Monday 31 August 2009

Fwonk* Mondays


As you may or may not know, this blog is the mutant son of an unholy coupling betwixt forum and netlabel. You can meet the parents at Fwonk*. If you're feeling daring you could even join the forum and say 'hi'.

The label now has a pretty impressive roster of releases under its belt - thanks to the hard work of the innovative artists and their benevolent overlord Heskin Radiophonic.

All the albums and EPs on the site are available for free download and are released under a Creative Commons license.

We're starting a new series here at MusicObject highlighting some of the releases and there's no better way to kick off than with a compilation showcasing some of the best the label has to offer.



Blinding Flesh Volume One was created in a more innocent age, when most of the internet was just fields and the forum now known as Fwonk* went by the name 'Blinding Flesh of Genius'.

The album is 11 wonderful tracks mastered for your listening pleasure by Echosonic. From the squonky, playful opener of Per Byhring's 'Ettertid' to the epic dronecore finale of Vasko The Pig's 'Kober', this is quality stuff.

Other highlights include 'Space To Make You Talk' by Bachelor Machines - which meanders blissfully through sampladelic easy listening, trip hop and glitchy territory - and Nemmo's frankly genius uptempo breakcore cover version of Bowie's 'Space Oddity'.

This compilation also contains 'New Object' by BSMo & Bentley. This track has an unsettling, Chris Morris-style monologue running throughout, written by Joseph Alford, juxtaposed against haunting piano melodies. Truly innovative, strange and wonderful.

The mission statement when the guys and gals at Fwonk* set out to make the album was simple: "make it good, make it interesting". I think they achieved it and then some. Download it and see if you agree.

Sunday 30 August 2009

Alden Volney 0010100010010010100011101011

This is wonderful. Completely seventies, moogish, and hypnotic, in a very Tron way.

Videocracy from Alden Volney on Vimeo.



Thanks to 36 15 Moog for pointing to it.

Alden Volney is this guy.

Thursday 27 August 2009

Free Music Friday!!!!


So it's nearly the weekend, why not treat yourself to some brand new pod-fodder, absolutely gratis! Go on, you deserve it.

Oh, and this isn't the guilty "I'm going to buy it if I like it, honestly" type of free. Oh no. It's actual freeness, music freely given by the artists and labels out of the sheer loveliness of their souls.

First up, the Nemesis album by Cut La Roc. This is a lush blend of electronica, breaks, funky house and even some tidbits of hip-hoppery, the follow up to the bigbeat smash that was La Roc Rocks.

This album is still on sale, but to celebrate the imminent release of his next LP, the man himself is giving away a 320kbps version. If you like it, why not return the love and buy his next album?

Go here and snag it for yourself, before he comes to his senses.

Secondly for this inaugural week of freebies, I wanted to highlight the Dubkey netlabel. The label provides free roots reggae and dub and it is lovely stuff too.

There are currently three albums available on the site. Crucial Alphonso's rather splendid Visionary Creation has been on rotate on my Ipod for a couple of weeks now. Twelve tracks of deep instrumental dub with an electronic edge.

So spark a fatty, crack a Red Stripe and float into the weekend. I have a feeling it's going to be a good one.

And if you want to recommend / donate some free music for future Free Music Fridays, mail me: totalcult (at) gmail (dot) com.

Wednesday 26 August 2009

Music recording, editing, tweaking and mixing on your phone?



The Pilotfish Ondo phone does look a lot like Nathan Barley's Wasp T5, and how useful it would actually be as an all-in-one recording, collaborating, mixing and DJing tool is debatable.

BUT the idea is amazing. If one day there was a hand-held gizmo that did everything this promises to, it would change music for sure.

Go here for more info.

150 free patches for NI's Massive


Mark Chadwick, aka re:mark, aka Brooklyn Hype, aka Mr Generous, has made 150 patches for Native Instruments' impressive softsynth Massive. With basses, leads, electro blips, FX and pads included, this is a pretty comprehensive package.

To download them, go here.

They are free to use in commercial and non-commercial works, but he does ask for donations to enable his hosting to continue.

Monday 24 August 2009

DIY Visual Sequencer



The D-Touch audio sequencer and drum machine are an amazing innovation in sequencing. By adding and rearranging blocks under the watchful eye of your webcam, you can create beats, layer sounds and perform whole tracks in a truly hands on way.

And best of all, the software is free, and the rest of the kit can be made or purchased very cheaply.



Here's a clip of Giovanni Sollima using the D-Touch live in concert. Wonderful stuff:


For more information, including detailed how to build guides go here.

Saturday 22 August 2009

Moog for you

Moog synthesizers are the epithome of electronic music instruments. The bold combination of wood, metal and electricity seems like a chimera born out of the depths of Haefestus' forge.

Compliments aside, the Moog synth sound helped to define the sound of rock music and electronic music during the seventies and forth. Years have passed, we have seen the apparition of virtual analogue synths, virtual instruments for our PCs and Macs, we have seen the rise and fall (and rebirth) of Frequency Modulation synthesisers, romplers, samplers and grooveboxes, and yet, the Moog sound still shines on top.

During the seventies we had the luck of listening to the works of Wendy Carlos and many others, yet, many of the albums are lost in second hand album bins or garage sales.

So, check this blog, listen to the music, then buy the albums you like. They are very much awesome in mp3 format, but they are better yet when you listen to them in their vinyl incarnations.

At last! A bagpipe for the 21st Century,




How many times have you wished you could get a realistic bagpipe sound in your electronic music? Never? Well, me neither. But they've gone and made them anyway.

Technopipes are advanced electronic bagpipes, with MIDI output for controlling sampled instruments. It's like Kraftwerk doing a Highland fling.

"But no MIDI bagpipe is complete without a quality sound source to trigger," I hear you cry. Well worry not!

Epipes is here with 'The Fred Morrison Sound'. It's a software-based virtual bagpipe allowing you to play the Highland pipes, Uilleann pipes, Border pipes and Scottish Smallpipes.

And it comes with bonus freeware, including a virtual recording studio, flutes, whistles, fiddles and more.

Drone on!

Friday 21 August 2009

Vintage Guitar and Classic Synth Fair



If you're anywhere near Devon tomorrow (Sat, August 22nd) and in the market for a vintage guitar or classic synth, you could do a lot worse than visit the Vintage Guitar and Classic Synth Fair.

There are going to be some beauties for sale on the day. Just feast your eyes on these...




It'll cost three quid to get in and the venue is the Exeter Corn Exchange.

More details of the day here.

Free e-book on dance music production



Mazala Recordings is offering a free e-book covering the rudiments of dance music production, useful to anyone producing hip hop, breakbeat, drum n bass and the like.

The information and lessons are aimed at aimed at everyone from beginners to more advanced producers. It contains audio examples, MIDI files, chord charts, drum sequences, synthesis techniques and more.

Just checking the chapter titles makes me think there's going to be some good stuff in there:

1. Creating a Home Studio
2. Music Theory
3. Genre
4. Song Arrangement
5. Drum and Percussion Elements
6. Drum Pattern
7. Introduction to Synthesis
8. Electronic and Analogue Instruments for the Dance Producer
9. Creating Electronic Instruments
10. Rhythm
11. Sound Effects
12. Dance Music Production Rudiments
13. Digital Signal Processing
14. Mastering
15. Organising your Studio to Optimise your Workflow
16. Live Performance for the Dance Musician
17. Selling Your Music
18. Dance Music Rudiments Version 2

Download it for free here.

Thursday 13 August 2009

The Humanthesizer



Calvin Harris performs a version of his new single Ready For The Weekend on a unique human synthesiser. The instrument employs 15 bikini clad models painted with Bare Conductive, a new skin safe ink which conducts electricity. When the performers touch the connection completes a circuit, triggering a sound.

The instrument consists of 34 pads on the floor which have been painted with the conductive ink and connected to a computer via some clever custom electronics. The performers stand on the pads, and touch hands to complete a circuit and trigger a sound. Different combinations of pads trigger the different sounds needed to play the track.

The project is the result of a collaboration between Calvin Harris and masters students from the Royal College of Art's Industrial Design Engineering programme.

Bare Conductive was developed by RCA students Bibi Nelson, Becky Pilditch, Isabel Lizardi and Matt Johnson. The custom electronics and software for the project were created by Matt Johnson, employing two Arduinos and the graphical audio programming tool Max MSP. The performers, floor pads, Arduinos and Max MSP combine to create a giant MIDI controller which is used to create music which is sequenced and quantized with Ableton Live.

More about the making of the Humanthesizer here:

Wednesday 12 August 2009

In Defence of Animals

Pink Floyd's 1977 album, Animals, is one of their four biggest selling LPs. After their Live 8 reunion, it was one of the big sellers of the four albums they made in the mid-70s that ensured their status as stadium-straddling behemoths - Dark Side Of The Moon, Wish You Were Here and The Wall being the other three. Chances are that most people who bought a copy after the reunion listened to it once. Uncut magazine recently did a list of the 30 Best Pink Floyd songs - not a single track from Animals made the list. When David Gilmour resurrected Pink Floyd in the 80s and 90s, not a single song from the album was played live.

Animals has come to be seen as a bit of an "odd one out" and received a "difficult" reputation. However, it is actually their third and last masterpiece (I'm counting Piper At The Gates Of Dawn and DSotM as their other two). Wish You Were Here is a great album, no denying it, but it doesn't hang together as a whole quite as well as Animals. The Wall, for some reason receives thumbs up from fans and critics alike, yet is an unfocused self-indulgent mess that descends into sub-Lloyd Webber operatics - there are a number of good songs (Nobody Home being a particular favourite of mine), but would anyone really remember it favourably if it didn't contain Another Brick In The Wall or Comfortably Numb?

So why is Animals a masterpiece? Firstly, it hangs together as an album - a independent entity existing purely on it's own terms - stupendously well, arguably even better than DSotM. It features some of Roger Waters' best lyrics, and maintains a furious, bitter and bleak world view that is reflected in the sparse, brutal music.

The music in Animals is sometimes seen as being out of character for Pink Floyd, but Sheep and Dogs were originally written, as Raving & Drooling and You Gotta Be Crazy respectively, to accompany Shine On You Crazy Diamond on the successor to DSotM. It was the fact that vinyl couldn't fit more than about 24 minutes of music per side that scuppered that idea. But the majority of the Animals album had been written, revised and gigged extensively since 1974. The music isn't totally different, either - the pounding bass rhythms are echoed in Shine On You Crazy Diamond (parts 5 and 6) or One Of These Days from 1971's Meddle. Pigs On The Wing recalls If from Atom Heart Mother.

The sound of the album, however, is different. Gone are the echo and reverb soaked sumptuous keyboard atmospherics and creamy guitar solos, replaced with tough, wiry guitar lines, pounding rhythms and uneasy, atonal keyboards. But the dry, delay-free sound is is all there because it suits the material. The album is an intense affair, almost totally surrendering melody to rhythm, but perfectly structured so that when Gilmour's fantastic descending guitar figure bursts furth at the end of Sheep, near the end of the album, it almost feels like a moment of total release.

When the album was first released in 1977 the musical landscape had undergone a total change with the advent of punk, Pink Floyd suddenly being out of fashion. But over 30 years on, Animals captures the sound and the spirit of bitterness, decay and dissatisfaction of the late 70s far better than the Sex Pistol's collection of pop songs.