It's all coming together (with Glue)

Every time I get on the computer I have work to do so my blog hasn't had as much attention, but I have been collecting interesting things. Here is enough crazy stuff to last all week.

I have been changing it up recently. I moved from my long time indulgent job at Urban Records to an even more indulgent job at Billy Hyde Music as their resident audio tech guru (more of a disciple at the moment). So I used to sell music, now I sell tools for making it.

David Scharpf and I have continued to write even though he is in Vienna touring with a big funk band. Aint' the Internet grand. We have a heavy metal remix and a doco soundtrack on the go, as well as an experimental tracks with Violinist Jessica Yeh.

Finally the software I have been heavily beta testing for the last year and a half is coming out from Andrew Simper's company 'Cytomic' and Fxpansion. Andy ended up using my name idea and calling his mastering compressor 'The Glue'. I am currently going crazy with the synth programming, creating sounds for Fxpansion's awesome D.CAM SynthSquad (the guts of which are also written by Andy). The problem I have is that I keep writing new grooves with sounds I create instead of spending all my time writing more sounds. Preliminary info HERE

Most of the people I work with communicate online now, so I am online heaps. My laptops WiFi is great and even my phone does decent internet. I have found myself posting on forum while heading to my girlfriends on the train. It's just all so interesting. So here are some of the places I like to head to online.

Some sites I have been into lately:

http://createdigitalmusic.com/

Creative electronic music site. Lots of insane instruments and software news. Great for creative tech junkies.

http://www.photographyserved.com/

A brilliant photo gallery from professional photographers around the world. Very inspiring.

http://www.synthmania.com/Famous%20Sounds.htm

Classic stuff for people into the history of electronic music. It's a list of heaps of classic sounds and where they came from.

http://soundcloud.com/

The MySpace of the future. This is a professional MySpace, setup to help musicians and labels collaborate. It's very smooth and impressive (unlike MySpace). You can upload any audio or video file format. The catch is that it costs (which may actually keep it pro).

http://www.themovieblog.com/

A classic Canadian movie review site that has some great podcasts. They are movie geeks and proud of it.

http://postsecret.blogspot.com/

This is a shrine to honesty. It's beautiful. People send their deepest secrets, anonymously. It's moving.

http://infinitecanvas.appjet.net/

Here is a new concept from the recently active Microsoft labs. It's a great artwork and storytelling system for anyone. Really very impressive and smooth to use. This is how the web will look in the future (hopefully). The front page isn't much but the art is great.

http://conceptships.blogspot.com/

Oh, god, I love this site. This is a teenage fantasy. Professional spaceship design gallery. Aaaawesome!

digg.com

If you don't know about Digg then you don't stay in enough ;) It's news selected by the people (mainly geeks like me). The net is never a boring empty place with Digg.

http://www.tun3r.com/

There are literally thousands of free radio stations online. Just randomly tune into one. It's so cool.

http://www.sonicstate.com/video/index.cfm?keyword=Sonic%20Talk
This is my favourite podcast. I set my Nokia E71 phone to download it automatically once a week. It's a bunch of professional electronic musicians and producers talking shit. It's supposed to be music industry and tech news but sometimes they talk about stage outfits, having children, touring, drug binges... It's recorded in England but includes guys from Germany and the US also.

http://www.rocksolidarcade.com/games/robokill/

I got a bit hooked on this game. Luckily it is more of a demo, I think I would have wasted a lot more than one endless night playing it otherwise. Web games have come of age, this is slick. this is the article where I found it:

http://www.extremetech.com/article2/0,2845,2340700,00.asp

http://issuu.com
If your into magazines check out.

http://www.ted.com/
If your into fascinating talks on everything, this is a great place to hang out. Some of the talk go for over an hour. There are so many great talks from: scientists, poets, musicians, rock musicians, Buddhist monks, sociologists...


Maybe it's the competition, but strangely Microsoft has been innovating lately. Their mad about interactive digital environments. This vision of the future is pretty cool. I have to admit to having a bit of a fetish for nice graphical user interfaces (GUIofile?)


This is the house I would like to live in (as long as it's not too hot). I love the raw rusted steel, it looks great. From this great architecture and design site:
http://dornob.com/


I bumped into this the other day. It has to be one of the greatest Ali G interviews. The man is a genius and I have to give a bit of vibe to Posh Spice, she's a bit cute in this.


For people who think sampling isn't music, you have to listen to this. Kutiman has taken the art of mashup to a new level. This is a track made of clips off YouTube. Make sure you hear the end it's surprising and quite moving.


Last but not least. This guy really PLAYS the piano. I love it. It's more about cathartic expression than actual notes. He is playing with sound and texture not just complex notes. Like a modern Sun Ra but brilliant instead of novelty. I'm intrigued to hear Cloud Kollektiv keys players David Scharpf and Brian Kruger's opinions on this one.

I'll post some of my new mixes next.

Cheers, all.

t

Southbound & Summadayze photos

It's been a big festival season for me so far this year. Starting with a weekend of hot gigs (about 40 degrees).First I DJ'd 3hr set at Southbound in Busselton then headed back to Perth to play Summadayze with band 'She Selexx'.

JAM (packed)

There is a nice little story that is quite moving in this video.

Here are two shots showing the horde of Cloud Kollektiv people at our gluvine jam recording. I still have to find a week to mix it all. We recorded three hours of 16 tracks  improvised music.

I'll write a big blog and review of my upcoming festival gigging weekend next week. it's going to be in a magazine too.

L8r,  T

Shots from the trenches

Visible Dance, She Selexx and the Cloud Kollektiv's sitting room session.

peace

This is a bit too cool, man. @>-;--

Down South, Up North, I'm everywhere.

My January is coming together nicely. Firstly I'm DJ'ing at Southbound from the 2nd till 4th, doing a groovy, dubby, souly set (settee). My DJ name is 'Trilby Of The Cloud'. I need a logo with a cloud wearing a Trilby hat. Might make a t-shirt, he heh.

Next I have a Cloud Kollektiv gig at Kulcha on the 1oth. I still have to get a crew together for that one. I have the core but I need a keys player and maybe some more vocals. Samanta Ray gets back from touring Europe, and it sounds like she is on fire and inspired.

After that I think I'm heading to the outback to teach aboriginal communities to write hip-hop with MC Joe Black. That should be an adventure. It's like Chuck D and Flava Flav on the road. I suppose it's the musician equivalent of working the mines up north.


Here are some shots from Sig's great Canon400D camera of the recent Redbull Air Race over the Swan River in Perth followed by the Northbridge Festival.


Before David Scharpf heads back to Austria we are doing a remix of this track by Jazzanova featuring Ben Westbeach. Our version is a more dubby jazz affair. More info soon.


I'm researching photo styles for a shoot She Selexx are doing. Some of this photography is insane. Click the pic for more...
Oh, no! Monty Python now have a YouTube channel. Well, there goes my afternoon.

t

Reaction Finale

Here is another piece David Scharpf and I wrote from the last Visible Dance piece 'Reaction'. It make me feel a bit proud, I have to say. The next work will be in early December, keep your eyes peeled for details in the next few days. Check HERE for details.

Also, HERE is the Visible Dance Facebook, page if you want to be informed of the latest news.

t

WAMI's for the Cloud, lets dance.

Well, WE WON!
Both Cafe and Dance/Electronic catagories of the WAMI Song Of The Year 2008. With Samanta Ray's tune 'Revien' and Cle's track 'Realising'. Sam is in Europe and Cle had a gig she couldn't get out of, so a gang of drunk Cloud boys picked up the awards. After the first award we drank pints in celebration and by the second we were a bit slurry (well, I was). It was a fun night for all. Paul, David and I went on to find a gig to party at, but Fremantle seems to close at 12pm. here is the evidence.
I was hoping to get a copy of the photos, but it's taking too long so here is a dodgy clip from the Xpress magazine from the 16 of October 2008.

I have just put some of the soundtrack work David Scharpf and I have been doing on the Cloud Kollektiv website

You can also listen to the WAMI award winning tracks on the music page.



Visible Dance have put up some video from the 'Reaction' show that David Scharpf and I wrote the soundtrack for. Here is a the wonderful Elyse being a glitchy robot.


The next big Visible Dance show will be 'GAME' It will be at the Onyx Bar, on: Wednesday the 3rd of December and Tuesday the 9th of December. The music will be a collaboration between my other band She Selexx and the Transients. Overall a more punky electronic affair. Should be fun.

Cool, that's me done for now, phew!

Get Spiritual and Win!

I love the parallel between mad club dancing and religious furver.


Thursday the 9th is the West Australian Music Awards. My group the Cloud Kollektiv are up for two categories 'Realising' featuring Cle in the dance/electronic category and Samanta Ray's song 'Revien' in the new cafe category. Have a listen.

..and wish us luck. More news next post.

Orchestral manouvers in the spring

Lately I have been mixing heaps of music. This doesn't make a very interesting blog so here are some photos of the things I did in between.

Australia does not have a long fascinating history or a rich complex culture. One thing Australia has ample amount of is beautiful natural surroundings. It's spring and the wild flowers are out. These shots were taken within a space of about 200 meters. Such variety and colour in a country with so much desert.

Click for an enlargement.


I recently got a new Nokia E71 mobile. I had been waiting for the iPhone to see if it was any good and frankly it's not. I was not impressed so I bought the new sexy messaging smart phone from Nokia. The iPhone's battery life is abysmal and I found the on screen keyboard to be terrible. There is also heaps missing from it and it doesn't let you just chuck files on it (no expandable memory). There were just too many problems in my book. I can bluetooth or USB my E71 to any computer and put video, PDF, word, iTunes audio files on it and it plays and read them. Simple.
Also the advanced messaging and push email is great. I get my Gmail to my phone as it comes in. It's also crazy thin.


Sig and I went to the Menage' concert a week ago. It was a stylish event. An orchestra played the score to an old B&W Hitchcock film. After mixing so much music it is always great to hear it acoustic, live in front of you. It gives you perspective.