KOMA ELEKTRONIK KOMMANDER

A recent visit with Daren and Jonas at CONTROL in Brooklyn yielded the a surprise purchase, a Koma Elektronik Kommander, a simple but very effective CV/gate motion controller much like a therimin that responds to hand motions. Check YouTube for a demo...this thing is going to be a blast!

SAMPLE & HOLD : yellow swans

I met Pete Swanson, part of the now defunct noise duo YELLOW SWANS at CONTROL in Brooklyn a few weeks ago; I was taken with his smile, his engaging sense of humor and his stories. Simply put, a nice guy...who makes NOISE...torrents of noise, dystopian, crunching industrial beats, and drones that swallow huge expanses of space. While Yellow Swans is no more, their releases are worth searching out.

Bring The Neon War Home, a 2004 release, is composed of 5 pieces that evolve, morphing from Merzbow-ian tumult to cascading drones. Unlike many noise artists, Yellow Swans create music that engages through creative layered sonic variation meant to be listened to...NOT simply exercises in earplug use!

Blue Lantern Asteroid VCF

In spite of all the euro-forum noise that accompanied the introduction of BL's thru-zero oscillator recently, BL keeps producing a startling array of modules. The most recent monster is the ASTEROID VCF, a stunning jumble of knobs, outputs and modulation choices. It really is BUSY and visually over-powering!...But, what really counts is the sound.

The Asteroid VCF  can be aggressive, an in-your-face sound, that while brutal, exhibits an evolving layered sonic palette that can be easily morphed beyond recognition utilizing the myriad of ins/outs, knobs and switches. With all this, the Asteroid VCF begs to be "played," almost an instrument unto itself...quite an achievement in a euro-modular world glutted with the mundane disguised as epiphany.

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