Category: [blog]

  • Does your Gladware even mix, bro?

    I built a small passive mixer into this old Glad container to pair with the modded LepLoop.

    The mixer, along with the LepLoop modifications, lets me mix the LepLoop’s four signals left and right, two and two, in any combination. This is perfect for recording with the SP-404 mkII for further arranging and processing.

    The container also stores patch cables and the passive CV breakout box, which is still in progress.

    Modded LepLoop + CV breakout + mixer + 404mkII is a powerhouse. I can bang out weirdo minimal electro jams forever.

  • “Continuing Worlds” on The Long Play Listening Party

    We covered “Continuing Worlds” on The Long Play Listening Party. You can listen wherever you get your podcasts, or on YouTube below.

  • New Ears

    I wanted to capture something that’s happening in my brain, at the intersection of the 404 samplers and my “Jam My Wave” guitar demos. I’m doing something new, made possible by learning the 404 and sample-based music generally, that no one would guess from just hearing the end results.

    As I listen to “Jam My wave” guitar demos and work on melodies, I’m making progress not by singing nonsense or jamming like I typically would, but by listening to the guitar and imagining what kind of vocals would sound interesting or make a good call and response with the instrumental. It’s almost like, or is like, thinking about what kind of sample is needed next in sample-based music-making, and I wouldn’t be doing it if not for the 404s.

    In some spots I’ve actually written the vocals, with notes/intervals and scratch lyrics. In other places I just have ideas like “Be inspired by Thom Yorke here” or “Fit the vocal into the space between the 4th chord and the downbeat of the next progression.”

    This changed way of listening and writing is why I bought the 404SX in the first place, not knowing if I’d actually finish any music with it. I hoped it would change my ears in interesting ways, putting new tools in the mental toolkit. I’m happy that both the new ears and actual 404 music are happening.

  • All The Things

    Been a while since I updated, but it’s not for nothing going on; too much, rather! Many things. All of the things.

    • “Frog On The King’s Head,” my first record on the 404mkII, keeps rolling along. Five songs are essentially done save for little mix tweaks, and in the past few weeks I’ve finished three more instrumentals. (It’s a 10-song record.) It’ll be out of order but I’m excited to share it so I think I’ll release it about as soon as it’s ready, mid- to late summer
    • In February Daniel G (Hypermortal, L.U.V.C.R.A.F., etc.) and I were talking and spontaneously decided to make a house record. It… is not going to sound anything like a house record. It’s weird progressive synth music with otherworldly vocals and a few guitars. We’re having a blast, though, using the back-and-forth process Nate and I used for “Orbital Debris”
    • Anywaves keeps sending tracks, and I keep mastering them :)
    • I’m working on a Drone Space Nine record in VCV Rack, inspired by the first DS9 but starting from scratch and building the space station sounds to my exact specs
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  • MFR and Night Mode Data Visualizations Update

    I’ve updated the data visualizations with our latest releases, plus some enhancements.

    As we approach twenty years in the independent label game, we have as much music coming out as ever. I wish I had a way to embed this as an interactive visualization, because in Power BI where I created this you can hover to get actual artists and album titles.

    One thing you *can* see, in the rainbow of artists, is Night Mode; the salmon pink that starts in 2016 and dominates 2019 – present.

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  • M/S Ride and Royce Diamond White “Just To Have The Memory” Pop-Up Video

  • Not One Person Left Out on The Long Play Listening Party

    Royce, Nate, and I gave “Not One Person Left Out” the mini-LPLP treatment; listen below or on your favorite podcast platform here.

  • ESP dB (The Past Is Written) by M/S Ride and Royce Diamond White Pop-Up Video

    Pre-order “Not One Person Left Out” here, it comes out Feb. 1!

  • The Best Music Howie Heard In 2022

    What a fantastic year for new music. My list is twice as long as usual.

    I added over two hundred albums to my collection this year, and have listened to almost all of them since early November to try and the best. “Best” in this context means having double extra special sparkle sauce; absolute lightning in a bottle. “Honorable mention” is no dishonor; records in that group are truly outstanding as well.

    In random order, the best music I heard in 2022 –

    Elzhi & Georgia Anne Muldrow, “Zhigeist” (2022) – A beautiful meeting of polymathematical minds, hiking through history with vision and verve.

    Amber Mark, “Three Dimensions Deep” (2022) – Everything that smart, modern R&B-pop should be, with bonus points for Afrofuturism.

    Stik Figa & Conductor Williams, “Valley of Dry Bones” (2022) – Intentionally short, and undeniable. Conductor warps his samples right up to the point of over-sickness, and Stik continues to drop heartfelt truths in plain but striking language.

    Beth Orton, “Weather Alive” (2022) – Orton braved the emotional wilderness to bring us back this collection of meditations, performed by an absolutely cracking band.

    Kendrick Lamar, “Mr. Morale and the Big Steppers” (2022) – Uneven on early listens, but the great tracks are *so great.* I think “Mr. Morale…” will age incredibly well.

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  • Best Music the Long Play Listening Party Heard in 2022

  • Mr. Furious Audio MR MTX MXR Subsystem Test Fire #2

    Three minutes of noise drone testing two inputs and one output of the MR MTX MXR.

  • Falling Into Place

    On the 13th I had an unusually creative day, and I talked about it, among other things, with Cory.

    What I didn’t get around to saying in the pod was that Sunday wasn’t just about conceptualizing a new h&s project that ties together some of the old “hiplife” ideas and new dream/404 songs; Sunday was also about the way that that breakthrough cascaded through my other folders and playlists of demos and made other projects snap into place as well. Dreaming up the h&s party/hiplife LP freed up some marginally-h&s guitar songs for a M/S Ride guitar album that mixes Tom Petty / tremolo riffs with Smashing Pumpkins / Small Stone ideas, it might have pulled a couple odd songs out of “Orbital Debris vol. 2” and solidified that as more of an electro project in line with vol. 1, etc.

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