Title: Heptadecimal ER1
Artist: Cooper and Spratt
Album: Listening Room
Release Date: 2008

(this one is long and I have to leave, so once again, the upload will be completed later tonight once it is done)(EDIT: It’s live now)
A tribute to Tsutomu Katoh, founder of the Korg corporation. Korg has made some really great synthesizers in their day, and, via the second hand market, I’ve come to work with a couple. First was an original ER-1 drum synth I picked up in Eastern Europe from my DJ partner. This is a really great synthesizer, geared for rhythm and drum lines. However, when it’s your ONLY synth, you can start taking it into territory other than clicky drums (clicky describes the overall character, but that bass drum is phenomenal).
One trick I got really into was using the audio ins to process other gear via a send. It didn’t take long before I started processing itself within itself, for some wicked, wild feedback loops. There have been open mics I’ve played with just this machine and a patch cable patched from one output back to the audio in. For drones, it really excels if you can manage to tame it.
This is a piece Kyle and I recorded early summer in Palo Alto, CA, using nothing but that one piece of gear and a cheap mixer. It almost feels like all the digital knowledge we had gained in such a frantic, short period of time, just came exploding out in one 45 minute speaker rape. We never intended to do this piece, much less record it, but once we got into the Hexagon, it wasn’t hard to get the ‘tapes’ rolling. This is largely untouched, minus a small section at the beginning where the gain pot started scratching. I don’t remember much talking between us during the practice, but communication definitely was going on as we both tweaked minor changes that would explode into much larger sonic metamorphosis.
It’s long, noisy, and droney, and loud enough, it will get the cops called.
Download: Cooper And Spratt – 00 – Heptadecimal ER1 (right click and choose ‘save as’)