I'm playing key-bored in a new band!

We are called Sacral Nerves. And we're playing out first show on December 3rd. Yay!

Useless machines

Interaction Design Safari

I was inspired by this post from Anjin Anhut to go on an Interaction Desgin Safari yesterday. Above are a few samples from the images that resulted from it. See the full set here.

Great Vowel Shift: EP review + upcoming show

My EP, Tasteful Erotica, got a positive review on Argue Job:

His musical intuition is definitely the highlight of the ep. Basque knows how far to push the less palatable aspects without taking the well balanced pop concessions off the table.

Check it out.

Also, I'm going to play a short set at Cagibi next week, opening for Queening (from Brooklyn). Here's a Facebook event. And some details:

Thursday, May 5 at 10:00 pm

An evening of music at Le Cagibi (5490 St. Laurent, Montreal)

Featuring (in the order they will play) :

- Les Beyond (immanent immigrant) + Old Wyoming (formerly empty love)
http://lesbeyond.bandcamp.com/
http://oldwyoming.bandcamp.com/

- Queening (Brooklyn's Avant-Genius')
http://www.myspace.com/queeningisgreat

- The Great Vowel Shift (local boy wonder)
http://greatvowelshift.bandcamp.com/

Things in general and a new Great Vowel Shift EP

It's been a while since I've updated this blog. This is due to the fact that it was set up as an outlet for all my promotional efforts, and lately I have not had much to promote. I'm not booking shows anymore and it's not really something I'm too concerned about at the moment.

However, I have been making music, and the fruit of those efforts is now available for your listening and purchasing pleasure at this wonderful website. This is a 20-minute EP called "Tasteful Erotica," by my solo recording project The Great Vowel Shift. Here's the cover art:

And here is the track list:

For the record, I think both of those images are remarkably ugly. It's kind of what I was going for.

The music, however, I'm quite proud of. The philosophy behind this release was to not obsess over it, to accept the mistakes, go for spontaneity over perfection, always follow my instincts and indulge in my worst "ticks" as a producer, like cutting all the low and high frequencies on everything and boosting the mids. Whenever possible, I used the first take, even if I was singing a little flat or whatever. I tried to work quickly and release the finished EP as soon as possible.

All of which possibly sounds like I was just being lazy and careless, but that's not what it was. It was about not squeezing all the life out of the original idea by spending too much time "perfecting" it, which I felt was what happened with my previous release.

Anyway, so that's done. It's out there for you to listen to. And if you absolutely love it, you can own it for only $4. It's downloadable in any format you want, including several lossless options and, of course MP3. There is no physical copy. It's a digital release only. I don't think I'll ever make another physical CD ever again. I don't see the point.

I was going to keep writing about other stuff, but on second thought, no, I better not. Enjoy the music.

Effortless songwriting

ah ah ah ah ah

je suis là
devant toi
entre nous il y a
une table
avec de la bouffe dessus
je la regarde
avec mes dents
et j'ai envie de croquer dedans
ça a l'air succulent

ah ah ah ah ah

je suis là
devant toi
entre nous il y a
un piège
lequel d'entre nous va
se mettre les doigts dedans?
nous sommes pris
tous les deux
il n'y a plus rien à dire

encore

ah ah ah ah ah

The first half of this song came to me in the shower about two weeks ago. As soon as I got out, I ran to the tape recorder, still dripping wet, and recorded it, singing all the music parts as well, so as not to forget it. The recording of it is ritualistic more than it is an actual documentation. The act of recording the song means that I won't forget it. I haven't listened to the recording since, because I didn't need to - the song stayed in my head.

This morning, the second verse came to me. Again, completely unexpectedly. I was making coffee, and I just spontaneously started singing it. All the lyrics were there. So I wrote it down. And now it's done. All I have to do is record it properly.

I really like this song a lot and I have no idea where it came from. I didn't put any thought into the lyrics at all - they came almost automatically - but now that I look at them they mean something to me.

In the first verse, two people are sitting at a table, facing each other. There is food on the table, and it looks delicious, and they're looking at it, waiting to sink their teeth into it. Because of the music and the melody and the way the song is sung, there is definitely some kind of tension in the air, which could be interpreted as sexual, but not necessarily. But the focus is on the food, not the relationship between these two people.

The second verse starts the same way, but now instead of a table, what's between them is a trap. What kind of trap? I don't know. But they're both looking at it, wondering which of them is going to get their fingers stuck in it. But then it turns out that they're both trapped, they've been trapped all along, and they have nothing to say to each other. It's the situation itself that is a trap, not just whatever's on the table.

The simple "encore" at the end suggests that this situation is a recurring one.

s u r f a c e d i s p l a c e m e n t

the finite state machine presents:
s u r f a c e d i s p l a c e m e n t
an evening of electronic music

Monkeyphone
Akumu
the Great Vowel Shift
James Schidlowsky's Ringen

Saturday, September 25th, 9 PM
le Cagibi, 5490 St-Laurent blvd.
4 dollars, PWYC


..................................................
Monkeyphone
..................................................

Monkeyphone is the collaborative project of seasoned, hyperkinetic drummer Tomas Matthews (Desert Owls), ambient/dance guru Bob Doell (Paul Keeley, Gyges), and IDM/Electroacoustic composer Shane Turner (Turner of Wheels, The Fold). Their live performance for amped electronics and drums freely combines their favorites of the electronic music canon. Echoes of dance, dub, krautrock, fusion, and industrial form into high energy beats that are layered with thick synthetic grooves, spiced with warm noise and soft pliable ambiance.

http://www.myspace.com/monkeyphonemusic

..................................................
Akumu
..................................................

Akumu is Toronto’s Deane Hughes, composer of dark electronic ambient music.

Formed as a solo project in 2000, Akumu [Japanese for “nightmare”] explores the eerie side of natural systems through long-form instrumental tracks constructed from drones, found sounds and micro-sonics that synthesize organic and electronic elements into haunting atmospherics and low frequency beats.

He has released three full-length albums, a DVD of videos, a split release with Andrew Duke plus various compilations and net tracks. He has scored music for television and film and has performed live across Ontario and Quebec including at Montréal’s Mutek Festival and Toronto’s X-Avant and Ambient Ping events.

He is currently producing new material for release later this year.

http://www.musicbyakumu.com/
http://itunes.apple.com/ca/artist/akumu/id35764941

..................................................
The Great Vowel Shift
..................................................


Yan Basque is a Montreal-based musician, experimental sound artist, writer and visual artist. As The Great Vowel Shift, he explores the intersections between improvisation and noise, found material and structure, using lo-fi electronics and analog sounds. Yan releases song-based material under the name Racine, plays guitar with the punk band Drunk Dial, and has collaborated with artist Nicole Aline Legault on a book: Empty Bottles Carrying Talking Teeth. He spends too much time on the internet. He lives in Verdun with his cat Ingemar.

http://greatvowelshift.tumblr.com/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Great_Vowel_Shift

..................................................
James Schidlowsky's Ringen
..................................................

James Schidlowsky used to make music.

From No Type:

"James Schidlowsky is a sound artist, performer and improviser. His music ranges from ambient to free jazz, but is primarily abstract. He investigates the intrinsic sounds of the guitar using various objects, the sounds of radiowaves, interferences and treated field recordings. He has released several solo CD-Rs, online albums and has collaborated regularly with Olivier Borzeix, Alexandre St-Onge, Jacques Gravel, Nathalie Dion, Magali Babin and A_dontigny."

Ringen has been described as an orchestra of elves and faeries playing strings and horns and an elven church organ. Beautiful, shimmering, effervescent.

http://www3.bell.net/james.schid/
http://www.notype.com/drones/bio.e/schidlowsky_ja/