Tuesday, 26 May 2015

‘What’s more human than wanting to be something else?’
The transhuman sounds of the vocoder are familiar to anyone who’s listened to chart-topping albums from the likes of Daft Punk, Coldplay, The Beastie Boys and Kanye West. But before the speech synthesis technology reached a wide public, it had already lived three full lives: first, as an experimental technology created to cut the cost of transcontinental phone calls, then as an encrypted communication system of the US military during the Second World War and Vietnam, and then as a re-purposed instrument used by influential counterculture musicians such as Laurie Anderson, Afrika Bambaataa and Kraftwerk.
With interviews from military, communication and music experts, The Secret History of the Vocoder traces the technology through the course of the 20th century, from its birth at Bell Labs in 1928, to its transformation into an instrument with a distinctive sound that exists in the grey area between human and machine.
For more on digital art and the tools we use to create it, read Tom Uglow’s essay ‘The Arts Electric’
Via

The Complete Force: A Wackies Primer

HERE

Lost in translation?

He was the saviour of Afghan music. Then a Taliban bomb took his hearing

Iggy Pop: Blowtorch in Bondage (Lester Bangs The Village Voice 28/3/77)

HERE

Patti Smith, David Johansen, Cyrinda Foxe and Lenny Kaye

Via

TEAC O'Casse Open Cassette

I do not remember these at all
Via

Sunday, 24 May 2015

Dear lawd! Drummers eh?

Tabla Beat Science - Talamanam Sound Clash

Filmed June 21, 2002 with 12 cameras at the legendary Fillmore in San Francisco, this DVD documents a Tabla Beat Science performance that features founders Zakir Hussein (Tablas) and Bill Laswell (Bass), along with Ustad Sultan Khan (Sarangi and Vocals), Ejigayehu "Gigi" Shibabaw (Vocals), Karsh Kale (Drums), DJ Disk (Turntable) and MIDIval PunditZ (Electronics). Directed by Alex Winter