Week 10 - Bungle and Lawyers

I have noticed in the recent listening sessions (1) of our Music Technology Workshop that David Harris has been introducing us to musical pieces which provide us with more of an entry point into the avant-garde genre. I am curious to know if I would enjoy any of the pieces from term 1, now that I have a basis for interpreting them. I also wonder if David Harris has ever been nicknamed “Dirty Harry”, what with the similar name and all.


Enter prog-circus (2). My first foray into Mr. Bungle was with the piece “Love Is A Fist”, which starts as though it is a heavy metal rock song, then playfully swings between jazz and rock, then back into heavy metal . I truly enjoyed this piece (Shock! Horror!) for what it was (Oh…), with obvious talent shown in the ease of transfer between different musical genres. I could not educe where I had heard the name “Mr Bungle” until I heard the introduction of “Dead Goon”. Much like a 1950’s educational video for children, a voiceover told the story of Mr. Bungle and his lack of hygiene in the lunchroom to which I recalled an actual video of this very sound sample, which used puppets to show distasteful lunchtime antics. Perhaps this was the video clip of “Dead Goon”? Anyway, the actual music was funk in a minor key crossed with acid jazz, which fell into the aforementioned circus music intermittently. With heavy metal style vocals over the top of a chromatic scale, I certainly didn’t fall asleep, or rather couldn’t fall asleep. I’m sure ‘fans’ in the room will rave about it, but I’m sure it was intentionally silly and controversial, not a piece to be perceived as serious musical composition. Like in the previous piece, it is obvious that Mr. Bungle are talented musicians, however the overall structure is organised in a disorderly fashion*. Stockhausen was a step down in interest, with the short wave radio recording “Hymnen” (1966-67). I have often created pieces just like this when searching around on the signal test radio in EMU, which gave me an epiphany of what Musique Concrete actually is. It is: Difficult to put into words. Another of ‘Stocks’’ pieces was played, however it was merely talking, which I have also done often. My Bloody Valentine gave us this week’s “wall of sound” song, with “To Here Knows When” involving normal female singing on top of was seems like 2 LP’s player simultaneously. It was difficult to discern any actual instruments, yet it was interestingly in tune.

The “artist” presentation (3) was from a lawyer who was as faceless as his view of the people he represents. Dry sense of humour and general boredom with life indicated a tertiary education choice of “Well I got into Law, so I may as well do it”. The copyright component of my music technology class in high school was enough for me to understand what I can and cannot do, so I can’t imagine what would possess someone to use their 98 T.E.R. to end up in copyright law. I suppose it is the very same reason anyone would choose law in the first place; great money and hatred of the world. I do enjoy Law and Order: Criminal Intent, but only the episodes that have Detective Goran, not that pretentious git from Sex and the City.

More microphones in this week’s Audio Arts, which has proven once again to be an invaluable asset to my recording project preparations.

No Creative Computing this week, as Christian needed a “ladies day” (or so I’m telling people- PLEASE DON‘T FAIL ME!). Here's my Hand That Feeds thing.



*There are intricate intricacies of the English language, hence the nonsensical sense of previously used language syntactics. Sometimes I also just misspel stuff. While writing this blog I inadvertently created a new word: Controvetian; someone who bases their life around controversialism, much like a controversialist, but cooler sounding.



1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 18/05/2006.

2. John Delaney, “Music Technology Journal - Week 10.” www.intangent.blogspot.com (accessed 20/05/06)

3. Lionel Hutz “Music & Copyright Law.” Life story presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 18/05/2006.

4. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Microphones” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 16/05/2006.

All pictures were found the lazy way: Google Image Search www.google.com