Ellen Allien’s Berlin-based label bpitchcontrol this week released Telefon Tel Aviv’s third album, which we’ve sadly just learned will be a posthumous release for the duo’s Charlie Cooper.

“immolate yourself“ unites ten tracks with the aim to give the term electro pop a new definition for 2009. although each track has its own story to tell, together they paint a bigger picture that encapsulates the telefon tel aviv sound. arguably the albums standout track “helen and troy“ was in fact the last track to be finished and in a way marked the studio climax. as telefon tel aviv state, “we knew, after completing this song, that we were in fact finished with the record“.

It’s a sad time, but I can’t think of any better way to honor someone’s memory than to hear their music. Thanks to both of these creative artists for that gift.

immolate yourself CD order page

Here’s a novel concept:

• Provide video tutorials that teach you how to play an instrument and walk you specifically through the technique of a song
• Make them available as downloads
• Charge US$4.99 each
• Get the artists (and producers) involved in the original song
• Let people hear the original track
• Break down the song piece by piece so you can learn it
• Get the artists talking about the inspiration for the song, and what it means

Apple pitched these as a new concept in music education in its Macworld keynote. The company calls the videos “a whole new way to help you learn to play piano and guitar” and said they “also give you something you won’t find anywhere else: the story behind the song.”

The only problem is, every one of these features – every single feature – has been available for months on ivideosongs.com. (Thanks for the comment, Anders!) Updated: one correction. As Tracy notes in comments, the celebrity ivideosongs entries are $9.99, though the rest of the content is $4.99. So, either Apple quietly partnered with that site and didn’t mention it (very possible), or they blatantly ripped off the site. Either way, the feature isn’t really new, which I missed. And either way, this is a great way to learn about music without buying any new software for five bucks a pop or even free. (The only real catch is, as with Apple, if you’re not a pianist or guitarist, you’re likely to feel left out.)

I had heard of the site but unfortunately didn’t spend the time I should have with it. Other bloggers wisely paid more attention:

It’s an old piece (Christmas 2004), but if you find your ears are ringing with retailers playing Christmas tracks on endless loop for the past few weeks, I can think of no better time for this. A Singular Christmas involved sixteen processors working for two weeks to compress the essence of Christmas music into sixteen singles. The results: tracks of droning, glistening sonic ice sculptures, like an ethereal pipe organ got caught in a wormhole.

Confused? See the easy diagram below. Now, didn’t that make that make a lot more sense?

The endless drones may put you in a sleepy trance, but that could be just what you need to recover from another holiday season. (Well, that or possibly dreaming about using Processing to code up A/V-synced Christmas lights next year.)

Best of all? The titles, like “Radiant bells,” “Hail the shining star” and “Berries sleeping.”

A Singular Christmas

An interview about what it was all about

Creator Brian Whitman: current site

As it happens, Brian Whitman hasn’t been sitting idly. He took all that machine listening knowledge applied to this project and went on to found the Echo Nest, conceived as an API for all of music. I need to catch up and revisit this project soon, but here was our first look, including an interview with Brian:

Musical Brain API: An API for Music on the Web – And it Makes Pretty Pictures

Okay, first, a disclaimer: the fact that the upcoming microKORG XL has a “genre” knob for selecting presets isn’t big news. The original microKORG had genre-selectable presets, too. The beauty of the original, though, was how incoherently these settings were labeled. (Retro, or Hiphop/Vintage, anyone?)

Sometimes, the labels that don’t fit are better than the real ones.

“What type of music do you play?”

“I play VOCODER!”

(From here on out, any time the mention of VOCODER comes up, it shall be in CAPS and ITALICS as will anything else we especially ENJOY. For instance: GRANULAR DISTORTION!)

Sadly, it seems Korg has – well, sort of – made these choices rational. (As rational as they can be, anyway, given “genre” is generally irrational.) I think I misread the label “ROCK/POP” as “POWER POP” – you’ll have to use your imagination. (VINTAGE SYNTH? Does that really say HOUSE/DISCO?) Korg explains:

The first selects the musical genre, while the second defines the instrument category. From the familiar "ROCK / KEYBOARD," the standard "R&B / LEAD," and the distinctive "HIPHOP / BASS," a wide range of presets are instantly available. For the diehard synthesists and sound designers, you can use the three performance edit knobs for fast, effective editing in performance. You’re also free to select and assign your favorite parameters.

No idea what “distinctive” means, but since our job is not selling lots of gear, let’s do something more fun. I suggest we chip in and imagine the Most Awesomest Genre Knob ever. You’ll be free to incorporate this into your Pd and Reaktor patches. It will have silly, awesome names on it that we’ve made up or refer to disparagingly. Get your genre brains going, and submit your ideas, and I’ll run the best answers later this week. You’ll have to print out a sticker to put on your new microKORG XL when it ships in 2009.

Now, if only we could use a “genre” knob on bands at gigs… sorry, Emo band, you’ve now just become Avant-electro-noise!

Send your answers below, or head directly to http://cdm.genreknob.sgizmo.com

Sound designer, technologist, and remix artist Francis Preve sends us some gifts of techno and technology to celebrate his first solo release. For your brain, we’ve compiled the tutorials he’s been working on for Beatportal, which together provide a really great look at some basic music production skills. For your ears, we have his new Ableton-produced single “Caboose” which, coupled with a Josh Gabriel remix – and a free iPhone ringtone exclusively provided to CDM by Josh’s label Different Pieces.

Being a technologist often makes actually finding time to make music a big challenge. But I’ve always been impressed at Fran’s ability to do both. Whether this is your type of music or not, it means that when he talks about techniques, he’s talking about stuff he actually applies in his work – and he has eight Billboard Top 10s to prove his remixing skills, including one for Justice. Here’s what he had to say to CDM about making Ableton Live into a way of reimagining just two samples into a whole track:

The interesting thing about the production of Caboose is that – with the exception of the drums – it was made entirely from two very short vocal samples, entirely in Live 7. There were no third-party plug-ins or softsynths. Every sound was either looped and effected, or placed in Simpler and sequenced, or ‘Sliced to MIDI’ and manipulated. Even the bass is that same vocal sample, tuned down two octaves, distorted, then filtered and compressed. The process itself was so much fun that I’ve since incorporated aspects of it into the follow- up tracks I’m working on now.

In the meantime, Francis has compiled for us a complete index to the tutorials he’s been developing for Beatportal, including synthesis, sampling, effects, Reason’s new Thor synth, and other skills: