Came across some great new music last night. I had actually heard about them a couple months back, but just finally got around to checking them out yesterday. The group is called Konono No. 1, and they’re a group of musicians from the Congo in Africa. It’s rooted in more traditional African-style music, but offers … [Read more…]
What happened to Daniel Bell? He seems to have disappeared for the last couple years. His last completely new release was the Subterranean 12″ in 1998!? There was the Squirrel Bait 12″ (which was all older tracks) that accompanied his Blip Blurp Bleep greatest hits CD in 2003, The Button-Down Mind Strikes Back mix CD … [Read more…]
The announcement was made today by the recently re-formed Pop Will Eat Itself (one of my favorite bands of all time) that they are now officially broken up again. They had done a series of live shows in England a few months back, and had announced they were going into the studio to work on … [Read more…]
I attended a drum circle, or “Rhythmic Motivation” as it was more officially referred to, with my friend Mindy yesterday. (Full details on the program are here.) That was just what I needed right now! A few days back, I had expressed a desire to return to exploring the more visceral and performance-based world of … [Read more…]
The random playlist on my iPod is playing me "Head Like A Hole" by Nine Inch Nails right now. I honestly can't remember the last time I listened to this song. Years, probably. Which probably says a lot about how much I've changed over the years, once upon a time I listened to this whole … [Read more…]
I’ve had this itch lately to make some good old-fashioned industrial music. No, not like Nine Inch Nails or Ministry, or even Skinny Puppy. I’m thinking the banging on pipes, hitting oil drums with sledgehammers, and mangling tape loops kind of industrial. Einsturzende Neubauten at their most abrasive and experimental, but perhaps with a bit … [Read more…]
For anyone that's known me a few years, this will come as a surprising turn of events. As part of my shift to a more minimal lifestyle and living space, I actually packed up all my CD's and stowed them away. Thanks to the wonderful world of iTunes and the iPod, I never listen to … [Read more…]
Getting better at putting these out in a more regular fashion, rather than the binge and purge method I used to employ! Another little slice of textural, Basic Channel-style techno. This song is about all those people that have dropped into my life and made a huge impact. All too often, these people leave my … [Read more…]
The NAMM convention is this weekend, which means there should be some cool new music gear announcements coming up. So you’ll have to excuse me if I go into full geek mode for a couple days and ramble on about music software and hardware. :-) Ableton have already announced two new versions of Live. There’s … [Read more…]
I’ve got this smart playlist on my iPod that picks a couple hundred random tracks from my iTunes library and copies them to my iPod each day, which I then let the iPod play through randomly. My own personal radio station, if you will. And it’s set to only pick songs that I haven’t played … [Read more…]
I won’t try to claim any deep or personal meaning to this track, it’s just some good old thumping Detroit-style techno. I’d clearly been listening to too much Jeff Mills and Robert Hood before I wrote this. Guilty as charged. :-) I also had a little help on this one, my friend Jim (aka ) … [Read more…]
The random playlist on my iPod has been really punk heavy the last couple days for whatever reason. The Germs, The Exploited, Bad Religion, Fugazi, DRI, The Misfits, The Cro-Mags, Buzzcocks. Some of this stuff I haven’t listened to in years, nice to re-discover it. Of course, as I’ve been typing this it’s picked “Dance … [Read more…]
I've decided to quit cursing my old brick of an iPod and use it for what it is. I really can't fit a whole lot of stuff on it, so I kept listening to the same handful of albums over and over. I'd grown quite bored with them, and was gearlusting for one of those … [Read more…]
I just read on Jeff Mill’s blog that he’s working on a special 10th anniversary release for “The Bells”. Damn, has it really been 10 years? Not that I heard it when it was first released (it was probably a year or two old when I first caught on, thanks to Jimmy turning me on … [Read more…]
Damn it, I hate having to go back to this brick of an old 5GB iPod. I can’t carry shit for music on the damn thing. Right now, for example, I’m really in the mood for some Pop Will Eat Itself. But, thanks to my tiny little iPod, I have none with me. It gets … [Read more…]