Friday 4 November 2016

RUX Redux



What we have here is a mammoth mega mix and mash-up loosely based around a common theme of Jimi the H and his classic R.U. psychedelic monsterrrrrrrrrrrrrr...It all started off as a dream I had, hearing all the different versions interwined and with solos from different live sets at NYC and Iowa blending into the mix, together with various cover versions from Fred Gianelli and Caresse P.O also finding their own places mixed in here. The brain melting loop throughout, which keeps on surfacing to scratch once more at the back of your Amygdala, is the spin off loop from the classic album at around the same time as R.U.X. as left to us by those Four Kings of EMI. Enjoy!

AxioMoixA

This time round we have series of sessions based around use of an old Axiom 49 Midi Keyboard, hooking it up and getting it to play and generally get along with other samples, bits of kit and general sonic madness. Here we go again....


Saturday 17 September 2016

Mister Tivvy and the Orange-Flavoured Sun

And now...presenting for your delight and defecation - a Conny Plankton remix of one of the world's most obscure seven inch single releases. Full details are down over at the bandcamp site. Click on the title link of Tuvvy's Tine below find out more and join the party!

Et Tu Brute

The big new project this time around is working with the new kid on the block - the latest addition to the sonic arsenal, being an Arturia Microbrute sequencer. While getting to grips with it over the course of a few weeks, a series of jam sessions and extended projects developed - first with using the Microbrute on its lonesome, and them teamed up with other instruments such as a Roland TB3 or Korg Volca Sample. The results of these sessions in almost all cases were further chopped up, remixed, rearranged and generally mutilated to help them evolve into something altogether different.

All album cover art was made from photographs taken by myself during a visit to Berlin in Summer 2016.

Enough preamble. Are you all sitting comfortably? Then here we go...just click on the album link of the Brute below to get started!

Thursday 21 July 2016

You Eat what you Are


“Pull up a chair. Take a taste. Come join us. Life is so endlessly delicious.” 
― Ruth Reichl


This series of two videos began their existence as a series of experiments designed around the loose theme of getting to grips with Adobe After Effects and the series of filters and special effects it had to offer. The first idea for content was based around a certain TV cook from the 60s and 70s. The footage was taken from a repeat of a Christmas special - unfortunately I couldn't get a sample of dear husband Johnny, although there is a passing mention of him from the footage being a dab hand with the UHU in making decorations to go on  Christmas Cake. The second piece of footage was originally a trip through the digestive system, made with an endoscope, though when it passed through After Effects and came out of the end, all versions were something completely different.

But then, while editing things together, I was hit by a dilemma - whether to include the original footage of Fanny the C or leave it with just the endoscope footage. And so two versions emerged - the deluxe version using both sources of footage, and a slimmed down version being based purely around the endoscope.

The muzak made for each video was based around samples of Mrs C in action, a timestretched sample of gargling, a little bit of white spacenoise as an intro from an earlier session with a Kaossilator, and a sequencer section played from an Arturia Microbrute.



The title for this first version is an oblique reference to made by husband Johnny after a show by Mrs C which has now passed into Urban Legend.




The title for this second version, now cut off from our favourite childhood celebrity chef, simply refers to the version without Fanny.

Enjoy!

Monday 18 July 2016

DikMik Spacenoise



This mix was the natural end to a theme spent exploring efforts to recreate the Hawkwind "Space Sound" from the early 70s, as pioneered by Dik Mik and his audio generator. This evolved into working with Binaural brainwave frequencies fed through a Mini Kaoss Pad to add extra effects, producing a whole series of different samples and frequencies, and then mixing the whole lot together. Could take your brain to somewhere it may not quite want to go...

Thursday 14 July 2016

Planktonia



A return to video based projects here, with taking a batch of moving images from a series of obscure sources - exotic jellyfish, the surreal banality of 1970s popular TV culture, vintage classics from Bunuel and Dali, a series of my own photographs, and then chopping and editing to mix in with a track from an earlier post, being an edited jam session made with a Roland MC303 and a Korg Volca. The overall results are probably very damaging to your cerebral cortex - though it's probably far too late for some of us!

A View from Inside




This project began its humble life as a series of explorations working with various vintage audio function generators in an attempt to find a way to recreate the classic Hawkwind Space Sound from the Dikmik era of Hawkwind. This led us to work through a series of experiments using binaural sound brainwave generators, feed through a Mini Kaoss Pad. The audio mix is all based around two base frequencies: one designed to add effects to your head and the upper reaches, and the other designed to promote other effects a bit lower down...The video part of the project grew from an idea of using my own photographs showing my love of textures, put together as an edit. It works alongside the muzak to definitely take you somewhere else. So here it is. From Inside. For You.

Friday 8 July 2016

A World of Their Own


 
While working on a series of sessions on the Big Ambient mixes, there was one big sample that was considered and left behind - it was a 17 minutes timestretched drone piece that had been produced from a series of sessions working with my Roland Mc303 and a bass station rack. However, it soon became friends with another track  produced using the Bass Station rack - and the two of them were mixed, reversed, reverb added and weaving in and out of the mix. Then, coming to join them, was a little bass loop from my favourite 70s Glaswegian Psychotic Rocker. The whole thing evolved into quite a noisy earwax melting kind of mix. Strange, as it was originally going to be part of a big chilled out ambient piece. Funny how these things evolve into a world of their own....

Big Ambient Mixes



This was an idea for an epic mix, to be based on using a series of field recordings. I have always loved the idea of field recordings - checking out both the abstract and concrete sound qualities in the world around us- but sometimes these recordings do get plain weird (yes, I know - you need talk) - in that you will have a field recording supposedly set in a jungle where an entire circus of exotic animals is paraded into the mix one of the other...but then it struck me as a great idea, to make a mix based on field recordings, but placed deliberately in direct contradiction which each other...so there are wolves with whales, fires with thunderstorms, frogs with a desert wind...And then the whole thing mixed down into a big drone timestretched piece to add extra depth and textures. Quite an epic mix too, with some two hours of sound going on down here! More versions of this to follow...




...almost immediately. In this second of the series from the Big Ambient Mixes, we have the field recordings mix, all by themselves, with no backing timestretched drone piece mixed in this time to keep them company, as with the Full Mix. Not they had a chance to get lonely of course, as the mix became rich in delay and reversed samples...






...and in this third and final mix from the Big Ambient series, we have the backing drone mix, recorded from an earlier series of sessions, all by itself and no field recordings mixed in. This grew out of a series of electronic jam sessions that were edited and mixed together, with pitch shifting and time stretching added in key areas of the mix. Sort of atonal and harmonic at the same time...

Take it Away...

Is it the time of year? Is it the position of the stars? Is it the tea? Whatever, and whoever, one thing is for sure, that the latest wave of projects coming out of the land of Plankton and Quaquaversity seem to be getting longer and longer as a series of mixing possibilities get further and further explored and mutilated.

Like this one for instance...

 

Almost a traditional style of mixing shown here with lining up a series of different Conny Plankton tracks and doing a straight mix in and out of each other. Nothing else added except a few choice effects like phase and delay. The whole mix takes you into different parts of your head, ranging from frantic, to chilled, to unsettling. Take it away, Mr Plankton!

Thursday 30 June 2016

Remix of a Remix of a Remix



While putting together a long mix together based on samples from Kaossilator and Volca Sequencers - the results of which are up on the Mixcloud site and elsewhere in the Quaquaversity blog - there was this a test mix that got left behind. Checking it over, I realised that it simply had to be reborn with various additional samples, loops and reversed versions of different sections of itself. So here you go - a remix of a remix of a remix.

Four Loops Mix



This started off as a series of four samples which were edited together as loops to use with a longer ambient mix of a track which has gone up into Mixcloud and the Quaquaversity blog. But the samples seemed to work so well together just on their own, that it seemed a natural progression to feed them as loops through Ableton and add requisite and exquisite amounts of flanger, phaser and delay. Enjoy!

Ambient Cut Up Special




Originally based around four different samples, edited down as loops, this particular mix evolved to take in a range of additional mixes and sets, ranging from treated field recordings at beaches in North Yorkshire, to various timestretched drone pieces from other recordings. The whole thing was mixed together live with effects added on the fly and a minimal amount of editing applied afterwards.

Kaoss Spacenoise mix



This mix was based around working with a range of edited samples produced using my Korg Kaossilator, battling it out with each other, and also with a series of timestretched pieces originating from NASA space recordings of magnetic particles received as audio transmissions from various planets (some of which was used in the earlier mix of Astral Overdose, found elsewhere here in the QuaQuaversity blog). The whole thing looped and mixed and effects liberally spliced in.

Friday 24 June 2016

Tea Bee Three

So this time round, it is a series of sessions developed with a Korg TB3 bass line - and a few other instruments devices and sound sources dropped into the mix here and there for a bit of gusto...





And now, a few extra details about each of the tracks:


TB3 vs Bass Station
What started off life as a jam session working through the fantastic sounds and convolutions of a Roland TB-3, soon developed into further edits from my vintage bass station rack and a kind of space bass war, with both sets of tracks weaving in and out of other in the final mix through different effects and different speeds. The result of what you get is the result of what you get!


TB3 and MC303 edit
...this time, the mighty TB3 bassline takes on the MC303 sequencer in a no holds barred taggy team contest, taking us into some off kilter beats and bad for your bits bass riffs. Enjoy!


TB3 and MC303 Part One Edit
...Here we have an edit culled down from a longer jam session made with the TB3 bassline running in tandem with a MC303 sequencer. Loopy lysergic madness in abundance here, with very little extra added and the live jam session that brought it to life, apart from a few fades and corrections to levels...


TB3 and MC303 Part Two Edit
...taken from the second half of a longer jam session made with the TB3 bassline running in cahoots with an MC3030 sequencer. This was a live jam session with only minimal editing made afterwards and believe it or not, is taken from the second half of the jam session that spawned TB3 and MC303 Part One Edit.  The middle session of the original jam session lost its way a little, but what we have here are two rather excellent sonic bookends!


TB3 and MC303 number 2
...from a series of different sessions made with using a TB3 bass line. I fell in love with the TB3 sound straight away. However, it wasn't quite as easy when syncing it up with my MC303 sequencer - using midi is all well and good, but it involved quite a bit of extra tweaking of the outer flanges to avoid an automatically synced up, electronic, robotic sound. After all, we all need a bit of the old chaos and bizarro quality in our lives, don't we?


TB3 and Crowd
...more from the TB3 seres - this time from a solo TB3 session, this time lovingly garnished with a field recording made from a crowd outside of shopping centre, looped and partially reversed and sewn back into the mix to give some unsettling bad ambience overtones.

Wednesday 22 June 2016

Inside the Astral Overdose

While working on a recent series of mixes under the Astral Overdose theme, I was left with a big backing track that had been used from the MYDISYD mixes. This backing track was a mix and remix of various samples broadcast from outer space and made available via NASA. However, I thought this mix was a great piece to upload just by itself, without the MYDISYD bass riffs and sequencers mixed in. So here you go!

Saturday 11 June 2016

More Astral Overdose Vicar

This time round it's another mix of everyone's favourite space themed jam by PFC, this time with an even odder twist...



Here we have a full on mix based originally around the same PFC riff as used in the earlier mix for Astral Overdose, but this time based on a home made riff played through midi, chopped and looped, then played first through a Novation Bass Rack, and again through the rather excellent Ultrabass VST from G-Sonique. However, although the mix worked really well, the sound was still very cold and mechanical. So the backing track is based on a recording of magnetic particles from Neptune, lopped, chopped and timestretched - a fitting theme methinks considering the theme and content from the original riff. So there we have it - all happily mixed together. Enjoy folks!

Friday 20 May 2016

Astral Overdose

A bit of an epic mix project here - taking the idea of a riff by the PFC and reworking it int, into multiple mixes and versions of itself. Sorry about having to be vague about the source of the original riff, but them that bothers to listen will suss it out, and keeping it all mysterious like will stop the killjoy copyright sniffers. The idea came from hearing a whole series of this track from the rather excellent blog, Isle Full Of Noises and then it all started falling into place after a dream where I even knew the finished length of the mix.


So here we are, with astral overdose mix one - this time taking through Ableton and numerous processors, backwards, forwards, inside out..enjoy!




...and here we are with mix two in this strange Astral Overdose series - this time taking the main riff from a series of sessions and mixes fed through my vintage Powertran digital delay and then ten cut and spliced backwards and forwards at different speeds. I would not recommend doing brain surgery while listening to this on headphones...

Tuesday 26 April 2016

Volka Polka

It has been a busy and madly creative time again here at the house of Quaquaversity. This time working on a series of sessions using the Korg Volca looper and sequencer, edited down and brought into play and conflict with a series of different devices. The sessions started at the end of February with all final mixing done at Easter.

All images here are taken by myself from a family holiday up in the wilds of Northumbria:




...and to further your delight and delectation, here are extra details on each of the tracks from this album:

Volca Session 1
 This is the first in a series of sessions made using a Korg Volca as a multi loop sequencing device, firstly on its own as a series of jam sessions - as with this first piece - and later with other devices. So here is a nude Korg Volca - very little added except some minimal editing and reverb and EQ afterwards.


Volca Session 2
The second in a series of sessions using the Korg Volca looper and sequencer. This time based on a jam session made with the Volca, edited down, EQ and reverb added, and then mixed into an earlier recording based on a assembled loop of church bells from Durham Cathedral. This field recording was prepared by being fed through delays and timestretched.


Volca Session 3 (Part 1)
The third in the series of sessions using the Korg Volca sequencer and definitely one of the strangest. This was a an edit from the third session, and this time the up tempo in yer face no nonsense beat has been tempered with a saxophone solo produced with my own cherry read lips and slowed down through the Paulstretch app to create something altogether discordant and ethereal. Er, right.


Volca Session 3 (Part 2)
The second edit from the third series of sessions using the Korg Volca sequencer - now moving into noisy and chaotic territory, held together by a decidedly off kilter beat. This was edited down from a longer session and mixed with a field recording of rain paulstretched and looped to give just the right level of irritating white noise fuzz.


Volca Session 3 (Part 3)
The third part of the third part - the third edit taken from the third session using the Korg Volca sequencer - now firmly entrenched into over the top multi layered noise and chaos, on the edge of total aural collapse but still taking your head somewhere else. Just the Korg Volca on this one - no overdubs or additional effects apart from a little EQ and tidying up heads and tails.


Volca Session 4 (Part 1)
From the fourth in a series of sessions exploring the possibilities of the Korg Volca sequencer - this one split up into two parts, called rather imaginatively, Part 1 and Part 2. This now sees the Korg Volca synced up with MIDI to my MC 3030 and flying off into decidedly different sonic territory. A little alien gnome treated samples have been added in the final mix just to give it a little extra gusto.


Volca Session 4 (Part 2)
The second half from session four in the Korg Volca Exploration sessions - Mr Volca now teams up with Mr MC 303 over a glass of midi and really cuts the lettuce. Nothing else added apart from a little treated synth intro to get us into the mood.


Volca Session 5
Session 5 in this Korg Volca exploration series continues the team up of Volca and MC-303 sequencer moving into areas of dischord and multi layered aural damaging. Nothing else added here folks. Have fun!


Volca Session 6
The sixth and final edit from these series of sessions exploring the ins, outs and sideways of the Korg Volca sequencer - Volca synced up with the MC303 sequencer and then edited with a field recording - it is a Paulstretched reversed and delayed loop of a drain emptying of course. Off into oblivion!


Volca Session 7
..and there's always one more. After the main series of sessions with the Korg Volca were completed, there were a series of samples, loops, and generally leftover oddments that were mixed together into a much longer piece. The full length mix ended up on Mixcloud as well as on the Quaquaversity blog.

However, while preparing these leftovers for the Mixcloud session, this particular loops started developing into a life of its own, becoming a longer, almost ambient piece, that seemed to be the perfect ending to this series of sessions on the Korg Volca.

Friday 22 April 2016

A little longer but no less stranger

...Although these mixes were produced a while back, I have finally got round to uploading them onto Mixcloud. A little longer than usual!

 
This is a mix using various loops and audio oddments leftover from a series of jam sessions using MC 303 sequencers and Bass Sation racks, with the sessions then chopped and edited with layers of effects through Kaoss Pads and Ableton. The backing track is a loop from Oskar Sala's piece from Hitchcocks "The Birds", to take us all just that little bit further out of our comfort zone.

Leftover Loops Mix

After the mammoth sessions on Korg Volca, I was left with a series of loops and various sonic oddments. These were then fed through Ableton and bound down to a backing track made up of a drone timestretched using an old Transcendent 2000 synth. This is the first real long one from my Mixcloud sites!



A Mix made from various loops and audio oddments left over from a series of music sessions using a Korg Volca in conjunction with field recordings, Roland MC 303 and Transcendent 2000synth, fed and mixed through banks of real time effects in Ableton.

Friday 26 February 2016

Kaoss Octagon

The Kaoss Octagon

A strange time here indeed...working on a series of mutated jam sessions that grew out of working with a Korg Kaossilator - strange in that after the original beats and samples were worked out, that all eight they were remixed, multi layered and generally evolved into shape, all within the space of a week. A busy time indeed.

So, without any further ado, let us nonetheless as soon as possible...



...and to round things off nicely, here are additional notes on each of the tracks featured on the album:



Theme One
Presenting for your delight and delectation the first in a series of pieces developed using a Korg Kaossilator fed through effects and multiple layers. THEME ONE was based on a mutated jam session and getting tow series of different samples that they had to just get on with each other!


Theme Two
The second in a series of Themes based on jams, loops, edits and general madness evolving from working with samples from a Korg Kaossilator. This one is a noisy little beast with a great bass riff.


Theme Three
Chaos, Dischord, pulled back into rhythm, spinning off back into dischord and back into a beat; layers of Kaossilator served on a bed of white noise...


Theme Four
The Fourth track in the series of themes from these Kaosillator sessions saw a journey into dronescapes, where ambient doesn't always mean a new age chill, but instead can produce something altogether more unsettling and discordant.


Theme Five
Possibly the most complex track from this series of Kaosillator sessions - although only based through two samples fed through Ableton and numerous effects, they were a series of loops produced direct through Kaossilator and then edited to create just the right amounts of sync, glitch and discordancy.


Theme Six
The mighty Theme Six from this Kaossilator series of sessions. What make this unusual - yes, well may you laugh - is that this is the only one from the entire series of eight pieces based on a single sample with only a little fade in and out to make it ever so neat and tidy. Metallic, unsettling, beautiful and irritating, all in one.


Theme Seven
Number Seven in this Kaossilator series sees a move into in yer face beats, white noise swirls, and a scratchy loop somewhere in the back of your brain. There are two mixes of this track, and this is the one without the extra delay added.


Theme Eight

Theme Eight and the final piece from this series of rather insane Kaosillator themed session moves into epic territory with a piece of sweeping multi layered cacophony that should shake loose those stubborn bits of ear wax and remove those last few feeble brain cells. Enjoy!






Friday 12 February 2016

Monstrous Black Centipede


This started off its' life while listening to a spoken word piece from my favourite beat writer. Mentioning no names, though the initials WSB may be a clue. Anyway, this scion of the inventors of the adding machine spoke this amazing piece about a psychological experiment reducing the patient to a monstrous black centipede. And it suddenly occurred to me - that although I had produced comics, posters and video images based on this guy's work - not a single piece of muzak. So here we are: The instrumental is a big band number fed through paulstretching and ping pong delay filters and added flange added. I think the whole thing works really well together, and old Bill himself may well have approved!


Friday 29 January 2016

Welcome Aboard!

Santa got me a New PC for Christmas - so having wired it up the first thing to check was to set up various audio interfaces playing through it to make sure everything was working properly. And from that initial Jam from my Mc-303, came various bits of looping, editing, and overdubs. The instrumental piece was made with a riff from my Kaossilator. But enough technical kit speak already - I love this track!


Thursday 28 January 2016

All Change Please

Yes folks - there are various changes afoot here at Quaquaversity as the Conny Plankton Soundcloud has reached its storage limit. Nothing wrong with the idea  of paying a bit extra for more storage, but it had left me thinking what the best long term solution was to getting people access to my muzak through the Quaquaversity blog and beyond. Soundcloud do a great job, but I have had to be ruthless in thinking is it worth paying a monthly fee when hardly anyone is listening to the music. This doesn't mean I am all morose and somnolent like, but just have to start getting a bit real about these things.

So I have started moving across stuff into a new site and online presence over at Bandcamp. A copy of the Bandcamp link is in the links section on the right hand side of the page. However this link can also be found can can also be found here, by clicking on the magic phrase:

Whelks are sleeping under your bed.

Or by clicking on the image below:





Bandcamp should allow for ready access, although the interface has been completely different and will make for a different layout to get to the Conny Plankton uber sound. This layout will kick in from this post onwards. It also means having to reupload some of the Soundcloud files from earlier posts back into Bandcamp as we get things sorted. All of this may get more than a tad confusing as we wind the clock back on some of these earlier posts to get everything roughly back into some sort of chronological order.

We will all get there in the end. I want to keep the Soundcloud site going however, which will continue to evolve and develop over the next few weeks.

So Beep Beep! Everyone aboard? On we go!

Friday 22 January 2016

Kaoss from the outer reaches




Moving on to something new...exploring my Kaossialtor - a hand held device that allows some amazing sounds to be touched and stroked into existence. From a Jam session played on top of a midi riff through Bass Station and reverb added through an Alesis Midiverb. Oh, and rather good for the head too...

Friday 15 January 2016

The P.A.Morbid Song Cycle

This Post is a generally sweeping and possibly wee bit pretentious title for a series of musical projects that began some six or seven years ago with the idea of doing a series of remixes and sort of cover versions of some of my favourite muzak pieces, lyrics and poems. To the best of my knowledge, no one has ever done cover versions of these before.

Vocals were recorded on minidisc (remember them) by none other than the great North England poet, P.A. Morbid.  Morb is well known around the local poetry circuit, and has a number of published works.

He is also the voice and guiding force behind his own musical project, Killy Dog Box and Pre Dating the 13th. Perfect dark ambient fodder for a cold winter evening and well worth checking out, and links can be found here:

https://soundcloud.com/killy-dog-box

https://soundcloud.com/pre-dating-the-13th

The four tracks were finally completed  among a series of a number of other projects, although I did not want to put anything up on the blog or Soundcloud until I felt everything was finished, and Morbid had graciously given me the go ahead to use his golden larynx. So now, a mere seven years or so later, here we are:

Magog Hammer Machine





First one from a series of remix cover version projects. Vocals are by none other than P.A.Morbid. The original version is buried somewhere in the title and the supporting image may well be a clue. Suffice to say one of my favourite ever tracks, and a big influence for many things over the years.  It is now far removed now from the original track, with a series of time stretched tones. overlaid samples, loops and general madness.



Archbishop Thunderstorm




The second piece in the series was a classic from one of my favourite 70s Krautrock bands. Amazing lyrics and incredible vocals and beat in the original. No way that it could ever be matched in terms of its lysergic intensity - so this is a completely different and individual take. Vocals are again from the Rev. P.A. Morbid.





Come Again




A cover version born not in a song, but in a poem. But not just any poem of course, but one of the greatest poems ever. Penned by everyone's fave Irish Poet Golden Dawn member, this tells of an apocalyptic vision heralded by spiritual decay and cultural loss. Probably more pertinent even today than when it was written. Loved it ever since I saw a comic version of it in International Times made as a collage cut up by Biff Comics. Vocals again are by the incomparable P.A. Morbid.




All the Ears Round




The final piece from this series of insane cover version projects, this time returning to my favourite 70s Krautrock bands with the a track just showing their just plain amazing and incredible lyrics. I tried to use Morbid's vocals to bring the hypnotic, overwhelming, trancelike, unsettling quality of the lyrics right into the foreground.