Week 13 - Spiel, Pilfer and Cary Controversy

As the semester comes to a close, and assignments close in all around me, I stop to ponder the times I’ve had. Then I keep going with my assignments.

Dirty Harry was in fine form today- I am curious if these LP’s that he brings in are in fact his own. Steve Reich “Electric Counterpoint” (1987) was the first meal served, and was quite enjoyable. I have asked several people to explain counterpoint to me, and every answer is different, as is every piece of music that considers itself counterpoint. There is a ‘bubblegum punk’ band called “Fall Out Boy”, who supposedly use counterpoint in their songs. Their songs sound like crap. Anyway, Pat Methany played guitar for this piece. Good on him.

Next was Tristram Cary “Soft Walls” (1980), which was a vast sound scape of mediocre beeps. I’m sure in 1980 it was ‘radical’, but I wasn’t even born yet. “Ooh, but he’s a guy from our uni.” So what, I can’t have an opinion? I could do something like that today in 2 hours max. I know, 1980 etc., my point is if I composed a piece of music, I would want technology to move on, in affect making my work obsolete, and I wouldn’t expect any future person to find it relevant to their time. Very little of this ‘abstract electronica’ is timeless, as evolution is an integral part of the genre. Each piece is merely a stepping stone to the next, and while we can appreciatively look at the footprints left behind with a retrospective tear in our eye, it doesn’t change the fact that it rarely sounds good today. For those “But in 1980 is was really difficult” people: we need to keep a fresh mind, one capable of accepting and utilising new technologies, and not weighed down with “In MY day we had to use a blade and reel-to-reel tape, and we had to do it while walking barefoot on broken glass in -4C rain.” I’ll book your nursing home for you.

I haven't had much sleep…

Always a fan of Pink Floyd, “Interstellar Overdrive” (1966) was their first experimental song. This is quite noticeable, as the ‘experimental’ part, including an organ and various synthesisers, are huddled in amongst Floydian guitars, as if they are too scared to be in the song alone. To quote Dirty Harry: “They were the earliest band to go strange.” Steve Reich popped in for another visit, this time with “After the War” (1988). I have consistently enjoyed any piece played by the Kronos Quartet, and this was no exception. The strings mimicked voices that simulate a speaker on a train, and turned the everyday speech into a musical motif. With each new vocal excerpt or train sound, the strings would follow suit, with enjoyable consequences. Finally, we listened to Tristram Cary’s “Steam Music” (1978). Ironic that after my spiel about ‘ignoring the old days’, Tristram manages to rip off Pierre Schaeffer’s pioneering composition “Etude aux Chemins de Fer" (Railroad Study).

Audio Arts(2) revolved around psychophysical mixing. Some great tips were imparted, especially delay tricks using panning, and ‘windowing’, which I have already started applying to my project.

Creative computing (3) involved using a noise gate in ProTools and routing a signal through the side-chain input.(4) I’m sure this will be of great use to me in the future, perhaps when I do my creative computing major project, but for now I am content with remaining confused about it.

Spiel and pilfer are cool words, aren’t they?

1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 8/06/2006.

2. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Psychophysical Mixing.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 6/06/2006.

3. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: ProTools Gates.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 8/06/2006.

4. John Delaney, “Music Technology Journal - Week 13” Intangent http://intangent.blogspot.com (accessed 8/6/06)

A final cheers to John “Kitchen Aid” Delaney. Your blogs throughout this semester have been a great source to pilfer references, as well as general reminders of what we did in CC and AA. Thanks everyone for your comments, except for you Bach, you old geezer.

Dear Blogger,

Thanks for nothing. You made blogging more difficult than licking your own elbow. I hope you've had fun letting me upload pictures then not giving me the html text.

Ben xxx

Week 12 - Drum kits and Chinese Opera

Get this- I was actually 'inspired' by one of the pieces that Dirty “Dirts” Harry presented us (1). See how far I have come? Nobukazu Takemura’s “Assembler Mix” sounded like an old movie soundtrack looping under other fragments of the same movie. It was very much rhythmically based, almost ‘groovy’ as they say, and towards the end some sine waves were introduced as the whole scene came crashing down into what could be described as mush. Something that Colonel John Delaney and I noticed was some barely audible sounds up in the high 17kHz range. On the subject of the Colonel, it is interesting that somebody else has noticed you can hear that a television is turned on when you aren’t actually in earshot. I thought I was able to hear electromagnetic waves, however it turns out I’m not that cool.

Umm… Oh yes. So I was inspired to see what I could do with some ‘old’ sounds I found in the audio lab samples folder, and this is what I cooked up. I am well aware that using loops is not ‘composition’, but I really don’t have the time to sit around with Sibelius. I think it has an old skool rap style about it, with a hint of ‘chill’, Massive Attack style. I think I’ll get a girl to rap over it. Girl rappers are the best.

Next up was “Snarling Wrath of Angry Gods” by Gutbucket from their album “Dry Humping the American Dream”. Despite the ultra-cool name, I didn’t get the “Snarling” at all. The odd key signature and mix of heavy guitar and brass instruments gave the impression that the Angry Gods have disparate musical tastes, however the saxophone solo was possibly the best saxophonophony* I have ever heard. Continuing the ‘comparative’ format of the most recent listening sessions, Dirts unleashed some Bach on us (HEY! That’s a great name for a dog! Bach! Ha ha ha!). The piece was a 6 voice improvisation that Bach created for a guy that had thrown together an abstract theme, on which the piece was based. The sound of a harpsichord certainly gets old quickly, and I would like to hear the piece played on a grand piano. Still, what doesn’t sound good on a grand piano? Well, Slipknot wouldn’t.I’m getting sidetracked again.The next piece was “Kyrie” by Toby Twining. The main feature of this piece was the vocal harmonics, of which Patrick and I can emulate to a lesser extent, and even though the piece built up to a rich collage of sound, it still felt like it didn’t go anywhere. Arnold Driblatt’s “Lapse” had a heavy emphasis on rhythm, and the overall sound had a “Chinese street-corner lute-band” feel to it. Varying tempos helped maintain interest, seeing as there seemed to be no structure to the melodic or harmonic progression. It turns out the song was based on the overtone series, which trying to explain would be both boring and word-consuming. Hardcore Chinese Opera” by Otomo Yoshihide won some fans with screaming being the focal point. Lastly Igor Stravinsky’s “Symphonies of Wind Instruments” fail to get a rise from me.

The Artist Talk this week was a free-for-all student presentation seminar, where Vinny Bhagat presented a song of unrequited musicianship, Patrick McCartney informed us of his ‘lunar’tic plan of astroterrestrial composition and Tyrell presented some sounds of people touching live instrument leads. I would have hired a stripper, but I guess I’ll have to wait until I’m teaching my own class.

For Audio Arts (2), Christian assisted us with drum microphone techniques. I have miced up numerous drum kits, three so far using the microphones available at EMU, so I like to think I am a micing maestro. I suppose it is just as well, considering this is the only Audio Arts that I have missed this semester. In any case, I would recommend using an AKG-C414 on the kick, and for the snare and hihat use the two Yamaha MZ-204’s. A Rode NT3 will pick up the floor tom nicely.

Creative computing (3) allowed Christian to pass the gall stone of digital tape editing techniques, which apparently I have passed already. I often used PCM editors during Music Technology in high school, so this was a nice reiteration class.

And here’s my awful Jodie remix, which I have named "DJ Opera in: The Bowels of Hell" I would say ‘Enjoy!’, but that would be expecting a bit much.



*Hello again. This word was more fun than serious. I like the four o’s. What, you wanted some incredible revelatory description? Shut up and enjoy these: Phantasmagoria; ignominiousness; antidisestablishmentarianism; mittelschmerz (look up this one).

1. David Harris. “Music Technology Workshop: Listening Session.” Lecture presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1/06/2006.

2. Christian Haines. “Audio Arts: Drum kit microphones.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 29/05/2006.

3. Christian Haines. “Creative Computing: Gall Stones.” Practical class presented at the Electronic Music Unit, University of Adelaide, South Australia, 1/06/2006