Thursday, November 29, 2012

Saturday, November 24, 2012

Bo Diddley vs Oscillator

The 1967 Rolling Stones album Flowers, mostly a collection of singles, odd and sods, does contain a few numbers of worth(PLEASE skip right over My Girl though!). What really impressed me after not listening to it for many years was Please Go Home, a cacophonous  mixture of Bo Diddley guitar, Charlie Watts' pounding drums, Jagger's vocals pushed into an echo-smeared universe, AND, lurking in the mix, a trippy oscillator! I remember digging this alien sound in my teens and not knowing what it was. Was this my introduction to electronic music, other than the joyful activity of tuning in white noise, jarring static and ghost voices on my father's car radio? Who knows...but it's wandering electronic tone still makes me smile.

Sunday, November 18, 2012

Headless Potential

After quite a few years lost in the wilderness of Buchla, Serge and euro-rack explorations, I find myself once again drawn to six strings. Starting as a blues player I branched out in to what can only be termed exploratory guitar noise without completely losing my tonal center. Sort of, to use a painting analogy, Cy Twombly meets Robert Ryman in a darkened room...quiet corners erupt into mayhem!

The grey Teuffel guitar and the pink Klein appeal to my need for non-conformity. Perhaps the headless guitars can function as an metaphor for my romantic need for unfettered creative "frequency painting" a la Duchamp. The Teuffel is the first industrial guitar; its controls produce a cacophonous outpouring, grey blasts of sonic detrius and smears. Both instruments can produce an acceptable traditional guitar sound, but as function may well be suggested by form, they beg to explore and experiment.

With all this synth obsessiveness as part of my recent history, we'll see where this takes me?

Thursday, November 8, 2012

New Goike Case

Spalted maple, made from a drawing I sent to Matthew, this is a beauty!



Saturday, November 3, 2012

Quantum Rainbow


This rainbow produces 5 shades of noise and should prove handy, adding veils of cloudy noise mirages and filth. SSF makes these in the Bronx (along with the great ProModular devices) and are available at CONTROL in Brooklyn. The SSF Quantum Rainbow...handy noise when you need it!