Fwd: [909] just listening to Chain Reaction era Vladislav Delay

[Simon Kong]

.. in particular the track Pietola
>
> and thinking,
>
> no, you did not sample your cat purring. you did not sample your cat. shit,
> you did didn't you. well done.
>
>


I think the thing that vladislay delay did for me was change my sonic
awareness.

They did this thing with sound that changed the scale of perception ..
similar to Herbert and his sampling of crisp packets.  While other sound
worlds may have already been here .. the introduction in to the dance /
techno sound scapes of small, phasey, delayed sounds creating these massive
overwhelming sounds scapes was quite intense.

I suppose at the time .. a lot of the the production I was listening to was
very compressed and upfront.  The whole basic channel thing took me deep
inside the record groove.  Deep down into  chamber reverbs and of course the
quintessential delay.

I started hearing and listening to the sounds, the systems, the rooms where
the sounds and the systems were placed.

A lot of the Vladislay Delay stuff reminded me of the sounds of warehouses
and big pounding systems .. bit with out the big pounding obvious bits . .
just the more subtle sonic foundations.

In a large part I started to realise that most of what we listen and enjoy
with techno is less about the obvious bits and a whole lot more about the
noise underneath.

For example it was my understading that basic channel produced a series of
records based on sampled loop of a needle in a record groove.  Weather or
not this is true, I did make me realise that the noise of a needle in a
record groove made up a huge component of the sound being reinforced through
big PA.

This is part of the reaons that when CD's first started replacing vinyl
people complained about the thinness of the sound.  What they were misssing
was a huge amount of low frequency rumble produced by needles running in the
groove.  A sound that is traditionally compounded in the dance scene by Dj's
putting 10c coins on the headshells to reduce skipping.

Further the resonant feedback of turntables adds a huge amount of low
frequency noise to the mix as well.  In this degree weather people can hear
it or not .. a large part of the sonic energy that was engaging people on
the dance floor was thie insesent rumble from the rocord and the needle.

Interestingly early jungle sound systems in the UK .. used to run sine wave
generators under the mix to add that soild low frequency boost that made
jungle so popular.

I think today you can still add a lot of interest to the more digital mix by
doing similar things. sine waves, open mics, dirty atmospheric loops and
similar.   I think the vinyl emulator in Ableton Live is a good example of
what I am talking about here.

Suffice to say in reagrd to recording your cat purring and making a record.
. .why not.

Techno is very much about the sound scape, playing with sonic dimension.
The most seminal tracks from Techno have often been more about this shift in
sonic perspection / dimension ..  rather than some great new melody or drop.

The fact that I still enjoy Vladislay Delay .. despite their obtuse
simplicity speaks volumes to me that good new techno should still be trying
to open up awareness in sonics as opposed to trying to make catchy tunes.

Furhter I think where techno fails itself  a little is when it tries to make
"music" instead of "musak" or whatever the term is.

Dubstep is the obvious new succesor in terms of opening up new sonic
awareness.  People continually complain to me about the music but seem
enraptured by its mesmerising use of bass and structure.  Again often very
simple musical ideas that just change the way you listen to sound and sound
systems.

The sound is in the systems.

.simon


































-- 
land: 03 374 3318
mob: 0275 606 012

Technical & other stuff
.................................. ..
Canaan Downs Festival
Greenhorn Company
Obscure.co.nz





-- 
land: 03 374 3318
mob: 0275 606 012

Technical & other stuff
.................................. ..
Canaan Downs Festival
Greenhorn Company
Obscure.co.nz
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