Abductio Ad Absurdum

7:08am: Vodka
is for people with
no taste,
yet who
want to get
wasted
all the
same.

7:22am: Cigarettes Hurt Babies
And no One ought
to want
that.

It is only the
pure evil that
desire to defile
the truly
innocent.

Yet,
if there were
exponentially less
children, then,
perhaps,
our worlds would
make more
sense.

5:20am: New Year, New Music
I had placed an end of the year order with Kevan of Boxer Records, and received my shipment yesterday.

I discovered the joy of two new to me experimental, noise, and/or electronic bands: Troum and Anakrid. Although, I should add that Troum seem to pride themselves on not being "electronic," but using actual instruments, field recordings, and other "analogue" gear recorded to tape, heh.

I ordered Troum's Objectlessness on a whim--based on the conceptual write up: pretty much reflecting many ideas I hold myself. Then, while still deciding on what albums to order, I thought I'd see if there was any examples of Troum's work on Youtube, and I found a song called Ahmateins, so I gave it a listen. It was really sweet, so I found out that it was from an album called AWIS, and, sure enough, Kevan had that one available to order, so I snatched it up. Both albums are really fantastic drone/experimental works, and I'm quite excited to have found another band in that genre that I really enjoy.

As for Anakrid, I guess the guy behind that name is friends with Kevan. I didn't order any of this, but Kevan sent it along with the stuff I did order. So, I got Banishment Rituals of the Disenlightened along with Reality is Elitist. I haven't listened to the latter yet, but the former was really, really good. It was kinda' like take some of the best elements of Coil, mix in some of the tonal texturism of Nurse With Wound, add a dash of The Hafler Trio, and boil down to its alchemical end. A real pleasure to listen to, and all the better 'cause it was a gift!

For the rest of my order, well, I picked up:

Nurse With Wound's Huffin' Rag Blues--a more recent release.

Einsturzende Neuabauten's Tabula Rasa--a fantastic album that I'm happy to finally have on CD--well, two CDs, heh.

Bass Communion's latest work Molotov and Haze.

A Rapoon limited to 500 edition CD called Melancholic Sounds of the Desert, which is, as per usual, Robin Storey doing some pretty damn nice work. It was the first thing I listened to of the order, partly because as I was checking it all out, this CD was incredibly difficult to remove from its package, so, once I got it out the first time I figured the best thing to do was to rip it right away: I wouldn't have to go through that hassle again anytime soon. Really good stuff, but I felt the last three songs didn't quite fit with the rest of the work. They were pretty good to listen to, mind, but didn't quite jive with all that had come before.

The Hafler Trio's Cleave: Nine Great Openings (how's that for a black humour pun?).

And, because I had been listening to Current 93's Swastikas For Goddy again lately, I figured I'd plunge in and get some more of David Tibet's apocalyptic Christian (definitely of the "unorthodox" variety) folk music, so I bought Dogs Blood Rising, C93's second release from way back when (of which I know I've got a song or two kicking around on old mix tapes), and some of his latest works in Black Ships Ate the Sky, and Aleph at Hallucinatory Mountain. Had a chance to listen to half of Black Ships so far, and, yeah, it's what I would expect, but that's a good thing, heh. Tibet's voice and lyrics are pretty intriguing and passionate, and certainly have some strange alchemy with the folksy, yet, at times, warped sounds.

Well, that wraps up this order. Kevan totally rules, and if you're into any of this style of stuff, then, seriously, you ought to check his Ebay store out--great deals, really, considering last time I was at Megatunes here in Calgary Current 93 CDs were twice the price...and like you'd find much of this stuff locally anyway.

So, I've been listening to Troum's Objectlessness while writing this--fantastic (y'know, FYI)!

6:36am: Got It Sorted
So here's the latest in the Silhouettes of Vanished Places effort. It's the second track (I've done tracks 1 & 5 thus far--with a start on four out of the five remaining), and you might notice its title is part of the first track. Yeah, I decided to cut that naming into two separate parts, so "The Wind Scoured Psyche of a Civilization Forgotten" is now simply "The Wind Scoured Psyche," and this is the "Of a Civilization Forgotten" part.

Click on the picture below (as per usual) for a higher quality download MP3 version.

Find more music like this on {nd}

This one was a bit of an experiment for me: it is only a single MIDI trigger--extended for the length of the song--which plays a patch of Reason's Thor synth that I built myself. All the tonal changes are a result of using the BCR 2000's knobs to adjust the parameters of the patch over time. I practiced for several hours before recording the piece: getting used to which knobs changed the sound in conjunction with One and Other.

This version was recorded in a single take with only two edits after the fact.

It's drone noise, so enjoy if you like that sort of thing.

4:59am: Hunh...
I was going to add the latest part of the Silhouettes of Vanished Places project to my Ning page, and then post it up here; however, it seems the file is 2.9 MB larger than Ning's music player will allow (it's limited, apparently, to 20 MB upload).

Maybe it's time to find somewhere else with a flash player to host my music?

I do like the layout of Ning, though, so this makes me kinda' sad.

ETA: It occurs to me that I can probably simply lower the quality of conversion and it'd work out fine...

stay tuned?

:D

7:37am: Everything
is shit.
It's only your
perception
that makes it
gold.

6:09am: If I Were
an atom bomb or
an earthquake or
tsunami,
I'd want to crack
the psyche of
civilization
so deep that it
would expose the
maggots which crawl
through the hallows
of our consciousness,
revealing the rotten core
of our
humanity.

6:43am: X-mas
As if I have any reason
to celebrate,
based on some faulty
subversion of
some Other system
of belief,
neither of which
I believe in.

Sure, appreciation of family and
friends is fine,
as if these things need
highlighting
on some forged day
of the birth of
some Other
who has little value in
my life.

Geared towards an
obedience and
recognition of
something
that is a mere
lie.

Of some attempt at control and
dominance over
those who were not
aligned to a particular
point of view.

And now the marketers and
shop keepers
desire our
subservience to
an artificial recognition
of value in
some myth that has
no meaning
outside that which has come
to be accepted as
important by simple
imposition and
programing.

We now return you to
your
regularly scheduled
broadcast.

5:27am: Remix


Mark Crabtree had originally put together this excellent experimental piece. He and I have been working on a collaborative effort, and I guess the kernel of this song came from him opening up a file I had sent him, but doing so in the wrong format. From that glitched out loop he built this wonderful soundscape.

So I had listened to this several times, and I really liked it, but I found that I'd be riding the volume knob while listening: it seemed to me that some of the quiet parts were seriously overwhelmed by some of the louder parts...

6:39am: Funny Monkeys
We are
imposing chaos on
an order we
can not
comprehend.

6:21am: Success!
My plan to get totally smashed this morning...

(puts on sunglasses)

came off without a hitch.

Yeeeeaaaaahhhhhhhhhhhhhhhhh!

7:41am: Not All About Science
But empirical
all the same:

If we don't
experiment, then
how can we discover
what we can
get away with?

6:47am: :Zoviet*France:
Man, I really dig what Robin Storey & co. does with sound. I think if there has been a single band which has most influenced what my own creative output is like, then it is :Zoviet*France:. I first heard the sounds of this band around 1991, and an old friend has described their sound as "a fever dream of crawling through cheese," and, really, this is a fairly apt description.

When it comes to "industrial/experimental" music, I think it ought to challenge the listener's aptitude of, well, being able to listen. And, to me, no other band does this with alarming regularity than :Zoviet*France:. Yet, somehow the challenge comes together as some harmonious journey: something entirely new, yet somehow familiar in its foreignness--a nightmare/revelation dreamscape of novel self-reflection.

Currently listening to ZF's "A Flock of Rotations"...

:Zoviet*France: via Wikipedia.

7:33am: Calendar
Merely an expression of
the "world."

"Man's time," from
old anglo-saxon: so,
not only speciesism, but also
masculism. Thus, clearly
another mistake of our
silly positions.

And the marks, they say,
on this day or that
mean something

(as if meaning didn't happen
daily, or
not at all).

Something special is occurring if
only we pay attention to
what a "man's time" says.

But there is no man, only
everymen,
no wait: not even that!
But all people
all places,
everywhere.

And nowhere
at all.

For me I can
not accept a calendar as
dictating my joy,
my remembrance,
my pain, or my
celebration.

All days are
the same day.
All times are
the same time.
All people are
One people.

Which no mark
on some chart
can convey.

7:17am: Phenomena
{nd} what do you suppose
is the comparison
to that machine
which soars through the sky?

All blinking lights,
and human ingenuity:
a lifespan of what?

Ten or maybe
fifteen years?

In light of the brilliance of
a seemingly ever present
moon?

4:00am: An Accidental Collaboration?
So, I've been working on a track in collaboration with a fella' by the name of Mark Crabtree outta' Bristol, UK. We started on it quite a bit earlier this year (beginning of summer, maybe?), and it's still not done yet (mostly, I think, this is my fault). But anyway, in the meantime, he's been working on other things as well, and came up with a piece that had its start by him accidently opening up a file I'd sent him in the wrong format, which resulted in a nice little glitchy loop that he built a good experimental piece around.

Check it out.

6:16am: Cigarettes Are Like...
little candy morsels.

Instantly gratifying, but, in the end, I've done myself more harm than good.

What's so fucking good, what's so fucking good about candy?

5:51am: There's No Such Thing...
as "random."

Today at work I was playing some music. A group of three young women walk in, shop around, pick up their stuff, and proceed to the counter. One of them asks, as people sometimes do, "what are you listening to?"

Well, my co-worker looks over to me--I'm pretty much in charge of the music when I'm at work--and I say, "We're listening to a band called 'The Set of All Ands & the End'."

And she says, "What?"

"The Set of All Ands & the End," I respond.

Her friend asks, "Is it all noise?"

And I says, "Pretty much."

The girl who originally asked the question says, "Oh, I think I've heard them."

I interject, "Or heard something like them..."

"No," she continues, "I think I heard them on college radio."

Of course, I let it go at that. We were listening to Field Notes on the Subatomic Structure of a Partially Rusted Coil, by yers truly.

So, as I was brushing my teeth before work, I thought it'd be incredibly funny if, when some One asked me, "How're you today?" (or some variant thereof), that I would respond with:

"What in the Sam Hill!?!?"

And they'd likely go, "Huh?" (or some variant of).

Then I could say, "Exactly."

And I supposed the questioner would be left thinking, "WTF?"

Heh. Absurdity is the backbone of our existence.

4:45am: So Boring and Tedious!
Y'know what gets incredibly boring and tedious? Ripping CDs to iTunes, tracking down album artwork, and placing said artwork with each track of a given CD. I've spent eleven hours so far (broken up into two sessions), and I've still got a ways to go.

Y'know what is going to be even worse? Digitizing cassettes. Why would I undertake that? Because I have a bunch of music on cassettes (mostly mix tapes) that I am not likely to find anywhere else.

Y'know what is exciting about it? Well, aside from having a large portion of my collection of music on my HDD, I'm gonna' be able to have a large portion of my music collection on my new iPod Classic!

Yeah, Kari got me an iPod for my birthday (another late present, lol). Originally she'd bought me an iPod nano with 8 gigs, but then she said to me, "I was thinking, for $30.00 dollars more, I'd return it and get you the one with twice the storage space."

And I said, "Well, y'know, I was thinking about getting the 160 gig Classic. How about I chip in $100 and we get that one instead?" Well, she figured that was a great idea.

So yeah, I had it at work tonight, and it was so great having it hooked into the stereo at work and having so much selection at my fingertips. I know--many of you have had an iPod or MP3 player for a long time now, and perhaps this novelty has worn off, but, I tells ya', I'm pretty impressed. Moreover, it is really nice because I don't have to take my CDs to work, where they often get bounced around and scratched in the player. I certainly have never taken any of my collector type CDs to work, so it is really great to have them available to play at my whim now.

Mwahahahaha: assaulting the public with Nurse With Wound, :zoviet*france:, or the like is good times! It's the best when people look back behind them with a nervous look on their face and ask, "What's that noise?" And then I get to tell them it's music, heh.

One of the best comments I've had so far was, "I think your radio is broken."

3:51am: Exquisite Treasures Lost
New song: part of the Silhouettes of Vanished Places project. Don't have any artwork for it (yet?), so here's the (possible?) cover of the project in its place.

Find more music like this on {nd}

1:54am: Late Birthday Present
Well, I finally figured out what I wanted to get myself for my birthday--a whole month after the fact, lol--so I went out and picked up a BCR2000 this past Sunday. Here's a pic of mine:



While it is actually a very diverse MIDI control surface, I bought it mainly to use with Reason. I don't currently know very much about how to program MIDI gear to interact, so I guess that's something to learn in the future, but this baby comes ready to use with Reason pretty much out of the box (I had to do a firmware update, and that was more-or-less straight forward). It's really great because all the knobs link to various adjustable parameters in any given Reason device, and this makes tweaking sound on the fly so much easier--and enjoyable!

With the Oxygen I was limited to eight knobs and eight faders, which do not by any means cover the amount of parameters in a given synth. For example, go here to check out a picture of one of Reason's synths. As you can see, there're much more than eight faders and knobs present on the device. This meant scrolling through variations on the Oxygen's presets--and not all presets allow control over all parameters. A further problem with using the Oxygen's knobs and faders is that when you touch any knob or fader, the corresponding parameter in the device jumps to the setting of the knob. So I would often end up trying to figure out what parameter suddenly got adjusted to what level, and where was it set at before, anyway? Basically, it was time consuming and interrupting work flow.

So in with the BCR2000. As you can see, there are four rows of eights knobs--so 32 parameters can be mapped at a time--but wait!--the top row of knobs have four banks--so add another 24 knobs for a total of 56 potential parameters: shear awesome! And here's the best part--all the knobs are endless rotary knobs, so what it does is receive a signal from Reason, and it sets itself to align with the parameters of a given Reason device. Those pretty little LEDs? Yeah, they correspond to the current settings of the device the BCR2000 is controlling, and when I switch the control to a different device in Reason, they all reset themselves to mirror that device's settings: huzzah!

So yeah, I've been using this sweet unit the last few nights, and I love it! It makes tweaking so much fun and super accessible. Now, the Oxygen's controls are still great when I'm tweaking smaller devices--like effects units--that only have a few parameters to map to, but hands down the BCR rules for the more complicated synths and such.

7:07am: You, Me, I, Them, Us, etc.
There are but two options in life (which, of course, resolve to a unity):

1): We can over emphasize what is.

2): We can under emphasize what is.

What is, is Nothing at All (read yer existentialist and/or quantum mechanical and/or Buddhist literature, and you'll see, perhaps).

This Public Service Announcement brought to you by No One in particular.

5:49am: How About Something More Upbeat?
If {nd} were to produce something a bit more dance oriented, it might sound a little something like this:

Find more music like this on {nd}

Check back to ndlabs in the next couple days for a write up, and some pretty pictures, if you're interested in such things, aye.

6:27am: An Other Death Day
An Other trip 'round the Sun.

Happy Death day to me,
Happy Death day to me,
Happy Death day
Dear Zero,
Happy Death day
to me.

5:45am: On the Verge of the Autumnal Equinox
As of approximately 5:00 am, Spooky Ph.D. resides in this world no longer.

If there is more
to being than our
mere brief moments
in these material
shells,
may what arises
bring you only
joy.