Ray Zinnbrann - Takedowns, 1986 (.zip archive, 43MB)

Ray Zinnbrann first came to the attention of WFMU's staff and listeners with the song "I Fell in Love at WFMU," popularized on Irwin's show.  Ray proved to be far from a one-note novelty act, being a skilled guitarist with psychedelic leanings and an idiosyncratically reedy but note-perfect vocal delivery.  At the Lo-Fi event I organized in 1988, Ray, decked out in a gold lamé vest, played a bombastic fuzztone rendition of "Also Sprach Zarathustra."  Not too long after their first meeting at that event, Ray and fellow Lo-Fi star Jet Screamer (aka Mark DeAngelis) formed The Living Guitars, a dynamic duo coupling surf-rock buzz and twang with some great original songs (and sadly few recordings.)  Ray has always produced tasty cover versions, and this tape of carefully selected and thoughtfully rendered covers (with some pricelessly funny intros and outros) bubbled to the top of my Ray Z. tape collection as something that all ye blog punters should enjoy.  I think I may even like Ray's version of "Elemental Child" more than the Marc Bolan original.  See the insert on the right for more information and a track listing.  Ray (now known as Ray Brazen) is still making music, and also maintains an in-depth fan site for legendary New York band The Godz.

Smegma - Morass/In Performance 1985–1987, 1988 (.zip archive, 52MB)

Portland, Oregon's Smegma have defied easy categorization for their 30 some odd years of existence.  Are they a rock band?  Well, yes, of a sort.  A free noise ensemble?  Absolutely.  A bizarre performance troupe, with an often crass aesthetic?  Mmm-hmm.  A "tape" band?  For sure.  Were they embraced by the 80s–90s post-industrial avant-garde?  Unquestionably.  The material on their many releases ranges from pure sound collage to heavy, Krautrock-inspired one-note 4/4 jams, with everything in between being up for consideration as well.  The Morass cassette, with its large, tri-fold insert, was the first release for the now world-renowned Soleilmoon label (also Portland-based.)  The "studio" side of this tape was recently made available on the CD reissue of the Nattering Naybobs of Negativity LP.  The other side of Morass, the "in performance" side, is presented here in all its sodden glory.  With Smegma's recordings, distinctions between live and studio material become less relevant than with some other artists, and I personally find this side of the tape to be the more enjoyable one.  (Note:  Since the silences between tracks are few and mostly filled with applause and audience patter, this has been ripped as one continuous mp3; song titles are given on the insert and in the "Comments" field of the mp3 tags.)

29th June 2007: Odo Synths has released Six, a simple but powerful 6-operator FM synth with 32 DX7 algorithms and 16 4-operator algorithms. Features: 6-operator FM synth with 32 DX7 algorithms and 16 4-operator algo...

29th June 2007: Samplelord has been updated to v1.1. New in this release: Multiprocessing support of Multi CPU and Multi Core processors. 1024 stereo voices of polyphony. New Medium Quality Mode (excellent for rea...

29th June 2007: discoDSP has announced Discovery Pro, a brand new virtual analogue synthesizer featuring 12 oscillators (8 Virtual Analog + 4 Wave) with extensive sound design capabilities. Features: 128 Patch Memo...

29th June 2007: de la Mancha has released entropy v1.0, kitchen sync v2.0 and thrummaschine v1.0. All are available in VST instrument or effect format for Windows and they are all free. entropy is a 3-oscillator sub...

Berlin-based DJ and production duo Gernot Bronsert and Sebastian Szary, a.k.a. Modeselektor, will release their second studio album, Happy Birthday!, via Ellen Allien's BPitch Control imprint in September.

Produced entirely in their mobile airstream caravan studio, Happy Birthday! follows on from the duo's much talked about debut Hello Mom! (2005). According to BPitch Control, the album promises to be very eclectic and goes from hard rap à la French to Dubstep to Eurocrunk to Continental Grime to Tech-Rap and more.

The album features a number of exclusive guests and collaborations, including Otto Von Schirach, Radiohead's Thom Yorke, French rap outfit TTC, Paul St. Hillaire, as well as a bonus CD-only song, "I Can't Sleep (Without Music)," featuring Maximo Park.

Modeselektor will be playing a number of festivals this summer so check them out if you can.

In related news both Bronsert and Szary will become fathers very soon; so for all of us at Filter27: Congratulations guys!

Format: CD, LP
Label: BPitch Control
Release date: September 11, 2007

Tracklist:

01. Godspeed
02. 2000007 (Feat. TTC)
03. Happy Birthday
04. Let Your Love Grow (Feat. Paul St. Hillaire)
05. B.M.I.
06. EM Ocean
07. Sucker Pin
08. The First Rebirth
09. The Dark Side Of The Frog
10. The Dark Side Of The Sun (Feat. Puppetmastaz)
11. Black Block
12. Edgar
13. Hyper Hyper (Feat. Otto von Schirach)
14. Late Check-Out
15. The Wedding Toccata Theme
16. The White Flash (Feat. Thom Yorke)
17. Deboutonner (Feat. Siriusmo)
Bonus track: I Can't Sleep (Without Music) (Feat. Maximo Park) [CD only]

Upcoming dates:

07/01 - Lärz, Germany / Fusion Festival
07/07 - Nimes, France / Dragonball Festival
07/08 - Dublin, UK / Oxegen Festival
07/15 - Gent, Belgium / 10 Days Off Festival
07/20 - Florence, Italy / Elektrowave Festival
08/03 - Vienna, Austria / Urban Art Forms Festival
08/04 - Nice, France / Nu-Ziq Festival
08/08 - London, UK / TBA
08/11 - Almeria, Spain / Creamfields Andalucia
08/16 - Tel Aviv, Israel / Barzilay

Download: Modeselektor - Live at Merlin in Budapest, Hungary (2007-04-14) [DivShare]

MP3:
1. The Blind Kids - Track 1 (3:41)
2. The Blind Kids - Track 2 (3:59)
3. The Blind Kids - Track 3 (41:25)
4. The Blind Kids - Track 4 (1:41)

I first heard these tracks in Austin, Texas, back in the early 1990s.  They were part of a series of recordings by some kids at the Texas School for the Blind and/or the Criss Cole Rehabilitation Center, recorded with the assistance of members of Texas bands Crust and Cherubs, and distributed to friends on cassette.  John Hawkins of Crust is the only person I am certain was involved, and all attempts to reach him have been futile.  I've known John for many years, but from what I gather he doesn't use email, so if any of you know how to get in touch with him please see what you can do about helping to identify the people heard on these recordings.

The third track is a 40+ minute rant by an unnamed student who appears to be deeply resentful of a number of folks, and also his dog, Lily.  No one is called out specifically (aside from the dog), though one might assume that the list includes Tonya Harding and Selena's assassin, Yolanda Saldivar.  In addition to innumerable stern remonstrances, his soliloquy is laced with screaming fits of anger.  Also, there are several increasingly humorous references to "Gretchen's house," which admittedly begins to sound a bit like Hell on Earth.  The angry student also appears on the first song, which seems to be a synthesis of some of his more arresting complaints set to music.  One of the kids is possibly named T.J., who may be the young man singing on the second song, a lively number concerning Reba McEntire, beer, robots, dinosaurs, Dracula, murder, and Arsenio Hall, and who (according to the angry guy) was viciously assaulted by someone, possibly Lily.  Well, that about does it.  Happy listening!

- Contributed by: Clayton Counts

London-based DJ and Crosstown Rebels label honcho Damian Lazarus provides this week's guest mix on John Digweed's Transitions radio show on UK's Kiss 100 FM.

Seriously, this mix is so good we are about to pee in our pants. No joke.

The mix also features a super-tight Exercise One remix (starting off at ~37 min mark) of the soon-to-be-released Shackleton track "Next To Nothing".

Download: DivShare [192kbps MP3, ~80 MB]

Tracklist N/A

Alain Delorme's photo series Little Dolls features somewhat sexualized, somewhat drugged up looking young girls sitting at tables with very ornate cakes...and what are all those hands doing? Really demented, disturbing and hilarious stuff. Alain Delorme website.

So, a Reaktor tattoo seems a little painful and permanent? Just in time, Native Instruments this week has a line of new t-shirts, and they actually look really great, which is good — branded swag is usually way lame.

Native Wear (not as racy as it sounds) [Native Instruments]

The designer is MIG75, aka Berlin’s Adrian Theiner, confirming my suspicions that Berlin is full of cool people.

Speaking of branded swag, without revealing too much, CDM is working on the issue. After all, you don’t want to show up at a gig wearing a Native Instruments or Ableton shirt — dude, people will know your secret sauce. (Okay, they might know that anyway if I give into temptation and put a recognizable instance of Resonator or Beat Repeat or use a Reaktor granular effect on a track. Or they look at my screen. Or they know me.) But not having the t-shirt could make it easier to say, “That? Oh, that’s something I just programmed. From scratch. Actually, I built that computer. And that keyboard. Out of soy products.”

And yeah, I’d still like a t-shirt. I have to cover up my chest while the tattoo heals.

fashion, Native Instruments, swag, t shirts, tattoos

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