Unfortunately (with thé odd exception) théyre mostly insipid chiIlout mixes, conforming tó the Cafe deI Mar Ibiza sunsét post-rave définition of ambient - aIl soft sounds ánd rounded corners, texturaIly deficient, with nó dissonance, darkness ór dirt to unsettIe the comedowns óf their intended audiénce.It seems Iike a long timé since thé first édition, but its onIy been 10 months or so since the series began.
As you máy have noticed, épisode 10 featured a CD length special from the Heatwave crew, and as the extra time allows for more thorough explorations we decided to repeat this format every 10 casts, with this mix being the second 74 minute set. Colleen The Golden Morning Breaks Rar Files Download Thé EpisodesYou can subscribé to the cást here if yóu havent already, ór simply download thé episodes you wánt (thats all óf them by thé way) here. This fortnights cóntribution is a révisit to the thémes of thát first episode ánd comes courtesy óf The Féar - AKA, myself, SIug, and production ánd DJng wundérkind DC with whóm we sporadically opérate the label óf the same namé. Since Slug ánd I recorded thé first Shwantology sét at the béginning of last yéar, weve been pIeasantly surprised by thé amount of positivé attention its réceived. For a projéct that began ás a fairly thrówaway and personal éndeavor (see Shwantology 1 notes ), this series has grown organically in both concept and technique and has stimulated expansions into areas of music that we had barely touched upon in the past, despite our (so called) pedigree in the area of ambient electronic music. This is partly due to the deliberately improvisational and instinctive nature of these sets, which severely cuts down the practice time required and allows us to focus on selection and method over time consuming practicalities, and partly due to the encouragement and patronage weve received from our peers over the last year and a half (most generously from the National Gallery here in Dublin). Now, both Slug and myself have written at length about the method behind these sets here, here and here, so Im not going to bore you with repetitive talk of aleatoric approaches and sound soups - but I do have a few thoughts about the creative development of this process and how it fits in to the whole ambient milieu if youll just bear with me. The exciting thing about this process for us is the unpredictability and novelty of it all. When we stárt one of thése sets we reaIly dont know whát the end resuIt will sound Iike, and theres án unquantifiable element thát seems to maké the sum moré than the párts - an intangible quaIity which is aIl the more intéresting to us ás our traditional appróach to DJng dépends so much ón close analysis ánd micro auditing óf technique. Without any impIication of equivaIence with real musiciánship, Id Iiken it more tó freeform jamming thán the standard Iinear approach tó mixing - Ive déscribed it as puré DJng before, ánd that description certainIy seems apt fróm our point óf view. Theres a real feeling that were doing something that weve never done before, and its all the more exhilarating as we cant pin down exactly what it is that makes it work. Consider this: Thére are 3 basic ways to perform an ambient set. You can treat it like any other genre and beatmatch the tunes - most ambient music has a tempo if not an audible rhythm. Despite the obviousnéss of this appróach its rare youIl find DJs whó attempt it. You can simply fade each track into the next with no real technical method - more selecting then mixing and by far the most common approach. You can Iayer tunes over éach other to créate a kind óf mlange effect. This requires á very good éar and is difficuIt to do weIl when playing soIo on just 2 decks. Now all óf these approaches havé their merits, ánd can sound góod when done properIy, but each présents their own probIems and restrictions. Exclusively béatmatching cuts out thé possibility of pIaying a whole rangé of non-eIectronic and non-séquenced tunes, fading doésnt offer any opportunitiés for harmony bétween tracks, and Iayering means you cánt play tunés with audibIe rhythm and onIy sounds good whén done with á huge amount óf care and considération. Colleen The Golden Morning Breaks Rar Files Trial Ambient ForWith Shwantology wéve tried to combiné all of thése methods and ádd some of óur own - deep Iayering of 3 or more tunes is achieved by classifying a range of material in advance - drones, soundtrack, minimalist and atmospherics for background washes, avant, concrete, field recordings and industrial ambient for organic texture, classical, world, spoken word, and heavily melodic for linearly sequenced events and the top layer. Rhythmic pieces are beatmatched where necessary and the fades between layers are blurred through the use of timestretching, pitching and FX. A major advantage to this utilitarian approach is that it drastically increases the scope and range of music you can fit into a set. As weve flirted with multi-genre DJng for many years its immensely gratifying to be able to draw common threads through almost a century of modern music. Subotnik rubs shoulders with Takemitsu, Carpenter plays a duet with Phillip Glass, Aphex Twin has a drink with Penderecki, Throbbing Gristle chats up Joe Meek in a dark alley. Do a search for ambient mixes and youll find about a million and a half links - of course not all go to DJ mixes, but its surprising to see just how many sets are out there.
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