Marc Weidenbaum's Blog, page 82

Death Hags’ 2nd Junto x Bern Podcast

For the October 7, 2023, episode on her listen.camp show, Big Grey Sun 2.0, the L.A. musician/producer Lola G. (aka Death Hags) played tracks from the second of three Disquiet Junto projects that participants did this year in collaboration with Musikfestival Bern, as well as some of her own music. The theme of this project, number 0595, Filter Progression, was: Make music by processing a static sound.

This is the playlist from “Big Grey Sun 2.0 / 07th October 2023,” which is hosted at Death Hags’ mixcloud.com account:

Death Hags — “Photons in the Sky”Noodle Twister — “Tiniest Cloud”the bell mechanical — “a shiny curtain”colmkil — “Minimal Blend, Coffee Sips”halF unusuaL — “halF miiniimaaliisT [10 minute version]”Death Hags — “Airlift V”Ossimuratore — “Prone to Logic Mind”he_nu_ri — “Entrenched and Incised Meanders”RabMusicLab — “Les rencontres entre éléments”caustic_gates — “drone blend”Sonic Search — “Ruminations”Death Hags — “Photons in the Sky (Alt)”

Terror from Above

The admirably synchronized Blue Angels circled our fine city once again this weekend, during Fleet Week, and I thought I would whittle my mix of cultural curiosity and anxious disgruntlement down to two points. For whatever reason, I found this year’s display of might less abrasive than in the past. Perhaps the flights were more muted, and perhaps I’m somewhat inured. Somewhat. My nerves were still on edge.

Types of Noise: I am fascinated each year that there is even any debate or discussion about these planes flying overhead and making enormous amounts of house-shaking, nerve-rattling noise. I truly mean that, when I say I’m fascinated. I personally can’t imagine anything other than wanting the whole thing to be brought down a few notches, and yet it’s quite clear there are a lot of people who revel in the ferocity of it all. I can’t access that enthusiasm, myself, and I’d like to better understand what pleasure people take in it. I mean, I listen to some really harsh music. I’ve seen Slayer and Godflesh in concert, just to name a few bands. I listen to intense industrial music. So, I’m not opposed to noise, per se. But if there’s a line, then to me the Fleet Week planes passed over it.

The Negative Impact: I really don’t think people fully appreciate how horrible all that noise is for animals, for the elderly, and for infants. There are also several major hospitals in San Francisco, as well as the VA Medical Center, which among other things deals with PTSD and mental health issues for veterans. The VA is at the top of Lands End, and it has incredible views of the San Francisco Bay. Most of the year that location is pretty blissful. However, during Fleet Week I imagine — and I could be entirely wrong — that for some the experience serves up a host of troubling memories. I’d be interested in the VA’s perspective on this. Maybe the walls are thick enough that it just doesn’t matter.

In any case, the skies ironically were no longer clear the day after Fleet Week ended. It even rained a bit, but they were quieter, welcomingly so. Local journalist George Kelly has a good piece in sfstandard.com on the annual event that mentions two websites I didn’t know about previously: flyquietoak.com, a service of the Oakland airport that is focused on noise issues, and webtrak.emsbk.com/oak3, which maps noise matters in this handy live data visualization:

About This Weekend

It’s been a long time since I attended three concerts on three consecutive nights, all the more so when those nights weren’t all part of a single festival. I broke the pandemic-era spell this weekend here in San Francisco, characteristically masked, and caught Loraine James at Thee Parkside, then the final night of Naut Humon’s Recombinant Festival at Gray Area, and tonight Dan Burke (aka Illusion of Safety) and Thomas Dimuzio at the Center for New Music. For now, these photos will have to suffice, but I’ll be publishing proper reviews soon.

Loraine James in her first San Francisco appearance, at Thee Parkside on Friday, October 6

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Daniel Menche opens the final night of the Recombinant Festival at Gray Area on Saturday, October 7

Victoria Shen and Aaron Dilloway momentarily below their noise tables

Olivia Block does surround sound from the center of the audience

Kevin Drumm in sonic assault mode

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Dan Burke (aka Illusion of Safety) and Thomas Dimuzio at Center for New Music on Sunday, October 8, performing together after each did a solo set

Scratch Pad: “Practical” Instruments, Blue Angels

I do this manually at the end of each week: collating (and sometimes lightly editing) most of the recent little comments I’ve made on social media, which I think of as my public scratch pad. I mostly hang out on Mastodon (at post.lurk.org/@disquiet), and I’m also trying out a few others. And I take weekends off social media. 

▰ I was talking with someone about Loraine James’ excellent new album, Gentle Confrontation. They asked if James uses any “practical” instruments, borrowing the distinction from visual effects in the film and television industry — that is, between what isn’t and is the result of computer generation. I love this use of the word.

▰ I’ve only used the AudioMoth field recorder so far in the backyard. I set it out last night to capture street noises. Time to see (that is, hear) what it captured. First I need to run analysis to see (here the correct term) what in its myriad little files might be of interest.

▰ I know there’s new music out, but pretty much all I’ve been listening to is archival releases from John Zorn’s Tzadik label, now that its back catalog is on streaming services. If you have any favorites, let me know. I own a lot of Tzadik, but there’s a lot more I haven’t heard.

▰ Nothing like a neighborhood three-alarm fire in the morning to get the sonic juices flowing. Yowza. (Looks like everyone’s OK.)

▰ I briefly experienced what I’d call “digital dementia.” I depend on Pastebot for its clipboard memory. It initially didn’t work after I upgraded to macOS Sonoma, which was really debilitating. The app works now. I knew I liked Pastebot but I had no idea how much I depended on it.

▰ The initial Fleet Week flyover made me instinctively wonder if the clothes dryer had suddenly entered a Spin Cycle of Death phase. That’s only 7 / 10 on the “Why Is This Noise a Good Idea?” scale. Judging by the barking, the neighborhood dogs rate it a 9. Car alarms on cue, too.

▰ Fleet Week’s freakish airstrike cosplay coincides with the hottest days of the year, so you can’t even keep your windows closed

▰ Just singing those Blue Angels blues

▰ Current status: blocking out the Blue Angels with Slayer, Celtic Frost, and Public Enemy

▰ A trailer is out for Monster, which I think has Ryuichi Sakamoto’s final score. From director Hirokazu Kore-eda (Shoplifters; Like Father, Like Son), whose The Makanai: Cooking for the Maiko House is one of my favorite recent TV shows. (And no relation to the Naoki Urasawa manga.)

▰ Two hours until the Blue Angels. Talk about “enjoy the silence.”

▰ The backyard is so quiet. The birds are like, “I’m native San Francisco. I didn’t sign up for this 85º $#!+.”

My KMRU Review at Pitchfork

My latest album review for Pitchfork was published earlier this week. I wrote about the latest from the Kenyan musician KMRU, Dissolution Grip. First two paragraphs below. Read in full at pitchfork.com.

KMRU is not the call sign of a radio station, though it could very well be. The calendar of this imaginary broadcaster would vary in format and genre. Shows would change frequently: evolve, morph, disappear. To tune into KMRU would mean being surprised. Some shows would feature lengthy abstract drones, others would venture into the territory of techno, or focus on cerebral minimalism, and some would feature guest instrumentalists and vocalists. Yet for all that unpredictability, to pull up KMRU on your radio dial would invariably entail hearing field recordings—sometimes in their raw, undigested form, but far more frequently augmented by all manner of digital techniques and aesthetic practices.

But of course KMRU isn’t a radio station; KMRU is a lone individual (if an impressively prolific one). That taut quartet of letters is a compression of his family name: Kamaru. First name Joseph, born in Nairobi, Kenya, and relocated to Berlin, Germany, he has over the past few years become a widely referenced figure in contemporary electronic music, excelling in all the sounds mentioned above. Throughout it all, field recordings have been central to his work—quarried for their textural qualities, or sliced and diced into corrosive soundscapes, or laid bare to serve as vicarious sonic travel aids.

Read in full at pitchfork.com. And check out the album at kmru.bandcamp.com.

Disquiet Junto Project 0614: Alternate Route

Each Thursday in the Disquiet Junto music community, a new compositional challenge is set before the group’s members, who then have just under five days to upload a track in response to the assignment. Membership in the Junto is open: just join and participate. (A SoundCloud account is helpful but not required.) There’s no pressure to do every project. It’s weekly so that you know it’s there, every Thursday through Monday, when you have the time and interest.

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, October 9, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, October 5, 2023.

Tracks are added to the SoundCloud playlist for the duration of the project. Additional (non-SoundCloud) tracks appear in the lllllll.co discussion thread.

These following instructions went out to the group’s email list (at tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto).

Disquiet Junto Project 0614: Alternate Route
The Assignment: Do something you often do, but differently.

This is a slightly different take on last week’s project.

Step 1: Think of something related to making music that you do a lot.

Step 2: Think of an alternate way to do it that challenges your habits.

Step 3: Make a piece of music using the approach you thought of in Step 2. 

Eight Important Steps When Your Track Is Done:

Step 1: Include “disquiet0614” (no spaces or quotation marks) in the name of your tracks.

Step 2: If your audio-hosting platform allows for tags, be sure to also include the project tag “disquiet0614” (no spaces or quotation marks). If you’re posting on SoundCloud in particular, this is essential to subsequent location of tracks for the creation of a project playlist.

Step 3: Upload your tracks. It is helpful but not essential that you use SoundCloud to host your tracks.

Step 4: Post your track in the following discussion thread at llllllll.co:

https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0614-alternate-route/

Step 5: Annotate your track with a brief explanation of your approach and process.

Step 6: If posting on social media, please consider using the hashtag #DisquietJunto so fellow participants are more likely to locate your communication.

Step 7: Then listen to and comment on tracks uploaded by your fellow Disquiet Junto participants.

Step 8: Also join in the discussion on the Disquiet Junto Slack. Send your email address to marc@disquiet.com for Slack inclusion.

Note: Please post one track for this weekly Junto project. If you choose to post more than one, and do so on SoundCloud, please let me know which you’d like added to the playlist. Thanks.

Additional Details:

Length: The length is up to you. 

Deadline: This project’s deadline is the end of the day Monday, October 9, 2023, at 11:59pm (that is, just before midnight) wherever you are. It was posted on Thursday, October 5, 2023.

Upload: When participating in this project, be sure to include a description of your process in planning, composing, and recording it. This description is an essential element of the communicative process inherent in the Disquiet Junto. Photos, video, and lists of equipment are always appreciated.

Download: It is always best to set your track as downloadable and allowing for attributed remixing (i.e., a Creative Commons license permitting non-commercial sharing with attribution, allowing for derivatives).

For context, when posting the track online, please be sure to include this following information:

More on this 614th weekly Disquiet Junto project, Alternate Route (The Assignment: Do something you often do, but differently), at: https://disquiet.com/0614/

About the Disquiet Junto: https://disquiet.com/junto/

Subscribe to project announcements: https://tinyletter.com/disquiet-junto/

Project discussion takes place on llllllll.co: https://llllllll.co/t/disquiet-junto-project-0614-alternate-route/

‘Devil’ in the Details

I’m enjoying John Darnielle’s novel Devil House. Makes sense such a talented musician would have a narrator with a good ear:

“Neither of them announce themselves when they enter: they aren’t seasoned thieves, but they know that a doorknob turned gently enough makes hardly any sound at all if there’s ambient noise to mask it: a stove fan, a countertop radio. Everyone was a child once; everyone’s moved stealthily sometimes, either at play or from sheer animal need.”

The Blog of Disquiet

I didn’t even have pictures on Disquiet.com, which I founded in 1996, until the mid-2000s. Only recently did I start using the first person when writing here. Ironically, it was many years after naming the website for Fernando Pessoa’s The Book of Disquiet that I finally came to recognize — not just to see, but to get — the parallel: fragmented writing that adds up to something. That, in a word, is a blog. And in a little over two months, it will have been 27 years.

My Luggage Store Review from The Wire

This is a slightly edited version of my concert review that appeared in the October 2023 (Issue 476) edition of The Wire magazine.

Ross Hoyt/Leila Abdul-Rauf/Ryan Honaker/Ed Lloyd + Cecyl Ruehlen + Michael P Dawson + San Kazakgascar
Luggage Store Gallery, San Francisco, US
July 5, 2023

The Luggage Store Gallery on Market Street sits a few doors down and a few flights up from a corner, at Sixth Street, that veered toward dissolute long before the pandemic turned cities into targets for end-times rhetoric. The interior stairwell is festooned with scrawl and stickers, visual chaos that channels the exterior urban disorder into something willfully beautiful. You emerge, after a climb, into the stark space of a single large room. At one end, floor to ceiling windows would overlook the street were the glass not lightly frosted.

The Luggage Store Gallery New Music Series takes place there nearly weekly, programmed by Outsound Executive Director Rent Romus, who lends context to experimental acts by coordinating — or simply creating a sympathetic venue for — shared themes, approaches, vibes. On a seasonally cool Wednesday night after U.S. Independence Day, four sets manage to explore expressly different corners of ambient drone music with a touch of noise. Each of the first three creates a moment that concentrates its unique capacities.

First comes the quartet of Leila Abdul-Rauf (trumpet), Ryan Honaker (guitar), Ross Hoyt (keyboard), and Ed Lloyd (double bass). For them, the key moment is when Abdul-Rauf switches, after the midpoint, from electronically mediated trumpet, à la Arve Henriksen or Nils Petter Molvær, to intoned voice — and the band don’t miss a beat. Their consummate ambient chamber jazz allows for a shifting of source materials, including some found vocals and even an exclamatory shout from Hoyt.

For Cecyl Ruehlen, a fantastic saxophonist who performs through and along with a synthesizer rig, the moment is when a certain stratagem solidifies. There is a gating effect underway, a man-machine sidechain by which his horn, when loud enough, pushes the synth down in the mix. When he rests for a moment, the synth comes back strong, only to subside again when he next blows. Combined with Ruehlen’s effortful breathing, this method lends vibrancy to the synth, positing it as a natural force unto itself.

Michael P Dawson’s moment occurs when he simply stands up. He initially sits with a tiny modular synth box in his lap, coaxing muted signals patiently with a professorial demeanour. Quite suddenly, he rises, places the box on his seat, walks toward the audience and recites poetry. Instantly, the sounds the audience had focused on become background music, a setting for his recitation. It’s WB Yeats’s “The Song of Wandering Aengus” — the poem from which, back in the late 1960s, Morton Subotnick borrowed the title Silver Apples of the Moon. Later those same words emerge, fragmented, from Dawson’s instrument.

The final act, San Kazakgascar, take on the role of drone band. They launch with a single such clarifying moment, a textural tone — then seek to hold it in reverberant stasis as long as possible. Tonight the members of this ever-shifting ensemble are guitarist Jed Brewer (guitar), Kevin Corcoran (percussion), Rachel Freund (clarinet), Greg Hain (synth), Colleen Kelly (six-string electric cello), Matt Kretzmann (synth), James Jaroba Barnes (bass clarinet), and Brian Lucas (guitar). The most impressive result from a large drone band is to hear more musicians producing seemingly less music. By those standards, tonight is a major, if at times loud, accomplishment.

More 30-Second Audio-Visual Field Recordings

I’ve been enjoying using the Story mode on Instagram to post brief (30-second) audio-visual field recordings with light annotation. An Instagram Story is simple to produce, meaning (1) the dreaded modern sense of unpaid labor is minimal (as long as you don’t overdo it), and (2) they sync with my phone (without an Instagram logo), so they’re reusable elsewhere (though I tend to repost them without the tags and other text elements). Those are still frames from my most recent two above. The one on the left was recorded during Golden Hour in Berkeley, the first time I attended an event at the Alembic, and the one on the right was shot in the bathroom of a take-out joint in the North Bay: two very different drones, both abrasive, one outdoors, one indoors. They’re part of my “30s” (or “30 seconds”) Highlights series at instagram/dsqt, and the raw videos are on YouTube (golden hour and bathroom). (Collections of Instagram Stories are called Highlights.) Interestingly, if you upload short vertical videos to YouTube, they automatically get filed as Shorts, which is YouTube’s attempt at Instagram Stories.