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just da "changes" posts

if you haven’t caught it yet, here’s the film clip for “coach” recently completed by bob jarvis aka zeal, who has now earnt his PhD in photocopying:

coach comes from the changes EP, released last november. buy it or don’t.

also – there are, all of a sudden, a bunch of places online where you can hear new faux pas songs, works in progress, remixes, things like that:

- 3 new songs at myspace.com/iamfauxpas
- a remix of mine now appearing at myspace.com/olloollo (which comes from their recently released remix ep)
- the rad istanbul blog undomondo recently posted an edit i made of 70s kraut stoners agitation free… alongside some footage of them rolling in egyptian dunes. big thanks, considering that its only through undomondo that i found out about the track in the first place.

my man in adelaide bob jarvis has spent a big chunk of time in the last few months making a film clip for my song “coach” – and he is just now starting to leak some of the details out onto the internet via his blog. check out this behind the scenes still:

yes. i’m blogging on my blog about a guy on another blog who is blogging about me! i have dreamed of this moment ever since the invention of the internet in 2003.

check out bob’s blog for more. it is worth mentioning at this point that bob records music under the name zeal, and as some of you probably already know, one of his songs – “yumi and the sky” – appears on my changes ep from late last year. he has recently uploaded to youtube some live footage from a gig he did in adelaide on valentine’s day – so, here check out this live stripped back version of “yumi and the sky”, and if you like what you hear head to bob’s site and buy his ep. i like to blog about my changes friends

visit the faux pas myspace to hear my remix of “yumi and the sky”

i’ve just gotten my copy of the new pikelet ep in the post, its really good. it is released on a label called sabbatical recordings that specialises in short-runs of local experimental artists. pikelet makes music by looping her voice, accordian and percussion and et cetera. if you were to make a lazy comparison you could maybe draw a line between pikelet and argentinian lady of the loop juana molina. i’m sure more apt descriptions of pikelet’s sound are out there – oh hey look, here’s one that i ripped off from the sabbatical website -

While the narrative elements of her self-titled debut are largely absent here, vocal harmonies continue to play a key role alongside melodic cycles and deceptively complex rhythms. Pre-Flight Jitters also pursues some unexpected textural qualities and compositional approaches, while maintaining the rich layering typical of Evelyn’s recent work.

check out this track “bryson” from the release and then make sure you head to the sabbatical website to pick up one of only 200 hand-numbered copies of the EP (mine is number 40).

MP3: Pikelet – Bryson

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regular readers of the blog would know that i remixed one of evelyn’s tracks “bug-in-mouth” and that the remix appears on my latest EP. for the sake of having something to talk about i thought i would tell a brief story about how the remix came about. basically i became really obsessed with that song after hearing it late one night on the radio – i managed to track down a free mp3 of the track on last.fm (sorry but you can’t download it any more)… i resolved to get in touch with evelyn and ask her if i could get the original recordings of the track to play with – the separated parts – but for one reason or another it didn’t come together. late one night i was working in the edit suite of the production company of a certain australian ex-tv-game-show-host when i was fiddling around on my laptop with the mp3 of “bug-in-mouth”.. a few hours later the track was more or less finished. it was like 3am or something, and i was working alongside the hum of spooling tapes and buzzing tv screens. but yeah it was such a natural thing to play with, and fun to work with the track as a whole and not with the separate pieces of it, if that makes sense. it made me try some weird and wacky things, and i discovered a couple of oddball techniques (mostly involving the loooping and stretching of vocals) that i’ve been using a lot since, while working on new stuff.

so in conclusion, thankyou evelyn morris, and thankyou glenn ridge

you can hear “bug-in-mouth” at pikelet’s myspace, and you can hear my remix of “bug-in-mouth” at my myspace or on the changes EP or here:

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my knowledge of computer game music is far from encyclopaedic, in fact its barely even a footnote on a random page of the great book that is computer game music, it is more like a barely legible scribble in the margins, in greylead pencil, that reads something like “you don’t know shit about computer game music”

but a couple of things have happened this week that makes me think i need to get my head back into that.

first up, while preparing to interview luke disasteradio – yes, theres that name again, he pays me in virtual synths every time i mention his name on this blog – i rediscovered my favourite commodore 64 computer game theme, commando. if you ever played c64, you probably played commando. when we played it during luke’s interview, one of the other announcers came in to the studio saying “i’ve played this game… what is it?!” its a song that never leaves you. this game i played a lot when i was a kid, though i could never get past the first few levels. i didn’t realise it at the time, but now i’m positive, that the reason i kept going back to it despite the fact that i was so shithouse at it was obviously just to hear rob hubbard’s amazing theme song over and over and over:

MP3: Rob Hubbard – Commando

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what is amazing about this track, and i guess about all computer game music from this era, is how the composers could make such compelling and innovative songs using only the barest of building blocks. they were under such restrictions in terms of the sounds at their disposal – they were literally constructing music out of the tiniest shards of electrical noise. so they squeezed everything they could out of melody and rhythm. recently several groups have rather infamously started transposing the old commodore 64 game themes into orchestral arrangements.. eg the c64 orchestra… but there is actually something about the original distorted proto-digital sound that i find really inviting and comforting. but i guess thats all about memory, as most things tend to be, that really its just the way this song evokes so vividly a piece of my childhood, thats why it gets my rocks off so severely.

the second thing thats happened – and i see this to be some marvellous confluence of mystical energies that led these two things to happen in such temporal proximity – or perhaps it was a coincidence – it actually happened just a couple of hours ago when i got an email from marcus asking me about my EP changes (i hope he doesn’t mind me quoting some of his email here):

Incidentally, have you ever played the video game ‘Secret Of Mana’ or heard the soundtrack? The first time I heard Changes on the radio it immediately reminded me of a song from that game, which is why I like it so much. Listening to the rest of the EP, it sounds like it was very ‘Secret Of Mana’ inspired. Is this the case, or is it a fluke that they have similarities?

this is seriously one of the coolest things i’ve ever heard about my own music! i’ve managed to do a little bit of googling and tracked down some info about secret of mana, which i’ll be honest i haven’t played before. i think it was a super nintendo game – i never hooked into that generation of consoles to be honest. for me it went C64… xbox… neverwinter nights. and not much in between. except for civilisation. railroad tycoon 2- that shit is hot! but i digress. secret of mana:

The game’s soundtrack was composed by Hiroki Kikuta, and is perhaps his most famous work[citation needed]. It is known for its variety of tunes which tend to focus on the use of percussion and woodwind instruments, ranging from a lighthearted dwarves’ polka to a somber, wistful snow melody to a tribal-like dance.

my music sounds like a dwarven polka! if only! though i will admit – “tunes which tend to focus on the use of percussion and woodwind instruments” – this is not so far from the mark given the liberal doses of sampled drums and flutes that litter the track “changes” and also just most of my stuff in general. anyway, thanks so much marcus for making my day!

the secret of mana soundtrack can actually be downloaded in its entirety from this website. i’m just starting to give it a few spins and some of it is great stuff. here are a couple of samples to whet your appetite:

MP3: Hiroki Kikuta – Dancing Animals (Goblin Theme) (from Secret of Mana)

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MP3: Hiroki Kikuta – Into the Thick Of It (from Secret of Mana)

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a lot happening at the moment in the world of faux pas. forgive me while i wrap a few things up, for those of you playing along at home.

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blink and you’ll miss it – my “changes” ep has been a featured release over at the itunes store for the last week. the itunes release of “changes” includes a bonus exclusive remix by cleptoclectics called “live shine see” – its currently the only place you can get it! my other two releases “faux feels” from 2005 and “entropy begins at home” from 2006 are now also available at itunes worldwide. clickity click

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a couple of weeks ago i was lucky enough to join declan kelly on his RRR show “against the arctic” here in melbourne, where he kindly let me take over the show for 40 minutes or so and treat the city to some lazy sunday electronica. i took the opportunity to just play some of my all time favourite tracks, and it was lovely. we also chatted a bit about “stuff.” the show can be downloaded here.

tonight tune in to 106.7 pbs fm in melbourne after 8 pm, when i’ll be joining bevin on the blend for a chat. pbs streams online – and you can also listen to the show at any time after its aired on demand. clickyy clickty

every week, with my friend dave, i present a show on 102.7 rrr fm. its called “to and fro.” also, in case i forget to mention it later, i’ll be doing a special christmas set on rrr from 10pm to 2am christmas night, pulling out all my favourite christmas novelty tracks. yep i’ve got four hours of them. tune in if you haven’t already gone to bed, bloated and contented. its 102.7 fm if you are in melbourne, or you can stream it online here.

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a big massive thanks to all of the wonderful people in radio who are supporting my new EP – rrr, pbs, fbi, 2ser, 4zzz, rtr – i’ve had the good fortune to talk to and meet many of the awesome volunteer broadcasters that do great work at these stations, and i can safely say that they are all of them, without exception, hot stuff. at the risk of sounding obnoxious, self-serving and lame – lets face it, i was already at that point long ago – people like me simply would not be able to make music and get it heard without independent radio. community radio stations remain the backbone of the awkward hunky vertebrate that is independent music.

also.. thanks to all my friends and family who have sent me excited sms messages about how they are hearing my songs on triple j. woo!

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coming up this wednesday night, again in melbourne town, are four great bands playing at bar open on brunswick st in fitzroy. the line-up includes: anonymeye (avant-guitar laptop soundscapes), joel saunders (party-beat synth freak-folk), pretty boy crossover (makers of one of the best local electronic releases of the year), and – zeal, the man behind “yumi and the sky,” as remixed on my changes ep. i’ll be there spinning tunes between the bands. its free! come on down and say hi.

find out more at this ghastly internet forum.