Thank you for listening

Nothing poignant to read here. Breaks over 4, a couple of 303’s and a really, really sleazy vocal put the grease right where it belongs. Think Hardfloor remixing the Detroit Grand Pubahs. I am not saying it is that good, I am just saying that is what I was aiming it.

This is the kind of tune I would have gone apeshit over when I was 16. To be honest, I felt like I was 16 while making it. Isn’t that what it is all about anyway? I used to work with a girl, an artist, and she had an attitude that if you are having fun, you are wasting your time. “You have got to take this seriously, this is ART!”

Fuck that. This ain’t art. If you ain’t having fun, you ain’t doing it right.

 

 I Said No: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Synth porn, like I have never seen it. Beautifully shot, and beautifully played, here is Charles Cohen pwning playing a Buchla Music Easel. Only 14 in existence and I have a feeling that I will never afford one.

Click through for the HD full screen.

CHARLES COHEN AT THE BUCHLA MUSIC EASEL from ALEX on Vimeo

This colorful video features sound artist Charles Cohen improvising on a 1970’s Buchla Music Easel. This extremely rare instrument is one of Don Buchla’s 200 series. Buchla (a pioneer of audio synthesis) only manufactured 14 of these units. The entire film was edited from an hour-long set of free improvisation, with audio was taken directly from Charles’ mixing board.

All of the photography and editing was produced by Alex Tyson, a sound and video artist from Pennsylvania. The film was shot in 16:9 720p High Definition format, using the Letus35 Extreme and a 35mm LensBaby 3GPL

I hate letting people hear my original music. I always get asked by people “Why isn’t this out?” and I always give some lame reply, talking about how I don’t like shopping stuff around, or that I am preparing a calculated attempt to get something picked up or whatever. The truth is that I was made fun of when I was 16 for doing a bad knock off of the music that the Pet Shop Boys did 10 years before. This was joyfully delivered by an overweight ex-DJ who I realize, I have never forgiven. As my heart sunk into my colon I promised myself that I would never play my music for anybody, ever again. I meant it, though later on I decided that this rule did not apply to getting into a girls pants. Frankly, girls would listen to just about anything and proclaim its worth when they was a boy attached to the cassette player. For the record, boys will say just about anything to attract the girl attached to the other end.

Love Tip for Girls: Everything a boy says before he sleeps with you is a lie, especially when he means it. When you accept this as fact and look at all the personality traits that are not directly attached to his hunting instinct, try to decide if you want the honest part of him around after you sleep with him.

Back to the topic. I get uncomfortable playing new music for people because I am too aware of the differences between what I write and what I think people hear when they listen to it. Does that make sense?

Early last year I started reading about Dubstep (late comer since day one) and what I heard did not seem any different to the dub I was listening to when I was a kid. What the press and the blogs described sounded miles better that what I was hearing, and I was getting more inspired by the words I read, rather than the music I heard.

I played some stuff for a fantastic DJ named Michael Lakeman and he wrongfully assumed that I had been listening to Burial. Late last year a local mailing list I am on lit-up in both praise and annoyance of the new Burial album and Dubstep in general. Again, all verbage that spilled out interested me greatly, but I avoided listening to the albums that were talked about, as I did not want to get my ideas tainted by what the “proper” guys were doing.

After I had given Burial a proper listen I came to two conclusions:

1. Burial is the goods, and anybody who thinks otherwise can suck it.
2. Burial is about as related to Dubstep as Dubstep is related to House. You might have some dubby House, but please, Burial is a dubby Two-Step artist.

Oh, I get it, If you put the words together and you make Dubstep. Is anything with echo’s dubstep? Or is it defined by a…. Who cares.

With a deep breath, here are a couple samples of what I have been working on.

Track 1. Kicked in the ribs. I was having a ton of fun recording the drums into a tape player, playing with extremes in the noise floor, and using various noise reduction techniques to achieve the sound on the drums. I was looking for that compression sound that you get when using shitty mp3 encoders, but by tweaking with the dolby 3 ways to Sunday I was able to be really happy with it.

Track 2. Without works I sampled the piano, a turn of the century Steinway that is in good condition, with the exception of some moisture that caused a few of the tines to crack. Most of the percussion is samples from the sound of a hammer hitting a dead note, ect.

Track 3. We all must sleep. This has been developing for about a year, and is in what should be its final state. Lots of Jupiter 8 in there. There were these birds that woke me up everyday, and I recreated, almost perfectly their phrasing. Nature is crazy.

-Mat

 

 Kicked in the Ribs [2:19m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 Without works [2:42m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

 

 We all must sleep [3:37m]: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

I have been busy getting a new live set together, both getting new material ready for the live set and actually changing how I actually interact with my songs. With me, there has been a trade off in how much manipulation I can do to each song live, versus how preprogrammed my sets are. If you are unfamiliar with what I actually do when playing live (Mom and Dad, listen up) here I a good nutshell to pack it into. When you head a track on the radio, the DJ is usually playing a cd. The cd has already been mixed and mastered, and what you hear when you press play is what you get. Now, you might turn up the bass a bit if you are driving, but if you wanted to take out the horn section, you are unable too. Since I write all of the music I play live (as opposed to my DJ sets) I have access to all the “parts”, the drums, the vocals. I can even get more cowbell.

In the past I have taken each individual part (track) and had them laid out so I could raise and lower the volume, add effects, eq or whatever. I had these insanely complicated grids of of songs and every time something changed, it was because my fingers pressed a button or twisted a knob. The upside is that I have access to every sound and the downside was that because of the amount of information available, It was really tricky to transition smoothly between songs, so I would program a set list inside my computer.

The past two weeks have been spent organizing all of my songs and mixing them into a limited number of tracks-4-5 so that it would be easier to manage going between songs. I actually see a benefit in how detailed I can get in editing because I have more fingers between less tracks and can spend a little less time trying to find that stupid cowbell and more time just crunching the crap out of the main percussion track (or just grabbing the eq and boosting it a touch)

Hopefully my sets will be more flexible since I cut back on some of the overkill is have in my track counts. 14 tracks of stereo audio is a bit too much when you consider I needed to play 9-12 songs and remember what “clphnds-hi-synth2-rvrb.mp3″ was. The biggest benefit to all of this is that I have taken some time and remastered a ton of the material I have, so that everything will should sound better.

I have been thinking about making a teaser for my upcoming show at the Capitol Hill arts Center next week, but since my home life is so crazy right now I do not think I will have time. I may put up a mix or something, or I might give you a teaser for some of the newest stuff I have. think Basic Channel and Burial.

Sound Good?

Sometimes I wonder how get get to where we are. I don’t mean me, I mean the House music scene. This is from a thread on a house music bbs, where someone who didn’t get paid and decided that they were tired of getting the run around and called the label out in public.

Here is a response from some guy in quotations, and my take.

I am on his XXXXX Imprint as “XXXXXX” and on XXXXXXX a couple of times as well…I have not been paid from any of those projects and have a remix that i am slated to do for XXX in the near future

This whole “calling out people who are hurting the scene is hurting the scene” attitude is unbelievable.
Can someone who has a backbone please explain this to me?

XXXX doesn’t get paid not only once, not twice, but at least three times and still lines up for a fourth go? You want to do a remix for me?

If you have a problem with getting paid by a label….talk to the label….UGH shouldn’t be used as a last resort to get paid.

If they cannot get the label to talk to them or pay up, how should they go about getting paid? Maybe they should try talking to the label? What about offering to do another release in hopes of getting back in favor?

Is there a limit to releases you should give to a label before you decide that maybe they do not respect you? 5? 3 E.P’s and a remix?

Some of these people have apparently forgot. IT’S JUST HOUSE MUSIC.

For you it is, I am sure. You act like it.

Those who actually take it seriously have another opinion.

Spring is here! This is my contribution to this years sound track. Play it in your car on your way to your mom’s. Listen to it with your windows open while you are cleaning your apartment. Barbecue food to it.

There are limitless ways you can listen to this mix. Its up to you!

 

 Spring Opening at the Poly Clinic: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

Download Here

Tracklisting:
1. Mouse On Mars – Send Me Shivers
2. Yi Miyake – Wanda Wanda
3. Ben Mono Ft Capitol A – Mindsweep
4. Siriusmo – L.I.Z.I.
5. Seu Jorge – Chatterton
6. Michael Fakesh – Escalate
7. Soundhack – Double Hammer
8. Infinite Lives – Wake Up
9. Jagoff – Southside Mojo
10. Mark De Clive Lowe – Slide
11. Harco Pront – Dancefloor
12. ????
13. Pezzner – Shasta
14. Global Communication – 8.07

Enjoy.