Evan Morris Remix

Back from beyond with a just-released remix of Evan Morris' chiptune powerhouse "Death Face."

Evan Morris - Death Face (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

Full remix album available here.
Original album "Vector Krush" available here.

First Review of "Days Away"

BlackPlastic.co.uk just published a very favorable review of "Days Away." This is a pleasant way to start the day!

Dubspot Tutorials

I came across Dubspot's series of video tutorials while searching for info about the new Akai APC40 controller for Ableton Live. The tutorials are well produced, no-nonsense, and actually useful- even for someone who's been working with Live for quite some time. I found the discussion about using the new Corpus effect to create a sub-bass follow track particularly interesting. Check 'em out!

Dubspot on YouTube.

What Is Music?

I found this short post by Stretta (modular synth extraordinaire, to pigeonhole him) a thoughtful response to this deceptively simple question. My favorite of the quotes he, well... quotes:

Wherever we are, what we hear is mostly noise. When we ignore it, it disturbs us. When we listen to it, we find it fascinating.

-John Cage

Productivity, Simplicity, Mindfulness, Et. Al.

I want to point you to my friend Kevin's blog: A muse; me. Kevin posts really insightful ponderings on why we humans do the things we do, and how we can adjust our way of approaching the world to make the way we are a little more in line with the way we'd like to be. I've found almost every post personally relevant, and I suspect some of you might too. Check it out!

Deadlines, Bless Them

I find this hard to fathom, but it's been about ten months since I last posted a new song here. I've been working hard the entire time, but since last June or so my focus has been on figuring out the P^3 and getting Days Away out the door. I've developed a sizable backlog of unfinished work during that time, some of which is "almost there," but I've largely succumbed to the desire to generate new material instead of sweating out the details to finish any of what I've started. Enter The Deadline.

A few months ago I read about the Tra la la blip project on the Ableton discussion forums. In their own words:

tra la la blip is an artist collective based on the far north coast of new south wales. (...) our first release is titled "soundbeam sessions volume 1" We did 100 copies, each 1 individually stamped by the musicians/artists. (...) soundbeam sessions is a compilation CD, all artist[s] on the CD have some form of intellectual and or physical disability. all the songs were created live during jam sessions at Multi Task human resource foundation in Lismore nsw. It is loop based electronic music created using multiple midi controllers and instruments like the tenori-on, soundbeam, kaossilator, microkorg, a macbook running ableton live software and a microphone.

While the concept alone strongly appeals to me, the best thing about TLLB is that their music is fantastic: sometimes playful, sometimes moody, melodic, and dare I say "deep." Thus, when artistic director and organizer Randolf Reimann posted an open invitation for remixes, I decided to get involved. And getting involved meant actually finishing something for the first time in almost a year.

I'm proud to present my finished remix of Indigo Caroline by Tra la la blip. The original TLLB track is somewhat unique in that it consists of just three components: a vocal track (participant Gaye singing Neil Diamond's "Sweet Caroline") over Monolake's song "Indigo" layered with an original synth line. The result is haunting and atmospheric and right up my alley. My remix takes things in a very different direction, but (hopefully) without losing the spirit of the original. I hope you like it!

Indigo Caroline (Nonagon remix) by nonagon

P.S. I'm trying out Soundcloud streaming for the first time with this song. I'm going to hold off on making it downloadable until I get clearance from Randolf, as the track will be making its way onto the Tra la la blip remix CD to be released later this year.

The Faint Of Heart

Last night I got a bloody nose. Could be that I've been watching too much Dexter, but once I got to the bathroom I decided to let it bleed a little. There's something simultaneously fascinating and repulsive about this photo of the aftermath. The intimacy of the medium in particular has a really visceral impact on me.

My apologies to the squeamish!