Terra Organization (new Bandcamp release)

Am pleased to announce my 30th Bandcamp release, Terra Organization [embedded player removed]. Here is a sample tune, the second on the tracklist. The vocal sample is from a user who keeps getting kicked off YouTube and has acquired a small following.

Liner notes for the LP:

These are short, structured songs with some interplay of a tune, a rhythm, and a timbre, written or finalized between July 2018 and January 2019.
The prevalence of chords results partly from use of the new "pattern generator" app inside the Tracktion Waveform DAW, intended for "chord progressions." As a musician coming from the visual arts, this idea of "progressions" seems bizarre, just as it would be weird to speak of color progressions in a painting. There are chords, there are timbres that have overtones or partials resembling chords, and there is how you put them together -- maybe there's progress, maybe there's only one chord, maybe there are no chords. The pattern generator is mostly used here as a timesaver, to create a melody on one track that harmonizes with something playing chords on another track. You can hear this most clearly on the song "Mall Chords," which is fairly robotic and MIDI-ish but also kind of lush.
Vocal samples are used sparingly in these tunes -- only if a track seems to need them.
The songs are mastered LOUD to be played back at medium to low volume without loss of sound. The ideal listening scenario would be home speakers with decent dynamic range, playing at quiet volume. Playing the songs LOUD might be a mistake.
26 of these types of songs is probably too many! My preference would be to keep breaking down releases into groups of 10, but I have a pile of unused 40-60 minute blank cassettes, and I'm determined not to waste tape sides now that chrome tape is becoming scarce. Hence, a forty minute release.
Side Two of the cassette begins with "Lounge Laugh 2" and I'm thinking of the tracks on that side as a second, bonus set of tunes.

Images of the cassette packaging are here.

retroactive j-cards

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The cassette versions of my 2014-5 bandcamp releases came in clear plastic shells without paper j-cards.

After teaching myself how to make j-cards for my newest releases, the older ones suddenly looked naked! Even though I had managed to cram all relevant info onto the cassette labels.

So I made retroactive j-cards for the existing cassettes. Very simple design -- basically just a way of getting text onto the spine for easier identification. If you bought one of the 2014-5 batch and want a j-card, shoot me an email and I'll be happy to send.

cassette review: Demonstration Synthesis, DS4

Demonstration Synthesis, aka Daniel Leznoff [Discogs], might hold a record for largest number of releases on different netlabels. In three years he put out 25 releases on 19 labels! (DS17 seems to have gone missing; depending on where that was recorded, the total might be 20 labels -- so far.)
The name "Demonstration Synthesis" is both evocative and understated; possibly it's contributed to the mobility and adaptability of the brand. Regardless of what type of music a label is offering -- new age, ambient, leftfield/techno -- which one doesn't want at least one "demonstration record" in its catalog? The release DS4 sticks closest to that ambiguous spirit, perhaps, with a low-key assortment of minimal sounds akin to scales and test-tones, emphasizing synth timbres or what Eno called "tints" over melody or song construction. This is not to say the work isn't musical -- it is, and like most DS offerings has a slightly wistful and melancholy cast. Rather, the emphasis is on sounds over songs. The structure is there, but hard to pin down.

"2007-2013 Beats" released on Bandcamp

Am pleased to announce my 29th Bandcamp release, 2007-2013 Beats, available for streaming or as a two-sided, one-hour audiocassette tape:

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Liner notes:

National Audio Company's announcement that it was running out of chrome type II high bias tape was kind of a shock. Who knew there was a limited supply? Apparently no one is manufacturing it anymore -- the wisdom of the market. Possibly unrelated, many of the electronic music netlabels I've been following stopped releasing new music, or offering cassettes, around the same time.
I haven't lost interest in the medium but given my own limited supply of chrome blanks, my days of producing one-sided cassettes with only ten songs are clearly over!
With this release I "maxed out" a two-sided, one hour tape with beats I made in 2007-2013 (before coming to Bandcamp). Some of these percussion tracks were incorporated into later songs. Equipment/software used were Elektron Octatrack, Vermona DRM1 mk ii, LinPlug RMV, NI Battery/Kontakt, Reaktor grooveboxes, and MIDI sequencing in Cubase.
"SQP Beatslicer" is not shown on the "prototype" j-card depicted above; it has since been added to the card.