Five Weeks

21 Apr 2020

Day 35

Day 30 with the kids home all day everyday, for those of you keeping track at home. It’s hard to believe we’ve hit this pseudo-milestone. As I recall, day 15 felt like day 55. I can happily say that, at day 35, it only feels like day 35. Then again, who really knows what day it is anymore. I’m legitimately starting to believe the whole “time is a construct” mode of thinking. The days all blend together, like two hands infinitely interlinked. I don’t have much more to say about isolation life with two young children anymore other than I’m tired. So very very tired. There are many highs to go along with the low points, but all of it is exhausting. Now that those (un-?)pleasantries are out of the way, I actually have some fun stuff to talk about. Starting with…

New Music!

One of the benevolent evil-geniuses at Elektron, makers of kickass music gear that I love, created a sort of music label on bandcamp with a cool modern twist. I think the background is that it’s sort of driven with the same spirt of open source development. Not only are the releases excellent, but they also include the source material which was used to create the various albums. The most recent release “Granules”, by Auvrel is absolutely stunning. Using only the Digitone (a personal favorite in the Elektron lineup), we get 12 tracks of relentless, driving techno that showcases heavy use of distortion / overdrive. There is a seemingly endless stream of electronic music releases, but this one really gets to me. I can’t pinpoint the origin, but I have come to realize that I really enjoy overdrive and distortion in music. Of course, the application of it has to be done tastefully, or else everything can quickly become a garbled mess. Granules is heavy in all the best ways. What’s more, is that with purchase, you also get access to a sysex file that includes a sound pack of some (if not all) of the sounds used to make the album. Normally, I would be somewhat ho-hum about that, but in this case, I’m excited to dig in, and I hope to learn some of the methods to making the Digitone a filthy beast of a synth.

Twin Collaboration

I want to talk about working together on fun projects with my twin brother, but that will have to wait until the next post.