Worship the Glitch Compilations Out Now!

The compilations I promised are finished! Finally, after a long wait, the CDs will be shipped to those who have already ordered and the remaining compilations will wait until they are all called for. So hurry up and reserve one if you haven't yet! There are 16 copies left and they turned out very nicely. The compilations come folded in a vellum sleeve coded with the folding instructions.Any compilation trying to give a comprehensive survey of a particular music movement is bound to fall short and the compilation I compiled is no exception. What is important about this collection of songs is that it gives an overview of the artists making "glitch music" and places other artists, who had previously not been, into the narrative of the tradition. The term "glitch" does not denote an aesthetic, rather a process in which the digital medium and the instruments passing through are explored. That is why many of the songs you will hear on the compilation may not fit with what has traditionally been associated with glitch and clicks & cuts. Needless to say, I am really excited about giving this CD away, and please if you have ever listened to and enjoyed the show or if you are just an enthusiast of the digital arts, please email me at pcambon@gmail.com with your mailing information so I can send you a copy. And of course below is the playlist.

The Final Show

Today's episode marks the final airing of Worship the Glitch on KCPR. The past two years doing this show and my past three years as KCPR DJ have been amazing and I feel privileged for being able to share all of this music with my listeners. As a going away present of sorts I am putting together a compilation of some of the shows favorite artists and songs to give away. Copies will be limited to 30, but the good news is that they will be free, first come first serve. If you would like a copy you can send your mailing information to pcambon@gmail.com and I will send you a copy as soon as I complete them. The compilation has not been completed yet, but please be patient, they'll be done in the next couple weeks. Thank you all for listening.

A Crystal Skull in Peru

The track by Cloaks, which dominated this show, is simply put, superb. Piano, tapes, and bells ooze together in a long playing expanse of around 30 minutes. The track could be likened to a synthesis of Oval's "Do While" and Reich's piano works, but those comparisons should only be taken as starting points for describing something that easily stands on its own. Along with the caring and beautiful packaging this CD-R is a must have, hopefully there are still some left at Aquarius Records, where I found it. You can also listen to the podcast of the show here.

Cosmic Superimposition

Love Songs

These are love songs.

Brend

Recently there seems to be a growing trend in electronic music towards the "tribal" aesthetic. Polyrhythms, non-standard tunings, and vernacular sounds are becoming more familiar in the electronic vocabulary, but what is more striking is the general attitude towards the music making process itself. Technology is becoming a fact of life that all musicians will have to deal with, and the types of people you'd expect never to stray away from their drum circles and stoner metal bands are using the computer, drum machines, and sequencers. This provides for some interesting results, but the acceptance of many ethnic and vernacular ideas into the electronic vocabulary is not without problems.

Henry Flynt warns us that, more often than not, ethnic music has been incorporated into western music by simply inserting it as reference. In this case it is merely a surface treatment to existing structure and rules. Flynt argues that to embrace the vernacular or folk, one has to create new methods of notating and organizing sounds in ways that compliment their attributes. Lucky Dragons, the recording name of Luke Fischbeck, I think best demonstrates this attitude. Handclaps, bird sounds, tambourines, fiddles are not organized according to standardized western rhythms, time signatures, and scales (systems which were not made for these sources). Instead using applications such as MAX/MSP he creates his own processes to build songs with those pieces. Songs vary greatly in length, from less than a minute, to several minutes, never falling into the three to four minute pop standard.

Seeing Fischbeck preform live it is clear that his form of art is for his own self amusement, it is spontaneous, not governed by established laws, it is what Henry Flynt would call "brend." Flynt explains that "brend" is an experience at which you are unaware of value or your own personal valuing system, all of this vanishes leaving you with your own self enjoyment. While this may seem like a completely personal experience, "brend" can happen within a group of people. After about ten or fifteen minutes of playing on his laptop and flute, Fischbeck stood up, brought out a number of colorful ropes connected to one another, and passed them around the crowd. As they made contact with skin, sound emitted from the speakers, oscillating and harmonizing as different people touched the ropes, and made new connections through each other. It was quite a magical experience, the artist, the object being watched for our entertainment was no longer present, instead we were all part of the process, joined by system only measurable by our own connections to one another.

Listen to, and sign up for the podcast of Worship the Glitch at KCPR!

Materialization

Before the invention of the tape recorder in 1929 music's vocabulary was extremely limited. Confined to traditional instruments played by musicians it was an event one experienced in a static environment. The introduction of recorded media would completely change music's role, capabilities, and meaning. Recorded onto tape (or any media for that matter) music makes the transformation from event to object, gaining the ability to be taken out of context and planted into new ones. The implications for this are immense. Sound, when recorded onto media becomes a material object, and its plasticity, just like any other material, can be altered, manipulated, and broken.

It wasn't long after the tape recorder for musicians to begin to discover the full potential of a materialized sound. Pierre Schaeffer's pioneering work with tape loops in 1940s in Paris and Halim El-Dabh's work in Cairo around the same time expanded music's vocabulary to include any recorded sound. The definition of the instrument changed. The media technology itself, in this case the tape recorder, becomes an instrument. Along with this a whole new set of methodologies and compositional strategies that emerge from the technology and mechanical workings of the tape recorder make their way into musical practice, widening music's boundaries even more. Here a synthesis between music and technology occurs, with the development of music and technology coincides forming some kind of symbiotic relationship. Musique Concrete, the making of music from concrete objects, would serve as the basis of sampling and sample culture which today has become a large part of popular music. You can listen and subscribe to the podcast at KCPR.

Library Music

Last week I played a track recorded a song by Delia Derbyshire under the name Episonic. In the late 50s and early 60s BBC opened an advanced sound effects studio, the Radiophonic Workshop, to record jingles, theme songs, and commercials for programming. While the studio was intended for commercial purposes, it was frequently used for tape loop and music concrete experiments. Delia Derbyshire’s pioneering work in the studio would become very influential for contemporary artists such as Stereolab and Broadcast. The artists on the UK record label Ghostbox look to Derbyshire’s work as precedent for their b-movie science fiction electronic aesthetic. Sampling lost pieces of popular culture allows memories to be transplanted into new contexts through different media, creating new connections between space and time. Drawing inspiration from library music: old movie and television soundtrack recordings, the songs of Belbury Poly, Advisory Circle, and Broadcast are drenched in grain and haze of electronic music’s memories. Listen to the show here.

Finding Errors

The term "glitch" to describe a genre of music started to appear around 1995, after Oval's releases Systemisch and 94 Diskont, and the ELpH vs. Coil album Worship the Glitch (where this show gets its name from). These two albums arguably started the modern day electronic movement most often referred to as "glitch." It is interesting how these three influential records were made and how they established ideas about this particular aesthetic. Oval, using scratched and written over compact discs, sampled the skipping and reorganized them. In effect they "harvested" the glitches - the errors, deconstructing the materiality of the media. Coil on the other hand had been collecting malfunctioning equipment over time and compiled these "natural" glitches to make Worship the Glitch. These two methodologies are the basis of music movement which celebrates the imperfection, error, and malfunction of the mechanized and digital.

There are varied analysis' of Glitch music, and keep in mind that is only to serve as a brief introduction. Check out Vague Terrain, a great resource to find more information about digital media culture as well exclusive songs and videos and photos. On their site is a download of a great writing by Kim Cascone, which goes into greater detail about this type of electronic music.

And last but not least Worship the Glitch is now officially podcasting! Check it out and subscribe! Also be sure to check out 91.3 KCPR San Luis Obispo for a schedule of some of the best music college radio has to offer.

14 April 2008

7 April 2008

Welcome back to another quarter of Worship the Glitch. By next week I'll have started podcasting episodes, so you can listen anything you want! As for the stuff played this week, I seem to love everything that gets put out on the German label Raster-Noton. Founded in part by Carsten Nicolai (Alva Noto), and Olaf Bender, who along with Frank Bretschneider, make up Signal. Rater-Noton is not so much a traditional record label, but rather conceived as a platform where the intersections between pop, science, and art can be explored. One way this mindset is shown is through Raster-Noton's exquisite packaging. Well weighted, buttery smooth cardstock makes up the digipacks in which most of their releases are packaged in. Fine attention to detail are noticeable not only in the typography and design, but fabrication of the cases themselves. For example, the two discs that make up COH's Strings are housed in what at first appears to be complex folded paper casing. However, upon unfolding the object its simplicity is beautifully exposed. A single piece of cardstock with slits cut in to hold each disc is then folded over itself twice to make a package that is not only artful, but also efficient to mass produce and distribute.

Week 8

Week 7

Week 6

This week Worship the Glitch featured a couple artists from the 12k record label. 12k was founded in 1997 by minimal electronic ambiance artist, graphic designer, and photographer Taylor Deupree. Check out the website here for more information and some nice videos. Be sure to tune to the show next week on Monday from 9 PM - 10 PM for a really special giveaway. For more information about Worship the Glitch and KCPR go here.

Week 5

A great series of albums that I believe are often over looked in Sonic Youth's discography are the four SYR releases that came out right around the millennium. These albums, all released in different languages were numbered SYR1 - SYR6 and were highly experimental. SYR4 entitled Goodbye 20th Century was a series of reinterpretations of select 20th century avant-garde composer's pieces including John Cage, Yoko Ono, and Cornelius Cardew. Like Cage, Cornelius Cardew experimented with graphic notation as means of communicating musical ideas. His testament to this study is the 193-page Treatise which was completed in 1967. Treatise marks a great shift in the relationship between the composer and the musician. Rather than reading a series of definite notes, the undefined diagrams and unfamiliar symbols that make up Treatise, the musician responds to the texts rather than reads them. These compositions are made to interpreted into any medium. More importantly Treatise shift the focus from music as an object to music as a process; a shift that is especially relevant with the advent of new technologies such as the computer which let us create, experience, and distribute music in completely new ways.

Week 4

I started this week off playing two tracks from Arve Henriksen and Thomas Stronen, two artists from the excellent Norwegian label Rune Grammofon. Arve Henriksen is a Norwegian Trumpetist and his latest album Strjon is a delicately minimal series of arrangements for trumpet with additional guitar and piano. Thomas Stronen's Pohlitz is filled with highly crafted electronic beats and additional "beatable" instruments. All the songs were done in one take with no overdubs which is pretty amazing considering the how nuanced each sound is and the layering of the arrangements. Check out the Rune Grammofon website for free downloads and their most recent releases.

Week 3

One track in particular I really enjoyed from this week was the Kangding Ray remix. It can be downloaded here from Kangding Ray's website.

Week 2

This week we played for you part of a split 12" between YACHT and Lucky Dragons.  It's an awesome split release and both sides are equally good.  The album was released in very limited numbers and I was very lucky to be able to get a copy of the vinyl when Lucky Dragons played here in San Luis Obispo last fall.  The tracks on both sides use Nirvanna samples as raw material for sampling, although only at certain points is the original sound at all recognizable. The split is not released on any label and the real title of it varies depending on who you ask. I've heard referred to as Nirvanna, which is what is printed on the sleeve, and Bleach on Bleach. There is also a digital version with the same tracks called We Float Around, Hang out on Clouds.  You can download the Lucky Dragons side of the split for free at this website.

Week 1

Here is the first playsheet of the quarter. The show tried its best in giving an overview of the range of different music types covered in the weekly broadcasts of Worship the Glitch, but an hour is just not enough time. The show gets its name from the ELph vs Coil album of the same title. This album released in very limited copies is an experiment in musician vs instrument. The methodology Coil followed when making this album is similar to that of artists like Oval who used scratched CDs and CD players to make music. These artists use instruments in ways that they were not intended for, uncovering problems within them, and "harvesting" errors, deconstructing the devices that we normally take for granted as background.

Worship the Glitch

This quarter marks the one year anniversary of Worship the Glitch, the radio program which I host dedicated to experimental electronic music. The show focuses on music and its relationship with technology by exploring artists who release music that has typically been referred to as glitch or clicks and cuts, but can also encompass other types of electronic music ranging from pop to the avant garde. The show gets its name from the Coil album of the same title. This quarter I will have a co-host Tony who will also contribute to the show. Worship the Glitch airs Monday nights from 9 pm - 10 pm on KCPR 91.3 FM San Luis Obispo. If you do not live in the area you can listen online at www.kcpr.org. For some awesome programming tune in for the whole night. Other shows that air on Mondays before mine are Bitches Brew: psychedelic, and The Red Spot: music made by women. Right after Worship the Glitch, comes Teeth and Fur: two full hours of experimental and avant-garde. After each show playsheets will be posted.

Beginnings...

Welcome to Aural Tectonics, this blog's objective is to explore music and architecture and their relationship to technology through different projects that I am involved with. The main project being the weekly radio show Worship the Glitch which airs on 91.3 FM KCPR San Luis Obispo and online at www.kcpr.org. There will be weekly updates containing the show's playsheets, other relevant information, and food for thought. More updates will arrive shortly.