Finding His Happy Place...

Oddly enough this pic looks better on a PC than a Mac.
Although I guess that isn't odd at all.
Click to enlarge.

Napster Bad! Plogue Good!

As shocking as it may be to hear, I actually like plogue now. Have a listen to what
I did on it yesterday in Studio 1 with a microphone. The spectral freezing is just so
beautiful! I also had it going in 5.1 before the recording.
If only this was for a gradable part of the blog... MP3 458KB

Forum - Week 11 - Luke but not the Audio Lab Luke

Luke Harrold formed the artist talk portion of forum, and presented his Music Tech
ventures throughout Europe. Despite the experience being intriguing in itself, we spent
most of the time watching videos of other artists rather than Luke. The star of the
presentation was the video of Adachi Tomomi, a musical artist that uses an infrared
shirt to manipulate his own singing and screaming (example 1.4Mb).

Unbeknownst to him, Luke has earnt the nickname "Magic Mango Man" from one time when I
was telling Jake how I was jealous of Luke's hair, and Jake informed me it smelt like
Mango shampoo. So there you have it.

Forum - Week 11 - Millions of Peaches

Finally, a genuinely great improvisation session. Despite being a couple members
down, our group managed to bond very well, often giving each other space and using
their 15 seconds to the max. David D apparently recorded the whole thing on his
crappy voice recorder, so hopefully I will be able to provide links to some of the
best grooves. One accidental groove that proved humorous to the group was when Matt
figured out the main mandolin theme from that Deep Forest song “Sweet Lullaby” on the
keyboard, and I attempted to sing the bit that the girl sings (Ni ma oe e fasi
korona. Dolali dasa na, lao dai afuimae). Needless to say, it sounded pretty
hilarious and I’m glad it was at a time when Stephen Whittington was present. I think
next time I will pull out some Presidents of the USA lyrics.

A new avenue was taken in this session, as now I walk around the room informing
members of upcoming changes to key or tempo. This is perhaps the magic key to our
band’s success, as we could improvise for 20 minutes without getting tedious. Perhaps
the most prominent example would be when I told everyone that Jake is about to slow
the tempo right down, then told Jake that everyone is expecting him to do it. We fell
from a high energy funk bash into a ultra-smooth porno groove, and it really put a
smile on everyone’s face. Jake has found a great position in the group, where he
provides basic timekeeping in some parts then all out drum loop disintegration for
his sections. I had an idea that Jake could use Live for the looping and tempo
functions, but mess with the beats in Plogue. I think this would allow a greater
degree of customisation of sound, especially considering Live’s clunky effects
interface. Matt also pulled out some genius moments, including pitch-bent chords and
even a whammy-bar-esque piano solo. A welcome addition is Adrian's bass guitar,
especially when coupled with Dave pulling off an incredible guitar solo in the heat
of a groove. Aural nirvana.

It was a shame that some members were not present, yet I can’t help but wonder if the
smaller group allowed for a more concentrated environment. In turn, I blame the
lecturers for making the groups too big. I’m sure they could skip over the idea (as
they do) and say “Well you should learn how to work in a large group”, to which I ask
the question, “Who says?”. I mean, since when is there limits to improvisation? Are
we getting graded on group size? Like 2 of my 3 ex-girlfriends say, “Size doesn’t
matter.”

And by popular demand (Luke), here is my latest photoshoppery.
Click to enlarge.

Forum - Week 10 - Got Forum?

Back to normal 'forum' again- 2 hours of straight improvisation in our groups. I’m
really starting to miss the old days, when Dirty Harry would put on his little song
and dance, then some influential artist would have a blathering about how great they
are and we’d all be like “Ooh, I hope I turn out as good as them”. It was something
that inspired thought and made all of us struggle to fit our opinions into the 500
word blog limit. Nonetheless here we are paying for this, so it is in dismay that I’d
have to agree with old Weimerhead, in that this week was a generally unsuccessful
improv session. Some group members are still finding their feet it would seem, as
instruments were interchanged numerous times. Too much time is spent exploring synth
effects instead of actually playing, and we cannot get into a groove when people
change the groove constantly.

Considering our lecturers only spent a maximum of five minutes in our room for the
entire two hour session, I am curious how much time was spent on other rooms. If at
all. Even more baffling is that when our group is failing to start anything
productive, the lecturers do not intervene and tell us what the problem is or give us
a point of departure, they just shake their heads and mutter something as they leave.
Are they getting paid to baby sit us? They are so ready to criticise us on something
that they haven’t helped with, hence why this picture has taken on a new meaning.


Shut in a glass room and thrown into the sun

Forum - Week 9 - Tr!ppin' on Chewbacca

Well here I am in the EMU kitchen, eating Suimin noodles,
cinnamon donuts and a bread stick. Yes Luke, this is exactly
why I burp frequently. Our guest presenter for forum this
week was Tyson “DJ Tr!p” Hopprich, or as his friends call
him, Tyson (probably). Prior to the presentation, the early
gatherers (including myself) and Tr!p fell into a premature
jam, unfortunately not caught on tape. As cool as last week’s
trip to India was, I was much more engaged this time ‘round
by Tr!p’s gadget collection. Myself being privy to the Gameboy
Camera’s hidden DJ mixer, I was surprised to hear such funk
come out the previously-thought-crap program.

I would normally consider the talking part of these forums
‘artistic blatherings’, however Tr!p had a much more tangible
way of explaining his profession, perhaps due to his innate
youth. After his first little improvisation on his own, my
group joined in and tentatively pursued improvisational nirvana.
Of course all good things must come to an end, in my case my
pedal finally collapsed under the weight of its own inferiority
and died. Right at the start. So without my safety blanket I
stepped into the cold dark woods of performance, and diminished
my input to skeletal beat boxing. But I’m not going to dwell on
the fact, just pretend it never happened and let it fester
quietly as a mental illness. Listening back on my Studio 1
recordings of the session it all sounded pretty good, with
the piano often creating some great moments. I would say the
best part of the day was Dave’s guitar solos in the 3rd
‘trip-hop’ improv- even listening back it still gives me
shivers. “Chewie, is that you?”


2nd Jam MP3 15MB


Are these pictures getting too abstract?


Remember everyone,
Ubi cáritas et ámor, Déus ibi est.
Congregávit nos in únum Christi ámor. Exsultémus et in ípso jucundémur.
Timeámus et amémus Déum vívum. Et ex córde diligámus nos sincéro.
Ubi cáritas et ámor, Déus ibi est. Amen.