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Re: Introduction (long)



Hi...just read your (lengthy) bio post on Looper's Delight. Sounds very 
interesting from a number of fronts. I am a bassist/looper, and I use 
sound 
treatments of the bass as my principle texture (in a very eno-esque sort 
of 
way). As of late I have been concerning myself with the acoustic bass, and 
treatments thereof, but had previously "dabbled" into the techno/dance/DnB 
styles using processed bass/bass loops and multiple drum loops. Your 
experience, creative and computer, sounds fascinating.
I am writing you because I live in Tehachapi (in the mountains SE of 
Bakersfield) and come to SLO often (in fact will be there this weekend), 
and 
as an electronica/looping performer composer am always on the prowl for 
venues to play....and for possible collaborators.
I have performed at several of the Northern California Festivals of 
Emerging 
Electronica, and the recent Solo Bass Looping Festival.
I am very interested in what you are doing over there as far as the 
electronica/dance culture goes. Sounds as tho you might be creating a meld 
of the intellectual and viscereal....
I would like to open communications with you concerning A) possible 
collaborations between your computer-based electronica and my own 
bass-derived sonic manipulations. As a composer (several film 
scores/commercials) I am always eager for true collaborations...it seems 
to 
bring out my best. B) the possibility of performing in SLO soon and 
re-indulging my interest in loop-based dance music.
C) My colleague Rick Walker (Loop.pooL) ...a freq. contributor to Looper's 
Delight and promoter of many NorCal Looping events, as well as a world 
class 
percussionist and outstanding electronica artist and producer...a planning 
a 
small (california) LoopFest Tour and would like to put SLO in that 
itinerary.  Perhaps you can help us out there. Previous Looping Festivals 
have been quite succesful (and fun).
Please e-mail me if you are open to any of these ideas.

Thanks for your time and consideration...Max Valentino



>From: Catharsis <catharsis@egregious.net>
>Reply-To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>To: Loopers-Delight@loopers-delight.com
>Subject: Introduction (long)
>Date: Fri, 02 Mar 2001 00:11:24 -0800
>
> >There were so many people in their early to mid-'20s at the gig who were
>COMPLETELY into the show, and I can't imagine that many of them had a
>serious history of "out" >listening (though I could be wrong, certainly).
>Any thoughts on this?
>
>This turned out longer than I thought it would. I will probably rewrite
>this for a bio on my web page! Sorry if this is off topic; I am just 
>trying
>to find some context in an irrational world. You guys got the first 
>draft.. 
>;)
>
>Well, I just joined the list a week ago in time to catch the "out" thread
>which surprised me! I usually don't post quickly, but this list is on
>target to where I want to be going and how could I not with the "out"
>thread. I will give a detailed description of my background (only because 
>I
>think I might find context on this list; I am an alien to my peers). I
>explain my situation as being one of a new generation that grew up with a
>computer since day one. IE My family purchased a Tandy Model I in 1980 and
>since then I had access to computers.
>
>I am 22 and have been a guitarist for 16 years. I mainly had a collection
>of instrumental artists (Satriani, Johnson, Vai, etc.) until I started
>seriously programming in C in '92 and got online around the same time
>(spent $400 of summer money on a used 14.4 USR Robotics HST; 2-3 years
>before v.32bis became cheap and affordable). By '94 I came in contact with
>electronic oriented genres and actually my first "out" purchase was the
>Swans -- Greed.. This was a shock for sure at 16 coming from a fundamental
>family/world view; I'm a fine and "well adjusted" now; sort of! ;) Joy
>Division, Coil, Death In June, Dead Can Dance. 80's/ early 90's EBM; 
>Future
>Sound of London; IDM; all sorts of dance music whether it was trance or
>goa. I really had an industrial kick for a while; Skinny Puppy, 242, etc.
>later on all imported electro industrial. Electro industrial has really
>gone downhill in the last couple of years (IE most of it is like bad 
>trance
>with a singer! Ack!). Funny thing is that although I was a closet guitar
>player; I never could afford a lot of equipment and had no means/knowledge
>to do any quality multitrack recording, so I was held up in that aspect.
>Lost many songs years ago! Mostly I created one continuos jamming
>experience. I guess I could explain.
>
>Oh, yeah moved from the San Francisco area to San Luis Obispo to attend 
>Cal
>Poly for computer science in '96 (what a joke! Being that I was self 
>taught
>for 4 years prior I hammered my first year here and completed my senior
>project the summer after my freshman year;
>http://www.egregious.net/~catharsis/spasm/; the rest has been formality 
>and
>it is dragging on too long! IE I can barely stand any of the classes! I
>hate Cal Poly due to the lack of interdisciplinary opportunities; the fun
>stuff really occurs when you combine say computers and music!).
>
>I ran a monthly industrial club night from April '98 to April '99. Around
>mid 1998 I picked up turntables and put down the guitar (no resources to
>record!). No one DJ/mixed in this area at the time although there was a
>small rave scene that lasted for nine months in 1996/97 (one of the DJs;
>Morgan; is getting big in the SF area now; though he is all cheese and
>certainly not the "pioneer" that he claims to be). Amazingly SLOs record
>stores have remained untouched and not rummaged through like SF in the 
>late
>80's early 90's. I was absolutely shocked one day when I went up to the
>loft in one of the stores and where I uncovered approximately 300-400
>pristine copies (and double copies) of now obscure 80's EBM. Not only
>that.. stuff like Klaus Schulze, Jean Michel Jarr (all his records in
>pristine condition), I still need to go rummage around some more and see 
>if
>I can find anything crazy like Stockhausen, etc. I was never into Nine 
>Inch
>Nails, but for example the Pretty Hate Machine 12" and the single Sin were
>just sitting there factory sealed for $7 and $5 respectively (I would like
>to see what Ebay would fetch for those two!).
>
>At this time the monthly club I was running was coming to a halt as my
>group of friends (the _other_ 3 or 4 old school goth/industrial folks in
>the area graduated and moved back to SF or LA). I met another
>programmer/student early in '99 that was into electronic music (the rave
>side of things). He was from Sacramento. We met at the college radio
>station and trained in the same quarter. So, I started DJing a lot of
>trance, tried out drum and bass, a little goa, tried to mix industrial 
>(and
>gave up on it at the time), picked up on London acid techno (couldn't
>really get a grasp on DJing it). I always had a little techno (the real
>genre) on CD (mainly prototype 909/Jammin' Unit. I never got into mixing
>techno as I did not understand it. Sure I could mix trance like no other
>(song to song; clean mixes; a little overlap and melodic counterpoint), 
>but
>techno was so repetitive and confusing. We scored an electronic mix show
>over the summer and that continued for a year until the station cancelled
>it because they are blind conformist indie rockers (90% of Cal Poly is
>frat/sorority material; 72% of the county voted for Bush; need I say
>more?). We actually pulled off a rave with lasers and a 5000 watt sound
>system at Cal Poly fall of '99. That went marginally well; we lost $500 on
>it. A couple new faces showed up in SLO that liked electronic music so we
>formed a little group around the radio show. Also during the fall of '99 a
>record store in SLO liquidated their vinyl stock and I stumbled on the
>techno section... 200 techno records from '94 to '98; for $2 each; I 
>talked
>them down to $1.50 and could afford 50 of them wished I could buy them
>all.. Man... Some cool stuff.. Still did not know how to DJ it.
>
>I took some time off of college to work and between the both of us we were
>able to buy a Cerwin Vega Intense sound system. We both already owned
>tables and I had a good DJ mixer (Pioneer DJM 500); he has a DJM 600 now;
>has a small sampler which is fun for looping (yeah I'm on topic now!) ;) I
>bought a Mackie 1642 and Mackie SRM 450 monitors along with splitting the
>rest of the system with him. This was my first experience at actually
>having some studio equipment. Unfortunately, the SRM 450s are great for
>live gigs, but not great for studio work at lower volumes! I also have to
>tear out my mixer and destroy my studio weekly and whenever else we use 
>the
>sound system due to needing the 1642 for the live rig. Grrr... This is
>frustrating! Once we pay off the system though the collective will buy the
>1642 and I will be able to upgrade to an Allen & Heath 14:4:2.
>
>Anyway, we decided to take a risk (one of the biggest I have taken) and 
>buy
>this sound system without even knowing if we could start a dance music
>scene (rave; or whatever you want to call it; I am involved with dance
>music because I can pay for equipment; and it is fun!). We started a 
>weekly
>club called Bad Monkey January 2000 and it was an astounding success as no
>one else (collective or otherwise) on the central coast was doing a weekly
>electronic event. Unlike the metropolitan area dance music scenes which
>turned into over blown for profit ventures around '95 we kept it more to
>the foundation of that movement. Bad Monkey is a non-profit community club
>where we charge $3 and $5 regardless of the size of the guest DJ (we had 
>to
>break this once with when hosting a really big DJ that would not work with
>our budget). We are the only club night in town that will pay local DJs a
>decent wage ($50/hour; anywhere else it is $10/hour); out of towners more
>of course depending on ability. We still are paying off the sound system
>after 70 events, but it should be paid off by May through artistic means
>alone; this feels good; though my back is broken from moving it around
>weekly! We do not promote drugs and we certainly do not look towards SF or
>LA to define our electronic music culture as it is blown out and
>commercial. SLO is weird...
>
>Although things were great for the first 6 months average attendance has
>dropped to 150 (peak nights still get to 300, but that is rare as we are
>all students; except for me currently; and don't have time to constantly
>promote) and that does not give us a lot to work with after we cover
>operating/maintenance expenses. The club has been the best thing in my 
>life
>and the hardest since it is thrown together by a rag tag group of young
>adults (kids if you must) who come from all sorts of musical backgrounds
>(actually, mainly a lack thereof). We don't get along, but are forced to
>due to the area. My perspective on how to deal with people has grown
>tremendously with this experience. I am also the oldest along with my
>partner Greg who is 23 in this areas electronic music scene.
>
>Musically it has been awesome and very rewarding. I have had the gear and
>venue to learn how to perform live (develop the ear). We got in contact
>(random email) with a Canadian booking agent/promoter on the third week of
>running the club and secured our first big performance from the
>international DJ/producer Chris Liberator (London acid techno) on the 
>sixth
>week (just happens he was in LA and needed a Wednesday night gig). We had
>300 people "off their tits" as they would say in the UK that night. Not on
>drugs, but the music. Liberator decimated all of us
>(http://badmonkey.egregious.net/pictures/picture.cgi?pict=2_23_00/2_23_00_14
>). He performed a set that technically blew us away. He did things that I
>just was beginning to conceive of yet had no guts or ability to try in
>regard to mixing. He was a techno DJ.. I studied the DAT religiously for
>the next month; now techno is my preferred genre and style to DJ actually
>there is no going back... IE there are no rules; the music is minimal; the
>DJ must make it interesting via mixing and abusing the mixer (looping
>anyone?). Liberator told all of his friends about the place and we hosted 
>a
>total of 5 UK producers in the first 6 months of last year.
>
>Another UK producer we hosted was DDR. He performed a live PA with a 909,
>303, sampler (S3000), and Mackie 1604 mixing board. It astounded and
>fascinated me. He came back up the next month (was in LA for a while) for
>another UK performers date (Gizelle; first US appearance) and I was able 
>to
>question him on his live PA. I figured out that he was using the 909 as a
>sequencer and for a couple of its drum sounds. When I mentioned this a
>smile came over his face and we started to talk tech. Wow.. The UK guys
>really helped me get a foothold on electronic production as I can ask them
>questions and they will get back to me. They also helped me to gain a more
>global view of music and life in general (politics/society).
>
>So, I basically have taken the whole last year off of college to run the
>club night (attending school minimally to not have to file for a leave of
>absence; I pulled some strings that is for sure; that is another story
>though)! I did some computer contracting last spring that allowed me to 
>buy
>an Akai S6000 around April. I was able to borrow a Novation Supernova
>(don't have this guy anymore) and also an Alpha Juno 2 w/ pg300. I had
>enough money to not work all summer (took a couple of classes during the
>fall; heh heh). I also bought Curtis Roads Computer Music Tutorial along
>with a couple of other academic books last April; this was my first
>introduction to computer music/producing/recording. I quickly got up to
>speed on some of the latest electronic music once I figured out the 
>concept
>of microsound (www.microsound.org).  I'm just pissed that I can't afford a
>Mac to have access to Max/MSP (Make the damn port Kit!) and Supercollider.
>All of this combined with the Internet (been culture jamming for years)
>allowed me to "drop out"... I have been able to contract off an on for
>short periods of time and spend the rest of my time working with my studio
>and DJing. I am spending a large part of my time with the up front logical
>side of building a studio and learning the ropes/tools before digging too
>deep into the creative aspect (my process has drastically changed in the
>last month let alone the next month!). Recent acquisitions are a Pod Pro,
>RNC 1773, Nuendo w/Waves plugins, ADAT board for my sampler, RME
>Hammerfall, Emagic Logic.  I hope to get a Fernandez Sustainer (guitar),
>the new Sherman filter, Aardvark Q10, Mackie 824s in the next month. I am
>picking back up the guitar as I now have the means to record myself!
>
>Recently I have become aware of the very small microtonal community via 
>the
>book Harmonic Experience by WA Mathieu and the alternate tuning list. I
>have not formally studied any music theory and I am having a rough time,
>but I am approaching it from a unique angle (for me); just intonation. So
>much of it is over my head by miles not feet.. :(  IE non 12 TET.
>
>I am currently having a good time reading African Rhythm and African
>Sensibility by John Miller Chernoff.
>
>I also subscribe to Computer Music Journal and I received the latest issue
>last week. It came with a sample CD and when I flipped it over I was 
>amazed
>at the content I saw. There were tracks from Coil, Taylor Deupree (ex
>Prototype 909), Thomas Brinkmann, Kim Cascone; among many other familiar
>commercial microsound artists. The forward from Joel Chadabe is great and
>first article from Kim Cascone amazed me as well.
>
>Kim Cascone, 'The Aesthetics of Failure: 'Post-Digital' Tendencies in
>Contemporary Computer Music', Computer Music Journal, 24:4 (2000), pp. 
>12-18
>
>I contacted MIT Press to reprint it, but instead they put it online as a
>sample:
>http://mitpress.mit.edu/journals/COMJ/sample-article.html
>
>It closely matches and complements what I will call my aesthetic of
>imperfection. techno DJing and live performance is wacky after all.. Of
>course none of my ideas are new; just recycled due to isolation. I'm sure 
>a
>lot of the looping community thrives on an aesthetic of imperfection.
>
>Anyway, this article sums up why I started with electronic music; it is
>common knowledge to me, but maybe not to most. I am amazed that the
>academic community is recognizing the commercial sector (actually it is
>about time)! Who knows maybe the commercial sector will pull ahead of
>academic circles for computer music. It has happened in practically every
>other computer related industry. One just has to look at CSound and 
>realize
>that it will be quite an arduous task to modernize it with a majority of
>that communities consent.
>
>Oh yeah, I'm going to finish my undergrad in this upcoming year and get on
>with it. Actually I just enrolled in one of the only music courses I am
>interested in at Poly --  synthesis (there used to be a class called
>acoustic communication which covered non 12 tet tunings among other 
>things,
>but it was cancelled because the students could grasp it; duh! I guess). I
>probably have already covered the ground that this class will focus on, 
>but
>I'll keep an open mind. I'm just taking it to get as much time as possible
>on the fully loaded Kyma system Poly has in order to do some massive sound
>design. Heh heh... ;)
>
>All this has really given me an interesting perspective on life in America
>(economics/culture/politics/foreign policy/philosophy).
>
>My eyes are wide open.... Regardless of what I know I realize how little I
>really do truly understand. I bet I could learn some amazing things from
>participants of this list.
>
>So, I am crazy, right? ;) My peer group thinks so... When I open my mouth
>their eyes glaze over.. It sucks; really!
>
>I won't keep yabbering though. This list is about looping; can't wait for
>the repeater group buy!
>
>Glad to meet all of you!
>
>--Mike (Catharsis)
>PS: my web site has some DJ sets up online; I hope to finish some music
>soon, but I am taking my time as the exploration is just beginning!
>
>Egregious
>"Spiritual renewal through music for those outside the heard."
>http://www.egregious.net/
>

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