Apologies. Been too busy to post lately. But as promised here's an update.

Just a quick collection of experimental music [re/]production methods that freshen up old ideas with new technology or work old-fangled tech into new designs. Some of the tracks are directly related; some I've just correlated.

[Also: The lettering above is from a new typeface I'm working out. You can see it in action on the flyer for the Sharegroove get-down last Friday and on this Bastille Day Party invitation.]

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[A] PLOrk: Princeton Laptop Orchestra
Of course.

° PLOrk - Conflict: or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Love the Parse Error mp3

° Computer Club - Bizarre Love Triange mp3

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[B] Graphite Sequencer
I love when visuals are tapped for sound source material and vice versa. This does both. And looks pretty neat.

"Graphite conducts electricity. Two wires brush against the surface of a paper disk as it spins. The wires are connected to a simple electronic tone generator. When a line of graphite is drawn across the disk, connecting the two wires, a tone is heard."

It also apparently draws patterns that result from tones.

(via new favorite blog dataisnature.com)

° Muddy Waters - My Pencil Won't Write No More mp3

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[C] MAKE: Blog: Is Gilligan the next Jules Verne?
I often wonder what impact Lost might have on the rest of popular culture, like how much is the series to blame/thank for this so-called 'cocopunk' craze? (Too bad 'steampunk' just got cooler with the decriminilization of absinthe.) Anyway, check out this cute ukulele amp housed in a coconut shell, and forget I ever asked.

° High Places - Shared Islands mp3

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[D] Big Ideas (don't get any)
For his final project in a Glasgow School of Art graphic design course, James Houston punk'd Radiohead's "Nude" remix contest. Except he missed the entry date.. but won our hearts! Aw.

"Based on the lyric (and alternate title) 'Big Ideas: Don't get any' I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they're trying their best to do something that they're not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there."

Give the vid some time to get going. The still shots of vintage hardware are reason enough to watch.

° Radiohead / James Houston - Nude (Big Ideas (don't get any) Remix) mp3

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[E] Final Product // ATTIGO TT
Another thesis project demo'd on Vimeo, this prototype of a digital dj setup lets the beatmaster paw actual waveforms running across touchscreens instead of handling records (or CDJs or Serato Controls or.. paper-disks!)

° Daedelus - Touchtone (feat. Paperboy and Taz) mp3

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See also: Random music-technology scene in one of my favorite '70s sci-fi fantasies. And here's the Speilberg mashed up with M83.

My good friend Chris Parson has made a name for himself in the dubstep world and is finally paying New York a visit tonight at the long-running (14 years?) Konkrete Jungle weekly. With tracks out on Planet Mu and digital dubplates circling the net, he's headlining d-step parties around the US and is adored in the UK by Radio 1's Mary Anne Hobbs. He also co-hosted a similarly long-running (7, 8 years?) dnb/garage weekly called Mental Note on Tuesdays in Austin. I was more into house music at the time, but became a Mental Note regular because Chris et al got me dancing with a mix of 2step and that crossover soulful/jazzy/cinematic/liquid stuff coming from the likes of Hospital Records.

This new track of his, Stickfight, perks my ears with its comparable crossover appeal. He's still using that sparse, post-apocalyptic sound design but then he draws a more uptempo angle, really emphasizing the double-time. It's a departure from what you probably think of as dubstep, and especially from Parson's trademark chopped-n-screwed brand of it, exemplified on Throw Some D's. Stickfight is more like dubstep's answer to Flat Beat. It also reminds me of my weakness for jump-up.

° Parson - Stickfight mp3

Parson at Konkrete Jungle
[Monday, June 16. The Pyramid, 101 Avenue A bw 6th/7th. Doors 11p.]
$10 / $8 w/ flyer or guestlist. $5 before 12AM with flyer or guestlist.

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See also:
Venetian Snares
[Monday, June 16. Knitting Factory, 74 Leonard St. $25. 9p.]
If you're feeling extra adventurous and bass-hungry, catch Parson's Planet Mu labelmate Venetian Snares beforehand. Here's his dubby answer to heavy metal.

° Venetian Snares - Black Sabbath mp3

Busy week so short and sweet: Listen to Lemonade, best friend to sparklers, partner of three-legged race winners, and secret ingredient in that summer cocktail of good music and good friends.

° Lemonade - Blissout mp3

° Lemonade - Big Weekend mp3

This sort of falls under the "guess you had to be there" category. So here's a set of phonecam flicks to help illustrate. I'm not purporting to be an art critic by any means, but I really enjoyed the evening of absurd, interactive performance art and breezy beats at Michael Portnoy's Milk the Weasel, Pull the Rug and Summer Session 2008 at the SculptureCenter in Long Island City last night. Thanks to Jeremy for the heads up and to him and Matthew for the jams. I woke up this morning with Eye in the Sky still playing in my head.

Read on for my attempt at putting this into words.

° Deux - Game and Performance mp3

° Black Dice - Roll Up mp3

Looks like all the World Science Festival events that really interested me are sold out. Actually, that's not entirely true, but I'll be in the Poconos this weekend so will have to miss out on, say, Saturday's What It Means to Be Human moderated by Charlie Rose, with a panel that includes Jonathan Harris among philosophers, geneticists and neuroscientists. Get tix, go, and I'll borrow your notes when I get back.

° Solvent - A Panel of Experts mp3

If you can't make it out to these talks either, keep reading for a round-up of science and science-y links that I've been bookmarking (wikis, articles, vids, etc), so you can school yourself without leaving your desk/couch/hammock. With science-y musics, of course.

I've had this one saved to drafts for a while now, so when I read that The Depreciation Guild were influenced by Dario Argento films, I figured now was as a good a time as any to dust it off.

It took my roommate and I four months after Netflix sent it before we sat down to watch Phenomena. (Our catch-up-on-Lost marathons were seriously getting in the way.) But once I got over my aversion to horror movies, I really enjoyed it. Argento's 1985 classic has it all: blood, beauty, new wave fashion, a preposterous premise and, perhaps most important, a kick-ass soundtrack. As for most of Argento's films, Claudio Simonetti's prog-rocking Goblin does the title theme and mood music, and on this one Iron Maiden, Motörhead and Andi Sex Gang rip through the chase scenes.

° Goblin - Phenoma mp3
(make sure you get past the intro to a minute:30)

° Goblin - Sleepwalking mp3

From a literal wall of color to a figurative wall of sound (and/or both)...

I tried to catch Brooklyn's Depreciation Guild a couple Saturdays ago at Death By Audio, but got there too late. Those who saw them said they were awesome, so I'm making up for it this Friday, May 23 at Union Hall. They go on first, at 9pm, and they've been testing out new computer-based projections: "It's an interactive program that allows the user to add splashes of color and motion to the beat of the music," explains DG's Kurt Feldman.

Synesthesia surrounds their debut 8-bit/shoegaze album, In Her Gentle Jaws, which was posted December 5 in its entirety for free on their website (itself part of the nice identity done for them by Lucha Design). It has since been downloaded more than 60,000 times. On their Virb page DG describe it as "filled with highs and lows, saturated in color, and drifting into dream." Then there's this translation of a Danish review: "The unholy man/machine-alliance plays noisy shoegazer. Beautiful pop songs draped in a veil of guitar distortion, pulsating in 60 hertz, synced to the unsteady flicker of the television."

What I like most is the balance—aggressively crackling, pounding NES programming offset by that shimmer-wash of guitar and well structured pop vocals. (Similar to, but more rock/less twee than the shoegaze hybrid on Sweet Trip's 2003 Velocity : Design : Comfort.)

° The Depreciation Guild - In Her Gentle Jaws mp3 [download album]

° The Depreciation Guild - Water Window mp3 [download album]

° Sweet Trip - To All The Dancers Of The World, A Round Form Of Fantasy mp3

Keep reading for some of their own thoughts on music and technology.

There was a lot of great work at the NY Photo Festival—really inspiring stuff. But to celebrate the sunny weekend ahead of us, here are a couple phonecam shots of Penelope Umbrico's wall of sunburst photos, Suns From Flickr, printed out on glossy 4x6's. I especially like that when you get close you can see the jpeg artifacts from the lo-res images. Similarly, I like how details of printed rosetta moirés appear in the enlarged "candy-colored horizons" culled from honeymoon resort brochures in her Honeymoon Suites. Check out the other work, from collections of TV screens and pillows to "ends of things" on her site.

° M83 - Lower Your Eyelids to Die with the Sun mp3

Between ICFF and the NY Photo Fest there's plenty to do this weekend, but I'd like to direct your attention to one event in particular. If you've not yet visited the SoHo concept store Kiosk, their first Mini-Exhibition opening this Saturday is for a show by collaborative group Rich, Brilliant, Willing and will be the perfect opportunity. Continue reading for more about RBW (their "Candle Party" pictured below) and the story behind Kiosk's Hong Kong neon.

° Siouxsie and the Banshees - Hong Kong Gardens mp3

° A Certain Ratio - Wild Party mp3

Apologies if the Flash embed breaks your internet—first time trying out this plug-in. (Words by Devo, from Explosions)

Lots of extreme electric/kinetic stimuli this weekend. Including 3rd Ward's Devo-inspired show, which prompted me to do this contrived (fun) thing where I post a bunch of Devo songs corresponding to the different goings on.

Links and musics ahead.