Forum - Week 3 - Funk Jam and Indian Sunset

Practising improvisation seems to be a conflict of interest
in itself, but I suppose there is nothing wrong with being
prepared. This session was the first introduction of our
chosen instruments; Jake on drums in ‘Live’, Matt on the
decks with LP’s, Dave on guitar (“The Axe”), Dragos and
Adrian with their whole computer thing, and me with vocal
acrobatics. I would say our initial aspirations for the final
performance seem to be within the realm of possibility, as
our first jam session could have been the performance in
itself. David begun a funky jam on guitar with special
thanks to his wah pedal, and I was putting down bass lines
and beats on a microphone plugged into the Laney guitar
amplifier with the distortion set high. As a result I have
decided to try and find an effects pedal for which I can
further assault my voice. I am looking forward to hearing
other groups improvisations, especially John “Private Parts”
Delaney’s group, as I understand he has an interest in
playing a barbecue. Such an act would be open to many puns,
so I’ll see what I can “cook” up.

This week’s student presentations were by David Dowling,
Dragos Nastasie and Vinny Bhagat. David presented his
Semester 1 Audio Arts recording of a band called Tuscadero.
I am hardly a fan of country music, and unfortunately this
was too close for comfort (also the singer was crap). David
also presented his Creative Computing composition,
consisting of non-stop spine-melting guitar solos, performed
by John “Colonel Sanders” Delaney and David himself. A
very enjoyable piece, with the difference in soloing technique
between the two virtuosos adding humour to the mix. The
next presentation was from Dragos, who quite possibly has
the coolest name in the world. It was nice to know that
somebody else isn’t obsessed with ambient like the majority
of EMU- Dragos slapped them all in the face with some
Hi-NRG dance. As far as dance tracks go I found it a little
amateur, as it was highly repetitive and melodically slapdash.
Even though it was made entirely on Reason 2.0, it still
sounded like MIDI music I made on Logic in high school.
Perhaps my classical training has ruined me for dance music?
Vinny was the last performer, and he finished off the
afternoon nicely with a claming, Indian inspired ‘rag’,
combining the grand piano with the laptop to wonderful
effect. I was captivated by the symmetry of the visuals and
droning tanpura underneath the melodic explorations on the
grand, and the experience could only have been improved
if we had a view of the sunset at the same time.


When writing the title for this blog entry I had an idea for
a cocktail drink-
- 2 oz Tequila
- 4 oz Orange Juice
- 1 oz Grenadine
- 4 drops tabasco sauce