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Browsing category archives: Music

The Korg Poly 800

I recently plugged in the old KORG Poly800. One of the early mass produced polyphonic Synths.

Unfortunately the batteries had drained, and the sound settings were completely gone. Now it is possible to restore the sound settings from the 20 year old cassette tape, if you a) would be able to find the original tape, and b) would have a cassette player. Unfortunately I have neither.

There are two ways you can go about this. Either you can restore all original sound settings manually from the documentation (pdf here) or you can download a “wav” file  with the original program from the POLY800 cassette. Connecting the Poly800 to your computer and fiddling a bit with the output level took me about 5 minutes.

Welcome Wagon (Welcome to)

A few weeks ago I listened to “Welcome to the Welcome Wagon” on the excellent VPRO Luisterpaal (http://3voor12.vpro.nl/luisterpaal/). I ordered the CD and today it has been delivered by mail.

The reason I happily pay a few extra bucks for a CD is that there is artwork included and in this case the artwork provides a little background about the work.

This album was recorded and produced by Sufjan Steven and his musical touch stands out. What I did not know is that the music was composed and performed by Pastor Vito Aiuto and his Monique Aiuto. The music classifies itself as folk/gospel.

I do not regularly look at music in the Gospel category. The reason is twofold. First the message does not appeal to me, and second, and more important, is that Gospel music is often stereotypical and not inspired.

This album is different. Although it clearly has a religious message it is inspired, made with the appropriate lower belly feelings, and sometimes has a touch of humor. The album is cleanly produced, lighthearted but still has balls. Proof? At the moment I wrote this paragraph the tune “American Legion” is played, it brings tears to my eyes…

While I do not believe in God there are emotions that one could classify as religious. Sometimes they are communicated through music. And while not true for all tracks this album contains such an examples.

Read more about “Welcome to the Welcome Wagon” at Asthmatic Kitty Records.


IPv6 Depletion Song

From The RIPE 55 Secret Working Group Report

a long long time ago
i can still remember
when my laptop could connect elsewhere

and i tell you all there was a day
the network card i threw away
had a purpose – and worked for you and me….

But 18 years completely wasted
with each address we’ve aggregated
the tables overflowing
the traffic just stopped flowing….

And now we’re bearing all the scars
and all my traceroutes showing stars…
the packets would travel faster in cars…
the day….the routers died

Chorus (ALL!!!!!)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

Now did you write an RFC
That dictated how we all should be
Did we listen like we should that day

Now were you back at RIPE fifty-four
Where we heard the same things months before
And the people knew they’d have to change their ways….

And we – knew that all the ISPs
Could be – future proof for centuries

But that was then not now
Spent too much time playing WoW

ooh there was time we sat on IRC
Making jokes on how this day would be
Now there’s no more use for TCP
The day the routers died…

Chorus (chime in now)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

I remember those old days I mourn
Sitting in my room, downloading porn
Yeah that’s how it used to be….

When the packets flowed from A to B
via routers that could talk IP
There was data..that could be exchanged between you and me….

Oh but – I could see you all ignore
The fact – we’d fill up IPv4

But we all lost the nerve
And we got what we deserved!

And while…we threw our network kit away
And wished we’d heard the things they say
Put all our lives in disarray

The day…the routers died…

Chorus (those silent will be shot)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

Saw a man with whom I used to peer
Asked him to rescue my career
He just sighed and turned away..

I went down to the net cafe
that I used to visit everyday
But the man there said I might as well just leave…

And now we’ve all lost our purpose..
my cisco shares completely worthless…

No future meetings for me
At the Hotel Krasnapolsky

and the men that make us push and push
Like Geoff Huston and Randy Bush
Should’ve listened to what they told us….
The day…the routers….died

Chorus (time to lose your voice)

So bye bye, folks at RIPE 55
Be persuaded to upgrade it or your network will die
IPv6 just makes me let out a sigh
But I spose we’d better give it a try
I suppose we’d better give it a try

 

Words and performance by Gary Feldman

The Amen Break

This video contains an expose by Nate Harrisson about the “Amen Break”. I did not know about the “Amen Break” as a concept and this video is an eyeopener. A good piece of music history and theory that, when you are only remotely interested in the history of modern music, you should listen to.

Nate Wilson uses the history of the Amen Break to make an elloquentargument about “innovation” in arts and culture being stiffled by tostrict copyright rules.

Well worth 18 minutes of your time. One remark: this YouTube content is radio, not video.

For those who do not know what the Amen Break is here follows the first paragraph of the Wikipedia lemma:

(usually pronounced //ɑ:’mmɛn/) was a drum-solo performed by Gregory Sylvester “G.C.” Coleman. The “Amen Break”, “Amen” or imitations thereof, are frequently used as sampled drum loops in hip hop, jungle and drum and bassmusic. It is 5.20 seconds long and consists of 4 bars of the drum-solosampled from the song “Amen, Brother” as performed by the 1960s funk and soul outfit The Winstons. The song is an up-tempo instrumental rendition of an older gospel music classic. The Winstons’ version was released as a B-side of the 45 RPM 7-inch vinyl single “Color Him Father” in 1969 on Metromedia (MMS-117), and is currently available on several compilations and on a 12-inch vinyl re-release together with other songs by The Winstons.

The Mix Up

 

My brother in law gave me a late birthday present: The latest Beasty Boys album: The Mix-UP.

I have had a weak spot for the Beasty Boys for many years. I am not particularly fond of their rap style, its non melodic and almost old-school-cliche they do have ‘balls’. Their “Get it together” from the 1994 album “Ill Communication” is one of my all time favorite Rap tunes. The Boys seemed to have managed to merge Rock and Roll and Rap in a credible and sustained way.

 Il communication lead to “The Sound from Way Out“, an instrumental album that I enjoyed listening to with great pleasure.

I was a bit surprised to find the text “Their First-Ever Full Album of All-New Instrumental material”, obviously this fine marketing text needs to be close read to understand that its the first album with exclusive new material, in contrast to the Sound from the way out, that contained material from Ill Communication. Anyway, the marketeers have not spoiled the pleasure.

The sound of The Mix-Up is remarkably similar to the sound of the Sound from the way out. It seems (probably not by accident) that not much care have been taken to production value; 8-track, bedroom recordings is  my first impression. The seemingly low production  is the charm of the album; clean drum sounds, Hammond organ, wah-wah guitar, and bongo. Melodic music, with strong Bass and Guitar riffs and almost trivial melodies. Like the music that folk from the neighborhood are playing in the local community center.

To me the charm of the album is that it sounds like the music that I would like and could technically play. A couple of guys making fun without pretense, it is inspiring, and it comes close to what I think what Rock and Roll is all about.

Suspicious Activity

While over in the US last couple of weeks I bought the latest “The Bad Plus” album “Suspicious Activity”. The band has on my radars screen since I heard their first album and bought it after the first four bars of the album gave me goose bumps. Actually I am very excited that I will be seeing them life comming sunday.

But with the purchase of the album I entered SONY’s DRM hell.

During the trip I ripped the track to my laptoy, its the play-back method of my choice during trips. RIP the new albums and randomly play them, on Mac OSX/iTunes this worked perfectly.

On my home system, a windows XP box I keep the iTunes that I sync with my iPod. And the iPod is my main method for music consumption. I therefore planned to RIP the CD on my windows box too.

Not being sharp after a 24hour trip I did not realize that the install screen was not for some nice add-on but for the propriatary SONY rip tool. And that is even though I frequently read Schneiers blog, that reported about this recently. Besides, ripping the CD with the tool does not help me much since I end up with Windows Media files, those do not work well with iPods.

I now ended up with an uncontrollable piece of software. The uninstall ActiveX template, that can only be obtained after you disclosed your e-mail address (shame! shame! shame!), seemed to have failed. This might be fortunate since according to recent reports the uninstall script leaves an even bigger hole.

I am increadibly frustrated over this. Being honest and supporting good bands by buying their music is punished. And although there are rumours that Sony will recall the CDs that is probably only doable in the US and not for folk that exported the media to Europe. I wonder if I can bill SONY for the consultancy fee for reinstalling XP and all my software $1500 on damages I’d estimate.

The Bad Plus actually recommend against ripping the CD.

COPYRIGHT-PROTECTION ACTIVITY?
The American edition of our recent release, “Suspicious Activity?”, was copy-
protected by Sony/BMG without our prior knowledge. Unfortunately, we are now
further informed that Windows PC users must be advised that any attempts to
remove the anti-piracy software could result in your having to reinstall the operating
system. Mac users are not affected. The European edition of the disc does not
feature this copy-protection software.

While we would love for you to hear “Suspicious Activity?”, we are compelled
to recommend that until a safe protocol is posted on this site that you
think twice before loading the American version of the CD onto your PC–and
we profoundly regret any difficulties that Sony/BMG’s copy protection has
created for any Windows users.

I will wait until there is a sensible uninstall tool for the SONY DRM. There are a couple of blogs that write about this here, here (they posted a quote from the president of SONY BGM’s digital business), and here

I will enjoy Sunday’s concert. If these guys are as good life as in studio I am in for one of the best concerts I’ll ever see. Buy Their Music as soon as it appears without this cruft.

 

 

Math Student Project.

Hi Math student. Happy you googled this way on your quest for a topic to write your statistics paper on.

Here is the problem, its a real life problem, one that hurts about 10 million owners of an iPod.

Random is not perceived to be random.

Many of us consumadrin loaded individuals bought an iPod to enjoy a different song every day. But my iPod has a preference for Johny Cash and Dennis Leary. In a Newsweek artcicle Steven Levy wrote that his iPod favoured Steely Dan. He also tried to do a little research on the randomness of the iPod and actually interviewed Temple University prof John Allen Paulos who claimed:

"It’s entirely possible that nothing at all is amiss with the shufflefunction. It’s quite common for random processes (like coin tosses) toget unlikely results here and there, like runs of six heads in a row.Over a very long time, it evens out, but it’s hard for us to envisionthat. "We often interpret and impose patterns on random processes,"

I do not buy that.

I want statistical evidence that the birthday paradox is at work here… I want evidence that I can or can not use my iPod as a casino device. I promise access to my iPod backup to the first student who provides me the paper that proves that the iPod is not random…

And now I’ll delete Leary and Cash. I’m sick of them.

Music for today

The events in Rome made me dig up a little avant-garde masterpiece from my vinyl collection.

Blessed Easter Track 2 from “Rome Remains Rome” by Holger Czukay (1987) (also available on Amazon)

The credits on the cover read: We were blessed by the appearance of his holyness popestar Woytyla and is swining nuns during the easter ceremonies.

 

Cock


3 Songs that start with the cry of a cock.

  • The Beatles, Good Morning Good Morning from Sgt. Pepper’s Lonely Hearts Club Band.
  • Tom Waits, I’ll Be Gone from Frank’s Wild Years.
  • William S. Burroughs (and the Disposable Heroes of Hiphopricy), Words of Advice for Young People from Spare Ass Annie and Other Tales

Are there more?

 

Sisi and Sissy boys

Sisi and Sissy boys



About a week ago I was invited to attend the musical “Elisabeth” in the the “Theater an der Wien“.This was the second time I attended a musical show. And although Iappreciate obviously high production quality (hydrolic platforms,costume changes every other minute, &c, &c) I just do not enjoythe music. Again it has a high production quality but for some reason Musicals do not appeal to me that much. Is it because of the cliches? Idon’t know, rock-n-roll is full of 3-chord cliches. Is it the lackof irony? That could well be, because there is one musical, which I have never seen, butlistened to many many times and that is full of irony. “Thing Fish”.

So what about this topic title… Sisi and Sissy boys.

Well as you all known “Elisabeth” Empress of Austria – Queen of Hungary was called “Sisi”. And the first line in “Thing Fish” is:

Once upon a time, musta been ’round October, fewyears back, in one o’ dose TOP SECRET LAB-MOTORIES de gubbnint keep stashed away underneathVirginia, an EVIL PRINCE, occasion’ly employed asa part-time THEATRICAL CRITICIZER set to woikin’on a plot fo de systematic GENOCIDICALREMOVE’LANCE of all unwanted highly-rhythmicindividj’lls an’ sissy-boys!

Back to listening to the hilaric adventures of our EVIL PRINCE, Ronda, Harry and Sister OB’DEWLLA ‘X.