Bassling blog

JBroid Pink Death Coronial Inquest mix

Above is Pink Death by JBroid, who have made the track available to be remixed so I had a go this morning.

Technological mandala

Beaut mandala by Leonardo Ulian.

Nils Frahm's Re (Bassling's ray mix)

Disquiet Junto Project 0055: Two Screws

This week's project involves a shared set of source material. The source audio is the free solo piano album 'Screws' by Nils Frahm.

Frahm, who's based in Germany, posted the nine-track album of short solo works for free download while he was recuperating from busting one of his thumbs. He subsequently created a site to house all the remixed/reworked versions that admirers sent to him, as well as the videos and other responses that he received.

For this project you will take two of the source tracks — "Do" and "Re" — and create a new track from them, in the process creating a work for two pianos.

Source Audio: You can download the files as sets of MP3 or AIF audio: http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_mp3.zip http://public.erasedtapes.com/screws/ERATP046_Nils_Frahm_Screws_aif.zip

Or download the individual file directly from their links here: https://soundcloud.com/erasedtapes/sets/nils-frahm-screws

You can only use those two Frahm tracks as audio source material for your track, and you cannot add anything other sounds, but you can transform the two Frahm tracks as you please. In the end, though, the sound of a piano should be evident.

Deadline: Monday, January 21, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 5 minutes long.

Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term "disquiet0055-twoscrews" in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.

Also: Be sure to share the track to the Reworked site, here: http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/submit/

Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:

More on this 55th Disquiet Junto project at: http://disquiet.com/2013/01/17/disquiet0055-twoscrews/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at: http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

More on the Frahm project at: http://reworked.nilsfrahm.com/

For this project I explored the 'follow' function in Ableton Live, setting short loops to play 'any' following and sat back to enjoy the random harmonic collisions that ensued.

After limiting myself to samples from the track 'Do' and not finding a satisfying combination, I experimented with 'Re' -- which is a really lovely tune and I didn't think I could add anything to it.

Inspiration for this remix comes from Susumu Yokota, whose loop-based work I've enjoyed. Brian Eno also for the interesting phasing that results from the few pitched loops that I've used.

The phrases I've used were about seven semitones apart and one is slightly short. Aside from the reverbs, effects include Ableton Live's Beatrepeat to isolate notes from the piano playing.

It's cool to see Nils Frahm encouraging people to re-work his material. While looking for his version of Re to share here I found the following video using it.

(Re)flection - a Nils Frahm rework from Jem the Misfit on Vimeo.

Tape Bow Violin

Schemawound's Dawn (Bassling's dub)

As well as challenging me, the Disquiet Junto has introduced me to a wide variety of musicians and producers.

Schemawound is one such artist and, when I saw he was soliciting remixes, I put my hand up to rework one of the tracks on his album They Want To Make Your Body Move. I Want To Hold You Perfectly Still.

The track Dawn above caught my attention while listening to this album, something about the tones and textures reminded me of 'The Wires' and made me think about phenomena related to sunrise.

I've called this a dub rather than a remix because I haven't edited it at all. What I have done is reverse the track, duplicate it and put one version up a couple of octaves and the other version down a couple, then gate both using Ableton Live's Beatrepeat and add a bunch of delays and reverbs and glitchy effects as well as a very simple kick and snare rhythm. There's a click-y sorta percussion that's the result of compressing the gates and normally I'd try to avoid this but thought it worked.

Edit: Out now on Schemawound's Body Movements remix album with a great variety of artists bringing their sounds and interpretations.

Encouragement to become a cyborg

Fascinating talk from a colour-blind guy who uses technology to hear colours and has explored a variety of ways in which to represent sound through colour based on his experience of substituting sound for colour.

Ice cube remix

Disquiet Junto Project 0053: Ice for 2013

Happy new year! This week's project is as follows:

Please record the sound of an ice cube rattling in a glass, and make something of it.

Background: Longtime participants in, and observers of, the Disquiet Junto series will recognize this single sentence as the very first Disquiet Junto project, the same one that launched the series on the first Thursday of 2012. Revisiting it a year later provides a fitting way to begin the new year. A weekly project series can come to overemphasize novelty, and it's helpful to revisit old projects as much as it is to engage with new ones. Also, by its very nature, the Disquiet Junto suggests itself as a fast pace: a four-day production window, a weekly habit. It's beneficial to step back and see things from a longer perspective.

Deadline: Monday, January 7, 2013, at 11:59pm wherever you are.

Length: Your finished work should be between 2 and 4 minutes in length.

[...]

Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:

More on this 53rd Disquiet Junto project at:

http://disquiet.com/2013/01/03/disquiet0053-ice2013/

More details on the Disquiet Junto at:

http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

I wasn't looking forward to turning off the airconditioning so that I could record an ice cube with a forecast maximum of 42C (it reached 44.8C). The cube itself was larger than normal, which helped but was the result of not being able to locate the ice cube tray.

It's becoming something of a habit for me to misinterpret the instructions for the Disquiet Junto projects and for this one I initially set about recording the ice cube in different cups using a contact microphone. I was amazed that I could still hear the kids playing outside in these recordings. Four different cups were used, one plastic and the others glass -- including a nice crystal wine glass.

After realising I was drifting away from the instructions, I set up my stereo mic and made recordings of the ice rattling in three different glasses. I also recorded video with a view to making a clip to accompany the track but I think that might be another project.

Once I opened the files in Ableton Live I made a few different tracks before settling on one to submit. This was also my experience remixing playgrounds. I found I'd make one or two very loop-y rhythm sorta tracks before getting the ideas to make something more harmonically interesting. (Not that this track is particularly harmonically interesting but it's got a couple more chords than the earlier drafts.)

The track Solitary was titled because I could imagine it as the soundtrack to solitary confinement in a freezing cell. It uses four samples, one of the plastic cup with the contact mic and two other cups recorded with the stereo cardioid mic. The chime-like sound comes from the wine glass.

The kick drum sound is a drip from the ice hitting the bottom of the plastic cup, pitched down two octaves. The other samples were ice rattling in a glass, pitched down between half to two octaves. Gating and EQ were used to bring out the sounds I wanted and remove hiss. The kick sound has a springy sorta reverb, other samples have bigger decays.

P.S. My sketchbook diary entry shows a little of this project.

Squidfanny's Alesis HR-16

Posting this because I can see myself watching this beaut jam a few times. Lovely work on the Alesis drum machine, enjoying the squealchy sounds.

2012 in 60 seconds

One of the highlights of 2012 has been getting involved with the Disquiet Junto project, who this week posed an interesting exercise.

I've selected 12 five-second segments of recordings from throughout the year based on when different files were exported (which seems to be a bit different to some of the links below).

Here's some context for each section:

January
The year opened with me procrastinating on finishing my album For 100 Years, which ended up being released in July. On the day of internet protests about the SOPA I remixed a video which Google had alerted me to because it had something resembling Bassling in the title. It gave me a big buzz when the guy I remixed saw it.

February
This track was my third attempt at remixing Waipukurau Park and had been mostly completed in December when I edited the video but my files show I worked on it around this time although it probably wasn't finished until closer to July.

March
It's been maybe three years since my cousin Chris died but I still think about him often and this track is one example. Early in 2012 I had the idea of recording an EP of solo bass and I'd been thinking about Chris because he helped me buy my first bass and encouraged me to play it.

April
This comes from a short mix of Skunkhour tracks I put together around the time I posted about the mix of INXS tracks I made for the project, which was more popular so I'll post the video I made for it here.

May
A recording of a jam on circuit bent gear and guitar pedals that I titled as an Outkast cover on Youtube.

June
Another jam with circuit bent gear and guitar pedals, as well as bass and theremin.

July
2012 was a milestone year as a musician for me and this was a great month with the release of my fourth, fifth and sixth albums.

As well as a great article on my album in a national magazine, I was invited to improvise with some great Wagga Wagga musicians.

August
Finally able to distribute the mammoth three-hour immersive audio recording of 'the wires' I'd finished in 2010. Dunno what people will make of it, I deliberately didn't master it so that it'd be background noise but that's probably part of how I experienced this otherworldly instrument.

September
A recording of a Fisher Price clock using my new contact mic.

October
This Dinosaur Park remix was one I mastered for...

November
Another 100 Years, an EP of remixes I released to coincide with my exhibition, which followed on from the album. The track heard here is actually the first park remix I made at Waipukurau Park in 2011.

December
Seems I'm back in a slump again but hope to finish my For 100 Years DVD. The audio here comes from one of the remixes I'm working on using the DVD cover/instrument developed for the release.

Great mixes of 2012

Here are some of the mixes I've enjoyed this year:

A late contender is Old Apparatus' PlayGround mix, which is pretty great too. And I also like Jamie XX's Boiler Room mix.

And I've been enjoying revisiting a bunch of great artists via the mixes at http://hurroooooooo.blogspot.jp/ -- particularly the Plaid, Aphex Twin and Luke Vibert.

Happy listening in 2013!

More from a long time ago, in a galaxy far far away

Spotted a couple more boutique pedals on Ebay this morning from the guy inspired by Star Wars who I mentioned earlier. These are the Rogue Leader above and the Thermal Detonator below.

The Knife live from 2006

July August September October November

Disquiet Junto Project 0050: -…….–.-..-…-
This week’s project explores invokes Morse Code for its rhythmic content. The instructions are as follows: Select a word or phrase. Encode that word or phrase by the Morse method. Record a rhythmic foundation in which the dash is represented by a long beat and the dot by a brief one. Use that rhythmic foundation as a loop for the length of your track, at the speed you desire — speed can vary over the length of the recording. Record accompanying drone/melodic material that takes the underlying rhythm as its compositional foundation.
Deadline: Monday, December 17, at 11:59pm wherever you are.
Length: Your finished work should be between 1 and 3 minutes in length.
Information: Please when posting your track on SoundCloud, include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto.
Title/Tag: When adding your track to the Disquiet Junto group on Soundcloud.com, please include the term “disquiet0050-morsebeat” in the title of your track, and as a tag for your track.
Download: For this project, your track should be set as downloadable, and allow for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons License permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution).
Linking: When posting the track, be sure to include this information:
More on this 50th Disquiet Junto project at:
http://disquiet.com/2012/12/13/disquiet0050-morsebeat/
More details on the Disquiet Junto at:
http://soundcloud.com/groups/disquiet-junto/

This track began with Jason, both as the author and the Morse Code beat thumping throughout:
J A S O N

You'll hear this joined by a drone and then broken beats and some echo on a synth playing the intro to a Black Sabbath tune, then it drones a bit more and ends.

Holy Fuck, a band I'd like to see live

Nice work from Frankenmusik

Like the look of this new creation from Frankenmusik that's on Ebay right now.

Understand Music

Understand Music from finally. on Vimeo.

Circuit bent omnichord

Bought this circuit bent Suzuki omnichord recently and am trying to avoid the cheese by using the MIDI.

One of the cool things about omnichords is the way they get you thinking about minor and seventh chords. I also like how the MIDI outputs on three channels with the strum notes, a three-note chord and a bassline.

Edit: Found this video of another circuit bent omnichord.