Hello from Beak

Beak · Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 3 Location: us

hi . . . i'm looking for a community online to share music and criticism with . . . this place seems pretty active.

i play guitar and love nasty breaks . . . aphex twin, squarepusher type stuff. i love everything though really. i use goldwave primarily to do all my programming.

i just released my first ep here: http://www.monotonik.com/content/releases/mtkmp136.html

please check it out and tell me if you think it's total crap!

seraph · Posted: Thu Oct 14, 2004 2:21 pm Post subject:

Hi Beak

to electro-music.com
I haven't listened to your music yet but I'll see what I can do Very Happy

Enjoy your stay welcome

Abaddon · Joined: Jun 19, 2004 Posts: 105

Hello there! Welcome to electro-music.com.
It and electronicbboard.com are ver friendly boards, the friendliest (and overall best) electronic boards I have ever been to. Wink

I found your EP a few days ago, and I think it's one of the best I have heard in a really long while! Shocked

mosc · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 6:45 am Post subject:

Beak

Congrats on your new EP. Sounds good. The break beat stuff is very gentle sounding for this idiom. thumb up

Beak · Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 3 Location: us

cool guys . . . thanks for the welcome!

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:30 pm Post subject:

hello Mr. beak! nice to have you here!

I have listened to your EP. I like the music very much, but I am not quite able to handle the IDMuesqe stuff. The way I hear your music is... great and very interesting guitar stuff.. and then some IDMcomponents added. That said, i am not that in love with the whole IDM spice thingie at all.. and a lot of interesting music is suffering from the IDM addons.
We have had some discussions here about what IDM is. I am still not sure what it is, but it seems like there is a set of methods, sounds and conventions that pretty much spellls out "THIS IS IDM" And IDM seems to be important these days. The way I hear these components, they mostly stick out like a labrador in a pack of black sheep. Hmm.. perhaps the other way aorund really, anyway.. the way I hear this.. your stuff is great.. but please lose the IDM.. your stuff is the good stuff in here. Yu should rather have someone like Ginger Baker or Liebezeit banging away on the drumkit rather than this annoying IDM stuff that does not enhance what you are really doing here a bit.
Shocked

Uhh.. hey Beak... I hope you take this as like a positive feedback really. You are really doing very interesting and musical stuff here.
Very Happy

elektro80 · Posted: Fri Oct 15, 2004 5:48 pm Post subject:

Uh.. and I might be wrong.
Anyway, a lot of the IDM components are , the way I understand them, just gestures that have no real essence than saying "this is modern".
Some of the IDm style r-r-r nsp-ppp----kch-kchkch------tsss-tr-tr-tr doesn´t really work that well unless the rest of the events compute within the framework. In my ears this sounds more like as if suddenly Kurt Weill became hot.. and you had to add a Weill flavour to absolutely everything in order to be taken seriously.
Many of the percussive IDM style gestures are more or less just a modern take on the 70s ratcheting patches. That said I am not that mad about modern jazz either.. so.. well.. don´t listen to me man.. Shocked

Hmm.. actually.. some of the IDM gestures ARE interesting... as theoretical structures.. but the IDM set of conventions doesn´t really seem to allow for composing using these gestures. Uh... I have to add that I enjoyed your EP, when I kinda forgot about the IDM.

egw · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 10:19 am Post subject:

ian-s · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:01 pm Post subject:

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 12:10 pm Post subject:

It was quite common to set up sequencer driven songs ( using old style analog sequencers ) to run at a fixed speed so the train of notes would compute to being 16ths or 8ths or whatever. the obvious question was then how to trigger two or three or four or whatever number of events for one step of the stepsequencer. Due to the gear people had, some of the solutions meant that the timing would be be a bit weird. Instead of like 4 perfect subdivided orderely events for one step.. you would get 4 events that only were timed perfectly at the start. This could be taken in many directions. You could create accelerating event trains etc etc.

The original scandinavian term was subspin. This term did not describe the actual patch family used but rather the main idea of setting up a subdivider patch that sets off a train of events from one step of a stepsequencer. Ratcheting came probably from some interview with Chris Franke where he pretty much described the same ideas but... well. the term ratcheting was used and I have seen that people on the B_EM list are still using it.
You can do similar things with the Nord Modular and I think I have seen a related patch here somewhere.. with the description ping pong or something of the sort.

elektro80 · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 1:11 pm Post subject:

The normal way to do this would of course be to set up sets of longer sequencer arrays that would run at 16ths or 32s or something and then grab from that in order to set 1s and 2s and 4ths or whatever.

Uh.. well.. the ratcheting/subspin patches can do alot of very weird rythmic figures. It is quite inspiring stuff really. You set up a patch that does something of the sort.. then let it play and you think.. "What if..." then do a few adjustements and you suddenly get something completely wild. I once saw a british duo performing something approximately like the Alan Vega/Suicide material.. but the synth dude was using homemade gear and he was way into the ratcheting territory. It is pretty hard to describe, but I have never heard anything like that duo since. The rythms were wild and it really grooved.

Anyway, I relistened to the Beak EP just now, and I like the material but my focus is on the guitar stuff and I am not that into the IDMish stuff still. In my ears the EP is good, it is just me who has a thing about the IDM sounds. I guess I have heard too much of this recently. No big deal.

mosc · Posted: Sat Oct 16, 2004 9:48 pm Post subject:

Well, I guess I like the IDM beats - or anti-beats. Anyhow, I think on this EP they are nicely done in a very understated manner.

elektro80 · Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 2:35 am Post subject:

Beak · Joined: Oct 13, 2004 Posts: 3 Location: us

elektro - very interesting input, i am much appreciative . . . especially the ratcheting patches explanation. i definitely take it as positive feedback, i like it when someone has constructive things to say and takes the time to write them . . . . so thanks

daveb · Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 6:17 pm Post subject:

Welcome Beak! You're right this is a great forum to belong to. A bunch of no bullshit people with objective views and independent thoughts. Good to have another guitar player here too.

seraph · Posted: Sun Oct 17, 2004 11:45 pm Post subject:

gsga · Joined: Jul 22, 2004 Posts: 267 Location: allentown, pa

timothyday · Joined: Nov 05, 2004 Posts: 18 Location: Philadelphia

Beak, Great stuff. Very refreshing. I'm really into austere/lonely/honest feeling stuff. nice guitar ideas. Fresh sound throughout. Enjoyed it. Keep it up.