Here is a great television special about British synthpop & synthesizers in the late 70s and early 80s produced by BBC Four. Some of the talking heads are from members of Joy Division, Human League, Kraftwerk, Cabaret Voltaire, OMD Gary Numan (who has Asberger’s by the way) and more.
thanks, Glen Stefani!
Genki Sudo / “World Order” <-- Google this guy, he's nuts! (In a good way)
Here’s a cool mini-documentary on the Roland TB-303, by Nate Harrison, the same guy who did the Amen Break documentary.
via Michael O’Shea
Chicago gets a taste of the Montreal-based digital art and electronic music festival that showcases innovation in music and creativity on April 21-23 with Avant_Mutek: Chicago.
Founded in 2000, Mutek is an international festival organization dedicated to the promotion of electronic music and the digital arts. Its main event is an annual five-day event in Montreal, Canada that takes place in late May and early June. Many of electronic music’s most established figures have performed, as well as numerous new artists who have gone on to build sustainable careers. Along with performances, the festival also features workshops relating to gear and software showcases, and panel discussions concerning the issues that face electronic music and music production.
Reformat the Planet is a feature-length documentary that focuses on some of the personalities behind the 8-Bit / chiptune scene in New York City, featuring some of our favorite Game Boy artists, notably Bit Shifter.
Reformat the Planet (RTP) is a feature length documentary which delves into the movement known as chip music, a vibrant underground scene based around creating new, original music using obsolete video game hardware. Familiar devices such as the Nintendo Game Boy and Nintendo Entertainment System are pushed in new directions with startling results.
…After documenting several live chip music performances in New York City and being invited to film the first year of the now annual Blip Festival, it was clear that they stood before a rich cultural mine that few were tapping in any long-form projects. The decision to focus the film on the varied personalities of the NYC chip music scene was a quick and obvious one.
Here’s a nice article over at Memeshift with a lot of resources from all over the intertrons for getting started making electronic music. Even though it’s a bit old (2008), it focuses on basic principles and components, like oscillators, filters, synthesizer programming, and sampling. A nice resource for people just getting started.
The author recommends Ableton Live as the sequencer of choice, because it allows for both live performance and more traditional sequencing and I agree. I would also add that to get some really advanced sound and have control over it at a very granular level, look into MAX / Msp. Despite the steep learning curve, and somewhat unintuitive interface, it allows for some very interesting, interactive and experimental projects, like these over at Musicthing and these over at Create Digital Music. There’s a guy who uses turntables to video mix, someone who created an invisible violin using a wii controller and bluetooth with MAX/Msp, and a crazy balloon + lights + sound installation by Monolake at Mutek.
If you just want to play with something online and get the feel for making electronic music, Audiotool (pictured above) is pretty awesome.
“How to Start Marking Electronic Music”
Also, if you live in Chicago, there are other physical humans that can help with your quest at
via
DJ Tech Tools has done a comprehensive comparison of the main players out there in the digital DJ World. With a chart!
Read more: “Battle of the 1s and 0s. Traktor Vs Ableton Vs Serato”
Check out our Soundcloud Meetup at Transistor. The folks from Transistor, a cool music and bookstore in Uptown have kindly agreed to host this Meetup. Also, this Meetup will be a bit tricked up. There will be Soundcloud swag and wi-fi, so people can share their tracks.
From the Soundcloud Meetup Group:
Also, the folks from Soundcloud would like for us to record some audio (music, interviews, whatever) from the meetup to share with the Soundcloud community.
I made a Group on Soundcloud where you can post your tracks: Chicago Innovative Electronic Music Soundcloud Group
When: Wednesday, February 9, 2011
7:00 PM
Where: Transistor, 5045 N Clark St
Chicago, IL
Liz Revision:“Ode To Sniffles” [DOWNLOAD]
Actual paper toy to follow, once I reinstall Windows + Adobe CS5 on the work putie.
1. Altered Tensions “Slow in Ashes” The Answer to the Question You Forgot to Ask [Self]
2. Diarmo “Details” Robohustlin [subVariant]
3. s.t. “Emotions in a Box” Emotions in a Box [Monotonik]
4. Elijah B. Torn “oooEight” Robohustlin [subVariant]
5. Kettel “Boekebaas” Myam James 2 [Sending Orbs]
6. Fourtet “Sings (Extended)” There is Love in You [Domino]
7. Quantazelle “Polychromatic Tomatoes v.1″ Unreleased
8. Deetron “Collide” Collide [Green]
9. Marc Romboy vs. Stephan Bodzin “Atlas” 6 Monde [Systematic]
10. Nick Curly “Kalimba” Critical Mass EP [Murmur]
11. Peaches “Lose You (Brodinski & Yuksek Remix)” Lose You [XL Recordings]