We’ve had the “Random Nostalgia” category on this blog for a while, but I think this is the first time a post has truly fit the bill. I was searching around my hard drive last night and stumbled upon this gem from my past, the photo you see above (sorry for the poor quality, I can’t find the original photo I scanned this from). I’m not quite sure, but this is probably from sometime around mid-1999 in Sacramento. This was the firs time I assembled what I would consider a proper studio, although it was just my bedroom (you can see the futon folded up in the right corner). I think before this I had a Roland MC-303 and SP-202 set up on a dresser in the corner so this was a big step up from that. This was also when I started using a computer to record; I had previously recorded everything into an ASR-X Pro sampler which could handle about 6 minutes of audio. I would then record the outputs of that to Minidiscs (still have a huge box of those I need to sift through).

This was before I really started designing but if you look closely you can catch one of my very early visual influences on the left wall. I rescued that tapestry thing from a dumpster; it depicts a waterfall made of rainbows. Pretty bad I know, but looking back I realize that color scheme and subject matter informed a lot of my earlier work. Not sure what happened to it, must have lost it in a subsequent move. The same goes for the other stuff, the only things I still have around are the computer keyboard, the grey box in the stereo cabinet and the wooden table in the foreground. I gave the keyboard stand to Dusty Brown and I saw it at the show in Sacramento this weekend, nice to know it’s still alive and well with the same Renthal sticker on it. As for the other stuff, it was either sold on eBay or junked (the milk crates that are holding up the desk, for example). Here’s a kit list of what I can make out from the picture:

– ASRX-Pro Sampler / Sound Module. Used this to make Science of Patterns a few years later.
– Roland JP-8000 Synthesizer.
– E-MU Orbit Sound Module (don’t ask why I owned this)
– Yamaha Stereo EQ
– Gemini 4-channel DJ mixer
– Sony MD recorder

Crazy story about the JP-8000, I put it on eBay about a year after this shot was taken. The winner of the auction was from the area so he came out to pick it up. It turned out to be Shaun Lopez, we ended up becoming friends and he still does mixing work on my tracks today (Daydream, Adrift, Disconnect to name a few).

Today Mux Mool’s Viking Funeral drops as a free download for everyone, the EP is a collection of live edits, one has a MC for the first time and one song even samples the Hobbit cartoon with Led Zeppelin drums, enjoy.

Culled from Mux Mool’s EPs, mixtapes, and beat vaults, the Viking Funeral EP collects five choice Mux cuts into one concentrated blast of music, an introduction to Brian Lindgren’s dazzling take on homespun electro hip-hop and a preamble to his upcoming full-length opus, Skulltaste.
Viking Funeral contains everything that Mux Mool does best, making it a fine road map to Lindgren’s cracked universe. “Teal Trim” starts things off right with a tight, incisive beat, mixed to cut through a fog of hard-panned synths and distorted melody lines. Mux’s live edit of “Ladies Know” is a hard-to-find instrumental version which foregrounds the track’s bitcrushed drums and dirt-crusted vocal samples. Next up is “Drum Babylon”, a highlight from Mux’s song-a-day project Drum EP, and “Goblin Town”, a mischievous interlude featuring a choir of deep-voiced goblins, singing about their hometown. The Viking Funeral EP closes with its lone track with vocals, “Death 9000 (Prof & P.O.S. Broadcasting Version)”, in which the MCs have their way with one of Mux’s more sinister beatscapes.
Five tracks, five different shades of Mux; but the Viking Funeral EP is just the tip of the iceberg. Skulltaste is lurking below the waterline, and it goes down for miles.

DOWNLOAD THE FREE EP HERE

I’m definitely getting way into this style right now; what can I say, people are doing some amazing things with type and shapes. These posters are by Quadradao out of Brazil. There is something familiar about the look of course, but I think it’s still fresh in its own way. What I find interesting about it is how much harder it is to design effectively in this style than it looks like. Sure it’s just type and shapes, but try and work something equally refined and see if you don’t go completely nuts.

Couldn’t find too much information on the studio, but from what I can deduce they’re chilling down in Brazil pumping out crazy good posters like these. If I had to guess I would have said these were straight out of the Netherlands.

Last week I shared with you the start of a 4 [maybe more?] part series of covers that some of my friends did that was free to download here. Here is volume 2:

Calmer covers Bob James: I think when I asked Calmer to cover the Taxi theme song he thought I was joking but I actually wasn’t I always play this song when I DJ late nights. He does a great hazy looped cover which shows off his drumming skills and that was what I was hoping for.

Andre Obin covers Editors: Boston’s Andre Obin is the bridge from Synth Pop to Underworld/the older Kompakt sound, he covered Munich, he went with a great direction which was ditching the sped up original and owning the vocals.

Tom Croose edits Van Morrison: Our Tom Croose does what he does best which is turning rock oldies into respectable dance floor pleasers without referencing that whole Justice dance beat movement, back to the basics for 2010 and more from Tom Croose. [Sorry, this song has been removed due to a DMCA complaint]

D. Gookin covers Primus: Are you ready for your early teen years to flash before your eyes? D. Gookin might have just made the rowdiest intro for a song ever posted on iso50 but don’t let that fool you the cover is really diverse and he did it within hours on his drum kit. I asked Gookin to do it because on tour over a year ago he played a ton of Primus for us in the car and I could tell he loved them plus Pork Soda was the first CD I ever bought so I thought it would be fitting.

Charles Trees remixes Mayer Hawthorne: Ann Arbor, MI remixing Ann Arbor, MI both Mayer and Charles are around my age and from the same city as me. You may know Charles from his other alias Mingus Rude who gave us that very memorable Fleetwood Mac edit. Charles does a fantastic job of making Just Ain’t Gonna Work Out more heady and head noddy which totally made my ears smile.

DOWNLOAD THE COVERS EP FOR FREE HERE

Just wanted to say thanks to everyone who came out for the SEMF show in Sacramento last night, you guys were awesome and the energy was great. I always love playing in Sacto and it was nice to see that the electronic scene there is alive and better than ever. Thanks to Adam and everyone from SEMF for putting together three straight days of incredible music; I hope this becomes and annual event.

Raoul Ortega (Jetstreamprojector) got some great shots and posted them to his Flickr (a couple are posted above). You can view the whole gallery here.

Create Digital Music has posted an excellent interview with Paul Frindle. Frindle was one of the people at the center of the digital revolution in audio recording; he worked on SSL G-Series Console, was “part of the team that broke the “damnable black art” of digital conversion”, founded Oxford Digital (whose EQ plugin I still use extensively), and developed the application the Sony OXF-R3 Console. It’s a pretty technical article but it highlights how creativity and genius can combine to fundamentally change an art form.

Some producers and musicians these days lament the shift to digital saying that analog will always be better than digital. I tend to agree with that statement — particularly when it comes to synthesis — but the move to digital has made the process of production so much more efficient and accessible that it’s hard to argue against it. Digital audio has opened the doors of the music industry to anyone with a computer and made artists of people who might not have had access otherwise. Although I have spent many years trying to shift my process into the analog domain, I certainly wouldn’t have been able to get a start in music if it weren’t for the ability to record digitally.

So here’s to Paul Frindle and everyone like him who paved the way for a revolution in music, because whether we’re making music or enjoying it, we all owe these pioneers a debt of gratitude.

Interview Link

Just a reminder that tomorrow (Sat, Jan.30, 2010) I’ll be playing at the Sacramento Electronica Festival along with Dusty Brown and many others. I should go on around 12:30am and Dusty will be up right after. We’ll be playing some songs together and I’ll have all the visuals set up so it should be a fun night. Hope to see you out.

More Info
Buy Tickets

Since the post about Matthew Dear’s remix of The XX I went on to dig for a 7 inch only remix he did for Colder from 2005. This is one of the first hints at Matthew doing guitar/organic feeling based material and pulling back on the electronics which just sounded natural to have him work with.

Yesterday jonathan suggested I check out The Mary Onettes and i’m glad I did, it opened up a 4am search thru sugary Swedish post rock on iTunes. If you liked The Radio Dept. than this might be right up your alley.

After just releasing their LP Real Estate comes up with an smaller release of material that is LP worthy. The band keeps its laid back sun-dyed feel, so if you loved the LP than this is a must have.

Keepaway got a good grade on Pitchfork’s forkcast/song review because the song is great I think but it also came with a lesson which is if you rip off Animal Collective your gonna get called out hard so maybe adjust a few things so you can be your own idea and not someone else’s, its like the handful of ISO50 rip offs i’ve seen on the innernets, yikes, I can say it because some are just too blatant in my eyes.

Gorgeous typographic works by French studio Hey Ho. I’m a big fan of this super regimented typographic chaos; a contradiction of terms I know, but looking at the pieces I think you know what I mean. Careful inspection usually reveals a tight grid and all of the placement feels *right*. I try to imagine adding or taking away elements and always find that Hey Ho has balanced things perfectly. Their work kind of reminds me of Experimental Jetset in an alternate typographic universe.

via Aisle One

Call it Chillwave, Dreambeat or Glo-fi but whatever it is i’m in full support of this sound. The whole genre is like finding an old tape collection of damaged PBS pop music that was never released. I have the lucky opportunity to be in Brooklyn at this time which eats this music up which always isn’t a bad thing because that means live shows while the sound is fresh to the ears. One band i’m excited about is Small Black, their song Pleasant Experience makes me feel like i’m close to real warm water while Despicable Dogs is a bit more noisier and has hints of Big Country – In A Big Country PLEASE TELL ME YOU HEAR IT! or am I crazy?