green World*, with some *Apollo* by means of an introduction.”

[audio:http://andres.com/wp-content/uploads/2010/11/eno_paraphrase.mp3|titles=”Paraphrase on Themes of Brian Eno”|artists=Timo Andres and Metropolis Ensemble]

The full album is streaming for free this week at [npr.org](http://www.npr.org/2013/07/21/203030611/first-listen-timo-andres-and-the-metropolis-ensemble-home-stretch), from whom the above photos is borrowed. The performance was recorded at Angel Orensanz Center in May 2010. More on Andres at [andres.com](http://www.andres.com). More on the album at [nonesuch.com](http://www.nonesuch.com/albums/home-stretch). More on the Metropolis Ensemble at [metropolisensemble.org](http://metropolisensemble.org).

Filtered in a Modular Way (MP3)

Shadowselves versus Pataphor

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

Imitation isn’t the sincerest form of flattery. The sincerest form of flattery is taking several tracks by someone and putting them through enough modular-synth filtration that they come out sounding like mere sonic sediment, whisps of flittery noise, sine waves heard as shadows of themselves, digital vapor hanging in the still air. At least that’s what **Shadowselves** (aka Medford, Massachusetts”“based **Michael T. Bullock**) has done with/to work by **Pataphor** (aka **Shannon Smith**).

https://soundcloud.com/mikebullock/for-shannon-smith

Track originally posted for free download at [soundcloud.com/mikebullock](https://soundcloud.com/mikebullock/for-shannon-smith).

Disquiet Junto Project 0082: Minimal Haydn

The Project: Create a minimal techno track using elements of a Haydn string quartet.

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130725-haydn

*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 evening, California time, on Thursday, July 25, with 11:59pm on the following Monday, July 29, 2013, 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 0082: Minimal Haydn
>
>This week’s project is another in a series of explorations of the concept of genre as a constraint. (The “downtempo”exercise went well several weeks ago, project 79, and this is another in that mode.) The genre this time is “minimal techno.”The source material is from another genre entirely: “classical,”specifically chamber music in the form of a string quartet. The goal of this project is to derive elements from the source material in the service of a track that would fit in the prescribed genre.
>
>These are the steps:
>
>Step 1: Download the MP3 track at the following URL. The track is the third movement of Franz Haydn’s String Quartet in F Major:
>
>http://goo.gl/7MMHRA
>
>Step 2: Listen through the full 1:55 of the track, noting the time codes of source elements that could lend themselves to a minimal techno track. Aim for roughly between three and six.
>
>Step 3: Extract the handful of elements that you located in Step 2.
>
>Step 4: Compose and record an original track that you feel conforms to the genre of minimal techno, using only the elements from Step 3. You can manipulate them in any way you choose, though at some point in the track they should each be somewhat recognizable from the source material. You cannot add any other sounds.
>
>Deadline: Monday, July 25, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
>
>Length: Your track should have a duration of between two and five 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 “disquiet0082-minimalhaydn”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 82nd Disquiet Junto project, in which a minimal techno track was created using elements of a Haydn string quartet, at:
>
>https://disquiet.com/2013/07/25/disquiet0082-minimalhaydn/
>
>The source Haydn audio is from:
>
>http://goo.gl/7MMHRA
>
>More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
>
>http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

Cliff Martinez on Reddit.com

Plus: Solaris, Drive, Refn, Soderbergh, and many many "influence" questions

/ By Marc Weidenbaum

20130725-cliffreddit

Film composer **Cliff Martinez** (*Solaris*, *Contagion*) did a [reddit.com](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iwzss/i_am_cliff_martinez_composer_of_only_god_forgives/) IAmA (“ask me anything”) crowd interview yesterday. As of this count, there were 649 comments, many of them unanswered questions, and he weighed in on a lot of topics, from his favorite music, to playing drums with Captain Beefheart, to his ongoing collaboration with director Nicolas Winding Refn (*Drive*, *Only God Forgives*). Below are some highlights.

On the Cristal Baschet, pictured below:

>[”“]vincentmusic: You use a lot of Cristal Baschet on your scores. Where did you come across this instrument and how did you come to own one?
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>>[”“]cliffmartinez: I first saw the Cristal at the Museum of Modern Art in 1965 when I was a little kid. It was one of those mind altering early experiences that reupholstered my brain and turned me, not only into a musician….but into a weird musician.

20130725-cliffmartinez2

On musical tributes:

>[”“]Roton7: Hi Cliff, I love your work! I really enjoyed the Only God Forgives soundtrack, especially “Wanna Fight”, which is just phenomenal. Were there any particular artists or songs that inspired that track?
>>[”“]cliffmartinez: Yes. WANNA FIGHT is my impersonation of Philip Glass, Goblin and Ennio Morricone.

“Wanna Fight” starts 53 seconds into [this YouTube clip](http://youtu.be/4TzjomDz89g?t=52s):

Another on influence melding:

>[”“]sweextin: How do you handle the (sometimes blatant) plagiarism that goes on in the composing world? Does it bother you or flatter you?
>>[”“]cliffmartinez: I think that’s part of the biz. My recipe for avoiding plagiarism is to rip off two artists at once. i.e. Gyorgy Ligeti + Tangerine Dream = SOLARIS

How his score to *Solaris* helps cheer him up:

>[”“]splooshy: The SOLARIS score is one of the most hauntingly brilliant things I’ve ever heard, and paired perfectly with Soderbergh’s vastly underrated version of the story.
Just want to say thank you. SOLARIS was part of what drove me to enter film school.
>>[”“]cliffmartinez: Thank you, it’s my favorite. Whenever I feel depressed, I go to Amazon and read some of the testimonials on SOLARIS….”I held my blind dog up to the speakers and SOLARIS gave him back his sight….SOLARIS cured my arthritis, my razor blades stay sharp when I play them SOLARIS etc.”

Full interview at [reddit.com](http://www.reddit.com/r/IAmA/comments/1iwzss/i_am_cliff_martinez_composer_of_only_god_forgives/). Read on for getting inducted into the Rock and Roll Hall of Fame and not having slept with Lydia Lunch, among other topics. *(Image of Cristal Bachet via [wikipedia.org](http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:The_cristal_baschet.jpg).)*