From: owner-faxlabel@2350.org (faxlist-digest) To: faxlist-digest Subject: faxlist-digest V1999 #95 Reply-To: faxlist@2350.org Sender: owner-faxlabel@2350.org Errors-To: owner-faxlabel@2350.org Precedence: bulk faxlist-digest Thursday, September 9 1999 Volume 1999 : Number 095 ---------------------------------------------------------------------- Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 16:47:39 -0500 From: "John Goerner" Subject: Fw: (fax) Downloadable Digital Audio -- THE CONSPIRACY (wuz: MP3s on eMusic) From: Gary Hendershot > OK Armchair Conspiracy Theory Buffs: > > Remember all the "format upgrade" brouhahas we went > through in the past with going from vinyl to CD? > The same thing will happen with downloadable digital > audio. If the record industry has its way, MP3 will > die off for one of the many different smaller and > higher-quality formats that are to supposedly supplant > MP3 fairly soon. Just around the corner are these > various "better" audio formats. But there's one common > thread with them all: Security. Everything can be cracked. John Goerner johng@usgravitics.com "Better Living with Gravity" - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Tue, 7 Sep 1999 17:01:46 -0500 (CDT) From: pHonaut Subject: (fax) Compression, Fax, and the great Emusic Jihad! This thread seems to be gaining significance in light of the fact that emusic carries some of the Golden Oldies of Faxlabel: > Hi all, sorry for getting REALLY OT now.... > A trained ear and a good system. What you really loose with mp3 (and > loose even more with de-and recompressing) is spaciousness and > resolution, two factors that, for me, are crucial to good ambient. I just wanna interject here and say few things could be *more* on topic. I agree totally, 'spaciousness and resolution' are probably the most imporatant two key factors for this type of music, barring the rhythms and melodies (if any) themselves. Reissuing gems such as Ambiant Otaku and Outer Dark is a godsend to the people who never got copies in the begninning. Now they can hear them for themselves and hear what all the hullabaloo is about and can join in the discussion pertaning to such hard-to-find items and perhaps throw a bit more objectivity into the situation. The downside is that these albums use 'spaciousness and resolution' like instruments and some of it will certainly be degraded in the compression process. I think Mr Weitzman said it best, we would all like an original. Even a CDR copy is preferable sound quality-wise. But hey, this is a very inexpensive alternative: 8.99$ for a virtually perfect copy, or 179.99 for an original, unless the ambient gods and godesses are smiling down upon you and behold you spot one in a used bin somewhere for cheap cheap! Anyway, a song like "Low of Vibration" (from Otaku) is ALL spaciousness and rez. The bass floats in, tactile, and wafts around like a heavy current of air (see the reviews at www.2350.org for more indepth coverage of such points). Such artifacts would probably be most apparent during headphone listening. Definitely a bummer for the comp-elitist who simply must hear it as it was meant to be heard. But there is also a brighter side to this, and thankfully this brighter side pertains not to the jewels from 5 years past, but more to the future of this kind of music. Look at some of the musicians that many would consider at the forefront of electronic music: Rastermusic & Noton, things on Skam and Ae, Ikeda, the more recent stuff from 12k, and recent Rather Interesting releases, one could go on and on with lists of people who are all about finding the glitches in the producing/recording process and amplifying them and using them as crucial elements in the music. Music?? Heck, the Chain Reaction boys sometimes even sound like they put some of their music to cassette before mastering back to vinyl or CD. I won't even go into all the artists that mimic vinyl noise on their CDs. Especially ambient music, is all about subtlety and mis-using the new digital equipment that's become less expensive and thus more available. It's funny that we're discussing how making that conversion to mp3 would take something away from the fluid spaciousness and hi-res nature, it certainly would. But it also seems people are taking advantage of the 'defect' that results from tweaking such digital translations and embedding them in the deep structure of the music. Onward ambienteers! no@h ps- on the audio-watermark topic, couldn't you just bandpass something through a 20-20k filter to rid yourself of thewatermark? "|+'5 n0+ f@k3, end 0f c3n+ury, m@g|c d|5pl@y" . . . . . . ..... . . . . . . Coming up: reviews for Outland II & DSOTM4 Radioaktivities Playlists: www.barbrigroup.com/chris/radio.htm# fax/ri reviews: www.2350.org & www.datacide.org fax Galleria and info: www.usatt.org/rseguine/FAX/ - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 08:05:08 -0400 From: "Conlon, Timothy" Subject: (fax) Top 10 1) Recurring Dreams of the Urban Myth 2) Live at SEL i/s/c 3) 62 Eulengasse 4) Namlook V 5) A Day in the Park 6) Shades of Orion 7) Namlook XIV - Solarized 8) Air IV 9) Shades of Orion 2 10) Broadway 3 Tim - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 14:52:01 -0400 From: "Ott, Duane F." Subject: RE: (fax) Top 10 I might be alone on this, but I prefer the beatier stuff. In no particular order: Fanger & Siebert Spyra - Phonehead, Etherlands, Sferics Xangadix 1 & 2 DSOTM 4 Transonic - Downstream Illusion Whole Traffic 1 & 2 Honorable mention: Softcore SHADO MS-Series Wechselspannung A Day in the Park DSOTM 5 & 6 Dreamfish I.F. Air 1 & 2 Duane Ott Lead Software Engineer Network Development UUNET, an MCIWorldCom Company dfo@wcom.net - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 13:53:59 -0500 From: "John Goerner" Subject: (fax) putney video question I just received a Putney video from someone(I didnt get the seller from this list). I havent had a chance to watch it yet, but was worried since it is marked NTSC. I thought all these were PAL. Im afraid that i got a bootleg or a transfer copy, but was wondering what the originals looked like, what the cases looked like, etc. I was also wondering if anyone had an extra Ambient Cookbook laying around :). thanks. John Goerner johng@usgravitics.com "Better Living with Gravity" - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 22:49:18 +0200 From: Carsten Subject: Re: (fax) putney video question John Goerner wrote: > > I just received a Putney video from someone(I didnt get the seller from this > list). I havent had a chance to watch it yet, but was worried since it is > marked NTSC. I thought all these were PAL. > > Im afraid that i got a bootleg or a transfer copy, but was wondering what > the originals looked like, what the cases looked like, etc. Front: ________________ | | | | | ______ | | | | | | |______| | <-graphical image | | | | | | | The Putney | <-large arial font | | | Fax-logo | <-small standard Fax-logo |________________| Back: On the upper half it's 4 graphical images (one for each part: Appendix, Putney Dust, Aeols Harp and Amourette) On the lower half it's some text describing the concept of the video. And at the bottom: "Music written by Pete Namlook & Ludwig Rehberg Approx. running time 60 min" On the casette there's a white printed label with the Fax-logo, catalog#(PV 001), the title and a small "PAL". Ok, kinda weird description, but it should do the trick ;) Carsten - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 15:46:42 -0500 (CDT) From: pHonaut Subject: (fax) (amb) full-length version of "Recurring Dreams..." on the Web (fwd) - ---------- Forwarded message ---------- Date: Wed, 08 Sep 1999 16:41:28 -0500 From: Chris Meloche To: ambient@hyperreal.org Subject: (amb) full-length version of "Recurring Dreams..." on the Web Over the years, many people have asked me about the availability of the full-length versions of my long-duration works for radio. Well, the most requested of them is now up and running on the Web. The Canadian Electroacoustic Community has assembled a number of long-duration pieces including the complete 6-hour version of "Recurring Dreams of the Urban Myth". It is divided into 6 one-hour segments and streams at 44.1k. It is available to hear at: http://cec.concordia.ca/Radio/Long/Long.html Cheers, Chris ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ Chris Meloche Host / Producer: Wired for Sound (CHRW-FM) P.O. Box 1403, Stn. A London, Ont. CANADA N6A 5M2 ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~ - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Wed, 8 Sep 1999 16:33:40 -0500 (CDT) From: pHonaut Subject: (fax) review: Outland 2 (fwd) Outland 2 (PW28) What I first noticed about Outland 2 is that many parts of it show up on other releases. Are we getting ripped off? Is this just an example of recycled soundbytes by musicians who aren't inspired enough to come up with something new? Hardly, these overlapping releases compliment each other. The overlap between Outland 2 and Sultan or Material's "Praying Mantra" allows the studious listener to hear different notes or even entire sequences from a different 'acoustic viewpoint' and emotional context. Another interesting feature of this album is its theme, the e.bola outbreaks that ravaged the African countryside only a few years ago. Our hosts Kuhlmann and Laswell do very well in reflecting the tone of such epidemics in several parts of the music, particularly the album's introduction and conclusion. With the ominous title of "African Virus (Electronic Sonata with a Cold Loved by Nature)" one expects a dark, demon-conjuring work inline with the first album "From the Earth to the Ceiling." But don't be fooled, Outland 2 takes us soaring to new heights of "ethnic-trance" electronic fusion, breaking away from the deep drones of the first album, as well as spiraling back down to this quieter, more self-confrontational tenor. We begin with some darker tones. Heavily saturated drones, much like some of the work in the first Outland. Cavelike, eerie, almost sinister. You didn't come here for merriment did you? Lie back, and take this in. Entire villages were consumed by this menacing virus, and you're in your deep chair about to absorb one of the better Faxlabel offerings. A little emotional deference in the name of global consciousness isn't too much to ask. And besides, lots of us really dig this oppressive darkambient stuff! You know from the sound of voices that you've begun part 2. What sounds like West African marketplace ambience funnels into the lulls of part 1. I hear the pleasant trails of a distantly reverberating stringed instrument. A nice blend here, and with a keen ear you might recognize some of the environmental ambience and talking from parts of Laswell's "Oscillations" series of discs. Toward the end of this section, another remote voice emerges, chanting praise while the drones become more continuous. It's all beatless up to this point. Now for part 3, we leave the countryside and enter the studio for a more structured variation on ethno-trance. This one begins with a vivid Middle Eastern soundbyte you might recognize from the groundbreaking Excursions in Ambience II compilation (that compilation put the Orb, Maurizio & Fehlmann, Locust, and Laswell on one disc!) The track was "Praying Mantra," which must have been an electronic landmark for Laswell, as you can also find other elements from that track on yet another album, his Benares "City of Light." It's reworked here a little bit with the sequencer. The common thread between all of these, of course, is the trancey blend of ethnic percussion and melodic patterning. Part 3 really stands out, as the beat is fierce. And checking in at just over 18 minutes, the track is about twice as long as any of the others. There's plenty of surprise stunts throughout. Keyboards, drum patterns, and solo instruments all get exclusive time at some point during this piece. At 7:51, you're sent gliding into the stratosphere, high above Africa's highest point, Mount Kilimanjaro, and what a magnificent view it is. The synth now dominates the track, and then the beat kicks back in. What a ride! Laswell's rugged bass rips through the synthesized smoothness, as if it was the mountainous landscape itself. When all the elements come together in this track, it really shines. At 13:53 you are once again shuttled high into the atmosphere, but this time you won't be coming back.... and with 90 seconds left, the memory of our chanting friend returns. In part 4, you might get another dose of deja vu. Where have I heard this before, you might ask yourself. Check your Sultan "Osman" disc, that should help. Slightly different timing or tuning, but the similarity is definitely there. This disc was released long before Osman was out, and here we get an accompanying ethnic instrument to go along with it. These swirling textures lend some optimism to a generally dark disc. At just under 6 minutes, this is the album's shortest track. The environmental recordings of Oz Fritz get the spotlight here in part 5. The marketplace ambience emanates once again, but here combined with some downtempo drum loops. The percussion is organic sounding, like the rest of the album, rather then the more obvious electronic variety. Part 5 rolls for just over 6 minutes, and listen carefully toward the end, as there are some close-up conversational field recordings. The ender goes back to the drones of part 1, but this time it's more like the tones gently rotate. Set us back down gently boys, nice touch! ;-) "|+'5 n0+ f@k3, end 0f c3n+ury, m@g|c d|5pl@y" . . . . . . ..... . . . . . . Radioaktivities Playlists: www.barbrigroup.com/chris/radio.htm# fax/ri Reviews: www.2350.org & www.datacide.org fax Galleria and info: www.usatt.org/rseguine/FAX/ next fax review: Three Pipers at the Gates of Dawn - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ Date: Thu, 9 Sep 1999 10:48:08 +0100 From: hlapp@emprise.de Subject: (fax) offtopic: who wrote this song? hello! don't be angry, about this off-topic question. i'm searching for the artist's-name and further information on who wrote a song. i've put about a minute of the song as zipped mp3-file on my webpage at: http://www.aranea.net/~hlapp/song.html it's electronic-style, a bit lofi. maybe someone has heard this song? (i know it's nearly impossible that i find an answer here, but i MUST try every possibility) thanx & bye <-harald - --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org ------------------------------ End of faxlist-digest V1999 #95 ******************************* --- + To post: ; to mail a person: + To unsubscribe: "unsubscribe" to + Online info at: www.faxlabel.com www.hyperreal.org/fax www.2350.org