https://minimal.org.uk/categories/music/ Recent content in music on minimal.org.uk Hugo -- gohugo.io en-gb ian Mon, 07 Jul 2014 09:17:24 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/07/lasers-and-midi-and-software-oh-my/ Mon, 07 Jul 2014 09:17:24 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2014/07/07/lasers-and-midi-and-software-oh-my/ Photo of Jean-Michelle Jarre performing in Helsinki in 2009 © Miemo Penttinen What happens when a music teacher suggests instrument variety is a driving force behind a child enjoying music, the child says “anything unusual” is good, the other child wants a techie project and the father has far too much 80’s electronica ? We decide to get a laser harp, of course ! 🙂 And there’s no way at all this could have been due to my obsessive saving of paper-round money to buy Jarre albums on tape to listen to on my Walkman (with Dolby-B, I’ll have you know – quality antiquity ! https://minimal.org.uk/2007/06/29/max-tyries-hand-made-modest-mouse-video/ Fri, 29 Jun 2007 11:42:37 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/06/29/max-tyries-hand-made-modest-mouse-video/ What to do with 4133 frames of video, a D-SLR and a printer with plenty of ink and paper… Max Tyrie’s Hand Made Modest Mouse Video: http://www.woostercollective.com/2007/05/shit_were_diggin_max_tyries_hand_made_mo.html (Via: Photojojo) https://minimal.org.uk/2007/06/26/new-music/ Tue, 26 Jun 2007 12:35:05 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/06/26/new-music/ New to me that is. Slightly less late to the party than I was with OK, Computer (10 years after release !), I’ve found a lot to listen to in the SXSW torrent files. Over 5GB, in fact. The 2006 torrents are still available and contain names that I’ve certainly become aware of through mainstream radio exposure/iTunes in the UK: Abigail Washburn, Corinne Bailey Rae, Editors, Josh Ritter, KT Tunstall, Paolo Nutini, and We Are Scientists, so I fully expect that somewhere in this year’s 3. https://minimal.org.uk/2007/05/21/lastfm-widget/ Mon, 21 May 2007 12:04:59 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/05/21/lastfm-widget/ The ‘local noise’ entry in the sidebar is now active with last.fm‘s Flash based widget and shows the most recent tracks I’ve been listening too. Not that exciting, really (especially with my current addition to OK Computer – just shy of 10 years late to this party…) apart from the fact that the little arrows in circles on the right of the track will play a 30s clip of the track just in case you’re curious, whilst mouseover the track name shows the album art (but in a thumbnail that’s too small to make out properly – hey ho). https://minimal.org.uk/2007/04/03/whomix-doctor-who-theme-remixes/ Tue, 03 Apr 2007 11:44:40 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/04/03/whomix-doctor-who-theme-remixes/ From Tim, who obviously thinks I need a distraction: whomix – doctor who theme remixes: http://whomix.trilete.net/ What a lot of work – a few select examples also came with the link, with my favourite being the Nyman one: Nyman: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=45 007: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=167 Flamenco: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=106 Morse: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=97 Piano: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=169 Cyberdisco: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=120 Ambient: http://whomix.trilete.net/download.php?remixid=128 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/01/15/cool-they-did-it/ Mon, 15 Jan 2007 11:29:34 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/01/15/cool-they-did-it/ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Unsigned band make chart history: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6260995.stm Number 31. Now I might just have to find out what they sound like, but to be honest that secondary to what they’ve done: “Murphy added that they had been contacted by a number of big record labels, including one who recently turned them down.” 🙂 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/01/11/vive-la-revolucion/ Thu, 11 Jan 2007 13:14:46 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2007/01/11/vive-la-revolucion/ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Unsigned band set to crash charts: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/6248535.stm Unsigned, and tipped to make the UK Top 40: not without plenty of hard work (500 live shows), but with a cracking quote: “If someone comes along and gives us an offer, we’ll talk to them. But it depends whether we need it. If we can get enough exposure and get in the top 40 by the end of the week, do we necessarily need a large label? https://minimal.org.uk/2006/04/27/canadian-music-creators-coalition-a-new-voice/ Thu, 27 Apr 2006 10:02:31 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2006/04/27/canadian-music-creators-coalition-a-new-voice/ Canadian Music Creators Coalition: A New Voice: http://www.musiccreators.ca/ This is very satisfying to see: artists signed to (major) labels publicly gathering to point out that the aims and desires of the Artists are not the same as those of Labels themselves. “…not in our names…” is a very apposite statement indeed, and it behoves the labels to notice that this time it could hurt even more: whilst there appears to be a limitless supply of small-time copyright infringers to sue (even with the public relations damage it entails) there is a much smaller set of artists, and making them rethink their affiliations when contracts are up for renewal could be a very expensive lesson. https://minimal.org.uk/2006/02/24/writers-block-live-blog-archive-the-hd-boycott-begins-now/ Fri, 24 Feb 2006 14:44:31 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2006/02/24/writers-block-live-blog-archive-the-hd-boycott-begins-now/ Writers Block Live | Blog Archive | The HD Boycott Begins Now: http://writersblocklive.com/part-156 Well said that man, and what is interesting is that this isn’t from an uninformed teenager, but from Apple’s former director of video product marketing. Again, I tend to sit a little more on the fence, and don’t, per-se, have an issue with the end of analogue content, but I do have a major issue with the idea that only big firms are legal content creators, and that the ‘little people’ are all out to rip them off: have a listen to almost any collection of independent artists online and see how many of them appeal to you more than commercial radio does, and it’s mind numbingly apparent that now more than ever it’s people who tinker in their spare time to satisfy their own creative urges than can create more satisfying content than big business does. https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/16/low-morale-presents-radiohead-music-video-creep/ Fri, 16 Sep 2005 12:10:39 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/16/low-morale-presents-radiohead-music-video-creep/ LOW MORALE ::: Presents Radiohead Music Video – CREEP: http://www.lowmorale.co.uk/creep/ Wow. Wow. Wow. Now that animation was so well conceived and executed it actually made me forget that it was Flash, and totally blew away more recent work I’ve seen on TV in odd spots (mainly BBC3 and C4) – it was back to the days when bizarre Canadian stuff made its way onto a regular BBC2 spot, back when BBC2 was the place you went to get away from sports coverage… https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/11/shure-e2c-mini-review/ Sun, 11 Sep 2005 15:00:50 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/09/11/shure-e2c-mini-review/ A couple of years ago I bought a pair of Panasonic active noise cancelling headphones from Heathow duty free, and after using them on a transatlantic flight my only regret was that I’d made two trips prior to purchasing them. They were cheap (£55) compared to the $300 Bose ones advertised on a previous flight and so I thought they couldn’t possibly be any good: I still can’t compare them to the Bose as I’ve never had the chance to listen to a pair, but they dropped virtually all of the bass rumble of the aircraft and lead to me actually being able to hear the in-flight movies for the first time. https://minimal.org.uk/2005/08/23/theyre-finally-getting-it/ Tue, 23 Aug 2005 23:29:24 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/08/23/theyre-finally-getting-it/ BBC NEWS | Entertainment | Music | Net label plans music revolution: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/entertainment/music/4176486.stm It’s taken long enough: the bottom line is probably that any given act that pushes hard enough to get a contract these days (and isn’t simply a set of manufacturered-to-order puppets) is likely to have mastered the basics of recording and mixing: a couple of thousand pounds for computer and software might well give results that are up to 80 or 90% of the quality of using a full recording studio. https://minimal.org.uk/2005/04/16/macworld-news-nine-inch-nails-releases-garageband-2-project/ Sat, 16 Apr 2005 07:31:50 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/04/16/macworld-news-nine-inch-nails-releases-garageband-2-project/ Macworld: News: Nine Inch Nails releases GarageBand 2 project: http://www.macworld.com/news/2005/04/15/thehandthatfeeds/index.php?lsrc=mwrss-0405 Wow – that’s more than just one better than releasing music online; now we just need to wait for the first live fan based remix via the internet… https://minimal.org.uk/2005/01/18/creative-muvo-firmware-update-and-itunes/ Tue, 18 Jan 2005 12:02:37 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2005/01/18/creative-muvo-firmware-update-and-itunes/ If you have updated the firmware in the Creative MuVo flash player to support FAT16 (and so allow easy reformatting under OS X) then you may have noticed that iTunes fails to detect the device. No matter how often I tried to add things like MuVo Helper or the ‘unreleased’ Nomad Plugin nothing happened. What you need to do is throw caution to the wind, and HexEdit the iTunes.app/Contents/MacOS/iTunes file to change the capitalisation of the strings that iTunes uses to match the MuVo. https://minimal.org.uk/2004/12/05/bbc-news-technology-musicians-upbeat-about-the-net/ Sun, 05 Dec 2004 23:39:37 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/12/05/bbc-news-technology-musicians-upbeat-about-the-net/ BBC NEWS | Technology | Musicians ‘upbeat’ about the net: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/4067031.stm Shock Horror ! Muscians are able to think for themselves: maybe the RIAA should sue them next for not making enough money for the labels… https://minimal.org.uk/2004/08/23/making-an-unabridged-audio-album-from-a-dvd-in-mac-os-x/ Mon, 23 Aug 2004 20:03:02 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/08/23/making-an-unabridged-audio-album-from-a-dvd-in-mac-os-x/ I’m pretty sure this is covered by most ‘fair use’ clauses (do check your own laws: IANAL) but is intended for people with a DVD and a DVD-ROM drive who want the soundtrack to the film but don’t feel the need to pay twice for the same material on different media… Pretty much all you need to know can be found at Shepmaster’s site, but there are only two pages that matter: how to turn the DVD into AAC files and then how to turn AAC files into stereo audio files. https://minimal.org.uk/2004/08/20/theyre-getting-there/ Fri, 20 Aug 2004 20:38:52 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/08/20/theyre-getting-there/ Macworld UK – Online music ‘rewriting the rules’: http://www.macworld.co.uk/news/index.cfm?NewsID=9443 Yup, parts of the music industry are finally starting to get there, but it’s just so painful to watch… Is this just due to (unreasonably) expecting RL companies to move in Internet Time, or has a big ClueStick been applied at last ? Mind you, it could be another 5 years before a ‘big’ label ‘gets it’. https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/08/spamalot-on-broadway/ Thu, 08 Jul 2004 13:16:07 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/08/spamalot-on-broadway/ CNN.com – Star names join Python on Broadway – Jul 7, 2004: http://www.cnn.com/2004/SHOWBIZ/07/07/stage.montypython.reut/index.html Nice – the casting looks pretty good so far although I think I’ll wait to see if it comes a little closer before I go and see it. https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/04/direct-artist-distribution/ Sun, 04 Jul 2004 08:25:38 +0000 https://minimal.org.uk/2004/07/04/direct-artist-distribution/ They Might Be Giants – Downloads/News/Shows/Ephemera: http://www.theymightbegiants.com/ Similar pricing structure to the iTunes store (99c/$9.99) but the files come direct from the Artist, are encoded at 256kbps and come DRM-free. Nice.