David Byrne discusses the effect that contemporary listening spaces have had on music composition throughout history.
Kraftwerk and the Electronic RevolutionJune 5, 2010
A sprawling, 3 hour history of electronic music centred on Kraftwerk and their contemporaries. Great stuff.
Kraftwerk 1/18:
FabricmachineMay 23, 2010
Fabricmachine is a sound installation by Kathrin Stumreich.
Two fabric loops, driven by a motor, create a division in space. Light sensors measure the opacity of the textile. The way all pieces are sewed together for a fabric sound track is responsible for beats, breaks and rhythms.
Richie Hawtin on Music TechnologyMay 22, 2010
Bassline Baseline Roland TB-303 DocumentaryMay 17, 2010
Bassline Baseline is a short documentary about the development and impact of the Roland TB-303 by Nate Harrison.
The production values are weak, the narration sounds a bit like a speech synthesizer and there are some mistakes (the TB-303 didn’t have a sine oscillator, it had a pseudo-square wave created by modifying a sawtooth), but the history makes it worth watching.
Today we have computer software, consisting of representations of a three-dimensional interface on a two-dimensional screen, being controlled by third-party software so as to emulate the sound of a machine built twenty years ago, which was itself built to emulate the sound of a machine built 30 years before it.