Bassling blog: live

Showing posts with label live. Show all posts

Bassling at Navigate Arts

The inFREQUENCY tour played in Tanja last weekend and here's a pic from my set, taken by Scott Baker (Dron Skot) and he also designed the projections.

Bassling at InFrequency

Pic by Bernard Gray

See video of half of my set here

Disquiet Junto 0355 Sonic Vivisection

The Disquiet Junto this week asks participants to "consider the concept of vivisection" by operating "with incisions on a live sound in real time."

At first I thought about live dub, as I've been remembering watching the Mad Professor perform at Vibes On A Summers Day in Bondi some years ago.

Then I remembered my drum-triggered effects rig and thought I'd loop some chords I've been playing on my ukulele.

There's a couple of small incisions, to edit out the click-track on the Jamman looping pedal and then to add a short vocal sample.

The title comes from a piece of graffiti I used to see in the Woden Plaza Bus Interchange last century.

Naviarhaiku 147 - Awake in the dark

At first I came up with an unmusical response to the haiku. I was thinking about hearing miraculous agitations and what a bum steer I thought it'd be chasing the melody from a random arrangement of notes. The result was a bit excruciating.

Then I thought about what could be done with the drum part. The MIDI has been sent to a Roland TR-707 and the clock is running to the Atomosynth Mochika. Under my other hand is a King Capitol Punishment Utopia Synth, which has two oscillators I think.

Disquiet Junto 0174 Glove Songs

The Disquiet Junto this week had me returning to a bass arpeggio from project 0102 and handling it like one would handle archival material with cotton gloves.

Actually, these gloves are used for dishwashing and have been in use for more then 21 years. I bought them when I started getting exzema while working at a coffee bar.

In hindsight I think it was drinking coffee that gave me exzema because it would ease up when I stopped drinking caffeine that way. And, aside from doing the dishes just now, I've been getting stuck into coffee again. I blame Aeropress.

The bass piece was written as musical tinsel and just today I was saying that it was a favourite piece. When the Junto arrived it was the first idea to come to mind. The feel of the piece is better than my usual plodding approach to arpeggios.

When I recorded it in 2013 my daughter led her two friends into the kitchen as I started and began to dance along with my bass playing. It really changed my approach, I should do that again sometime. The piece was looped to play for longer when it appeared on my album AND as Mistletoe.

Circuit bent Casio SK-1

I'd been meaning to record my newest Diabolical Devices-modified Casio SK-1 and today was the day. Towards the end I turn on the Ring Thing pedal, adding a ring modulation effect.

Disquiet Junto 0173 Over Version

The Disquiet Junto this week involved scaffolding, or at least that was my interpretation. I've written elsewhere here that scaffolding is a process of building a song on an existing track and then removing the original.

At first I wasn't sure how to respond as I knew the track would be another challenge for my drumming and alternate approaches like MIDI and adding loops were difficult to keep in sync with the original track.

In the end I thought the track has potential but I'll have to shorten it and tidy up my playing with edits. The camera battery ran out while I played the drums, so the video didn't work out. The fretless bass drifts out of key in parts and the melodica also hits the odd bum note. The result could be a backing track, so I might come back to it.

Disquiet Junto 0172 Digital-Analog Conflater

The Disquiet Junto this week set an interesting task to record in analog and then digital. For me this meant recording the drums acoustically and then as MIDI and then repeating this approach with the guitar, although I captured MIDI at the same time and then added a bass part.

Actually, back it up a bit, I first decided on recording a version of my track Rapture of the Raptor. I knew the high hat would be a challenge for me but I decided to record single takes on each instrument. I also knew it would start to fall apart quickly, so I reworked the riff to be a bit simpler.

The MIDI parts were used to trigger VSTs, a kit of samples from an 808 and the synth Massive. The two drum parts, guitar, bass and synth parts were then given EQ and reverb.

Disquiet Junto 0171 Oblicardo

The Disquiet Junto this week continued with the One Minute Past Midnight (OMPM) theme, asking for a rework of an existing track based on instructions from the Oblique Strategies cards developed by Brian Eno and Peter Schmidt.

Like the Junto, I've been a fan of Oblique Strategies for a while but not used it for recording music. I tend to look at the widget occasionally when I've something on my mind and don't want to ask my partner to get her tarot cards out.

When the Junto email arrived I checked the Strategies and it said "Remember those quiet evenings" and I thought immediately of playing guitar.

As the day progressed, I looked again and got "Go outside. Shut the door" -- which made me think of the second recording I made for the first OMPM project, when I'd set the mic outside and you can hear me shut the screen door.

That recording was the 'safe for work' version I'd made a bit after midnight because I had doubts about using the 'not safe for work' recording. Both can be found here. Last week I remixed the other version and I didn't consider using it for the Junto this week

Then this evening I consulted oblicard.com and found it offered a few new strategies, particularly "Abandon normal instructions" and "Use your own ideas" and "Make what's perfect more human" and "Trust in the you of now" and "Give way to your worst impulse" among others.

It led me to set the microphone outside again and record myself playing the guitar. I don't know many songs and, while I could've improvised something, I wanted to record my song 'Blue Moon'.

I've recorded it a number of times since I wrote it in 2008 by adapting a poem that I remember writing at the Hyatt in Canberra in the mid-1990s. One of my favourite versions is this instrumental take on gated guitar.

The result tonight isn't particularly polished and uses new ambiance from my backyard but it's what the Strategies were telling me to do.