Much fun was had this week working on the tune below. Vid on the technical aspects above.
It did rather bring home the reality that getting your left foot to control the parameters which outline the form of a tune, whilst playing same with the remaining three limbs and possibly singing / vocalising too is quite the ask.
I am undeterred however and will continue in this vein.
Feedback welcomed.
Things are definitely hotting up when it comes to my rig. My remit has broadened somewhat; I’m no longer thinking of it in terms of a ‘live setup’ or even as a collection of components but as a single instrument which, if I get really good at playing it, will form the basis of future musical explorations.
The addition of the foot controller not only gets me working the funky possibilities of my left foot (that’s right, funky), but allows access to changing multiple MIDI Continuous Controller parameters simultaneously. You can only get so far, compositionally speaking, tweaking one parameter at a time. Particularly if in doing so, you’re tying up the valuable resource of one of your hands.
Factor in the gear previous additions (with a few more to come) and I’m an excited camper. And that excitement isn’t just about seeing this project come to fruition, it’s about the sheer fun I’m experiencing in doing it.
Making my electronica as performance based as anything else I’ve ever done wasn’t a conscious goal but it has forced me to leave aside minutiae to facilitate the outcome, the ‘take’. That brings together the work I’ve done learning about electronic music and the kinaesthetic relationship to sound that only ‘playing’ can engender in a way that is new, for me at least.
Everything I’ve purchased so far is small, light, relatively inexpensive, readily available / replaceable and fully controllable via MIDI. When it’s a complete outfit, it will be flightcased and I look forward to taking it on the road. As much as I’m up for driving home from Adelaide etc straight after a gig, travelling to shows via airplane will be a luxurious novelty..
Permit me one gripe – as cheap, reliable MIDI controllers proliferate, why would anyone release a percussion pad that only transmits on channel 10? I know it’s the trad MIDI perc channel but really, such a small addition to firmware would make Alesis’s *pad series soo much more useful..
The commodification of music is now entirely fait-accompli. I know this because of what transpires when I’m asked if I like pop music.
Instantly, I stumble at the question; somewhere in my brain, there is a part of me that knows the socially acceptable answer is to answer in the affirmative. To do so is to confirm kinship and belonging.
Instead, I fall at the initial linguistic hurdle. What is meant by ‘pop music’?
As a genre name, it is redundant. It makes no attempt to describe style, merely the intended commercial outcome of its creation. A pop hit that wasn’t a hit first time around is still (and always was) pop when it somehow achieves mainstream success years later, it was ever intended for shifting big units.
Other musical genre names can be descriptive of the sonic experience (‘noisecore’), of process (‘jazz’) or even refer to musics made at a specific time and place (‘classical’) but pop has exclusive dominion over capital.
So, there I am contorting my face, trying to answer the question truthfully, my attempts to avoid disingenuity looking more like intestinal obstruction and my interlocutor squirming at the scene playing out before them.
To buy myself some time, I’ll ask for more specificity – are they referring to the Andrews Sisters or Jessie J?
Now I’ve done it.
Any pity hitherto felt on behalf of my apparent awkwardness at this most-innocuous of interactions instantly evaporates – he’s a difficult sod, why didn’t he just say no?
Now I’m on the backfoot, desperately explaining that there’s plenty of pop I like. My previous unwillingness to proclaim myself a true believer without caveat mean that my claims to pop-cred are met with stern incredulity.
I’ve been had, done up like a kipper.
Still, at least it’s not a conversation I’ll have to repeat.
Note to self: just say yes in future. If only I could.
Given a direct choice between reality and artifice, I believe I’m most likely to choose the former. This concept has underpinned much of my creative practice. Even when beat cutting / pasting was at the height of its popularity, I’d be stuck behind the drums all day trying to get a take..
Similarly, the desire to expose both process and the actual, visceral emotions behind it indicate why I’m so taken with improvisation.
This website, in its current form, only exists as an attempt for me to expose the ideas behind what I make, the underlying metaphysic if you will.
We all have things we are willing to trade away when it comes to our practice, control vs. time invested is a big one, particularly in the digital realm, where the means by which one produces work may be far from intuitive. Don’t want to learn DSP to implement an FIR filter? There are a host of ready made plugins that will fulfill this function admirably. As one’s needs become more esoteric, so does the need to do it oneself and so begins a journey. The only remaining issue then is how deep the rabbithole you want / are prepared to travel.
I’ve spent plenty of time learning new stuff to facilitate the production of sound work, maybe less than you, it’s hard to tell.
What feels to me like a huge parabola of (mostly) self-instruction is not only dwarfed when compared to the trajectories of others, it’s not even the point of it all. I have to remind myself occasionally that making stuff is the point and that learning should serve to facilitate such an outcome.
I’ve only ever thought myself to have one ‘talent’ or ‘gift’ (rather dislike both those words) and that’s the ability to persevere.
Rather than stop when most sensible people would and turn their attentions to things a little more wordly, I keep going until I’ve learnt that sticking, figured how to get that code to run, finished that piece etc.
Such tenacity is hardly inducive to seemless social integration, so you could ask (with some justification) what the point of such industry is? I certainly have (and will again, no doubt).
May I direct you to re-read the first sentence of this missive? I believe that’s the answer.
This isn’t rock’n'roll, pre-packaged and readily digestible.
The work is a pre-requisite and isn’t, of itself, something you can trade as a commodity.
Assiduous effort over a long period will get you there. There being a Utopia with only one guaranteed inhabitant.
And that’s the real.