Announcing a new 12" single by our good friends at Zero G Sounds, Boston, featuring remixes by Ruoho Ruotsi and Switzerland's Agnès.

Zero G Sounds promo blurb:

Distributed exclusively by Intergroove www.intergroove.de
2008 Zero G Sounds www.zer0gsounds.com

Supporting the latest release of Logic Studio is a 3rd party (non-apple) site run by Zoom-In called the Logic Studio Microsite. The site is aimed at musicians and is chock full of in depth video tutorials, lessons, artist profiles and everything else you'd want to know to plumb the tasty depths of this environment and become a production ninja!

Werd!

Following on the heels of the beatport sponsored remix contest where remixers were charged for the track's original parts, in a trend that seems to be increasingly common among established bands, Radiohead is now also charging artists for stems in their latest remix competition.

Having participated (successfully) in my share of remix competitions, I am acutely turned off at the notion of having to spend my hard-earned money on remix “parts”. It is not the price that I object to, but the height of hubris behind playing off the aspirations of adoring remixer-artist-fans for economic gain, under the auspices of a “remix competition”.

For an established artist, remix competitions are an exceptional chance to collaborate with upcoming artists and artist-fans. These contests are also an excellent opportunity to dip one's toes back into the underground and link with future musical movements. Therefore the act of charging remixer-artist-fans to participate is wholly antithetical to the collaborative spirit inherent in the remix.

Furthermore, the rights of the remix always belong to the record-label or artist, not the remixer. So now, remixers pay to participate, but only one will win, only to have his/her intellectual property summarily handed over to the record label in exchange for perhaps the promise of a release, in other cases merely free software titles and music production kit.

Charging artists for stems/parts reeks of exploitation and I'm sorely disappointed to see a forward thinking and influential band like Radiohead stoop to such levels.

Recently, the groovy folks over at It's coming out of your speaker have completely and unreservedly outdone themselves. They're currently serving up heavy weekly doses (on rapidshare) of vintage & classic dub, reggae and dancehall records that you'd snatch up in an instant at any physical record store. There is also the smattering of Afrobeat, samba and Batacuda. Each post is complete will full liner notes and images. I made the above collage from images of the various postings.

This rabbit hole goes deep, and is worth the cost of a rapidshare account.

Thanks to man pikin for the tip!

Starting last month, the folks at Auralism teamed up with Alland Byallo (KontrolSF | Comfort Sessions | Nightlight, etc) to run his Proton Radio show, now called “Auralism presents Comfort Sessions”.

Ruoho Ruotsi submitted his phoenix landing liveset that is now featured on the Comfort Sessions page. Enjoy!

This is a fascinating article on what happens when in the brain when (Jazz) musicians switch from playing heavily rehearsed material to free improvisation.

Wiring up accomplished musicians to an fMRI machine and having them play from memory, then improvise, neuro-scientists observed that during improvisation, the section of the brain responsible for self-monitoring (one's performance) shuts down completely, while the smaller prefontal cortex in charge of self-initiated ideas and impulses (common during dreaming) is unusually active. I love the analogy to a ball player, “over thinking” a jump shot.

Short of reading the actual paper, Neural Substrates of Spontaneous Musical Performance: An fMRI Study of Jazz Improvisation, here's a choice blurb from the scientificblogging article that summarizes the essence:

Moreover, the researchers found that much of the change between improvisation and memorization occurred in the prefrontal cortex, the region of the frontal lobe of the brain that helps us think and problem-solve and that provides a sense of self. Interestingly, the large portion responsible for monitoring one's performance (dorsolateral prefrontal cortex) shuts down completely during improvisation, while the much smaller, centrally located region at the foremost part of the brain (medial prefrontal cortex) increases in activity. The medial prefrontal cortex is involved in self-initiated thoughts and behaviors, and is very active when a person describes an event that has happened to him or makes up a story. The researchers explain that, just as over-thinking a jump shot can cause a basketball player to fall out of the zone and perform poorly, the suppression of inhibitory, self-monitoring brain mechanisms helps to promote the free flow of novel ideas and impulses. While this brain pattern is unusual, it resembles the pattern seen in people when they are dreaming.

Check out this short (and sadly prematurely cutoff) video of Toumani Diabate, giving a very basic but amazing demonstration of the fundamental elements of the Kora!

You can find more information about Toumani, one of the most accomplished Kora players in the world, via his myspace page.

Dub Echoes, is a new music documentary out, now making the rounds in the festival ciruit. It was made by a Brazilian crew and is in the vein of excellent Studio One Story but by way of other more electronic-music slanted documentaries like Modulations: Cinema for the Ear and Better Living Through Circuitry.

You can also watch it on you Youtube.

Audium is a 169-speaker sound-theatre on Bush @ Franklin in San Francisco. Every Friday and Saturday, composer Stan Schaff treats audiences in the 49 seat theatre to an exploration of dynamic 3D sound through his avant-gardist and Musique Concrète compositions. The works are spatialized in real-time by the composer himself and last about an hour. I went to the show last night and very highly recommended it!!!

Larger images up on flickr and some really good shots of the interior from some other folks.

This morning, the San Francisco Chronicle had a delightful and illluminating article (complete with photo gallery) on the craftspeople and the top-flight acoustic instruments they make for professional musicians.