Comments on: The Avant Gourd: Atmospheric Drool Edition (01/09/07)

By: Shane

Shane — Fri, 12 Jan 2007 21:06:49 +0000

Best show yet. Very dark and textured, just how I like it. Keep it up, man.

By: tekrytor

tekrytor — Mon, 15 Jan 2007 20:30:49 +0000

I want my Mommy! Very intense. I don’t scare to easily, but holotone has my skins crawling with this mystic drool. There is definitely something creepy in my closet tonight.
But wait, around five minutes in, there’s an angel in the wings and she’s scratching at my inner skull. Will she let me out of this dark dream? Then the seven minute sirens; I am tied to the mast and loving it. It’s nine minutes and I’m drifting through an eternal void laced with strands of draino-bleached silky seaweed. It’s spiraling into the obvious nothingness of my future dreams. There is apparently no way back from this opaque edge of the universe (at 12 minutes). It is very deep here. 13:40 and the bells are gently tolling. It must be time for my medication. The nurses are circling in and staring at me now. They have some strange instruments and are prodding me, whispering in strange languages to get up, try to get up. just try. I’m losing my grasp, can’t hold on, I’ll be back . . .

16:30 and some twisted rhythm is pulling me side to side. It’s a dance of enchantresses plucking their golden harps and summoning my futile resistance. Their masters command the work to begin around 19 minutes in. The throngs align for morning rituals and march into the void ahead. At 20 minutes, the violin and cello arrive to further sedate the tormented. It is a better day, until the angry doctor arrives with her acidic spray, neutralizing what was my long-range vision with a mist of plasmic gel. The burning! If not for the strings of comfort, I would surely die.

At 24:39, the work drums have ceased and there is peace in the sad strings, but the burning is now almost complete. Only the hope of the string chanting resists the scorch. 26 minutes, lovely sustained feedback - ointment for the acidic burns.

All is well again. The drone of the machine is omnipresent and splits my brain halves without wasting a drop of my awareness. Hypnotic chimes made of gigantic metal doors, dangling from enormous chains suspended in mile high caverns fill the air with omens of evil creatures decending intomy realm.

There is no escape. Is surrender as they penetrate my skin and suck my life juices from every extremity. I slowly escape my being with only a feathery skin as a snake would leave behind. It floats into the next void with the engines of war machines in the air, drifting into the red horizon. It’s 35 minutes in as I near a gigantic world metal covered in an icy crust.

What a trip? I pause for sustenence.

Holotone, what a great work ! ! ! ! ! Congratulations ! ! ! !

By: nitro2k01

nitro2k01 — Tue, 16 Jan 2007 23:30:53 +0000

Maybe this spoils the fun but:
1) Is the reaktor instrument spacedrone involved in this recording? It doesn’t sound exactly like it, but it could be.
2) But I’m pretty sure what the picture is. It’s a photo of LED’s, where the camera has been set to a long shutter time. But what’s more, these LEDs are powered by AC rather than DC. I can tell that from the pattern in the light strings, which actually depicts how the LED goes on and off while the camera was moved. (At 50 or 60 Hz depending on where you are in the world.)

By: cole

cole — Wed, 17 Jan 2007 06:41:24 +0000

@tekrytor: !!! - Thanks for the excellent feedback kind words!

@nitro2k01: 1) There’s probably a good chance that at least a few of the artists featured in part during this set used Reaktor something or other at least a few times in this mess o’ sound. At most any given time there were 3-6 different audio sources playing, from ambient to glitch to my Speak & Math to spoken word and everything in between.

2) As much as I wish you were right, the featured photo is from about 50 yards out from Massive Attack during their set at ACL this year.