Songs of Innocence and Experience

Sonic Warfare

Wed, 09 Dec 2009 05:16:54 GMT

Sonic Warfare
Sound, Affect, and the Ecology of Fear
Steve Goodman

Most theoretical discussions of sound and music cultures in relationship to power, Goodman argues, have a missing dimension: the politics of frequency. Goodman supplies this by drawing a speculative diagram of sonic forces, investigating the deployment of sound systems in the modulation of affect. Traversing philosophy, science, fiction, aesthetics, and popular culture, he maps a (dis)continuum of vibrational force, encompassing police and military research into acoustic means of crowd control, the corporate deployment of sonic branding, and the intense sonic encounters of sound art and music culture.

http://mitpress.mit.edu/catalog/item/default.asp?ttype=2&tid=11890&mlid=689

Musical Comedy Finds the Right Pitch

Fri, 30 Oct 2009 12:30:06 GMT

"You have to know intimately the music you're ripping off," says Bailey. "There's a knowingness about it, which the audience participate in when they recognise familiar riffs or chord changes. So there's no point saying, 'I'm now going to subvert the minimalism of Arvo Pärt.' It's the comedy of recognition. The standup equivalent would be talking about shared cultural references."

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2009/oct/29/musical-comedy-bill-bailey-conchords

Freedom, Rhythm & Sound: Revolutionary Jazz Original Cover Art 1965-83

Thu, 29 Oct 2009 17:05:01 GMT

A review of a book on jazz:

"While jazz is often celebrated as the only sui generis American art form, especially in the hidebound version that ends up in a Ken Burns documentary, we tend to forget that it had quite an internationalist bent. And unlike rock n’ roll, which mostly flowed in one direction from First World countries to the Second and Third, jazz depended much more on ideas and identities from extra-American sources. Why? ... Understandably, many Americans have been led to believe that what I have just written has little to do with jazz. If they spend a few minutes glancing through Freedom Rhythm and Sound, a compilation of jazz album artwork from the late 1960s and 1970s, they might change their mind. Soul Jazz Records’ first foray into print, Freedom is a pictographic overview of an artistic world that is long overdue."

http://dustedmagazine.com/features/850

Make Lily Allen quiver with pleasure

Fri, 23 Oct 2009 18:12:00 GMT

Go to: http://lilyallenmusic.com/lily/

On the top left-hand corner of the webpage, you can find the word 'Lily Allen'. Mouse over the word, start stroking her with your virtual hand and make her quiver.

Album of the Year (Already)

Sun, 27 Sep 2009 04:02:38 GMT

Ahead of even Animal Collective's unimpeachable Merriweather Post Pavilion and YACHT's rollicking See Mystery Lights, I declare the Dirty Projectors' Bitte Orca to be my album of 2009.

It's something like Mariah Carey meets Beethoven meets Nico meets Ali Farka Toure. When I stop being amazed at the album and listening to it incessantly, I will write a review of the album, although this seems terribly unlikely.

It's a sign!

Thu, 20 Aug 2009 23:34:04 GMT

http://pitchfork.com/news/36279-the-books-spill-details-of-highly-anticipated-new-album/

Goldberg Repetitions

Sat, 15 Aug 2009 00:42:56 GMT

I was listening to Glenn Gould's 1981 recording of Bach's Goldberg Variations and Googling for the album cover when I found:

The original

The copy copy copy copy copy copy copy copy copy copy

Turns out that the maker of this cover art made his own mix of Goldberg Variations - one where he stacks up all the individual variations into one marauding monstrosity: www.bengerstein.com/sounds/goldbergvariationstogether.gould'81.mp3

His name is Ben Gerstein and he's a trombonist/artist. Certainly one of the most exciting guys out there. Check out his website: http://www.bengerstein.com

Forum

Wed, 12 Aug 2009 14:54:45 GMT

After several attempts over the past six months, I have successfully registered myself as a member of the official Lily Allen forum.

Now On / Upcoming

Sun, 02 Aug 2009 13:15:37 GMT

3 new works in 3 exhibitions:

The End of Something.. A collection of reflections on the Global Crisis
31 July – 30 August 2009, Fri-Sun 12pm-5pm
Volume: 114-116 Amersham Vale, Deptford Police Station, London SE14 6LG, UK

Singapore Art Exhibition 2009
21 August - 18 October 2009
Singapore Art Museum, Singapore

SoundWalk 2009
3 October 2009, 5pm-10pm
East Village Arts District
Downtown Long Beach, CA, USA
http://www.soundwalk.org/

--

Guilty Pleasures selected as one of the 100 works as part of this curatorial education programme:

Curating Lab: 100 Objects (Remixed)
05 Aug 2009 - 27 Sep 2009
Artspace@Helutrans and NUS Museum, Singapore
http://www.farm.sg/events/details/curating_lab_100_objects_remixed/

--

New track "Radio Book Mixer" out on Sub Rosa compilation:

An Anthology of Chinese Experimental Music (1992-2008)
4CD, Sub Rosa
http://www.subrosa.net/online/main_dr_news_detail.php?AlbumID=78
Available from Amazon, Boom Kat, Rough Trade, etc.

--

And a presentation of my Masters dissertation on systems art:

MediaModes Graduate Student Conference
Saturday, 14 November, 2009, 10am-8pm
School of Visual Arts, NYC, USA
Keynote speaker: Jonathan Crary

Ice Cream Vans

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 15:56:27 GMT

http://www.resonancearchive1.org.uk/audio/AudioAdventures/Ice_Cream_Van_Music.mp3
http://www.flickr.com/groups/ice-cream-vans/
http://blog.wfmu.org/freeform/2006/06/ice_cream_truck.html
http://www.prnewswire.co.uk/cgi/news/release?id=106564
http://musicthing.blogspot.com/2005/04/why-do-ice-cream-vans-sound-way-they.html
http://blog.taragana.com/e/2009/05/30/when-mick-jaggers-100k-ice-cream-van-offer-got-rejected-6258/
http://www.songsforicecreamtrucks.com/

Rock Crit

Thu, 30 Jul 2009 13:12:21 GMT

In 1997 when I was in junior college I started to listen to rock music. These are my mom's quips on two of my earliest CD acquisitions:

On Nirvana "Smells Like Teen Spirit": "He sounds like he's been pinched by a ghost."

On Pavement's "Conduit for Sale!": "He sounds like he's alternating between having a very good and very bad shit."

I think an honorary professorship in rock criticism is long overdue for her.

Cycling is the Man-Machine

Mon, 06 Jul 2009 19:06:50 GMT

"Cycling is the man-machine. It's about dynamics, always continuing straight ahead - forwards, no stopping. There are really balanced artists who can remain upright at a standstill, but I can't do that. It's always forwards. He who stops falls over." - Ralf Hütter, Kraftwerk (Interview in The Guardian)

And more here: http://www.bikereader.com/contributors/thurston/kraftwerk.html

What's in a name

Thu, 25 Jun 2009 11:47:28 GMT

Somehow it never occurred to me until I saw this design for a t-shirt.

Apparently Axl Rose was once known as Bill Bailey before he adopted his stage name.

Against Soundscape

Wed, 17 Jun 2009 16:53:07 GMT

Excerpts from Tim Ingold's Essay, "Against Soundscape" (from Sound and the Environment in Artistic Practice, ed. Angus Carlyle, 2007):

“The environment that we experience, know and move around in is not sliced up along the lines of the sensory pathways by which we enter into it. The world we perceive is the same world, whatever path we take, and each of us perceives it as an undivided centre of activity and awareness. For this reason I deplore the fashion for multiplying – scapes – of every possible kind.”

“We need to avoid the trap, analogous to thinking that power of sight inheres in images, of supposing that the power of hearing inheres in recordings. For the ears, just like the eyes, are organs of observation, not instruments of playback. Just as we use of eyes to watch and look, so we use our ears to listen as we go forth in the world.”

“Sound is not what we hear, any more than light is what we see. Herein lies my third objection to the concept of soundscape. It does not make sense for the same reason that a concept of ‘lightscape’ would not make sense. The scaping of things – that is, their surface formation – is revealed to us thanks to their illumination. When we look around on a fine day, we see a landscape bathed in sunlight, not a lightscape. Likewise, listening to our surroundings, we do not hear a soundscape. For sound, I would argue, is not the object but the medium of our perception. It is what we hear in.”

Fear of Music - Why People Get Rothko But Don't Get Stockhausen

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 23:15:15 GMT

I'm not sure if comparing visual art to music (or Rothko to Stockhausen) is fair, but I'm keen on reading this book by David Stubbs.

Synopsis

Modern art is a mass phenomenon. Conceptual artists like Damien Hirst enjoy celebrity status. Works by 20th century abstract artists like Mark Rothko are selling for record breaking sums, while the millions commanded by works by Andy Warhol and Francis Bacon make headline news.

However, while the general public has no trouble embracing avant garde and experimental art, there is, by contrast, mass resistance to avant garde and experimental music, although both were born at the same time under similar circumstances - and despite the fact that from Schoenberg and Kandinsky onwards, musicians and artists have made repeated efforts to establish a "synaesthesia" between their two media.

This book examines the parallel histories of modern art and modern music and examines why one is embraced and understood and the other ignored, derided or regarded with bewilderment, as noisy, random nonsense perpetrated by, and listened to by the inexplicably crazed. It draws on interviews and often highly amusing anecdotal evidence in order to find answers to the question: Why do people get Rothko and not Stockhausen?

http://www.o-books.com/product_info.php?products_id=561

Countdown

Mon, 15 Jun 2009 22:59:42 GMT

If you're wondering WTF I'm doing in London, this is supposed to be the next three months of my life (when I'm not snoozing). This is the initial outline of my dissertation. It sounds much less exciting than the music and art I'm looking at, por supuesto.

OPERATIONS AND INSTITUTIONS

This dissertation looks at two artists, Brian Eno and Cory Arcangel, and how they engage in 'performing the systems' (Tom Holert) in which their work are derived from and situated in. The systems they employ in their art, ranging from compositional/computing algorithms to heuristic operations, connect with various other systems – capitalism, communication, and culture.

Eno’s theoretical underpinnings of Ambient music is explored in its relation to the efficiencies and effects of generative art and experimental music, specifically how they expand on notions of organization, labour, and productivity. Arcangel’s new media practice, which can be seen as an extension of Eno’s work, represents a contemporary practice capable of initiating a non-paranoid paradigm (Eve Kosofsky Sedgwick).

Through both artists’ works, the dissertation shows how they perform institutional critique by moving away from being institutionalized (i.e. co-opted) by their very systems, and instead instituting (i.e. beginning) gestures (Jan Verwoert) that are not merely subversive but productive to various fields.

Cello Song

Mon, 18 May 2009 10:54:33 GMT

The Books read Nick Drake: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QeBvl5Nt5ro&feature=related

Where I End and You Begin

Mon, 18 May 2009 07:52:36 GMT

Upon sharing my knowledge of Rodeohead, J asked "Have you heard Radiodread?" I immediately burst into laughter, both of us acknowledging the sheer genius of the name. I was then extended the pleasure of listening to not just Radiodread but also Dub Side of the Moon.

It is amazing how cover projects can adopt a life of their own. The painful reproduction of the found sounds of Dark Side; the adept instrumentation on all the songs; the adaptation and reinvention of rock music into other genres of music. It takes effort to make music that surpasses/subverts originals of such high quality. And where does tribute/parody begin for such projects?

If you're wondering what led to our discussion of Rodeohead, it was a development of our conversation about Fat Bird Rodeo. Make a guess. I wonder if there are Youtube videos of the abovementioned. It would be dreadful.

Hanging On a Star

Sat, 16 May 2009 01:37:15 GMT

Nick Drake is a folk singer from the Seventies, and his songs are made up of deceptively simple guitar work and understated vocals. He died at 26, and it was never known if his overdose of prescribed antidepressants was intentional.

"Hanging On a Star" can be found on Time of No Reply, which consists of out-takes and alternate recordings that weren't included in his three studio albums. On this song he sings:

Why leave me hanging on a star / When you deem me so high
Why leave me sailing in the sea / When you hear me so clear

666

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 12:36:59 GMT

From Cory Arcangel's website:

"If you have ever wondered what Iron Maiden's "The Number of the Beast" would sound like compressed over and over as an mp3 666 times...here's your chance..and if u r wondering, YES it does lose quality each time it is compressed. ........ps - If u like this project, don't forget to study up on your old school and check out Alvin Lucier's I am Sitting in a Room."

http://www.beigerecords.com/cory/Things_I_Made/Maiden

Eat This

Wed, 25 Mar 2009 11:30:06 GMT

A Chinese poem in which all the characters embody variations of the four phonetic tones in Mandarin: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Lion-Eating_Poet_in_the_Stone_Den

Wes Anderson

Sun, 22 Mar 2009 16:15:46 GMT

A friend of mine recently blogged about how she found The Darjeeling Limited a poor film (http://shoreless.org/blog/?p=17) and it got me thinking about why I like Wes Anderson's films so much.

The first Wes Anderson film I've seen is The Royal Tenenbaums, still to me his best work so far. Since then I've seen The Life Aquatic, Rushmore, and The Darjeeling Limited.

The Royal Tenenbaums didn't leave an impression on me the first time I saw it. Friends went on and on about how much they loved it, and feeling that I was missing out, I returned to it for the second time. Again, no connection -- I found the pace too slow, the acting unrealistic, and the plot 'un-dramatic'.

The third time I watched it, I realised that it was like listening to Brian Eno's ambient records, and suddenly it clicked. The brilliance of both Eno and Anderson is that their work exists between the dual planes of foreground and background. It's not about listening/watching it in either the foreground or background; there is in their work this capacity that allows one to see the work as occupying both foreground and background simultaneously. And from here, the expansiveness and depth of the work becomes apparent.

Anderson is for me one of the best living directors because his films not only possess a distinct visual style, but because his films are immensely 'literary'. Despite the visual sumptuousness and the perfect soundtracks, his films establish with the audience a relationship that can only be borne out of immersion -- just like reading a novel over the span of a few weeks.

John Cooper Clarke

Sat, 14 Mar 2009 16:11:41 GMT

Evidently Chicken Town

the fucking cops are fucking keen
to fucking keep it fucking clean
the fucking chief's a fucking swine
who fucking draws a fucking line
at fucking fun and fucking games
the fucking kids he fucking blames
are nowehere to be fucking found
anywhere in chicken town

the fucking scene is fucking sad
the fucking news is fucking bad
the fucking weed is fucking turf
the fucking speed is fucking surf
the fucking folks are fucking daft
don't make me fucking laugh
it fucking hurts to look around
everywhere in chicken town

the fucking train is fucking late
you fucking wait you fucking wait
you're fucking lost and fucking found
stuck in fucking chicken town

the fucking view is fucking vile
for fucking miles and fucking miles
the fucking babies fucking cry
the fucking flowers fucking die
the fucking food is fucking muck
the fucking drains are fucking fucked
the colour scheme is fucking brown
everywhere in chicken town

the fucking pubs are fucking dull
the fucking clubs are fucking full
of fucking girls and fucking guys
with fucking murder in their eyes
a fucking bloke is fucking stabbed
waiting for a fucking cab
you fucking stay at fucking home
the fucking neighbors fucking moan
keep the fucking racket down
this is fucking chicken town

the fucking train is fucking late
you fucking wait you fucking wait
you're fucking lost and fucking found
stuck in fucking chicken town

the fucking pies are fucking old
the fucking chips are fucking cold
the fucking beer is fucking flat
the fucking flats have fucking rats
the fucking clocks are fucking wrong
the fucking days are fucking long
it fucking gets you fucking down
evidently chicken town

Music That Changed My Life

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:39:57 GMT

On Facebook recently there's this meme-tagging thing going on - 25 Albums that Changed Your Life.

People tend to list canonical music... and I certainly love critical favourites like Radiohead, John Coltrane and Beethoven. But they didn't change my life. I really don't think good music changes anyone's lives, although they'd probably lure people into a particular mode of appreciation, which might really be a form of thought slavery.

For me it's "100% HITZ" - a compilation of, well, hitz from 1994. It had NKOTB, Air Supply, and Kenny G: http://www.kingkong-music.com/index.php?main_page=product_music_ex_info&products_id=8804&language=en
It was the first English music cassette I'd purchased, and heralded the beginning of my (heavy) music consumption.

Spice Girls too - I despised them so much when I was growing up; I was such an obnoxious prick. My ex-girlfriend liked them. I hated them. If I had been less condescending, perhaps we'd still be together (although I'm happy where I am now). I can't say that the Spice Girls changed my life, but my attitude towards them certainly determined the way my life turned out.

Why am I missing out on all the good gigs in Singapore?

Wed, 11 Mar 2009 21:27:06 GMT

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3cFNAFs2emc