Mesmerizing

I have had to come up with some pretty big creative concepts lately for the new Visible Dance soundtrack with a string section and some abstract mixes. I find I am getting more inspired by unrelated things. Like seeing a poster and it inspiring me to write a melody. For example here are some images that inspired me, for what I call 'Red Music':

..and here is a contemplative space


Now for something Mesmerizingly stupid (and cool)


Here is a human thunder storm. Simple and so effective.


But nothing beats THIS
I dare you to look away within 5 minutes.

It just doesn't stop.

Crazy Cool

Ahh, you've got to love Imogen Heap. She is brilliantly nuts, all the best ones are. I don't think I could trust a woman who was totally sane. It's a bit like someone who always seems happy. Anyway, Imogen rocks.


Recently I mastered a brilliant album by Steve Richter and Josh Hogan under the group name of 'Taal Naan'. We went through several generations of production the get the sound right. It was exploration of dynamics, space and frequencies. Basically we were finding a sound for the album. I did a bit of research to get my head around these complex percussion based pieces. I remember watching a deaf marimba and vibes player on Letterman one evening. It blew my mind, so I tracked down some of her work (gotta love the net). Then I found this great talk on TED:


Here is something deep and meaningless, or maybe not. It's a collaboration by Walt Disney and Slavador Dali that has just been completed based on their initial work, storyboards and sketches.


To end on a more sophisicated note. I must point out that all men are completely sane (including myself of course). Sorry, but I had problems embedding it.
http://www.kontraband.com/videos/18161/How-To-Make-A-Viral/#show
I know, purile, cheap, but giggliscious! (yes, I said it)

cool,

t
(I mean d. of course)

Everything is new. The glass is half full.

Welcome. It's been a while but I am making an effort to post more often. I have been reeling from my new job and all the music mixing I'm doing. I just have to plan my time. Get my multitasking mojo into action. Sigrid is going to a wedding in Venice for the next month, so this will give me time to get my business sorted and my ToDo's done. When she gets back I should be action Trilby (ahem, I mean drillbit).

For starters as promised HERE is a new track from my group Cloud Kollektiv featuring Samanta Ray on vocals, Paul Hines on guitar and I did all the rest.

I am currently getting a string section together for a live performance with the Visible Dance company (that I am musical director of). The line-up is Smitch on harp, Brian Kruger and Jessica Yeh on Violins and Tristen Par on cello. This will be an adventure. I promise to do a regular gig (sans dance company) with these guys and more of the Cloud Kollektiv. The show is in September.

My favourite site at the moment.

This is what radio should be. An excellent selection of music of from all over the world. It seems to have a flow. The chances of hearing a song you have heard before is very low. It's constant interesting fresh music. That's what I'm talking about.


Some serious Cyber Punk action in this movie preview. Some of these independent productions are getting to an an amazing standard. The sound is great too.


Finishing off I will continue my series of beatbox fixations, here is the current UK beatbox masters live at the Googleplex in London. A great show, really bloody entertaining. By the end you will be laughing up a storm. Brillant!

Cheers all. TT

We Are Hunted on Facebook

I post this for a few of my friends who have had some relationship troubles on Facebook. This great little video pretty much spells it out. It also reminds me of the new tv show 'Mad Men', which I dig.



There is a heap of new music sites around these days. For the listener it's great, for the new musician it's fantastic (free distro) but for the record label it's hell. The times they are a changin'.
Here is an ingenious new site, 'WeAreHunted'. They analyse what's being talked about on forums, DIGG, Google and the internet in general, then create a top 9. The tracks are really interesting. This is not your old top 10, this is the now 9. It changes daily. Click the pic for the site.



I have been mixing quite a lot bands doing electro disco with an 80's vibe lately (notably SheSelexx, Brash & Sassy and Digital Dolls). Here is a video of electro at it's best, an uplifting new tracks from Royksopp and Robyn live from Norwegian TV. Ride that disco pony Robyn! That's some bloody good pop.

Since finishing at the record store I have been searching out new tunes and finding them. There are billions of brilliant DJ mixes online. My fav site is alldj.org Honestly the good stuff is online, go get it.

I'll post some of my mixed tracks soon, I just have to finish about 20 of them first then I'll do a little dj mix of them.

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