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AGF
body body body body body and work dripping from me
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I started in March 2008 by selecting some short beat-promising audio files and throwing them into Radial (a Max/Msp program I sketch and process sounds with and, lately, sometimes compose with).
I made one file, maybe 3 minutes long...stretching, arranging and looping intuitively around (if you care to listen, now this file comes in for the first time at 35 seconds and starts to play a main role at 1:10).
I imported it into Logic and saved under the name: Kalter Maerz (Cold March).
When Rayna asked me to do a piece for her Process Series, I was too busy to say no really. I thought her approach was intriguing so I decided to have no plan and no rush.
I chose an email from an email list (probably [spectre] or Rhizome), a seemingly ambitious text. Printed it and went to the recording booth.
I recorded with a Lawson L251 Microphone into Manley Slam, limiting slightly, reading and picking up words or phrases from the printed page without any goal or plan...just repeating what sounded good and felt challenging or comfortable to express.
While recording I ran the sound file in a loop making sure I had a few vocal recording tracks overlapping since the composition is linear. From A to B, from left to right on my computer screen. This gave a randomness to the order of words, which was helpful, because the brain can get in the way when it comes to words!
I thought the sound file sounded lame and processed it trough a chain of devices such as Manley Vari-mu, hoping to make it sound more distinct. Still, it was not telling me much of anything, still lame...so I stopped working on it and...
...moved from Germany to Finland and had not time for a few months to even think about the piece. Also, my studio changed and was more limited after that.
When I opened the track again in July I started editing, taking out words and lines that did not belong there, sounded weak or in the way, not fitting...I chose 25 percent of what I had recorded and the rest flew away to rot on my hard drives.
How do I measure fitting? How do I know that things don't belong there?
I thought about this a lot because I am frequently asked, Why do you make what you do? What makes it sounds unique? Where did everything start? Over the years I have had a lot of answers and it's funny. The answer changes, where everything began...
I remember more and more or forget things or maybe I just try to be smarter every time I answer and produce another self-indulged lie.
Just yesterday I suddenly remembered that there is this photograph thats shows my very young parents before I was conceived singing together in a singing group (probably communist propaganda songs) and the memory of that photo came to me while I was doing yoga after seeing a documentary about Chet Baker and his childhood.
I had totally forgotten about that photograph.
So what I am saying here: The process and intention of creation can not be absolutely defined and isn't that beautiful?
It's my very personal gone-through-evolution-since-I-exist-measurement and probably with the most honest self approach, a team of 12 psychologists, analysts and music experts - its not figure-out-able!
The question is: Where do I find the confidence to do this?
Another question for a shrink, but mainly I believe I have a strong need for original expression, and when to my knowledge I hear original expression in an interesting context, I personally wake up.
And moments of awakening and forgetting about existence are most desirable.
I am a singer, vocalist, songwriter, composer and producer and became a digital craftswoman looking for personal freedom of expression.
Along the way to becoming a composer I developed this poem-producing technique...recording and sampling from carefully chosen or absolutely random text files and using my voice and internal rhythm and melodies to form a song.
So after that happens...my vocals are writing the piece.
I write a melody, a song.
After that I take the software sword, the editing process begins...
Then I add more sounds either form self-made sample banks or soft or real synthesizers.
I choose a bass and some sounds to create a carpet beneath the vocals.
I keep editing the vocals and at some point a song appears!!
Or a direction of a song...
When i get that, I am safe. I produce the hell out of it or I sometimes just leave it, beautifully unfinished.
With this piece, Confusion Dripping from Me, it took awhile to see where the main expression was lying.
I found it after all.
After I have finished the piece to my liking I go and add some melodies, some harmonies because humans love that.
And I think it is beneficial for my music because it opens an emotional dimension to the piece which helps communicate with the listener, helps you to be carried away and in the best case have butterflies in the belly and makes you press replay while thinking, What the hell was that?
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DAVE AJU
The track I've selected is Open Wide, the title track of my album on the Circus Company label. It wasn't chosen as the title track as a representative of the sound of the album etc. - the songs run the gamut of electronic/dance music styles I feel - but because it was the first one made with the unifying concept of the album: using strictly my mouth for all the sounds. Concepts, in both form and content, are important to me. They help satisfy the mental part of the mind, body, and soul requirements in music.
It started out as a straight percussive track at first, with the grinding and clicking of my teeth at the center of a basic four-on-the-floor groove, and a simple "synth" pulse (made by stacking, tuning, and filtering a held vocal tone). Gradually the rhythm evolved into a more open and broken-up pattern, I found it stronger and more interesting and decided to run with it. Realizing that the reggaeton-style beat only needed a similar basic pulse to drive it, I replayed the synth stabs to the new groove, matching them with the drums.
The idea of adding vocals didn't come around until the track got to the point where it needed to make a turn, and while chord and sound variations where attempted, I found that holding the same synth chords for awhile to let the LFOs modulate them worked well. A nice and simple way to build tension, fill out the track for a bit, and return to the main, stripped-down groove. The chorus of Open Wide was chosen from a few improvised vocal takes, as it fits perfectly, not only sonically over the synth, but conceptually, with the overall vibe and rhythmic deviation from typical contemporary dance music structure - a kind of "are you afraid of the dark / the unknown?" sentiment. The "Say / Ah" refrain was then added to reinforce the concept and lead back into the chorus, as well as an Eastern monk-styled chorus hit on the one of every 2 bars to punctuate them. I try to tastefully evoke other cultures, times, and places in my music when I can to provide a subtle sense of adventure and departure for the listener, particularly for the club setting where things are often homogenized and too contained. The last vocal additions follow suit, with two tracks of indigenous sounding overdubs to add some transition accents and character, and tie the main vocal passages together.
At that point in the track, say 3/4 of the way done, was the last add and subtract stage. This is a crucial step in the creation of a track, and several seemingly minor changes are made that play a major role in the final form. One example: there was originally a constant hi-hat pattern, that ran at 16th notes during the 'verses' and a broken 8th note pattern during the chorus. While it did provide a good amount of energy, it felt a little too relentless and busy so I scaled them back - the 8th note pattern, with slight variation, is now the main pattern, and a simple 1/4 note hat is now in the (second half of each) chorus. I also decided to split the sound into two, separately pitched and panned hi-hats to open it up, with the attack rolled off for more of a shaker effect and replayed the patterns live for a warmer, more human feel. When making electronic music, especially in the digital domain, I think it's essential to involve our naturally imperfect human touch wherever possible, so we don't drown ourselves in the 1s and 0s.
The final addition to the track was, as is often the case, the one that wrapped it up. While recording the "Say / Ah" vocals, I also added a playful "horn section" behind it, following the refrain. (The would-be horn section was built with several mouth impressions of brass sounds - trombone, trumpet, french horn, etc. - an approach revisited on the album in "Roundabout" to a better effect.) This helped fill out that section, but I felt the horns should also appear in the chorus. I tried a straight higher-pitched horn riff, but it just wasn't sitting right. So while in the sampler these horn recordings were located, I went to access a filter but went to the loop tab by accident, and turned it on. It defaulted to a medium loop length but sounded interesting so I moved it to increasingly shorter settings until it had that high squawky horn-like sound heard in the choruses and final verse. Yet another example of how chance and human error can be vital in the creative process. I liked the sound so much, I thought it deserved a solo!
The process of making Open Wide, the track and the entire album, with only sounds from my mouth was challenging, but ultimately a creative playground. Never has making such a bold statement against impersonal methods of sound selection/design and composition been so much fun. I tend to lean toward the unusual and unique in my work, but love the feel and function of a good, solid tune. And of course our voices, like our fingerprints, are completely unique and have a lot of sonic potential, especially when used outside of lyrical norms (as also proven by several amazing artists, within music and beyond, that have used the mouth as their tool, their instrument - by no means do I claim to be an innovator in this regard). So for me it was the next step; use a totally unique sound source of my own and a relatively unusual production style, and try to make cohesive, memorable music that doesn't ignore or get overshadowed by its concept, and can be enjoyed on a number of levels by a variety of people. A true balancing act, if nothing else.
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STOPMAKINGME
Without a doubt, my favourite dance record ever made is Once In A Lifetime by Talking Heads. I must have heard it over five hundred times. Upon listening again recently, I realized that every single composite part defines an attribute of dance music which I love. After going through every piece here, I created a mix of records I'm currently enjoying (there are thousands out there) which I feel each represent at least one of these characteristics. Please go and listen to the Talking Heads track first, by whatever means.
I recorded the mix live - I just prefer it that way.
Once In A Lifetime is the perfect example of a record retaining the excitement of a live band and yet still being underpinned by an undefinable magic. Human instrumentation but with an Eno-produced shine that makes listeners feel it could never be recreated by anyone else. The best dance records all sound not entirely of this world.
Once In A Lifetime features the most amazing, sparkling snyths. It's that sound that has you reaching for the ceilings of clubs at 5:30am and causes some people to dance as if they were picking stars out of the sky. It adds a pretty face to a sweating, pulsing set of limbs.
Once In A Lifetime features the best bassline ever - three notes. In isolation, it would make you dance. Talking Heads' rhythm section was the perfect cross between funk groove and (post) punk simplicity. Furthermore, it boldly announces it's entrance with a bombastic opening slide. Pop stars should never be retiring.
Once In A Lifetime features lyrics that have intellectual depth but, more importantly, can be sung along to all the way without any further thought. The spoken word verse acts as another instrument - and one that makes me smile every time.
Once In A Lifetime features a simple 4/4 beat that never tries to be over complicated or purposefully disjointed. Every piece of extra percussion that enters the fray only adds to what is already there. It's very easy to throw the idea of Afro-Beat around at the moment but Talking Heads understood the power of the genre and its ability to constantly add more drums whilst never having any interfere with each other.
Once In A Lifertime features a loud guitar line that breaks in at the end (growing up listening mainly to rock music, such unabashed noisy intrusions within music still get me, when done properly). All the best dance records add something significant at the optimum moment, just when you think there is nothing more to offer.
Once In A Lifetime features the greatest chorus ever written. A melody that soars away from the verses and leaves me breathless every time I hear it.
Once In A Lifetime (and this is the best bit) is proud of itself. It knows that every part of the song is perfect and, because of this, never stops repeating itself. Even the fade out at the end of the recorded track suggests that it is infinite in its nature. The bassline never rests. The chorus just keeps on going and going. I never want it to end - the best dance records all recognize the value of repetition. This is a song about attempting to enjoy your life today, before it passes you by. Surely the very ethos of experiencing dance music.
01. Guy Cuevas - Obsession (The Nassau Mix)
02. LCD Soundsystem - Someone Great (Instrumental)
03. In Flagranti - In The Silver
04. Captain Comatose - Price Gun Baby
05. Snax - It Ain't Love (Edit)
06. Simone Fedi - Sub Space (Out Of City Remix)
07. Logic - The Final Frontier (The Groove)
08. Dondolo - Tetanus Crisid (Hot Chip Remix)
09. FC Kahuna - Nothing Is Wrong
10. Juan Maclean - Give Me Every Little Thing (Cajmere Remix)
11. Scissor Sisters - I Don't Feel Like Dancing (Erol Alkan's Carnival Of Light Re-Work)
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LUKE SOLOMON
This is a mix I compiled for Clash magazine. The general thought process behind a mix I do doesn't really consist of much. Primarily, I need to be inspired. This entails buying or being sent a record that moves me, or playing a great gig where a record jumps out at me and grabs the audience unexpectedly, or the moon needing to be in the right place. Usually it is a combination of all three.
In this instance it was a combination of all these things. This was actually a second effort. I did an original mix and wasn't happy with the programming or the record selection so I took it back to the drawing board. I had been sent the Glen Underground mix of DJ Pierre and I was so captured by it first, being a great record and second, because it was from two of my old school heroes, who quite honestly had been in a different musical place to me for many years. It’s always great when you look to your peers and they deliver.
Now my usual downfall is that if I set the bar quite high from the outset, I find it hard to keep the pace purely because I play such a wide selection of underground dance music. Normally for me it’s all about the journey. In this instance, I knew I had 40 minutes and that was all. Once I had played the first record it all kind of fell into place. Once the mix was done, I listened back and checked for mistakes and issues (all my mixes are recorded live across three CD players and the occasional turntable). If a mix needs an edit, I don't shy away. In this case it didn't, hooray! I ran the mix through a Neve channel strip and a Precision limiter to boost the levels and add a little character. Then I listened back once in the car, and I was done.
01. Lose Control (Glen Underground remix) - DJ Pierre - Gigolo
02. Its About Time - Layo and Bushwacka - Olmeto
03. Ultrasound - Luke Solomon - Innervisions
04. House - Lil Tony - Innervisions
05. Crimes (Luke Solomon Remix) - Ldoe - Classic
06. Detroit (Carl Craig Remix) - Morgan Geist - Environ
07. Boil - Deadbeat - Wagon Repair
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CARMINE P. FILTHY
I used to head out to this party at a dingy spot in Little Haiti, Miami called Churchill's, every other Friday about eight years ago. It's a sort of English style pub space, 'Bangers n Mash' and Guinness etc., which played host to many crap local bands and sometimes DJ events. The party was called 'Jukebox of Death.' I guess the name speaks for itself, but the program would include everything from the newest Squarepusher 12" to a rare psychedelic record from Norway to 'Steppin' Out' by Joe Jackson.
The group of Djs had some of the best taste of any I had encountered in Miami. But this mix started as a dedication to the DJ who opened most nights. His name was Ted. Ted was a tall lanky fellow with dreadlocks and a permanent smile on his face. He would play an old electro record into some AC/DC long before that was a norm for DJ sets. I loved listening to Ted's sets, which also made me a bit lame because I was always first there. My friend who threw the party told me that Ted never went record shopping. Ted would, in fact, dumpster dive for records.
So before I started this mix I went to the local resale record shop that the MP3 forgot here in Brooklyn's Park Slope area. The spot has been open for 35 years and still run by Tony, the owner. I arrived not expecting to find any cutting edge techno but to my surprise, in the back there were boxes marked 'Electronic : $2.' I did my proverbial dumpster diving and came out with about half the records on the mix.
I combined the records I picked up with some of the earliest 'electronic' records I bought back in the day. These records make me remember what it felt like to first tell anyone I was a DJ. It makes me feel like the past ten years has been worth every time I carried 2 turntables, a mixer and bag of records through the snow in Chicago to play a basement party. These records make me feel like it was worth it to have beer accidentally dumped on my bag or have the wood dance floor in an apartment fight with the stack of quarters on my needles all night. So, let's just call my process on this mix 'The Jukebox of Death.' I recorded the set in one take in my apartment in Brooklyn.
01. Le Syndicat Electronique "Black Gold Arsenal 7'" (Beta Bodega / MTA) (Catalogue)
02. DJ At Will "Don't Stop" (Tresor) (Dumpster)
03. Play Paul "Once U Go" (Black Jack) (Dumpster)
04. Rude Ass Think "Get Wicked" (Planet Mu) (Catalogue)
05. Butler Kiev "Rewind Selecta" (Planet Mu) (Catalogue)
06. Console "14 Zero Zero" (Matador) (Dumpster)
07. Datathief "Advanced Social Engineering" (Beta Bodega / MTA) (Catalogue)
08. Andre Kramil Feat. Schad Privat "Safari (Kiki & Silversurfer RMX)" (Crosstown Rebels) (Dumpster)
09. Phoenecia "Odd Jobs (Ectomorph & Godfather Remix)" (Schematic) (Catalogue)
10. Japanese Telecom "Cigarette Lighter" (Intuit-Solar) (Dumpster)
11. John Spring "Strange (John Spring's 2005 Revision)" (Crosstown Rebels) (Dumpster)
12. Leo Young "A True American Hero" (Tummy Touch) (Dumpster)
13. Gold Chains "No. 1 Face In Hip Hop" (Orthlong Musork) (Catalogue)
14. Five Deez "Sexual For Elizabeth (Tortoise Remix)" (Counterflow) (Catalogue)
15. Arc "Arcane" (Ninja Tune) (Catalogue)
16. Ammon Contact "The Stars Are Singing Too" (Soul Jazz) (Catalogue)
magnification...
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sometimes it can be hard to see the forms of things because they are too close-up. it can be easy to get caught in a magnification and lose the greater outline of desire (assuming there is a silhouette, that there are edges somewhere). somehow it is easier to invent what might be from a distance than to recognize it when introduced face-to-face.
i like working in that magnified abstraction (beyond concept) of the familiar…when it becomes driven more by a curiosity to see how something will turn out then knowing what it is going to be before making it. there is no tangible. it is all about interaction and relationships of one mark next to another. i like things that work against an apparent order and clearly show a divergence...the place where patterns fall apart and re-align or move into the unexpected.
music provides a medium to reach this place. many of the drawings i make are made not by reacting to sound, but by moving around in internal environments it creates (built on syncopation and rhythm and bass and melody). it invites creative habitation. walls arise from sonic frequencies. more than a “space” to move around in (to measure and calculate...name as some known geometry), it also has velocity and direction. it applies a vector to my mark making and encourages observation. it reminds me to see things that i look at every day (it dissolves the blindness of familiarity).
architecture is more than the framing of space around a program. it is also about the things that are experienced or happen within those boundaries (how they become used and feel). music has it’s own architecture in that it can create illusion and i believe illusion to be real as your imagination allows (what does an ugly room with beautiful music feel like?). i recently heard an interview with alberto manguel who has written many books on books and reading, one of them being the beautifully titled, the dictionary of imaginary places. this reaffirmed my thinking that once an idea is kindled, it either sparks or fizzles depending on how it is rendered and communicated...depending on how real you make it, on how much you believe (is it an outline can you see or a form you can feel?).
mr. manguel recently built a library for his collection of 30,000 books in an old stone barn in western france. he says in the interview, “a library is not only a place for active reading it is also a place for reflection.” a good reminder, i think, to not always do only what a place implies, but also what is often hidden in the obvious. how many ways can reality be rearranged? how many strings can i make my mind play (reverberating)?
sound is a mind-builder. it provides a foundation to my creative aesthetic. drawing has become the expressive record of how music affects me...how it creates imaginary spaces...how it pulls lines from motion (incrementally building on my body's kinetic memory (preferred geometry))...how patterns rise like cloud formations and shape the content of dream life when the fattened rain drops begin to fall and pour.
download: 081003_modyfier-part01
marek hemman – junoka : aug 2008 on freude am tanzen recordings
nufrequency – go that deep feat. shara nelson (skylark vocal mix) : aug 2008 on nrk
glimpse – we existed feat. taka boom (jay shepheard alternative mix) : sep 2008 on four:twenty recordings
roberto rodriguez – besomebody : sep 2008 on freerange records
dop – i’m just a man : aug 2008 on eklo
deetron – let’s get over it feat justin chapman (henrik schwarz remix) : aug 2008 on music man records
beckers & d-nox – beefcake (lemon popsicle remix) : sep 2008 on sprout
tonkaproject – twisted : aug 2008 on consorzio Italia
omega midi – omega midi (ray valioso’s esta afuera dub mix) : sep 2008 on sthlmaudio recordings
ben mono – jesus was a b-boy feat. jemeni (tj kong & nuni dos santos remix) : sep 2008 on compost
unkle – hold my hand (innervisions orchestra remix) : sep 2008 on surrender all
modeselektor – the white flash feat. thom yorke (trentemoller remix) : jun 2008 on bpitch control
sebastien bouchet – feel (glimpse vox edit of danton remix) : aug 2008 on hypercolour
sten – daylight : sep 2008 on dial records
blakkat – deeper feat. mark bell (manuel tur remix) : oct 2008 on shaboom
benjamin brunn – untitiled a1 : aug 2008 on workshop
download: 081003_modyfier-part02
florian meindl – 8 bit romance (radio slave’s deepest space remix) : oct 2008 on hell yeah
robert babicz – procast : sep 2008 on session deluxe recordings
radio slave – bell clap dance (slam remix) : sep 2008 on rekids
polder – bondage (d’julz remix) : sep 2008 on intacto
knowing looks – 1x100=moon : aug 2008 on musique risquee
the electric press – uno (nic fanciulli remix) : jun 2008 on 2020 vision recordings
adny – under my skin : oct 2008 on ransom note
slam – city destroyer (part 1) : sep 2008 on paragraph
ziggy kinder – flipflop crash (pier bucci remix) : sep 2008 on souvenir music
onur ozer – eclipse (loco dice remix) : sep 2008 on vacant
franklin de costa – rollergirl : sep 2008 on curle recordings
colin hobbs – below minus (florian meindl remix) : sep 2008 on white noise recordings
stimming – una pena (argy’s) : sep 2008 on diynamic
computer – trophy (robosonic yuno remix) : sep 2008 on diskomafia
john roberts – promise : sep 2008 on dial records
watson – basin head (tolga fidon remix) : aug 2008 on neuton music
dop – like a motherless child : aug 2008 on eklo
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