Tuesday, August 30, 2011

Versificator- Notes from the Fridge (2002)

Notes from the Fridge was an album assembled around choice phrases written in magnetic poetry on the fridge at the house where my group of friends all hung out. Though we did customize some words, it was mostly names, hence the "name" tributes here. Some names were chopped off for aesthetic purposes only. It was a period of lots of Warp, IDM, and electronic listening music, though there's some aberration from this (particularly the first track and the last two). Many of these tracks were repeated on m0dnAr's first album, hence the duplication here.

All in all, this still may be the best thing I've ever put out.



A weird way to open the album, for sure. Unlike anything else on the mix. I hada friend who worked at Pizza Hut with me who was really into what he termed "hardcore" rave and techno. It turns out this was a term still being thrown around in Belgium and Holland,but what it was was actually closer to gabber than either of those things. I wanted to pay tribute to this scene, but the track I came up with became rather cerebral and percussive, instead of the amphetamine candy rush of most of the music I'd heard in this genre. It turns out, this does bear some resemblance to tracks by Marc Trauner, specifically his "Symphonies of Steel" by Mescalinium United. With dark techstep-style paranoid samples of 1984, I was tapping into an existing sentiment I didn't even know existed (. The rest of the album was hugely influenced by Warp, IDM, and other listening music genres


























The original magnetic poetry was "timh feels vaseline-y", so it got changed a bit. These were all mouth sounds until the very end. take that, matias aguayo



for some reason, this phrase on the fridge always reminded be of Seurat and Un dimanche après-midi à l'Île de la Grande Jatte. The idea was an idyllic, chilled place...with lots of monkeys.












Monday, August 22, 2011

Versificator- Versificator LP (2001)

2001 Purple Monkey Dishwasher publishing. Suicidal Fetus recordings #22

All songs written and performed by versificator.

Ode/Coda contains elements of “Finale” written by Bernstein/Sodheim
Isopod contains elements of “Sex Machine” as performed by The Flying Lizards
Sickle contains elements of “Raining Blood” as performed by Slayer
Theme from Bubblegum Gestapo contains elements of “La La Love you” as performed by the Pixies
Aphid Twix contains elements of “Ice Cream Truck” from the “Sounds for Little Ones” compilation
I Can’t Stop Raving contains elements of “I Can’t Stop Raving” as performed by DJ Liquid

Other sources of Interest: “Network”, Allen Ginsberg, Richard Pryor, etc.
Mixed by t. gabriele at the pleasuredrome, Poughkeepsie NY
Produced by the criminal kid

In memory of Napster.

Ode(5:11) Ripples (7:28) Inchworm (1:39) Creation of Fire (5:29) Isopod (2:58) One World (5:59) Sickle (7:21) Phoam nd Warsh (2:32) Phoam nd Wosh (2:51) Theme from Bubblegum Gestapo (1:05) Essays in Perpendicular Normailty (3:24) Aphid Twix (2:55) Rings (2:58) I can’t stop Raving (15:59) Coda (3:52)




This was just coincidental fusion, wherein the finale from West Side Story fused well with pieces from Ginsberg's "Howl", assuring the "best minds of our generation" that "there's a place for us" (which is actually from WSS's "Somewhere", also my parents' wedding song).








I forget the criteria that led to this being called "Isopod" (insectoid theme here,what with "Aphid Twix" and all), but it had something to do with how disgusting Rush Limbaugh, heard here, is. His stuttering here has been mixed with the intentional stutter of the Flying Lizards



obviously, this is the infamous "invisible hand" speech from Network, which was absolutely revelatory when I saw it. I fused it to an old MIDI which was originally called "MIDI Eastern" for its eastern tinge.



I was studying notes for a midterm or test or something and I found the lyrics to this song, which don't start until nearly halfway through the song, scribbled in the side of a notepad. I have no recollection of ever writing them. The most automatic of writing.

You're Sweet
It's dark
and i live in the river
snake uncoiled
violence in mind
is never accessible at hand

your ivory whites
are gold to my libido
and i chase by choice
the fabled virgin













this is a piss-take on the raving standard "I Can't Stop Raving" made to sound as if this phrase was not euphoric, but nightmarish. Years later, I learned that there was a whole genre of music like this called "darkside"



Versificator- Clubber's Guide to Canaan (2001)











1. inebriation/ adrien (hell is other people)/the marble conspiracy/ school blaze
(creeping death mix)/ bodyrock/ the happy birthday to you song/ millenium
2. the promised land/ speedway/ now/ rejection of conformity/ speedway (ode)
3. sliced tomatoes (the great party)/ tropicallous/sho' nuff/ peter and the wolf/
it's a small world/ adrien (intestine vendor mix)/
4. everything is beautiful/ debasser/ on her majesty's secret service/ global/ yous a
ho (crackpipe suite mix)/ Boll Weevil
5. circles/ adrien (hell is other people)/ vaporlogue

Friday, August 5, 2011

Versificator- Adrien EP (2001)







While all the music previous to this on this blog represents a "third period" of my music writing, involving collaboration with partners, bands, and record labels, this will mark the first release of my "Second Period", that being my first experimentations with computer music. Not music through computers, mind you as I did do some primitive stuff with MIDI and sound recorder cut n pastes prior to this, but music fully made through the computer and nothing else. There is some overlap of material here, as many of these songs were recycled for m0dnAr tunes, but listening to these again there is some interesting stuff within.









To be honest, these early songs were more collage-y then I'd wanted to be. I liked sample-based music, but the ease of construction on these almost seemed like cheating. It wasn't until later when I found out that the process I used was not much different than many of the Moby-ish personalities out there. I guess where I felt I cheated most here was in the rhythm department, blatantly stealing a lick from another big beat song.

Mainly I wanted to see how the Wayne's World sample and Sleepwalk went together





Not particularly proud of the Wesley Willis dialogue at the beginning of this, but it was the final part I added over the "clown music" ("Entry of the Gladiators" by Julius Fucik). "Adrien" had been described in A Very Vari Christmas as Circus Music, so it seemed appropos to make a demented circus out of it. Then there's the "God is Dead" bit from Rosemary's Baby and Paul Whiteman's "Whispering" at the end, which adds a demented but interesting afterthought.





when i am high
they make worms of my friends
i too am tempted
but insist on the handbook
to party partisan is
leverage
to lay down is
heavy damage

from concentrate
shine with peroxide
on the shelves
like product, like wholesale
i'm not your centurian
i'm not eons elapsed
we bitch at what we shit
tight feeling of forever
is e to my I
anchor to my leg
cementing each sunken flash
ad nauseum ad infinity

save my life
save me from hell




Another rip-off rhythm, I think from an Alec Empire track (who probably sampled it elsewhere). I wanted to make something like an Empire track, extremely hard, fast, and noisy. So, I did that noise thing and crossed a line, trying to make it sound like a thrilling video game ride through a school shooting rampage. Not the only song I'd create to comment on school violence either. It actually fits the model of darkside jungle pretty well, though I wasn't really listening to any of that at the time.
Nothing gets between me and my A-K

There's Alice Cooper in there and a Metallica reference if you listen close too (perhaps the creepiest part).



Versificator- Adrien EP
1. Adrien (EP mix) (4:30)
2. Googleplex (quantum mechanical mix) (0:38)
3. The Happy Birthday to You Song (4:40)
4. Adrien (hell is other people mix) (10:05)
5. Tropicallous (3:31)
6. Adien (instestine vendor mix) (7:05)
7. Googleplex (versificator's at-at destructo mix) (1:03)
8. Googleplex (3:39)
9. School Blaze (3:33)


(yes I left off a few tracks because they were pretty stupid)