Here are stills from the film I'm helping to score. See more at raulgonzo.com
So I'm playing the grand opening of "TION" if that's actually how they're spelling it. TION is the brainchild of Ty Gorton and others. The plan is a mysterious blend of things. Event venue? Warehouse of hard core underground creative innovation?
I hear there's 3 stories! I hear there will be the most epic sound system! I hear graphic design, film, websites, record labels will merge with a circus-like dream studio. People will live there too?
This is all rumor...all speculation. I sense it will be something very special, an elevation of Chico art and artists. A laboratory of artistic and business experiments, a petri dish for dreams to flourish or turn into really stinky, blue moldy funk. I don't know. Whatever it's going to be, I'm really looking forward to it.
All I know is that Ayrian is putting together a night of psycho beats on Saturday November 8. I'm writing special tracks for the occasion. The one in the works is featuring some mangled b-boy breaks constructed with tr808 samples, some deconstruction sound design techniques, samples of the Rev. Dr. Martin Luther King Jr........and stuff.
I'm excited for this show, I think it will be the largest sound system I've ever played out on, so bring your epileptic seizures and fear!
I will be in costume. Theatrics are necessary for this special occasion.
This place may change the landscape of Chico arts forever.
Selling a business, I've been thinking a lot about ownership lately. As far as businesses, homes, companies and stuff; ownership is never forever. It's all temporal and fluid.
The only permanent ownership is in your love and your thoughts. Intellectual property is the only real property that is actually ours.
The economy is falling apart and numbers like 1.5trillion and 500billion get thrown around and it is so impossible to wrap your head around what that means that it becomes a big weird math game that only works if we all agree that it's real.
Your creativity is 100% yours, for real. Make more stuff.
I write this with the self-awareness that I very may be a DJ snob. And, working 100s of hours to produce a set of original music, not easily susceptible to the cult of personality that can surround DJ's.
I was at Panamas last Saturday to see Kid Kameleon drop his set, talk to him, get his business card, see what all the hype's about, dance, get inspired, hear beats I haven't heard yet, enjoy drinking alcohol and to keep my fingers crossed in hopes of seeing Holger Honda.
Riley played a crazy set of amazing tracks and I was driven to dance in front of a big loud speaker like a person who is more concerned with the moment than the frequency range of his auditory faculties.
I heard some things that drove my music mind into new places which is always deeply appreciated. She had a great sense for the subtleties of the mix and I thought she was a pretty good DJ.
CONFESSION OF DJ SNOBBERY:
I, BASIC, AM A DJ SNOB. I WAS INTRODUCED TO TURNTABLISM BY A SUPER BADASS HIP HOP DJ WHO HAD 1200'S IN HIS BEDROOM SINCE THE AGE OF ELEVEN. WE USED TO MAKE FUN OF AND TALK RELENTLESS SHIT TO DJ'S WHO SPUN HOUSE BEATS TO A BUNCH OF PEOPLE ON DRUGS AND COULD BARELY MIX 2 TRACKS TOGETHER THAT SHARED EXACTLY THE SAME BPM VALUES. MY FRIEND POSSESSED TURNTABLE MASTERY THAT I HAVE NOT SEEN SINCE AND WAS VERY SPOILED AND TOOK HIS SKILLS FOR GRANTED. I'VE NEVER SEEN ANOTHER DJ MIX OLD SCHOOL HIP HOP TRACKS WITH UNDERWORLD WITH OUT USING HEADPHONES AND GOD FORBID A LAPTOP. NOR HAVE I SEEN A DJ SEAMLESSLY BEAT JUGGLE 2 COPIES OF BILLY JEAN WITH A COPY OF EGYPTIAN LOVER ON THREE TURNTABLES. I'M NOT EXAGGERATING. I AM SERIOUS. IT ACTUALLY HAPPENED. AND THEN THERE'S THE SCRATCHING...
anyway I'm a snob thanks to my gifted friend. My gifted friend is the single reason I never got into dj-ing, there was no room for me. My friend was too good. Our little posse had a dj that Badrock could barely keep up with (remember badrock?)
My gifted friend was with me and he asks, "What's up with the laptop?" I had to explain the latest software to him - the guy who can mix any of his vinyl with out headphones had to have it explained why some people need the latest software. And he goes, "Wow, that really has a lot of potential. Too bad that guy isn't doing anything with it. But the music's amazing."
That's kind of how I felt but I didn't want to say it. I was having fun dancing to somebody's music.
I'm not a dj, nor do I want to be, but I love good ones. Next DJ I see who beat juggles Billy Jean gets a present.
Raul Gonzo and I have a deal. His movie is dope...think Brazil style low-tech dystopian future but with CGI and a very original story line. Canadian Electronic Musician Milosh has provided the theme song and it's a really cool piece. I'm honored to be involved with the same project as him and excited about having one degree of separation between us.
My job is to score however many scenes Raul wants. We've got a little ftp system going and I have a year to wrap it up. Raul's the boss and he's providing me direction for the vibe of the music he's hoping to get on the particular scenes. I get my first chunk tomorrow.
In the end, the movie will be 90 minutes long, submitted to many film-fests and distributed digitally and on DVD. Raul's making a big push on this one and involving marketing firms. We're hoping for the BUMPER CAR CITY cult following in 5 years.
I'd be excited if 100 people saw it but I'm a cheap date. I think Raul has bigger expectations for this one.
So Dean hooked it up. Dean the man...always in the vest...always with the swagger and the chin up. Dean's got this buddy in Yuba City who makes dope videos. Raul Gonzo. If that's actually his name then his mother should be given some kind of award.
Anyway, this cat Raul hit me up on the site here and wants me to work on music for his 2 hour sci-fi movie he's been animating single-frame by frame for the past 3 years. This guy's clearly out of his mind and a pretty badass artist. He seems to feel some kind of kinship with my music and I think I have a year or something to work on his project.
Raul recently won 1st place Best Video at the Toronto film fest for an animation piece he set to Thom Yorke's music. Thom Yorke said he could use the music. I'm trippin on this guys work. It's completely insane.
We're meeting tomorrow at the U-Bar to hammer out details. Please indulge in Raul's work <here>.
I think Bjork's Vespertine is one of the best albums out there. I'm listening to it now in the cafe, early in the morning. I finished a 7min piece for Ty & Billy's short film, being premiered at tonight's John Staedler CD release party.
I'll be scoring the majority of the movie I think in the coming weeks and I wish I had more time to engineer the track I did deliver. Time was of the essence and I'm used to spending a solid 3 hours or more on the mixing and levels. Oh well, it came out.
Lot's going on today. Paradise Lost is having a nice electronic rager being head up by Ayrian as I understand it. John's show is going on. The MC battle at the CRUX is going down and Kyle Delmar is having a reception for new B/W photos at Empire Coffee. That cat might be my favorite photographer I've known personally. Him and James Wong in Sacramento.
I was never that into Bjork when I was younger because it was so easy to associate her with tortured 20 year old arty girls. I never gave her an honest listen. Anna, my wife, has always loved Bjork and one time I just listened to Vespertine strait through and was sort of blown away. The whole album sounds like a sunrise. It's one of the most beautiful electronic albums out there I think.
So I'm getting way into sound design lately and learning as much as I can about digital sound.
The following files are made from a file I recorded of Larry the poet at the poetry slam.
The first one is me toying with loop point values, the second haunting ambient pad sound is from a granulated reverb with 30 voices or something like that. The sound grains are programmed to go backwards and I think they're between 100ms - 300ms. The grains going backwards gives it a soft ambience.
The third sample is generated by radomized loop values being patched through the granulated reverb.
The last one is more randomization of the poet going backwards and in different speeds and stuff.
I was manipulating the parameters as I went with a lot of variables so I don't totally remember what I did. These samples come from a recording of real time manipulations.
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