So I have written a few 'instruments' but this one is a nice basic one we were hoping to play on stage some time soon. It has basic x-y control for reverb and filter, but also distance between primary and secondary touch is delay length and angle between the 2 touches is delay wetness.
We had it ready and set up to play at last weeks Digital City party. But WOE! however much testing and prep you do before-hand something has to come along and take a long hot piss on your metaphorical bonfire. This time it was in the form of a bizarre midi glitch that knocked out Andys PC. Not even the PC thats running it! So, in order to do the show we had to ditch the new toy and play. And what a gig it was....sweet, sweet Digital City. GOOD party.
Again we tried for Peepshow, having debugged the problem. Against all odds, having to share a somewhat cramped stage with Hextatic and Jon Hopkins, we managed to get it working again, and despite having Jon in the line of sight of the projector we even got it calibrated and ready to go. Then another weird bug, this time with the CCV/camera driver software. CRASH! so we had to forget about it again. We are edging closer and closer but still the cigar has not been presented to me, or even purchased in preparation. I looked jealously at Jons rugged, and effective triple Kaoss pad setup and wondered if there was any point.
Any more name ideas? So far we have...
Virgil
ITCH
CLIVE
Lumiphone
Lumiphonica
and Lamp-a-tron
I have been keeping an eye on the multitouch community over the last year or so...a bunch of tech heads, with carpentary skills, building rather nice coffee tables with touch screens in. If you have ever seen a Microsoft Surface, thats the thing that these guys are making at a fraction of the £14,000 price tag.
A few people build walls, and this is what I have been interested in. Some people are building walls to play with sound. And some people are doing it jaw droppingly well, like SubCycle (http://www.subcycle.org/).
It is clear to me that Christian Bannister there is a producer who has been comprehensively beaten to within an inch of his life with the talent stick, not to mention his Einstein like noggin-power. I know just enough about this sort of thing to know that with time and a little budget, I could have a crack at something similar.
The ultimate aim is not for something quite like Subcycle. For a start, I just can't see us getting something THAT good. Secondly, our music is different and will require different instruments, and lastly I really want to explore the idea of having the graphics (and physics) themselves generate sound and control it, not necesarily needing your touch, your intercation would just 'stir' it.
Shatterproof vidThis is one of the most pointless excercises in creative nerdery, I think, that I have ever undertaken. Why? Because I can. Basically, this is a video made up of text letters, like the very old-skool ascii print-outs you could get of your face on white and green tractor feed printer paper...except moving.
It features me mouthing the words that I did eventually want to have done by a pretty girl. But the process of converting video into thousands of frames of text characters was so gruelling, I didn't want to re-do it once the proof of concept worked. I started this project last June. It still aint really finished to the standard I'd like. But I really do have better things to do. Peace. Dom Echaskech.
With two gig announcements this week, that’s enough for you to digest from me, apart from a hour of wonderous music to listen to. Here’s the
Tracklisting:
Audioglider – Coming Up For Air
Sounds From The Ground – Corran
Lost Idol – Beesmouth
Gorillaz – Welcome to the Plastic Beach
Animal Collective – What do I want? Sky
Snowblink – Thriller
Dan Arborise – Cries
Double Muffles Dolphin – Floor above me, The
Lusine – Two dots
Yimino – Kelpy
Massive Attack – Babel
No, you did read that right and it’s not an April Fool – a well spent £5 will get you not just Echaskech, but Jon Hopkins and Hexstatic all LIVE and not only that, but Paddy Freeform, Matt Masters, Peepshow Paddy and The Ableton Alstars on DJ duty whilst VGem, Myogenic and myself will keep your eyes entertained. Phew! I can’t think of a better way to start a four day holiday. See you down there.
Ok so this one’s already sold out but for those lucky few who are coming you’re in for a very special night in a fantastic location – visually this one is going to make you freak. For those who didn’t manage to get a ticket, well you’ll have to wait 5 days (see the next post)
A shorter show this week as I scrambled around burning cds to dj with from the tracks I’d bought the night before, so excuse the rather rough nature of the beginning. However… maybe a hour is a better length for you podcast listeners? I dunno, leave a comment and let me know your thoughts. It makes me happy to start this week the same way as I ended last week with a classic Zorg tune from their stunning 2003 CD “La vie privee du Zorg”. A marvellous LP still worth tracking down – thanks to the wonderous Miko.
It’s about time you lovely people got a new “proper” mix from me, one with planning and no talking and I’m extremely chuffed that it’s for the fantastic A Strangely Isolated Place Blog which is one of the best electronica resources on the planet, an aggregator for quality mixes and artist news – definitely one to book mark, if you haven’t already.
Tracklisting
00:00 Animal Collective – Graze
03:20 Snowblink – Ambergris
08:10 Klimek – Exploding Unbearable Desires
11:30 Jonsi & Alex – Indian Summer
20:04 Halogen – Baked
22:06 Sounds From The Ground – Crystal Beam
25:43 Echaskech – Redeploy
29:04 Dub Tractor – This Is Order
31:50 Zero 7 – Ghost sYMbOL
36:19 Yimino – Migranova
40:07 Landau – Good Morning Gravity
44:24 The Village Orchestra – Lo Pencil (The Village Orchestra remix)
52:14 Beaufort Scale – Dreaming in Binary (Echaskech mix)
