Sound of a drunk synthesizer.
Also from the TreeVerb by Spratt demos. I threw this one together with the mpc and er-1 on bleep mode just to get something with some pure tones going so you could hopefully get a clearer picture of the reverb effects. TreeVerb was designed to generate impulse responses that were made up of a virtual ‘forest’ of trees. Some unique properties came out of this in unnatural configurations, notably placing the trees in a spiral. Download: 01 bleepbeat (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Live 8 bit set at Rancho Relaxo part 1 Artist: Noggin Album: Live 8 bit set at Rancho Relaxo Date: 2008
This is the first part of my set at Rancho Relaxo precluding an AMODA showcase. Highlights of this show include meeting Captain Sievert and Yatagarasu aka Hexcrusher. The Cap’n has the gameboys down, and Hexcrusher was rocking a Nintendo and a distortion pedal.
Love those guys.
Still noisy, albeit maybe a bit more focused than the encore that I’ve already posted. Download: Live 8bit set at Rancho Relaxo (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Live 8 bit set at Rancho Relaxo part 00000010 Artist: Noggin Album: Live 8 bit set at Rancho Relaxo Date: 2008
When I moved back to Texas in 2008, having spent the previous year doing nothing but producing music (and doing lots of math in the process), I had sound exploding out of me. Ethan Master of the Hawaiian Ukulele, Steward of Rancho Relaxo, asked me to participate in a pre-AMODA “8-bit” show. Now, I’ve never considered myself strictly 8-bit, but I jumped at the opportunity to basically drone out in a dark basement and maybe make people expand their understanding of what things like 8-bit are really about. Recent experiments into feedback loops through the ER-1, music written for gameboy (had to meet the criteria), and a custom-built distortion box (think of it as analog 8-bit sound) all came together to produce a swath or digital crustiness reverberating off the graffiti’d stone walls of the Rancho Basement. The wonderful visuals provided by no less than three video artists of course helped the ambiance.
There are some re-worked Noggin classics in here, and part 1 will be up at some point.
This is Noggin doing noise, if that aint your thing, open your ears and mind or please, move on. Download: noggin-8bit-set2 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: Girls Like Me Because I Write Songs About Corndogs Artist: Noggin Album: As Yet Unknown Date: 2005
Posting this one because I know that I wrote it entirely on this date in 2005. This is combination live drum synth with the ER-1, absolute amen mayhem with buzz, and custom scratching with a final scratch record controlling some candidly recorded audio files via dj decks. Car on the vocals. Download: Noggin – corndogs (right click and choose ‘save as’)
Title: On Looking Live Score Artist: Bananahat Album: Live at Terman Engineering Date: 2008
After successful recording sessions and promises of international touring, Bananahat regrouped for their first live work. We were commissioned to provide a live score for part of a modern dance act who were doing the finale of their dance suite in the fountain at Terman Engineering building.
Boy did we piss the cops off with this one. Besides the dronetones and feedback at high volumes, we actually had permission to be making said noises, and the authorities couldn’t do much but let us go on and try to enjoy it.
We practiced a few times, felt really good about it, and then did the show in late May.
This recording is missing a few things, namely the entire first movement, all the signal that Max was making (running a couple underwater mics [read: good mics in condoms], and some pvc tube contact stuff), and of course the general atmosphere of the whole event. It worked really well. The three of us really tuned into the dancers and they really fed off of the speakers as well.
It starts out with the part where the dancers started stripping off clothing, then moves into more ambient, watery territory, and it’s awesome in headphones (god bless you Cobi), then stick around for the drone at the end. We had it timed with the fountains and everything. A+ drone fool.
Big thanks to Cobi for organising this, and to both her and Max for being in this thing with me.
Really appreciate all the comments, as always.
Video and photos here: Bananahat Live at Terman Engineering with Red Rover Dance Troupe Download: bananahat-redrover080528 (right click and choose ‘save as’)
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’)
Title: Reel to Roll Artist: Jon + Noggin Album: Sober October Demos Release Date: 2010
Welcome back, Jon.
Here’s one that, after extensive editing, got pieced together from some tape Jon and I laid down one night in the garage.
It’s an ER-1, some harmonica, and that old orange guitar, cut to hell and edited in Logic. Download: jon + noggin – reeltoroll (right click and choose ‘save as’)
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