RIP Technics?

The industry standard deck that has been the foundation of three decades of DJing and turntablism, could be discontinued next year if internet rumours are to be believed.

The iconic Technics 1200 and 1210 ranges have been a staple in nightclubs since their birth in the 1970s. But with the rise of CD turntables, software mixing solutions and packages like Ableton Live, a whole generation of DJs is growing up without ever touching a deck.

Now many sites are reporting an end of production in March next year, although Cnet.com has stated the press release that forms the basis of these articles is a fake.

We'll keep watching the story, but if it's true, it would genuinely be the end of an important era.

Fwonk* Monday

So it's official, Ketamine will obliterate your bladder, leaving you peeing into a bag for the rest of your whiffy, sloshy life.

For those of you who don't fancy rubber pants as a life-choice, there's a new, safe alternative. It provides an equally potent trip, mashing and mangling your mind but thankfully it is free from unpleasant side effects such as organ failure.

I'm speaking, of course, about the music of 2ndMOUSE, an artistic purveyor of warm, fuzzy, occasionally frightening psychedelic experiences in handy, easy to swallow MP3 format.

His music is melodic, electronic, strong in the groove department yet prone to industrial bursts and unexpected glitched-out twists. It summons images of terminators chasing sweaty, wide-eyed ravers through unconvincing 1980s Hollywood versions of night clubs. Well, it does for me anyway.

Now celebrating his second release on Fwonk*, we thought it was high time to catch up with 2ndMOUSE for a chat.



How would you describe the your music?

Experimental electronica / idm.

Which of your Fwonk releases are you happiest with and why?

Levite, because its the most recent, and is a better representation of what I'm hearing in my head. As my knowledge of production grows, the picture is able to be realised much more clearly, so I always prefer my most recent material.

When and where do you make music?

I make music constantly 'cos I'm surrounded by sound all day and always thinking of ways to assemble it differently. If I'm on a train, I listen to the rhythm of the carriage on the tracks. When I hear people talking, I'm thinking of ideas. My mind never stops.

What inspires you?

what inspires me is sound itself. I like to disassemble it, and find new ways of putting it back together again. I'm inspired by rhythm and always put as much thought into the rhythm of a melody, as I put into the actual notes themselves. Sound is as much to do with rhythm as it is intonation.

How does your creative process work?

My creative process just involves auditioning sounds until a particular nuance catches my ear, then I audition more sounds until I find something to complement the original.

Generally, I find that there is almost a DNA in a sound that determines how that sound should be used, almost like I hear the whole track inside the nucleus of the very first sound I choose.

What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?

The only hardware I have is an M-Audio Fasttrack audio interface , and an M-Audio Oxygen49 keyboard which isn't working properly right now.

Software I use is predominantly freeware VSTs. I like finding new little machines that mess with buffers and screw things up in satisfying ways.

Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?

I'm inspired by many bands, not all of them electronic. Plaid , Boards of Canada, Vesna, Plone, Luke Slater, Luke Vibert would be a few that I'd consider to be awesome.

I try not to copy what they do, but sometimes its inevitable and you can't escape.

Whereabouts in the world do you come from? And is that where you live now?

I come from Northern Ireland , near Belfast.

What's your favourite noise?

Favourite noise would be those planes you always hear in summer when the nights are getting brighter. It just says "summer".

What's your least favourite noise?

Scratching fingernails on a blackboard.


Download 2ndMOUSE's 'Levite' here and his first Fwonk* release 'Full Of Earth And Stars' here.

A grand don't come for free... Or does it?

Sonart Audio are giving away a free 1.6GB multisampled piano.

They say:
"The versatile C7 is at home in any idiom- jazz, pop, classical- and this piano was sampled in a perfect acoustically tuned environment with every note in 20 velocities for 40 seconds plus a piano release and noise layers using top of the line microphones and preamps recorded in 44.1 kHz/24 bit.

Contains programs for Kontakt 1 & 2.1, EXS24, Giga 2, Giga 3 and HALion.

Features in Detail:
+ Fantastic realistic sounds!
+ 20 velocities for 40 seconds plus a piano release and noise layers.
+ Ease of use in the PC/MAC studio
+ New 1.67 Gb 24-bit core wav library!
+ 7 different formats (EXS24, Kontakt 2.1, Kontakt 1.5, Giga 2, Giga 3, Halion and Wav).
+ All NEW Sounds recorded by CS & Sonart sound designers.
+ Fully programmable!"

It normally costs $89.00, but for now it is absolutely gratis. Go here to get yourself a grand for free.

Opportunity for MCs and vocalists

Root's Manuva's Bananaklan imprint is giving upcoming vocalists the chance to get 7" releases and mixtape coverage.

"Yes yes massive and crew this is the riddim section. Monthly beats and tracks for you and your talented friends to write songs to.
"Send them back to bananaklan75 at gmail dot com.
"All the best renditions will appear on bananaklan 7"s or mixtapes."

And to start you off, there's a fly riddim to download and bless with your verbage.
Go here for more.

Free Music Friday

I wanna glide down over Mulholland
I wanna write her name in the sky
Gonna free fall out into nothin'
Gonna leave this world for a while

And I'm free, free fallin'
Yeah I'm free, free...

Yes, it's that perfect antidote to the winter blues: Free Music Friday.

This week we have moody atmospheric hip-hop from Napalm Death's drummer and 16 tracks of gritty lowdown funk, given a twist by some of the biggest remixers in the game.

Not enough for you? Then we'll garnish this musical feast with two collections of 're-grooves' - classic tracks by both the former Godfather of Soul and late King of Pop given a new and funky spin.

First, 'Having It', an EP by Mick Harris. The former grindcore hero found a new direction in the mid-1990s when he started making ambient and chillout music.

The late 90s saw him working on bass-heavy, dark, minimalist instrumental hip-hop, released on the Hed Nod label. Subscribers to the vinyl series were sent CDs, limited to 100 copies, of bonus material along with the records, and it is one of these rare and sought-after CDs which we're pointing you at today.

You can download 'Having It' here.






Next a release from insanely funky Fort Knox Five.

Their album 'Radio Free DC' combined breaks, hip-hop, funk and Latin flavours into a head-swimming Mojito of an album.

The band then asked some of the greatest remixers in the world to systematically re-funk their hits. Deekline & Ed Solo, A Skillz, Nick Thayer, The Nextmen, Shimon, Fuzzbox Inc, Malente and more jumped on board.

The result is an epic, dancefloor-rocking funk odyssey. God only knows why they're giving it away free! All it'll cost you is your email address. Grab it before they come to their senses.

Finally this week we have an amazing double-header from the Goodgroove Records camp, which I discovered thanks to the rather lovely NuFunk blog (well worth checking it out).

Throwing producers like Basement Freaks and Parker at the project, Goodgroove have re-grooved classics from Michael Jackson and James Brown including 'Bad', 'Smooth Criminal', 'Super Bad' and 'It’s A Man’s Man’s Man’s World'.

Any DJ seeking a dance-floor friendly bootleg of an MJ track for the upcoming party season is spoilt for choice here.

Wonderful stuff. Get the Michael Jackson album here. And nab the James Brown project here.

Have a funky, funky weekend people.

Sampling - a potted history

Knowledge Magazine has got a pretty good article looking at the development of sampling, from its earliest tape-based incarnations at the birth of Musique Concrete, right up to the advent of Ableton Live, when all audio became infinitely flexible putty in our hands.

Read it here.

Sadly there is no mention of MusicObject pin-up girl Delia Derbyshire in the article, so here's a completely gratuitous picture of the wonderful workshopper doing what she did best.

Free Artist Packs for Ableton Live

To celebrate the 10th anniversary of Ableton Live bursting onto the production scene, 10 artists have got together with the software manufacturer to create Live Packs full of samples, tracks and presets for synths and FX.

10 years? Damn, I'm getting old.

Adam Freeland, Swayzak and Thavius Beck are among those taking part and giving away their sounds, allowing us a unique insight into how they each use the Ableton package both live and in the studio.

The packs require 8.0.9 or higher and are read-only in Live Lite or Live Intro.

Go here to download and find out more.

Mixtape Wednesday

Derby-based DJ Hudson has been rocking the Midlands for years with his party-friendly blend of disco, funk, breakbeat and hip-hop.

He has a whole heap of mixes available online, showcasing his block-party sensibilities and excellent set-building skills.

My current fave, still getting a lot of iPod airtime for me, is his 'On 45' mix, made using only 7" singles and taking in everyone from Professor Longhair and Paul Simon to Silver Bullet and Shut Up & Dance.



Tracklist:
01 MFSB - Something for Nothing
02 New Birth
03 Eddie Kendricks - Intimate Friends
04 Ohio Players - Funky Worm
05 Foster Sylvers - Misdemeanor
06 Aretha Franklin - One Step Ahead
07 Hubert Laws
08 Cymande - The Message
09 The New Birth - Honeybee
10 Madlib Invasion
11 Heavy D & The Boyz - Blue Funk
12 Leon Haywood - I Want To Do Something...
13 James Brown - Papa Don't Take...
14 Biz Markie - Vapors
15 Ruby Andrews - You Made A Believer Out Of Me
16 Freda Payne - The Easiest Way To Fall
17 Joeski Love - Pee Wee Dance
18 Everybody Bounce
19 Deee Lite Theme
20 Kool & The Gang - Dujii
21 The Village Callers - Hector
22 Gang Starr - Who's Gonna Take The Weight
23 LL Cool J - Rock The Bells
24 The 900 Number
25 Olympic Runners
26 Paul Simon - 50 Ways To Leave Your Lover
27 Parliament
28 Dilla - Signs
29 The Supremes - Bad Weather
30 Jack McDuff - Dit Da Dit
31 People's Choice
32 Big Daddy Kane - Raw
33 Chambers Brothers - Funky
34 Ann Sexton
35 Shoorah! Shoorah! (reggae version)
36 Professor Longhair
37 Doobie Brothers - What A Fool Believes
38 The Intruders - I'll Always Love My Mama
39 Patti Jo - Bonus Beats
40 Tom Tom Club - Wordy Rappinghood
41 A Guy Called Gerald - Voodoo Ray
42 Royal House - Yeah Buddy
43 Shut Up and Dance - £20 To Get In
44 Silver Bullet - 20 Seconds To Comply
45 It's a Leicester Fiesta
46 The Jacksons
47 Breakbeat Era
48 Life Is What You Make It
49 Motherlode - When I Die

Download it here. And check out more mixes by DJ Hudson here.


Sometimes I wonder where it all went wrong. Kids have knives, our leaders are arseholes, the economy is in a slump and the word "electro" is being misappropriated by every shitty house DJ on the planet.

In truth, it's the last one that bothers me most. I love electro. Real electro. Detroit electro. German electro. Proper electro. I hate the fact that a genre built on experimentation and innovation has had its name hijacked by unimaginative house producers.

For the record, house music is not electro any more than trance music is techno.

Anyway, rant over. Here's a mix from Bassline FM, in Seattle, that reminds us all of what makes real electro amazing and how the scene is continuing to push boundaries with fresh pioneering sounds.



The Electro Mixtape covers tracks from the 1980s when electro was born, to the present day. Taking in classic productions from AUX-88 and Shiver alongside newer joints from Point B and Dave Clarke.

Download it here.

Tracklist:
1. Cynthia Stern - Follow (Warlock Mix)
2. Wee DJs - 80
3. Bass Junkie - Sub-Mission (Control The Bass)
4. AUX 88 - Rated AUX
5. Shiver - Subsonic Soundscape
6. Hrdvsion - Love's Duel
7. Clatterbox - Control Freak
8. Vicarious Bliss - Theme From Vicarious Bliss (Dave Clarke Remix)
9. Underground Resistance - Electronic Warfare
10. Silicon Scally - Dissolve (Weemix)
11. Point B - Split
12. Clark - The Magnet Mine

Until next week, enjoy the mixes.

Dexterous digits!

Check this finger-flinging Monome action!

edison - tonka truck from edison on Vimeo.

Edison is using only one-shots, no loops and playing the Monome as a live instrument for this performance of 'Tonka Truck'.

Seriously dope.

Want one? More on the Monome here and here.

Breaks production tips

The Sounds To Sample site has lots of good resources for budding producers, alongside its sample packs for sale.

There's a particularly good set of tips for anyone making breaks, or in fact any dancefloor friendly genre here. Written by Hedflux, the article includes sections on basslines, drums, breakdowns, drops and more.

It's worth keeping an eye on their 'Knowledge' section for more tutorials, tips and tricks.

It just tastes warmer than digital cheese....

Fwonk* Monday

Greetings, my friend.

We are all interested in the future, for that is where you and I are going to spend the rest of our lives.

And remember my friend, future events such as these will affect you in the future. You are interested in the unknown... the mysterious. The unexplainable. That is why you are here.

And now, for the first time, we are bringing to you, the full story of what happened on that fateful day. We are bringing you all the evidence, based only on the secret testimony, of the miserable souls, who survived this terrifying ordeal. The incidents, the places.

My friend, we cannot keep this a secret any longer. Let us punish the guilty. Let us reward the innocent. My friend, can your heart stand the shocking facts of Bachelor Machines?



Sounding like an explosion inside Ed Wood's head, the Bachelor Machines' future-retro techno horror breaks burst onto Fwonk* earlier this year with 'It Is Nice To Finally Meet You'.

Fizzing with electronic blips, robotic vocal snippets and abused percussion, the EP is a collaboration between songwriter Clint Hoagland and the machines he found in a dusty basement in a remote part of Lansing, Michigan.

He told us what it was like to work with his benevolent robot overlords.

Your name / names on Fwonk*?

Artist name: Bachelor Machines
Forum name: BeigeBeigeBeigeBeige


How would you describe the your music?

The music is whatever the Bachelors feel like doing this week. At one point they became fascinated with the prospect of dance music and so they started spitting out electro breaks... I think they eventually found that to be a drag (since, ultimately, they're plugged in in my basement and cannot get out to clubs) and they moved on to music that aims to create moods in individuals rather than groups.


When and where do you make music?

The Bachelor Machines are set up in a little room in the corner of my basement. I try to get down there and work with them for an hour or so most evenings, it works out to maybe 3-4 evenings a week, and a weekend session of a few hours probably once a month. I'm not sure what they do when I'm not down there. I'm gonna try to forget that I even just thought about that.


What inspires you?

One technique that's been fairly successful, in terms of helping us decide what to work on next, has been to work from a particular image, whether that's a photograph or a painting.


How does your creative process work?

Typically, Bachelor #1 will somehow indicate to me what kind of raw material he wants to work with. I supply that material to him and he sits on it for a while... anywhere from a couple of minutes to a couple of years.

I don't know everything that is going on under the hood but he is processing the raw material during that time. By raw material, I mean raw sonic information, in the form of movie soundtracks, LPs, whatever. More recently he has been requesting that I play nylon-string guitar in front of a microphone.

Then, at some future date, what ends up happening is that Bachelor #2 and I will be talking or messing around with some kind of synth pop or something (which is what we do when Bachelor #1 is busy working on his parts) and Bachelor #1 will start displaying all these different images and playing some recombined version of the sounds I gave him. At that point the three of us work out a tune.


What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?

Bachelor #1 and Bachelor #2 could, I guess, be referred to as hardware... in terms of software, we use Live and Renoise to arrange the tunes.


Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?

The Books, Solvent, Adult., Caribou, Venetian Snares, Squarepusher, Juan Garcia Esquivel, Henry Mancini, Antonio Carlos Jobim, Joao Gilberto, Paulo Bellinati, Plastikman, Magnetic Fields


Whereabouts in the world do you come from?

Lansing, MI, USA.


What's your favourite noise?

Hard to put my finger on, but I guess "one sound juxtaposed with another sound in an expressive way."


What's your least favourite noise?

The way guys in alternative rock bands sing.

_______________________

Until next week, why not strap yourself in, download 'It Is Nice To Finally Meet You' and enjoy the ride.

Free Music Friday!

I'm free to do what I want, any old time. And right now I choose to point your browsing glands directly at some rather wonderful music. You lucky, lucky people.

First we have an artist who is no stranger to the concept of 'Free'. He's one of the few who is taking the internet piracy issue lightly and changing his tactics to suit.

British MC, singer and producer Dan Bull is acting as a one-man antidote to Lily Allen, Metallica, Muse and other artists in danger of disappearing up their own arses through anti-file-sharing frenzy.

In fact, he's written a free single, complete with video on the topic. Watch Dan's 'Open Letter To Lily Allen' below:

Refreshing to hear it told straight by such a talented artist isn't it?

And Mr Bull is backing his words up with actions. You can download the MP3 of 'Dear Lily' absolutely free of charge here.

But it doesn't stop there. Although Dan's album is available for sale on Freshnut Records, as well as iTunes, Amazon and Napster, he is also giving it away (in low-res format) on Megaupload and through torrents.

As with the single above, 'Safe' is witty, musical and uniquely British. If you enjoy it, play fair and buy a high-res copy.

If chunky, funky breaks are more your bag, then we've got a treat for you.

Gyre, aka Mike McGuire is a UK-based music producer, making breaks, house, ambient, chillout and various other forms of electronic music.

He's created two really rather rocking remix EPs of artists including Freeland, Poordream, French hipsters Iam, Erratech, Air and even Blur.

You can download them from his Soundcloud page and stay updated on his activities over at his blog.

Nifty stuff.

Finally this week we have an EP out on the excellent Plainaudio netlabel.

Matthew Stenning, recording as UV has fashioned a frankly brilliant 7-track EP of broken beats, lush floating synths, crisp acoustic guitars and occasional heavy bass that nods to IDM without ever entering 'abstract noodling' territory. I suppose you could label it 'chillout' or 'folktronica' but that wouldn't truly reflect the diversity of this EP.

In his own words: "The UV sound is a very insular one, and unintentionally disrespectful of genre - the point is to simply write what 'needs' to be written at that time, as opposed to curtailing to tempo, style or other restrictive boundaries - the mood could be dark, playful, energetic, organic, or technological - it really doesn't matter. A feeling, or vibe is prioritised, not category."

Download the EP here.

As always, if you like what you hear, spread the word, tell your friends and share the love that is Free Music Friday.

Have a good weekend people!

DIY Soundsystem

Michael Una over at Create Digital Music has written a really rather wonderful 'how-to' on making your own bass-heavy soundsystem, old skool style!

Using metal barrels and car stereo sub woofers, you can create a block rocking speaker set and really worry your neighbours.



Go here to learn how to make a barrel o' bass.

Mixtape Wednesday

This is the first in a new series bringing you fresh mixtapes each and every week.

And as with everything in this online socialist utopia we're creating, they're going to be free. Yes free.

In keeping with the Fwonk* manifesto ("Make It Good, Make It Interesting") we won't just be linking to banging 4/4 trance mixes but seeking out blended musical journeys, taking in tunes old and new.


Let's kick off with something both Good and Interesting, from Robots In Heat - 'Obscured By Crowds'. This luscious mix sounds like a cube of melancholy space folk melting into a steaming cup of psychedelic prog rock.

It's not even a conventional beat-mixed seamless session, closer in fact to a mixtape made by a friend with a very broad record collection - but that just makes it all the more intimate and special. Really excellent stuff.

While you're at the Noncollective site, be sure to check out the other mixes. There's loads of goodness to be had.

Download 'Obscured By Crowds' here.

Tracklist:
01 Jade Warrior - A Winter's Tale
02 Stomu Yamashta - Tempest Fantasia
03 Shawn Phillips - Prelude To Leaving
04 Shawn Phillips - All Our Love
05 Bo Hansson - Trial And Adversity
06 Steve Hillage - Four Ever Rainbow
07 Lee Michaels - (Drum Solo)
08 Wasa Express - Son Of A Peach
09 Riot - Just Beyond
10 Roy Buchanan - You're Not Alone
11 John Lucien - Would You Believe In Me
12 Reverberi - Cat Casanova
13 Harumi - Twice Told Tales of the Pomegranate Forest
14 Masami Tsuchiya - Haina-Haila
15 David Van Tieghem - Remote Viewing
16 Orson Welles - The Late Great Planet Earth
17 Kim Fowley - 1988: Searching For A Human In The Tight Blue Jeans
18 Dissidenten - Grand Babylon Hotel
19 Rhythm & Noise - Monomenon
20 Cheb Khaled - La Camel
21 Tangerine Dream - Rare Bird
22 Bermuda Triangle - Nights In White Satin
23 Jade Warrior - Borne on the the Solar Wind




Never let it be said that Nick Griffin has not done anything good for us. Yes he's an almighty bellend, and yes it's horribly embarrassing to have a Holocaust-denier representing us in Europe, but without his influence, the mysterious DJ Ghandi would never have been angry enough to put together the Masala Mix.

Blending bhangra, Qawwali dub, desi reggae & dubstep, this mix is a reaction to the ignorant Fascist's recent appearance on Question Time. It's an uptempo bass and beat fest of the highest order, celebrating diversity in a way the British Nobend Party never will.

Download 'The Masala Mix' here.

Tracklist:
1 Madlib 'New Bombay'
2 Gaudi 'Native Dub'
3 The Ruts 'Babylon's Burning' (Rob Smith rmx)
4 Mayor Mehran 'Yaar Dha'
5 Kush Arora 'Tribute to Selassie Riddim'
6 Panjabi MC 'Jagga'
7 Asian Dub Foundation 'New Way, New Life' (Dry & Heavy dub)
8 The Dub Factory 'Kaise Guzar Rahi Hai'
9 Pete Murder Tone 'Paper Tiger'
10 Nusrat Fateh Ali Khan 'Ghamgar Bare Ne' (Gaudi rmx)
11 PMC 'Dholana' ft. Master Salim
12 Orange Blossom 'Bendima'
13 Erol Bellot 'Globetrotting'
14 Gubi Sandhu 'Teray Meray Pyar Dhian'
15 Distance 'Temptation'
16 Bombay Dub Orchestra 'Journey'(Liquid Strangers sliptrip rmx)
17 Dov 'Earth Bleed' (Single Cell Orchestra rmx)
18 Liquid Strangers 'Hexed & Perplexed'
19 Bassbin Twins 'Roller Choon'
20 A.D.F 'Fortress Europe (Jazzwad rmx)
21 Kush Arora ft. Juakali 'Get Wet'
22 A.D.F. 'Hypocrites'
23 PMC 'Kori (Giddah)'

Until next week...

Remix Anti-Pop Consortium

The Big Dada label's Anti-Pop Consortium are offering their banging track 'Reflections' for remix in conjunction with New York radio station WMFU and the Free Music Archive.

You can read more and download the parts here.

Watch the video below to see if the track is up your street:


And here's a video of the group's High Priest talking about beat-making and pluggin Reason 4:

Free Reverb - until Wednesday!!! D/L NOW!!!!

TC Electronics, creators of Powercore, plus loads of high-end plugins, are giving away their Reverb VST (or AU if you're on Mac) for free until Wednesday.

It usually retails for $79, so it's a bit of a bargain.

Go here and get yours.

Remix Eastenders???

To celebrate the launch of a new 'yoof' version of the perpetually dreary, tragically unrealistic London-based soap opera Eastenders, Aunty Beeb is offering the iconic theme tune for remixing.

Learn more, download the samples and upload your remixes here.

800MB Of (not really) Free Hip-Hop / RnB Samples

ProducerLoops are giving away 'After Hours' for free.

EDIT: Although they claim this is a free pack, you have to make a minimum order of about 5 quid to download - so it's a bit of a scam really. Not cool.

You can still go here and check it out if you want to.

Free Modular Synth

Blok is a simple, easy to use modular synth environment designed as a tool for teaching synthesis to students.

It's available as a standalone program, VST or Buzz Machine, and is straightforward enough for beginners to use without drowning in a sea of possibilities.

With 5 types of oscillator and a bundle of controllers and modifiers, including filters, delays, waveshapers, LFOs and envelopes, this is a very versatile package.

Blok even includes external knobs so that parameters can be automated from your host software.

You can read more about Blok, check the manual and download the installer here.

And there's a pretty detailed wiki here, which already includes tutorials on synthesising specific sounds such as kick drums and hoover basses and should become even more comprehensive over the coming weeks.

Fwonk* Monday

I don't know what it's like where you are, but where I am a pitch-black sky is pissing incessant rain onto the cold dark earth.

Yes, it's Monday morning and suddenly we can all sympathise with Brenda Ann Spencer.

But wait, Mondays don't have to be bleak exercises in endurance. Before you go on an insane shooting spree, see if we can liven up your day.



This week, Fwonk* Monday is showcasing the work of Heskin Radiophonic, without whom the Fwonk* netlabel would not exist.

In between running the Fwonk* community boards, designing websites, holding down a dayjob and raising a family, Heskin also finds time to run the label, often even designing the artists' album covers.

Oh, and somehow he also has time to make music. Perhaps he's using a Time Turner?

Mr Radiophonic currently has two albums available for download: Wait For No Man and 雪月花時最憶君.

Epic, drone-based ambient electronica, occasionally straying into glitchy territory - these could be the perfect albums to cosy up to on a miserable rainy morning.

We caught up with the man who made Fwonk* happen and asked him a few questions.

How would you describe the your music?
Breathing. Organic. Artificial.

Which of your Fwonk releases are you happiest with and why?
FW025: Wait For No Man - I attempted to make an "album", by which I mean a single artistic entity that flowed from track to track and of which every track formed part of the whole. And not just a bunch of songs I'd made stuck together (as was the case with my previous release!)

When and where do you make music?
I make music on my PC which is stuck in our utility room next to the washing machine. I make music when everyone else is in bed!

What inspires you?
My family, the raw power of the sea, and the sensation of bare feet on warm sand.

How does your creative process work?
I think about my tunes all day. I used to formulate drum patterns on pieces of paper and start with them. Now I start with the melodic content - a couple of chords (usually with a lot of shared notes) or a guitar riff that is transposed into a keyboard part and totally changes in the process!

What hardware / software / instruments do you use to make music?
CMI Telecaster Deluxe, a far-Eastern Thru-Neck guitar, my trusty Yamaha bass into a PC running Ableton Live, GuitarRig3, Abysnth3, CamelSpace, CamelPhat and lots of freebie VSTs, especially the lovely ones from Antress, Odo and of course De La Mancha.

Who are your favourite bands / producers / DJs?
Pink Floyd are my all time favourites, but I like anybody who can create interesting, original music that is one step removed from normality.

Whereabouts in the world do you come from? And is that where you live now?
Lancashire. Aye.

What's your favourite noise?
The laughter of my children.

What's your least favourite noise?
I have lots. Over-compressed music. Anything played on Radio 1. Witless chatter. I could go on...

Errrrrr, WTF?

Mmmmmkay. Well, that's actually pretty cool.

It's two robots playing a Gnarls Barkley track. Yup. That's what it is.

You know you want one of these...

Buy it here.

Benders.

Circuit bending - the noble art of licking electronic devices until their souls scream for mercy in shrill, upsetting tones. It's probably best explained by the short Absurdity.biz documentary below:



Having established what it is, how does one go about it?

Well, first you'll need something powered by batteries that makes sound. Kids toy electric guitars, drum machines and keyboards are a good start, as are Speak & Spells, Furbies and a host of other noisy toys. Hell, you could even do it with one of those annoying musical greetings cards.

Next you'll need to open it up, exposing the circuits.

Then the abuse can begin.

There's a superb step-by-step guide at the Anti-Theory site.

Another great guide at CircuitBenders.co.uk.

Dozens of inspirational creations from Tim Kaiser at Atomic Sonic.

Bendtronics sells kits and stuff, but also has a series of excellent free video tutorials.

And the Get Lo-Fi blog has loads of great articles and links.



"But I'm frightened of batteries, ever since I licked one and it made my tongue feel funny!"

Oh well, perhaps circuit bending just ain't for you. Don't cry about it.

In fact, for the faint of heart there are some cheeky alternatives out there, ways to get the bent sound without ripping the heart out of a single Texas Instrument.

This obviously goes against many of the purist principals of bending, where abandoning the chaotic creation process through buying pre-made kits and devices is frowned upon. But there you go.

MusicObject friend and all round talented geezer De La Mancha has created 'Bent' - a circuit bent style VST resynthesis effect.

He says the plugin "will recreate the incoming audio into an approximation of itself using a waveform-morphing audio oscillator. Depending on the volume and pitch of the audio, it will gate, stutter and morph the output in sync with your host tempo". And you know what? He's not wrong.

Like all DLM creations, this works well and sounds great.










Berrtill is a bizarre sound-mangling distortion plugin from Shuriken.se, modeled on a circuit-bent toy. The signal path goes through a car speaker to a kazoo, to a tape recorder, followed by a toy microphone and finally a toy amp. The controls allow you to adjust the thresholds of various parameters and to mess with the signal path.

You really should read the manual to get a feel for it.

See a video of the real-world device:



Tonebytes have created a software synth that does a pretty good emulation of a circuit-bent device.

Bend Box "can be useful for making experiments and for creating various noise FX. All knobs can be tweaked manually or thru easily assignable MIDI controllers. MIDI Automation is also available.

With Bend Box you can get wide range of noises: from the soft gurgling to ringing grinding, or even strange melodical timbres."




Bitboy from Darkware is another free plugin that promises the sound of "all your old consoles,fried by lightning". We haven't had a chance to play with it yet, but it looks good.



If samples are more your thing, there are some goodies to be had for free.

There's a bundle of great Speak & Spell sounds (both bent and unbent) at Webiocosm.

The Freesound Project has a good pack by evilpaul.

mimu.eu has some good packs here and here, including a broken 303 and a bent noise machine.

Roil Noise has some blinders including samples of a Yamaha PSR-12 keyboard, a Casio CTK-550 keyboard and a Roland DR-550 drum machine here.

And finally, Steve over at Haunted House Records has some sample packs in his Free Stuff section, check out the Electronic Critters pack.

After all this talk of bending, why not listen to some tunes made with circuit-bent kit?

Circuitbenders.co.uk has some.

There's a free album from Get Lo-Fi here.

And Noise Koncept has a wonderful compilation called 'The Bent Life' here.

Free Music Friday (Hip-Hop Edition)

Yeeeeeeeaaah bwoooooy. It's Friday, get high day, wave work goodbye day!!!

And that means free pod-fodder for the massive in a globe-trotting hip-hop style.

New Big Dada signing Damaged Good$ lay down some slick synthetic funk and lazy, drawling verses on their new free single "Dopest Flyest".

The single is a very tasty taster of a forthcoming free album - "Spread Love Not Germ$". Keep and eye on their Myspace and the Big Dada site for more news and probably more gratuitous dollar signs.

In the meantime, download "Dopest Flyest" here.





As this blog proves with alarming regularity, the best things in life are free.

This is a philosophy shared by German netlabel iD.EOLOGY, who have put together an alarmingly good compilation of fresh instrumental and vocal hip-hop.

There's a load of good stuff on here, but standout tracks for me include the progressive deep funk of 'Time Machine' by Soulkrates and Fleur Earth & Gringo Starr's 'Geiz ist eine Plage', which drops somewhere between jazz and dancehall.

Grab the album here.

Gritty, grimey, crackly and creaky offerings from the UK now, from the vaults of the mighty Blah Records.

First up, a collaboration between Lee Scott and Monster Under The Bed, recording under their Mcabre Brothers moniker. Featuring production from Reklews, Lee Scott and Sly Moon, these are 10 tracks of raw, lowdown attitude with tight production, rambling, raucous verses and more than a whiff of early Redman sound.

Secondly from Blah, more dirt, more verbal swagger and a whole heap of crunchy beats on Flash 4Dem's aptly-named 'Mega Dumb Free Shit'. A member of the Children of the Damned crew, Flash drops rhymes that are simultaneously tight and loose, sprawling and precise over dark, sample-laden beats that sound like bad trips on wax.
Grab both albums here.

Finally for this week's free spread, a remix project from the talented folks over at Crate Kings that's gonna go back, waaaaay back, if you know what I'm saying.

Crate Kings 4 sees the deep vein of production talent that inhabits the CK forums taking on remixes from 1990s hip-hop. Ultramagnetic MCs, EPMD, Pharoahe Monch, De La Soul and Nas are among the artists getting the remix treatment on this mixtape.

From the razor-sharp cuts and swiftly-switched breaks of Downstroke's intro to the chilled funk of C1's take on Big L's 'Put It On', this is a pretty sweet project. Some may say that the classics should be left alone, but if everyone thought like that hip-hop would never have happened.

Grab the album, and have a listen to the previous Crate Kings releases, here.

Now, until next time, we're ghost like Casper.