Some Assembly Required

Frenchbloke

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 14:12:11 PDT

Frenchbloke

One of Bastard Pop's "first wave" of sound artists, Stuart McLean made a name for himself as DJ Frenchbloke (and also as Frenchbloke & Son), with tracks such as "Destiny's Kennedys," as early as 2001. He's produced hundreds of Mashups, and like many who were there from the beginning, has since become quite critical of the genre. Despite this fact, Frenchbloke remains one of the more recognizable names associated with Bastard Pop, and I'm pleased to be able to present this Q&A with him.

Currently, his projects include the band Tauchsieder. The experimental electronic group also features Cnut's Innes Smith and Soundhog's Ben Hayes (Check out our 2007 Q&A with Soundhog HERE). They've put out a couple of records, including "Louder," with contributions from JD Twitch, Colin Newman, Richard X and Tom Ellard. You can download the entire album, for free, at last.fm. Check it out HERE.

Who knows how long it will stay active, but HERE are two free online compilations of Frenchbloke Mashups as well. There are some really good ones included, but you won't find "Destiny's Kennedys" there. We played it (most recently) in Episode 229 though... Check it out HERE. A little known fact is that Frenchbloke also produced a few tracks under the name "Freelance Hairdresser," for awhile, before Soundhog took the reins on that project. We'll be playing one of those in an upcoming episode I'm sure, so stay tuned.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Frenchbloke...

*Name: Frenchbloke

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Frenchbloke, Tauchsieder (also: DJ Frenchbloke, DJ French Bloke and Frenchbloke & Son).

*Do you use a pseudonym? Yes, Frenchbloke.

*Members: Tauchsieder is Ben (Soundhog), Innes (Cnut) and myself. Frenchbloke & Son was Frenchbloke and Sonof (Graeme Ross), who sent me some mp3's to see if I'd upload them to the Optimo site. He didn't have a name so I nicknamed him Son of Frenchbloke. We had an album released via Germany of our individual tracks so the name Frenchbloke & Son stuck. Some mixes were done as a collaborative effort - the xfm Superchunk, the Avalon promo mixes 1 & 2 and the ill-fated mix CD “We Are Back.” There were a few other things probably. We played at Bastard in London, Heaven (London), Djinniditto (I think) in Edinburgh, The Square in Harlow and at The Brighton Pavillion. The Frenchbloke & Son “Sexy Model” 7-inch and the Jerry Springer Opera stuff on Avalon's half inch label was just Sonof due to a long winded and not very interesting legal contract issue.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Just someone who used to put something with something else. First was using acid pro 1.0d, and a pentium 133 with 32 Mb of RAM was the “Yo La Britney' thing with Britney Spears and Mount Florida. It was done as a joke from doing the Jeff Santana & His Orchestra's Night of 101 Stars, where I had used bits of the Mount Florida track. It was uploaded to the Optimo site. I upgraded to a p3 after that and did things using acid 2 then later using a cracked beta copy of acid 3 to keep the beta active for longer.

*Another genre descriptor: Hell, no. One-trick pony perhaps?

*Is there a story behind your name? It was originally DJ French Bloke, then DJ Frenchbloke, then by late 2001 just Frenchbloke. It was a name to hide behind when ruining people's enjoyment of popular tunes. I believe the name originally came from me hearing something by Laurent Garnier (Crispy Bacon, I think) and referring to him as that french bloke.

Location: Glasgow originally but the Frenchbloke stuff started as an offshoot to the Jeff Santana & His Orchestra performances that myself and Innes Smith used to do in Glasgow as part of National Poetry Day - Beat Poetry and all manners of bad, quickly written prose performed by Innes over bits from other people' s music. We performed at Optimo twice doing this. This was in a little village called Glengarnock, in North Ayrshire, 23 miles or so from Glasgow. The “DJ French Bloke” tracks were done solely to have something to download from the Optimo website - www.optimo.co.uk - back in the good old days of dial-up and sh***y bitrate mp3s. The bulk of the Frenchbloke material was done in Harlow, Essex and the first performance was at the Square in Harlow in December, 2001 as a support to Schmoof.

*What is your creative/artistic background: Been making noises with other people's instruments since I was 17 or so. I self-taught playing along to Kraftwerk, Heaven 17, Depeche Mode and the Human League on my Casio VL Tone. Used to edit cassette magazines for the blind on quarter inch tape and spent 3 years doing Music Technology and Electronics in Glasgow.

*History: Since I was 17. I made well over 200 odd (Mashups) at some point; more were never finished, or abandoned for various reasons but there are too many to mention. I have a soft spot for Destiny’s Kennedies as it was all done on acid 1, however listening back sounds rather dated, has several bits I'd like to fix and probably try it using the more bassy version of California Uber Alles, as opposed to the mid range nightmare that was used. Meine Bizkit is another favourite, solely for the Andreas Dorau backing track, Meine Lieder. Children’s TV Theme No.1, solely due to it's silliness and was done in a couple of hours for the old gybo friday punk challenge - one Stranglers track with every 3rd or 4th beat removed to change it from a waltz to a glitter beat shuffle. Waltzen Mit Roboter, for the same reason as above, as it was a simple exercise in editing – I removed every fourth beat turning it into a 3/4 waltz. Can't think of any others off the top of my head that I actually liked for more than the time it took to make.

*Born: East end of Glasgow, 1968

*Motivations: To get the ideas out of my head.

*Philosophy: None, with the exception of the mix for AcidTed which was to make as much money as possible for the Samantha Dickson Brain Tumour Trust.

*How would you like to be remembered: Not for bootlegs. Bootlegs were a disposable medium. Make, upload, forget about. Nothing more. Some people jumped ship when it became popular. It became a tired medium very quickly. There's only so many poorly-put-together for-the-wrong-reasons combinations you want to hear in your lifetime. I just don't think it's worth remembering with anything other than nostalgia.

*Web address:
http://www.last.fm/music/frenchbloke

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 146, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 04 Jul 2009 12:43:55 PDT

Episode 146, Some Assembly Required

01 Party Ben – “Drop It Like It's A Whole Lott (Led Snooppelin)”
02 Duran Duran Duran - “Pilldriver”
03 Hal Willner – “Whoops, I'm An Indian”
04 Anonymous – “Blasphemy: NO (3 Radio Cartoons)”
05 David Shea - “Untitled (Let's Entertain)”
06 Stephen McQuillen – “Criminal Incompetence”
07 Anonymous – “Cursing: NO (3 Radio Cartoons)”
08 Frenchbloke – “Diskow musik”
09 The Tape-beatles - “Sing sing sing (sing sing)”
10 DJ Spooky - “Dementia Absentia (Dialectical Triangulation II)”
11 Anonymous – “Sex: NO (3 Radio Cartoons)”
12 Twink – “Animal Talk”
13 Mark Eden - “Cremation Science”
14 Rob Swift – “What Would You Do?”
15 Think Tank - “Googelplectic”
16 Lenlow – “J-Lo vs K-Co vs S-Wo”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

The Reborn Identity

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 16:48:31 PDT

The Reborn Identity

The Reborn Identity is the UK's Gavin Burrell. The Bastard Pop artist is also the Producer/Director of a Mashup concept album we've been playing a bit of lately, called Mashed In Plastic. The online collection is inspired by the film and television work of Director David Lynch, and features work by artists such as Colatron, G3RSt, Neiltomo, The Reborn Identity, Phil RetroSpector, RIAA, ToTom, Voicedude, Wax Audio and The Who Boys.

The Reborn Identity has dozens of Mashups available to download at his website, along with remixes and video work. The Mashed in Plastic website has videos for many of its Mashups as well. Check it out HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with The Reborn Identity...

*Name: The Reborn Identity

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Not by me. I’m sure some of the artists I’ve sampled would have some other less than complimentary names they could offer.

*Do you use a pseudonym? Yes – my name’s not very rock and roll.

*Members: Gavin Burrell. It’s just me, though I collaborated with others in producing the Mashed in Plastic album.

*Founding Members: That would be me.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Definitely “digital deconstructions”. All the magic takes place on my PC.

*Another genre descriptor: I think of the music I produce as Mashups. I’ve always preferred this to the term “bootlegs”, which conjures up images of speakeasies and gangsters with tommy guns.

*Location: Manchester in the UK.

*Original Location: Originally from Glasgow in Scotland, but I’ve been down in Manchester for well over 20 years now.

*What is your creative/artistic background: I’m a total geek, to tell the truth, and spend a huge amount of my time tinkering around with software of one sort or another. A creative spirit, an interest in mashups and an aptitude for software came together almost by accident when I was fortunate enough to see The Eclectic Method in action. Those guys make audio and video mashups look damned easy, so when I got my hands on the right software I thought I’d give it a go. From that tentative start it’s turned into an obsession that laps up pretty much all my spare time. There’s rarely a time when I don’t have at least a couple of audio and video projects on the go.

*History: The Reborn Identity was launched in 2007, not long after I started putting together mashups, and I’ve been putting out tracks pretty regularly since then. Late on in 2008 I also became part of 1086 Productions – a collaboration between Wax Audio, Colatron, Alan Black and I – to produce the David Lynch mashup album, Mashed in Plastic. That was a fantastic experience, and the response we’ve had since that was launched last November (2008) has been way beyond anything we could have hoped for. I’m still working on a few videos for that project, and there will hopefully be another 1086 Productions album in the not-too-distant future.

*Born: Near Edinburgh in 1977.

*Motivations: Like most people producing their own tracks, I’ve got a real passion for music and couldn’t go more than a day without listening to something or other. Producing mashups gives me the chance to wallow in that passion, and share some of the music that I love with others, in a hopefully new and unusual way.

*Philosophy: For me, it’s all about creating music that I like to listen to – if other people enjoy what I’m doing too then that’s a bonus. I’m always trying to push my horizons too, trying out new techniques and styles, so it always stays fresh.

*How would you like to be remembered: If I can introduce some listeners to new artists they then go on to love, then that’s all I could hope for. At the moment I seem to be known best as one of the Mashed in Plastic guys, and I’m more than happy to be remembered for that.

*Web address:
www.rebornidentity.com
www.mashedinplastic.co.uk

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 234, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 28 Jun 2009 15:44:35 PDT

Episode 234, Some Assembly Required

01 Poj Masta – “Rap Attack”
02 Ellipse Elkshow – “Medication (Drugs.1)”
03 Fortyone – “Note From Bruce”
04 DJ Haste – “Styles To Kiss”
05 Negativland – “Dear Mary”
06 Plus-Tech Squeeze Box – “Dough-Nuts Town's Map”
07 Plus-Tech Squeeze Box – “CM#&'($_?>!”
08 RIAA – “Let Them Eat Cheeseburgers”
09 Ruckus Roboticus – “Here We Go”
10 Dunproofin' – “Folk Prayer”
11 Alyce Santoro & Julian Mock – “Rainboversomewhere (Somewhere Sutra)”
12 The Bran Flakes – “What It's All About”
14 John Cage – “Rozart Mix”
13 The Bran Flakes – “The Girl That I Used To Be”
15 Fortyone – “I Am Not What I Am”
16 Mediageek – “Fake Items Related to Politics”
17 The Reborn Identity – “Lauren's Opus”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

June 20, 2009

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:22:22 PDT

June 20, 2009

I tried, but was unable to find a new Q&A for this week, so I'll
just point you to these recent Q&A's with sound collage artists:

Laso Halo
Cagey House
Ellipse Elkshow
Speaker Freaker

Next week: The SAR Q&A with The Reborn Identity!

Thanks for listening,
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 145, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 20 Jun 2009 09:32:46 PDT

Episode 145, Some Assembly Required

01 The Bran Flakes – “Friendly Persuasion”
02 Jim Allenspach – “Friends”
03 Stunt Rock – “To clarify, the only thing I gained from this relationship was 15 lbs.”
04 Girl Talk – “Friends 4 Ever”
05 The Freelance Hellraiser – “We Don't Give A Damn About Our Friends”
06 Deejay JC – “Friends don't let friends watch friends (foxy version)”
07 Fortyone - “Love Everyone”
08 Wobbly – “What Relationship”
09 DJ John – “Friends”
10 Jim Allenspach – “I Feel Good (I Got You)”
11 Kid Koala – “Elevator Hopper”
12 The Bran Flakes – “I Don't Have A Friend”
13 DJ Pantshead – “Perfect relationships”
14 Aggro1 – “Johnny Cash Hurt vs. Ashanti R”
15 Mr. Dibbs - “The Drum Buddy Routine”
16 The Bran Flakes – “I'm So Very Glad That You Are My Friend”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

June 13, 2009

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:53:48 PDT

June 13, 2009

No new Q&A this week, but I feel obligated to say hello anyway... Really though, the only thing I can think to mention is the fact that Jon Leidecker just announced Episode Two of his new Variations documentary. Check it out HERE.

I so enjoyed the first installment, I've actually been digging into a more recent pile of articles and essays amassed on the subject of sound collage. I have a tendency to collect these things and then sit on them, having done more than my fair share of reading on the subject, over the past several years.

The more scholarly aspects of this world were not what initially attracted me to it, but from time to time I rediscover the desire to learn more about the theory, and especially the history of the world of sound collage, and so I've learned to put things aside for when those times come. Leidecker's documentary on sound collage goes in depth, while remaining both thoughtful and entertaining. It has at least temporarily reawakened my curiosity (there's always more to discover), and I'm finding myself hitting the books!

Here's a portion of what The Museu d'Art Contemporani de Barcelona's website says about Variations, Part 2...

If music hesitated to follow the lead of the visual arts in the field of collage, it made up for lost time in the 1960's. Breakthroughs in high fidelity sound, an influx of consumer level tape recorders, and the continued influence of television building the notion of the Global Village were among the factors that led to an explosion in collage based composition...

...Now go and give it a listen.

Oh, and you should download this week's episode (233) of Some Assembly Required as well, of course. It features new and old mashups, new and old cut-ups, a short theme of collages incorporating sounds found in video games, some glitch pop, some hip hop... Frankly, if you've read this far, I probably don't really need to sell you on it, do I? Check it out HERE...

Thanks for listening!
Jon

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 233, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 13 Jun 2009 09:35:26 PDT

Episode 233, Some Assembly Required

01 team9 – “Killer Mirror”
02 The Beige Channel – “The Man”
03 Girl Talk – “Play Your Part (Pt. 1)”
04 Girl Talk – “Play Your Part (Pt. 2)”
05 Madlib – “Indian Deli”
06 Poj Masta – “Play My Game”
07 Idiom Creak – “Video Games”
08 Bob Ostertag – “w00t (segment)”
09 DJ 8-Ball – “The Poetry Of War Of The Flies”
10 Escape Mechanism – “Oh Well”
11 Steve Fisk – “Taxman”
12 Go Home Productions – “Kowalski Breaks (bootleg mix)”
13 B'O'K – “Working Class Rhapsody”
14 I Cut People – “Dead Jellyfish Storage”
15 John Oswald – “Mother”
16 McSleazy – “Electric Velvet”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Laso Halo

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 17:41:11 PDT

Laso Halo

Laso Halo is/was North Carolina's Ted Singdahlsen and Mark Robinson. The duo continue to work as Lemmons the Shiny Clown. Check out Laso Halo's 1994 performance of "Lemmons the Shiny Clown" at The Brewery, in Raleigh, North Carolina HERE.

A self titled vinyl LP was released in 1992, and there were a few tracks included on Wifflefist's "Scattered and Smothered" CD, in 1995, as well. Wifflefist was a North Carolina artists collective which counted Laso Halo among its members, along with Glockenspiel and Silica Gel (to name but a few).

Singdahlsen has done everything from web design and 3D animation, to working with video, computer games and robots. Robinson's been similarly busy, teaching, lecturing and working in a variety of media. Check out their project, Lemmons the Shiny Clown, HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Laso Halo's Mark D. Robinson...

*Name: Laso Halo

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: No

*Do you use a pseudonym? A project birthed from Laso Halo directly is the Lemmons the Shiny Clown project. He is as we are as one.

*Members: Ted E. Singdahlsen and Mark D. Robinson

*Founding Members: The same - Mark and Ted

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: Yes

*Another genre descriptor: *Is there a story behind your name? We like word games. Lasso Halo was a phrase Ted ran past me one day and I thought - "Bing!" Then we went to make a demo record and our cover art had some girls on the front all holding hands. Problem was there were only 4 girls and we wanted a letter per sock...thus, we lost a "s." A letter seemed a reasonable sacrifice.

*Location: Durham, NC

*What is your creative/artistic background: We have degrees in music, visual arts,and cultural theory. Ted has been able to create and draw since I can remember - since childhood. He has always impressed me on almost every level. He taught me that it was OK - good to create things. I came from a science family but have worked in audio since I was 5 or so. I made tape loops and spun records, I am not certain I was creating much but I had a great time. We tried numerous bands, played live a good bit, but realized that we were the most comfortable working as just the two of us spinning records, creating tape loops, using samplers etc. We also play instruments which is fun but more zen than the sampling. The university degrees in all that "fancy" sh** came later... we were trying to improve our chances in the job market - plus the fun audio stuff was always a bit expensive and we like toys. Wifflefist came as an extremely pleasant fortune - people of like minds working to similar ends. They sponsored a live show and LASO HALO was on the bill. We played an unreleased album from reel-to-reel and unfolded the beginnings of the Lemmons the Shiny Clown project... After the release of the Wifflefist "Scattered Smothered and covered" compilation CD they disbanded. Laso Halo went back to the studio but we did not release anything publicly.

*History: 20+ years

*Born: 1965 Penn. and NC

*Motivations: Audio is our means of communicating that which we cannot convey in any other format.

*Philosophy: It seems to be in ever-evolution.

*How would you like to be remembered: Contributing to the electromagnetic debris that sings throughout the universe.

*Web address:
mrobin.com
tedsing.com

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 144, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 07 Jun 2009 15:18:25 PDT

Episode 144, Some Assembly Required

01 Rob Swift – “Rob Get's Busy”
02 Girl Talk – “What If...”
03 DJ Food – “Juice”
04 Aggro1 – “Luxurious Casbah”
05 Steev Hise - “Stuck Together, Falling Apart”
06 Cassetteboy – “Bring back cloaks”
07 DJ Shadow – “Blood on the Motorway”
08 The Tape-beatles – “Byways of ghostland”
09 Big City Orchestra – “Bulldog”
10 RX Music – “Birthday (partypartymix)”
11 Laso Halo – “I'll Fight Max”
12 Negativland – “God Bull”
13 DJ John – “Victim of Da Funk”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Cagey House

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 31 May 2009 16:59:24 PDT

Cagey House

Cagey House is Baltimore's Dave Keifer. Producing primarily instrumental music, since 1999, he also experiments with sound collage, and I've recently received his five-part composition, LBJ Radio Theater. His work has been described as "synth-post-pop-punk-psyche-hypno-exotica."

He's released two albums on the netlabel Nishi, a subsidiary of Canadian MP3 label, No Type, and one on umor-rex, called Elephant Orange. Check out his myspace page for more information, or click HERE for his page at Nishi.

Inspired by visual collage artists (more than sample-based musicians), I found myself really identifying with Keifer's working technique. Read on to learn more. Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Cagey House...

*Name: Cagey House

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Usually I release music as Cagey House--a name which doesn't really mean anything. But the LBJ Radio tracks may well become a project unto themselves.

*Members: Dave Keifer

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I think of the LBJ Radio tracks as pure collage—with the emphasis on collage as a technique rather than as a medium. Hanna Höch's idea of collecting and assembling elements more or less at random until a pattern emerges, and then collecting and assembling expressly to enhance that pattern has been the biggest influence on the way the tracks came together. The downside--in a musical context, anyway--is that you lose a lot in the way of narrative drive. The upside is that things can get unexpectedly moving. Or funny. Or at least interesting.

*Location: I live just outside Baltimore.

*Original Location:

*What is your creative/artistic background: I was born in 1960 and raised pretty much in the sticks. Which was great, for a lot of reasons. One of those reasons was that there wasn’t a lot of media, and so all of it had impact. The evening news was heavy stuff. And Saturday morning cartoons were positively Dionysian. Eventually I became a teenager and started playing music. Mostly electric folky stuff with lots of distortion. That went on far longer than it should have for an otherwise healthy adult. Then for a while I didn’t do anything. Around the turn of the century, I found out you could make music with a PC, and that was that. Along the way I also became entranced with lots of different kinds of music--particularly music from Indonesia and Burma, and Western Avante Garde stuff.

*Born: 1960

*Motivations: At this point, it’s mainly the joy of communing with music. The joy of creative activity. I understand people who do model trains or work crossword puzzles. It’s nice to have something you’re monkish about.

*Philosophy: Aristotle said something like, “Art loves Chance and Chance loves Art.” I’m willing to let it go at that.

*How would you like to be remembered: I don’t think there’s much danger of that. I release stuff through netlabels, and that scene is hyper-transient. Very much here today and gone tomorrow—with as many things disappearing as appearing. And I like that. It’s like rolling out a carpet at one end while rolling it up at the other. There’s something hermetic about it, and there’s comfort in that.

*Web address: I'm sort of web-homeless right now. A web vagrant. I do have a myspace page though, and that has links to various Cagey House projects:
http://www.myspace.com/cageyhouse

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 232, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 30 May 2009 18:40:52 PDT

Episode 232, Some Assembly Required

01 DJ Lobsterdust – “Jenny's Superstitious”
02 Cassetteboy – “Have You Ever Seen Fish And Chips Like These?”
03 The Reborn Identity – “The Elephant Connection”
04 The Bran Flakes – “You Can Do Most Anything”
05 Antediluvian Rocking Horse – “The Premier Needs Protection”
06 Coldcut – “I'm Wild About That Thing (The Lost Sex Tapes)”
07 Cagey House – “LBJ Radio Theater (Part 2)”
08 Hi-Posi – “The Woman Who Talks Too Much”
09 The Evolution Control Committee – “Don't Miss The Great Snatch”
10 Anon – “111 Second 60 Second Remix Remix”
11 The Evolution Control Committee – “Costello Kids In The Hood”
12 Aggro1 - “Nirvana vs. Blue Stahli”
13 DJ Linux – “Time Balm (The Sin of Memory)”
14 Steev Hise – “Tentacle Of Cannibal”
15 Fortyone – “George Washington Meets Mrs. Rabbit”
16 People Like Us – “Crazy”
17 The Illuminoids – “Phantom Ain't Easy”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

May 24, 2009

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Mon, 25 May 2009 22:19:32 PDT

May 24, 2009

Wobbly is the featured artist in this week's episode, and since we've already run the SAR Q&A with him (way back in 2006 - check it out HERE), we'll go without a new addition this week. Be sure to check out our 2002 interview with Wobbly's Jon Leidecker though, in episode 39, HERE.

Fans of this show will definitely be interested in Leidecker's new online project, "Variations." The Museum of Modern Art in Barcelona has commissioned him to produce a radio documentary on the history of appropriation in sound collage and music. Here's a synopsis from the MACBA website:

"Variations" is a formal term used to describe music compositions that are based on a pre-existing piece of music. Starting with the precedents set by Charles Ives and John Cage, VARIATIONS presents the principal milestones of Sampling Music, looking at examples from 20th century composition, popular art and the mass media, and the way all of these currents converge today.

It's a six part series, of which the first installment is currently available. I am eagerly awaiting Part Two, which is set to be uploaded sometime in June, I believe. For now, you should definitely go check out "Variations #1" HERE.

Be sure to check out the Some Assembly Required interview with Wobbly, as well! Episode 39 is available HERE.

Thanks for listening,
Jon Nelson

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 39, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 24 May 2009 09:44:57 PDT

Episode 39, Some Assembly Required
(Featuring an interview with Wobbly)

01 Chopping Channel - (untitled, recorded live 5/99)
02 Wobbly - “Only Musical”
03 Natasha Spencer - “The house she flew in on (excerpt)”
04 PLU/JBHP/Wobbly - “Heads off”
05 Chopping Channel - (untitled, recorded live 5/99)
06 PLU/JPHP/Wobbly - “Yodel Bomber”
07 Wobbly – “Yo Yo Yo Yoyo Yo, Hey...”
08 John Oswald - “Funky X (excerpt)”
09 Wobbly – “Make You We We Go Man Go Yo Midyididiyid”
10 Wobbly – “Girl. I Getchoo. Oh Oh Oh.”
11 Wobbly - “Clawing your eyes out down to your throat”
12 Wobbly - “Worry don’t thing”
13 Wobbly - “Losing blook”
14 Wobbly - “Hard, like duck”
15 Wobbly - “Vingt regards (no. 15)”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Ellipse Elkshow

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 16 May 2009 14:46:38 PDT

Ellipse Elkshow

Ellipse Elkshow is California's Todd Huber. He's one half of the online artists collective/record label, Buildings Building Themself (vs) Media Machine, and the author of the longest response to the SAR Q&A, to date!

It's more than just your basic ramble, within which he defines art, quotes Tolstoy and speaks openly and honestly about... well, a lot of things, really, including competition among artists, which is why I thought to mention that he has beat the record for longest response, by nearly 100%. Congrats EE!

He has four records as Ellipse Elkshow and one as Gitar (with I Cut People). Gitar has been performing live since 2007 and their album, "Stuffed" will soon be released on Seeland Records. He also records as The North American Boatshow, which he describes as the "schizo-phrenic sister project of Ellipse Elkshow," which has been around since about 2004.

Their web pages are as hair raising and frantic as so many of their albums, so prepare yourself. I found it was necessary to occasionally look away from the screen (or run the risk of some kind of media-hypnosis). Oh, and between the two of them, Ellipse Elkshow and I Cut People have NINE Myspace pages... Check them out HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Ellipse Elkshow...

*Name: Ellipse Elkshow

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Consistently, I describe "this project" as LIFE. There are loads of other words used to describe it... More recently, we [Buildings Building ThemselfVS media machine - "artist collective"] have come closer to understanding what we are creating as a "NEWS" source. The actions seem equal to analyzing, interpreting, satirizing and reporting information, ideas, memes, events, occurrences and social and political propaganda.

*Do you use a pseudonym? When I’m alone... Ellipse Elkshow, The North American Boat Show, the forcemeat horse-show, Free Trade & The Oxymorons, Death Vomit, General Electricks, etc. When I’m not alone... Gitar, Marrow Smiths, Shampoodle, NATO, Tore Nato, Jimmy Dean & The SaUSAge collage, Mall Goths, Cops, Fools, Stupid, Roosters, UnderCover Hippies, the French-Djibouti Naval BASS, Koleslaw and The Elk, Blunder Spunt, Small Reverberating Thistles, Swam, Swum, and there was one show as Don Mattingly's 23 Versus DJ David Crosby and the Afex Twins.

*Members: One, and all... Ellipse Elkshow was given the name Todd Huber at birth... but I’ll bet there are lots of Todds and lots of Hubers, and even some other Todd Hubers out there, so that doesn't do you much good.

*Founding Members: My parents [sperm vs. egg] are the founding members of Ellipse Elkshow, or - at the very least - they set-up the situation. I Cut People and I are the founding members of the Buildings Building ThemselfVS media machine collective, and we also work together in the band, GITAR.

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I’m sure you get a lot of "NONE of the Above" on this question. And just as many "All of the Above." So, uhm, my first thought was "cultural deconstructions," but probably not. No. Something like that, but I can't really understand why I would say it that way, unless I was just trying to fit as many words - out of the six words that the question provides - into the way I might "CLASSIFY mySELF/BAND's CREATIONS." It seems difficult for me to really focus on the tools or physical methods being used [digital, turntable, tape]. The focus, for me at least, is on the ideas that are exchanged through [any] media, the voices or the filters that ideas fall through and the culture or audience that these ideas apply to. So, I suppose the focus, for me, is on the message in the media... not "the medium is the message."

*Another genre descriptor: I think you're asking about another way I might describe what I’m doing... and, if the words people create for the media were about utter honesty, I would say "sure," and indulge the reader in the many wonders of proposing personal purposes for the perceptions of other people. And, yes, I would agree that most artists describe what they are doing, naturally, TO THEMSELVES, in all sorts of ways. But even if I do indulge, and describe the different descriptors as you ask, it will almost inevitably come off as negatively self-indulgent... unless I can use the culturally accepted formula for experimental artists to describe what they do... in a very brief way or within some disorganized dada abstraction. I think this name-game we all have a tendency to play [or purposefully avoid,] is just a raw and honest reaction to the GENUWINE [ride it, my pony] human condition... artists - and, really, all humans - are searching for meaning, trying to define why they do what they do, attempting to designate faith or packets of meaning [POINTS] to their feelings and actions. In flat boring terms, describing and classifying and naming the things we create is part of the game of manufacturing confidence... which I’m not saying is necessarily a BAD thing [though, arrogance can be]. Confidence may be an essential part of continuing and repeating any action, especially to the point of declaring that any specific human creation is ever "finished" or COMPLETE. What I'm trying to explain, put another way, is that Differentiating our WORK or declaring its sameness... classifying it... in itself, is irrelevant. But why we do it is a different beast, classifying is another way we humans place ourselves into the story of HISTORY. It gives us the feeling that our work and our lives could have everlasting life, and for some reason, I think we give the idea of [FOR]EVERlasting a whole lot of meaning in our society... regardless of the fact that the sun will eventually burn out. So, the paradox is that honesty isn't necessarily the point here. Not from your standpoint, the interviewer, but from the standpoint of cultural trends in the answering of questions. What people seem to want to see, in interviews, is not a well-thought out chunk of honest answers... Like a list of ways that an artist describes their work. Nope. People are used to wanting short, glib, unattached answers that show a little cleverness and a lot of disinterest. This isn't to say that short answers [or simplicity] are WRONG, but – from my experience - when someone elaborates, it instantly takes the appearance of "rambling" or "ranting" because visible self-consciousness is currently [culturally] unattractive. But this seems to be at odds with the (invisible?) feelings of self-importance that are a necessary part of all human decision making… So, anyway, the best move is probably for me to hide the fact that I have a constantly evolving set of words and ideas to describe the projects that I work to complete… and just let you choose the answer you like best from the choices below: A) Bob Ostertag: "I try not to classify myself" [S.A.R. July 2008]. B) The Bran Flakes: "Pop Music" [S.A.R. Feb 2006]. C) Steinski: "Digital deconstruction and nitroglycerine" [S.A.R. Aug 2007]. D) Girl Talk: "My music is pretty much pop music" [S.A.R. May 2006]. E) Wayne Butane: "I'm not that clever. It's just sound collage" [S.A.R. Sept 2008].

*Is there a story behind your name? Ellipse is from the Greek word (elleipsis) that means "falling short." It's also the locus of all points, the path of lines traced outward, in math. It is an idea that is used to describe things that are perfect and things that are imperfect. It can be defined as the perfect appearance of a circle seen straight on, yet it is commonly represented by a shape resembling a semi-flattened circle. All these things are common and boring from one perspective and all encompassing and profound from another. The Show is what you're watching, what you're listening to, What you're reading. This time, I choose ELK. Which is another name for another animal with other archetypical characteristics.

*Location: It can sometimes seem difficult to answer any question. Imagine, this time, that you were answering the simple question of where you/your band is "from," but you couldn't stop yourself from considering: A] Different possibilities for Jon Nelson's original intentions with the question [such as: where do I currently live, or within which borders did the given artistic project begin, city, state, nation or otherwise]. B] How long is the attention span of you, the unknown reader. C] What is the level of interest and meaning reader's might find in these words, or lack of them. D] A constant nagging feeling that nothing seems simple enough to just simply answer. E] All of the above. Now, with those in mind, the question is... "Where are you from?" Some choices, A] USA - the name given to a certain patch of the earth, grounded in 233 Gregorian years of genocide, slavery, nepotism, colonization, war, xenophobia, and bickering without much change. B] Louisville, KENTUCKY - the city and state names given to the place where I was born, though never lived at for more than a few months. C] California - the name of a large patch of land, as defined by mysteriously unviewable borders, where I currently sit. To make matters worse, the modern land known as California [USA] was cut and pasted from the nation called Mexico in the late 1840s. Before that it was claimed by Spain in the 1590s. Before that it was named [Nueva] California by a European on a boat in the 1530s, but was already populated by people that had different names for it. D] Something brief and ambitiously witty. For example...

*Original Location: Vibrating air molecules.

*What is your creative/artistic background: I’d say that to live as a human, you're going to create something. So my creative background would be the whole bloody thing. But "This blog is about recycled media primarily in the form of sound, mister elkshow," someone is thinking to themselves… if they've read this far. Yes, I saw that, and I suppose that means my artistic background is either: A] Something GLIB/SHORT, SPECIFIC or CLEVER - or some combination of the three (for example: "Jonathan More: Teacher 3D design art graduate. Matt Black: Computer programmer, science graduate" [Coldcut; S.A.R. March 2008]). B] A (brief) personal story about the first time I can remember doing something that might be considered as having a relationship to recycled media. Oh, there are more... but the point is... there is a formula for answering these questions... but, there is no formula for answering the questions honestly, seriously and with any thought that this interview could provide the readers with information other than that which promotes the products/art-objects I have made. To even know where to begin, without choosing A or B from above, you must have an idea of what ART IS. But, Art can be defined as almost anything, usually given that it has something to do with human action or invention. There are those that claim a definition of Art - or a focus in Art - that means to exclude other definitions of art [such as: "Fine Art," "High Fashion," or "That's what I call MUSIC"]. But these titles or definitions do little more than acknowledge that different conceptualizations of the exact same thing exist and are just as popular [such as: "Folk Art," "(just) Clothes," and "this is SOUND art, not music”/”this is NOISE, not music”/“Hey kids, cut out that NOISE"]. Not that you're suppose to care, but a guy called TOLSTOY wrote (though not in English): "And it is on this capacity of [hu]man[s] to receive another [hu]man's expression of feeling and to experience those feelings [her]self, that the activity of art is based." If I believe what Tolstoy said, at all, then a person's artistic background can only be pinpointed by looking at a whole boatload of things: such as A] The Level of Empathy in the artist, or how much the artist lets the rest of existence influence his or her ART. B] How far back into history does the person look, and how close do they look... because, if art is based on the reception of other "human's expressions of feeling," as Tolstoy wrote, then it would follow that the more human expression you have observed, the more points you might choose from when deciding at which point does your artistic background begin. For those of you who might be bored with the words above, but are still reading on, just waiting for the point where I can answer a question "normally," simply, or "un-pretentiously," then, for you I have, here, honest answers that attempt to answer the question of ARTISTIC BACKGROUND, using the concept of what I think might be normally expected, here: A] The "sincere personal" approach: My artistic background probably started when my mother had the idea of giving my brother and I a pad of paper and a writing utensil everywhere we went, so we wouldn't fight with each other. B] The "dad was a jazz musician/I was forced to practice piano everyday" approach: I had three close relatives that played drums, but I was never around when they did. So there's that whole "nature vs. nurture" debate. C] The "try to stay focused" approach: Does anybody remember Christian Death [Rozz Williams-era]? I was in a Goth band in high school where we covered a bunch of s*** like Bauhaus and maybe 6 Christian Death songs. To tie this in to recontextualization, we, uhm, we artistically created a song that had a melody which was ripped off from an Alien Sex Fiend song. Later we found out that this particular Alien Sex Fiend song was a rip off or parody of a Johnny Cash song, which was a rip off of an old Gospel song. D] And then there's your "everyday western-culture slanted" approach: This is where I go on to tell you about the first time I did something with some sort of technology that allowed me to physically evoke the modern wonder of recontextualizing pre-recorded media sound bits... and even less socially productive, is where - when I'm finished with my story about when and where I first used previously copyrighted material to produce my own piece of artwork - I'll slap a date on this moment, and this date will be a call out for competition to other artists "in the field...” who did what, first, and how old were they when they thought of it...

*History: Creating. Work. Working. Usually, this means creating human toil, or in this case, art-related human toil. But, in its most physical sense, Work is generally defined as the transfer of energy. That's all I'm going to type for this one.

*Born: January, 1981

*Motivations: Physically, energy motivates. Mentally, thought motivates. Philosophically, meaning motivates. Emotionally, might be neuro transmitters, might be environmental training, but generally characterized by Gut reactions... So... I’ll try going with what GUT says: My motivation can possibly be described as... from my experience, when we're young, adults tell us that the world is motivated by love, honesty, empathy, sharing and fun. Generally speaking. And, when [and if] you become an "adult," you realize that love is impossible to globally define; fun is selfish and requires distracting oneself from all the suffering; empathy is too consuming for most people to bear - though the total lack of empathy is defined as AUTISM; and you might realize that honesty and sharing don't actually work for you, when it comes to the bottom-line purpose of our existence, at this historical moment… Work. Labor. Energy pushing. To make money. To spend money. To work, money. So, I’m motivated by the knowledge that most people tell lies or have deluded themselves into believing so many misused-truths that they are comfortable with a brutally meaningless life that ignores the suffering of others and focuses mainly on selfish material gain.

*Philosophy: Currently, the philosophy behind and in front of my work is: Words… or, the idea that language has a working meaning… Words work for us, on us and with us. Other ways to break this down might look like this: *Propaganda works... Teaches... Especially when it is interesting, beautiful or hideously ugly. The Sabot... Shoe for stomping slave-masters crops. Existential ecology... Moveable webs. Social evolution... Things f***ing change. *A reinvention of religion... Burning pictures of killing people for ghosts. *A re-telling of history... Hierarchy for kids. *The commodity to kill commodities... Capitalism toilet-bowl-cleaner *A reprocessing of broken ideas... First rule: some assembly required. *Finding cures to sick culture... Some goals: Culturally defining terrorism, competition, faith, law, class and war.

*How would you like to be remembered:
I believe in living.
I believe in the spectrum
of Beta days and Gamma people.
I believe in sunshine.
In windmills and waterfalls,
tricycles and rocking chairs;
And I believe that seeds grow into sprouts.
And sprouts grow into trees.
I believe in the magic of the hands.
And in the wisdom of the eyes.
I believe in rain and tears.
And in the blood of infinity.

I believe in life.
And I have seen the death parade
march through the torso of the earth,
sculpting mud bodies in its path.
I have seen the destruction of the daylight
and seen bloodthirsty maggots
prayed to and saluted.

I have seen the kind become the blind
and the blind become the bind
in one easy lesson.
I have walked on cut grass.
I have eaten crow and blunder bread
and breathed the stench of indifference.

I have been locked by the lawless.
Handcuffed by the haters.
Gagged by the greedy.
And, if I know anything at all,
it's that a wall is just a wall
and nothing more at all.
It can be broken down.

I believe in living.
I believe in birth.
I believe in the sweat of love
and in the fire of truth.

And I believe that a lost ship,
steered by tired, seasick sailors,
can still be guided home to port.

(By Assata Shakur)

*Web address:
http://ellipseelkshow.com
http://buildingsbuildingthemselves.com
http://www.myspace.com/ellipseelkshow
http://www.myspace.com/natobuilds

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 231, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 16 May 2009 10:15:55 PDT

Episode 231, Some Assembly Required

01 team9 – “Good After Time”
02 People Like Us - “Everyday”
03 The Bran Flakes - “Rodeo Butterfly”
04 B’O’K – “196ish”
05 The Tape-beatles – “Reality of matter”
06 David Weir – “Mouth Music”
07 fuTuRo – “Re-making AmeRica”
08 Wax Audio – “Come Together 2008”
09 Richard Maxfield - “Amazing Grace”
10 Double Dee & Steinski – “Lesson 2: The James Brown Mix”
11 Ruckus Roboticus – “Lesson 7: What's Funk?”
12 Wobbly – “General Peady”
13 Ellipse Elkshow – “More, Hang On”
14 The National Cynical Network – “Why Don't You Oblada”
15 Apollo Zero – “Gentle Stranger”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Speaker Freaker

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 09 May 2009 20:21:56 PDT

Speaker Freaker

From Minneapolis, Speaker Freaker is Political Humorist and Producer, Dave Anton. He's been producing his "Angry Minute" segment (heard on WCCO's Sports Tonight! with Dark Star) since 2000, along with quite a few of the more bitingly political sound collages which I've managed to get my hands on over the past few years. Some of the more compelling GWBush collages have come our way courtesy of Speaker Freaker. It should be very interesting to see how his work evolves now that his favorite foil is no longer in the public eye!

He's recently put together a collection called "A Year Of Angry Minutes." Check it out HERE. Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Speaker Freaker...

*Name: Speaker Freaker

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Speak(er) Freaker was the original name. I currently do work as Doomsday Spastic. Speak(er) Freaker was the moniker of the time of Bush’s 1st Term. I’m GLAD you asked! Speak Freaker morphed into Speaker Freaker (Bush’s 2nd Term) and subsequently/currently Doomsday Spastic each representing different ideals and social frustrations. Doomsday Spastic refers to the Time on the Doomsday Clock… currently at 12 minutes to…

*Do you use a pseudonym? Some call me DISCO. But that’s just a Hair Thing.

*Members: Just myself, although I like to bring outside elements in, in the form of samples. For instance George W. Bush could be considered a band mate (though I have moved on…)

*Founding Members: Dave Anton

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: More like Media Manipulations, though by trade I DJ, and like to inject turntablism efforts here and there…

*Another genre descriptor: PlagiarPhonics? Kidding. no.

*Is there a story behind your name? Speak(er) Freaker came about as my mash-up style of combining sounds, rhythms, samples, with reckless regard and anticipated results.

*Location: Minneapolis, MN

*Original Location: Orig. Chicago, IL

*What is your creative/artistic background: As a lifelong Sound Man, DJ & Radio Announcer (now Production Jerk) the constant barrage of sound bytes, media snippets and blow-hard experts simply “got to me” … I had to do something to exorcise the 10,568 commercial messages bombarding my life every day.

*History: (7) years of producing listenable sounds.

*Born: Dave Anton: Jan. 12, 1964. Chicago, IL

*Motivations: Mostly out of frustration; sometimes I cannot believe there isn’t, hasn’t or won’t be a revolution??! Rampant gluttony. Environmental Ignorance. Who ISN”T looking around at what’s going on?? I really wanna know.

*Philosophy: By my Life’s End, I hope to regurgitate back into the face, the very entities that invaded my Life with useless, harmful, and derelict messages that, in the end, was only in the Name of Greed.

*How would you like to be remembered: He Stole Every thing. And Used it Beautifully.

*Web address:
http://daveanton.com
http://angryminute.com

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 143, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sat, 09 May 2009 21:59:27 PDT

Episode 143, Some Assembly Required

01 Disfunction - “Bad It On”
02 John Oswald – “Don't”
03 DJ Shadow/Cut Chemist – “Number Song (Cut Chemist Party mix)”
04 DJ Tripp – “Bushwhacked Remix”
05 Ros Bobos – “The Enchanters”
06 Negativland – “Time Zones”
07 Cut Chemist – “Lesson 4: The Radio”
08 Mag Wheels – “Impossibe to accept”
09 Speaker Freaker – “We the people”
10 Stunt Rock – “Pointing out your elitist superiority complex through your track titles”
11 Big City Orchestra – “Untitled (Consumer)”
12 The X-ecutioners – “A Journey Into Sound”
13 Cutt and Shutt – “An Honest Earth”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Episode 50, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 03 May 2009 12:15:58 PDT

Episode 50, Some Assembly Required

01 Part 2 - “Wireless 2012”
02 Christian Marclay - “One thousand cycles”
03 Steev Hise - “Frustr8ed”
04 People Like Us - “T424PLU (part 2)”
05 The Tape-beatles - “XT92-007”
06 Roux Partout - “#5 (Life without)”
07 Buttfinger - “Machine 5”
08 Buttfinger - “Ten dollars”
09 Turntable trainwreck - “Cubicle 38 Droplift blues”
10 Negativland - “A big 10-8 place (part one)”
11 Cut Chemist - “Lesson 6 - the lecture”
12 John Oswald - “Ten4”
13 Antediluvian Rocking Horse - “20,000 (pH7)”
14 John Oswald - “7th”
15 The Avalanches - “Two hearts in 3/4 time”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Ursula 1000

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:34:07 PDT

Ursula 1000

Ursula 1000 is Brooklyn's Alex Gimeno. The Producer/DJ has been labeled Loungecore, Breakbeat and Digital Dancehall (to name just a few). He's done remixes for artists such as Quincy Jones and Felix Da Housecat and collaborated with the likes of Dr. Luke, Shag, Cristina and Los Amigos Invisibles.

He's produced "television remodels" for theme music to television shows such as Sesame Street and The Powerpuff Girls and had his music featured in programs such as Sex And The City, Grey’s Anatomy and Ugly Betty (not to mention commercial work for companies such as AT&T and Adidas).

I found him on the compilation, "Bombay The Hard Way 2: Electric Vindaloo," which was the follow up to "Bombay The Hard Way," also featuring an Ursula 1000 track. Motel Records released both albums, wherein all the artists were sampling from Bollywood films. Check out "Electric Vindaloo" HERE. Ursula 1000 is also on Myspace. Check that out HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Ursula 1000...

*Name: Ursula 1000

*Do you use a pseudonym? No

*Members: Alex Gimeno

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: "Digital Deconstructions" perhaps? Though the music is performed and later tweaked to sound like digital deconstructions or found sounds.

*Another genre descriptor:

*Location: Brooklyn, New York

*Original Location: Originally from New York, then moved and grew up in Miami Beach and moved back to New York 10 years ago where I currently reside.

*What is your creative/artistic background: Studied Commercial Art, played in bands, DJ-ed, collect tons of records, love comics and Pop Art in general.

*History: Since 1999.

*Born: In New York, though the band started its inception in Miami Beach.

*Motivations: Turn my turn-ons inside out and make something new to turn people inside out.

*Philosophy: See above.

*How would you like to be remembered: Eek how morbid—I guess to leave a fascinating body of work.

*Web address:
www.ursula1000.com
www.myspace.com/ursula1000

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 230, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 11:35:43 PDT

Episode 230, Some Assembly Required

01 Diplo - “Sarah”
02 Cassetteboy - “The Boardgame That Crashed”
03 Divide & Kreate - “Dance Dreams”
04 Escape Mechanism - “Details”
05 Brian Joseph Davis - “Mahler”
06 Ursula 1000 - “Ram Balram”
07 DJ Earworm - “No More Gas”
08 Coldcut - “Say Kids (What Time Is It?)”
09 DJ Teddyedward - “Smooth K Minogue”
10 Sound Defects - “Tater Hater”
11 Rob Swift - “Rob Get's Busy”
12 The Bran Flakes - “Turn The Channel, It's Another Commercial”
13 DJ Tripp - “Paper Rump”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Philip Strong

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Mon, 20 Apr 2009 13:38:10 PDT

Philip Strong

Philip Strong is an award winning Canadian composer, sound designer and engineer. He's created numerous soundtracks for film and for dance productions, and worked with recording artists such as Mary Jane Lamond, Laurel MacDonald and John Oswald, to name a few. He's been the principal sound composer for Christopher House and Toronto Dance Theatre, since 1999, and teaches Film Sound and Music at the Audio Recording Academy, in Toronto, as well.

I originally found his work on the Musicworks 60 compilation, which was put out in 1994, and was intrigued to subsequently discover his role in the creation of John Oswald's CD, Plexure (1993). He acted as "electroquote engineer," sorting through the hundreds of examples of pop music which eventually came together to form Oswald's pop music retrospective, sampling nothing but pop songs released on Compact Disc (1982-1992). Strong is also responsible for the image map in Grayfolded's liner notes, detailing the location of each of the countless Grateful Dead samples within that Plunderphonic composition.

Check out his website for more information, including the low down on his installation "A Time To Hear For Here," (also with John Oswald, at the Royal Ontario Museum). Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Philip Strong...

*Name: Philip Strong

*Are there any additional names used to describe this project: Somnambulab, Plunderphonics

*Do you use a pseudonym? No

*Members: Phil Strong, Laurel MacDonald (Somnambulab)

*Founding Members: Phil Strong, Laurel MacDonald

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: DIGITAL [de]CONSTRUCTIONS

*Another genre descriptor: Temporal Resynthesis

*Why you use this descriptor: Music is time-based and time-stamped (as it were). Manipulating recorded music is messing with temporal and emotional references.

*Location: Toronto, Canada

*What is your creative/artistic background: Mentor: John Oswald - Also involved with sound for picture and installation, live performance.

*History: 15 years

*Born: Toronto, Canada

*Motivations: I suck at everything else.

*Philosophy: Just investigating the universe.

*How would you like to be remembered: I would like to be remembered as someone who helped create pinnacle experiences for others.

*Web address: Phil-Strong.com

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 142, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Sun, 19 Apr 2009 16:56:03 PDT

Episode 142, Some Assembly Required

01 Sucking Chest Wound – “KKK (Whatcha Got To Say?)”
02 Think Tank – “Jingo Lingo”
03 Philip Strong – “plunderPHILe”
04 Loo & Placido – “Should I Stay Or Should I Boogie”
05 People Like Us - “Music of your Own”
06 Scott Walmsley – “Bill O'Reilly is a Major F*** Head”
07 The X-ecutioners – “X-Ecution Of A Bumrush”
08 DJ Shadow - “Stem (Cops 'N' Robbers mix)”
09 Holger Hiller – “Fresh young girls in commercial”
10 The Evolution Control Committee - “Rocked By Rape”
11 JAMs – “The Queen And I”
12 Prosac – “Cherry Blossom Skater”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD

Ruckus Roboticus

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 19:13:54 PDT

Ruckus Roboticus

Ruckus Roboticus is Dayton, Ohio's Dan Haug. He's been experimenting with turntablism and recording since Middle School and recently released his first proper album (2007's Playing With Scratches), after a series of Mix CDs and Scratch Records, at least one of which has gotten a bit of play, here.

He's done remixes for artists such as Bloc Party, The Lady Tigra and Vampire Weekend, and was just made an official member of Ninja Tune's Solid Steel radio show, right alongside the likes of Coldcut, DJ Food and Hexstatic.

If that wasn't enough, he's recently produced and released his own contribution to a series which was only just getting started right around the time he was born - by none other than the legendary Double Dee and Steinski. Check out Lesson 7: What's Funk?, by Ruckus Roboticus, HERE.

Without further ado, here's the SAR Q&A with Ruckus Roboticus...

*Name: Ruckus Roboticus

*Members: Dan Haug

*Tape manipulations, digital deconstructions or turntable creations: I'm a little bit of everything at this point. Mostly digital creations (recording and manipulating samples on a computer), with turntable manipulations (scratching mostly, also recorded into a computer).

*Is there a story behind your name? I go by the name of Ruckus Roboticus. I don't recall how I came up with the name, it just came to me one day while day-dreaming in school. To me, it's one part mischief and one part modern technology. My most recent project is an album called "Playing With Scratches" (a twist on the phrase "Playing With Matches").

*Location: I'm from Dayton, OH. Often an over-looked city, even by people who live in Ohio. Random Dayton Ohio claims to fame -- home to many famous inventors over the years (most notably, The Wright Brothers), many noteworthy funk bands (The Ohio Players, Slave, Zapp) and indie rock bands (The Breeders, Guided By Voices, and others...).

*What is your creative/artistic background: I first became interested in audio editing while in Middle School, when I took a course in Radio Broadcasting. Around the same time, I was experimenting with audio editing on my parents PC (using Microsoft Wave Editor), and was simultaneously discovering hip-hop and electronic music. I decided to buy a musical instrument to begin producing my own music, and I picked the turntables. I picked turntables because I was drawn to the sounds of scratching, and no one else I knew had them. Once I had turntables I was sucked into the world of DJ'ing, Turntablism, Sampling and Record Collecting. Over the years, I released a few mix CDs, audio collages and Scratch Records. Eventually I attended college and majored in Audio Production. I began learning the basics of recording, mixing and even some Music Theory. All of this knowledge and influences shaped the sounds of Playing With Scratches.

*History: I began making rudimentary recordings in 1998. However, my first proper release of original material was in 2007 (Playing With Scratches).

*Born: I was born in '81 in Dayton Ohio.

*Motivations: I naturally have a creative impulse. I wake up in the morning, and I want to make things. And music is one of the things that excites me the most. I am also motivated by mediocrity... if I hear music that is mediocre, it makes me want to show listeners that there is a "better" way to do it, that "better" can be achieved. Or if I hear music that has a great concept but lacks substance, I want to try my own version of it, in hopes that I can improve it. I also am motivated to tell stories through music. Either through my own songs, or through DJ mixes.

*Philosophy: I believe in quality, good music. The world is over-saturated with music, and more is released everyday. A lot of it is forgettable, and unremarkable to me. This bothers me. If I am going to contribute to this pollution, and occupy space, and consume someone's precious time, I want my creations to be worth it. So I work really hard at creating something that I think is memorable, and interesting, and that will hopefully stand the test of time. I am a perfectionist. If I am going to put music into the world, I want it to be as close to my ideal of good music as possible. I obsess over every detail. I experiment with many possibilities when creating a song... I am driven to make my song, the best it can be. I am also a bit of a "maximalist", trying to cram as many samples as possible into my recordings. I am driven by concepts and story-telling. I must have a message to share with the listener, in order to create something for them.

*How would you like to be remembered: I don't know if I want to be remembered necessarily... I'd like my music to be enjoyed and appreciated.

*Web address: www.ruckusroboticus.com

www.some-assembly-required.net

Episode 229, Some Assembly Required

assembly@detritus.net (Jon Nelson) — Fri, 10 Apr 2009 18:48:08 PDT

Episode 229, Some Assembly Required

01 Negativland - “Why Is This Commercial?”
02 DJ Frenchbloke - “Destiny Kennedies”
03 Wobbly - “Yo Yo Yo Yoyo Yo, Hey...”
04 Chopping Channel - “Sales Technique”
05 Apollo & Fluid Motion - “Interstellar hydroponics”
06 Mr. Fab - “SKAmwhere My Love”
07 Alex H - “Moon Frog”
08 DJ Godfather - “On Da Flex”
09 Gitar - “No Gitar”
10 DJ Geometrix - “What You Know About A White Wedding”
11 Ruckus Roboticus - “Untitled (The Record Playa' - Tracks 39-42)”
12 Zoviet France - “Fugitive”
13 Copycat - “Singing that A-ha melody”

Use this address, for your pod software:
http://feeds.feedburner.com/some-assembly-required/JSpD