Word of the Week #43

Lines

I was looking on Google Maps just now for interesting routes through the hills, and I noticed an uncanny resemblance to the tracks made on the early Buchla circuits. The map shows the exact area I am staying. I wonder if there is a correlation?

Benge - Rebisus

Here is another new Benge album for you to download. I recorded this last month before I came to America on the Buchla and EMS VCS3, but have only just finished mastering it. See the album notes for more info



Rebisus album notes

The Mighty Buuch

Heres a video of a patch, based loosely on the example in the user manual where the sequencer changes speed randomly every few notes. Its a really cool patch, a bit like the krell meme patch. I added the touch plates in for extra control. It was going pretty well till the camera fell off its stand

Up

When I got to LA I took the crazy decision to drive up to Vancouver in Canada. Its a really long way up there, 1250 miles! But I like driving cars and it was a great, amazing trip to take with a very exciting purpose

So here is a two day drive condensed into 2 minutes. I didn't film the drive home

I made the music on the Buchla 100 and an Oberheim Two Voice

The Hills Have Ears

So here I am in America for a little while, exploring in the hills once again, but this time for longer. So the first thing I did was went on Craigslist LA and found myself a vintage recording studio to put in my flat. I totally lucked out because the day I arrived a guy called Jeff was selling his entire home studio that was put together in 1983. This means I get to have an awesome 16 channel analog console, a super cool desk and chair, racking system, patch bay, speakers, amps and selection of early digital reverb units, compressors, exciters and stuff. It was such a great deal, and whats more Jeff kindly delivered it and helped me wire everything up - THANKS JEFF! I was also helped by Tara and Maff - THANKS GUYS!

Heres the deal:
Yamaha RM1608 console
Hafler DH220 amp
Urei 809 speakers
Audiotone Cube speakers
Symetrix patchbays
MXR dual limiter
ART DR1 reverb
Roland SRV2000 reverb
Yamaha D1500 delay
EXR dual exciter

Still Life

Sectioned

We've been working on a few remixes lately, heres us having a go at Section 25's Looking From a Hilltop. What a massive honour this is. This came our way via Walter, who put on our Vienna gig last month. Sorry about the super-shaky video...

Raveothon

Cor what a mad weekend we had! Disco_r_dance and Wrangler on the decks, good friends and dancing

700 Systems

Look what arrived last week! SW's awesome Roland System 700, which is keeping my modulars company for a few months...

PPPPoker Case

Having taken the Teenage Engineering OP-1 out on the road a couple of times, it became quite apparent that the horrible little paper mache box it comes with is not really up to the job (see pic 1). I have been on the lookout for a suitable travel case for it since we got back from Vienna. So last night I has having a game of cards with Lyn and got out the poker set I bought on ebay ages ago for 9.99, and VOILA! here is the perfect companion for my favourite travel-synth...

Dr Flu

OK, so today I've got flu so its all about sitting round and watching old episodes of Dr Who (which I recently bought on VHS - the only way to watch late 70s episodes). Heres the BBC logo from the tapes:

Muller Corner

Heres a wonderful film of how to make interesting electronic music with old machines. "Mr Müller (former assistant of Karl Heinz Stockhausen) performing on sine wave generator, fm radio and 3 tape machines - one used to gate the sound input and 2 used to make echo and reverb and overdub. At the reconstructed original WDR studio für electronische Musik in Cologne Germany. Thanks to Hubert Steins. Part of Opekta residency and Boutique events" Via matrixsynth

Scanned

Hey Robin and Zarina nice to see you!

Moroland

Just got my tickets to LA. I'm intending to recreate this type of situation in the hills:

Double 100

Oil City

When we were in Vienna last week I filmed this oil refinery on the way to the city. Then I put some Buchla and VCS3 sounds on it when I got home

Word of the Week #42

The Sounds of CE3K

Speaking of the ARP 2500, here is a cool little doc about the sound design on Close Encounters. Via Matrixsynth

The Sounds of CE3K from Tom Shone on Vimeo.

Arp Close

Me and Big Al have been in the studio the past few days, fixing up the Studer 900 console. I set up a patch on the ARP 2500 to send to the desk so we could check the channels, so this sequence has been playing constantly for the last 3 days doing Al's head in

Shooting the Breeze

Spent some more time time in Glasgow this week, and found an amazing wind farm. What a beautiful and peaceful place

Wrangler at Cafe Oto

Heres a film I edited together of us playing live at Cafe Oto a few weeks ago. It was our debut. I made the film from some video shot by Dan Conway and Will Crewdson, and Dan also did the graphics on the night. Its all in slow-motion and doesn't line up with the audio or anything - but this is all I could do using quicktime! At least the audio is is quite good. Its our take on Cab's Nag Nag Nag

Yolly Good Fellow

Cobble Car

Theres always some kind of filming or photo shoot happening outside the studio. A few weeks ago Ridley Scott was here with Brad Pitt, and the other day someone was filming this ridiculous car dressed like an extra from Mad Max Beyond Thunderdome. I think its chosen as a location because its the last cobbled street in the whole world

Night Before Mutiny by Serafina Steer

Krell Party

Furthering the Krell Meme (see label on right) here is another patch on the Buchla and EMS VCS3. This time I wanted to explore more percussive ideas, like as if those crazy Krells were having a bit of a party, so the Eardrill Pendulum / Ratchet was used to set the clock rates going to the various VCOs and Low Pass Gates. The VCS3 was used for reverb and additional filtering, as well as the Space Echo. So its a development of the patch in the last Krell piece. The video is of the audio going to the oscilloscope then recorded on the Phillips V100 analog video camera

Covers

Here is Jonathan Barnbrook's excellent cover to the aforementioned DVD. They look really cool together, yes?

Underpassing

Hurrah! The DVD of our concert at the Roundhouse in London is finally out. Get it here. Us playing Underpass:

Pamphlets

Look what arrived in the post today - some beautiful original Buchla pamphlets! They came in a really nicely designed envelope thing and inside was an original 100 series user manual (I only scanned the cover here because it is already online somewhere - though not scanned very well, so I might scan mine at some point), and a pamphlet about electronic music written by Hubert S. Howe. Also inside were some typed documents explaining all the modules, and these are what the info on the Buchla historical website is taken from. I have scanned in the price list from 1969 which is quite an interesting read. Finally there are two A3 size patch sheets with a big brown stain on them

Sudden Video

I love it when random people make us videos! Via She-s A Liquid on youtube

Green Fire

Here's a new Krell meme, again using the tape delays and VCS3 reverb and filter, oh and the footage is a close up of the oscillators going through the oscilloscope translating the sound into green flames

Decaying Seminary

I just got back from a brief trip to Glasgow (hi Lyn!) and whilst there I visited an incredible disused monastery, called St Peter's Seminary, recommended to me by my brother Dan. It is located in a remote forest about an hour from Glasgow, and is really worth the trip if you like a bit of adventure. We had very poor directions, actually just the name of the village it was near (Cardross) so we relied on asking local people if they could point us there. After much driving around and walking through various golf courses and farm buildings, streams and forest paths, we eventually found it. By then it was getting dark, and I highly discourage anyone from visiting this place in the dark! We had to climb in through a hole in the fence and there are many dangers awaiting inside, let alone the prospect of being accosted by drug-crazed hostiles or, worse, ghost-monks. My pics came out a bit grainy due to the low light, but you get the idea. Find out more about this amazing place here, and here is a gallery of original shots from the Glasgow School of Art Archive. Below my pics are some of it back in it's short-lived heyday