Like the man with the world record for having the highest sperm count, this show is creaking at the seams and begging to be released. Its dog content is higher than any previous Hex, a stunning 80 percent. The Robert Mugabe count is off the scale, and if you like tedious towel-folding robots, then boy is this the podcast for you.
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.
We've been hard at work on the buttons with remixes for Posthuman, Mint and a new Echaskech track due for release on the Balkan Vinyl coloured series.
Check out the Balkan site for further information on this excellent series which includes tracks from Plaid, Cursor Minor, Digitonal, Mark Archer, B12, EgeBamYase and Luke Vibert/Richard Wigglesworth to name but a few!
Helping to kick-start the new year, Electrovision is back with a brand new set of audio-visual treats on Saturday the 23rd of January. The line-up of multimedia artists will bring live video and audio into synch across three projection screens. Come prepared for groundbreaking performances by Echaskech, Max Hattler, MOTORSAW and decolage.tv.
The Roxy Bar and Screen 128-132 Borough High Street London SE1 1LB (Next to Sainsbury's)
8:00pm - 1:00am Saturday, 23rd January 2010 £4 at the door
Get yer 2010 selves down to Concrete on Sat 16th for our final 'echaskech presents' for a while before the venue closes for a refurb!
This time we have a rare show from LJ Kruzer with DJ support from Kone-R and our good selves - entry is free so no excuses please
LJ Kruzer is Stephen Fiske, a resident of London, England, and producer of melodic electronic music, using the piano as a common theme, with an increasing focus on ambience and synthesizer drones resulting in a splendidly nice listen!
His new album Manhood and Electronics is available here
Concrete, The Hayward Gallery, South Bank, London, SE1 8XX 8pm - 1am, 16th Jan
We keep getting asked when we are going to post another live recording. Everywhere we go people say they are still listening to our set from the 2006 Big Chill! It really is about time we released some new live material.
So, seeing as we have been recording all our festival sets this summer, we have decided to spend a little time editing together not 1, not 2, but 3 (yes, 3) free downloads of the edited highlights from this summer.
Fill your boots.
Live at the BBC, with Apparat, Bjork, Modeselektor, and many other techno and electronic music acts
