Hey guys.  Wanted to demonstrate the guitar system I put together.  Watch it here.

The way I see it, this system would work in a very similar manner to the idea of individual players triggering a drum sound, controlled by a meta-DJ controlling timbral parameters.

Here, a guitarist would play his/her guitar, and an external musician would dictate the timbral parameters of the instrument.

I think there are a ton of possibilities that I didn't really tap into in the demonstration.  Would love to hear ideas from people so I can improve upon it over break.

Poster Draft

Hey guys- here is my draft for the poster. Let me know what you think!

More Atom TM

We should do something like this:

 

DJ Rolando (The Aztec Mystic) - Knights of the Jaguar

DJ Rolando's song "Knights of the Jaguar" was released on UR in 1999. It's something that I keep returning to as inspiration, and so I decided to break it down to understand it. The form itself turned out to be quite simple; the backbone of the track is an 8 bar loop that repeats with minimal variation for the entire six and a half minutes. The various elements (percussion, strings, etc.) come in and out exactly on this frame also, which made writing it out very easy.

Despite this simplicity, I believe that the song has amazing timing and emotional form to it. It begins subtly, building layers to a string solo in the exact middle before dying down a bit and "deconstructing" the beat a bit, and then relentlessly building to a final peak where it forcefully ends.

There is another element to this particular song that we should also keep in mind: it was the focus of a controversy involving UR and Sony/BMG. The gist of it is that Sony commissioned a "cover" of the song almost immediately after it was released on UR. It sounds like a direct, cheesy rip off, and it started a war between pretty much everybody in the dance music scene and Sony. Sony eventually caved and pulled the cover, but it somehow popped up again, released by BMG. UR decided to release remixes of Rolando's song by all their big artists, and "Knights of the Jaguar" became much more well known and successful than the rip off.

It's something to consider if we decide to cover (or not) this, or really any classic track.

Link to a more in-depth article:

http://www.scribd.com/doc/22131876/Underground-Resistance-vs-Sony-BMG-tobias-c-van-Veen#scribd

And the analysis of the song:

8 Bar “Frame” that repeats throughout goes something like;

[D 2 bars]
[G 2 bars]
[F 2 bars]
[A 2 bars]

The song goes:

8B no drums
8B w kick
8B w full bass synth
8B w added perc
8B same with slight sound changes
8B modified groove
8B added HH
8B groove
8B w clap
8B groove
8B string intro
8B string cont
8B string solo
8B string solo cont
8B string rhythm (last 2 bars kick drops out)
8B groove
8B groove
8B clap drops
8B HH drops
8B all percussion drops (no kick)
8B kick adds back in
8B no kick (except hits)
8B HH back in
8B all percussion adds
8B strings fade in (rhythm)
8B no kick plus alt rhythm strings
8B kick returns
8B alt string rhythm w kick
outro strings

Kraftwerk's current live rig

Interesting video perspective showing what Kraftwerk are actually doing on stage during their current live show. Quneo, iPad, ...


 

Publicity

Brennan and I met on Friday with the Director of Communications and the Manager of Promotion for SMTD. They were really helpful and willing to help us out with getting the word out about our show, but a lot of it is still on us.

At the meeting, we went over a lot of the ideas we had already talked about (videos, posters, facebook event, business cards to drop off places, etc). They suggested that we focus most of our efforts on creating a good social media presence, since they will be able to get us into local event listings and such but that only goes so far these days. The other big thing we talked about is branding and making sure that we but the SMTD logo on pretty much everything we distribute (a note on the logo: we can't break it up, change the color, or warp it in any way)

They said that we should really focus on having all of our publicity media done by the beginning of March, which seems far away now but its coming up on us quick. So here is what needs to happen in the next few weeks:

-Teaser video, perhaps 2 (we could release one early in march and another shortly before the show to keep people talking about it)
-Poster (I think Kevin is on this if i remember correctly)
-Business card-sized informational things that we can leave various places (simplified version of poster)
-Figure out what facebook groups, websites, local radio, whatever we can distribute these on. It would be super helpful if you knew of anything if you could comment here so that we can have a good list in one place.

I know we have a lot of other stuff to worry about, but it'd be pretty lame if we spent all this time making a great show and no one came.

Minneapolis Sound

I've been reflecting on some musical experiences I've had in Detroit and have noticed that the so-called "Minneapolis Sound" (synth-driven funk-rock pioneered by Prince, Morris Day & The Time, Sheila E) seems to have had a lasting impact on Detroit. I hear songs from the Minneapolis Sound era far more frequently in Detroit than I have elsewhere.

Which helps explain why you hear a lot of the Minneapolis Sound in Detroit Techno, especially bass lines and synth leads. It's a very strong connection. These aspects of the Minneapolis Sound should be a strong reference point in our quest for techno bass lines and riffs. Please listen copiously.

I recently discovered this pretty incredible tune "The Oak Tree" by Morris Day:


 Watch them perform it live on Soul Train here:

http://youtu.be/LoF-CwZOSB0

Electronic Welfare: The Political Legacy of Detroit Techno   

Check out this link for a great article about the historical sociopolitical implications of the music we are making.  There's a ton a really excellent video and music content on this link.

Underground Resistance Mini Doc

"Light Thing" prototyping 2.2.15

Elliot and I worked on "light thing" at the workbench last night - we have a working proof of concept!

Modeselektor Boiler Room

Extremely effective long gestures with filter sweeps and glissandi around 3:00-5:00. Throughout, they use pitch modulation in surprising ways, as well as unconventional kick drum timbres.

DJ Rolando DEMF

DJ Rolando is a Detroit DJ and has multiple releases on UR as well as a variety of other labels throughout the late 90s and 00s.

This set is a classic example of traditional techno DJing, occurring at Detroit’s own Detroit Electronic Music Festival. You can see that he’s using (at least) 3 turntables (and I believe a CDJ) and a mixer to play the music. At times he appears to be mixing vocal samples on top of the music (1:30), then he spins a record in reverse to transition out of one song (4:10). At (8:08) he uses filters to add to the music, as well as more turntablism at (8:20). At (9:30) you can see him spinning through a record to search for a specific moment. At (18:46) you can see the infamous “crates” of records as he looks for a song. Then at (21:50) you see him using simple volume controls to smooth the transition between songs.

I haven’t gone through the whole thing, but it’s a great set and worth a listen!

limits and simplicity

i thought this was unique.  This performance is far more impressive because of the context of the setup.  Using just a 303,  thats the context.



the performance is compelling without the context, but i think that drives this home for me. which makes me think about what context is appropriate, and what is too limiting, or too much even? I also do not want this to go down the path of "we made this hard to make this hard on ourselves." thats not cool. There might be some helpful limitations to consider to keep our performance engaging, concise, and obviously, impressive.

DJ plays MIDI along with mixing! NO TIME TO CHECK EMAIL

Watch as A-Trak plays keyboard, mixes and does other DJ stuff HERE..........ok maybe he checked his email

Can a DJ combine a performance setup with a live band?

Todd Terje thinks you can.
This video starts with just Terje basically DJing on his own.  There may perhaps be a bit too much magic behind the scenes (partly due to the lighting distracting us away from the performer), but he is definitely performing in real time, controlling two synths in real-time.  In one hand, he controls harmonic content with a keyboard-based synth, while controlling textures and filter on another synth simultaneously.
Then the band joins him.
The bad news is the audio that accompanies this video malfunctions from the 2-10 minute mark.  The good news is the whole video is 75 minutes long, so there is still plenty of material to analyze.
Some of this music definitely starts to pull away from being explicitly techno, but some similar live performance sensibilities can certainly be applied.
At 14:30, we hear a looped electronic beat get augmented by hand percussion and a drum kit, before a keyboard plays a synth bass line that is decorated with horn sounds.  There's strings adding texture, too.
50:30 is a spot to check out, too.  Using an effected vocal to construct hamonic/textural layers is definitely something we could easily do.
The song "Oh Joy," which begins at 58:35, is an example of a gradualistic compositional structure that uses evolution in arrangement and timbre to make various repetitions interesting.  And, it's interesting to watch, because even though there are automated electronic components, we are definitely always observing live musicians performing, often times even in a relatively orthodox manner.
And the finale is just a ton of fun, with a huge group of dancers joining the performance.

Shawn Rudiman doesn't check his email on stage

When I thought of outstanding acts for Techno performance I immediately thought of Shawn Rudiman. He mixes live PA all-hardware techno live, every bit of music generated on the spot. No laptop. The particular thing of interest in relation to what we are doing is how he transitions between different "songs" (which are actually live-composed music). Seeing as this is what we are going to do, transition between performed compositions live, I just wanted to highlight a few ways he cuts between motifs that he is generating live... with no headphone mix.

9:10 A big thing he does is cut non-percussion motifs while he re-develops them. Then he subtly fades back in his new melody.

At 11:17 he cut out the groove for one measure before he "dropped it" and it was pretty exciting and he just stood really still for a moment and people seemed to get re-engaged.

at 26:36 he cuts down the resonance on the cymbals to function as quick swelling hi-hat type sounds. I think that cymbal resonance is an important dynamic to play with in live performance. Sometimes a resonant off-beat cymbal that rises right until the bass drum hits again can signify a "big" sound where as a short off-beat cymbal might feel more like a "tight" sound. Transitioning between the two can be a dynamic of progression that we could toy with.

Octave One (live)

Octave One is a Detroit techno duo on Underground Resistance's label. I found this video of one of a short segment of their set and decided to analyze it.

I really like how (throughout the entire video) the guy on the left is controlling a filter by a knob, using it give some direction to the loops. It's visible and has that glorious 1:1 correspondence of action to sound.

I also like how the guy on the right is dancing HARD the whole time! My only concern is that I can't really tell what he's up to besides dancing... I think it would be better if there was a visual way to show when a loop comes in or goes out. To the people working on our sequencer(s), maybe try to work in a visual for the audience to keep track of?

This song also has a nice balance of build and "drop" (for lack of a better word). The build only comes in occasionally and it is thankfully not over the top, unlike many big name DJs like to hand out ridiculous and unnecessary drops like candy. 

A Look Inside Purity Ring's Live Performances

A long-time favorite of mine and a familiar name to at least a few people in our class, Purity Ring is a great example of innovative DIY performance in electronic music. The two-piece ensemble strives to create a welcoming ambiance for their audience, and breaks the mold of the traditional "laptop" musician. Some of the highlights of their performances include live-processed vocals, DIY MIDI/light controllers, and an array of light fixtures that react to their musical choices. This video highlights some of those aspects, as well as presenting a couple of performance clips from their show at Webster Hall in New York City.

My biggest takeaway from watching this is the idea of continuity in performance. Not only does Purity Ring's live performance maintain a consistent and pleasing ambiance, their debut album, Shrines, effectively utilizes a restrained number of timbres, which gives their entire set aural consistency. It may be difficult for us given that we are more or less sectioning the class into teams in order to work on different pieces, but I think that our performance would benefit by having a couple of core elements (lights, sounds, interfaces, reoccurring melodies or interludes, etc.).

Name Our Concert

We have until Tuesday February 3 to come up with a name for our show to appear in the U-M SMTD events calendar, and which we'll use for posters, etc. Post ideas in comments here.

HIGH TECH SOUL - THE CREATION OF TECHNO MUSIC from COXBOX on Vimeo.

Detroit One-off Records

rate looks like 25$ per record if we're interested  : : : rv-sd custom record cutters

TRI-O (pretty MIDI turntables?)

Check out this MIDI controller! I could totally see this kind of contraption slowly modulating pad layers in a techno performance.

Leafcutter John

This video came up in PAT 452 yesterday. It's an array of photocells that control sounds that's controlled by light, and I think it'd be sweet to make something like it for our show.

the DNA in detroit techno...?...

So the past few days I was reading a little about what we heard about so honestly today in class. But I still wonder, even after listening today, what exactly are some elements that are true to Detroit Techno, specifically from the Belleville three and their immediate followers?

I think it would be quite unique to best find some of those elements, musically, conceptually, or even technically, and find ways to "re perform" or re make those strong foundational sounds, ideas, or elements of the original Detroit Techno.

Something that pays respect to Juan Atkins, Derrick May, and Kevin Saunderson's work, but in a way that might have been only achievable today.

I dont necessarily think the performance needs to be restricted in any way, but I wonder if there could be many "quotes" in our work could represent the true, original, belleville three and pioneering Detroit Techno artists.

As I alluded to a bit in class, I find the reveal of the process of developing a great product more rewarding than the finished product itself.  Now, its not rewarding without the understanding and appreciation to the final product, but I think that isnt an issue.   Finding a cool or unique way to perform this music might be in the way we display the production of the composition.  I find the concept similar to people who incorporate live recorded loop based music.  (but without that actual idea because thats not what im interested in specifically)


there are my initial thoughts, more to come.

PS: Look up jitting. Yes. its cool.

Andy Stott technos in a way we might techno

Yo, so there's this guy Andy Stott who most people know already! But for those who don't, he makes really beautiful music that's obviously inspired by works in the academic/electro-acoustic tradition.

It seems like he's really into moving past the standardized "instruments" and sonic tropes techno had at the beginning - not that there's anything wrong with using them now - to explore where the organic sounds, human sounds can be used and manipulated.

This album is beautiful and so cool because it comes out of techno AND this piece which is just beautiful. As far as live performance goes, I'm not too aware of what he does except for that this Boiler Room set is the best one I've seen for sure. Things to learn might be that experimenting with our informed and diverse sonic worlds is not bad! different approaches to the groove, beat, tempo is not bad! and that we should be working out of an inspired place, authentically, whether that is straight up Detroit techno or really working out of the tape-music/minimalist/whatever tradition.

not far from the tree

I too like many in the class did not grow up with much of a techno influence. My opinion of techno was that it was always too meandary, or kinda static. During my gap year though I really discovered it for the first time and began to appreciate and respect it. Recently this summer I went to electric forest and briefly saw Kevin Saunderson and his son Dantiez do a b2b set. It wasn't a passing of the torch moment necessarily but a step towards a new generation of producers and listeners. Here is a fun interview with the both of them:

Techno history

My main knowledge of techno comes from taking Alvin Hill's Detroit: The Birthplace of Techno class a few years back. Prior to that class I didn't even know that Detroit was where techno originated. This tune was my favorite that we listened to in the class, so I wanted to share it here!

Also, a key person that we talked about in that class and who I found to be a compelling figure was Richie Hawtin or Plastikman. We also got to see him perform live at Necto with the class. This documentary that I found is pretty cool, tells his story and talks about Detroit's role in early techno, the Berlin connection, etc. 

Performing Electronic Dance Music

Hello friends. I was having trouble wrapping my head around what ECM is going to be doing this semester, so I thought I’d try to write it out and make sense of it that way. Forgive me if some of what follows seems self-evident.

This is music that is often prepared before hand. Patterns are programmed, sounds are selected; the performances are crafted so that they can be performed by one individual or a reduced number of individuals. That’s a big theme of electronic music as a whole: music is made without the need for many musicians in a space playing together. To bring it back out into an ensemble seems to be going backwards, each person playing a single instrument, regardless if it's are electronic or not.

I know there are advantages to an ensemble, in that the music is less strict. When there is a single performer making dance music, they must prepare everything beforehand. Even their variations need to be planned in a loose sense so that the music will continue smoothly while they improvise or change up their sets. Many musicians mean that many aspects of the music can change quickly and smoothly in response to external influence, be it reacting to the crowd or the other performers or something else.

Still, I don’t know how we are going to perform this music. I can’t imagine we’re all going to sit around playing electronic drums and synths. But it also seems a little ridiculous to all sit around programming sequencers and twiddling with knobs. All of those have been done. Yet since we’re making dance music it’s going to have to be consistent and accurate, so it seems like some combination of those two ideas is going to have to happen. And that’s where I’m getting stuck.

Anyways, enough theoretical, here are a couple of videos and an article that I feel are relevant.

KiNK performs a live set with a single turntable and variety of electronics.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G77uuDVpsSo

And here’s an article I found about a duo called Hypnobeat that performs with old drum machines. I thought it was interesting, even if they claim to have “invented techno.”
http://www.residentadvisor.net/feature.aspx?2359

A short video of a performance also.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=W0hN9v16V-U

Live Techno

Growing up, techno was LITERALLY the last thing I wanted playing out of my headphones or speakers. As a kid, I associated techno with the word psycho. It all sounded just like loud kicks, crazy synths, effects, and noise that came together as one huge blob. As I grew older, I still didn't it like it that much until I was maybe 18. That's when I started hearing rhythms that I could dance to and picked out sounds that were super dope and really just embraced the sound of electronic dance music. I think the "live" aspect is really cool as well and I'm very eager to see how we approach it. I dug deep in to this article titled What Is [Live] and the article pretty much summarizes the ins and outs of techno and how it has grown and is still growing. I also thought it was cool that the article talked about a few music programs that are perfect for creating techno beats. It also zeros in on particular techno artists, gives some of their background and talks about what those specific artists are doing. Like one musician says in the article, I agree that it's very important to trace the history of techno from the 60s and up to hear it's very first ideas and sounds. In my opinion, with so many genres of music, a lot compare here and there, but I think techno is one of those genres that can stand almost completely alone. Article: http://www.attackmagazine.com/features/what-is-live-new-generation-live-techno/3/

A little bit of Detroit Techno

I decided I wanted to look more into techno to get a better understanding of the musical style we will be going for this semester. I have actually never looked into Detroit Techno before, so I went online and checked out some new stuff that I was not familiar with. I though this song, The Theory by Underground Resistance, was really cool. I hear a lot of things going on in this song that I'm sure we can get going this semester. One thing I really like is the distinctive percussion sound in the song. It really mirrors a lot of the percussive style of Detroit Techno, and I definitely think we should go after capturing that sound as much as possible for at least one of out pieces for our performance. I am extremely excited about the semester ahead, and I can't wait to get to work on some awesome techno music.

<iframe width="420" height="315" src="//www.youtube.com/embed/v1Xgz6aVItw" frameborder="0" allowfullscreen></iframe>

More on Live

Hi all,

Like  a few of you have already posted, I was pretty daunted by the whole  "live techno" thing that we're doing here. I did some google digging and found a few articles that I enjoyed, but this is the one that stuck out most.

http://www.attackmagazine.com/features/what-is-live-new-generation-live-techno/2/

The article highlights a lot of things that I think are really pertinent to us. The big takeways I got were: we should 1) not throw away all of our classical/jazz/whatever theory just because it's electronic 2)learn the culture that this stems from, including the people that made the music and the people that consumed it and 3)not "fetishize" gear, because at the end of the day a good song through a basic set up is way better than a crappy song through an impressive one.

Anyway, I'm looking forward to the semester with you all! Lets make some sick beats, or whatever it is the kids are listening to these days

Some Detroit Techno Basics

Coming into this class, I’ve actually managed to get through two-plus decades of life and never really learn anything about techno music.  I figured starting small would be appropriate.

 I found this really helpful NPR article that touched on early essentially techno works specifically from Detroit..  It’s likely a lot of you guys have heard some of this stuff.  I haven’t, so this was definitely a good place to start.

I was struck by "No UFOs" by Model 500 (1985) .  In response to last class’s discussion on how to achieve an active performance while still adhering to the traditions of repetition that are somewhat inherent to techno as genre (if, of course, we feel it’s important to explicitly define techno), I felt this was a fairly solid example of a piece that illustrates one of many potential solutions to that concern.  There is a ton of repetition, but the piece deftly uses a gradualistic evolution in rhythm elements, textural content, harmonic modulation, and dynamic progression, all which contribute to a very musical (and in my opinion highly successful) piece of music.  Using this particular example’s solution, the next step would likely involve exploring the questions of how we take interfaces of making electronic tonalities, and shape them in ways that allow them to be played by humans in a humanistic way—that is,I and/or a group can play (mostly) electronic instruments and, in real time, shape its rhythmic, textural, harmonic, and dynamic content in musical ways.  Creating electronic music can certainly be largely a conceptual exercise in timbre, but it’s important not to treat the creation of a desired timbre as a finish line.

Visual augmentation of musical elements is a pretty common today, especially within these genres.  For me, it’s hugely important that if we featured visual elements, that we not simply include them for their own sake.  I personally have found visuals in a musical setting to be distracting from the musical experience more often than not, and so it’s essential that those elements, if included, have a specific intent that is integral to the musical work. 

Вiтаю All
Tackling this techno beast is going be superbly awesome as I have never done techno but in doing some research I think it would be very important to include a visual aspect and keep it funky. I recently looked and actually discovered Flying Lotus has done some Techno-esque with Kendrick I really like the Idea of doing vocals and doing some transposition with max

Techno Definition by the reliable source Wiki: "Stylistically, techno is generally repetitive instrumental music, oftentimes produced for use in a continuous DJ set. The central rhythmic component is most often in common time (4/4), where time is marked with a bass drum on each quarter note pulse, a backbeat played by snare or clap on the second and fourth pulses of the bar, and an open hi-hat sounding every second eighth note." So thats to say I think we shouldn't be scared to have something repetive but somehow make it different 

Performance thoughts and some tunes

In researching the subject, it seems like most techno producers equate stepping up their live game with increasing the scale and immersive nature of visualizations to their music. Amon Tobin created this wonderful box installation and Squarepusher used a live rig involving many black and white shapes on flat surfaces when he toured his latest album ufabulum (which I got to see at DEMF which was really awesome).

The challenge for us is to make a live element involving the creation and manipulation of sound more than just precomposing a pretty companion visualization - I have not found many successful examples of this excepting maybe Ryoji Ikeda's tuning fork sequence in Superposition or a time when I saw someone pour barbecue sauce on their sequencer at A.D.D. fest.

An idea that comes to mind as a response to this is to make there be a game-like element to how we determine sequences, like a piece that involves the game breakout to determine the drum patterns on a visualized step sequencer.

Another idea that comes to mind is to use the mechanistic and fixed nature of music to demonstrate a dynamic between humanity and automated processes, like two people having a conversation and having their conversation eventually being interrupted and gated by a snare drum pattern, making their words sporadic and out of context to mean something very different. Just an idea -

And here are some pieces of music that could qualify as techno (?) which I think are special:
RP Boo's "Speakers R 4" (minimalistic 160 bpm Chicago Juke)
Instra:mental's "When I Dip" (blown out electro, sounds great on huge speakers)
Underworld's Born Slippy (spoken word over techno created on a machine with very minimal sample time)

The Live Aspect

Hey all,

I've been doing some Google-searching to help better my own understanding of this whole Techno Live beast that we're hoping to tackle, and have come up with some thoughts on how we should approach it. This is not 100% original DJ-EK material, and where I'm referencing other things I shall make a careful point of noting it. Right!

I feel that the visual aspect of this performance is going to be very important. We are putting on a show, and for as much technical know-how we put in, we have to have some excellent visual feedback for the audience. As has been stated, techno can be rather visually stagnant. So, to counteract that, we have to give the audience some of the thrill we have experienced in producing the sweet music that we're gonna create. Therefore, depending on the piece, we shouldn't be so concerned with absolute perfection if the music is being created live. On musician Robert Henke's site, he touches on this matter. He states that "there is a vague idea of how much complexity a single person can handle. The more the actions result in an effect like a screaming lead guitar, the more we feel that it is live. If we experience more detail and perfection we most likely will suspect we are listening to pre-prepared music. And most of the time we are right with this assumption." How complex do we want to be?  Here is said article: http://www.monolake.de/interviews/supercomputing.html

I'm honestly in favor of ridiculously-sized buttons for at least some pieces: they provide delicious 1:1 feedback for the audience and copious amounts of irony for us performers.

As I've been more of a rocker than technobot, this class is gonna be a great learning opportunity for me. I'm looking forward to see what other more experienced people come up with, but cursory searches for inspiring music has turned up this neat classic Detroit techno group called Cybotron:

The classic layers of techno are quite evident here, and I think I'm in love with the sweeps and hits!

Super Monkey Ball

I played Super Monkey Ball for the second time EVER today and noticed it had some killer music that might be an inspiration for Electronic Chamber Music. Although I'm awful at guiding my little monkey around the courses I think the music discovery was fate! I'm sure this one will take some of you down memory lane...

La Chambre des Machines and Jazari

In contrast with Kraftwerk's music, La Chambre des Machines seems to send a message of struggle between man and machine rather than union. Bernier and Messier give a sense of being vexed and at times frustrated by their instruments, which were inspired by the Intonarumoris created by the Italian Futurists at the turn of the 20th century. Although their aesthetic isn't exactly "techno," I find it fairly easy to imagine this system and the sounds they create in this performance being used in the context of techno music.

la chambre des machines | bernier + messier from Nicolas Bernier on Vimeo.

Jazari is an ensemble that I--as well as many U of M students--am already familiar with, but the connection between what we are trying to do and what Patrick Flanagan has done in creating his techno robot ensemble was strong enough that I couldn't pass up the chance to share. Flanagan constructed Arduino-based systems, a DIY MIDI-interface, and loads of Max/MSP patches that allow him to interface with an entire ensemble of percussion instruments, which he uses to make people dance. While Flanagan has more polished pieces, this video gives a great deal of transparency into his performance system.

Krautrock: The Rebirth of Germany

BBC Documentary on Krautrock, includes Kraftwerk

KRAUTROCK THE REBIRTH OF GERMANY Documentary on Vimeo.

Electronic Chamber Music Winter 2015

The theme for Electronic Chamber Music in 2015 is "Techno." It's an imperfect term, because we aren't going to be studying a single, specific style of music, but rather electronic dance music more broadly (but not the genre known as "EDM"). The Techno music of Detroit will figure prominently, but so will electronic music from other cities and countries, and even music we don't think of as "Techno." The overall aim is to perform dance music with electronics, with the emphasis on performance. Much of this music is made in studios or with software that involves very little performativity. We are going to try to move away from prefab boxes with buttons and knobs, and instead to consider other modes and interfaces for making dance music in real-time. We might incorporate acoustic instruments, computers, synthesizers, and who-knows-what. We are putting on a concert in Detroit, at the Jam Handy, on April 4, 2015. Here we go!