Jan/100
Ephemera : NPR on the Loudness Wars
NPR has done a great job of summarizing the loudness wars in this article. The infographic [.pdf] is beautiful, even if it documents the degradation of audio quality over the last thirty years.
The backlash against excessive compression and loudness has already begun (see: fans petition remastering of Metallica’s Death Magnetic). Hopefully in time we can bring back some dynamics to recorded music.
Jan/101
New Release : Marley Carroll – The Remixes
The Remixes is finally here. This long-awaited EP features six glitchy reimaginings by Marley Carroll and gorgeous high-res album artwork by Johan Stenbeck.
The album is available for free download. Just enter your email address in the form above; the download will start immediately.
If you enjoy The Remixes, please consider making a donation!
Dec/090
Melanaster Records’ YouTube Channel Is Now Live
Subscribe to the new Melanaster Records YouTube channel! Two videos, more on the way.
Nov/094
New Release : Marley Carroll – 30 in 60 [DJ Mix]
Album Art by Marley Carroll + Troy Lehman
[download - 30 in 60.zip]
Melanaster Records is proud to present 30 in 60, a brand-new live DJ mix that features the experimental looping and glitching techniques that Marley Carroll has developed over the past year [see video below].
30 in 60 features 30 tracks in exactly 60 minutes, and the album cover substitutes for a track list – each square represents an artist featured in the mix.
Much of the material was developed specifically for Marley’s opening slot for Prefuse 73 in September of this year, and the highlights of those two hours were condensed to make this killer 60-minute workout.
More details available on the downloads page [equipment, technique]. You can preview / stream the album below, or click the download link at the top of the post to grab the entire mix for free!
Part 1
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Part 2
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Part 3
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We encourage you to share / burn / distribute 30 in 60 freely! Love,
Melanaster Records
Oct/090
NYT Article : The Song Decoders at Pandora
The New York Times just posted a really insightful article exploring the algorithms employed by Pandora to customize listeners’ playlists. It also delves into the discussion of music taste based on social and cultural context rather than the music itself, which is one of my favorite thinking points (see: this post from about a month ago). Example: if you didn’t know who Celine Dion was, how would your perception change if you were to hear a song of hers?
I’m really into the idea of doing away with a lot of the “extra-musical” context of artists – where they’re from, what social scene is associated with them, whether your friends think their cool, what they wear, etc. In an ideal world, you would just take music on its merits, but this is clearly impossible in the Internet age. I’m certainly guilty of contextualizing artists outside of their musical merits – it’s one of the reasons I can’t stand to listen to Kanye West, for example. It’s not that the music is bad, it’s that he’s such an incorrigible egomaniac that I dismiss it “on principle.”
Pandora seems like the closest thing we currently have to this kind of ideal, because it offers you music based on your taste, not that of your friends (iLike), major label preference (radio stations), or hipness (blogs). Anyway, the article does a really great job of summing all of these thoughts, so here you go (click image for link):
Graphic : New York Times
Oct/090
Marley Carroll, Mr. Invisible, Good Earth Project Selected For What.CD Compilation
The final track listing has been released for this year’s What.CD artist compilation. Among the 100 artists that submitted tracks for consideration, Marley Carroll, Mr. Invisible, and The Good Earth Project (a collaborative NC hip-hop effort featuring members of Mr. I, Ike Turnah, Mr. Mattic and others) were selected for inclusion in the twenty-one track compilation.
This is a fantastic opportunity for NC musicians to be spotlighted in a huge online community, and proof of the excellent quality of music emerging from the region. We should all be proud!
The blog will be taking a hiatus until early next week. We’ll see you soon!
Sep/090
Selected : JT Nimoy
Josh Nimoy, 2009.
Josh Nimoy is an artist, designer, technologist and digital thing-maker that creates innovative aesthetic tools with custom software. He develops the code for use in his own commissions (music videos, ads, installations, performances) and makes some of them freely available for use and modification online. His CV is encyclopedic and includes things like writing custom code for use in the visual effects for the Black Eyed Peas’ “Boom Boom Pow” video (i.e. the biggest hit in the world at the moment).
The coolest thing about his work, and the reason I’m sharing it on the blog, is that many of Josh’s hand-rolled software toys are available for free download. Some of them are very inspiring and can be easily used as idea-generators for almost anyone – designers, musicians, graphic artists, or just anybody who wants a simple widget to make really cool images.
I certainly haven’t made it through all of them, but here are a few of my favorites:
Pinch (2008)
withDRAWal (2009)
GRL Graffiti Brush (2007)
Jul/090
Why Hip-Hop Sucks in ‘96
- 1981
vs
2005
Nice synopsis of the loudness wars in this 2007 RS article.
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