planetdamage.LIFESIGN (September 2016)

Newsflash for everyone who's not on social media! If you thought I was gone, yes I was. Coffee excess, coffee deprivation and all that jazz does that to you. Also, coping with ten things at a time.Read more


Planetdamage featured on The Cage 23!

Just one week after releasing "Snapshots of a Surveillance Manifesto", FIREWALLS (my most synthwaveish track ever written) was featured on Martin Bowes' compilation Cage 23. If you're not really aware of Martin's endeavours (apart from him being the driving force behind Attrition and Engram), he's running the label TWO GODS and he has a studio aptly named The Cage where he produces, mixes, masters, engineers or devilishly concocts bands (check out his client list, it is INSANE).

Every year he releases a track selection from all the music he produced, remixed or mastered at The Cage Studios: and the 2015-2016 selection entails (brace yourselves!) Amys Arms, Attrition, Colossloth, Eric Random, Factice Factory, Honeymoon Cowboys, Jet Noir, Khost, Mad Masks, Michael X Christian with Gitane Demone, Nanochrist, Poetry of Thorns, Prole Position, Rachel Haywire, Red Fetish, Spatial Relation, This Cold Night, Ultra Arcanum, Vagonovozgatye, Venus Fly Trap, Warriors Of The Dystotheque, ZE:RO and myself.


Snapshots of a Surveillance Manifesto

You might have stumbled into it in the header area, but if you haven't: my first EP is out. "Snapshots of a Surveillance Manifesto" has been in the making for something like one and a half years - definitely wasn't one of my fast-moving projects but hey, it is now officially out, freely streamable and/or downloadable, packed with lots of goodies.. and I might have some additional points of interest to share (to further hammer my SEO flags into uncharted territories in the net, vast and infinite). Enjoy!

BEHIND-THE-SCENES: You might read a few things here about the EP you didn't know but there's a whole damn repository of BTS intel packed with the EP. As I've always loved wading knee-deep in Angelspit's blipverts or the audio commentaries Blue Stahli packed with his releases and as I've had LOADS of different MP3 drafts from different stages of writing a song, I thought it would be a great thing to actually make a production diary for each and every song. This way you can hear how the first core loops sounded like, what the idea is behind each title or how Lensjammer, for example, was originally a jingle for a European Space Agency music competition. If you haven't grabbed the prod diary yet, now is the time - enter your email address here and grab a hefty download!

COLLABORATION: I am really humbled to say this but it was one of my favourite musicians, Martin Bowes of Attrition (and Engram) who worked on the EP in terms of mixing and mastering (and additional production). He's a great guy, definitely knows his trade and I've surely learned a lot during our time working on the EP tracks - we actually agreed at some point that the premix tracks could have easily been called industrial dub as I've suffocated them with a more than fair amount of reverb and decay. And it wasn't just him to remix these tracks - I could also feature long-time industrial favourite The Mercy Cage on the EP with a buddy of mine from the London days, Lhasa Mencur (whose sound pack I also reviewed here earlier), Hungarian industrial veteran First Aid 4 Souls and the solidly-rocking Black Nail Cabaret. And the artist photos were shot by Balázs Kassai, as always - he's not just a good friend (since high school, actually) but he's also the guy who makes the best photos of my weirdly changing, coffee-deprived face. Period.

Damage. Photo: Balázs Kassai
Damage. Photo: Balázs Kassai

COVER: The front/back cover, the inlay and the logo (with additional pieces of artwork) was created by a long-time buddy of mine, Péter Sántha - the Hungarian readers might know him from LD50 and our collaboration on Carbonbonbons, a goth T-shirt brand. Peter had a great idea for creating an EP moodboard: he told me to pick a huge handful (25-50, maybe?) of industrial album covers that I like and find patterns in them when I feel I've selected enough. Weirdly enough, all of them feature screaming faces with protective eyegear. It turned out that his buddy Jeremy Falconer has a statue that would be just the thing for the album cover - and from that moment on we were pretty much set!

CRYPTO: As you might have guessed from the title, there's an overarcing idea about today's surveillance society in the EP. There was even a long phase of production during which I thought adding a crypto game to the EP would really boost everything, from downloads through SEO and exposure to national security flags. I really wanted to encode a long list of references and messages into the artwork, the music, the lyrics, basically everything - but as I don't have the proper brain for crypto and I had noone to help me out, I just left the idea sunbathing somewhere far away. Still, the first idea that I came up with is still embedded, quite audibly, in Lensjammer and I've already gotten the first proper solution from it from an eager listener who'd like to remain nameless. Congratz!

DAW: I'm actually proud to say that the original tracks were done with Renoise. When I was making music in the mid-nineties (I've compiled the best tracks of that period under the title Track Record), I was working with FastTracker, a music-making software with a vertical workflow, looking much like Excel. Apparently that's the workflow I can work with, as I do have trouble finding an easy way into horizontal. (And Ableton is a no-go, I was flirting out with BitWig Studio for a time, but Renoise is simply, simply the best.) And the lovely Renoise team even pimped the EP through their social channels, which is a nice touch, thanks guys!

And yeah, there's more in the pipeline where this came from. Until the new release, stream the older ones from Soundcloud or Bandcamp or just download the full pack (there's some nice endorsements there from Leaether Strip and Angelspit!) and spread the virus to your friends and neigbours! ROCK!


REVIEW: Angelspit - Cult of Fake

TL;DR Angelspit finally made a club stomper album. Weird chord progressions, but very stompable, lyrics are golden Angelspit quality, very solid. Great musical surprises. Buy this baby now.

It's quite the turn on-tune in-cop out experience to follow the industrial riot PA Angelspit, three steps behind, ears open. I got to know Zoog around the project's early 'Nurse Grenade' era and quickly endorsed how Angelspit always shared their method, workflow and creative processes to help the upcoming generation through that Desert of Anything But Not Just That One Thing. The blipverts and production diaries were a great insight into how an industrial musician works, and trust me, creativity aside, tips and tricks are always handy when it comes to studio time after working from 9 to 5.

So, as you can guess, I was sort of enthralled to hear Zoog tell me during one of our as-rare-as-cherished coffee-fueled conversations that he's working on the most dancey Angelspit album so far. And, as files for CULT OF FAKE trickled in, I have to ensure you all, ladies and gents, he's right. And as it happens, he's right in the most twisted sense of the word. As always.

And mind you, Cult of Fake is still a 100% Angelspit release. It is ear- and watermarked with Doepfers and EMUs and a whole wall full of modulars, it's still fueled by the anger and the frustration felt over how corporate agendas thwart the lives of The Few, the lyrics are still constructed meticulously and are still peppered with rhymes just enough to be able to roar them out loud as you're drunk (which is the best proof of your lyrics being solid), Zoog's vocals are recognizable as always and if it's guitar, it's obviously George Bikos, who else?

angelspit cult of fake album review

And thankfully, as far as progression goes, this is a very different album from The Product or Blood Death Ivory or anything before. It is a club stomper and in terms of rhythmics, it's evened out - a steady 4/4 material overall and each track is worthy of a few remixes. On The List (She's Not) is clearly in the top league - this is something pretty much in the vein of The Presets by way of Tankt and 90's club tracks and lush female vocals, yet, unmistakeably Angelspit. Thanks For Your Cooperation opens the album with such a Skinny Puppy-esque diorama of weirdery that you'll have to check your ID tags twice. Breath is the weird club hit that could instantly land in the TOP40 if its chord progression wasn't turned upside down, flooded with diminished minors (which is just the name of my very sad industrial cover band, hands off!) My Little Blade sounds just like it escaped from a Hardcore Pong album with its crunchy 8-bit feel. And this is just four track out of the 12 - all of them being weirdly characteristic, yet equally bouncy and decent club material for your favourite bunker near you. Note: you might say that Cult of Fake actually sounds a wee bit like earlier albums like Krankhaus or Blood Death Ivory and you'll be right to a certain degree, as Zoog re-used some of the percussive elements from the early days. Nothing like a good clang re-clanged!

Cult of Fake is out today, 6/6/2016, on Negative Gain. Look grateful.


Music Players for Android that Every Music Fan Should Know

android
Music players are undoubtedly one of the most important apps on any mobile phone. They help ensure you can get lost in your chosen sounds as you go about your daily activities. With music, everything seems a little better, from workouts to gaming. These days, poker games on PlayStation feature incredible music, the soundtracks on PayPal casinos online are awesome too. This underlines an understanding of the importance of music on the part of these companies. It is funny that Android phones, so music focused, don’t come with better music players.

Nothing beats being able to put together your choice selection of music. Android users do not automatically enjoy this privilege as the built-in music player is rather bare. Many users, therefore, have to rely on other music apps. In this piece we will take a look at some of the best music players on Android; the ones you need to know about as a music fan.

Shuttle Music Player
This is a premium music player for Android. It is a sleek app with a neat interface that is arguably the most intuitive on this list. The interface is supported by high-value performance as well. It has a very rich feature list that includes lyrics support, gapless playback, sleep timer, and a 6-band equalizer with bass boost.

Poweramp Music Player
If you are looking for a feature-rich music player on Android, this has to be top on your list. It has an extensive list of features and sports a warm interface. Some of its most notable features include gapless playback, crossfade, stereo expansion, theme support, a 10-band optimized graphical equalizer and plenty of other options.. This is the music player of choice if you are looking for a customisable player.

DoubleTwist Music Player
This is one of the most popular music players in the Play Store, and for good reasons too. It offers syncing abilities on iTunes and supports podcast management. It also has a beautiful, easy-to-use and intuitive interface. If you want something different from your local library, navigate to the music subscription service on the app known as Magic Radio.

Equalizer + mp3 player
This music player features a vintage interface. As the name suggests, it is heavily focused on the equalizer as it doubles as a music player and a frequency equalizer. The app features a 5-band equalizer with 10 pre-sets and a powerful bass amplifier. Users can set their own preferences. Some of the other options of the app include background player mode, visualizer window, media bass volume control, professional sound rendering, contextual music search and plenty of other options to keep you music enthusiasts entranced.

Player Pro
This is a hybrid music player that offers video playback as well. It comfortably caters for all your music and video needs through its light interface. The PlayerPro music player comes with a sizeable number of codecs with some of its features including a 10 band graphical equalizer, sleep timer, gestures, mixable audio effects, tag editing, and skin support.

With these music players, you will be able to get more out your music collection on your Android device.


SOMETHING FOR THE PAIN: Symphobreaks Freestyle Megamix

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=FnNhaX3f3Lw

Something to raise hell to at the HQ. More news soon!


REVIEW: Architect - Neon EP (2015)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=r0ovN1Te-jU

TL;DR Get this and let it grow in your head. If it feels out of place, that's good, you'll appreciate the little details in due time.

This is not neon. This is blue and grey, far from the strobe lights - this is the dark corner at the partyplace behind the big granite column where you find the entrance to another hall, the DJs playing on high-end gears and the decoration looks all Zaha Hadid but there are windowglasses on the walls that look like human skin, screeching and lighting up when you touch them. This is what Architect's Neon EP feels like. More like blacklight.

architectneon

Short story long: Daniel Myer's stuff has always been really influential on how I got the be the future-eating bastard that I am and I'm coming from the camp where his albums Solutions for a Small Planet & Vertical Theory are GOD. So the title track Neon obviously hit a hearty-warm note, not only because of its typical Haujobbish feel of Automatic Jack jury-rigging technology from the spare parts of a holodeck, two unlicensed guns, diminished chords and manly sadness (if this doesn't ring any bells, go read William Gibson's short story Burning Chrome NOW), but also because it features the vocals of Black Nail Cabaret frontmistress Emke who I have the pleasure of knowing and calling her a great influence. All in all, a match made in heaven!

This EP smashes this track face first into the brick wall of complete reinterpretation. Frank Riggio's version is a violin-filled dramatic catharsis, Erich Zann-style, a soundtrack version of a memory - 5AM, Berlin, waiting for the airport U-Bahn as you see people trying to cope with morning and life in general. Phracture's tom- and mid-filled glitchy beat take is how you swoosh out to the airport, seeing the world outside gain speed. And sticking to this memory, Basementgrrr's version is the first coffee, with sub-drone guitars and a rocky feel, operating with tension, yet never doing a chorus touchdown that would calm you. Standing on the top of Burj Dubai, pondering on how to jump - horizontal or vertical? (Yep, remixes are tricky pills. Adore these pills.) Normotone's take would be the frantic rush through Schönefeld to get to your plane, calculating every parkour trick pre-realtime. If you thought Mirror's Edge would be a fake endorphin rush, I really dare you to try this. Solid, rigid beats, even bouncier than the club version.

Be prepared for more beats - there's a Niels Binias version of Hummingbird (Kruder & Dorfmeister-y chillout on hermit hash) and two versions of Snow - Denny Engler's clubby take for night rides (especially loving the filtered pianos) and a 3rd drift version, which sounds a lot like how Cleaner (a slightly more cyberpunkish version of Haujobb) would sound nowadays, consider this a soundtrack for a Finnish drone strike under a steel sky.


pd.LIFESIGN (2015 march)

Do you know that painting that has a monstrous, green biotrain swooshing and screaming on its tracks straight into oblivion with the Pripyat wheel in the background? It is also stiff in all the wrong places and there's an orgy in the background with people and things, I guess, but if I don't remember well, it's just glitch with a lot of flesh-coloured curves. Which is usually the definition for sex. Oh hello, by the way. I AM THAT TRAIN.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RaelLXKLlc8

If I stopped writing here, it would be the best blogpost I've written in a long time and I'd call it Loco Electro and make a teeshirt about it with fluorescent ink and everything. Luckily for you, I have the tendency to push things down the entropy slope. So, promise: no promises about further projects, only masturbating with links pointing to final products. I just deleted half a paragraph with promises about further projects. Life is quite an endless mixture of translations, copywriting, infographics design, book writing and making more music, which makes it extremely hard to focus on one single thing and I could have learned this from any RPG in the 90's that dual-class characters are the bane of class proficiency and triple-class characters are fodder. And as it happens, I'm desperately fighting to get better in graphic design AND music AND writing. I could play level 9000 intergalactic battles with anyone now who'd say specialization might be the best idea now. They'd be right, of course. That's the worst part of it.

And I'm also asking questions, such as: why was Jupiter Ascending such a poorly written movie and why is Person of Interest still the best cyberpunk series left standing? And True Detective Season 2 really has an orgy scene, but does it feature tentacles? And when will I properly have the creative kick to finalize the first card game we're working on? And why didn't I know that Emmon released an album last year entitled Aon? Aaaand will I be happy when the new Ghost in the Shell movie comes out?

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SVsQ4I4aAew

Board game nights are also a thing now and it's mostly been Eldritch Horror that kept my crew mumbling for the past month or so, because fthagn. If you have some great ideas about gothic/horror/cyberpunk board/cardgames, especially ones that are not especially mainstream, I'd love to hear about them (and here's a BGG profile for reference)! Still don't know whether it would be a smart idea to settle for Android: Netrunner - it is the living epitome of the cyberpunk LCG but I simply don't have the time for deckbuilding and the two-player limitation is not something I like working with.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TD2ViWd6uVw

And here's a Youth Code live vid, because Sarah just turned 30 yesterday (HAPPY MEGA MENTAL BIRTHDAY, SARAH!) and I just can't get enough of them. And that's also the very first track, Keep Falling Apart that really pulled me in and never really let me go ever since.

Funny how it turns out that you guys are still reading this and are actually hungry for more. I know that many of you can't actually contact me or life is a lot faster where you work and directly getting back at bloggers is just not something that you do in 2015 anymore, but hey, thanks for the feedback - it actually means a fucking lot to me. 2015 = VERY STRANGE, UNEVEN, UNBALANCED TIMES. Let's make the best out of that.


REGULAR RECAP ROMP [2015.004]

Weekly news recap from Planet://Damage, a magnet of cyberpunk, glitch, music production and anything else that can look black and neon-tinted at the same time. Enjoy your stay.

Wounderland-post-mortem-fairy-tales.__605

Wounderland-post-mortem-fairy-tales.1__605

This week's "best find" title goes hands down to the Mothmeister duo. Their seriously thwarted taxidermy photos depict a world not unlike the one I'm working on in my novel at the moment and their photos are brilliant, both technically and aesthetically. And they're clearly disturbing, according to a lot of commenters who blame it on their fear of clowns, a phobia I'm unable to relate to, maybe because I wasn't scared of It in the first place? Still, if you're as much in awe as I am (and I hope you are), go check out the post on BoredPanda that began it all, then go and follow Mothmeister on Instagram!

Click on READ MORE for obviously more poor impulse control about music and tech!
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REVIEW: Black Nail Cabaret - Satisfaction EP (2014)

Black Nail Cabaret's singer-and-songwriter Emke has been something of an example to me, of how to stick with one idea and run with it until your feet bleed and then run some more: she's taken the synth noir girl duo Black Nail Cabaret, one of Hungary's best-kept secrets to a great length, I still remember how they started out in an era when our alternative scene had its neon-filled heydays.
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REGULAR RECAP ROMP [2015.002]

Weekly news recap from Planet://Damage, a magnet of cyberpunk, glitch, music production and anything else that can look black and neon-tinted at the same time. Enjoy your stay.

motoko_scarlett

Scarlett Johansson is reported to play Motoko Kusanagi in DreamWorks' live-action reinterpretation of GHOST IN THE SHELL and boy, did that raise an army of haters on the cyberpunk and anime boards. I remember one similar occasion from a few years back, when there were talks of Hayden Christensen playing Case in the Neuromancer movie (which is supposed to be directed by Vincenzo Natali and insiders have been really silent about that one) and the vocal minorify of the interwebs went berzerk ballistic on his ass. Ramifications for that aside, it's interesting to see how anime stereotypes and gender conditioning gets in the way for people to actually be able to imagine how Johansson could very well do the Major. One of last year's best movie experiences for me was clearly UNDER THE SKIN, a film of Kubrickesque dark chemistry with a hearty vat of WTF. If she could pull THAT off, Kusanagi's going to be a relatively easy ride. Check this Variety source with a lot of namedropping.

Click on MORE for obviously more poor impulse control about music and tech!
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NEW MUSIC: Glitch Baby Go

Hello, friends, stalkers, random link waltzers, intelligence community ninjas and various demons with Minimoog filters as their filth neurons. On top of the page there's a new track called GLITCH BABY GO that I did - something I was basically working on in September (apart from a load of freelance design & script works for zaibatsus). I loved working on that as I haven't been properly pouring out my headmeat babies through music, only through words or graphic design - this was definitely a different approach. (One that requires less coffee but more headphones, then meeting more people to listen to your track on their phones, tablets, computers, car stereo, normal stereo, partyplace and the occult little sound system you made from their cat's hymen.)

glitchbabygo-1

Most of my musician or producer friends I was talking to were usually advocates of one DAW over the others: this obviously saying a lot about their workflow or underlying concept of production. Most recommendations were clearly pointing towards Ableton, a few towards FL Studio... and my choice to work with Renoise, a DAW that basically grew out of oldschool tracker software made my friends question my common sense, because writing music in anything that looks like Excel is just bad karma, they said. Well, I grew up on FastTracker and whenever I hear music it runs from top to bottom in my head, not from left to right. That's one thing. The other is: Renoise does look a bit more intimidating than Ableton but that sort of non-userfriendly and very mathematical feel makes you go more creative and more understanding of what you're trying to accomplish. No, it's not easy but for people who love their obsctacles in order to make them more creative, it's a godsend.

glitchbabygo-2

Glitch Baby Go grew out of Syskon, one of my favourite tracks that I've done back in the 90s. Changed most of the instruments, kicks, turned the bassline from a collection of three very similar offset-shifted bass samples to a combination of three very different sounding instruments, added a lot of samples from William Gibson's Neuromancer audiobook and some glitch vocals, did some mastering... I particularly liked messing around with the Glitchmachines Hysteresis glitch delay and the FerricTDS tape dynamics simulator, both VST plugins free.

Good glitching - more stuff coming up soon. Hopefully sooner than later. Heh heh. Heh. Hrrrr.


DAMAGE CAPTURE FILE 03: a tree in the shape of WTF [cyberpunk, glitch and counterculture]

Hello. Etape 3 for Capture File: a coffeebreakful voyeurism into cultural products of cyberpunk, futurepresent, glitch culture and whatnot, every Friday from now on in the eurozone. This week: @dawe_'s idea of what it can be like in my head nowadays in the form of a Japanese abstract/glitch video (above, HiDM2_9 by Japanese visual cacophony masters BRDG), followed by stuff like: a possible reason for the Neuromancer movie's delay, news about the Blade Runner 2 script, loads of music finds and some music production links as well. If you have anything to add, share or comment, do so in the comments or drop me a mail to info@planedamage.com. And, yeah, have a great weekend.

BALLISTIC AUDIO LOOT:

My recent ballistic audio loot is pretty much governed by a refueled interest to write music again. I was into *FastTracker 2.08 a lot at the end of the nineties (you can check some of *my stuff I've uploaded to Soundcloud), a bit of *Rebirth.. and after reacting quite badly to a Hungarian music producer's reponse (who thought that you can only make music with real gear, not softsynths... a year later Yonderboi's LP came out, all done on a single PC... fate is apparently not without a sense of irony) I finished writing music. Time to re-evaluate. So I'm pretty much motivated by lots of oldschool stuff at the moment. (Or I'm just getting old and nostalgic, could be either at this point.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x0W8rPPbelI

VANDALAZE's new EP "Dog Jerk" is something I've listened to a lot on Bandcamp recently.. love the cheesy 80s sound with the industrialish/cyberpunkish overtones Cory flavours his tracks with - combine that with the Dog Jerk music video's look that clearly has a lot in common with early MTV days, it\s just a must-have. Review will be coming up soon on it, until that, *grab this EP from slimetrax.bandcamp!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kgPHVTDjbFA

Synthwave, outrun electro, retro electro or however you call it, a heartfelt return to the 80's pop/synth sound is making a comeback now and I've been listening around for powerful artists.. if you want to take a quick bite, *PERTURBATOR is the guy you'll need. Amazing production quality, great tracks, very coherent production, mind-blowing atmosphere. His recent new album Dangerous Days is a further proof of godlike qualities. If you want to grab more synthwave stuff, try *CARPENTER BRUT or *VOGEL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=f5dHl2kDyh4

There's always room on my Nexus for soothing ambients. Pete Namlook & Mixmaster Morris' project DREAMFISH is something I don't delete from my music-storing devices ever, but here's a close contender, the first track off the 2011 album "Someone Gave Me Religion" by Arnaud Rebotini (of the Black Strobe fame). Delete the ambient channel from GTA IV and play this in your car on repeat! (As a subtle side effect, it's gonna rain. Always.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=STcVIPvr6lE

I have a lot of demoscene music in my queue, but this one should be the very first, a mixtape of Amiga tracks with a whole lot of beat to them... and be prepared for some great demoscene materials in the upcoming Capture Files!

MOVIE NEWS:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QUwxc8LmY5k

Opinions on AUTOMATA, the latest android-craze movie featuring Antonio Banderas went (and are still going) from fiery to icy.. personally I would really love to see a different and realistic take on AI portrayal, without big budget movie clichés, as a form of compromising for a wider audience. The possibility is there but I won't say anything until more materials emerge... shown from October 10th in the USA. And as for other news:

  • Minority Report TV show reportedly in development: "The director is reportedly working to turn his classic sci-fi film into a television show, which would be produced by his company Amblin Entertainment. Amblin is reportedly looking toward Max Borenstein, writer of this year's Godzilla, to write and create the series — it isn't clear if Borenstein has signed on just yet, but he has been thanking people who congratulate him on Twitter.
  • Peter Hoffman Can't Escape Prosecution Over Film Tax Credit Fraud: Hoffman, who is an executive producer on the upcoming $60 million budgeted Neuromancer, is known as an important middleman between Louisiana tax breaks and film companies. The case figures to be closely watched by insiders.
  • Blade Runner 2 script finished and "damn good" according to Ridley Scott: The story will bring back Harrison Ford, who starred in the 1982 film as one of the eponymous replicant hunters. Scott says that Ford's character is "a survivor after all these years," which, certainly, is a curious fact in and of itself given the ambiguous ending of certain cuts of the film.

MUSIC TO LOOK OUT FOR:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6GpiJbFzSk

*THE FUTURE SOUND OF LONDON, one of my favourite projects of all time, returns with Environment Five, an album that contains 13 all-new tracks that were composed in the first half of 2014! It's a concept album focusing on "the space / time / dimension that exists when we die". That's gonna be some real interesting bardo work when this gets released on September 15th!

Texan splatter industrial gods *MENTALLO & THE FIXER release the 3CD pack `*Zothera` on Alfa Matrix this autumn. Two CDs contain their seminal albums Revelations 23 and Where Angels Fear to Tread, whereas the third CD entitled Apocrypha would contain rarities, remixes and the like. Release: Sep 26th, expect a review a lot sooner!

New-wave EBM powerhouse duo *YOUTH CODE are about to punch us all in the face with their new EP "A Place to Stand" that comes to us sooner than a month via *Dais. Pitchfork *shared a track off the new LP (embedded on top) - is that an indication as to where the new LP is headed? Release: Sep 23th!

*Tympanik Audio's always amazingly cerebral compilation Emerging Organisms just got to its fifth etape. Contains stuff from a whole generation of great new artists, from Zinovia to Idlefon, from Tangent to Ocoeur... release: Oct 7th!

STUFF THAT WILL SEND YOU REELING:

http://vimeo.com/102919605

Mike Winkelmann aka *beeple. His stuff came to me on half a dozen platforms in a week or so, so I have to share his greatness with you: his site's *here and one of the best sites this year, The Creators Project, recently released *this post about him.

These are "audio life forms", 3D objects that react to bird sounds in a droolingly glitchy matter. Amazing. Visualizing is done by Andy Thomas who shared a lot more from his amazing work *on his site.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=rGkfEZk4t1M

cEvin Key of *Skinny Puppy telling great stuff about the bass grandiosity of *SubPac and the not so great stuff about how touring can turn your ears into flipflops.

Facial projection mapping. I got this from literally everyone, a bit sad that I ended up sharing this with you a lot later.

MUSIC PRODUCTION LINKS
A buddy of mine started writing music in *FRACT OSC (which is a game about returning sound into a silent world and also about setting up a sequencer and some oscillators in the meanwhile) and I'm busy making an ambient tracks with *Caustic's Modular synth but I fail every time because the loop I made sounds so good I just put it on repeat while I'm working on my new book and then two hours later I realize I didn't tweak a single knob. Caustic's actually free for PC, so feel free to download it and have a go, the *YouTube tutorials are AMAZING.

GM_QUADRANT_WS1

It's one thing that the *Glitchmachines site is full of amazing high-res wallpapers (they're not categorized as wallpapers per se, but it's hard not to use them as wallpapers when they lok this good) but they also have a HUGE batch of free sample packs (around 1.5 gigs altogether) and also two great plugins, one for buffer effect, the other one's for glitch delay. I'm weeping now, obviously.


FIVE DROPS A DAY 10/15: zapped by teen angst

rotersand

FIVE DROPS A DAY features five tracks from the past 24 hours that decided to rent some time there, gorgeously and joyously whoring themselves around for work, zoneruns or whatever else. Never avoid any situation when a track decides to whore itself (herself, himself, hirself) in your luminous brainmeat. Click on read more for the YouTube embeds. Have a nice one.

2 PUISSANCE 30 - Transpyramid Express
ASSEMBLAGE 23 - Light
HECQ - Sura
ROTERSAND - Almost Fanatic
STROMKERN - Perfect Sunrise (Waveform remix by Icon of Coil)
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SUPPORT THIS ARTIST: Neon Shudder

Neon+Shudder+neonshudderbandcamp

neon shudder is the project of jhm, an east coast us artist looking to express cyberpunk and electronic themes in their music. only in its infant stages, neon shudder is set to release the “signal.run” ep as of 1.31.13 via bandcamp.com

more info + music @ neonshudder.bandcamp.com

Neon+Shudder+jhm

Monsieur JHM of Neon Shudder sent me a few links to see how I like his EPs - and indeed I do, analog approximations of nullsweat jacks and chromeburns. If the notion "every thought has a sound" is as valid as I think it is, Neon Shudder's another strong contestant in keeping the vast and infinite gridine alive.

Go support this dude.


TRACKS ON REPEAT: Front 242 - Headhunter (live in Budapest)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Nhl8bwzu3RE

You can't really avoid or unhear Headhunter by Front 242 if you're into cyberpunk, futurepresent or the electronic underground. This version comes to you from Budapest, live, not so direct but an amazing vibe there. You're welcome.


TRACKS ON REPEAT: Chvrches - Lies

Funny to see how effectively did female-fronted pop electro kuangelevened its way into HQ. Crystal Castles, Grimes, The Good Natured (who've just most probably disbanded this week after announcing on Facebook that their label shelved their almost finished album and they can't get their hands on the masters) - and now here's a new formation to love, Glasgow-based CHVRCHES (no, not a witch house act). Really, really digging Lauren Mayberry's stage presence, would love to hear her voice on some Tympanik release - Comaduster, Stendeck or Access to Arasaka, maybe?

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_Y7kP98ty1g

CHVRCHES
Damage says: Almost too catchy on their own, waiting to be perverted by glitch and pop noir with dripping black makeup
Official site: chvrch.es
Facebook: CHVRCHES
Twitter: chvrches
Tumblr: chvrches


MIX TO DOWNLOAD: Secret Thirteen #076 – KK NULL

Justinas Mikulskis of Secret Thirteen just sent me this mix for your edification and amusement, featuring none other than KK Null himself. (I remember seeing KK perform some ten years ago in Budapest and he stuck me right in the smack middle of catharsis, tinnitus and awe. Also: you might want to read the KK Null interview in the Tokyo issue of The Dose mag. Yeah, there's a new Dose coming soon!)

While you're busy fishing for new stuff, check out the previous mixes of Secret Thirteen (with names like Orphx, Scanner, Loscil, Biosphere or Xhin) and Justinas Mikulskis' Headphone Commute mix, just for starters..

KKNULL

The author of the mix is Kazuyuki Kishino (b. 1961), publicly known as KK Null, a Japanese composer, multi-instrumentalist, sound sculptor and singer, who lives and works in Tokyo, Japan. Active since the early 1980′s, Kishino has progressively become a synonymous with so-called Japanese noise scene and an influential experimental music figure in a much wider global context as well.

“Secret Thirteen Mix 076” is a compositional and thrilling audio collage mirroring Kishino’s early influences that had a significant impact on his later music activities. The mix includes 24 timeless works released between 1953 and 2012 by honorable composers and musicians such as Iannis Xenakis, Bernard Parmegiani, Miles Davis, Alan Lamb, This Heat, Z’ev, David Tudor and Slayer. There is also a strong impression of KK Null’s musical individuality as well as the mix hides 4 of his powerful and authentic compositions. One of them titled “Eternal Implosion” haven’t been published elsewhere before.


My last.fm Milestones after 20,000 scrobbles

Last.FM Milestones

1st track: (19 Sep 2007)
Black Sun Empire - Future Frame
1000th track: (29 Jan 2008)
Appleseed - Dive For You
2000th track: (10 Jul 2008)
Charlotte Sometimes - Ex Girlfriend Syndrome
3000th track: (19 Oct 2008)
The Birthday Massacre - I Think We're Alone Now
5000th track: (25 Dec 2009)
The Future Sound of London - Ill Flower
6000th track: (28 Mar 2010)
Access to Arasaka - Highway
8000th track: (25 Jul 2010)
Kode9 & The Spaceape - Sine
9000th track: (21 Sep 2010)
YelworC - Lost Futile
10000th track: (21 Nov 2010)
Access to Arasaka - term\echo
11000th track: (11 Jan 2011)
LAShTAL - Prosternations's Ceremony
12000th track: (12 Mar 2011)
Mother Destruction / Sixth Comm - Hella Roots
13000th track: (07 Aug 2011)
Front Line Assembly - The Chair
14000th track: (04 Oct 2011)
Kidneythieves - Zerospace
15000th track: (26 Dec 2011)
Lassigue Bendthaus - cloned (#7) (1)
16000th track: (19 Apr 2012)
Headphone Commute - Hecq Mixtape One
17000th track: (29 Jul 2012)
Download - Omniman (remix)
18000th track: (02 Nov 2012)
Front Line Assembly - Attack The Masses
20000th track: (13 Jun 2013)
Stendeck - Catch the Midnight Girl
Generated on 08 Jul 2013
Get yours here


SOUNDBITS: Voices From Possessed Children

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tIA-vwS890s

This might serve as a good speech sample rip source for some of you, but that's definitely not the creepiest. (And good luck recording anyone's possessed voice and getting away with a ray of sunshine, while we're at it.) If you want creepy and sinister, go hunt for number station recordings with child broadcasters - some of that stuff will leave you cold.

The "Enfield Poltergeist" was one of the most carefully investigated poltergeist cases of the last century. For more than a year the psychical researcher Maurice Grosse recorded hundreds of hours of interviews and apparent possession voices from the children at the epicentre of the activity. Janet in particular sometimes maintained the masculin sounding voice for hours at a time without any damage to her vocal cords and a speech specialist declared that what she was doing was not possible using her normal physical organs. When speaking she was "Bill" who had died in the house.


GRIMES: @ Sasquatch Music Festival 2013

Sasquatch Music Festival - Day 3

Sasquatch Music Festival - Day 3

(Photo credit: Tim Mosenfelder/Getty)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GKIKQNQFnSo


SOUNDBITS: Richard Chartier & Yann Novak – Undefined

Undefined is a truly somber work. If extreme drone and minimalism are your thing, then you’re in for a treat. Oscillating in the mid-range frequencies, the tones remind me of a Tibetan singing bowls or reverberating crystal wine glasses. At times a higher pitch will enter the stereo-field, cycling between the channels, simulating a self-inflicted tinnitus via its sonic hallucination. (read Headphone Commute's amazing review / recommendation piece here & buy Undefined here)


Revolvermag premieres stream version of Skinny Puppy's `Weapon`

SkinnyPuppy2013

Interested in the new Skinny Puppy album? After launching paragUn and saLvo, here's the streaming version by courtesy of Metropolis Records and Revolvermag.


Free download from new Skinny Puppy album 'Weapon'

"With the theme of a full circle return to our electronic roots and equipment, everything seemed right, and like the buzz of something new it brought us back," Skinny Puppy's cEvin Key tells Rolling Stone. (head over to rollingstone.com for the new track saLvo)

This is easily the best track so far from new SP album Weapon available on the webs of the inter from May 27th (`paragUn` was available earlier via Metropolis Records) - streaming previews and their rips floating around really divided fans - and I'm not willing to make a stand without giving it a full week of listening.

Slicingupeyeballs.com claims `stands as a commentary on “the concurrent glorification of the gun culture and simultaneous horror at the devastation guns can cause` - really looking forward to a SP album reflecting on issues of actual politics.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=kUCatOT1D-Q