A Warped Exercise in Listening

Sound and Performance: Expanded Practice - Workshop Rehearsal

Today I had a workshop rehearsal at uni for my performance unit. Unfortunately I forgot to take a photo of my setup.

Gear list:

• Arturia Minibrute
• Korg Monotrons (Classic, Duo & Delay)
• Boss BX-600 mixer
• MXR CarbonCopy delay pedal
• electro-harmonix Superego synth engine pedal (on loan from friend)
• Focusrite Saffire Pro 24 interface (on loan from friend, got my own on the way)
• Ableton Live 9 & APC40 (on loan from uni), triggering and manipulating my own field recordings, as well as some sampled drum breaks and effects

The synths were connected directly to the mixer (Monotrons chained), and several outputs from Ableton were routed to separate channels with the Saffire. The two pedals were chained on the send/return channel.

The performance assessment will have to be 15-20 minutes in length; today I played for about 12 minutes, all improv. The biggest issue was getting levels right; this was the first time I’d performed solo in a large space/with an audience, so I felt apprehensive about playing loud. As a result, some of my samples were too quiet (particularly drums), while other things were too loud (some vocal samples). Also, it was the first time I had used the APC40 (which was a delight, I want one of my own now!). On the whole, my concept was well-received, and I was pleasantly surprised by my lecturer’s response (he’s known to be quite critical). Imagine analog gurgles and dub delay, spacey atmospheres and lethargic drums in a big mangled noisy drone mess.

I am planning to write some original beats of my own, rather than sampling and looping drum breaks. One of the main criticisms was the lack of rhythmic climax (tempo sat around 40-50bpm and volume remained low). Hopefully this will lend better structure to my performance and provide listeners with more stable points of reference.

2013-05-22

• [NakedLunch]
• 2010 Records
• 3024
• 7even Recordings
• Apple Pips
• Aquatic Lab
• Atom River
• Black Acre (& Team Acre)
• Black Box (& Box Clever, BLKND)
• Chestplate
• Deep Medi Musik
• Disfigured Dubz
• DMZ
• Hemlock Recordings
• Hessle Audio
• Hotflush Recordings
• Hyperdub
• infrasonics
• Keysound Recordings
• Kokeshi
• Lo Dubs
• Nonplus Records
• Osiris Music UK
• Punch Drunk
• Ramp Recordings
• Ringo Records
• Skull Disco
• Soul Motive
• Soulja
• Sub Continental Dub
• Swamp81
• Tectonic (& fellow Multiverse Music labels Kapsize, Earwax, et al.)
• Tempa
• Texture Records
• Werk Discs
• Wheel & Deal Records
• Woe To the Septic Heart!

Impeccable dubstep/bass music record labels, A List.