February 24, 2004
The Alpaca Guessed?
Regular readers will recall that I've been working with the composer Rohan Leach on a project with the implausible name of Alpaca Guessed. (The image to the left is an Alpaca looking thoughtful, as though he is in the process of making an estimate or conjecture without sufficient information).
We now have six or seven pieces in the can, including a couple to which I've recently been adding overdubs. Enlightenment is an uplifting piece, which could alternatively be titled WG Snuffy Walden In Bombay or Gary and Melissa go hunting tigers.
Loam is a rather less uplifting piece, which could alternatively be titled Beelzebub slips in the fires of hell, falling down the eternal staircase of doom whilst plagued by one thousand minor demonic cats who juggle xylophones so badly that they keep landing on Beelzebubs head giving him a Really Bad Headache. Try it - you might like it!
If you listen to Loam, you will probably go - my, that sounds a little chaotic in places - is it supposed to sound like that? And therein lies an amusing tale.
Rohan and I have been working on this music through the medium of jiffy bags. That's right - Rohan will send me a CD containing some Bawu and percussion parts (or whatever), and I'll add some piano and banjo (or whatever), and send my parts back to him, etc etc.
I recently sent back the mad-as-a-fishfinger piano parts I recorded for Loam, but I neglected to tell him that the audio files didn't start at the very beginning, but instead started around 30 seconds in. So, Rohan had them lined up at the very start of the piece was auditioning my piano parts all offset by 30 seconds. To his credit (showing what an open mind he has to the avant garde), he didn't spot that anything was fundamentally wrong (aside from the last 30 seconds of the piece being unnaturally sparse!). Oh, how we laughed.
February 19, 2004
The World's Craziest Terrorist...ever!
So, what is a terrorist? Is it someone who blows things up? Is it someone who has a large beard? Is it someone who carries an almanac? No. It is someone who spreads terror amongst society to further their own ends (be they political or monetary).
Given this definition, then the arch terrorist of our times has to be Rupert Murdoch and the rest of the Fox News organisation (Typical subtext to any 5 minutes on Fox News: Watch out! Bad Things will happen to you! You are Not Safe!)
Given an alternative definition from Webster's Revised Unabridged Dictionary “One who governs by terrorism or intimidation”, then we have a new candidate for “arch terrorist of our times”. And his middle name is Walker…
On another note, I see that Alien Zoos are in the news again.
February 04, 2004
Music Plasma
Tosha has recently pointed me at this site, with the health warning that it may contribute to increased CD purchasing.
It attempts to show related artists (exact mechanism not known, but it doesn't do a bad job - it knows that The Lilac Time and The Devils are related, and that Martin Newell and XTC are related). It also gives you a list of albums (together with musical samples), plus links to purchase from Amazon (doh!).
I'd like to see some trainspotter information, so you could link artists based upon producers, who played bass on which album, who wrote for who etc. I've started building up these kinds of pictures in my head (like a variant of the six degrees of Kevin Bacon game), so I'd like to see this made real.