In 2008, Liz’s Ramp Chicago had a successful run of monthly techno events in the basement of Debonair Social Club. She decided that resurrecting the subVariant label would provide more opportunities to produce events with an interactive twist. She says, “I did a lot of searching to find alternative venues…to get a bigger space that would bring in more people, in order to have the caliber of talent I’m interested in bringing.” For its label re-launch, subVariant will host Berlin-based producer and DJ InsideOut at Vision Nightclub. The NYC ex-pat and co-owner of minimal techno label Clink Recordings will headline with local DJs Hernan Sanchez, Gianna Hardt and McLean-Knight (as Liz Revision) supporting.
Here’s a list of a bunch of stuff I’ve been digitally collecting and hoping for IRL versions for a while: Liz McLean Knight’s Wishlist. Some highlights:
Back in the day, way before Dance Dance Revolution, Guitar Hero and Rock Band, there was a rhythm game that had you getting down to Latin grooves and shaking your maracas. That game was Samba de Amigo. Grab yourself a Dreamcast on Ebay, score the special maraca controllers, invite some peeps over and you’ll have a party that’s worth blogging about in the days to come, not to mention some hilarious photo opps.
Ah, the warm yet fashionable addition of intersected integers makes an outfit complete. This cool little company (literally Little Factory) based out of Hong Kong churns out a typographical phantasmagoria of laser-cut accessories (you can get uppercase or lowercase letters instead of numbers if you prefer to roll ASCII). Downside is that you have to wait a week after ordering for your stuff to ship, which is assumably so that all the little laser gnomes have time to cut out your design from a sheet of ultrasuade.
Bigger events obviously require more money but that doesn’t necessarily have to come from ticket sales alone. If you’ve got a targeted demographic within your audience you’ve got an asset to other businesses who would love to ride along on your coattails to awesomeness. This book delves into doing all the things that appeal to the things that corporate wants to see. Good to add to the reference shelf.
Although the ending is a bit dated on this 1996 talking heads documentary (re: future potential of the Internet), it seems to be an insightful yet playful documentary on the start of the PC revolution. It features interviews with Bill Gates, Steve Jobs, and Steve Wozniak and interesting bits of trivia along with highlighting the accidental nature of the revolution (it’s based on the book Accidental Empires). If you prefer a more dramatized version, go with Pirates of Silicon Valley (which I own. thanks, Beth!)
When I’m in product design or promo / marketing mode and need to come up with something physical that’s extra special this would be the go-to book for me. It’s a design inspiration book that focuses on the small, yet exciting details of a piece. In the 1,000 series, this book focuses on embellishments available to graphic designers across all kinds of projects, from books to brochures, invitations to menus, CDs to annual reports. And it’s organized by type; if you are trying to come up with an unusual binding, turn to the “bindings” section to see some ideas. I own the 1,000 Greetings book and it’s gorgeous so I can drool over this one in anticipation.
Sure does look like one, though? Well it’s actually a ceramic cup with a heat-resistant silicone lid that you can use over and over again, unlike the actual version that’s made out of paper and just adds more trash to the planet. Anyone who does anything thought-intensive and in front of a computer realizes the value of caffeine to the process. A hilarious mobile coffee delivery system will make the perfect gift.
If you’re the armchair physicist sort who flips out over the metaphysical ramifications of Schrodinger’s cat and yet still likes to be entertained then you’ve got to snag this highly produced documentary. Yeah it’s got the sensory-challenged Marlee Matlin as its dramatized protagonist (which can make for some giggle-stifling moments, for the sake of brutal honesty) but it’s likely a choice based on some higher motifs. And when you can toss discussion about motifs into a documentary that’s downright special (and not as in -education) and posits theories that uses the assumptions behind quantum physics as its springboard it’s nerdy yet fun. And how often does that intersection happen?
If you DJ or–in some fashion–support those who do, this book will be a great way to contextualize the profession. This book provides a history of the DJ and the music forms that DJs have profligated since the advent of vinyl as a medium of auditory stimulation and satisfaction. The history that this book attempts to recount isn’t an end-all-to-be-all, but it covers enough ground to satisfy even the most discriminating electronic music lover like yours truly.
Here’s the post from my Quantazelle site. In case you were wondering about the “costume change” references, yes, at one point in my music career I was, um, well, more “performative” is the polite description, I suppose.
A while back I did an interview with Prof. Andrew Hugill for a book he was working on. Turns out it came out almost a year ago and somehow it totally slipped past me (although the release date does coincide with a mega computer + multi-hard drive catastrophe I had to endure so that could be part of the problem). Cruising the Googz I stumbled across an excerpt from it in Google Books. The other interviews in there are interesting as well. It comes across as electronic music creation less on a tech-fetish tip than from the perspective of some pretty insightful musicians who use the tools however they see it. Amazon carries it and it’s around in some other places so if you’re up for an interesting read you should snag it.
Last year I was a LOLcat. What were you? Help us all get inspired for this year’s costumification by sending in a photo of your costume from last year to Fractalspin and you’ll some Nerds in the mail.
Ah, trackers. This cool video brings back memories of the program I learned how to write electronic music on: Impulse Tracker. Nights after my web design job I’d sit for hours in front of my Pentium IV in DOS learning hexadecimal so I could add notes one by one and then toss on note effects. It was primitive compared to what we have today, but it taught me a lot about DSP and composition and without it I wouldn’t be where I am today (my most recent album is Coaster, which was done with FL Studio. Mercifully my early attempts at music done with IT have vanished into the ether ).
Trackers are sample based, and back in the day when hard drives were smaller one had to think about file size carefully when dealing with multimedia stuff. The easiest route to go was to just use sounds already on your hard drive in the Windows system folder. The artist, SomethingUnreal, expanded on the idea and made a track from Windows XP and Windows 98.
The artist uses ModPlug Tracker:
http://www.softpedia.com/get/Multimed…
That will install itself as a program, which you can start running from the Start menu, as you would with most other programs.
A while ago, I made a VERY brief (sorry) guide for getting started with ModPlug Tracker, and at least getting SOME sound out of it.
It’s at my site, here:
http://robbi-985.homeip.net:8000/info…
(Since that’s a text file, it might be easier to read if you download it (right-click, Save Link or Target As) and view it in a text editor like Notepad.)
From Corey Rusk’s indie-rock powerhouse Touch & Go to the eclectic catalog of Thrill Jockey to hip-hop oasis that is Galapagos 4 and fun-loving rap duo The Cool Kids, music of any and every genre can be found in all corners of the Windy City.
For the next installment of the XLR8R Podcast, we took a look at the music scene in Chicago and pulled together a few of our current and classic favorites for this hour-long mix. We check in with IDM/experimental maverick Liz McLean Knight (a.k.a. Quantazelle), get down with hip-hop duo Qwel & Kip, tune into Kid Sister producer/remixer Gant Man, enjoy some cheeky raps from the aforementioned Cool Kids, and more. “Chicago Rocks” podcast at XLR8R
JIMMY EDGAR (Warp Records – NYC)
Labels: WARP.ISOPHLUX.M3RCK.CITINITE.DETUND
Snatching all kinds of influences from his Detroit birthplace and his current New York base, Jimmy Edgar manufactures unique and provocative modern sound environments. Stitching beats together since he was ten, he released his first records with ISOPHLUX and M3RCK. His ensuing WARP Records releases, the acclaimed EP Bounce, Make, Model and full-length album Color Strip, broke the rhythm and melody down to its prime components to create a tight, ultra-modern feel. Jimmy’s latest release – I Don’t Know (What You’re Doing To Me; Citinite 2008) is what Boomkat calls “a thick and slick slice of late night dancefloor gratification that references Prince, Drexciya, Zapp and many more in the finest style.”
Jimmy is currently at work on his full-length follow-up to Color Strip…. expect some peeks into future releases in this “can’t miss” special live/dj performance. {READ MORE}
I’m featured on the cover of the Chicago Tribune’s RedEye today–it’s a free magazine for a feature about geek girls, and especially those in Chicago.
“Geek Chic: New generation of women embracing inner geek” [via the RedEye]
If dissassembling computers is geeky and making jewelry is girly, then Liz McLean Knight has found geek-girl nirvana. From her Wicker Park office, Knight, 30, runs a line of accessories make from computer components and sells the “fashionably-geek hipster gear” on a Web site she created, fractalspin.com.
There you’ll find necklaces made from capacitors. Handbags made of diskettes. Cufflinks made from microcontrollers. Woot! Those wrist cuffs made of MIDI cable are super neat!
So I’m engaged to Andrew Lochhead. It’s pretty great. We’ve decided to get married this year during the Movement 2008 festival in Detroit at a nice little island in the river between Detroit and Windsor, since he’s Canadian and I’m a US Citizen. We’ll have the reception at a party space somewhere in Detroit that will be open to everyone, and then move on to one of the post-Movement afterparties. After spending the next fews days at the festival we’ll go on our honeymoon in Montreal to take in Mutek.
Here’s a cool remix project I participated in for my friends The Heaven Seventies. My version of “The Coldest Day of the Year” is a micro-sampled techno version. Enjoy!
Triumph of the Nerds
Here’s the post from my 
).
