BA Sound Arts Year 3

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Visiting Practitioner Series

Visiting Practioner Series – Johann Diedrick

Johann Diedrick

Johann Diedricks’s bio is:

Johann Diedrick is an artist, engineer, and musician that makes installations, performances, and
sculptures for encountering the world through our ears. He surfaces vibratory histories of past
interactions inscribed in material and embedded in space, peeling back sonic layers to reveal hidden memories and untold stories. He shares his tools and techniques through listening tours, workshops, and open-source hardware/software. He is the founder of A Quiet Life, a sonic engineering and research studio that designs and builds audio-related software and hardware products for revealing new sonic possibilities off the grid. He is the Director of Engineering at Somewhere Good, a 2022 Future Imagination Collaboratory Fellow at the Tisch School of the Arts at NYU, a 2021 Mozilla Creative Media Award recipient, a 2020 Pioneer Works Technology resident, a member of NEW INC, and an adjunct professor at NYU’s ITP program. His work has been featured in Wire Magazine, Musicworks Magazine, and presented internationally at MoMA PS1, Ars Electronica, Somerset House, and multiple NIME conferences, among others.

Initial Thoughts:

He seems to be a very technology-based artist. I can see he finds coding and software engaging towards his practice and I’m interested to see how he does this and what uses software and technology offer him. I’ve been creating electromagnetic microphones and recently found a different stereo model that uses PCP boards and circuitry instead of just soldering cables together. I have also been interested in circuit bending and using that as well as seeing pure data patches from second years. Perhaps this can influence me or guide me in a certain direction.

GOOD VIBRATIONS MOBILE LISTENING KIT

mlk.jpg

The Good Vibrations Mobile listening Kit is a creation by Johann, it has an amplifier, headphones, a fanny pack and a contact mic. The idea is the user places the contact mic on places of interest to listen into the living thriving city that functions 24/7. The fanny pack also allows handsfree listening. I think this is a cool idea although $180 for a bag with an amplifier and contact microphone is a bit extreme. I’m more curious about his ideas behind what a good vibe machine is and his thoughts behind creating this piece of equipment.

Harvester

Harvester

The harvester is an open-source portable sampler that Johann created. It uses raspberry pi and pure data to run the brain behind the processing and he’s also run workshops on how to make this machine. It has a built-in speaker and microphone to sample live and listen also. You can use the 10 buttons as a scale to play the samples musically. I think this is interesting for me. I wanted to make my own sampler and thought about it but perhaps I didn’t know how to. Pure data seems like a really good way of doing so. Really cool machine.

Post Lecture Reflection

Johann starts his lecture with a project around oil spills and environmental damage. Gallons of oil slipped into the river between queens in New York, in 1978 it was discovered, and since 2010 it has been a government-protected site. Many environmentalists have tried to fix it but the site remains ruined. Through other factories and cars constantly adding to the pollution it’s a lost cause.

He’s interested in the cars that drive past, the whoosh. The resilient wildlife that still makes this marshland home. Crabs, jellyfish and the occasional seal. Cacophonous calls of birds show the wildlife isn’t dead after all.

Serene waters is a sound work that works with field recordings and uses them as storytelling. Music and hydro-phonic field recordings are the main elements within this piece. It explores the past and present future of the location. Boating through the creek, and walking in the area. He then plays us the entire piece and it’s 13 minutes long. He says the piece is important to help us connect with the land and place and situation.

Johann Diedrick was always into technology, he was in a gifted class when he was a child and got to test technology at a young age, and this has enhanced and led to his love of technology in his professional life. He uses technology to teach and work. He’s an artist and engineer.

He is interested in sonic encounters. He shares his skills in workshops and open-source software mainly. He’s also interested in moving away from the screen. He wants to highlight that interacting with technology can be expressive. Using your body as an example and not just sitting down with a mouse and keyboard, which is how typically we use technology. He shows us a musical interface, that uses the body as a tool. He made a piece called Me and You in a Vacuum with it.

He then started a company called a Quiet Life. He makes musical instruments and hardware. One is called the Harvester, it allows you to record the sound around you and play them back on a musical scale. As well as a synth. It is a spatially aware instrument using gyroscopes as a way of adjusting parameters. He wants to allow people to engage with technology in a playful environment. Using the harvester is a way of doing so. He envisions a world where expression is a great way of having better well-being and using the Harvester as a means to an end.

Through performance and installation, he gets rid of the screen that is so associated with sound practice. The harvester is the tool for him that disconnects the grid of the screen, the DAW, and the grey-black box and into an interface that invites mess and play. A heads up and play let us move around and lets us play with our bodies. It’s always unpredictable.

Glass Salt group is a collaboration with a fellow friend of his.

In one collaboration they were both engaging with the extremely high-frequency electromagnetic radiations produced by pulsars, celestial objects that are rapidly spinning and which emit gamma rays from their poles! They used recordings from scientific observatories as rhythmic inspiration (“cosmic metronomes” and as “traditional” field recordings.

At the very end of the lecture, I asked him this question. “You use field recordings in some of your work. What is a field recording to you? How would you define it? The second question is, do field recordings become a catalyst to action/activism/change. Or wellbeing for yourself?”

He replied.

“It’s an artefact of an activity. The activity itself is important, the act of going out and walking and slowing down. Noticing sounds.”

He isn’t invested in putting field recordings on a pedestal. But field recordings do make him explore the environment. And it encourages him to get into extreme and strange situations and wanting to do the field recording helps facilitate this. Field recordings lead him to situations where he wouldn’t have been before. It’s not about the recordings and using the environment in performative ways. But the reason why he engages in field recordings is a practice in the first place.

As well awareness is a difficult thing to attach to field recordings. Because we come in contact with one-dimensional replications of the actual source through listening back to field recordings. He’s unsure about using field recordings as a way to expose or promote activism. For example, using fuel to go to the antarctic to get this field recording of melting ice.

I enjoyed it very much the lecture and found his answer to my question to actually challenge my ideas of field recording. I might use this quote in my research project and perhaps attempt to make the harvester for my portfolio? Or design my own sampler?!?!

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WEIRD SENSATION FEELS GOOD: The World of ASMR Exhibition Reflection

After Dr Mark Peter Wright recommended a few things at the end of the last visiting practitioner series I saw there was an exhibition on ASMR. I’ve always been curious about ASMR and I thought it would be a good exercise to enquire about things especially as it has installations present, something I want to do for my portfolio, so I got a ticket and went along.

They gave us a booklet with some information on ASMR and definitions which I felt was important.

ASMR seems to be this tingly feeling that gives us a sense of euphoria or a deeply calming sensation. Usually triggered by sound visual and touch.

We walked around the exhibition and went through every section taking time and going at a slow pace. I did find myself relaxed. The room had huge pillows everywhere and was white, everyone was whispering. It gave me a calming sense of peace. The first section had visuals of animations of 3D art. One of them gave me a warm feeling on my back and made me feel a bit uncomfortable.

It had a small clicking sound effect going on behind it. Even as I watch it now it makes my back feel weird and warm. I’m unsure why but it reminds me of other feelings I get sometimes.

Then we went into the next section which had two TVs and a projector all playing different episodes of Boss Ross. A famous painter who has a very calm presence and speaks very quietly while he paints on television. I have watched his show as well and when I saw it there I was excited to watch it. I sat and listened through headphones to one of his episodes being played for over 20 minutes and got completely lost in it. They also had his paintings on the episode behind the TV. I was totally captured by the attention of the TV. I think the audio helps a ton, you can really hear the texture of the paint and him scratching his paintbrush into the painting. As well as his voice being and feeling very close to the ear.

Bob Ross Painting

After this section, there was a set of TVs playing a short documentary on why ASMR is important to them and how they use it. Alongside this, there was an installation. A tongue dripping water into a big bowl of water. It confused me but the texture of the tongue with water really made me feel weird and uncomfortable.

So this last section was really interesting a wall and floor of pillows and numerous TVs with multiple accidental and intentional ASMR audiovisuals. I found myself really enjoying this one with the slow-mo videos being the most enjoyable. This entire thing had me thinking about more importantly my own practice and my sensitivities to ASMR. I thought I didn’t feel it but I do. I love the sounds of vinyl crackle, tape compression and wobble. I love the texture of certain sonic effects and I think I really want to capture this within my portfolio. How can I create something that has similar outcomes to ASMR by subtly including things that give me a warm feeling? Things like the sound of rain on a window, wind and cycling on gravel. I want to field record sounds that I can use within my portfolio work to include this enhanced feeling of relaxation perhaps.

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Mise-en-Place exercise

I decided to clean my computer files and organise an old hard drive that I’ve had for a few years. Since I was 19 actually. I spent around 3-4 hours cleaning my folders into samples, drums, beats, recordings etc. It felt pointless at times but during this process, it leads me into discovering old songs, a ton of them. From my earliest period of production around 18-21 years of age. Being 25 now and not hearing these for years surprised me.

A lot of the work was with my good friend James Thorpe who is also on the course. We had tons of music and vocal takes lyrics ideas that we never finished. It reminded me of progress and also how far I’ve come as a creative. As well as finding new samples, and new drum folders. Specifically, one that a UK hip hop legend Farma G gave me years ago and I was so sad that I lost. I now have tons of new content and ideas and organised them with the Mise-en-Place exercise. It’s helped me a lot.

It’s made me consider what I read in the Problems with Beginning book. The idea of using old songs/projects as an idea rather than as a thing to finish. I have so many old beats, samples, lyrics and songs that are from when I was 19. A lot of these ideas are really good and I could see the vision but I couldn’t finish it because I didn’t have the same skills as I do now. Perhaps I can remake an old song or tweak and use it for a new piece? A foundation for a new idea from an old project.

Nostalgia is real!

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Problems Of beginning DeSantis (2015) Reflection

I read through the 38-page PDF on moodle page around issues of beginning work. I found it really interesting how to break the curse of certain mindsets and workflows. I noted down a few things I found important and noticeable. I also thought perhaps I could create a few ideas for sessions and follow the guide that the book gives. Again just an idea to spark creative ideas.

An interesting point the book makes is that.

“Electronic musicians used to be able to hide behind clunky, emerging technology as an excuse for inaction. But musicians today live in a golden age of tools and technology. “

I’ve been thinking about this a lot and how I can relate minimalism to my prototype to prepare for the major portfolio hand-in. I do believe work that every section is important. Not needing the most update to equipment or having everything at your disposal can be creative heaven. I love the sound of dusty tapes and white noise and analogue hardware and sounds on a physical medium. This line made me think about what I could do to rid myself of this. I have a 4 track tape recorder and I’m yet to create something on it or a whole track. At the moment I use it for processing but I think it’s an interesting thing to do. Make a floor studio in the performance lab. The 4 track as the DAW and play some instruments and a turntable. Sampler. And instruments.

Another was:

Start with what you hear. Many musicians never (or rarely) get spontaneous musical ideas-all of their music comes from active work. lf you happen to be lucky enough to hear original musical ideas in your head, then you should absolutely use them as the basis for your own work. For example, maybe you have a melodic idea that you’ve been humming, or a rhythm that you’ve tapped out on the table. Just because these ideas came to you outside of your active music-making context doesn’t mean you should discard them. On the contrary, these accidental ideas are sometimes the most interesting ones you can have.

I constantly do this, have ideas in my head and sometimes I don’t follow them. I guess I have a fear of not trusting my own ideas sometimes and using samples to cover this. My production due to not knowing musical theory breaks the norms of what is expected and sounds “good”. I’m going to give this a shot.

This was an interesting quote that I wholeheartedly agree with and can relate to. My influences have a large impact on me but don’t define me.

Taking too much is theft. Taking too little fails to acknowledge our influences.

I found this task interesting to attempt, I have already done the attribute task and this deep listening task is similar but a bit more in-depth. I love deep listening and truly focusing on the piece of audio instead of as a background task.

Active listening simply means listening as the primary activity, and it’s an important skill to develop. Rather than using music as the background for another activity, try listening without doing anything else

Listen in Layers

A great way to actively listen is to listen to the same piece multiple times and force yourself to focus on a different specific parameter each time. For example, spend one pass listening only for: 

Sound; What are the timbral characteristics of this music? What instruments are used? What is the texture (dense vs. sparse)? Are there some specific production techniques that you recognize (either from your own or other music)? What kind of acoustic “space” is suggested by the music (dry vs. reverberant, near vs. far, etc’)? 

Harmony; What key (if any) is the song in? What chords are used? ls there a chord progression that happens throughout, or does it change from section to section? lf there are no overt chords (as in some minimal or experimental music), is harmony implied in another way?

 Melody: What’s happening in the melody? Does it have a wide or narrow range? What is its general contour: Angular, with lots of leaps? Stopwise, with motion mostly by one or two somitonos? What

Limiting the fietd of possibilities isn’t iust about making it easier to work. lt’s also about making it possible to begin at all’ lf every possible starting direction is equally appealing, how could you ever choose one?

> Make every sound from one sample. An extreme restriction on available sound sources forces you to really think about the character and possibilities of the sounds you choose’ Can you make a kick drum sample into a lush pad? How about a hi-hat? What kinds of processing could you use for these transformations?

I will be doing this after this blog post, I will be organising my schedule as the first few weeks of this course was me being homeless and searching for a room. I still am but because I am going on tour I need to step up and be more resilient. This scheduling is what helped me a lot last year and I’ll be making a plan.

Schedule tasks as if they were appointments with yourself. Try using a calendar to restrict specific types of work to specific times. For example: Sound design: 7-8Pm Form/song structure: 8-9Pm Mixing:9-1Opm Timeboxing (page 82) specific tasks serves two purposes: lt forces you to narrow your focus while simultaneously eliminating the risk of non-musical distractions (Facebook, etc.)’ You wouldn’t check your email in the middle of a business meeting, so treat these “appointments” with the same kind of care.

Press record, then play and tweak knobs, capturing everything you do as a kind of free-form jam. While jamming, try to forget that you’re recording. Don’t try to make something perfect. Simply indulge in the uninhibited freedom of exploring sound. Follow your instincts-if something is working, let that lead you in a direction. If something isn’t working, abandon it, but do so without stopping the recording’ The trick is to stay out of judgment mode as much as possible. Simply capture as much as you can, following your instinctive sense of what’s right. Don’t worry about hard drive space. If you really need to reclaim the space, you can do that later during the editing phase.

Short timeboxes work because they break apart intimidating’ open-ended tasks into easily manageable chunks; no matter how painful creative work is, anyone can do it for 20 minutes

For me, these two sort of go hand in hand, last year during studio praxis I enjoyed thoroughly the process of improvisation alongside others which is something I want to explore further within my portfolio work and I think doing 20 minutes of improvisation helps that. I want to then perhaps sample what happens during these improvisations.

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Visiting Practitioner Series

Visiting Practitioner Series – Felix Blume

Felix Blume

We can start with Felix Blume’s bio. Which is.

Félix Blume (France, 1984) is a sound artist and sound engineer. He currently works and lives between Mexico, Brazil and France.

He uses sound as a basic material in sound pieces, videos, actions and installations. His process is often collaborative, working with communities and using public space as the context within which he explores and presents his works. His practice involves an extended understanding of listening, as a way to encourage the awareness of the imperceptible and as an act of encounter with others. His work incorporates the sounds of different beings and species, from the buzzing of a bee, the steps of a turtle or the chirp of a cricket, as well as human dialogues both with natural and urban contexts. He is interested in myths and their contemporary interpretation, in what voices can tell beyond words. 

His sound pieces have been broadcasted in radios from all over the world. He has been awarded with the “soundscape” prize (2018) for his video-piece Curupira, creature of the woods and the “Pierre Schaeffer” prize (2015) for his work Los Gritos de México at the Phonurgia Nova Awards. His film Luces del Desierto was awarded with First Prize of International Short Films at L’Alternativa 28 (2021) and Grand Prize Video Art at Côté Court (2021).

He has participated in international festivals and exhibitions as Thailand Biennale (Th), Tsonami Arte Sonoro Chile (Cl), CTM Berlin (De), Berlinale Forum Expanded Exhibition (De), Rotterdam IFF (Nl), LOOP Barcelona (Es), Belluard Festival (Ch), Sonic Acts (Nl), Lisboa Soa (Pt) and Donau Festival (At). His work has been presented in venues as Museo Reina Sofía (Es), Centre Pompidou (Fr), Domaine de Kerguéhennec (Fr), Fonoteca Nacional Mexico (Mx), Ex Teresa Mexico (Mx), CCCB Barcelona (Es), Musée Réattu (Fr), among others. 

Works by the artist are held in the collections of Centre National des Arts Plastiques (Fr), Universidad Autónoma de México (Mx), Klankenbos (Be) and Instituto Nacional de Bellas Artes (Mx), among others. 

Initial Thoughts:

I’m curious about his use of sound as “basic material” and what that means to him. I’ve been thinking about sound as a material also recently and considering how I can use this to my advantage within my work and with my research project. Another part that interests me is the topic of listening and he claims his practice is “an extended understanding of listening” which he considers is a way of encouraging others to be aware of their surroundings. I’m also curious about his location which is between Brazil and other places, being Brazilian this is something that perked my ears up. As well as his use of field recording. I’m hopeful something within this seminar will give me inspiration towards my portfolio project. But first I’ll do some research and thoughts about some of his work.

Suspiros:

Suspiros

Suspiros is a sound installation and performance organised by Felix. He was interested in communication through sound and a deeper listening practice as well as the ecology of the lagoon. Felix ran workshops with children in Zapotalito. Workshops on listening and other aspects of sound, they also created ocarinas with the children for them to reply back to the lagoon. Felix placed a group of ocarinas within the lagoon, this allowed for a call and response from the children to the lagoon. I think this sort of installation and work really helps us connect with nature on a more spiritual level and physical level. Listening to the sounds of our environment makes us feel more connected.

Rumors from the sea, Thailand Biennale

Rumors from the sea

Rumors from the sea is a sound installation in Thailand. Felix uses bamboo sticks usually associated with seawalls to stop sea levels from rising and putting villages underwater. Felix used these bamboo sticks to turn them into flutes and to create a singing ocean. As if the ocean was a monster communicating about climate change with every wave that created noise within the bamboo flutes. Felix also ran another workshop with local children and schools to create a short video where the students created their own bamboo flutes and sang back at the installation. Creating another similar conversation of call and response to the earlier piece. I think the usage of materials associated with something negative like rising sea levels and then using it as the main material for an art installation that is sonifying the ocean is clever. I also enjoy the thought of getting local people from the area to get involved in the performances. This can add another layer of meaning towards the piece. Almost as if Felix is the translator that helped enable the people to see their issues in another format.

Post Lecture Reflection

Felix starts by saying he’s a sound engineer for film something I’m also interested in, he was working and living in Brussels and Belgium. He was recording direct sounds with the camera and all the other sounds such as wild tracks and ambience. He was able to record for his own sound library as well as for film while on the job.

He started sharing sounds on a free sound platform. It is a sharing platform because in a way it was important for him to share sounds and not be the only one. He enjoys listening to sounds and using the platform to discover other sounds. This reminds me of Locus Sonus except that it’s not live. The idea of sharing things with people who are far away is something he finds fascinating.

Working as a sound engineer and sound recordist lets him go to many countries if he wasn’t there for work. This is also something I am really keen on doing, to travel and work and listen to different environments that are difficult to go ordinarily is a dream of mine. Before he started working he wasn’t really travelling and this act of sharing was what got him hooked.

After a while of sharing sounds, he thought that sharing alone wasn’t good enough and that he should share the sonic experience of the place he was at as well as the sounds.

He shares with us a sound of Patagonia a short excerpt. He explains what we can learn and understand from the field recording he’s taken. The farmer, the sheep the location. 4000 sheep are trying to communicate. He thought the communication between voice and animals together interests him. The idea of not needing to understand the world is a theme that he enjoys. He explains how he wants to process and mix and edit the recordings to enhance his sounds, and use the sounds in a small sound piece.

He did a few radio sound art projects, and in 2014 he thought about whether he could create his own projects. He recorded a project and audio of the city of Mexico. The audio of the piece is Mexican sellers on the streets and markets and he spent time with them and convinced the sellers to allow him to record them. He also recorded some protests from the Mexican people. The piece was used in an installation and other collaborative works. They asked him to present his work in installation and radio.

Parallel to this work, he was south of Chile recording himself running in a desert recording a can walking. He’s made 35 more short videos now. In most of the videos, there is a distance between the sound and the video. The video is zoomed away but the sound is concentrated towards what the mic is recording. The point of view and point of listening is the same usually and in his work, he attempts to change this. I think this idea of separating the audio proximity from what the visuals are presenting is an interesting dynamic between what we are usually used to. I had a similar idea in my second year for my installation work to create a piece of audio that is a large juxtaposition to the visuals, for example, a beautifully captured scenery but horrible traffic noises and vice versa and seeing the outcome.

Another short video he made was a one-shot which was a young man whipping a bullwhip, the other of a young man running throw a mine in Bolivia, following a shot in Istanbul turkey. The contact mic on a tortoise was another shot. A walking tortoise with a contact mic placed. Another short video of someone walking in the salt flats, with the focus on the feet but the shot is a wide angle.

He did a project around the environment and flooding in Indonesia. He discovered that people use bamboo to obstruct waves from creating floods in their area. He made a flute sound with the bamboo, create a hole with a flute and once u lift it out of the bucket it moves the air and plays the flute.

He then created a wall of flute bamboo sticks around a pier in Indonesia. He tuned the multiple flutes and made sure they were harmonious amongst the pier. He wanted to sonify the relationship between the use of bamboo as a way of protecting their land and giving it a voice. The sound was very different depending on the size of the waves and the tide. 

His idea is to listen to the sound installation within the platform the bamboo and the wave. The combined sounds are not just what the flutes are playing but the sounds of what is going wrong. When you are listening you are listening more to the soundscape than just the flutes playing. 

Another project he did was in the amazon rainforest. He took his gear to the amazon rainforest, and he decided to go to a small city and ask if he could stay at a small village and record as he wanted to go on a field recording trip. He met a few people and found a village that wanted tourists there, so he was the first tourist to visit. He arrived there and took his microphone, they asked him what tourists wanted to see and do in the village and they took him into the forest multiple times. He asked what he could record and what was important for them, he wanted their opinion of what sounds are important to the villagers. So they spent hours in the forest taking care of him and observing him and the way he was listening and working. Eventually, this led him to begin interviewing the local villagers and finding out about a mysterious amazonian monster. He then created a short video with interviews and sounds around it.

I found Felix’s seminar to be of my interest. Field recordings, listening, environmental issues. I’ve been currently reading environmental sound art book and I find the connection between meditative listening, field recording and environmental sound arts to be almost in unison. For my portfolio work, I’m doing something completely separate but perhaps in the second part of the hand-in when I have to submit two pieces of work. I can create something alongside these ideas.

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Making a Lom Preizor Electro Magnetic Microphone / DIY Elektrosluch idea?

Last year I followed a guide on Github to create a Lom Preizor DIY electromagnetic microphone. Turned out really great. I soldered the microphone cable to the XLR connector and got the acrylic case laser cut in the 3D workshop. Then assembled the frame with the correct bolts and washers and then wrapped the copper wire around the antenna. Finally finishing with the solder of the copper wire into the microphone cable. This experience leads me to be curious about circuit bending and building further microphones or instruments/circuit bending equipment.

I was commissioned by Professor Angus Carlyle to make him one after he heard about my DIY creation so I’ll be attempting to make it better and sleeker than my previous version. I’ve already got the acrylic base cut and have ordered the parts to build it. Through making this microphone again I’ve been curious about other things I could create as a potential portfolio submission. Again I’m just letting things flow and following what I’m curious/interested in. I found this other DIY electromagnetic microphone that is a little more advanced than the Preizor and its stereo.

It’s called the Elektrosluch. There is a schematic and guide online and I think I might attempt to build it from scratch. I’ll first speak to Rory and see what he thinks. I’m unsure if it’s too complicated but I want to give it a go.

Elektrosluch Items
Elektrosluch 22
Final creation (without 9V battery inserted)

It looks rather simple but does seem to require some sort of knowledge. The guide goes step by step on how to do it so it seems pretty fool proof. I might also contact the creative tech lab downstairs and see what they think and if they have the components. I’ll also update my blog with the Preizor build I’m currently doing. I’m just waiting on parts to arrive at the moment.

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Catalogue of Attributes Exercise

The piece I’m choosing for this exercise is called Meatgrinder. A song from Madvillainy. I’m choosing this piece as this was one of the first pieces of music that opened my eyes to abstract vanguard styles of hip hop music. The album stretches between tasteful cuts of varied styles of music, looped up, chopped, and flipped into a completely new piece that pays homage to the original. Listening to this album sounds like an amalgamation of old cartoons and old music. The song Meatgrinder specifically shows this sort of aesthetic I’m speaking about.

Catalogue of attributes:

The introduction sounds like an old destroyed record playing a tv show.

It feels attractive because of the loop, feels like you’re ready to enter and tune in. It alerts the listener. The drum break Madlib has chosen alongside the sample “The jar is under the bed” Captures our attention and makes you want to nod along. It’s a crazy drum break where the player goes wild, alongside a horn instrument screaming which gives a chaotic vibe.

This goes perfectly into the first verse section, it’s very basic in comparison to the intro. Just a really attractive baseline and a shaker to give rhythm alongside bells and a nasty drum break. The drums are weaker allowing the bass line to really shine through. The rhythm section has a great swing, the balance between being on the beat and off the beat. Gives the beat a pushing sense that you fall into the pocket of the snare. As well as the mix and the sounds are chosen all sound noisy and dirty. Something I really enjoy, it sounds very DIY and authentic and creative. Non-conformitive. As well as the sample is tasteful. A ghostly slide guitar comes into the song, with sounds of mouths chewing and spitting throughout giving a textural sense to the beat. Something Madlib really does well is texture in his work. Something I want to try and use with field recordings.

In terms of the lyrics, it’s so unorthodox and intelligent, witty and complex. Alongside throwing the common hip hop/rap listeners off what they are used to. MF DOOM raps with complex rhyme schemes and a sense of uniqueness to his flow and lyrics. MF DOOM is a character and raps like one, he isn’t himself Daniel Dumile but MF DOOM the supervillain against the rap industry. The mask he wears represents being against the image and more about the music. I find the idea of making music from a different standpoint to be really interesting to me. I usually rap about how I’m feeling or my ideas and views but it might be interesting to put myself in a different point of view.

Key attributes are:

Uniqueness

Rustic

Original

LO-FI

Rough Mix

Tasteful

Breaks that knock

Passionate

Complex

Simple on the surface

Depth

Madvillainy: In Memoriam of MF DOOM, Music's Greatest Supervillain - Coog Radio - University of Houston Radio
Album Cover of Madvillainy

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First Creative Session

Yesterday I decided to start my creative session slowly and explore things I taught myself last year. I played around with the new modules on the modular synthesis and figured out what they do. I find modular synthesis really fun to play around with, and I’m slowly getting more knowledge on how to use the modules and interact and control the signals.

I messed around and created a few patches, exported the sounds via Logic Pro X and have them in a folder now waiting to be used. I’m not sure for what reason I’ll need them but part of this process is to create constantly and see where things go. (Excuse my shakey camera it’ll be fixed soon)

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Portfolio First blog and ideas

Since our first lecture on Monday about our portfolio hand-in and Milo giving us an inspiring speech, I’ve been thinking about what I really want to do. I’m still not entirely sure and I feel I’m going to let my work dictate what I end up doing. I do see a possibility of my portfolio tying into my research project but I’m unsure at the current moment.

My first initial idea was one that I’ve had for a while. I’ve been meaning to create an abstract hip-hop album, inspired by Brazilian music I’ve been currently digging through and playing at my radio show on LOOSE FM. As well as my piece for the gallery 46 installation which had Brazilian music and videography installed into the space.

I’ve been wanting to create an album that encompasses my thoughts and aesthetics currently. More abstract and left-field, taking inspiration from MIKE and Earl Sweatshirt’s project Some Rap Songs, I enjoy the idea of making something without the constraints of genres or need to fit into what I think rap should sound like. More just make music and noise and see what happens.

I think the benefit of this is that it’s something I can use for my own professional career and benefit me as well as develop my skills as a creative and really push myself to create the best piece of work I’ve done so far.

I’ve also been curious about the second piece to either do a sound design element to a video or video game or a purely abstract sound piece. Perhaps relating to field recordings and what I can do with them, over the summer I’ve spent time reading and field recording and have found it a meditative practice.

I have also thoughts of doing engineering and learning mixing and recording to a better level than I currently am. I think it’s an important skill to know and I’m content at my skill level but I wish to learn more. Yesterday I purchased mixing secrets for the small studio as well as the recording secrets book and will learn the skills and apply them. I want to record instruments through the rack units in the Performance Lab and record instruments, drum kits and record musicians for myself to use in my album.

I’m curious to see the outcome of this but I think the first step is perhaps to do a lot of things and see where it leads.