December 2008

"House Sweeps"

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house sweeps

"House Sweeps" [mp3 removed]

Full disclosure: this is one of those "art" pieces. An LFO-triggered filter sweep such as you might hear in a club tune, at the end of a dropout, right before kick comes triumphantly back in and takes the room to higher levels, here...fades out again. And then comes back... And then fades out, etc. There is also a drum pattern being swept with an LFO on a slightly faster frequency. And panning as seen in the diagram (the green lines). The upshot is, it's repetitive, but nothing ever repeats the same way exactly.

"Monomechanic"

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"Monomechanic" [mp3 removed]

So called because it is mechanical and mostly in mono. Made with the mutator filter, Electribe rhythm box, and some software drumming.

Delaware, Zom Zoms

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From Japan, Delaware presents an iPhone/iPodTouch application: "Records001" ($1.99)
A small spinning vinyl record appears on the touchscreen, which can be "scratched" with your fingertips while an infectious Vocaloid-esque ditty plays. Even if you are not a participant in the Steve Jobs conspiracy it's fun to watch the video: [.m4v file that might play in your Quicktime]

Somewhat related, check out the Zom Zoms CD Lumbobo's Tube on Mutant Sounds. Great Devo/Residents-ish synth punk from Austin ca. 2003. Saw them in NY a few years ago, and, like, posted about them on my blog. Lumbobo's lacks the pop finesse of their later work; it's mostly slight Casio tunes and spoken/mumbled vocals with occasional jangly guitar or bass licks. But the whole is unpredictable, dissonant, and bracingly primitive.

Burnt City Goat

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Burnt City Goat

One of the animations in the Chicago screening I participated in Sunday was a goat decorating a clay pot found in Iran's Burnt City architectural dig. Its five sequential "frames" comprise the earliest known animation--about 5000 years old.

The "official" GIF version of it I found online seemed too static--the tree did not move, prompting one internet skeptic to denounce the pot as a fraud. Made the version above to see what would happen if you made no editorial decisions other than centering the goat and tree within a roughly 4:3 frame window. It becomes more dynamic. And of course trees move, because of the wind, inner spirits in an animist universe, and goats yanking their branches to get fruit. At any rate, big shout to our sisters and bros in the ancient GIF community, the continuity is consoling somehow.

[revised, reposted]

Update: Neil Cohn [updated link 1 / 2] has the original "Xtreme artistic license" animation and some discussion.