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joshuatxuk

Knob Twiddlers
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Posts posted by joshuatxuk

  1. 7 minutes ago, Hail Sagan said:

    War in the social media era is going to get ugly

    It's going to be unprecedented. We've seen it with the 2014 conflict and with Syria in the last decade but it accelerated propaganda, trolling, memes and all that will be wrapped up with legit cyberwarfare and psych-ops. This is going to be tenfold the madness and absurdity that was the march to the 2003 Iraq invasion. I think a lot of individuals who have had a perception of war either through the asymmetrical global war on terror and arguably easier to contextualize proxy wars in places like Libya and Syria are the previous Russian acts in 2008 and 2014 are really, really going have a reality check of what a full-fledged conventional ground war between equally armed neighboring countries looks like. Iran-Iraq war in 1980s was probably the closest equivalent since WW2 but that also took place in fairly remote entrenched areas. 

    There are zero good outcomes here and while it's a region with a notoriously brutal and bloody history with multiple bad players in the past and their ghosts now (i.e. literal Neo-Nazis among Ukrainian volunteer forces and NazBols on the Russian side) the face majority of fighting will be between Russian soldiers used to posturing, not combat, deployed by the Kremlin into another country versus armed Ukrainians fighting to protect their homes and simply survive. The surreal thing is these aren't fledging nation states or war-torn and exploited regions, there are two major generally stable countries that interact with the world on every level now engaged in war because of geopolitical goals backed by nationalist zeal. If it can happen there it can happen internally anywhere. This is why everyone is rightfully disheartened and horrified by what's going on. 

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  2. Every time I think about catching up with Kanye drama I remind myself life is too short to do so, like the interest and discourse him is so wrapped up in post-ironic meta discussion that it's not even reasonable to be casually aware of what he's up to.

    I say this as someone who saw him live and still consider one of the best shows I've been too, at least in terms of big festival acts. That was ages ago - hell I've not had an iota of interest in him since that song in 2018 where he said "poppity scoop," I admit I found that amusing and entertaining...but like on the same level of a good tweet screenshot or tiktok video I come across. 

    He's a window into the abyss that the state of social media and the psyche of those sucked into it.

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  3. a1874428916_10.jpg

    Upcoming on Drag City and via bandcamp. Despite that being a indie rock stalwart label wise this release is not of that genre. Most of her past work has been on experimental and cassette labels. Whitney Johnson's project Matchess is an electronic project that couples drone and ambient with vocals and spaced out percussion, similar to Grouper's output. I first heard her via Tabs Out when they played Sacracorpa. It's still one of the more engrossing albums I've heard in recent years. She and TALsounds put out a collab as Damiana that was one of my favorite records last year. 

    Press release blurb: "Matchess take a giant step from psychedelic songcraft into pure psychoacoustic space, in which songs float with all the other sounds we hear in our body. The music of meditation; a flow of sounds and thoughts of sounds and the natural beating of our ears as they strain to hear more."

  4. I listened to that working late by myself at night (kind of bad idea). It's a hell of a listen, very raw and unpolished but also engrossing AF at times. The assortment of different recording quality (live segments, one-take acoustic bits, more layered but still rough 4-track demos, spoken word and conversation bits) adds to it's mysterious tone and infamously obscure backstory. The background noise of the tape and certain loops used have a eerie vibe but not overtly ominous. IIRC Efrim Menuck himself had been trying to hunt it down, having lost copy himself. I'm not well versed in GSYBE! recordings beyond the well-known releases but it def sounds legit. 

  5. this has plagued me in my past (but still very limited) efforts to make music but TBH I would say it's still down to my own lack of focus and prioritizing

    treat this like a passionate hobby and that would include prioritizing your own goals and efforts. while I didn't make music I have had periods of completing other personal projects despite a crazy work schedule. 

    what kind of music do you want to make? do you want to jam or do you want to release something? would you rather crank out more impromptu tunes or fine tune a composition over days, weeks, months? 

    I remember Kode9 talking about how he can work on tracks for over year off / on yet knows producers who will crank out a song in a manner of an hour and yet neither is inherently better or worse as an end result. I would def look into your own style and preferences and not get too hung up on the potential pressure / stress to make music in your free time, that can just compound things and make you more anxious and discouraged

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  6. On 2/5/2022 at 5:21 PM, ascdi said:

    Great idea for a thread! Here are some random thoughts (just my opinion)

    1. don’t sample artists in your same genre (agreed)

    2. don’t sample things that are already sampled

    3. don’t sample lossy sources

    4. don’t sample SEX SOUNDS. Way worse than blade runner samples, y’all. SO MANY electronic tracks ruined by sexy lady sounds. Ugh

    5. don’t sample rappers rapping more than a few words

    6. don’t sample other people’s versions of breaks

    7. don’t sample other people’s 303 linez

    8. DO sample the 808 state loon sound

    9. DO sample the hoover bass sound

    10. DON’T sample reggae (hot take here)

    11. DON’T sample the door opening sound from Doom (distracting, makes me think I am playing Doom)

    12. DON’T sample Autechre or Boards of Canada. Just don’t do it

    13. DON’T put an annoying sample in your tracks just so people know it’s you (looking at you Terror Danjah)

    14. DON’T sample video games (looking at you Burial)

     

    EDIT: oh yeah 15. DON’T SAMPLE VINYL CRACKLE. WE GET IT

    with a few exceptions - I think it still depends

    it's not so much what you sample or even how you sample but what you do with it and why you decided to sample in the first place, context and execution is everything. there are breakbeats I've heard 1000x over that still catch me off guard if flipped the right way, there's eccojam style and chopped n screwed tracks I've heard that are technically simple AF yet still more engrossing than some technically very complex well-made non-sampled music.

    I have no personal insight in this on the other side, just as a listener, but I would say it really gets down to whether I think the artist met enough criteria for me to respect and appreciate the decision to use a sample 

    that might seem arbitrary AF but it's all subjective, if a track doesn't work without a sample that could be legally and/or ethnically a headache you might want to re-evaluate it, likewise if a strong track is enhanced by a fairly safe sample it wouldn't hurt to sprinkle it in

    whatever you do don't feel obligated one way or the other, make sure YOU want to use it

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  7. really digging the samples, concept reminds me of those 1958-2009 tapes though I'm not sure those were MJ samples 

    nonetheless, it's nice to see someone take the eccojams method and apply it to more unabashed mainstream pop like Celine Dion and not just easier fodder like city pop or 80s synthpop deep cuts

  8. @trying to be less rude @zero - I don't consider it a "coup" as I don't want to conflate that with the actual technical and historical term. Ironically the conservative and establishment elements of the Pentagon and Federal government in general were key to preventing Trump from attempting one.

    This was very much an attack and attempt a violent revolution / overthrow. It's a miracle of timing, key decisions but admirable staffers, legislators and certain cops that prevented Democrat legislators from being outright apprehended or killed. The absolutely frightening aspect of all of this is a sizeable minority of people in this country have either downplayed the event or applauded it outright. One of the two major parties and their supporters in the public, media, and government office are complicit to it being encouraged. 

    Bear in mind this storming occurred without the mob being organized and armed with guns. While there is evidence of collusion and insider tip offs the extent of support from key figures in elected office, LE, and the military could have easily been far greater. Summer of 2020 and Jan. 6th, 2021 are sort of a slow-burn version of 9/11 in terms of sea change and confused yet alarming preview of things to come. 

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  9. I get the impression too Burial isn't comfortable with making ambient with looped riffs and melodies but rather playing around with fleeting and brief samples and segments. It's the transition and out of the blue stabs of different sounds and vocals in these tracks that make them interesting. It's sort of like that strange space when you are falling asleep and you can almost see and hear your own thoughts fall into place haphazardly. 

  10. 1 hour ago, brisk said:

    I do see the "Chill Out" inspiration

    Speaking of I swear I heard that sampled, specifically the bits where KLF sampled the pedal steel guitar from Fleetwood Mac. As seen on reddit a user noticed that "Shadow Paradise" has a harmonium sample from Jeff Buckley's "Lover, You Should've Come Over'

    I enjoyed my first listen and even though I've previously been lukewarm about this ambient suite pieces I found this one engrossing in a subtle way. I had no idea it was 44 minutes long until I looked, it felt like I listened to something closer to 20 minutes (I'm also at work so maybe there's a perception issue there)

    Burial is making music concrete now and I find that encouraging and inspiring, even if it's not going to be my favorite era of his. It's still wildly unique compared to most artists and I applaud him and Kode9 for not conceding to any pressure to return to more percussive and straight ahead tracks. 

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