innerspaceboy

I see that about a year ago, someone started a Topsters.de thread, but it's been inactive for months so I'm sticking to my journal.

Topsters.de, a site that lets you build a gallery of your favorite records, has exploded in popularity once again among FB vinyl communities. And so, ladies and gentlemen, I present - The Innerspace Hot 100!

These are the 100 records I'd grab first in a house fire. Followed by another hundred. And so on...

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innerspaceboy

Keeping the Topsters.net trend going!

Here in all its glory is my 20th Century Electronic & Avant-Garde vinyl collection (plus all my super-cheesy Moog records for good measure.)

The stand-out killer of this collection is Raymond Scott's Manhattan Research Inc 3LP set issued by Basta Records in Holland.

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innerspaceboy

In the fall of 2013, I happened upon a set of classic Sherlock Holmes radio broadcasts in a second-hand record shop which instantly sparked a curiosity within me. I’d never previously read the novels or heard any of the radio programs, and wanted to properly initiate myself into the world of Sir Arthur Conan Doyle. Amusingly, I was also oblivious to the then-recent television dramatization starring a one, Benedict Cumberbatch. (Still entirely off my radar.)


And so, I did what any man would do in my position - I tracked down a copy of the mammoth Annotated Sherlock Holmes single-volume first edition hardcover in its oversize slipcase. It is, perhaps, a coffee table book, in that it is nearly the size of a coffee table. The treasure of a book is fully-illustrated and complete with annotated notes and maps of the where the stories take place.


My search continued with the acquisition of several classic radio dramas -

The Mercury Theater's The Immortal Sherlock Holmes from September 25th, 1938

CBS Radio Mystery Theater - The New Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 83 CD set (1939-1947)


and The BBC's The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes 79 CD set (1989-1998)


Also, for audiobook fans, you can take your pick from either the 2001 Alec Reid Recordings’ 60 CD Edition read by John Telfer, or the more recent (and certainly more manageable) MP3 CD of the 2014 Audie Award Winning Brilliance Audio Heirloom Collection as read by Simon Vance.


While I’m a tremendous fan of old time radio and I absolutely recognize the cultural significance of Basil Rathbone’s performances as Holmes, I found the BBC radio dramas from the 80s and 90s more my style and happily forked over 4.67GB of my hard-earned private tracker ratio for all 79 discs of the series.

Much to my dismay I found that the lady or gent who so kindly ripped this massive library of CDs to share them with the world neglected to account for the subtle but stubbornly-persistent RFI interference his PC was generating which had apparently transferred onto every minute of the catalog.

I searched high and low in all corners of every tracker on the net, but to no avail. It appeared that this gentleman’s rip is the de-facto source audio for every circulating copy of the Holmes radio dramas.


I even attempted to screen out the noise via Audacity. I tried noise reduction filters, limiting, leveling, and repairing the waveform. Sadly, the pulsing static persistently penetrated every part of their performance.

Over the past two years I’ve repeatedly tried to listen to and enjoy A Study in Scarlet, but could not make it through 30 minutes without closing the file in frustration. A keen ear is a curse in a circumstance like this.

Still there is a happy ending to my tale of woe - This morning I played the Scarlet episode for my girlfriend and she posed an interesting (though likely obvious) question -

“Have you tried playing any of the other of the 79 discs?”


So… funny story... it appears that, disc 1 aside, the remaining discs are entirely RFI-free. In two years, it had never occurred to me to expand the size of my survey set.

And so concludes the Case of the Ruinous RFI. I am looking forward to spend my spring in the company of Mr. Holmes and Dr. Watson.

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innerspaceboy

With the whole of my Saturday evening at my command I decided to delve deeper into the culture surrounding a yet-unread title on my bookshelf - The notorious Illuminatus! Trilogy. Little did I know that the exploration would bring a number of my artistic and musical favorites full-circle in a sphere of related influence!


Having read Malaclypse the Younger’s Principia Discordia, (a wonderful bit of counter-cultural madness), I already had a fundamental (mis)understanding of the lunacy that is Discordianism. But in my readings, there were multiple references to its earlier incarnation - the social revolutionaries known as The Situationist International.

For those unfamiliar with the group, their philosophy is, for the most part, summarized thusly:

[Situationism] is derived primarily from anti-authoritarian Marxism and the avant-garde art movements of the early 20th century, particularly Dada and Surrealism. Overall, situationist theory represented an attempt to synthesize this diverse field of theoretical disciplines into a modern and comprehensive critique of mid-20th century advanced capitalism.

Essential to situationist theory was the concept of the spectacle, best-illustrated in Guy Debord’s 1967 book and found-footage film - each titled, La société du spectacle (The Society of the Spectacle).

The Spectacle is a criticism of advanced Capitalism, where real-life experiences are replaced with the commodified consumerist culture of living through one’s possessions. The Situationists viewed this passive consumption as damaging to the quality of human life for both individuals and society. Instead of living vicariously through one’s purchases and property, the Situationists sought to create situations - moments of life deliberately constructed for the purpose of reawakening and pursuing authentic desires, experiencing the feeling of life and adventure, and the liberation of everyday life.

The film, The Society of the Spectacle (1973) is available in its entirety, dubbed Fr subbed Eng here:


And only a few years later, the film Network (1976) would similarly address the societal dangers of mass media.


This philosophy was clearly an influence on the hippie art scene of the 1960 with their staging of nearly-spontaneous Happenings. I was honored to attend the first Happening of the season in Buffalo for an impromptu performance of Terry Riley’s In C with participation from children in the audience.

Tracking the influence back even further (and then again, to the present) I learned of the French avant-garde movement, established in Paris in the mid-1940s by Romanian immigrant Isidore Isou known as Lettrisme (Lettrism) and his concept of Hypergraphics in 1954.

Here is an Orson Welles Interview featuring Isidore Isou and Lettrist poetry - rich with Dadaist influence.


In 1958, Columbia Records issued the very first recordings of Letterist poetry - Maurice Lemaître presente le lettrisme.

This poetry adds another level of historical context to the performance I attended by composer Ethan Hayden at the University at Buffalo this past January. While there was likely a Situationist influence on his work, "…ce dangereux supplément…" (2015) for solo voice (with optional electronics & video), Hayden’s piece is phonetically and linguistically more refined (though equally absurd!) both in its content and his delivery. While I absolutely recognize the importance of Isidore Isou’s philosophy and his primitivist poems, Hayden has a far-greater command of language (or perhaps of nonsense?) and I look forward to his future performances.

And in 2007 to celebrate the life of Isou, The End of the Age of Divinity was published in his honor. The book is available for free below.


Once again coming full-circle to more recent artistic movements, Lettrism brought me to aforementioned Lettrist hypergraphical art, pictured below.


While I am by no means a scholar of art history, the influence here is clear as day on the 1990s typographic art of David Carson (famed for his work in Raygun Magazine and for Nine Inch Nails) and on Karl Hyde and John Warwicker’s Tomato art collective, which created the deconstructivist typographical art for Underworld’s Dubnobasswithmyheadman.


Art of this nature is rooted in the cut-up technique first employed by the Dadaists in the 1920 and again in the late 1950s and early 1960s by William S. Burroughs. But it was the audio incarnation of cut-up that I first encountered in music culture, from the earliest (and quite literal) tape cut-ups of musique concrete, to the resurfacing of the method by the BBC Radiophonic Workshop, Eno, and others, to the explosion of sampledelica culture in 1980s and 90s hip-hop and turntablism.

And around the same time, the radical and subversive art of culture jamming was born. The term, coined in 1984, refers to any form of guerilla communication, such as the vandalist works by The Billboard Liberation Front and the illegal-art sample-based music of Negativland.


All of this brought me back, yet again full-circle to The KLF. The documentary, On the Passage of a few People through a Rather Brief Moment in Time: The Situationist International 1956-1972 contains flashes of the phrase,


This very notion was later reiterated by Jimmy Cauty and Bill Drummond of the KLF in the K Foundation’s cryptic adverts appearing in UK national newspapers in 1993. The first ad proclaimed,


It is only now that I realize that John Higgs’ endlessly fascinating book, THE KLF: Chaos, Magic, and the Band Who Burned a Million Pounds directly referenced the Situationists, the Discordians, Alan Moore and "Ideaspace", and Robert Anton Wilson - all of the key figures I am now exploring.


Incredible discoveries are waiting to be made every day, and quiet Saturday evenings, like yesterday’s, are gleaming with potential for magic just like this. I've now a week ahead of me and a century of exciting new art to explore.

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innerspaceboy

MASSIVELY funky news, everyone!

I am presently planning my ultimate nerd-core wedding. The event will celebrate love, live action role playing, fandoms, filesharing, and crazy obscure cult music perfect for freaks like us.

THE LOCATION -

Portmeirion, UK - on the set of The 1967 BBC cult classic, The Prisoner!



The Costumes

I will be LARPing as Number 48 - the anarchistic chaotic-neutral character in the final episode.



My partner will be dressed in the finest Victorian splendor and will carry a replica of Kaylee's parasol from Firefly.



The Invites

Each guest will receive an invitation themed in their favorite fandom, and will be invited to show up dressed as their favorite character.

The Music

My favorite DJ from the UK will be spinning all our favorite music - Doctor John, Tom Waits, the Funky Meters, Skull Snaps, Lemon Jelly, and other delightful madness.

The Ring - A Symbol of Love... and Piracy



Together, my lady and I came up with the perfect concept for my ring. Pictured below is an uncirculated coin from the micronation of Sealand. It is one of the only items ever produced by the country. Sealand is the home of HavenCo - a pirate server network responsible for petabytes of filesharing traffic. Fortunately, the prince of Sealand has made piracy legal in their country by royal decree.



This coin - one of approx. 1000 in the world, will be formed into a wedding band by a silversmith in Oregon.



My lady is a proud anti-consumerist and anti-capitalist, and as such she hates diamonds and gold. Also the thrifty type, she challenged me to find a beautiful antique 1920s-era engagement and wedding ring for under $100. Mission accomplished and she is going to LOVE what I've put together for her. (Keepin' that under wraps for now.)

Officially becoming Lord and Lady

We are also submitting applications for Lord and Ladyship of Sealand.



The Proposal

The proposal will take place at the famous Genesee Country Museum which features costumed interpreters in restored historic buildings, breathing life into an authentic 19th-Century village.

We'll be dressed in full period regalia and I'll surprise her in the music parlor of the octagon house, built in 1870.



The Catering

We are thrilled to have Cereal Killers - the finest selections of breakfast cereal from all over the world, catering our event!



I'll likely get a projector and show a VHS of 80s cartoons during the reception.



We're crafting all the event decor ourselves, we're designing all the print media, and our photographer friends will capture the entire event for reddit to fawn over.

It's going to be an incredible wedding.

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grtwhtgrvty

not sure if you know about this but it's great.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MaSi7Gut7xM

innerspaceboy

An absolute essential - I feel awful for not having mentioned it in my ambient feature! Yes, this is an incredible record. Curious if there'll be a vinyl reissue one day.

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grtwhtgrvty

That part where they sample the dog whine. so good.

innerspaceboy

Dog whine kills me every time. My girlfriend leaves the room whenever it's coming.

Also - Mogwai's "Punk Rock."

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innerspaceboy

Below is an objective and thorough 24-bit vs 16-bit audio A/B test taken by 140 golden-eared audiophiles, engineers, musicians, and hardware reviewers.

In aggregate there was no evidence to show that the 140 respondents were able to identify the 24-bit sample.

Check out the complete results here.

Curious to see if any listeners on MB have evidence to the contrary?

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