witnessing a collection...
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...:::...thoughts return to the meaning of the word “collection”. particularly in music, where ultimately the thing that is being kept is the sound itself and the physical object (the record, the cd, the archaic cassette) or the anti-object (the digitized file) are merely the vehicles transporting the content.

however, being the creature that i am, i notice i tend to have an attachment to tangible things…a gravitation to physically perceive…to assign characterized adjectives to naked nouns, dress them up in various ways with an experience based vocabulary.

but my personal paradox is that despite being such a visual person, i have a pregnant collection of digital files that exist in an abstracted state…almost ethereal. and it has left me wondering lately: what does a digital collection look like? and how important is the relationship between the object form and the subsequent sound?

maybe it would matter more if i had a shelved wall that was already weighted with vinyl and graphic sleeves, always lonely for more company. or maybe it would matter more if i had a perfectly tuned ear. or maybe it would matter more if i actually spun records and could associate a tactile feel to music (almost like a topography, my fingers sensitive to the pressed terrain)...

but for me maybe it matters not at all if i think only of the sound as audial information. if i think of the music i collect as an opportunity to assemble and re-arrange narrative into abstraction (or vice-versa) through re-sequencing songs. creating new contexts and relationships. condensed and transportable, my digital collection expands into environments wherever i may be. rains digitized sounds from binary coalescence...:::...

download: 070529-modyfier-part01

blaze – lovelee dae (subsky reconstruction) : apr 2007 on vivid trax
raz ohara – whitmey na (nass aka geiger ride vocal remix) : may 2007 on kindisch
alex neri & luca bacchetti – la fotografia : may 2007 on tenax
mike shannon – devotional : may 2007 on cynosure recordings
henrik schwartz – walk music : apr 2007 on mood music records
crystal fake – weekday trip (martinez remix) : may 2007 on out of orbit recordings
shlomi aber – freakside : may 2007 on ovum recordings
hertz – aluminum : may 2007 on atom
david granha – going up : may 2007 on acid milk recordings
dusty kid – tsunamy : may 2007 on systematic
redshape – munch : may 2007 on delsin records
stefan goldman – aurora : may 2007 on macro recordings
extrawelt – doch doch (patrick zigon remix) : may 2007 on traum

download: 070529-modyfier-part02

minilogue – urubamba : apr 2007 on wir
henrichs & hirtenfellner – violet rain : may 2007 on karateklub
audiofly x & liars paradise – speak b4 u think (audiofly vs geddes remix) : may 2007 on renaissance
audion – fred’s bells : may 2007 on spectral sound
eric prydz – rymd : may 2007 on pryda recordings
polder – strange ways : may 2007 on intacto
stp – whispers in the dark (winks dream of ovum remix) : apr 2007 on I records
the viewers – blank images (lazy fat people remix) : may 2007 on audiomatique recordings
tom mangan – tenax : may 2007 on souvenir music
zentex – menosa : may 2007 on minisketch
salvor – the story is : may 2007 on acid milk recordings

of note: go check out 8ball's mix deckless modifications assembled from findings here. i like it very much.

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MIKAEL STAVOSTRAND

the following conversation was parsed together from a rapid-fire im exchange between modyfier and mikael stavostrand.

Can you give some context to where this set was played?
This gig is from Harry Klein in Munich. It’s a super nice club that is kinda small…maybe 300 people maximum and the audience rocks to the limit...

What is it that you like about this place? It’s intimacy? The design? The people? The sound? The location?
All that minus location. There is a real energy and appreciation from the people there, but the location is kinda weird. They have this "club" district in Munchen with loads of clubs in the same area. Like an amusement park for clubs, but I guess that doesn't matter as long the club is killer.

The night you played, did you have something prepared?
My live sets are prepared, but I like to take them in different directions depending on the reaction of the crowd. Tweak it around a bit depending on the mood. Of course if the audience is really into it, I get really into it and tweak to the max. It's always a two-way communication.

How do you read the reaction?
Ha! If people dance or not! I see what mood they like. Whether they like more percussive stuff or vocals. If they like it rough or smooth -- it could go anyway depending on the response. I have material for playing a 3 hour set so I can switch around a lot, since I usually only play 90 minutes.

Do you find that different people in different places like to hear different things?
Yeah, that’s why this club is good -- because people are patient and open minded for new sounds -- not just wanting banging kick. I think my style is more difficult than most so I need a more open minded audience who can take the freaky and deep material and don't need to rush to the climax in 10 seconds.

Aside from performing (whether live or as a deejay), when you are producing music, is there some familiar place that you find yourself starting from? Such as some re-current idea or technical set-up?
Ummmmm...

For example, when I sit down to draw, I obviously have the tools (the pen and paper) but I also set up some rules for myself about how the drawing will evolve, like a structure. Often I draw heavier lines first as an edge for the lighter ones to respond to, and the drawing unfolds from there, based on these initial constraints.
Not really. I just try to let it go as it comes. I don't want any limitations.

Do you ever have an idea of what your music will sound like before you make it?
No. It’s more of an aesthetic and I try to go with the flow. But of course I always have a vision in my head of what I want to do, but it never ends up like that anyway. It is more a starting point.

Do you think your music has an underlying aesthetic then?
I guess so (or I know so) but don't think about it to much. Haha! I just want to make music I like and that I would dance to at a club.

In some ways, I think much of what is made sometimes is best when it is not too deeply reflected upon. But at times, it can be interesting to start asking questions about where ideas come from...to trace their footsteps. A lot of the time it seems to require conditioning, a form of practice. I think we tend to make things that we know how to or have gotten good at and I think the danger lies in never evolving that.
For me it's a constant development -- a search for something. Honestly, I don't know yet. Maybe I'll never find it. What I do hope, though, is that people find individual things in my music, things that suit them. Music is so personal, anyways. It means different things for everyone.

download: mikael stavostrand - live at harry klein (feb 2007)

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[A]PENDICS.SHUFFLE

The things that inspire me to put sounds together to make into something you might listen or dance to are plenty. Inspiration comes from listening to various kinds of music and sounds made by human beings and machines, machines that can and will speak on their own without any knowledge of future co-operation with beings containing human forms of exercise or rational thoughts. I must say though, in real life, the people that move me the most and inspire me to live aren't other techno producers but mad-men such as Brian Wilson, King Tubby, Mad Professor and Merle Haggard. Everything works in its own world....it really depends which one you decide to live in...

[a]pendics.shuffle - process part 024 (live dj set in la april 07) by modyfier

the next three posts will feature process pieces from someone else, [a]pendics.shuffle and mikael stavostrand...all of whom will be performing live may 26th in san francisco at fat city's filter monthly.

the process series that is run on modyfier aims to bring varying perspectives (of artists, deejays (and sometimes critics)) to the question, “how do you make?”. pairing an mp3 (a mix, a track, a string of sampled sounds, field recordings, etc…) with some words about it's construction, the hope is to create a diverse body of work that both shows and tells the eclectic approaches to music making.

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SOMEONE ELSE

How it came into being: Since 1994, I was doing an electro-pop/indie rock project called Flowchart. People tended to compare us a lot to Stereolab and My Bloody Valentine. Somewhere along the way, during the early and mid-'90s, I also discovered electronic music, raves, e, and all that fun stuff. This had a slow-evolving impact on the Flowchart sound. By 1998, Flowchart was fully electronic -- using samplers, drum machines and synthesizers. While I continued to make kitschy experimental pop music with Flowchart, I also started helping my friends throw raves in Philly and New York. The production crew was called the Pure Children. And then I started DJing a lot of ambient and IDM music in chill-out rooms at raves. At this time, I was a huge fan of Aphex Twin, The Orb, Plastikman and Autechre. This led to my job at 611 Records. At 611, I discovered the hard techno sound -- names like Surgeon, Regis and James Ruskin. To me, this was the closest thing to experimental and IDM music that was geared for the big dance floors. And of course, this quickly brought me to minimal techno. But at the same time, I discovered Matthew Herbert, Inland Knights, and a lot of other quirky and soulful deep house. And being that Philly is such a soul town, it was easy for me to also embrace deep house. Since the turn of the century, I have been very largely committed to minimalism as well as deep house.

Fuzzy Box was a label that I started in 1994 to release 7"s of Flowchart and other indie projects. It later became a CD label, and I continue to release CDs on this label to this day as a subsidiary to Darla Records. The last release was by Bochum Welt (formerly of Rephlex Records). But Fuzzy Box is a very part-time thing, and there's only about one release every one or two years. As for Tuning Spork, this label was launched around 1999 by Jay Haze, Bjoern Hartmann and me. It was a Philly thing at first. But around 2002, Jay and Bjoern moved to Europe, and I opted to stay in Philly. Since then, I have not been doing Tuning Spork with the others, and my new focus has been on the Foundsound and Unfoundsound labels. Foundsound is probably the best label that I have ever been a part of. Along with myself, it was founded by Cyhl (a.k.a. Fusiphorm) and Kate Iwanowicz (a.k.a. Miskate). But we also get a lot of help from Ben Parris, Rich Henning (a.k.a. Diss0nance), Barem, Accidentally Gay Andrew, and others. The simple aim behind Foundsound is to showcase quirky, dancefloor-friendly tracks constructed from fragmented samples, organic minimalism and random field recordings. That is, minimal techno made (at least in part) from found sounds of everyday life -- whether it's a pen cap dropping on the floor, tapping a glass bottle, laughing into a microphone, a squeaky chair, sampling talk radio, whatever. As for Unfoundsound, this is our free netlabel where we release high-res mp3s and flac files (which are basically compressed wave files). The releases on Unfoundsound serve as a nice testing ground to see if the (new) artist is a possible option for a release on Foundsound -- based on the response of the release and how many downloads the release gets. Barem is a perfect example of this. His Unfoundsound release had thousands of downloads, and it earned him releases on a variety of labels including Minus -- as well as heavy DJ play by Richie Hawtin, Magda, and other superstar mofos. But the concept behind Unfoundsound -- sound-wise -- is not really the same as Foundsound. It's more open-ended, and it's really just about freely distributing quality minimal electronic music. Are we contributing to the death of vinyl by doing this? Of course. Do we want the death of vinyl to happen? No. But realistically, it's irrelevant. The future of vinyl is what it is regardless of whether or not we distribute digital music. Afterall, what about all the people in South America, Russia, Australia and China that can't get vinyl? Digital music is necessary in many cases.

At the end of the '90s, Jay, Bjoern and I were basically the only people in Philly making and DJing minimal music. So one day I suggested to them that we should start a label together, and we should called it Tuning Spork. The suggestion was pretty logical at that time. They agreed immediately, and this was only months after Jay started producing his own music. And Jay's tracks were quite amazing right from the start. In the beginning, we were more focused on our Tuning Spork parties in Philly more than anything else. That took up most of our energy in the beginning. Some of the parties were quite legendary. At the time, the label sort of felt more like a byproduct of the parties more than the other way around. It was almost as if the label was there to promote our events. But realistically, it was indeed the other way around. After Jay and Bjoern moved to Europe, the label took off a lot more. And that's around the time Cyhl, Kate and I started Foundsound.

As for how I create music these days as "Someone Else”: There's not a lot of inspiration that goes into the creation of the music. It's simply spontaneous. I will sample whatever I have access to at that moment using a microphone or whatever. And then I will arrange them in some sort of way that happens more or less without any thought whatsoever -- which consists mainly of a lot of cutting, editing, copying and pasting on the computer -- and of course, lots of effects.

Any Questions?

Modyfier: As to Foundsound...I am most interested in the everyday, the mundane, the routine. In part because these are the familiars that define who we are and what we do. I find that to re-xamine, to question, to be curious re-invents them on a daily basis. Somehow it allows a self-awareness without being self-conscious. Do you find that this approach has allowed more play and freedom in your work?

Someone Else: It's quite beyond that actually. Using field recordings and found sounds of everyday life creates an infinite approach to making music. Sure, what I am doing now is for the dance floors. But it's really endless. New sounds occur every moment. Basically, one can sample literally any sound, and make it work musically. It's not a matter of sampling a variety of things and seeing what works and what doesn't. No matter what it is, it'll work in whatever piece of music you are creating. It's not as if I created this concept. But nonetheless, with it's infinite vastness and possibilities, it's an excellent concept to embrace for me.

Modyfier: Do you feel like perhaps you ended up where you are now in part because you have had a clear approach to how and why you make musc?

Someone Else: No. I just love music. But I still have no idea as to how and why I make it.

Modyfier: That is, did you end you where you are because you re-acted against things that weren't working for you, or because you were able to envision other ways of doing things that seemed potentially good?

Someone Else: Well, sure, that happens all the time. I will always react against things that don't work for me when it's doesn't work -- which usually occurs more with melodies and rhythms as opposed to samples and editing.

Modyfier: As to Unfoundsound…the relationship between the two labels seems so naturally symbiotic...that is, in how the “Unfound” end acts as a digital launching platform, a test ground for artists and music on which, if successful, migrates over to the “Found” branch and manifests as a record. It seems like a logical and pragmatic approach to see how artists/music will be received before committing to the production costs of vinyl. Why do you think more labels don't try to do this?

Someone Else: More labels don't try to do this because it's time-consuming, and also listeners and DJs don't take free netlabels very seriously. We just lucked out somehow. Maybe it's was the timing.

download: selected tracks from someone else's pen caps & colored pencils (rmay 2007 on foundsound)

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POPNONAME

popnoname - process part 022 (blake sings ginsberg) by modyfier

1 GINSBERG SINGS BLAKE...
"And by came an Angel who had a bright key,
And he open'd the coffins & set them all free!"

THE MESSAGE IS to have a positive outlook. We should do the best of our lives. I bought a DVD in New York. It´s an amateur video of a concert, in which Allen Ginsberg performs the Songs of Innocence and Experience written by William Blake. I do adore William Blake more than I can put into words and I have chosen words from "The Chimney Sweeper" for my intro. I believe in dreams, visions and miracles.

Here we are : my songs of innocence.

2 ROMANCE (ITALIC - CREDITS)
3 TRUST (UNRELEASED)
4 FIRST TIME (FIRM - PIECE)
5 MAKE SPACE (UNRELEASED)
6 ON THE RUN (ITALIC - YOU ARE POPNONAME)
7 TREMOLO (ITALIC - WHITE ALBUM)
8 MOTHER EARTH (ITALIC - WHITE ALBUM)

nothing is something...
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...:::...i've been wondering how to call the motion in-between one action and another, or the space in-between one place and the next...and what i keep coming back to is that it's really a matter of perception...of expanding observation...for what might look like an empty room could really be echoing with sound or seductive with kitchen smells or uncomfortable with heat...

and so, once again, language...

and what may seemingly be called "nothing" is really my "everything"...because it fills me up with curiosity and i am happiest when i find myself lingering there...:::...

download: 050715-modyfier part01

mr. v – da bump (ame vox mix) : may 2007 on vega records
lukas greenberg – so tight : may 2007 on platic city
blue foundation – sweep (mikkel metal reshape vox) : apr 2007 on renaissance
makossa & megablast – rip it up : feb 2007 on g-stone recordings
krost – chapter one (trentemoller mix) : mar 2007 on quango
shadi megallaa – julia haus : apr 2007 on kalimari
soylent green – la forza del destino (radio slave remix) : apr 2007 on playhouse
danton eeprom – one thing leads to another (dub edit) : apr 2007 on tsuba
studio – life’s a beach! (prins thomas mix) : apr 2007 on information
the nova dream sequence – dream 3 (abyssal-ienation remix) : apr 2007 on compost
the green men (sasse & nick chacona) – blink (supadub) : apr 2007 on buzzin fly records
ralph falcon – i need someone (richard dinsdale remix) : may 2007 on nervous records
random factor – digitize (finstrumental) : may 2007 on 2020 vision recordings
alexander robotnick – we love the music : may 2007 on hot elephant music

download: 070515-modyfier part02

dan berkson – the hollow : may 2007 on crosstown rebels
lusine – push : may 2007 on ghostly international
pablo bolivar – near the house : apr 2007 on regular
bloody mary – m10 : may 2007 on sender records
anthony steele & zeu – difficult to predict : may 2007 on wolf & lamb music
steadycam – in the moog for love : may 2007 on kompakt
touane – di sotto : apr 2007 on persona
matt flores – blackboard universe : apr 2007 on compost
giles smith & two armadillos – tunnel of light : may 2007 on dessous recordings
daniel mehlart – der tonkopfreiniger : apr 2007 on karmarouge records
dennis ferrer – son of raw (loco dice brooklyn roll bonus beats mix) : may 2007 on objectivity
goodwill & tommy trash – it’s a swede thing (mike monday remix) : may 2007 on hussle black
phase – subantrieb 004 : may 2007 on autist records
florian meindl – my way : may 2007 on flash

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MICHAEL F. GILL

The process for “Cultural Diffusion” actually started over five years ago, as I was listening to Playgroup's "Party Mix," a seamless megamix of ‘80s dance cuts that switched tracks every 20 seconds. Originally, I had set out to make my own private version of Trevor Jackson's set just for my own enjoyment. But right upon starting, I was struck by an idea I had read in a recent record review: "the itchy Ipod finger." The idea being that someone using the shuffle mode on their Ipod to search for a good song was the modern equivalent of someone channel surfing with a TV remote. So this became my new M.O. for the mix: it would be a simulation of someone shuffling through songs on their Ipod, hearing just the introduction of a track and then quickly changing to a new song after a few seconds. It seemed like a good commentary on the overload of musical choices people have today, and the shortening attention spans that result from it.

As with most of the music or mixes I make, I took a hands-off approach to the sequencing here. If you listen to the Playgroup mix, or even the old “Grandmixes” by Ben Liebrand, you can tell they were highly labored over, where each transition had to be as smooth and flawless as possible. I wasn't interested in doing something like that. I have thousands of MP3s on my hard drives, including a ridiculous amount that I've never listened to. I found the most exciting way to do this mix was to load up all these MP3s in my media player and then record myself manually shuffling through them. In this process, I got to hear introductions and bits of songs I've never heard before (and may never hear again!) bumping next to classics I've worn out. That's the main reason this mix is called "Cultural Diffusion," because it's forcing all these different cultures, styles, and personalities to intermingle with each other.

So over the past five years, I've been building this mix from these media player recording sessions. When I say five years, I don't actually mean I've been toiling on this nonstop since 2002. I basically worked whenever I felt like doing it, which could be as little as a few times a year. I would take my favorite parts and transitions of the recordings, maybe throw in a loop or an effect here or there, and then add this chunk to the main piece of work.

Besides ending the mix in a more quiet fashion, the only theme I had in mind while editing the sequencing was to have it loosely mimic the flow of language or conversation: sometimes its elegant and structured, sometimes it goes off on random tangents, sometimes one stutters and mumbles through it. By the time I had finished, it was interesting to see what lyrical phrases and vocal tics I had left in or gravitated to. Even when the words were silly, or not in English, I feel there is a subconsciously written poem in this mix if you write each lyrical fragment down in the order they appear.

In the end, this mix is composed of the introductions to about 500+ song clips (unless it was a track from a DJ mix, which throws things off nicely) that run the genre gamut from techno to disco, to reggae, rock, soul, bossa nova, world, pop, and so on. I don't even know the titles of half of the tracks here, but I've been living with (and exercising to!) this mix and these transitions for such a long time that I feel like I know them well.

I don't know how many other people will love this mix or even listen to it more than a few times, but it's taught me some insight into myself and how I create. I was recently thinking back to when I was about 12 or 13 years old, when I first started buying music. The first musical "work" I created was with my boombox, where I would record 10 to 20 second segments of songs, stitch them together onto a blank cassette tape, and then listen to them as a side long "mix." Nearly 15 years later and here I am again, doing roughly the same thing.

michael f gill - process part 021 (cultural diffusion) by modyfier

periphery...
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...:::...i've been thinking, lately, about...the periphery....

about how so much of what i make creatively is a by-product of my day to day work (i.e. these drawings, this writing, these collected sounds). and it floats there, just out of view...a vague form. something with weight and mass and presence, but never in full view...

and i wonder, sometimes, what it might be like to look it directly in the face. to see myself in full view. because mostly, what i am aware of is the light of brainy sparks that condense into a halo around my head...of information flying wildly around (ricocheting off my moveable walls, transfiguring space)...and how it gets captured in these brief moments of interpretation...that today say one thing and tomorrow...i hope to build clarity, consistency...

but this creates a paradox i sometimes forget to yield to...how to talk about abstraction without being abstract?...sometimes, i find, the best approach is to leave things less prescriptive or obsessively detailed. that is, to not re-invent language to describe a new process, a new idea. you have to bring new associations to old words, to old objects, to old places....

i heard an interview on npr the other day with a screenwriter (i'm sorry i don't have his name) who was talking about how he works. and he was saying how fun it is to write the first draft, because it is the most free...because no one is looking over his shoulder yet...and he was saying how it is not until the third or fourth draft, when the big players start rolling in and getting nervous about investing money into the project, that they all start demanding different things. and his job, at this turn, is to make one suit fit everyone: for the midget, for the giant and for the fatman (all of whom are demanding different things). do you know that feeling? i do...and that's why i collect all these off-shoot ideas...all these possibilities, all these tangential thoughts and triggered images, patterns decaying...

and like a bird, i push my head forward when i walk. do you know why? because it creates a greater cone of vision. a wider periphery...

download: 070504-modyfier part01

different – pattern of parklands (unai remiks) : apr 2007 on kupei musika
sunset blvd – tell me about america feat kass (mikael delta remix) : mar 2007 on klik records
scsi-9 – senorita tristeza (nikos diamantopoulos remix) : mar 2007 on klik records
sebbo – beirut boogie : apr 2007 on liebe detail
dirt crew – deep (we are) (sasse remix) : apr 2007 on dirt crew
lars wickinger – villa incognito : apr 2007 on liebe detail
ritch & collins – fortuna : apr 2007 on get physical music
jake fairley – presence : apr 2007 on cereal / killers
ozgur can – escape (version 8) : apr 2007 on furry music
guy gerber – cleptomaniac : apr 2007 on saw recordings
superpitcher – superjam : apr 2007 on kompakt

download: 070504-modyfier part02

hirtenfellner & heinrichs – travel to me : apr 2007 on lordag record
reinhard voigt – charge your dreams : may 2007 on kompakt
soz adams – liars chair : apr 2007 on archipel
the screetch – the screetch (dusty kid remix) : apr 2007 on great stuff
delon & dalcon – freak (martin eyerer remix) : apr 2007 on boxer recordings
akiko kiyama – deadsea : apr 2007 on contexterrior
remo – mizar (audiofly remix) : mar 2007 on viva music
galen – playing games (chuck e cheeze remix) : mar 2007 on utensil recordings
toka project – people : apr 2007 on robsoul recordings
mighty dub katz – magic carpet ride 07 (radio edit) : apr 2007 on southern fried records

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LANGUIS (words by alejandro cohen)

This song was made for a compilation released by PerfectIfOn in New York. The compilation was called Music for Plants. When the curator for this release invited Languis to participate there were no directions in terms of style. The only thing asked was that the music was made for plants and not for humans.

This song was composed, recorded, constructed and finished within two hours. It was a bit improvisational, but at the same time I had a strong sense of what the message was going to be like. In other words, there is nothing accidental about it.

The feeling that this song is intended to transmit is of peace and growth, blooming and the inevitable decay that life takes us to after reaching its peak.

The melodies tend to be abstract, and that was on purpose, I wanted a rushed feeling, like watching a stop motion movie of a plant growing very fast. The reason I chose peaceful sounds such as flutes or vibraphones is because there are studies that talk about plants liking classical music and rejecting music such as rock or pop. Honestly I never verified this, or even knew the source, but in my mind it made sense and wanted to use sounds that plants would embrace.

languis - process part 020 (photosynthesis) by modyfier