I can’t say anything this song doesn’t say brilliantly. Comedian Adam Buxton takes on the Radiohead remix contest with his own entry, which cuts through the hype brings a bit of wit to TV incidental music and remixing alike. And, really, how often do you get to say "Radiohead" and "rap" in the same sentence? Take my mechanical rights, please!
See, there, I said something. It wasn’t very good. Just so listen to the song and thank me later, okay?
See also Adam Buxton’s sketch for BBC3’s Rush Hour which cleans up NWA to "Help Da Police." Thanks, Jaymis!
Via Monome virtuoso Matthew Davidson (aka Stretta, the man who has built a lot of the patches that give the Monome its unique personality), here’s a video that really demonstrates how the Monome turns a set of buttons into a way of arranging and performing music. Adam, aka makingthenoise, covers Tom Yorke’s “The Eraser” using a Monome 40h, Ableton Live, and the SevenUp Live software setup.
(You may remember makingthenoise from the East Coast Monome Jam, a Princeton convergence of Monomes and the musicians who love them.)
The killer ingredient here is Adam’s SevenUpLive, a Java application that combines 8 different Monome apps in one and integrates more tightly with Ableton Live.
On the software page, you’ll find a full file pack to recreate The Eraser as in the video.
It’s AES this week in California; I won’t be there, because I have a family engagement. But what I find interesting is that this homespun way of controlling music is very different from the typical studio/mixer paradigm you’re likely to see at a trade show. It may be a better model of the actual music.
Eliot Van Buskirk has, as always, terrific music coverage for Wired. The story this time: how Metallica’s Radiohead/Nine Inch Nails-style Internet release, free of DRM, seems only to make people angry. It gives a glimpse into how the Internet release could evolve over time, outside the aura of joy in which the latter two bands are enveloped. I can make the story short, though:
In many circles, Metallica is no longer cool or never was cool.
Lawyer make people MAD. Angry. Smash. (Apparently in addition to going after 60,000 pages of fans on Napster, Metallica doesn’t even like fan-made buttons.)
Metallica is not Radiohead or Trent Reznor. (Stop the presses!)
Even if you’re not Radiohead or Trent Reznor, you probably want your fans on your side. Pitchforks and torches tend to be a bad sign.
Of course, some might see the doomsday scenario of Internet music releases, in which fans determine that all music should be free and you can’t make money on releases any more. Big bands give away their stuff for free, the independent artist dies, music isn’t made any more, etc., etc. But given glowing fans proclaiming that they’re “glad I could shell out 40 pounds for the discbox” of In Rainbows, that seems unlikely.
And that’s the fundamental nature of fans. They’re looking for ways to give you their money so you can give them something back. Lesson learned by Metallica: don’t piss them off.
In case you haven’t seen this, James Houston has produced a short film in which an assortment of old computer gear “plays” Radiohead’s “Nude.” We’ve seen various bicycle parts and such performing music around here, but not the actual components of computers in this way. James features:
Sinclair ZX Spectrum – Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer – Drums
HP Scanjet 3c – Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array – Act as a collection of bad speakers – Vocals & FX
He explains:
I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they’re trying their best to do something that they’re not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.
It doesn’t sound great, as it’s not supposed to.
Sorry, James. You’ve failed thoroughly. It sounds fantastic.
Not only that, but I think it’s quite a nice reminder that even in regards to technology, sometimes sounding bad or primitive is wonderful. Yorke’s songwriting prowess comes out even as the music is translated to an entirely different arrangement. It’s humbling to hear — it means that, technology or no, being able to write great ideas sure helps. And it strips away some of the justification for having the latest and greatest soft synths, erm, not that it’ll stop us any time soon.
By the way, I hadn’t heard that Thom Yorke thought it was impossible to do remixes in 6/8. Come on, really? Okay, maybe for people whose heart beats four on the floor…
Time to dig into my equipment closet and see what will make sound. Peace out.
Plenty of bands have jumped on the "remix generation" bandwagon, releasing music to be remixed and sampled and visualized as a publicity stunt. But, then, plenty of bands aren’t Radiohead. Readers here may have been disappointed that our favorite superband didn’t embrace Creative Commons sharing when announcing their iTunes-only stems. But a number of the artists we follow came up with some brilliant work.
In Visuals: Robert Hodgin, aka Flight404, has the enviable job of exploring new visual expressions as his day gig of sorts. Working primarily in code developed in the open-source, Java-powered Processing, he develops a technique and then iterates and iterates on it until it goes from computer gimmick to refined artistry. He blogs that process, as well, pushing forward the rest of the Processing community. His video above uses abstract, generative processes to visualize Radiohead’s "Weird Fishes", but is developed enough to become organic. It’s a voyage under the sea. Via our sister site, Create Digital Motion.
In Music: A number of readers tackled the Radiohead remix contest. Here’s my favorite: our friend Alan Molina created a sparse string accompaniment that spotlights Tom Yorke’s vocal part. He explains:
Thanks for listening! I actually recorded and mixed all the strings.
They are all a violin (just lots of layers of me). My profession is an orchestral violinist–this remix was an outlet to do something different!
I used Ableton Live 7 for the effects, and used the kind of mic that clips on behind the bridge of a violin. Done on my couch in front of my computer!
Of course, the other direction to go is stretching the tune past the point of recognizability, with strange bizarro-universe remixes pulling the tune to experimental glitch and faux-punk. Here are a few of the more unusual takes on their music:
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