Stephen McClurg's Blog, page 31
June 9, 2021
Lost Chords and Serenades Divine #21: An Interview with Jad Fair.
You can read the interview at The Drunken Odyssey.
May 22, 2021
May 5, 2021
New Sounds: Bourgeois Zoo: “What Is Happening To Me?”
We attempted the next Disquiet Junto, which dealt with turning daily sounds into music. Last week’s is here.
Justin wrote a piece for timpani, piano, and trumpet. The sound of a dumpster was the influence for the timpani. I sampled my chair at work (the sound you hear at the beginning and end of the track) and used it to replace all of the sounds but the trumpets. I added a trumpet harmony line and Justin added a vocal. Everything else is my sampled office chair.
Because the sample was so percussive, I had a difficult time molding it into a melodic line, so in that sense it failed the assignment.
The assignment is below:
Disquiet Junto Project 0487: Carillon Quotidian
Assignment: Turn a recurring sound from your life into music.
This project was developed by Marty Petkovich (aka K Joule) as part of the celebration of the upcoming 500th consecutive weekly Disquiet Junto project.
Step 1: Identify a recurring sound in your daily life that isn’t generally considered musical. Try to locate a sound that you would normally ignore: the hum of the dryer, or the way the car trunk resonates when you drop it closed, the sound your boots make on certain stairs, the sound of the water coming out of the kitchen tap, etc.
Step 2: The goal is to explore the innate musicality of the sound you identified in Step 1. When recording the sound identified in Step 1, please keep in mind the effort may require some production techniques, because you want to try to isolate it as best as possible.
Step 3: Make an original piece of music employing the sample you recorded in Step 2 of the sound you decided upon in Step 1. Transpose the recorded sample and compose a short theme to use as the central voice in your composition. Complete your piece with other instrument lines as needed.
More on this 487th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Carillon Quotidian (Assignment: Turn a recurring sound from your life into music) — at: disquiet.com/0487/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: disquiet.com/junto/
May 4, 2021
Lost in Arkham: The Creeping Flesh (1973)
I recently interviewed Jad Fair and knowing so many of his songs talk about monsters and that he grew up in Michigan, I had to ask him about Channel 50. Sure enough, he watched a lot of early monster movies there and was lucky enough to grow up with various movie hosts, including Sgt. Sacto.
Channel 50 was a UHF channel based in Detroit, and was viewable in parts of Michigan and Canada as far as I know. It was a pre-VHS smorgasbord of bizarre genre programming that made for some glorious weekends. Channel 50 was where it all started for me. Godzilla movies every weekend, various low budget martial arts films, science-fiction like The Green Slime (1968), and horror that ranged from the laughable to intense. The Vincent Price/Poe movies were favorites. Well, really anything with Price or stop-motion animation was probably a favorite at the time.
One afternoon when I was in kindergarten or first grade, I watched Tourist Trap (1979). When my mom saw that this was beyond even the surreal absurdity of Price’s Red Death, she told me to stop and go outside. So I went to my neighbor’s and finished it. And then I couldn’t sleep that night. I think she knew something was up.
Over at The Terror Test, I got asked to write about some of the not-so-classic horror films that have a high tolerance for thanks to Channel 50. The first one I talk about is the almost-Hammer production The Creeping Flesh.
May 3, 2021
New Sounds: Bourgeois Zoo: “Apoapsis Ostinatos”
I had been eyeing the Disquiet weekly projects for some time. On Thursdays, participants get a prompt, and they have to post a track by Monday. It’s mostly for making ambient or other kinds of textural sounds or music, though results are across all kinds of music universes. I sent the announcement for the project to one of my frequent collaborators, Justin, and didn’t expect much and it would make it that much easier to put off for another week.
Right away he was interested, so we went for it. After many false starts, we ended up with the track below. Someone told me, “It’s spooky. Like a Gothic western. The Good, The Bad, and The Ugly, but with lake monsters.” That might be my favorite review of anything I’ve done.
The assignment was:
Celebrate Earth Day on or for another planet.
Step 1: Each Disquiet Junto project begins on a Thursday. This Thursday happens to be Earth Day. Reflect on the concept of Earth Day, and how it might map beyond our big blue marble.
Step 2: Record a piece of music or sound celebrating Earth Day for or as if on another planet.
I began using a contact mic a friend built for me on the foundation of my house, but the tracks weren’t what I wanted. I then did a series of backyard field recordings. For me this literal reading of the prompt was a way to get started. I sent this to Justin who did a series of whistles and vocal parts in response to my edited field recordings. I liked the texture of the whistling and the sound of his breath so I removed my field recordings and focused on the vocals. I added two synth tracks. Sometimes I’m happy with it, and I sometimes think it’s too dense, that I would peel away more layers with more time.
More on this 486th weekly Disquiet Junto project — Earths Days (The Assignment: The Assignment: Celebrate Earth Day on or for another planet) — at: https://disquiet.com/0486/
More on the Disquiet Junto at: https://disquiet.com/junto/
April 7, 2021
New Review: Lost Chords and Serenades Divine #20
At The Drunken Odyssey, I review Gwenifer Raymond’s Strange Lights Over Garth Mountain.
March 3, 2021
New Review: Lost Chords and Serenades Divine #19: Silica Gel’s May Day.
Over at The Drunken Odyssey you can read a review of one of my favorite records of 2020–Silica Gel’s May Day.
February 9, 2021
New Review: Lost Chords and Serenades Divine #18
Over at The Drunken Odyssey, I review Christopher C. King’s Lament from Epirus, a book about the West’s oldest surviving folk music.
February 5, 2021
Not Just Just Daddy
I did some guest work on some recent releases I thought I’d share.
Just Daddy’s God Housekeeping is described as a dark ambient/doom record and I like it a lot. I did a few bits and pieces with no real reference for what the record was going to be.
I’m rumored to have made appearances on this noise-punk protest album. Wicked cover! Fairly extreme music.
I don’t know what to say about this one except don’t take everything seriously. This is a 30-track extreme grindcore/noise album with a clown nose on the cover and songs called things like “Wolfgang Puke” and “Santa Crotch.” I may have lent some bass and guitar sounds to Mother Theresa, but she hasn’t given anything back. It’s a salute to 2020, for sure.
