Sounds from Innerspace

**Marie Monday** · 12-18-2019, 01:39 AM

I'm proud to say that my first action as a mod was approving this post

Cool stuff as always, ISB, and happy holidays to you too!

innerspaceboy · 12-18-2019, 01:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MarieMarie

I'm proud to say that my first action as a mod was approving this post

Cool stuff as always, ISB, and happy holidays to you too!

Wow! I'm honored! Thank you, and congratulations on your new role!

innerspaceboy · 01-11-2020, 11:11 AM

Exciting news to start off the new year! A classic recording of the ambient genre has been issued for the very first time on vinyl by Important Records. The Massachusetts-based label has issued special releases from artists including Daniel Johnston, Boris, Coil, and Japanese noise musician Merzbow and specializes in indie rock, electronica and avant-garde music.

The label's official website posted the news in early December and quickly sold out of the gold edition on the evening of Wednesday, December 18th. The official release date is January 31, 2020 but pre-ordered copies shipped January 6th to arrive well in advance of the official date. (This copy arrived Friday, January 10th.)

From their announcement:

Quote:

To celebrate the 30th anniversary of Deep Listening, we offer you the definitive double LP combining the classic, complete original 1989 release with selected tracks from the Deep Listening Band’s 1991 album The Readymade Boomerang.

This elegant double LP is packaged in a gatefold sleeve with original and updated recollections from the performers, the recording engineer and a mesostic from John Cage, to which these recordings are inextricably linked.

Recorded in a cistern, this double LP reverberates with brilliant sonic clarity and masterfully improvised performances combining live electronics, vocals, trombone and accordion. Deep Listening is a classic in the fields of improvisation, minimalism, ambient/drone and modern classical.

Listen with attentiveness, listen while lying down, listen with headphones - as recording engineer Al Swanson entices the listener to become a virtual performer in selecting the many different ways to perceive these phenomenal tracks. Whatever you do, listen deeply.

A quick summary for those not already familiar with the band -

Deep Listening Band was founded in 1988 by Pauline Oliveros (accordion, "expanded instrument system", composition), Stuart Dempster (trombone, didjeridu, composition) and Panaiotis (vocals, electronics, composer). Oliveros was a central figure in the development of experimental and post-war electronic art music and a founding member of the San Francisco Tape Music Center. Wikipedia notes that:

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[Oliveros] coined the term "deep listening," a pun that has blossomed into "an aesthetic based upon principles of improvisation, electronic music, ritual, teaching and meditation. This aesthetic is designed to inspire both trained and untrained performers to practice the art of listening and responding to environmental conditions in solo and ensemble situations"

Pauline's mantra, exquisitely realized on this recording, was to "Listen to everything all the time and remind yourself when you are not listening".

Deep Listening Band recorded the album in the 2-million-US-gallon Fort Worden Cistern in Port Townsend, WA on October 8, 1988. The cistern has a 45-second reverberation time. AllMusic describes the unique sonic characteristics of the recording as follows:

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The unlikely instruments -- primarily accordion, trombone, didjeridu, and voice -- produce sustained tones that are subtly modulated by the extraordinary acoustics, making it often seem as if there were more instruments present, or as if this music has been electronically processed -- neither of which is the case. All the music was improvised on site, with the musicians banging on metal pipes and found objects on the final track. The effect is remarkable, immersing the listener in a hypnotic field of shifting resonance, in a truly profound experience of deep listening.

This pivotal and iconic recording was originally only issued on compact disc in the US on New Albion records in 1989 so it is a great honor to finally have it receive the double-LP vinyl treatment just in time for the album's 30th anniversary. The bonus selections from The Ready Made Boomerang and the mesostic from John Cage are wonderful additions for this special release and an exciting way to begin 2020!

innerspaceboy · 01-18-2020, 07:21 AM

I’ve been reading texts on artist, producer, and self-proclaimed “non-musician” Brian Eno for years, and thought it might be a good idea to start tracking all of the books examining his work in my library. I extracted a list of all Eno-related texts from moredarkthanshark.org and added a few other rare titles from my own archive. Referencing data from my Goodreads account I built a spreadsheet to catalog which texts I’ve read, which I have in physical form, as well as the ones I have as ebooks. I then used an aggregate book search engine to secure physical copies of most of the texts I was missing to build as complete a library as I was able. There are three titles I’ve yet to claim, but they command higher prices than I was ready to import to the States for this first stage of the project.

Pictured below are thirteen of my favorite titles on the subjects of Eno’s work, and ambient and generative music in general. There was a week delay in the project after book #13 was lost in the post and I had to order another copy, but at last I have them all.

I was particularly excited to secure a copy of Sound Unbound published by MIT Press, which compiles essays on sample/mashup/remix culture collected by Paul D. Miller (aka DJ Spooky), and which features a Forward by Cory Doctorow, my favorite essayist on the subjects of digital rights activism and copyleftism. And like the Moondog book I recently ordered, it is packaged with a companion compact disc of the works discussed.

Pictured are the following:

Brian Eno's Ambient 1: Music for Airports by John T. Lysaker
Audio Culture: Readings in Modern Music by Christoph Cox
Ocean of Sound: Aether Talk, Ambient Sound and Imaginary Worlds by David Toop
A Year With Swollen Appendices by Brian Eno
Experimental Music: Cage and Beyond by Michael Nyman
Brian Eno: His Music And The Vertical Color Of Sound by Eric Tamm
The Ambient Century by Mark Prendergast
Sound Unbound: Sampling Digital Music and Culture by Paul D. Miller
On Some Faraway Beach: The Life And Times Of Brian Eno by David Sheppard
Another Green World (33 1/3 Series) by Geeta Dayal
Brian Eno: Visual Music by Christopher Scoates
[Brian Eno: Oblique Music by Sean Albiez
Music For Installations (companion book to the ltd ed. 2018 9LP vinyl box set) by Brian Eno

as well as the official Oblique Strategies deck Eno produced with artist, Peter Schmidt.

Also read but not pictured:

Music Beyond Airports - Appraising Ambient Music by Monty Adkins

I really look forward to diving into the yet-unread titles from this indispensable collection. These books will be wonderful company through the chills of winter and shall serve as an intellectually stimulating start to 2020!

innerspaceboy · 01-25-2020, 10:29 AM

I'm pleased to share my success with a project I first began in June of 2019 but had shelved until today! I'd constructed an ambient playlist on my server of ~130,000 tracks for background listening which I enjoy for an average of 19 hours each day while I work and while I sleep. Unfortunately I found that many tracks were mastered with considerable differences in signal processing / dynamic range compression / equalization. The result was that some albums had a perceived loudness far greater than others, which disturbed my concentration and my rest.

Thankfully, a bit of research revealed that I was not alone with this concern, and that digital audio engineers addressed the issue by incorporating a feature into the ID3v2 standard outlined by hydrogenaudio as the "replaygain 1.0 specification."

Most digital music library software applications feature a replaygain function, permitting the user to apply, automatically or manually, gain adjustment values stored in the metadata of the music file to nudge the volume up or down as required, and my Linux desktop audio software was among them.

Automatic loudness measurement, (the formula for which is available on the hydrogenaudio wiki), can be applied to selected tracks individually, or to the loudness of an overall album. The album option, hydrogenaudio notes, "leave(s) the intentional loudness differences between tracks in place, yet still correct for unmusical and annoying loudness differences between albums."

The challenge was to find a mobile media server client which retained and interpreted the replaygain values during transcoding. I experimented with various mobile applications to find one which natively supported both gapless playback and replaygain.

Researching forum discussions on the subject lead me to an independent fork of my preferred media server application available for Android. The project was a success! After batch processing the replaygain values for the ambient segment of my library, the adjustments I applied to the track metadata were successfully interpreted and rendered during playback in the mobile application!

This small victory will have a profound impact on my daily and nightly listening sessions. I'm so glad I kept my notes and revisited the project!

innerspaceboy · 01-25-2020, 03:19 PM

Note: While the majority of my writings showcase musical works, I occasionally divert to touch upon other forms of media which are important to me and which strike me as culturally relevant. This was the case with Weapons of Math Destruction by Cathy O'Neil. This afternoon I want to share another new work, a web miniseries whose final episode has just been published.

My favorite independent documentary filmmaker, Kirby Ferguson has just completed production of his follow-up to the enormously satisfying, Everything Is a Remix web series, (which I cannot recommend enough!), with his informative and well-paced new venture, This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory.

From religion and the natural philosophy of the ancient Greeks to the Middle Ages, colonial America, on to the Enlightenment and beyond, the early episodes explore mathematical and technological innovations like calculus and the printing press and their profound impact on human thoughts and perceptions. Ferguson outlines the search for patterns in the animal kingdom and in the society of man, and the impact of media and pop culture in all its forms, from political ideologies to the birth of conspiracy theorism.

Episode four offers the impacts of the Kennedy assassination and The Warren Report, as well as Watergate, MK-Ultra, and other events on the public’s formulation of conspiracy theories. Episode five touches upon Roswell, the moon landing, and other cultural phenomena which further fueled the notion of conspiracies.

Ferguson progresses chronologically to explore the subcultures of emerging talk radio and VHS communication, and then on to the impacts of 911 and the world-wide web, InfoWars, and flat Earthers, and debunks many of the misconceptions which were the fundamentals of major JFK assassination conspiracies. He examines how WMDs, the US economic bail-out, and the Trump era perpetuated the psychological appeal of conspiracy theorism for the masses.

The final two episodes, parts six and seven explain how the game of Life demonstrates the unpredictability of complex systems like societies and economies and how complexity can emerge from simple rules. Self-organizing simple systems lead to emergence, as exhibited by ant colonies, beehives, and the neurons in the human brain.

The final episode expounds the powerful impact of emergence and explains that we can introduce simple rules in our own smaller systems to yield positive outcomes through emergence. But Ferguson also cautions us about the potential large-scale and unforeseen negative forces of emergence, such as climate change, economic catastrophe, and pandemics. He professes that it is our responsibility to remain skeptical of ourselves and of our misconceptions, (quoting American physicist Richard Feynman), and to foster positive emergence from the bottom up rather than projecting our struggles as being the malicious intent of an external enemy from above or of a force otherwise beyond our influence.

Ferguson explains the error of viewing complex living systems through the lens of the mechanical paradigm as was appropriate in Newton’s age and instead suggests that we need a new perspective for the speed and complexity of non-”clock-like” living systems - a network paradigm to perceive society.

This Is Not a Conspiracy Theory is an engaging examination of the history and origins of conspiratorial thought. Highly recommended for those who enjoyed Everything Is a Remix or for anyone who embraces skepticism and rationalism.

innerspaceboy · 02-22-2020, 10:18 AM

Anyone who knows me knows that I'm a tremendous fan of the electronic duo Underworld.

At age 15, their album Dubnobasswithmyheadman was my very first exposure to the world beyond Top 40 radio pop, and its award-winning typographical packaging created by the band’s critically acclaimed Tomato design collective directly inspired my pursuit of a design degree and an 18-year career in the field.

Checking my latest stats, my Underworld collection now comprises 77 physical releases and artifacts, memorabilia, subway posters, books, prints, magazine articles, DVDs, VHS tapes, etc, as well as over 600 digital albums, EPs, mixes, concerts, and other materials - over 8100 tracks including concert videos. With new material being released every week, they're showing no sign of slowing down, and they continue to expand my scope of musical appreciation with each new release.

Here is the physical portion of my collection to date. (For scale, the green print at the center is a subway poster from the UK measuring five feet in height.)

Below is an itemized inventory of the physical collection. The 8100-track digital library is too large to post here but is itemized in the Innerspace Labs Workbook previously published in this journal.

Artist - Title - Format
Screen Gemz - Teenage Teenage b/w I Just Can't Stand Cars 7" single (sleeve reproduction) - 7", Single
Freur - Matters Of The Heart - 7", Single
Freur - Get Us Out Of Here - LP, Album
Freur - Runaway (Dun Difrunt) - 12"
Freur - Look In The Back For Answers - 12"
Freur - Doot Doot - CD
Freur - Doot-Doot - 7", Pic
Freur - Doot-Doot - 12"
Freur - Doot-Doot - 12"
Freur - Doot-Doot - LP, Album
Underworld - Going Overground Melody Maker Magazine January 22, 1994 - Magazine
Underworld - Barbara Barbara, We Face a Shining Future - LP, Album
Underworld - Spikee / Dogman Go Woof - 12", Single
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - A Hundred Days Off - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - A Hundred Days Off - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - Born Slippy - 12", Single
Underworld - Dark & Long - 12", RE
Underworld - Two Months Off - 12"
Underworld - Second Toughest In The Infants - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - Rez / Cowgirl - 12"
Underworld - Stand Up - 12", Maxi
Underworld - Glory! Glory! - 12", Single
Underworld - Underneath The Radar - Cassette
Underworld - Underneath The Radar - 7", Single
Underworld - Change The Weather - LP, Album
Underworld - Long Slow Slippy / Eventually But - 12", Ltd, S/Edition
Underworld - Barking - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman - 5CD Box Set
Underworld - Underneath The Radar - LP, Album
Underworld - Underneath The Radar - LP, Album
Underworld - Cowgirl / Rez - 12", Ltd, Whi
Underworld - Pearl's Girl - 12"
Underworld - Jumbo - 12", Single
Darren Emerson - Global Underground 020: Singapore - 2CD
Darren Emerson & Tim Deluxe - Underwater, Episode 1 - 2CD
Underworld - Videos 1993-97 Footwear Repairs By Craftsmen At Competitive Prices - VHS
Underworld - tomato: onyx pearls - DVD
Underworld - Underworld Live - Everything Everything - DVD
Underworld - Barking (Super Deluxe Edition 2CD+DVD+book+autographed print) - 2CD+DVD Box Set
Underworld - 1992-2002 - 2CD
Underworld - Born Slippy - CD
Underworld - Change the Weather - CD
Underworld - Dinosaur Adventure 3D (US) - CD
Underworld - Dinosaur Adventure 3D (JAPAN) - CD
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman - CD
Underworld - A Hundred Days Off - CD
Underworld - King of Snake - CD
Underworld - Pearl's Girl - CD
Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants - CD
Underworld - Underneath the Radar - CD
Underworld - Underworld Singles Box Set - 3CD Box Set
Underworld - Limited Edition Barking Art Print (Hand numbered #64/650) - Art Print
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman A2 sized Promo Poster - Poster
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman Concert Tour Memorabilia Keyring - Keyring
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman T-Shirt (unofficial) - T-Shirt
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman Coffee Mug (unofficial) - Coffee Mug
Underworld - Dubnoboasswithmyheadman Custom Chromebook Skin and Keyboard Inlay - Laptop Skin (Custom)
Underworld - Everything Everything 150cm x 100cm UK Subway Poster - Poster
Underworld - Underworld Press Photo - Photo
Underworld - Rowla/Juanita - 12"
Underworld - Oblivion With Bells - 2xLP, Album
Underworld - Dubnobasswithmyheadman - 2LP, Album
Underworld - Second Toughest in the Infants Remastered Super Deluxe Edition - 4CD Box Set
Underworld - Beaucoup Fish Remastered Super Deluxe Edition - 4CD Box Set
Underworld and Iggy Pop - Teatime Dub Encounters - LP, EP, Limited Edition, Clear
Underworld - Drift Series 1 - 7CD+Blu-Ray DVD Box Set
Tomato - mmm.. skyscraper i love you: A Typographical Journal of New York - Art Book
Tomato - Process: A Tomato Project - Art Book
Eno • Hyde - Someday World - 2xLP, Album, S/Edition
Eno • Hyde - Someday World - 2xLP, Album, S/Edition
Eno • Hyde - Someday World 12" x 12" Art Print - Art Print
Eno • Hyde - High Life - 2xLP, Album
Eno • Hyde - Brian Eno and Karl Hyde with Flowers in Vase Against White Background Postcard - Postcard
Eno • Hyde - Brian Eno and Karl Hyde on Stage Before a Concert - Postcard
Karl Hyde - Edgeland - 2xLP, Album, 180
Karl Hyde - Personal Live Photograph - Photograph

innerspaceboy · 02-22-2020, 11:23 AM

Following the acquisition of the final four Underworld multi-disc super-deluxe box sets for my archival project, I found that my collection had outgrown its space in my record room and I wanted a storage solution which would blend seamlessly with my vintage decor. I took careful measurements and trekked to my city’s antique mall and found a large antique wooden crate the exact dimensions (to the very inch!) that I was hoping to find.

It’s a perfect vintage solution to house my collection of nearly eighty Underworld releases! The sturdy wooden crate features weathered stamping for 120lbs of (Ben) Franklin brand sugar. Here it is in my home, fitted appropriately beneath a framed promotional print of my favorite album by the duo.

innerspaceboy · 03-14-2020, 07:32 AM

I'm admittedly a latecomer to this seminal and influential work, but it's better late than never. And it's thrilling to know that despite my exhaustive hours of daily music surveys and research that there are still reflective, beautiful gems still waiting to be discovered.

And so it is with Talk Talk's 1988 LP, Spirit of Eden. The album is critically-lauded as a progenitor of the genre which would come to define the decade that followed. Wikipedia's article on Talk Talk's co-founder and songwriter, the late Mark Hollis calls attention to the fact that, "While they were commercial failures in their own time, these albums have come to be seen as early landmarks of post-rock music."

Two quotes from Hollis resonated deeply with my own philosophies of music and composition. In an interview with Danish TV, 22nd February 1998, Hollis said:

"Before you play two notes, learn how to play one note. And don't play one note unless you've got a reason to play it."

And in an interview with BBC Radio 1’s Richard Skinner around the release of their next album, Laughing Stock, Hollis adds:

"The silence is above everything, and I would rather hear one note than I would two, and I would rather hear silence than I would one note."

Wikipedia's entry for Spirit of Eden offers some insight into the album's composition:

The album was compiled from a lengthy recording process at London's Wessex Studios between 1987 and 1988. Often working in darkness, the band recorded many hours of improvised performances that drew on elements of jazz, ambient, blues, classical music, and dub.

But it was the praise-filled Pitchfork article on the album which inspired my first-listen, where the album was rated a perfect 10/10 score. The lengthy article offers a much-deserved contextual examination of the album and a few key remarks caught my attention:

In interviews, he would point to Miles Davis and Gil Evans’ orchestral jazz masterpiece Sketches of Spain, or the zen experiments of John Cage, or Vittorio De Sica’s avant-garde film The Bicycle Thieves as touchpoints for his inspiration.

...

The thrill of this music is the same thrill of listening to some of the great works of jazz, classical, and pop: the soul of Miles Davis’ In a Silent Way, the obtuse landscapes of Morton Feldman, the production and patience of Brian Eno. Today, this coming together of spirit and sound still feels like a radical and mysterious feat of popular music.

This was unequivocally an album I needed to hear.

And The Guardian described the album as a blend of "pastoral jazz, contemporary classical, folk, prog rock and loose blues into a single, doggedly uncommercial musical tapestry" which would be labeled "post-rock."

Whatever label one elects to apply, this is an exquisite specimen of sound-art, and warrants repeated listenings on reflective winter evenings such as this.

And a dear friend and ambient composer offered an insightful remark on the album, saying, "What especially impresses me is how fluid and organic it is in evading any traditional sense of ‘rock music’ at all -- and this is especially apparent in much of the soft dynamics. Any sense of music at all is almost not there, as if the music is on the verge of dissipating into silence."

RateYourMusic files the album under the categories of jazz-rock, chamber jazz, art rock, and chamber music, and its user-base charts the album as #2 for its original release year, hot on the heels of Sonic Youth's Daydream Nation. And the site offers no shortage of poetic descriptors of Hollis' style, calling it "atmospheric, passionate, peaceful, religious, introspective, meditative, lush, soothing, spiritual, bittersweet, lonely, sparse, sentimental, pastoral, soft, ethereal, melancholic, progressive, calm, uplifting, and hypnotic."

Hypnotic indeed. I immediately tracked down a copy of the UK-issued 180g 2012 remastered edition with a companion 96kHz/24bit stereo DVD. It's the perfect soundtrack to usher in the spring.

OccultHawk · 03-14-2020, 10:43 AM

I think I’ve fully established how deeply I love Sonic Youth but I’ve listened to both of those albums many more times than I have Daydream Nation.

All three are unassailable though

Laughing Stock stirs up something in me that’s deeper than I usually think I go. Even after many many listens it’s still startling how good it is.

03-14-2020, 10:43 AM	#770 (permalink)
OccultHawk one-balled nipple jockey Join Date: Dec 2010 Location: Dirty Souf Biatch Posts: 22,006	I think I’ve fully established how deeply I love Sonic Youth but I’ve listened to both of those albums many more times than I have Daydream Nation. All three are unassailable though Laughing Stock stirs up something in me that’s deeper than I usually think I go. Even after many many listens it’s still startling how good it is. __________________ 2016 2017 2018 2019 2020 Member of the Year & Journal of the Year Champion Behold the Writing of THE LEGEND: https://www.musicbanter.com/members-...p-lighter.html