tom moody

via Another Unknown Time

Matthew Yglesias: Kosovo and the Rise of the Humanitarian Hawks

Yglesias cautiously questions the Clinton legacy of the "good war" in the former Yugoslavia, now that Kosovo has declared independence and more ethnic cleansing of Serbs, Roma, etc, there appears imminent. Bombing Belgrade was bitterly opposed by Congressional Republicans, who then turned around and used it as grounds--following the supposed moral authority of the liberal hawks--for attacking Afghanistan and Iraq for "humanitarian" reasons. In so many words, Yglesias suggests the old UN model of diplomacy and international peacekeeping forces was a better one for regional conflicts than a unilateral rain of death from the skies.

Right Handed Alpha Helix, 84" x 80", paper, linen tape, ink, acrylic, ballpoint, pencil
(destroyed)

"Nice Nemesis" [3 MB .mp3]

Still working with "my" Sidstation percussion samples--this time played in the RMIV. The last few songs have used Absynth 3 presets, hence the fuller sound of the leads and pads in contrast to the rather brittle and crunchy 8-bit (or 12 bit, I forget) drum hits. This was loosely inspired by the Darwin Chamber piece "Dubmarine" (not as bubbly/analogue, though, or as developed)--I like tunes built around a single sound.

From Bennett at Double Happiness:

Borna and I were in some sort of museum at a kiosk that featured the works of Jeff Sisson. It was a large screen w/ mouse interaction, containing a collection of Rock Band-esque band/karaoke projects, also one Photoshop filter style manipulation of faces that could be rotated, swirled, etc. and would transform into other faces as they did so. Then we came upon a “cookie making” piece, that had the background of a dough-colored surface, and one could click on various spices and sprinkle them on, add other ingredients - this had been the piece that Jeff had “gotten famous for,” we knew. Jeff came by and said “oh have you checked out the camera function? thats what really makes this piece good.” I clicked the camera icon and nothing happened - Jeff realized the machine must be broken, and reached down under to dislodge something that was stuck. The bottom of the kiosk had a small drawer that was jammed with cookies that were “printed out” based on the image you had made on the screen, but they had gotten stuck. He pulled a few and then handed me mine. There was a condom on it.

Darwin Chamber (Mark G.) on KDGE-FM, Dallas, ca. '93: [7.6 MB .mp3]

On the tape:

During an on-air interview on the dance mix show Edge Club 94, breakbeat pioneer Mark G., visiting from San Francisco, plays a song with a burbling TB303 synth and a high-pitched Elmer Fudd-like voice saying "OK, here I go! 1, 2, 3, 6.... 12.... uh.... nuh...."

Jeff K, host of the show, interrupts the song and tells Mark G. to "Change it right now. This is that damn kiddie techno you said you weren't gonna be doing any more."

Mark G. takes it off and plays an amusingly frantic 303 workout with hyperactive drum loops (this was during the 'ardkore era).

The track ends, followed by several seconds of dead air, then some rather horrible digitized fed-back guitar chops.

Despite Mark G.'s defense that the music is "ambient," Jeff K once again tells him to take it off, saying "This is giving me a bad trip. I want a good trip, Mark."

This exchange haunted me and in 1997 I emailed Jeff K to ask him what the heck "kiddie techno" was. He replied, "kiddie-techno is the opposite of intelligent techno, y'know those songs that just put a beat behind some nursery rhyme or the theme from Sesame Street, etc."

Regardless, I kind of wanted to hear the rest of it.

26" x 46", photocopies, linen tape, canvas stretcher. Click image for enlarged view.

Darwin Chamber "Dubmarine" [YouTube]

"Give Me All Your" [3.1 MB .mp3]

Launching a short run of blog posts on a house music theme. This one is Sidstation samples played with a mangled commercial vocal and some "phat" synth lines.

"New Monuments (House Mix)" [4.7 MB .mp3]

Have been working on this for about a week. The soundtrack for the "New Monuments" video is a spinoff mix from this. It's essentially the "Sidbeats 2" track posted previously with some lush house pads but it took a lot of work to get those two to jibe. The grooves are kind of stop and start (by design) so it's not a true house tune.