Even though it’s Tuesday morning officially (as per the star in the sky), it’s still monday night for me.
Down to business, MAYBE just in summary form this time?
The Interview with Set In Sand hasn’t happened yet. It should be the next weekly update if not before.
Tracklisting for the album is now official – no more edits are possible (drat?). I’ve given them to the designer and they’ve been transformed into part of the design.
Next track to be finished is called ‘Midnight Alembic’, expect a bit of it to show up here/myspace by next saturday, August 9th.
Aw, maybe some of it can’t be summed up… That’s what i get for having so much coffee so late at night.
So i’ve been digging through my archives of live stuff in hopes of figuring out my identity (as it is perceived, live) and incorporating some of the techniques used there into the studio arranging process. Pretty tricky, been a very long time since i’ve done anything completely live. My current computer wouldn’t let me record stuff live even if i wanted to; IT IS JUST TOO SWEET heh. Really though my laptop is a total dinosaur and the arrangement process is far removed from the “Phylum Sinter live-show setup” of yore.
The gist – While digging through the boxes i’ve found a few things that i like enough to share them, so i’ve decided to release a live album titled ‘Pissed Up & Near Blind’ To be released on my own imprint in early 2009. It might be free and internet-only, we’ll see. For now, i’ve got some placeholder art:
…There’s also a track from this live collection on my myspace page too, at the top of the player. It’s called ‘Oh, Dont’ and you can download it here. It’s a bit funkstorung-y, emphasis on beats but i dig it.
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…
I hope you have all had the chance to buy wonderful adornments for your loved ones this past Valentine’s Day… and i say this not purely out of pseudo-cynical smugness, but also in a genuine desire that we can take advantage of this time as an opportunity to create a sense of open-ness in our relationships, to fulfill the sometimes stilted wants-to-communicate. I’m unsure how narrow my specific tunnel is sometimes, but often i feel that too much time is spent not communicating just how important people are to us. That we stay superficial either out of fear of rejection, insecurity or other inner traumas. We do need things that promote an easier path to understanding, especially as the world continually provides more and more technological ways of distancing and distracting us from one another. So go ahead, buy that overpriced box of chocolates but use it as an excuse to get to the heart of the matter.
Speaking of the heart of the matter – i would like to take this opportunity to thank all of those that have noticed the track that was on xlr8r.com as a featured song and given me feedback, criticism and encouragement – it’s been a really great surprise. And… well the spike in Myspace page views has been kinda neat to witness too. Power of the press, eh? I can’t wait to see what ripple effect happens when the magazine itself — and accompanying CD comp with the track on it — hits news stands.
Work has continued on the album, though not without many distractions. My fascination with tumblr has continued, and after going through my page there and noticing how voracious my habit has become with that i’m a little embarrassed to see much i’ve put into it versus all my other commitments lately. Even so, you’re welcome to take a look at my other blog here. You’ll find a full description on the page, but basically i’ve been putting everything non-album specific that i do [mostly doodles] as well as key curiosities and things that have influenced me in a significant way on it.
The next interview in the series has been scheduled — it will be with Jfrank, of Brainstormlab.org. It’ll be happening sometime this sunday and i’ll hopefully have some time to transcibe it by early next week. Along with the interview, i’ll be posting bits of his remix for my track ‘Drowning Coins’ and bits of my original version from the album… which may or may not be done by the time it all goes down.
Maybe i should backtrack a little here… When the album was first being dreamed up, i had most of the the tracks started in at least sketch/pattern form, and had started performing them live in different ways to see how they could come together. At this point i also came across the music of Jfrank and Dirty Fire Project, and knew i wanted them to participate in the album. It was agreed that what would happen was a set of remix trades — and everybody that offered a remix i’ve either remixed already (like Hecq), or i will be remixing a track for them as a return favor/cross pollenation thing. So anyhow, as the potential remixers responded, i went into the hospital and was unable to really work as much as i would have otherwise. In my weakened state the remix packs came together for all the artists, though they didn’t include my original version of the songs in their arranged form. It’s definitely influenced the outcome, giving the remixes a flavor probably impossible to have had if things had worked otherwise.
Back to the present, ‘Drowning Coins‘ has had a bit added to it since Jfrank’s remix was finished, but it’s still around 80% done. There’s been an incredibly long gestation period for all of the tracks on ‘From Unity To Segmentation’ but they are being finished in roughly the same time period. The narrative element to this album was built-in more or less from the beginning, as i’ve been living it… but compressing it and weaving only the essentials into the album in a non-invasive way — in a way that doesn’t detract from the songs as individual things — has been pretty tricky, and is probably the hardest part of writing.
Finally, the last thing on the initial ‘stuff i want to do with this blog‘ list; taking studio pics and generally boasting about the machines i use will finally happen sometime next week… prepare to be shocked at the luxury of Sinterbox Studios Room 1c! …otherwise known as my booze-den and insomnia palace. The digicam is sorted, i just need to find a box big enough to put all these dead bod—– i mean, ahem, “garbage bags” and we’ll be in business!
I am pleased to bring you the beginning of an interview series with some of the remixers and people who have helped bring ‘From Unity To Segmentation’ into being. It serves as a vital cog in the massive promotional machine that is this blog [ahem]. Stick around to the very end for an exclusive preview of dfp’s remix of ‘Beside You Through The Wires, Forever’.
Today i’ll share with you an interview i did with one Adam Christie, aka Mouse, of Dirty Fire Project. He and I sat down on ye olde instantmessenger last Thursday to talk about a variety of subjects,
here’s the gist of it:
Chris Todd [phylum sinter]: Hello adam, thanks for taking part of the promotional machine for the upcoming EP! maybe you’d like to introduce yourself a little?
Adam Christie [Dirty Fire Project]: sure – i’m adam, otherwise known as ‘mouse’ of Dirty Fire Project.
PS:Correct! i first found your music as a result of being a part of the Xynthetic ‘Statement Of Purpose’ Compilation, whom soon after released your EP ‘Too Many Teeth’ — How much had you released in terms of tracks before then?
DFP: The Xynthetic release was my first actually released body of material.
Before that I had been posting individual tracks on download.com, soundclick and myspace. I got in touch with Xynthetic via another artist, Angina P. They did a ‘mass mail’ of her friends list on myspace and I replied with a link and an invitation back to my page to listen to the tracks that were up there. At the time they included ‘Never Been To Tokyo’ and ‘Examination’, both of which ended up on the “Too Many Teeth” EP. Xynthetic asked me if I wanted to do an EP and I practically ripped their hand off
PS:So that was your first encounter with a label?
DFP: Yes – and I’ve been pretty impressed. Definitely got lucky with dealing with those guys. I like where they’re coming from with regards to hoping to help change the way music is distributed. They’re quite outspoken and I believe in what they’re doing.
PS:We’re on the same page in that respect… they’re very much about what they’re doing, and more importantly i believe that they believe in what they’re doing.
DFP: Just finding out that people like the tracks is one thing, but people wanting to release it is another Then there was such good feedback at the time of the release and a good figure of downloads. Surprised the hell out of me
PS:It was actually the first track off of ‘Too Many Teeth’, ‘fuff’, that had caught my attention as the album i agreed to release with Xynthetic started taking shape – I’m very happy to have your participation! Any thoughts about the track you remixed? …It occurs to me you may not have heard my arrangement of it yet, but based on the pack i sent what are your thoughts?
DFP: Heh, “Fuff” is such a weird track. I’ll come back to that — The original version of ‘Beside You Through the Wires, Forever’ is such a meloncholy, detailed track. it’s pure electronica and I really like it. My weakness, however, is beats, and it was the beats that you sent that really pricked my ears and made me start to play about with them. The way i heard the track parts was by putting all the loops from each part into fruityloops, and starting them all off. so no mixing between, but i think it was enough to get the feel for the way it was going.
PS:The remix pack was probably about 90% of what is in the final arrangement, but you did definitely nail the feel based on your remix. let’s go back to ‘Fuff’ for a moment – what makes it a weird track?
DFP: ‘Fuff’ started as just a scratchpad of ideas i’d been playing with. but it was one that I kept coming back to. When I was doing the EP, I realised I needed something to start things off with, so after much deliberation, I put a load of work into trying to link a couple of ideas together using the scratchpad as source material. It was pretty organic I guess. Then I hit a massive mental block on how to finish it, after the break. Eventually managed to solve this by thinking about how I’d play the bassline on a bass guitar, so that led to the syncopated bass in the final section which really rounded it off. I’m really glad people like that track as it was quite strange to put together (but it was also the one i was least sure about, overall).
PS:I find that sometimes a song will lead me to its end more than I can end it consciously – i really dig how that song it turned out in terms of distortion and flow, it sounds as if it comes to the ears in a way that it fills in it’s own blanks and then gradually opens them back up…
DFP: Yeah, I agree about the filling in of blanks – that tends to be how I work. Then you can break them down, put the different parts together, make patterns that weren’t there before and bring out different parts of the sound, then try and bring them all together again. I like to make music that you can pick up different things from each time you listen to it.
PS:Absolutely, it’s one of the keys to replayability i think… many layers and subtle details.
DFP: That’s also the thing which can leave you tinkering with a track for weeks though… gotta watch that, hehe
PS:! tell me about it, some of the stuff that’s coming out now i actually started over two years ago -
DFP: Hmm, that kick drum’s not quite right, how about now? hmm, no. How about now? Not quite – ooh, but it’s doing -this- thing now. ‘Tokyo’ was like that, I think I started that around 2003!
PS:Like a fine wine, then. Changing focus slightly – When it comes to your style, how would you characterize it? Can you consciously trace your main influences when it comes to what you generate these days?
DFP: Not consciously, as far as I know. I’ve always had a kind of idea as to the sorts of sounds that I wanted with dFp. I guess it’s somewhere in-between dirty electronica, breakbeat, minimalist stuff — even some ambient thrown in for good measure. I’ve always wanted to give it a certain flavour… that part is hard to describe. I’d like to think that the tracks do the talking for that bit – people can make their own minds up about it. Certainly, there have been bands that have influenced me. All sorts of stuff, really. Drum ‘n’ bass – Technical Itch, Photek, Ed Rush and Optical, Angina P; electronic – Murcof, Aphex Twin, Nine Inch Nails; metal – Filter, Curve; breaks – Hardknox, Hybrid… I try to keep my ears open. When I was learning bass guitar I was always listening to Rage, Tool, Chili Peppers and Primus. Things have broadened a bit since then.
PS:I notice that distortion is ever-present in your work, often adding to the percussion giving it a certain edge; what are your other favorite tones and what defines a usable sound to you?
DFP: It’s true, I loves a bit of distortion. Especially distorted drums… It just tickles my ears in a particular way. As far as other tones go, and usable sounds – it’s been a slow process but I’m gradually learning more and more about headroom and how different frequencies can layer up without crowding other things out. I tend to spend alot of time getting that balance. I’m also trying to force myself out of the habit of doing track elements in a particular order – i.e. not rushing to get a bass sound once I’ve got some drums started. Sometimes I’ll just have an idea in my head and need to get it down into a sequence as soon as possible, but always doing things in a particular order like that can kill it.
PS:That sort of thing can certainly be habit-forming, i’ve been there too — most of what comes out of me starts with an outline now, as in mood and keywords and even sometimes a short story. The album i’m working on has an overall arc but hopefully the intentionality of the music itself doesn’t suffer. Do you think music fulfills a purpose?
DFP: Yes, in that it encapsulates an idea or moment, or longer. A piece of music is a symbol for something else, and that can be detailed or vague as taste dictates. A well written song or tune captures the essence of something and that is important.
PS:…and it is that fact alone that i think makes overproduced or very pop music stand out — it’s written to merely satiate an artificial need or otherwise feels empty to me. You can always tell when a producer has fallen out of themselves or their priorities come down to money. Do you have any gripes with the world of music?
DFP: I feel strongly about Country & Western.
PS:hehe… who doesn’t? but strongly how?
DFP: I think I’ll leave it at that Gripes… hmm… At the end of the day, even Gabba has its place. Preferably in a really dark club, and when I’ve remembered my earplugs.
PS:Our preference is similar in this case then, too — maybe some favorite songs or albums of the moment?
DFP: Okay… at the moment I’ve been really overlistening a few things. NIN’s album “year zero” for starters. Really enjoying that, especially “Zero Sum”. Radiohead’s new album has got some amazing tracks on it too. Imogen Heap – “Speak For Yourself” – she’s a genius, self-produced, electronica, great songs and an amazing voice. If you don’t know her stuff then check it out! Er, let’s see now, LCD Soundsystem – “Sound of silver” which has really grown on me. Angina P – “8 Rooms” – really crystalline drum ‘n’ bass and IDM. It’s an awesome album and well worth a listen. Aside from that I’ve got a couple of albums that are great for falling to sleep to – Dj Rap “Learning Curve” and Murcof “Martes”. I know both the albums inside out now, so I can just drift off when they’re on… Oh, did I mention Curve? I love Curve. Always have. I listen to their stuff a lot when I’m at work.
PS: Heard and enjoy most of those myself — the Angina P album is a new one to me, will seek that one out definitely though. Let’s talk a little more about the concept of remixing versus writing from scratch; do you think the way i presented the track to remix [merely as parts] influenced the way you approached the remix?
DFP: It seemed like a pretty accessible way to do it, to be honest. It was quite brave of you to send it completely unmixed! …and certainly, without being able to get to each sample it would have been different. Plus, the way you recorded the beats – there were markers within the wave files that ‘Cool Edit’ switched between really easily, which made adding effects to invidual hits straightforward and very quick. I had a lot of fun altering the beat tracks. I don’t know whether you would have heard the beats layered up on each other like they are in the remix. hope it was a nice surprise
PS:It was! I tried not to play it too much until the original was fully arranged, i didn’t want it to drift too much into my processes. I’ll be remixing ‘Manifest’ as a return thanks as soon as the album is done being arranged.
DFP: i’m looking forward to hearing what you do with ‘Manifest’.
PS: what are your plans for the year, what’s in the works for dfp?
DFP: So far it’s looking good. Xynthetic are interested in a full digital release – another EP but via distribution channels like Beatport. I’m gearing up for that at the moment. Eventually I’d like to try and get something together to do a live set, but that’s still quite far off.
PS:I could see the sort of thing you’re doing translating very well to live spaces, the beats you work with have a definite tweakability to them that would get heads nodding…
DFP: Yeah It would be fun to be able to play with an audience too and keep them on their toes. Some live sets i’ve seen tend to get quite self-indulgent at times, so i’d like to try and avoid that if possible… because the whole point, surely, is to have people feeling involved, not merely witnessing.
PS:An audience’s participation can be a tricky energy to bring about, i look forward to seeing you try it out though, as well as hearing your next album — thanks again Mouse! any closing statements?
DFP: I’m really flattered to be approached about the remix project, and I’m tickled that you like it. The whole process was really interesting for me and perhaps we can go through this all again sometime! Good luck with the album, mate, and I look forward to hearing it after all the work you’ve put in I’ll be doing a blog for the next dfp release — working title: breaking the robot.
PS:much obliged! cheers and stay tuned
…And there you have it! Feel free to comment on the interview, i’ll be archiving and hopefully answering some of the feedback here… maybe Adam will join in too, who knows?
As promised, here’s a bit of dfp’s remix of ‘Beside You Through The Wires, Forever’ -
The next interview will be announced sometime next week – keep yer browser pointed at the blog for details.
