Weekend Weapons: Craggz & Parallel

Delivered... Posted by beatportsean | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 9:58 pm
When Craggz & Parallel Forces trimmed down to Craggz & Parallel, in 2007, the two changed their approach to production and uncovered a new sound. Amongst those new flavors were the 2010 tracks "Future Shock" and "Turn The Page," from the album Turn The Page. The upcoming release on their own imprint Product Recordings is a rehash of those 2010 gems, as DnB artists Jubei and Need For Mirrors rework the tunes with their own remixes. As our interest piques for these new editions, we asked Craggz & Parallel to explore some picks for our latest Weekend Weapons.

Read more on Beatportal

J Rocc: Stay Fresh

Delivered... Posted by Christine Kakaire | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 7:29 pm
The inimitable Stones Throw Records have released a video for J Rocc's new single "Stay Fresh," taken from his recent debut artist album Some Cold Rock Stuf. The turntable wizard who founded legendary DJ crew Beat Junkies (and also steps in as Madlib's touring DJ) has been turning out mixtapes, remixes and singles for years, but Some Cold Rock Stuf is the first official full-length collection of his moody, instrumental hip hop sketches. Footage for the video was filmed by J Rocc's label-mate Mayer Hawthorne on an iPhone during their joint tour of Japan. The 90-second clip intercuts live concert footage with Rocc wandering through minimarts, dancing in the aisle of a record store, and digging in the 7" crates alongside Hawthorne and Peanut Butter Wolf.

Watch this video on Beatportal

Punched-Hole Tunes: Ritornell’s Musicbox Business Cards, as Delicate and Magical as the Music

Delivered... Peter Kirn | Artists,Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 6:07 pm

Experimenting with twinkling timbres made both by acoustic and electronic means, the music of Ritornell (the duo of composer Dr. Richard Eigner and pianist Roman Gerold, Austria) is effortlessly expressive and spontaneous. Little wonder that that spirit could translate even to a small object.

Designer Katharina Hölzl made business cards into both a signature identity for Ritornell and a physical manifestation of how they play their music. They’re not just a physical gimmick, though: audiences get to participate with music making in the production of live, performative loops. (Sadly, no site for Katharina – you just have to get hold of one of her designs!)

Description of the project:

Ritornell’s business cards are inspired by the project’s live show. The improvised concerts evoke a lively atmosphere by the combination of filigree electronics with playful timbres of diverse acoustic instruments and utensils such as egg whisks, toilet brushes, chopsticks or sewing needles. As an integral part of their set list, Ritornell invites the audience to bring along their private musicboxes. Arranged in a big circle, the players’ speed of turning levers is conducted: the results are as shimmering as you would expect.

Katharina Hölzl designed very special business cards to recreate this playful sonic universe. With the aid of laser assisted milling, nine micro compositions consisting of circles, triangles and Ritornell’s contact information were applied onto a long musicbox paper stripe. Before handing out the cards to interested adressees, each individual subdivision is played back via an especially designed musical box – thus providing every business card receiver with a tailor made musical experience.

More information on the project:
Ritornell for Musicbox

Punched cards of this kind of a profound relationship to generative music and computer music. For its part, the very genesis of the computer comes from punched cards: the punched cards in early mechanical looms used for textiles would inspire Charles Babbage. It’s possible that Max Mathews’ first digital audio, and other computer music that employed punched cards, would not have done so without the precedent of the textile industry.

And, of course, the music box and player piano also owe their genesis to punched cards, and thus the pre-digital mechanical reproduction of music. In an era before MIDI, composer Conlon Nancarrow made his own piano rolls, punched to his custom specifications, to play parts that would otherwise be impossible – before complex, glitchy, tracker-made electronic music. (Kyle Gann has a great piece on Nancarrow.) Those piano rolls have echoes in the interactive work of digital artist Toshio Iwai, and in the mechanical, push-button simplicity of the falling tracks of gems in music games from developers like Harmonix. By adding hand-cranked audience participation, though, Ritornell brings the mechanism into the realm of jazz.

And speaking of jazz influence, it’s well worth looking at the rest of the music of Ritornell.

Ritornell, the duo. Photo by Mirjam Unger, courtesy Ritornell.

As glowing ambient worlds cross paths with cooly-casual jazz, Ritornell’s music is to me endlessly evocative. Jazz gesture and good humor merge with waves of richly-imagined sonic textures. It’s music that’s both cinematic and improvisatory, dreamlike but well worth repeated listens. (I find it quite hard not to put it on loop, with warm swells of timbre against percussive rhythms, it fits perfectly with the deep mustard and gold hues of the last wave of autumn leaves in November.)

With the slightly-distant allure of Vienna-based vocalist Mimu added to the mix, the music is a kind of ambient pop reverie.

Don’t miss the music videos, shot seemingly through a thick, warm mist. And check out the rest of the music on the site. I hope we hear more from these folks.

Listening:
Golden Solitude, an eclectic, jazz-inflected sonic journey of an LP

Full discography

Richard Eigner also did drums on “German Haircut” for Flying Lotus’ epic Cosmogramma

http://www.ritornell.at/

Versatile vocalist Mimu, right, as Richard looks on. Photo: Nina Divitschek.

Studio photos, Clemens Fantur.

Punched-Hole Tunes: Ritornell’s Musicbox Business Cards, as Delicate and Magical as the Music

Delivered... Peter Kirn | Artists,Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 6:07 pm

Experimenting with twinkling timbres made both by acoustic and electronic means, the music of Ritornell (the duo of composer Dr. Richard Eigner and pianist Roman Gerold, Austria) is effortlessly expressive and spontaneous. Little wonder that that spirit could translate even to a small object.

Designer Katharina Hölzl made business cards into both a signature identity for Ritornell and a physical manifestation of how they play their music. They’re not just a physical gimmick, though: audiences get to participate with music making in the production of live, performative loops. (Sadly, no site for Katharina – you just have to get hold of one of her designs!)

Description of the project:

Ritornell’s business cards are inspired by the project’s live show. The improvised concerts evoke a lively atmosphere by the combination of filigree electronics with playful timbres of diverse acoustic instruments and utensils such as egg whisks, toilet brushes, chopsticks or sewing needles. As an integral part of their set list, Ritornell invites the audience to bring along their private musicboxes. Arranged in a big circle, the players’ speed of turning levers is conducted: the results are as shimmering as you would expect.

Katharina Hölzl designed very special business cards to recreate this playful sonic universe. With the aid of laser assisted milling, nine micro compositions consisting of circles, triangles and Ritornell’s contact information were applied onto a long musicbox paper stripe. Before handing out the cards to interested adressees, each individual subdivision is played back via an especially designed musical box – thus providing every business card receiver with a tailor made musical experience.

More information on the project:
Ritornell for Musicbox

Punched cards of this kind of a profound relationship to generative music and computer music. For its part, the very genesis of the computer comes from punched cards: the punched cards in early mechanical looms used for textiles would inspire Charles Babbage. It’s possible that Max Mathews’ first digital audio, and other computer music that employed punched cards, would not have done so without the precedent of the textile industry.

And, of course, the music box and player piano also owe their genesis to punched cards, and thus the pre-digital mechanical reproduction of music. In an era before MIDI, composer Conlon Nancarrow made his own piano rolls, punched to his custom specifications, to play parts that would otherwise be impossible – before complex, glitchy, tracker-made electronic music. (Kyle Gann has a great piece on Nancarrow.) Those piano rolls have echoes in the interactive work of digital artist Toshio Iwai, and in the mechanical, push-button simplicity of the falling tracks of gems in music games from developers like Harmonix. By adding hand-cranked audience participation, though, Ritornell brings the mechanism into the realm of jazz.

And speaking of jazz influence, it’s well worth looking at the rest of the music of Ritornell.

Ritornell, the duo. Photo by Mirjam Unger, courtesy Ritornell.

As glowing ambient worlds cross paths with cooly-casual jazz, Ritornell’s music is to me endlessly evocative. Jazz gesture and good humor merge with waves of richly-imagined sonic textures. It’s music that’s both cinematic and improvisatory, dreamlike but well worth repeated listens. (I find it quite hard not to put it on loop, with warm swells of timbre against percussive rhythms, it fits perfectly with the deep mustard and gold hues of the last wave of autumn leaves in November.)

With the slightly-distant allure of Vienna-based vocalist Mimu added to the mix, the music is a kind of ambient pop reverie.

Don’t miss the music videos, shot seemingly through a thick, warm mist. And check out the rest of the music on the site. I hope we hear more from these folks.

Listening:
Golden Solitude, an eclectic, jazz-inflected sonic journey of an LP

Full discography

Richard Eigner also did drums on “German Haircut” for Flying Lotus’ epic Cosmogramma

http://www.ritornell.at/

Versatile vocalist Mimu, right, as Richard looks on. Photo: Nina Divitschek.

Studio photos, Clemens Fantur.

Matty G: Back to the Bay

Delivered... Posted by beatportsean | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 6:05 pm
With a proper mixture of sea-breezed urban landscapes and MIDI horns, Dub Police bring us a fresh video for "Back To The Bay." This is the title track off of the upcoming EP from West Coast dubstep legend Matty G. This isn't your typical floor-filler; it's more a tribute track to the Bay Area that invokes a deeper and more hip-hop influenced vibe. Matty told Knowledge Magazine, "I had been thinking about how beautiful it is flying back into San Francisco, and the good feeling I always got, and thought I would represent that in the song title, which later became the title for the EP." Beautifully put. The track and video combo definitely makes us former Bay Area natives homesick.

Watch this video on Beatportal

A New Plug-in Format, Really? Avid Answers Our Questions About AAX and Pro Tools

Delivered... Peter Kirn | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 6:02 pm

Alongside its Pro Tools 10 and HDX unveiling, Avid turned some heads by recently announcing it was replacing its RTAS and TDM formats to a new format called AAX, “Avid Audio eXtension.” Now, your first reaction may not be unbridled enthusiasm, exactly: it seems the last thing users are likely saying is, “yes, please, I’d like a new plug-in format to worry about.” But I wanted to give the engineers at Avid a chance to tell us what they were thinking and why they made the move.

Avid’s product announcements have unfortunately coincided, presumably because of the financial calendar, with unpleasant restructuring and downsizing news, a topic NYC-based audio engineering site SonicScoop takes up. However, I prefer to focus here on the engineering side of what’s happening; we can look at Avid’s business and the changing business landscape another day. (For what it’s worth, I’m not as bleak as SonicScoop about the industry at large – least of all because I think the larger audio market remains healthy, even if Avid has been caught adapting to a new marketplace.)

The picture painted by Avid is one of a smooth transition to AAX. Now, of course, you’d expect them to say that, but I think they do have some specific technical reasons that, even with the change of name, the shift should be friendly to Avid developers. I’ll let them explain, though.

Bobby Lombardi, Senior Pro Tools Product Manager goes into the technical details of what AAX, and what it means for Pro Tools developers and users.

CDM: The main draw appears to be the ability to switch between native and DSP-based processing more easily, correct? From the end user perspective, can you get into specifics on what a user will see and how this will differ from RTAS/TDM?

Bobby: Visually, a user will see that the RTAS/TDM pop-up on the Pro Tools 10 Plug-in header has changed to Native/DSP. The exciting part is what they will hear. In the past, with HD Accel systems using a 24-bit fixed point processing environment, and host-based systems using 32-bit floating point processing, the gain staging could be quite different and produce significantly different results. With the introduction of AAX, sessions that migrate between host-based and DSP-accelerated HDX Pro Tools systems will sound identical.

How much work will it be for developers to migrate from RTAS/TDM to AAX?

Moving from an existing RTAS plug-in to AAX Native is relatively simple. Plus, once a developer has an AAX Native plug-in running, it will take a small amount of development effort to support AAX DSP. In comparison to TDM 56k used with the legacy HD hardware, AAX DSP is much easier to support and developers do not require specialized skills in writing 56k assembly code, so it opens up the opportunity for many developers to create DSP accelerated versions of their plug-ins.

We’ll still see parallel, separate versions of plug-ins for AAX Native and AAX DSP, correct? And some will, as with RTAS, presumably be native-only?

This is really up to the individual developer. Some developers may find it strategic to support one or the other, however Avid’s goal with this new format was to simplify plug-in development and reduce the complexity to support accelerated hardware.

RTAS and TDM are listed as “legacy” formats. Is Avid making any commitment to how long they’ll last?

The RTAS and TDM formats will continue to be supported in the 32-bit versions of Pro Tools but will not be supported once Pro Tools is released as a 64-bit application. The new AAX plug-in format is the bridge to 64-bit plug-ins for the Pro Tools and Media Composer platform.

Avid has expressed a desire to embrace open formats, but why is there still no common, industry-wide plug-in format? (Actually, there may be no good answer to that question, but I feel obligated to ask!)

We absolutely do embrace open platforms because they can open workflows that enhance the user experience. Part of the experience we need to ensure is that it’s stable, integrates well on our control surfaces, and provides a long-term commitment to the customer. For these reasons it’s important that we can design the plug-in architecture. For example, without designing AAX we could never give customers a plug-in environment that supports both DSP accelerated and native Pro Tools systems and ensure they delivered 100% sound parity. We hope that by providing a modernized AAX SDK for plug-in development, developers will find it easier not only to support Avid’s products, but also finding it easier to develop for non-Avid plug-in formats.

Any word on when we’ll see third-party plugs with AAX support?

More developers are coming online each week with their AAX offerings. We had over 25 developers showing over 60 individual AAX plug-ins at the AES tradeshow in NYC last month, and expect to see many more at the upcoming NAMM tradeshow. With the ability to provide all Avid third party developers a optimized development path to DSP-accelerated plug-ins, we do expect to see more DSP-accelerated plug-ins on the new AAX platform than the legacy TDM platform.

Thanks, Bobby. And for one other take, I happened to get to talk to Universal Audio about their transition. UA, given that they have their own DSP platform and support Avid’s rival packages, certainly aren’t dependent in their business on the Avid ecosystem (though you can be sure it makes a big part of their market). Anyway, here’s what they say; I’m guessing other third parties would say something similar, but if you’re a third party reading and wish to comment, please do so, and don’t let the fact that I only have UA here dissuade you.

Lev Perrey, Universal Audio Director of Product Development, responds to CDM:

Universal Audio intends to support AAX Native in conjunction with UAD-2 DSP accelerators ­ exactly like we have just completed with RTAS support in UAD Powered Plug-ins v6. There is no announcement as of yet as to when the transition to AAX will be complete but we are actively developing and committed to the Pro Tools platform. Pro Tools 10 does support RTAS and initial testing with UAD plug-ins shows it to work just like Pro Tools 9.

As for the significance question, for UA moving to AAX Native should be similar to our recent migration to RTAS ­ although it will be easier for us now moving to AAX since we have fully invested in direct Pro Tools development and better understand the Avid SDK.

We’ll continue to follow this story. Thanks to Avid for getting us more details; I know it’s appreciated.

More info:
AAX Audio Plug-ins @ Avid

A Host of FCC Fines of Over $20,000 for Technical and Tower Issues – And a Presentation on How to Avoid FCC Problems to the Kansas Broadcasters

Delivered... David Oxenford | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 4:01 pm

Last week, I did a presentation on the issues facing broadcasters at the Kansas Association of Broadcasters annual convention (a copy of the slides from my presentation is available here).  I spoke about some of the day-to-day issues that can get broadcasters into trouble, as well as some of the big policy issues that broadcasters need to consider.  My presentation was preceded by a session conducted by the agent in charge of the Kansas City field office of the FCC, who emphasized the many issues that the field agents discover at broadcast stations that can lead to fines.  In the week since I returned from Kansas, it seems like the FCC has wanted to demonstrate the examples given by their agent, as there have been a large number of fines demonstrating the breadth of technical issues that broadcasters can face.  Fines (or "forfeitures", as the FCC calls them) were issued or proposed for issues ranging from faded tower paint, tower light outages, EAS problems, operations with excess power, and the ubiquitous (and very costly) public file violations.  Fines of up to $25,000 were issued for these violations - demonstrating how important it is not to overlook the day-to-day compliance matters highlighted in my presentation.

The largest of these fines was for $25,000.  This fine was imposed on a station for failing to have operational EAS equipment, not having an enclosed fence around the antenna site, and a missing public file.  The fine was originally proposed in a Notice of Apparent Liability (the first step in imposing an FCC fine, when the FCC spells out the apparent violation and the fine proposed, and the licensee is given time to respond to the allegations), released in July (see our post here).  The licensee failed to respond to the Notice of Apparent Liability, thus the fine is now being officially imposed.

In another case, a tower owner was fined $3750 for failing to have operating lights on a tower, and failing to notify the FAA that the lights were not working.  The fine was imposed even though the tower no longer had any communications antennas mounted on it, the tower was scheduled for demolition, and the owners were elderly and in poor health.  The FCC reminded tower owners that they must observe all lighting requirements even if no licensees were using the tower for as long as the tower is standing.  A $10,000 fine was proposed in another case for a North Carolina station that did not have operating tower lights, and did not have a system in place to monitor the lights.  In both cases, the FAA was apparently not notified immediately upon the tower lights failing.

These tower owners were not the only tower owners to get into trouble.  The Commission issued a Notice of Apparent Liability for $20,000 to another tower owner in Atlantic City NJ who had a tower that had faded paint, lights that were not operational, and an open gate in the fence surrounding the base of the tower.  The FCC inspected the tower several times, notified the owner of the issues, and was promised that the lights would be fixed by a given date.  But, upon revisiting the site well after the promised date, the lights were still out and the paint was still faded. Thus, the fine was upped from the $17,000 that would be suggested by the FCC's schedule of routine amounts for fines, to the announced amount of $20,000.  Obviously, if you make a promise to the FCC that you are going to fix a problem, keep it.

But keeping track of who owns a tower is also important, as a $3000 fine was proposed for a tower owner in California.  The FCC visited the tower, and contacted the owner listed in the FCC tower registration records (when registering, tower owners are given an Antenna Structure Registration of ASR number).  That owner told the Commission that the tower had been sold years before - with the Buyer apparently never bothering to update the tower registration at the FCC.  As we have warned before, the FCC tower registration is not automatically updated when the sale of a broadcast station is approved by the FCC.  A buyer must proactively go to the FCC and file a separate form to change the owner in the FCC tower registration database.  If you don't update the tower registration, and a problem arises at your site where the FCC needs to find the tower owner, you may be looking at a fine.

While operating your tower in compliance with the rules is important, so is operating at the right power.  Fines for overpower operations, especially on AM stations that have to switch power levels or directional patterns at sundown, seem common, including fines of $4000 in cases reported here and here.  Especially at this time of year, on Friday nights with high school football games going on after dark, and sundown coming earlier and earlier, stations may be inclined to cheat.  But if you get caught, you are looking at fines - and you have built in enforcers in competing stations who don't want you to get the competitive advantage of an overpower operation.

Moving a station without approval can also be costly - as shown by the case here.  The Commission is proposing a $22,000 fine for a station operating from a site not authorized in its license (even small moves require FCC approval), and not having an operating EAS system or a complete public file. 

This host of fines demonstrates that the FCC is very serious about the technical operations of broadcast stations.  Seemingly little issues can result in big fines - so pay attention to details and save yourself a few dollars. 

Download a free track from Old Tacoma’s Samples

Delivered... Posted by Beatportal | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 3:15 pm
You may recall Colorado's Samples from his Live from Beatport Ustream session back in May; now, he's offering listeners a free download from his new album, Malbec, which comes out Tuesday, November 8 on Eliot Lipp's progressively minded beat-music imprint Old Tacoma Records. "Eliot Lipp and Samples first met while Lipp was on tour in Samples’ home state of Colorado," the label tells us. "When the two collaborated for a tune on Lipp’s most recent remix project, 'BroLabs Remix Project,' the bond of mutual respect for each other’s work was solidified. The rest is, as they say, history (in the making)."

Read more on Beatportal

Omar Souleyman’s wedding tapes from Syria

Delivered... Moritz Schmall | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 2:04 pm
Ain’t no party like an Omar Souleyman Party because an Omar Souleyman Party don’t stop.

Cult Syrian musician Omar Souleyman is something of a star in the Middle East thanks to the fascinating melodies and wild grooves he’s been laying down in both Arabic and Kurdish since 1994. As reported earlier on Electronic Beats, this year he has already put his hands on a Björk remix and toured the summer-festival season pretty heavily.

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What Would an Apple Overhaul of iPad, iPhone and MacBook Bring?

Delivered... Spacelab - Independent Music and Media | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 2:00 pm
Apple might be set to overhaul its entire line of products in 2012, including a new iPad, iPhone, iMac and MacBook, according to a report in Digitimes. Using super-trendy geek words like "upstream supply chain" and "next-generation iPads," the Digitimes report says that Apple has laid out plans to revamp everything and that there are parts orders to prove it.

Use YouTube Music Videos on the Google+ Social Network to Get Viral

Delivered... Spacelab - Independent Music and Media | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 2:00 pm
Now you can promote your band or indie film by making your videos available on the Google+ social network. Check out some YouTube video ideas to make your music go viral in mobile and Google Search.

EB Listening: ZZT’s ‘Partys Over Earth’ album streaming in full

Delivered... Moritz Schmall | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 1:06 pm
Listen to Zombie Nation and Tiga's collaborative debut full length on Electronic Beats.

ZZT is the side project of Zombie Nation (Florian Senfter) and Tiga . The pair have come together to create what is one of the most potent dance records of the year. Arriving through Tiga’s Turbo Recordings on November 7th, the new album entitled Partys Over Earth and is sure to make heads turn. We couldn't wait to get our hands on it and so we arranged the next EB Listening to be the premiere of their new album. Here it here first.

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Uncovering Prague subcultures

Delivered... Lucia Udvardyova | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 12:52 pm

Subcultures have been an age-old subject of interest for theorists, social misfits and pop culture in general. Shunning the mainstream – first unwittingly then determinedly – subcultures create their own communication codes - on a superficial level most pronounced through clothing and visual aesthetics (no wonder the most famous theoretical treatise of the subject is called Subculture: The Meaning of Style).

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Interview: FM Einheit

Delivered... Moritz Schmall | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 12:50 pm
In-depth with one of the pioneers of industrial music.

FM Einheit is probably best known as a founder of the group Einstürzende Neubauten. Over the years, with Neubauten and through other projects, Einheit has pushed the envelope of contemporary music, mixing electronics with found sounds, power tools, and archival samples.

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Frank Ocean’s ‘Back’

Delivered... EB Team | Scene | Fri 4 Nov 2011 12:25 pm
The Odd Future singer releases his most accessible single yet.

With his beautiful voice and obvious pop appeal, Frank Ocean has always been the odd man out in the Odd Future crew. The 24-year old singer has just released his latest single 'Back', and it's probably his poppiest and most accessible cut yet. No word regarding what (if any) release this is going to be on yet, but stream it below and download it here.


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