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Gears of Sand
Joined: Jan 25, 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wilmington, Delaware
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 1:11 pm Post subject:
Official Introduction - Gears of Sand |
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Hi!
This looks like a great forum. I'm Ben Fleury-Steiner aka GEARS OF SAND (GoS). GoS combines heavily treated electric/acoustic guitars (me) along with my brother's (Rob Steiner) synths and other found sounds...
2003 was a really creative high for us, as we recorded three separate ambient sound projects...
LOST IN SILICON VALLEY is a quieter droning series of 7 compositions that rely heavily on repetitive percussive churns, long tones, and even Ry Cooder-like slide guitar and reveberating sitar sounds on the title track.
TRANCES WITHIN THE VACUUM (TWTV) marks a far more experimental turn in GoS's music. TWTV combines layers of drifting/hollow tones, ghostly timbres, yearning glissando swells, and layers of higher pitched guitar that sound almost like human cries. In a word, we wanted to make music that sounded haunting but in an interesting way.
THE QUOTIDIAN is our most recent work. It is a much thicker, more textural project. In many ways all of the pieces here present a constant barrage of long and full tones underscored by the buzz and clank of mechanical drones. It is also the most conceptual exploration GoS has
conducted. The Quotidian offers a contrasting buzz-drone tableau that stretches throughout the composition’s seven sections with its eventual
“disintegration into the ordinary” on both the lenghtier "epics" “Hegemony” and the title section "The Quotidian." However, even these lengthier, more
minimalist canvases—-as the closing piece ‘Walking and Talking” with its bouncy tonal drone makes abundantly clear—-are but parts of the composition's envisioned whole.
You can hear 10 mp3s from each of these and purchase them at:
http://www.soundclick.com/gearsofsand
Your comments and feedback are always appreciated!
Best wishes in '04,
Ben
P.S. I look forward to hearing your you music as well!  _________________ "I can't understand why people are frightened
of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
--John Cage |
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elektro80
Site Admin

Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 1:19 pm Post subject:
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Hey Ben! Welcome! I am listening to your music right now! Very nice! The streaming from Soundclick is a bit unstable now.. but I have at least heard two songs now.. trying to connect again... Btw, Brian has a forum too.. over at http://www.lustmord.com/deepnet
There is not that much activity over there right now, but Brian might appreciate getting a new member anyway. If you register... tell him I sent you
 _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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elektro80
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Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 1:26 pm Post subject:
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Manuel Göttsching's "Inventions For Electric Guitar"!!!
How do you like his other stuff? His Blackouts LP was pretty innovative back then. _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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Gears of Sand
Joined: Jan 25, 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wilmington, Delaware
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 2:55 pm Post subject:
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Hey man!
Göttsching is a god to me. I really like the Blackouts record although it's a little less psychedelic-minimalism and a bit more electro-pop than 'Inventions'--which isn't necessarily a bad thing but I seem to gravitate more towards the abstract/darker sounds etc.
In fact, I rate 'Inventions' as one of my all time favorite guitar albums .. . its use of loops combined with his remarkably almost hendrix-like, intuitive feel for the instrument still blows me away to this day...and to think that record came out nearly 30 years ago (1975) just amazes me !!
Thanks for the lustmord forum tip-- Brian is another obvious hero of mine...A true innovator in the realm of dark ambient sounds...am actually listening to the amazing 'stalker' album w/ Rich as I write this....
All the best my friend,
Ben
p.s. soundclick is definitely not living up to its hype as the "new mp3.com"... _________________ "I can't understand why people are frightened
of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
--John Cage |
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elektro80
Site Admin

Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:08 pm Post subject:
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Hehe.. cool.. say hello to Brian! He is a gem! A very nice guy! And the music is state of the art too.
I reckon you are already familiar with the Cluster - Rodelius - Cluster and Eno LPs? _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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Gears of Sand
Joined: Jan 25, 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wilmington, Delaware
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:40 pm Post subject:
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yeah, those German dada-inspired folks really paved the way for minimalist electronica!!! it's amazing that they were doing it in such an interesting and subtle way all the way back to 1970 (when they were Kluster)....
I still need to read 'Painting with Sound' -- have heard it's great.... _________________ "I can't understand why people are frightened
of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
--John Cage |
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elektro80
Site Admin

Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:45 pm Post subject:
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http://www.livejournal.com/users/ambient_review/13372.html
Quote: | Here is the power of Painting with Sound--above all it does exactly what a good music book should do: it makes the reader want to go out and buy some Roedelius CDs. I can recommend Iliffe’s lovingly produced book without hesitation, not only to the most die-hard Krautrock fans, but also to those interested in reading about a seldom documented period in modern music. Roedelius is an icon of artistic achievement, continually moving forward, constantly pushing his own boundaries, and is, above this, an inspiration to all who read about his fascinating life and work. I applaud Iliffe’s efforts in bringing this book to fruition. He has avoided sycophantic pitfalls in bringing the first truly critical Roedelius biography to the public bookshelf. This level of scholarly and passionate writing only serves to increase the reader’s opinion of Iliffe: he’s a good writer with good taste in music--always a positive combination for this reviewer. Painting with Sound gets my highest recommendation; it’s a labor of love that manages to instill the reader with a similar love of the subject matter. Fantastic!
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But I recommend you guys also read the full text of this review.
Yup.. supposedly the book is good. _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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Gears of Sand
Joined: Jan 25, 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wilmington, Delaware
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:49 pm Post subject:
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cool !!  _________________ "I can't understand why people are frightened
of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
--John Cage |
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elektro80
Site Admin

Joined: Mar 25, 2003 Posts: 21959 Location: Norway
Audio files: 14
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Posted: Sun Jan 25, 2004 3:51 pm Post subject:
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 _________________ A Charity Pantomime in aid of Paranoid Schizophrenics descended into chaos yesterday when someone shouted, "He's behind you!"
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mosc
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Joined: Jan 31, 2003 Posts: 18240 Location: Durham, NC
Audio files: 224
G2 patch files: 60
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 1:32 pm Post subject:
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Welcome, Ben. Nice to have you here. I listened to several of your tracks on Soundclick. Very nice. I'm all relaxed now...  |
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Gears of Sand
Joined: Jan 25, 2004 Posts: 5 Location: Wilmington, Delaware
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Posted: Mon Jan 26, 2004 2:32 pm Post subject:
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thanks for this site! So far it looks fabulous.
best in '04,
ben _________________ "I can't understand why people are frightened
of new ideas. I'm frightened of the old ones."
--John Cage |
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