Sound Art Experiment number 11

Music can be a powerful force when used correctly.

Full of the joys of summer and the sounds of diplo I made my mixtape comeback with the latest instalment of Tayalarz, and the news of Dr Dre finally delivering on his long-awaited promise of a new album that fans have been waiting more than a decade for had prompted me to make a start on a 'Compton' influenced mix.

And even tho that creation may be in the extremely early stages and may eventually be lost to gestation, with the computer fired up and the hours growing small I chose to revisit a few neglected folders on the harddrive.

Lo and behold did Saturday morning creep up on me and shake me from my bed with a new desire.  

In this age of stealth albums nobody was expecting the penultimate SoundArt to grace the world with its presence.  Very few people were even wanting it.  But regardless.

The SoundArt project was a simple idea.

Instead of giving my brother my music and asking him to produce artwork influenced by the sounds he heard we would flip the script, he would provide artwork and I would be influenced.  12 images and 12 tracks produced over 12 months to create a full length experimental album within a year.

Track 1 debuted in December 2008....

(ahem)

SoundArt11 is a curious creature.  Staring at the stars and asking the ultimate questions as the artwork seriously suggests that we are not alone.

Other tracks have been much more of a sound collage, this perhaps could have been but now sounds more of a sound presentation... Taking it's musical cue and liberally borrowing Doorly's dubstep remix of Calvin Harris' 'Not Alone' as theories jacked from YouTube play out over it.

Previous instalments have heaved with creativity, either pulling things apart or putting them together, SoundArt11 was always intended to play out that way too, but the whole ethos of this expression of art was to let it find it's own way...

Only this morning was the majority of this track spun on its head to give it a more complete feel, choosing to play with a larger chunk of the original remix than originally intended and then swinging by the buena vista social club to provide a backdrop to a healthy discussion on the intelligence of our species that had been longing for a dancing partner for a long time.  The last piece of the puzzle fell from the sky, hailing from a planet that no longer exists.  I rented Man Of Steel two years ago in order to reuse a message that seems to resonate throughout this track, and also through the entire project.

adjusting transitions

see what i'm capable of doing when i put my mind to it?

not only have i stripped the decking to the best of my abilities whilst catching a fair bit of sun at the same time, i have also found the time to do my fair share of house work, read a comic in the sun whilst enjoying a beer that gets me up to date for reading Final Crisis, fixed the toilet, unfixed the light that needs to be returned to B&Q and fixed my dupstep mix.

of course, i thought it was finished the first time round, but a few little niggles and issues that had been raised by my girlfriend have been taken into consideration and with a little bit of tweaking i'm hoping that it shall meet with approval

nothing drastic has changed, everything has stayed the same, i have just readjusted a handful of the transitions as a number of tracks seemed to be coming in too loud and ruined the flow slightly, but like i said, i thought it was fine the first time round... let's see if i go back for any further edits....

but i am proud of it, the title pretty much says it all really...

wub be good to me, a dubstep cut'n'paste mix by Hunchbakk

Wub be good to me, a dubstep cut'n'paste mix by Hunchbakk

i basically cut and pasted the whole thing together in Acid, creating my own little loops and edits and merging tracks together as best as i possibly could, and i'll say it again, i am proud of it, for every little niggle or obvious flaw there have been other mixes, transitions and edits that have been so smooth that they have not raised any attention at all, it may not be perfect, but it's mine.

and so, perhaps for a little piece of history on this mix.

it was created for a friend that doesn't like dubstep.

we were at a dubstep night at Bar Form, and to be honest, it was slightly on the boring side, there was no real variation, nothing to really hook anybody in to the music, some of it was banging, but the rest of the time it strayed into repetitive and generic territory.

my friend was particularly unimpressed and it was easy to pinpoint what it was she didn't like about what was being played, yet i insisted that there would be dubstep that i think she would like and vowed to knock together a CD of tracks that i think she might have liked.

except some of these tracks and mixes were going on five or six minutes or more long, and strayed into repetitive and generic territory, so instead of just knocking together a playlist to burn off and wallow in the glove compartment of her car i instead thought i'd try and get a little creative and actually mix the tracks to suit her attention span.

so, in my own way i decided to splice together a mix that would reach back to the moody and pioneering dubstep of Burial as something of a history lesson, but also take in more vocal based tracks and remixes, as well as covering a number of more recognisable tunes in a filthy dubstep disguise, and since i couldn't let her get away without a little something to challenge her i also threw in tracks from Caspa and Rusko amongst the more palatable tracks as something of a contrast.

so what are you waiting for? 

download it

share it

share feedback

let me know what you think

and for those that have to have the whole package, at teh top of the post is the front cover, at the bottom of the post is the back cover, and for those with snazzy printers that can print onto CDs (you lucky people, you) i have also put together an image suitable for the CD which you can find over here

thanks

the barnyard battle

how foolish of me, there i was yesterday, typing up a long-awaited blog post and i only go and leave out something of relevance that i wanted to point readers in the direction of.

instead, you get more apologies and an extra post which i guess makes things look just a little bit more active around these parts.



so.

dubstep.


when i'm writing articles or features for The Enfield Advertiser (or possibly Seeking Susan Boyle or Glasswerk) i try to cover most bases, obviously the paper i try to anchor with local interest to keep it relevant, but i also like to mix in reviews of other artists, be they popular or rather niche, and i try to convey myself in my writing by offering up a number of opinion pieces.

something that i had been giving a fair bit of consideration to was the current state of dubstep, particularly how in the course of a year it went from bubbling on the underground, to spawning it's own 'pop'stars in the form of Katy B and Magnetic Man.

but writing takes a little time and commitment, and when i very rarely have an official deadline to meet for any of the platforms my pieces appear on, sometimes these ideas tend to slide.

so while i have been spending time becoming increasingly bored of social networking and waiting for something new to set a fire under my life, or just sinking my head deeper and deeper into comics, Eddy TM has overtaken me and given his own opinion on dubstep's current standing.

i won't bother to repeat any of it here, since it is well worth a read in it's own right.

and perhaps i'll pull my finger out, surprise even myself, and deliver a complete dubstep mix, aaand a dubstep article this week.

we'll see, eh?

credit where it's due:


accompanying image 'weird mouse' by Leo Loikkanen

journey to perplexity

please, let me explain myself.

i apologise profusely for not yet furnishing your ears with my cut 'n' paste dubstep mix.

a handfull of people of heard it, opinions range from 'tumping' (which i presume is a compliment, and shall take as such), to my girlfriends opinion that it sounded quite amateur, which of course it is, but i had a bloody good crack at it. oh, and i was also told by the friend that the mix was originally intended for, that the asda CD i burnt it on wouldn't play in her car, neither would the previous asda CD we tried, i see a pattern emerging here.

having taken my girlfriend's comments on board, i decided to postpone loading it up for all and sundry to hear and instead shall spend a little longer tweaking...

there are certainly points of the mix that i am not entirely happy with, whilst others are so smooth that few people have even realised when a track has flowed or merged into the next. so it is neither a complete success or a complete failure, it is what it is, a mix that i have cut and pasted together as best i could using acid .

the only thing i shall attempt to change are a handful of sound level issues that are bothering me, and are the reason i have not shared it just yet, the rest shall likely stand untouched, as a testament to what i can and cannot do.

as soon as i find a little spare time to give it the attention it deserves i shall tinker and upload, for now tho, perhaps just check out the artwork that i created for the compilation, and perhaps peruse the other creative outpourings of my family on a day to day basis.

credit where it's due:


accompanying image 'i wanna riot' by butterfly cool

sweet menace

this article felt very right at the time, I'd heard Hurt You once on NME radio and was instantly intrigued and inspired. writing came easy and i'd soon knocked out a kick-ass article to kick off 2010, both reflective and forward looking at the same time.

then it didn't get printed til yesterday.

oh well, it's here now and it still makes a great read and in the meantime it seems She Is Danger have realy got about, having remixed Groove Armada, Delphic and Massive Attack

the digital version of the paper is online (page 28) or read below

She Is Danger
or as the paper titled it
Atmospheric Haunting Of Dubstep Vibe




Two defining sounds of 2009 were the seemingly overnight success of La Roux and the acceptance and assimilation of dubstep into the mainstream.

Both of these can certainly (though not exclusively) be traced back to one man.

Skream.

It was his 'Let's Get Ravey' remix of In For The Kill that spliced genres, raising both awareness and the profile of dubstep. The brooding, slow building version gaining almost as much airplay as the original.

Now imagine if the Croydon based producer had taken control of La Roux's entire output.

If you want to follow this train of thought then I would advise that you check out She Is Danger.

It was latest single Hurt You, that caught my attention, a blending of Burial style haunting beats and powerful Kosheen vocals that creates a striking sound distinctly at odds with twee radio-friendly indie and male dominated electro.

The strong sense of identity carries through in their artwork and visual style, all carefully controlled and designed by the creative pair comprising She Is Danger.

Lena Cullen, a multi-instrumentalist and singer, has teamed up with British-Japanese producer, DJ and spoken word artist, Maya Jane Coles to form a bass trembling creative duo that hold enormous promise.

Other tracks playable on their myspace reveal more of the same sparse atmospherics that the cutting dynamics of the vocals intertwines with and build upon with sweet menace.

The most obvious points of reference would be the early ‘90s trip-hop defining output of Massive Attack and Portishead, while the breathy vocals are also reminiscent of the former’s collaborator, Tricky and his acclaimed work with Martina Topley-Bird.

Bearing these influences from the past, they blend them seamlessly with the minimal and low end sonics of dubstep to great effect.

And they are already making waves and all the right connections, having supported dance legends The Orb and remixed hotly tipped artist for 2010, Ellie Goulding.

While trends in music and fashion are cyclical, She Is Danger take a sound from Bristol circa '94 and make it something entirely now.