Audio: Alphabethead - Triangle

and Alphabethead says...

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My fascination with vinyl as a recorded medium goes far beyond the music pressed into the plastic. I’m interested in all the other properties of vinyl; the degradation of sound through repeated use, the percussive thumps of heavy turntable hands and of course the glorious fuzz and crackle of an old record. I’ve even purposely thrown my records around and danced on them to produce such artefacts. Many an idea has sprouted from having a record skip or accidently loop on a bit of grit. I’m not going to lie, it’s also all the ethereal aspects of vinyl I love; the worn sleeves, giant album artwork and ritual of playback. These are the primary reasons I’ve not yet fully embraced the digital vinyl systems.

That’s the beautiful thing about sampling from vinyl. You inherit not only the sound held within the grooves but also the life of that particular record. What has that record seen? How did its previous owners treat it? In buying second hand records I’ve found many historical ‘clues’ within the sleeves; love letters, homemade lyric sheets, 70’s pinup flicks, album review clippings, autographs scrawled on napkins and even a few of ‘crumbs’ of something pungent and green…

You’ve probably ascertained from my ramblings that I’m a bit smitten with vinyl. Well, I was. However, over the last few weeks I’ve had the wandering eye! I’ve made a departure from my usual ‘dusty not digital’ aesthetic and been building tunes completely from sounds generated with ‘virtual’ instruments and computer synthesis. Not a single vinyl record in sight! What sent me off on this tangent was a fantastic Soul Jazz compilation entitled “Future Bass”. This is a collection of ‘hyper’ clean, modern beat/bass music made (mostly) inside computers from synthesised sound. Yet, despite being built from layered sine, triangle and square waves, the tunes still sound so organic. The Ginz and Mala tracks especially. Synthesis of sound and this ability to breathe life into computer tones has really intrigued me.

“Triangle” is one of my attempts at an entirely digital production. It’s all made from my own computer generated sounds, the process of which has certainly given me a renewed respect for all those producing tracks this way. Wow – it can take so long to make all those sine/triangle/square waves dance! LFO (low frequency oscillators), automated filter sweeps, distortion and, of course, reverb were my little helpers.

I’m not sure if this track works of not? Omitting samples was fearful prospect! Never fear – I think it’s just a short foray away from the crates.

Download TRIANGLE

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ALPHABETHEAD

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[source=http://alphabethead.blog.com/2010/10/triangle/]

Live: Suspects & Davey Dallas at 4:20, Satdey

This is what they're saying...

Time
Tomorrow at 9:00pm - Sunday at 3:00am
Location 420 CLUB - 373 K'RD
Created By
Mickey Black, RisingSun FourTwenty
More Info I'll let you in on a little secret, but don't tell mum and dad...

We got:
David Dallas
Spycc&INF
Dice Trixx Kayo
the Usual Suspects
together for an epic evening of dealing and snorting of an assortment of drugs... and Jane Deezy's riding shotgun just for fun.

Not really, they're just gonna be up at 420 making an exquisite racket on a set of speakers via a mic and a couple of DJ's that apparently go by the names of Al'Goodie and Pay Dirt.

I'll be there with a few chums playing a little FIFA11 and Super SF4 throughout the night, while the dudes above do their business reciting poetry over soft sweet melodies and the DJs kind of SHOWCASE their turntabling prowess.

Anyways mum and dad wont be there so come cool it with these kids at SHOWCASE.


($5 drink specials all night on beer and selected spirits)
($10 tickets from Mike: 0212996876)
($15 Doorsales}

Audio: New Saia Beats

Saia made some new beats...

Potrait of Jenny by Saia

Take Away by Saia

Drops of one ocean, leaves of one tree by Saia

Napolean's Complex by Saia

Wedding Day by Saia

^He made that beat on his wedding day.

Live: Sage Francis, Tourettes, Alphabethead

Free Download: N37 Modulation Mixtape

and Alphabethead says...

G’Day buds,

Whenever I bring a stray piece of vinyl home my fervent hope, aside from it being good music, is to use it as source material in something. Unfortunately, due to my ‘habit’ it’s very hard to assimilate the relentless inflow of records. This recording was a conscious effort to utilize all the random records that had slipped through the cracks. I’d grab any unused LP in arms length of the turntable and set the goal of making a beat from it. This is certainly not a unique approach; many beat-makers set themselves such exercises as a challenge and to breakdown any preconceived notions of what ‘should’ be sampled. In sampling unconventional records I learnt about filtering songs to isolate bass and create muffled drones, amplify and affect record pops to make percussion and stretching and layering notes for textures.

Over 60 LP’s went into this one – mostly Sally Army or junk shop finds. Sample sources include; Frank Sinatra, Uriah Heep, Fiddler on the Roof, Gong, 3 Hur-El, Bach, Donovan, Silver Apples, Ravi Shankar, Santana, Stockhausen… Although it’s my fifth beat-tape, it’s the first I’ve presented in mixtape form with transitions, miscellaneous tit-bits of sound and segues between tracks. This one also includes some Hip Hop cutting!

I’m tickle pink with both ‘Tibetan Glitch Beat’ and ‘Two-Zero-One-Zero’. Both of these beats transcend their source material; I’ve no recollection of what records I sampled? They’ve been mangled and affected beyond recognition! When making sample-based music I feel I’ve succeeded when, rather than the old ‘Oh, he just slightly tweaked Kraftwerk’ type of response I elicit more of a ‘What the hell was that? Was it Frank Sinatra or Frank Zappa?’ The further removed my piece is from the original the better. This kinda sums up my thoughts on sampling. I have absolutely no qualms about using another artist’s work just as long as:

(a) The ‘sample’ of another piece of work is a ‘component’ or ‘element’ in the new work rather than the ‘crux’.

(b) The work can be viewed as a new composition in its own right and doesn’t decrease the artistic merit or impinge on the viability of the existing piece.

Of course what defines a ‘new composition’ or constitutes an ‘element’ is certainly a contentious issue. I’ve found that proving a piece of sample-based music is (at least) equal to the sum of its parts can be an uphill battle…

I’m glad to have finally weaved that classic Kiwi bloke Fred Dagg into a mix. I have a crate of lectures, theatre, advertisement and comedy records which I draw on as the garnishes for my mixes. Next stop for spoken-word samples Peter Sellers, Spike Milligan and Sam Hunt! The other track I was pleased with was ‘One-Nine-Eight-One’. In the second half all the samples (excluding drums) were pitched up an octave creating a dreamy vocoder effect (thank you Rza)! Please give it whirl…

For those still rocking a discman, hardcopies with covers and disc art are available for 8 NZ bucks.

Alphabethead – N37 Modulations

2Much!

x alphabethead

ps. If you rap feel free to jump on any of these tracks.

Video: 2003 Alphbethead Battle Footage

Old school battle footage of a 19-year-old Alphabethead.

A few of his 90-second, head-to-head sets from the 2003 Wellington DJ Battle held Saturday 8 March, 2003 @ Subnine.

Filmed by DJ Goosh.

Video: Alphabethead - Destroy All Monsters

The following words are from Alphabethead's blog....

Destroy All Monsters is yet another song inspired by a B-movie radio spot. This theme is becoming a bit of an obsession; peep my previous “Zombie” and “Crawling Thing” posts!

When I began DJing I had a single turntable and no real interest in being a ‘proper’ mix DJ playing dance clubs and making people boogie. My focus was on the manipulation of vinyl and making that beautiful-ugly-sound known as scratching. I would run home after school, loop up a beat and just scratch the night away! There were quite a few of us doing this is 2001 – they called us Turntablists or Scratch Nerds. Q-Bert, D-Styles, Mixmaster Mike, Toadstyle and the rest would release records with minimal rhythm tracks, heavy bass and half-time beats designed especially to elevate and accentuate scratching. This song is a throwback to the beats of that era. The fascinating thing is that the bass music and dubstep of today has some striking similarities with circa-2000 scratch beats. A couple of the more notable players in the new beat movement actually cut their teeth in the scratch scene; Hudson Mohawke, Lorn and The Gaslamp Killer. It would be interesting to trace the trajectory of dubstep and bass music in terms of Turntablism…

After finishing my track I found the actual movie trailer for “Destroy All Monsters” on Youtube and on playing them simultaneously couldn’t believe my eyes! The fit was uncanny – the monsters were trashing the capital cities of the world all to my beats! It was too good an opportunity to miss so last week I taught myself the basics of video editing and tried my damndest to fuse the two. For someone with no experience in video it certainly was an exercise in patience, concentration and pulling my damn hair out! This is probably the most rickety, lo-fi, third-generation-VHS-dub you’re gonna see this month. Embrace the pixilation!



The idea of equating turntable scratching to laser and missile-fire is certainly not new. Q-Bert’s fantastic Wave Twisters is a fire-fight packed, animated space odyssey scored entirely with turntables and heavy beats. Technical scratching and dubstep rhythms sure do sound like intergalactic warfare and hulking beasts sometimes!

DOWNLOAD: DESTORY ALL MONSTERS

I’m gonna visit Aro Video this week in search of the original Godzilla film of the same name – apparently it’s one of the classics in the “Giant Monster” canon.

Over & Out,

x

Alphabethead

Video: Caoimhe, Jared, Flick Performing Mint Chicks "Say Goodbye"

Click the image above to watch me having a rap sing at APRA Silver Scroll Awards. Me, Caoimhe and Flick were put together for this one off collaboration.

While you're at it I also recommend checking this awesome performance by Ermehn and co of How Bizzare

Audio: Willy Knuckle Makes Beats Too Now

Yeah dats right. He skipped the country with a bunch of fancy gears on HP to make beats with and two years later he's actually making em!

He's still just a grass hopper but he doing it.. give em a squizz...

Vascular by louie knuxx

Take the time by louie knuxx

Venti by louie knuxx

Broodwich by louie knuxx

Grapefruit by louie knuxx

Prezbaluwskey by louie knuxx

Audio: Alphabethead - Springs Got Next

Alphabethead says...

Spring’s Got Next is a laid-back, sunny Hip Hop beat. I was trying to banish the blues and create the antithesis to Wellington’s wet, windy winter.

Rather than just let the beat loop I found guitar and flute solos on vinyl and cut them up to fit the track. I love taking unrelated jazz solos and chopping and screwing them to ride my beat. I’ve achieved some fascinating results from dislocating David S Ware and Marshall Allen sax solos and setting them to dubstep or down tempo grooves. The solos are probably totally out of key but it sounds great to me; at least they’re on beat! The guitar solo is from the Roland Kovac New Set. Flutes are from Chilliwack. The fun part in assembling this one was the feel change at 01:56. Gamelan style played on Vibraphone!

Welly winter be gone… Spring’s Got Next [DOWNLOAD]

Adieu,

alphabethead