Friday, 11 June 2010
What happened in the Gulf of Mexico
" These wells have the potential of an uncontrolled
release of hydrocarbons to the environment."
Sound in Technicolor
Now that digital technology allows rapid creation of new interfaces for music and sound, the question of how to represent those elements visually has new life. But whether digital or not, practitioners of music have long been interested in applying further descriptions to music, from the Baroque Doctrine of Affectations to the involuntary association of color in Synesthesia.
Applying colors to the notes of a musical scale is one particularly common idea, but the late master composer/orchestrator Arthur Lange had a different idea: why not give colors to range? Building on ideas from orchestrators Francois Auguste Geveart and Rimsky-Korsakov, he applied colors to registers of tone across each instrument. This way, it’s possible to see, in livid color, how ranges are applied in orchestrations, even down to unisons and harmonic density.
Lange wasn’t just any composer/orchestrator: he was a four-time Academy Award nominee, head of MGM’s Music Department, a Tin Pan Alley mainstay, a bandstand and studio regular from the 1920s, and an orchestrator on everything from 20s dance band numbers to MGM’s “The Maltese Falcon.” Seeing his creative and more-than-a-bit idiosyncratic approach says a lot about the ingenuity of America’s musical Renaissance at the time.
Contnue reading
Peter Kirn @'Create Digital Music'
Thursday, 10 June 2010
Jive Records blocks Outkast collaboration
Sony division Jive Records is blocking Universal's Def Jam from releasing three tracks on the new solo album from Big Boi because they feature guest vocals from his Outkast partner Andre 3000. Although Def Jam are handling the release of 'Sir Luscious Left Foot: The Son Of Chico Dusty', Outkast remain under contract to Jive, who claim that the three tracks in question - because they feature both halves of the Outkast enterprise - fall under their deal.
It's extra frustrating for Big Boi because Jive were given first refusal on the whole album (they have first dibs on any solo work by the Outkast boys under their contract with the duo) but knocked the project back. Big Boi explained to GQ: "It's plain stupidity. It's stupid business and it's stupid politics. Jive Records told me my album [was] a piece of art, and they didn't know what to do with it. So, I moved it over to Def Jam. And now Jive is trying to block Dre from being on my record. We can't be on songs together now".
The three tracks featuring Andre 3000's vocals have now been removed from the final version of the album, due for release next month, though a track produced by him, 'You Ain't No DJ', does remain. Explained Big Boi: "We tried to get everything solidified but Jive said, 'Naw'. Then I was going to take Dre off and make my own version, but then I thought, 'No. Fuck that. If he can't be on it, then I'm not using it'".
Of course, none of this means the world at large will miss out on the new Big Boi/Andre 3000 collaborations, it just means Outkast fans will justifiably access the new tracks via illegal routes, meaning Jive won't have stopped the new songs from going public, they just won't earn any money from them (presumably there could have been some sort of licensing deal between the Sony and Universal divisions had the will been there).
One of the collaborations, 'Royal Flush', actually leaked back in 2008, while another, 'Looking For Ya', found its way online this week. Big Boi certainly won't be keeping the missing tracks from his solo album locked up in a vault. He added in his interview with GQ: "They can't stop us, man. For these people that we don't even know [to block these songs - people] that haven't even had a hand in our career at all - that's fucking blasphemy. Either they're going to do it the right way, or they're going to do it my way. I'm no stranger to that internet, baby".
Record companies - don't you just love 'em?
Taliban allegedly executes 7 year old boy for spying
Suspected Taliban militants have executed a 7-year-old boy, accusing him of spying for the government, officials in southern Afghanistan said Thursday.
The execution took place Tuesday in the Sangin district of Helmand province, said Dawoud Ahmadi -- the provincial governor's spokesman.
In the past, militants have carried out similar killings of those accused of spying, Ahmadi said.
Three years ago, a 70-year-old woman and a child in the Musa Qala district of the province were executed following the same allegations, he said.
During a news conference Thursday, Afghan President Hamid Karzai said officials were looking into reports of the execution and said he condemned the act if it is confirmed to be true.
"I don't think there's a crime bigger than that that even the most inhuman forces on earth can commit," Karzai said. "A 7-year-old boy cannot be a spy. A 7-year-old boy cannot be anything but a 7-year-old boy, and therefore hanging or shooting to kill a 7-year-old boy ... is a crime against humanity."
"If this is true, it is an absolutely hiorrific crime," British Prime Minister David Cameron said during the news conference on an unannounced stop in Kabul. "If true, I think it says more about the Taliban than any book, than any article, than any speech could ever say."
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