protip: click above image to skip longwinded post and get to the free album.
Hello Friends,
Today i’ve decided to give away my Exclusive Remasters 2004-2006 collection to everybody as a free download. Previously it was burned and sold only at shows and given to people who donated $5 or more through the donate link on my myspace music page. While you’re still more than welcome to donate as a way of supporting my experiments, and if you did i’ll still burn a CDr along with some goodies as thanks for your support and all, the whole collection can now be downloaded by any and everyone that wants it.
Just go to theExclusive Remasters 2004-2006 page at last.fm and follow the little blue text. Should say ‘free download’ right next to each title. Additionally, you can stream the whole thing from the player there, so have at it!
Consider this an early Hanukwanzmas present from me to all of you, in thanks for all the support and kind(red) words and spirits i’ve met so far.
Much love,
c. todd
phylum_sinter
p.s. i know you may have seen this elsewhere, i’m putting it onallthree of my most updated spots. Consider my technolust and juggling ability optimal as long as the motivation is strong.
In proper-use-for-this-blog news, the EP is very, very close to completion – only two tracks left to go. I’m hoping to still get those last two interviews (with Set In Sand and Hecq) in before the album goes live. Blogs are hard. See the other ones for other music related news though, i’ve been busy.
Been awhile, hasn’t it? I’ve been neglecting many things, or rather… been distracted by obligations that are largely beyond my control. I’ll try to point out what might have had the biggest impact on my absence here:
I went to jail. Not for long, and not unexpectedly. Those who know me personally know i’ve asked to go in lieu of probation for quite some time… and well, it finally happened. The good news is that i only had to go in for 9 days, and that the medical staff of Dickerson Correctional Facility didn’t toss my medications away and let me fall into a coma. Now all that’s left to do is to find some causes worth contributing 192 hours to [community service]. Any suggestions as far as that goes are greatly appreciated. Last time i had to do Community Service i ended up vacuuming a church for a couple hundred hours… and i would like to do more than that this time. Any 501-(c) organization will do.
My mom had another Cancer scare. She’s already had a few surgeries to remove lumps over the past 30 years or so and had to have her Thyroid removed due to nodules being found in it. Thankfully the surgery went without complications, and the nodules that were examined were non-cancerous. She is recovering well and is back to normal (save for a scar on her collarbone).
Both of these things have put another big wrench into my output, but they’ve not been without benefit. As cliche as it is i do believe that everything that one overcomes contributes to their wellbeing and understanding of their place in the world. I cannot say that either of these things have ‘completed me’, but they’ve definitely made me a little less arrogant and a little more wise.
Full speed ahead, then. Expect the final two interviews sometime soon.
Updates to this blog will happen at least once a week starting today. The more traffic, the more updates.
Much love to all those who have supported me in the past, and especially to Josh and Graeme at Xynthetic for their patience and continued belief that this whole thing might end with something great.
Today I bring you the next part of the interview series, with the co-curator of Brainstormlab and glitchbomb producer extraordinaire Julian Frank! He and i gathered round the warm, glowing, warming glow of our computer screens to type for a few hours about Brainstormlab, our releases, as well as some stuffy turtleneck things like the nature of noise versus music.
At the bottom of the interview I’ll also be sharing new sample bits from my track ‘Drowning Coins’ along with his remix of the track… so scroll down if you want music! otherwise, read on.
Chris Todd [Phylum Sinter]: Hey Julian, thanks for being a part of the promotional thing for my next ep — i’d like to start by giving the audience a mini biography of you, can you describe your public/art/music self in 5 sentences or less?
Julian Frank [Jfrank]: I Started tinkering with audio programs in 1996. In 1998 met ‘TopforTom’ and started a collaborational project simply called brainstorm. We opened the website in 2003 and continued to produce untill the first Brainstorm night in January 2005 (also my first live set). Since then, although Brainstorm nights are rare, I continue to play live around Europe and independantly produce music.
PS: Right on, and that leads me to the point where i discovered your music… I found brainstormlab through its’ myspace page, I think FM control’s page had piqued my interest and i think he had Brainstormlab as one of his top friends. Brainstormlab.org seemed really happening at the time – how often does it curate events?
JF: Well, in reality Brainstorm is a network of people… and hence a vehichle for their work as well. Brainstorm doesn’t officially curate nights as it were, but aids in building connections between the people involved. It connects it’s members to other organisations and social groups — so if a member is organising a project of his own or knows of someone organising a project which involves the kind of material we make, then chances are they will involve the other members as well.
PS: Sounds like a nice agreement. So it doesn’t aspire to be a public promotional organization, just more a group of friends that approach the public as a group?
JF: …But not quite! Even though it has been around for a while, the group of people in Brainstorm is by no means fixed. To my eye it is still in an evolutionary phase. Of course alot of my contacts i only see 4 or 5 times a year, and others i still have to meet!
PS: What do you and TopforTom imagine Brainstormlab to become over the next five years?
JF: Well – nobody knows what TopforTom has in mind!
PS: oh, why’s that?
JF: he is the man behind the curtain… but no there is no real manifesto, and at first that was the manifesto in itself. At the moment brainstorm has taken more of a definitive direction by having accumulated a certain type of electronica, but that is not to say that that is all there will be. It does, however, function as an able ‘window’ as it were.
PS: Focusing in a little here, your myspace page has your first genre defined as ‘Live Electronics’ — just how live is live?
JF: Ah, the great question…
PS: Does that mean you’re writing completely improvisationally?
JF: To be entirely honest i’ve only done 2 livesets principally using/modulating midi instruments, partially pre-written and partially written in the moment. Nowadays my computer can’t handle the strain though, so most of my live performances are done by mixing wave files with effects and outside inputs such as harmonicas, casio keyboards, old radios, flux pickups attached to cel phones etc. When playing an already existing track obviously there is a lot less live to it – it just becomes a reinterpretation of the track. When you start to mix elements from different tracks improvisationally (with no knowledge of how mixing they will sound together) it becomes a bit more live. If then i break into a solo on an effected casio, or create a drumloop on a drummachine, it becomes a little more live and so on. It goes by degrees. ‘Vowel Movement’ from ‘Laptop Tans & Digital Cowboys’, for example, was created live by recording and looping each take and adding effects as i went along.
PS: How about the birth of a song then – do you write with specific intent before you put harmonica to mouth, or is it more an exploratory exercise that leads to the songs?
JF: The processes of each individual production vary. There are tracks that are whistled for weeks before putting them down. Others spawn unexpectadly from doing live takes. The most interesting process is often searching for sounds ‘within’ sounds. I use plenty of originally recorded foley – from kitchen pots to cats purring — When you listen to foley after it’s been recorded, the process almost becomes a game of hide and seek. When working with midi and plug ins the process is more academic – like sculpture – you have to chip away and model to get what you are looking for.
PS: …even though the ideas, the parts inside of you, do the opposite — they blossom or unfold, while when it comes to translating to external mediums it becomes more about making that unfolding seem palatable, right?
JF: hahaha …Though at times I put things out especially because they are UN palatable, but on the other, i do censor myself!
PS: There’s the segue i was steering for. I find that for many people, the concept of noise has negative connotations, while i think for most people the concept of music has nothing but positive connotations. What defines music for you?
JF: uh oh! OK, To be honest…
PS: Please, yes, honestly only if you can manage…
JF: Music is sound that, filtered by the human brain, is given rhythmic or melodic significance. more specifically… any sound filtered by the human brain is attributed to a physical action, a movement. Some things we can all agree on – if i hear a bark we assume it originally comes from a dog. Every persons sense of rhythm and melody is different, however.
PS: Certainly, there’s so much subjective to the world. Variety is the spice of life. I always like to say that music can contain noise, but noise cannot contain music at the very source of it – music is noise that transcends mere action and has been given purpose, would you agree?
JF: If i hear scaffolding fall from a roof top for example – i am more likely to hear music within it than someone else… Regarding the question: Only if that purpose is to be noticed and filtered by a human mind that would then attribute the noise as music, then yes i would agree.
PS: Hmm… that’s suitable i think, still fits with my definition. The ‘purpose-ness’ can be as simple as communicating the sound of collapsing [anything] or as complex as the infinity of all space, so it’s very flexible in my mind, but it is reliant on the observer too, but everything is from my perspective. Noise is what can happen before that mental filter, but music is what happens after?
JF: Exactly.
PS: So with this in mind, the ‘mental filter’ aspect in mind, how does writing a remix compare to writing an original Jfrank track?
JF: The starting point is entirely different, That’s the main thing. Even if i don’t have an original reference mix [ed note: none of the remixers had the final arrangement of the track they remixed] the sounds at my disposal were created / imagined by someone else. Trom that point on, the remixer picks up the story.
PS: That’s been the most interesting aspect of writing this album for me, i gave the remixers just bits of the track, the elements… or the words, per se, and let the remixers interpret them in their own context. It’s like hearing someone retell a story from a list of words.
JF: …Like chinese whispers or those games where one has to start telling/drawing and the other has to finish.
PS: yeah! So when writing your own tracks, there’s the searching for the ‘word list’ before any arrangement happens, but when you’re doing a remix the ‘word list’ is a launching pad for other ideas?
JF: yes
PS: stop me if i get too abstract
JF: nono, your descriptions are quite precise!
PS: Moving on — i understand you’re near ready to release a new album, could you tell us about it?
JF: Well, all the albums i’ve made lately have been almost like interpretations of different genres (or feeling of genres). this particular consists of referencing the acid techno genre (through jfrank filter!).
PS: Nice, while i’m not huge on the acid techno thing myself, i do enjoy the jfrank filter. Where & when will the album be available publicly?
JF: It will be free to download on www.brainstormlab.org sometime in March [ed note: this album is available now to download from this page]
PS: Great! any plans for you musically past May?
JF: Actually, May is about as far as i have thought! There’s plenty going on before hand though.
PS: Aha, please elaborate then unless it’s secret… in which case you can send me a smoke signal.
JF: On the 6th of March I will be playing a live set on a web radio here in london – at www.Illfm.net, In April there will be a remix compilation released by brainstormlab to look out for. The remixed track is called ‘un1q’ originally by ‘iqbit‘.
PS: I’m looking forward to all three of those things! Looks like we’re about at the end of the interview, any closing statement?
JF: none, apart from looking forward to hearing your final completed album!
PS: Hopefully life’s distractions will settle long enough for me to finish it sometime before summer! Stay tuned and maybe i’ll get a chance to return the remix favor for you sometime too?
JF: Definitely, I am currently working on a remix pack for the near future!
PS: wicked, to the near future then!
[end interview]
The track ‘Drowning Coins’ is the second on the album, and is a transitionary moment on the album from the first track that covers alot of narrative territory.
Here’s a bit of the original:
JFrank’s remix takes the basic themes, as displayed in a loop-based remix pack and makes them completely his own. Here’s a sample of that:
…Great stuff! The full versions of these songs, along with 3 other remixes and 6 other original tracks will be released on the full EP ‘From Unity To Segmentation’ on Xynthetic Digital later this year.
Comments and feedback greatly appreciated! Stay tuned for more…
Mine has been great but hasn’t given me much time to work the blog or produce as much as i’d like to… a common theme of the year’s end for me is to pull everything i’ve done inward, to reflect and generate an opinion on where i’ve been and where i’ll go next.
At the beginning of 2007, i made the resolution to have more releases and increase my visibility as an artist in the minds of the world than i had in any previous year, and depending on how i look at it, i’ve either succeeded or failed.
If i were to point at actual tracks produced as a yardstick for progress, this year has been about average. However, many of these were remixes and compilation tracks for many different labels, and i’ve made some great friends and collaborated with some fantastic artists this year that I wouldn’t trade for the world.
Next year i aim to combine this year’s broad-scope outlook that has me consistently seeking new collaborators along with the focus necessary to finish this EP along with at least one LP, and maybe even some A/V collaborations or videos.
Overall, it has been a good year – but 2008 will be even greater!
Stay tuned for the first interview to happen next week, along with some previews from the album.
Happy Temazepam Tuesday! I’ve just shuffled out of a 14 hour coma.
Stealing a page from the Sundance Channel, i’ve decided to include an interview series between myself and the remixers that have participated in the upcoming album. That means that you’ll be hearing the perspectives of Hecq, Set in Sand, Jfrank, and Dirty Fire Project on their remixes, their outlooks on music, and probably something about pandas.
None of these interviews have been coordinated yet, but i’m thinking of either recording them via skype [since 3/4 of them are on the other side of the planet] or just doing them in an instant messenger and posting them here.
What do you think? Would you rather read an interview or hear one?
Somewhere in the process of this blog, if and when it ramps up to the visibility levels i hope it does, i’d like to compile the questions that you, the audience have for myself (and my inner children) and post the answers here for you.
I planned on having a couple of bits of music for you to hear, but the wordpress blog plugins folder is not as robust as it should be yet. Later this week you’ll be able to start hearing some bits of tracks right in the blog.
For now, here’s an excerpt of track 7 of the upcoming album, entitled ‘beside you through the wires, forever’ and it serves as a tribute to all the people whom i’ve grown close to that i never would have met if it weren’t for this beautiful tangle of networks that wrap around the globe. I had the idea of communication, binary bits bouncing along light beams and the pulses of loved ones coming in sync as i was writing this. This track was also remixed by Dirty Fire Project, hopefully we can get them to talk about their version later this month.
