31/12/2007

send away

i think i've finally got a version of send away that works completely. i bit the bullet and just hacked the last section right off, so instead of going back into the 'climactic' beat bit, it just ends there, going into the synth sound etc. it still goes for over 3 minutes and i think it is a complete song - it doesn't feel like anything is missing, and it also no longer feels like there's a totally redundant section in there.

i've also registered the punches or the lies and i saw this and thought of you with cdbaby. i'll be sending some copies of tpotl off in a few days and then the album when it's ready. the main thing with this is that all the music will then be available via itunes and most of the other e-retailers on the web. it also means we now have bar codes for both - i'll send the istatoy one to you for your artworking.

25/12/2007

thinking of thinking of you

i had much trouble sleeping last night - i often have nights where thought processes take over sleep processes and the sleep just has to find a bit of room anywhere it can. anyway, one of the things that kept me awake was a possible idea of how to present the images you've been producing in the packaging. so here is a suggestion - feel free to get excited or flame as appropriate....

we print the images on transparency as either a booklet or, more possibly, a set of cards. the images as they currently stand are great. i don't know if there's more to come, but if there is, that's also fine. we then either add all the written info we require around/over some of the images, or make separate cards, again on transparency, with that info. we then house these in a box with the cd on a button under the lid. i'm imagining a box about the size of a regular cd case. on the outside of the box is something graphic, screenprinted, based on something of the forms on the imagery inside, but as one or two colours - graphicised (if such a work exists). it would also include the title and band name on here, and possibly tracklisting on the back, though somewhere easily accessible on the inside would also be an option (perhaps in the space under where the cd sits so it's only visible when the cd is removed).

i'm imaging a box made from solid card, possibly even with strips of ply for the sides, then covered in the screenprinted paper/material.

thoughts?

24/12/2007

i'm glad it was those images that made you think of me

...because they are really very good. any idea how you might like to start incorporating them into the book(let)? i've been toying with the idea with a slightly more exyensive use of rubber stamps for this one as well. and screen printing as well, but am happy to have those ideas subsumed by the aesthetic rather than force them in. however, i do really wish to keep some sort of handmadeness in the actual image making.

the gig on jan 6 has officially been postponed due to issues with the venue among other things. at this stage it looks like being rescheduled for march. so that actually gives us a realistic deadline, too.

when shall you be back from you journeying? we are pretty much around anytime except the week of the 12th-19th.

as to the image formatting issues on blogger - what other options are there? i don't mind what you've done, linking to a higher res external thing.

i think there's enough happening on this blog and the myspace site, and i plan to overhaul the virb site very soon to make it into an information site, so that the official telafonica site is becoming a little redundant. make it into an artwork for yourself. don't deliberate so much, just get this kind of stuff there. i think i would like that a lot.

16/12/2007

i saw this and thought of you

Some of the images i've been working on from those photos - could be a good visual starting point for the album artwork. Will email a higher res image to you.

11/12/2007

a partial response...

Another missed JLN for us. Glad it went so well. What were the numbers like?

I felt fairly ho hum about the set on the night. Had a similar sense of some reasonably positive feedback but it was certainly not glowing. I guess for me there's just a big gap between where we're at as producers and what comes off live. I find this bothersome I must admit...

One piece of constructive feedback I received was that in some songs your vocal almost blew anything else away including both cell and I! I feel that this is one potential problem with the current set up. It's pretty crazy really for you to be expected to perform a song and know how the mix of the vocal is sounding from the audience. At the moment of course - the sound person can't fix anything in the mix... Could you send the vocals separately from the laptop to the desk?

It's also pretty clear to me that for the kind of set we're playing there really needs to be some more practice time put in. Obviously it's been difficult enough getting in what time we have. I just felt on Thursday night - whilst there wasn't any real problems as such - we just weren't really in sync.

As kind of previously planned - we've decided not to play any more shows before feb 4... As for the future - I pretty much see it as an open opportunity to go in whatever direction. I think we have a lot of potential for collaborative working across the globe - but we cant really know until we get there.

I'd really like you to build on current energy... And agree you can't really do the kind of thing you want to by yourself.

Finishing the album... We have time off from christmas to the 7th. We're away from boxing day for a few days - but should be able to do a couple of days in the studio in there somewhere. I must say I find the idea of having it finished before the 6th quite optimistic - but I'm keen to give it a shot.

10/12/2007

coming to a head

had just like now on friday with broken chip and underlapper. underlapper was mind blowingly good (and broken chip was excellent, too). the last time we saw them live, they were doing hip-hop vocals and were fine, but not brilliant. they've morphed considerably since then and are pretty awe-inspiring now.

as for thursday night, all the feedback i've been getting has been fairly positive. those that have seen us play before have pretty much had a similar feeling to what we did - that it wasn't bad, but that it didn't quite take off like it can when it works. (i think the monstrous now were very much the same) but, particularly for those who haven't seen us before, there has been a very positive response - from the sound guy and the barman, who were both quite rapturous (and i've played to many many sound guys and bar folk to know what is real and what is politeness!) to others just there. so in retrospect, i'm fairly pleased with how it went. i agree that problems we did have were probably due to set list structures in that particular environment. i also think that we probably need to have more volume coming at us on stage to help us feel it and that then makes us do things better.

i've been pondering a lot over what to do with the love show come february. i feel a reasonable level of momentum building at the moment (reasonable for us in relative terms, anyway!) and i'd like to keep it going. however, i don't want to just try and graft in replacements for the live show to simply fill in the functions on you two. i would rather set it up differently in order that telafonica as the three of us still exists with a clear identity and function, and the live thing has its own identity, presenting what we create in a live context but without trying to be the three of us. i mentioned to marcella a little while back that i had thought of the idea of a small group of singers - possibly two female and one male - to do live stuff. i like that our live set-up is fairly simple and don't want to complicate matters too much, so that is a fairly simple way of getting something distinctive that isn't just a straight 'let's find a replacement to do marcella's bits' option. having also done the show at the vic on the park, i think it would be impossible for me to do anything meaningful running everything myself (laptop, fx, singing etc) other than just the old press play and sing along, so i've thought of possibly getting steve fox to help me do that stuff. at this point in time, i would pretty much envision all of that happening as a hired hands kind of thing for the live shows, while we continue creating telafonica as we always have.


lastly, this album. i think we can have it ready for january 6. what i think it will involve from a musical perspective is to put aside 2 days. on the first day, we lock ourselves in with the microphones. the songs still needed to be finished (i'm thinking specifically of gem and smells like rain) get done on that day - (re)written, sung, recorded. as do the last few vocal bits that need redoing. the second day we mix it all. now, a lot of the mixing is already done and we've been listening to it all and have a fair idea of anything we want to adjust etc, and then there's the newly recorded things from the first day which we'll have on that day. the mixing day i can do solo if needed, then run it through you guys for any more adjustments, though having at least one more pair of ears during mixing would also be great. i think we've sat on the whole thing long enough to know what it is now, and what needs to happen with new things to be able to pin it down - i think we just have to bite the bullet and do it. so - do you have a spare day or two bfore new year? we'll be away from friday until sunday the 23rd. perhaps a time between christmas and new year, if you're not away of course. otherwise, perhaps we could break them up - do the singing on one free day (weekend?) and then i can do the mixing after christmas.

03/12/2007

finally someone taking notice




is this telafonica's first officially published 3rd party review?

i went along to concrete last night. it is definitely a gig we have to play, so i've said yes to a spot on sunday, january 6. marcella, you said you went back to work on the 7th, so i'm taking the assumption you should be around on the sunday night. it was on the 3rd floor of the building used by the hope street mission for their restaurant and bar and has a great feel to it, and a good crowd. bec paton and clark nova will also be dj-ing on the 6th, so i have to say i'm pretty excited about the prospect.

which brings me to the last point. how realistic might a january 6th album launch be? can we get the music and packaging completed by then?

29/11/2007

jubilee

for the manifesto of some world view

all that glitters isn't worth seeing
crucify what you don't believe in
distract a mind from what it is to be being
crucify what you won't agree with

the ultimate goal is to feel no pain
protect what you love from any change
but comfort is the absence of sympathy
and if i ignore then there's nothing good in me

she said:
you no longer control the things i do
i am not listening to you
you were once so beautiful
but now we're older
cracks are forming
the light you've hidden is starting to break through


the chicken or the egg (again)

for the artwork, i think the latter option of you starting and then me critiquing/adding would be best. as to specific aesthetics, i don't really know. i think that with music and visuals, the associations normally come once the relationship has been forced into existence. so i think that any starting point is fine. the title is fairly evocative so could be a guiding factor.

dust went well at the vic on the park and is definitely a good vocal for cell. i'd be happy to play it. smells like rain actually went down very well there as well, hence my keen-ness to do it again, particularly if we can practise some harmonies.

my thoughts for the projected stuff would not be that they are actual images to concentrate on, but rather ambience that replaces flashing or still lights. especially in the sound lounge where the walls are red and black and the stage relatively large. they would just have the effect of colouring the stage with enough light to make us out, but have an atmosphere that you don't get with stage lighting that has not been designed specifically for us. when i look at the photos with carlos at the cat and fiddle, the whiteness just kills any atmosphere. so i wouldn't see it as a clash, because i'm not thinking of the images as actually being on a screen or anything for the audience to focus on, rather as a wash for as much of the space as possible.

printed up some flyers - just palm sized. i'll bring some for you.

28/11/2007

keeping house

Yep - book is good... As long as we can work out a really solid way and practical way to construct it. In terms of content - other than the whole psychedelia conversation - have you got specific thoughts about aesthetic? Did you want to both throw things in the melting pot or will I just get started and put something together for you to critique / add to in sketch form?

Set list looks good as a start. Cell and I talked about doing dust – as an old favourite. My main flag on this list is obviously smells like rain – just because of the vocal.

I have about 180 of those photos and could very easily take a bunch more. I agree with all your thoughts about creating a stronger aesthetic. I must admit having carlos and the photos seems like a lot. My main concern there would be that it might all look a bit like a jumble sale... It’s really hard to plan a strong stage layout beforehand though.

I have not had the time to look at getting ableton on to the new laptop – given the time left – I’m thinking about just sticking with the current set up. That’s assuming we will have noise removing DIs...

Did you get a chance to print up any flyers?

26/11/2007

hiding the blemishes

i should be able to get board without too much trouble. the dots may be a slightly different issue - i tried to get some a couple of months ago and in the end resorted to buying a mouse pad from officeworks and cutting them out by hand. but i wouldn't really want to do that again. my old source for them has disappeared so i need to find somewhere new.

should we now agree on a booklet format as the basis, with a hard board cover? does that then give us specific enough a focus to get content started? lastly, on the actual pages, feel free to think of pages in different sizes as well - e.g. some might fold out to 1.5 or 2 times regular size, some may be in the booklet but smaller than the regualr size etc.

any time to rehearse this week? i thought i might post a set list to get things started and you can set it (or what we end up deciding on) up. so:

blending the edges
requited love
this is the new thing
the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist (being a ferally released track, people might actually know that one too!)
smells like rain
send away
tape noise

is heartland still relevant anymore?!!

i thought the set suggested kind of builds, peaks, then eases of - a consideration of us being the last band on. so push and pull that around until there's something we're all happy with.

any progress on gem?

lastly, i've been thinking about the presentation of our performance. i think an evenly lit stage just doesn't have the kind of atmosphere i would like. we shall have carlos painting, but i was thinking of asking him how it might go for him with a little less light on stage. i think what i most like is a series of still(ish) organic (i.e. not c.g.) images which are relatively abstract but give the stage an ambience. i'd also like them to completely cover the stage (and even the roof etc) to create a mood in the room rather than to illuminate us in a small section. the original scratched slides we've had for years are probably still closest to what i would like at this stage, but i think they are unusable at the moment due to a dead slide projector. but, i also think your photos could be perfect for this (you can't imagine how happy i am that you took these kinds of photos!). how many do you actually have? i don't like images to have to repeat, so there'd need to be a significant number - but they can be manipulated as well (as long as they remain fundamentally organic) to get more. these could just be set up as a slide show type thing and projected with a data projector. i think it is actually vital to our presentation because we're not naturally charismatic performers, so we do actually need to get it right. what are your thoughts?

21/11/2007

extended comments

Firstly, there's no such thing as too long a post.

In regards to the packaging I feel a bit different in that i'm probably more worried about how we are going to approach the production than i am about the design or content. Though i do like it - i'm not totally sold on the recent folding technique - it just feels to fragile when i do open it. I'd also really like if we can to create something that has some real weight to it. As you know - i love hand made things where the hand made-ness is not the apparent driving factor in the design. Of course it is a core part - but not the a reason to be in itself.

I think the idea of a more expansive approach - perhaps something that tells a bit more of a story. i don't mean too literally of course! Printing out the lyrics in full seems like a good idea - perhaps with some kind of accompanying graphic essay.

I'm glad you like my recent photos - i have laid out a selection as a large print - i'll show it to you. I think in some sense they are my take on a huge wave of visual production at the moment that is obsessed with 'tactile' elements. I think a lot of people who have grown up in the digital age are finding a lot of inspiration in applying what they've learned to do with a computer in a more hands on way.

I enjoyed your underworld review. I have also been enjoying the album a lot. It's funny because i think i would find it hard to review with much objectivity... i thought you did very well.

Also - and i'm sure this will make you laugh... having long since rejected the intermediate version - i've been pondering a new telafonica website...

more soon

i saw this and thought of you.

i think the time has come to make a serious start on packaging for the album. what i'm mostly concerned with is the content at the moment, as that is what will take time to get done. the form, i think, is not as essential just yet, though i've got a few ideas which would be good to discuss.

do you have any thoughts on what the content will be at the moment? particularly whether it should relate directly to the title and conceptual frames of the songs?

i have been thinking about the idea of a zine kind of thing we mentioned quickly a long while back. i think i would really like to make a small book as the main feature of the packagaing. this may end up being similar in size to a regular cd booklet. of course, the jewel case will be avoided though - possibly replaced by a solid type of cardboard case or holder or something - i'm researching ways of doing that (i've collected quite a number of packaging and paper manipulation type books over the last year or so).

sooo...content. if it was a book, i can also imagine a whole bunch of different paper formats which we can mix through the book - from regular paper to the kind of old computer paper i used on those just like now posters, to our brown paper, to transparent paper etc. the main thing will be to keep costs relatively low and also to keep the format of each page so that it can fit onto an a4 sheet, just as that will make printing infinitely cheaper. i can image a mix of printed graphic work and actual screenprint/stamping/hand drawn stuff. i would really like to re-establish the actual stuff in the packaging rather than the purely printed out as has happened in the last few 4-4-2 releases. i also am really really in love with your recent batch of photos - as you now know, i absolutley love the psychedelic aesthetic, though i've never really mentioned it too much because i always thought you might find it too retrograde etc. however, those photos seem to use the aesthetic but bring new forms to it - kind in the vein of what you mentioned quite a while back about not imitating old forms but referencing them with new things.

yep, that's probably too much for one post, but i think it's reasonably urgent that we get on with it!

i'ce also officially posted my thoughts on the new underworld album on cyclic defrost if you're interested.

and, lastly, just so it's on our blog:

19/11/2007

powwow





each band plays 30-40 minutes. we're last on at 10:45. i say we go for the 40 minutes end. we stretched 7 songs over 45 minutes last weekend!

i enjoyed ending with tape noise - i finished it by sending everything through the distortion and delay pedals on my mixing desk which made a really nice climax, though it could work anywhere in the set, really.

i've been thinking i wouldn't mind starting with blending the edges, and i also would definitely like to do smells like rain again, having practiced some harmonies with cell. i'm really liking it as a song at the moment and think that with harmonies it could be really great.

ummm...this is the new thing, requited love...yeah, i think as much new stuff as possible is a good option.

the ads above are from the feral folk - they've made a separate ad for each band. i wouldn't mind our own as well (you know, the one you've been working on :) ). i'd like to particularly be able to print some up to give out to folk.

next weekend/next week is pretty much fine for me, except thursday night. monday/tues would need to be here as bec is out.

15/11/2007

a small post from the white boy

I'm glad saturday went well. I think it's good for you to think about what you want to do next year. I'd like you to be able to play as often as you want, wear a frock and perform in a natural way. I doubt this is something that you'll be able to do alone... unless you basically play sequences and carry on / sing over the top.... which in itself is not to be discounted but I suspect for telafonica, more people = good.
It's going to be an interesting time for the 'band that will never break up'... I think it's exciting.

a couple of things i've been enjoying:

The Whitest Boy Alive, Matthew Dear, FUJIYA & MIYAGI

13/11/2007

lists and pics



just for my own memory (and apra purposes down the track) - the set list, as i remember it...

send away
blending the edges
dust
the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist
smells like rain
this is the new thing
tape noise

(was that all or have i forgotten something?)

12/11/2007

vic in the dark

saturday was good - it was a line-up with other good music which was nice - toy death in particular were incredible. very much a live experience i think, but brilliant. dandelion wine turned out to be really nice people who also played enjoyable music so i was very glad to be able to meet them.

our set was fairly good, but musically there weren't many additions - it's hard work trying to get the sequences and fx happening on the fly plus sing and control the mixing desk. i had originally thought that i might try to do all the stuff myself in your absence but my thinking is that now i definitely need to have somebody else along as well. after watching steve's films - which we used for projections on saturday - my thoughts turned to asking him if he'd be interested in doing the live stuff. it's also really hard to be a performer when all of that stuff also needs doing, and i really think we (i) need to be pushing ourselves as performers rather than just players of the music. i thought our actual singing was good. we also sold $100 worth of cds, both morpheme and the punches or the lies, plus got $30 from our 15% cut of the bands' cut of the door.

on a really wonderful note for future reference, we set everything up as per normal and had our friend the laptop buzz coming through loud and clear, so i asked for two d.i. boxes with earth lifts, which cindy our sound guy happily supplied me with. i ran the laptop into the d.i.s, then the d.i.s into our desk and, bingo - no buzz.

a rehearsal or two for the powwow show would be good - it may possibly be our last all together for a while so it would be nice to do it really well. when are you guys free?

08/11/2007

frocks

is it still ok for me to come over tonight for a rehearsal/whatever it is we do?

i'm thinking of frocking up for future telafonica shows - what do you think?

probably 90% certain to turn to the dark side and get a mactop. also, i've got the discs for ableton at my place - do you have your new computer yet and do you need them to install live?

06/11/2007

i thought of you

i've been listening through to the tracks with laughing at trees in to replace the sun sets...

i have to say, it's finally sounding like an album to me. it also runs for just over 45 minutes - a perfect length, i think.

i've added some harmonies to smells like rain which i really like. i'm still not really happy with anything i've done in terms of the sound of my voice for it. how would marcella's voice sound singing the lead? i would imagine fairly solid harmonies most of the way through from my voice if that is the case.

going through the motions

any sign of a set list yet?

some personal requests -
this is the new thing
blending the edges
item number
(maybe)smells like rain
...
...
..
.

01/11/2007

Notes on a scandal

tape noise:
maybe add some kind of high-ish freequency sound. something crisp and clean - to contrast the muddier sounds.

This is the new thing:
vocals - too dry? too loud? but maybe that's the whole point of it?!!

GEM
Cell to sing.

requited love:
mix a little muddy?
vocals. re-record... and experiment with effects

Blending the edges:
re-record aje vocal

send away:
this song is structurally unsound.

let's try bringing the kick in right at the start... so it has more imapct.
i like the underworld vibe - it makes more sense to me that way... maybe we could include even more echoing percusive sounds... creating a dense texture.

Item number:
good as is...

The sun sets:
loops to aje
possibly swap for populus

Smells like rain:
record vocals
cell to try vocals

Listening in for static:
vocals, vocals, vocals.

it never rains

a whole bunch of different things to report on have landed all at once.


firstly, electrolyt has released their new netlabel compilation which we submitted 'hearing but never understanding' for. i haven't had a chance to download the whole thing yet (our computer at home is completely stuffed at the moment) but the list of artists looks good - a mix of andreas' various projects, a bunch of the mexican abolipop folk and a few other things i haven't heard of before.

secondly, i decided i'd start contacting artists about performing with telafonica at future gigs. there's been quite a positive response so far from the handful i've contacted. they range from painters to performance and video artists. some of the ones who have shown an interest so far are:

butt[::]ns -


i've actually since found out that she spent a year and a half touring with the red paintings and painting on stage for them.

penny jane spankie -
can be fairly confronting at times, but always with purpose and done quite well - i really like this film in particular. i can't get the video to embed in this post so it's up as a separate post below. she also runs a small gallery in darlinghurst which i've been meaning to check out for months.

there's also one of my students from this year's y12 who is good and very keen.

lastly, i've been working on the music a bit - i've decided to take 'smells like rain' back and i've kept the song with it, but i've worked on it, added extra instruments and i quite like it now. i'd also really like the singing in it to be along the lines of 'this is the new thing' with unison/harmony all the way through. i've been playing around with track listing following our discussions last time i was over - i've moved 'laughing at trees' right off the album for the moment and also shifted 'the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist' to nearer the end. you're definitely right in that pulling them out of the beginning bit helps it all to flow much better - it feels like you are into the album much earlier, rather than waiting for all the introductory kinds of tracks to set you up for so long. i'll bring a disk along tonight, but i've currently got it as:

tape noise
this is the new thing
gem
requited love
blending the edges
send away
item number
the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist
smells like rain
listening in for static

it runs at about 45 minutes, i think.

i'll see you tonight, probably at around 7:30ish or a little bit later.

Mask

27/10/2007

sound quality again

http://www.abc.net.au/rn/soundquality/stories/2007/2056426.htm#transcript
a link to the actual listenable version of the show.

i'm also thinking it might be good to come over sometime this week so we can start to get these final tracks ummm...finalised. when are you free?

also, i still haven't got the individual loops for the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist so that i can play with it in cubase - could i possibly get them?

26/10/2007

rain, hail or shine

ok. so the vic on the park is on for november 10. we're first on, at 8 for 30-40 mins. i've asked carlos if he wants to come along - he's also painting at berkelow in glebe on the same night so probably won't be able to. i'd really like to build more of a collection of artists - do you guys know anyone else that might be suitable?

if it's minus 2/3rds, i was thinking i would mostly stick to musical stuff, which may mean a few more of the older tracks than we've been doing recently, but that's ok. this is the new thing would be nice to do in some form, i might play around and see what can be done in terms of a remix version live.

25/10/2007

vic on the park

are you two free and desirous of doing a gig and the vic on the park in newtown on saturday, november 10? it's with a band from melbourne called dandelion wine (http://www.myspace.com/aninexactscience). apparently they are friends with julian from bleepin' j squawkins and he recommended us to them when they told him they were after another band to play with them.

only issue we need to let them know fairly soon, so if you could let me know either way, that would be good. i'm keen.

24/10/2007

sound quality

tim ritchie will be playing this is the new thing on his sound quality show on radio national this friday night (from 11:20). and then it can also be listened to online for 4 weeks. the web page is here. with a little luck it might be apra week - national radio play is worth a little bit. i also stumbled across an archive of the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist having been played on jjj (from the feral media compilation).

22/10/2007

girl, cat and bear


i think this is possibly my favourite carlos barrios painting ever, and it was largely created on the stage of the cat and fiddle. not a bad gig all up. got us (well, david), back into enjoying gigs and also produced some good art.

i was just thinking about our gigs this year the other day. i think they've all been fairly enjoyable, and not a single one has been in front of what we could regard as our regular crowd. i've enjoyed that aspect of playing in front of people i don't know!

sent off a bunch of promos to 2ser, 3rrr and a couple to individuals around the planet. there's been a reasonable amount of airplay on fbi so far, though they didn't playlist anything, which i was a bit disappointed with - thought they might have liked something on there. but i'm very happy to keep plugging it around the place.

19/10/2007

listening in for static

i've been listening to and working on some of our recordings over the last few days (i've finally had a chance to get back to them!). in particular, i've been thinking about listening in for static. i've had a few goes at recording the vocals and i have to say that i'm not particularly happy with how they sound. it's right at the top of my range and it's fairly obvious at times that i'm quite struggling to do it. last night, i thought that - hey, we're looking for more vocal input from marcella, this is pretty much out of my range, it's too difficult to drop the pitch so i can do it, why not see if it suits marcella? it might be low for marcella, but i'm hoping it's ok as it really is right at the top for me. have a sing along and see what you think. the lyrics are in an earlier blog post if you need them. the type of song that it is could also mean that, if it does work for marcella's range, there is the potential for it to be one of those songs that she can let loose, a la heartland, dust etc.

saturday was great - the monstrous now are one of my favourite bands to listen to live. we sold a few cds - probably enough to just about cover the costs, so now we can start getting some money back for them. i'm looking forward to playing with them at powwow, even though we have pretty much nothing in common with them sonically!

how was cloud control? what did they do with the venue - did they open the upstairs section up?

15/10/2007

The Tracks I played on friday

Euro Vs Dollar(Pski edit) - Octet
I Need Ya - Lopazz
(Hey You)What's that Sound - Les Rythmes Digitales
Astounded (mix by Demon) - Bran Van 3000
Bubble Poppin' - Harco Pront
Birth School Work Death - Manhead
Cherrybomb - Caribou
Panther Dash - The Go! Team
I Am A Witness(The Strike Boys Danger Dub) - The Strike Boys
Astro Travellin - Quasimoto
Loud Pipes - Ratatat
Git - Skeletons & the Girl Faced Boys
Bastronic - Cosmo Vitelli
I Need Your Love - The Rapture
Det snurrar i min skalle (Cat Burglar Remix) - Familjen
Det snurrar i min skalle (Mike Downey Remix) - Familjen
Neverland - The Knife
Enjoy the Silence - Depeche Mode
But For You - Matthew Dear
Les Yper-Sound - Stereolab (from the Four Tet DJ Kicks album)

(yep, no telafonica)

13/10/2007

the royal we.

so how did we go last night?

a big shout to jack shit - he's played telafonica on his show on fbi for 3 weeks running now!

12/10/2007

creating a buzz around telafonica

seems that maybe trying d.i. boxes with a ground switch might be a good way to go. we have had situations where there's been no hum, and thinking about it, they were a while ago before we were using the current desk and therefore were sending the laptop directly to the foh mixing desk. maybe the times it worked fine was because we were going into d.i. boxes.

do you have time to come over during the week? because i know it hums out in my studio, so i can borrow a couple of d.i.s and we can test it out there to see if it works. apparently an external soundcard might also help, but that's a much more expensive option.

i don't think the positioning of the power supply in our case is relevant. it's happened often and with the power supply in all sorts of positions.

electricity

Does this make any sense to you?


I'm freaking out a little about 'the noise' tonight... trying to work out if there's anything i can do.

11/10/2007

united visual artists

have you ever seen the work of these guys?

hmmm. mid thread conversations....

http://vx.autonomous.org/320s/hell/DeathGroove9000.mp3

i heard theme from s-express on a movie last night - i've always wanted to play that out to a bunch of people. do you have it? i've got it on cd.

i also have a thing i did a few years back where i soundforged a bunch of tracks together, i would like to use the beginning of that which blends radiohead's airbag with public enemy's don't believe the hype, then into slip inside this house by primal scream. i'm not showing my age am i?

i'm pretty sure i can install software onto the laptops. we put the telafonica visuals on without any difficulty.

the new radiohead is pretty impressive. it's much more organic (i.e. less processing etc) than the last few things, and overall very mellow. still built around brilliant songwriting though, so they can't go wrong while they're doing that, i think.

09/10/2007

error message

i have noticed that some links on this blog have not been set up to open a new window - thus we have external websites opening inside our frame. this is bad. this makes me feel sick. i think it is better if we just use the blogger address.

08/10/2007

freeci fridey

Well, sam said any time after 9 and we can play whatever set or sets we want. I wouldn't worry to much about styles expected and just play what ever we want! i'm flex with the use of laptop / decks - but i think whatever we do it might be nice to throw some improvised noise around - so long as we keep the beat up.

mostly i think people want to throw themselves around - got any dancehall?!

i'd love to throw some old vinyl into the mix - probably samples and childlike scratching more than tracks or breaks - but it all might be difficult with one hand.

05/10/2007

boom boom boom let's go back to my room

o.k. so we head to the bush on friday and play doof music. i'm in agreeance on mixing up our own stuff with that of others, but how do we actually do it? ableton? or do they dj gear that we can use? and what music do we actually want to play? i haven't even heard of a bush doof in a long time, let alone listened to what they play there these days - 10 years ago in my heyday maybe! do we just blow away everything and play what we want, or make weird soundscape things or what?

also, the 10th of november is at the sly fox in enmore, not at the abercrombie as i recently reported.

30/09/2007

oblivion with bells

how does underworld continually manage to blow everything else right out of the water?




needless to say, i've pre-ordered my copy.

24/09/2007

trimming the garden



got the leafcutter john tickets today. they're $23.10 each. if you know anyone else that wants to go, they're all general admission tickets, so they can get them without having to split up.

are you guys around on the weekend of 5th, 6th and 7th of october? if you're around for any of that, would you be interested in playing a set at the hope street markets in downtown surry hills? we've been asked if we were interested. there's some reasonably good musicians playing - sui zhen and painted stones being two that i've heard. the markets themselves also seem fairly good - even ben frost has a stall there. anyway, let me know as soon as you can - it may be too late already but if you're free i can find out.

promo copies of the ep have been distributed around fbi so hopefully it might get a bit of play over the next few weeks.

19/09/2007

it's ok, i'm wearing my muscle suit

yeah, i understand what you mean in terms of solidness. i think it could just be a matter of paper selection, though, to make it more solid. i really like the format as it allows a lot of space for content, yet is simple to manufacture, fits in with the size of regular cd packaging and contains absolutely no plastic. i also remember many years ago, a discussion we had where you said you liked custom packaging but normally got annoyed with it because it was a pain to get the cd in and out. this format overcomes that completely as well because you can get the cd in and out without actually having to open the package. i just like it because it works on so many levels. so my recommendation would be that we thicken up the paper for the album to make it more solid. once it's folded up it's actually 8 layers thick. the ep has quite thin paper but the whole thing is relatively substantial, thicker paper would make it quite solid, i think. i've also tweaked the sizes a touch just so it's not quite such a tight fit as the ep ones are (which is not too much of a problem for thin paper, but could be for thicker).

i quite like the strength of the kick in send away, but because we are compressing and limiting stuff live, when it comes in the volume of everything else drops a touch. so, yes, we probably just need to pull the volume back slightly on the kick and it should fix the problem.

i don't want to punch you or lie to you

I think I can rustle something up for the TMN release. I’ll put some thought into it tonight. When you say origami – I assume you’re referring to the same techniques as used for the EP… I’m not sure about it for the album – I like it… it just feels very EP-esque to me. I just wonder if we could create something that felt a bit more physically solid or substantial.

The other night seemed okay – I am enjoying playing the new stuff quite a bit.

I was thinking that the kick sound in send away might need to be paired back – it tends to overwhelm me when it comes in – what do you think?

17/09/2007

on a roll

well, now that we've got the first telafonica release out of the way, i've got a few more things coming up!

firstly - the monstrous now will be launching their album on october 13 at just like now. i need to therefore have it all done by then. got any graphic things lying around that you'd like to try out on it? :) i don't mind it having a similar aesthetic to the telafonica stuff, though it would be good to differentiate them in some manner. the actual packaging format will be identical.

secondly, i'm still hoping we can have the album ready to go for december 6, so start thinking about packaging design for that. again, 4-4-2 music has decided that the origami package will be used - it's just content we need to come up with now. we'll be playing the december 6 show alongside the monstrous now, so i'm looking forward to having all the 4-4-2 music wares out on show (and sale).

i enjoyed playing the other night - i felt fairly comfortable in that environment and am very happy that all the new tracks seem to be working well live. i want to play out more!

13/09/2007

some lyrics etc

i've thought that i wouldn't mind doing blending the edges on saturday too - i actually thought that one worked quite well. it would probably need to replace something from the list - maybe the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist?



requited love

do you still the scars on my face? do they bother you at all?
do you still hear the tantrums in my voice? will you reach down when i fall?
do you still see the wrinkles on my heart? do they bother you at all?
do you still recognise the selfishness in me? will you reach down when i fall?

'cause when you look at me
and see what's really there
when you look at me
and place yourself there
your love is requited

do you still feel the sweat on my back? does it bother you at all?
do you still feel my wanderlust? will you reach down when i fall?

setlist and fonts

following my conversation with marcella on the phone - here's a starting point for a setlist for saturday:

1. requited love
2. this is the new thing
3. item number
4. the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist
5. send away
6. heartland

feel free to edit!

don't know if you guys are font collectors - i definitely am! - but peter saville is definitely up there with the best as a graphic designer for music and his general font use is really similar to the kind of thing we tend to do with telafonica - so this might be of interest - http://www.btinternet.com/~comme6/saville/fonts.htm

laptopjam


12/09/2007

posthumous

Overall, I enjoyed the sound of the music. The vocals to me – whilst perhaps not the tightest or polished – still had an enjoyable quality… rough and tumble perhaps. Songs like This is the New Thing, Heartland and Listening in for Static all require a fair bit of energy to sing and I think this raises the tone to more of a band show, which is fun... I guess some more practicing would help with tightness tho!

For me – having interaction in the mix of the sound is so much more dynamic and enjoyable. I don’t know if this translates to the audience but I suspect it does in some way. I think this is where live mixing really becomes something more than just hitting play on a sequence… because unexpected things happen. The more ways we can both be involved with the mixing and effecting of the sound – the better.

We need to get cell the mp3s we want her to work on. That way she can sit down by herself and build some songs… this is the best way for her to work. I was thinking perhaps we could give her the song you first sung for us on Friday and see what happens. GEM for me needs more work across the board – there’s something there, but not enough. As discussed we should go back to the drawing board for vocals and then build the sound around the song.

I have a thing on Thursday night with some friends from work… perhaps though – it’s mostly the vocals that need practicing – so you guys could still get together and go through stuff…?

11/09/2007

rehearsal

are you guys free thursday night if i were to come over?

10/09/2007

review/preview

well, as a show, i thought that saturday night was neither the greatest we've ever played nor particularly bad. i did enjoy having more hands on in terms of the actual music, but i thought my singing was not particularly good, especially on listening in for static. federico worked out ok (and his installation actually really suited sounditout's costumes - they work well together in the photos). i was actually not very conscious of him, which is probably good from a performance point of view.

we sold enough cds to cover the mastering and begin paying for the production (which was relatively inexpensive, but still needs to be paid - i borrowed money from the grant for it!). i've just pasted up a version of the artwork to go on promo copies to start sending out so i'll print them out tomorrow and get on with it. which also reminds me i haven't registered any of the new stuff with apra...

as for saturday, i'm quite looking forward to playing in another new environment, and amongst ears which i think should be fairly sympathetic. i've been thinking i'd really like to do the two tracks we ended up leaving out - requited love and item number - perhaps even to open with. we have a 30 minute slot - any other requests? as to actual details, we are first on the bill, which is good as we can set up properly! we begin at 10. the organisers will be there from 8:30 so we can get in anytime from then. we don't have any live art organised, but there is a visuals person booked for the whole night. are we happy to go with whatever is done by them, or do we want to also have some input of our own?

i think we do really need to up marcella's vocal input as both of you stated on friday night. at the moment, we have heartland as a kind of showstopper for when we play live, and dust kind of did that on morpheme, but we aren't harnessing that at all in the new recordings. the real issue is actually just doing it though. we've discussed numerous possibilities - getting gem working, adding vocal hooks to some of the more instrumental things. but i think it's coming down to where we started at the beginning of the year - physically doing the work. i'm very happy to write songs, but the general concensus is that it works much better when cel is writing her own things for her own voice. we're all in agreeance there. without wanting to be pushy, it just then needs to get done in order to solve the problem of not having enough marcella. can i do anything to get that moving ahead?

after saturday, the next big thing is hopefully to have the album ready for the november powwow show. that is my goal. is it realistic?

lastly - is there value in us pursuing theatre? i quite enjoyed listening and watching sounditout!

the punches or the lies


02/09/2007

more credits

Tape Noise (Marshall Watson version)
- additional production by Marshall Watson
- tundrastudios@marshallwatson.net
- www.highpointlowlife.com

Tape Noise (Broken Chip version)
- additional production by Martyn Palmer
- www.myspace.com/brokenchip

Tape Noise (All India Radio version)
- additional production by All India Radio
- www.allindiaradio.com.au

This Is The New Thing (Sunstroke Militia version)
- additional production by Andreas Dorwarth
- www.myspace.com/sunstrokemilitia

Laughing At Trees (TiefenKLANG version)
- additional production by Marcus Eberhard
- www.myspace.com/tiefenklangmusic

Item Number (Andy Rantzen version)
- additional production by Andy Rantzen
- andyrantzen@gmail.com
- www.myspace.com/rantzen

Mastered by Ant Banister @ Mantravision Productions (note 1 'n' in Banister - i got it wrong first time)

e.p. credits

thought i might as well stick them up here - keep the punters informed...

title:
Telafonica - The Punches Or The Lies

track listing:

1. This Is The New Thing
2. Tape Noise (Marshall Watson version)
3. Tape Noise (Broken Chip version)
4. Tape Noise (All India Radio version)
5. This Is The New Thing (Sunstroke Militia version)
6. Laughing At Trees (TiefenKLANG version)
7. Item Number (RantZen version)

All tracks originally written, recorded and produced by Telafonica.
Mastered by Ant Bannister @ Mantravision Productions
442-009
www.4-4-2music.com
etc etc

i've just sent a message out to all the remixers asking for exactly what info they would like to have on there, including contact info etc, so i'll give you that info in the next couple of days. if you perhaps send me all the actual artwork files except for the strip that includes the tracklist/credits, that way i can get to the printing of everything else.

do you have a copy of the 4-4-2 music logo?

31/08/2007

bbc1

i have no idea what the reach of bbc1 is in england - you guys would know better having been there for a little bit - but check out who pops up about half way down this playlist from last friday -
http://www.bbc.co.uk/radio1/maryannehobbs/tracklistingarchive.shtml?20070824

28/08/2007

powwow

we've got confirmation of the gig at feral media's powwow at the sound lounge in the seymour centre on thursday, december 6. we're playing alongside sparrow hill and someone else yet to be confirmed.

also, i need to get the remix things mastered in the next few days, so we really need to make a final decision on the track listing. what are your thoughts? i'll make up the packaging next week - are we going with just the black or do we want to add any handprinting as well? i've got plenty of the nice brown paper we've used for posters and morpheme covers in the past - should we go with that or something else?

26/08/2007

the punches or the lies



i've made myself a new copy of the punches or the lies (tm) using the updated ideas discussed on thursday evening. i switched the last 3 with the first three, and it does feel much more accessible. i am also tending to agree with cel that including the original of this is the new thing actually seems to give the whole thing a point. so, the current track list with all that in mind is:

1. This is the New Thing
2. Tape Noise (Marshall Watson version)
3. Tape Noise (Broken Chip version)
4. Tape Noise (All India Radio version)
5. This is the New Thing (Sunstroke Militia version)
6. Laughing At Trees (tiefenKLANG version) (new name?)
7. Item Number (RantZen version)

it seems to flow quite well, i think. it's not like an album where everything is planned to flow perfectly, but for a bunch of remixes from very different sources it hangs together. what are your thoughts?

and lastly, since we have to do it in the next couple of weeks - what type of paper do you imagine we should use for the packaging? i'm really liking the idea of black print on a nice paper. the latest packaging reviews on cyclic defrost have a nice review of si begg.




23/08/2007

adrian's to do list for september 8 -

live files for chuckles/populous/laughing at trees
live files for requited love
live files for smells like rain?

heal david's arm so he can be a rock star once again and not have to wear a lame plastic exoskeleton.

19/08/2007




us vs. them

well, the plan is to launch the monstrous now's album at just like now in october - though i haven't heard from them for a little while. but in terms of the artwork, nothing is settled anywhere, so whatever we want to use for whichever release is up to us. if we use that graphic stuff for telafonica, we need to have something else for the monstrous now - if it stays with tmn then we need something for ourselves in the next couple of weeks so i can get it printed up.

should the e.p. have a title? i was thinking perhaps a phrase from 'this is the new thing' - 'the punches or the lies', 'every prediction points to you', 'feel the bones beneath my skin'... any other suggestions?

a

one armed man

What has happened to the TMN release? is it on permanent hold? I would probably like to do something along similar lines for the EP - so if those initial graphics are now free - i'm happy to use them as the basis for the design.

In terms of doing things - i have a slight problem in that my broken right arm is pretty much useless for i don't know how long. Typing out this post left handed is enough of a struggle let alone using photoshop or ableton. i'm not sure where i'll be come september.

Come round one night this week -not tuesday- and we can go through it all.

to finish things, that is the question...

artwork - not sure yet. could we use something along the lines of the stuff you designed for the monstrous now a bit earlier, david? possibly even use it?

for september the 8th, we were thinking of basically playing all the tracks from the new album through. do you guys have any time this week to do some preparation for it? i'm happy to come in to your place. i'll need to get a few of the tracks broken down because some we haven't done live before.

i'll bring a copy of everything as far as it is recorded at the moment. there's still a few things to do, mostly vocally, but other field noise things could be good as well - we've started getting them on there, probably about 4 tracks have things so far, but some more segues kind of things would be good, i think.

send away is one that's kind of bugging me - just the last section - but i had an idea a few days ago, of taking some of the already recorded vocals and really cutting them up and programming them, so it's a vocal thing happening, but very obviously not sung. at the moment, it just repeats the second verse so feels kind of pointless and not like it really goes anywhere. my original thought would be that it was an instrumental section, which it kind of used to be but again without much point. i'll play around some more, but if you have any ideas let me know. i think we even discussed the option of cutting the final section completely out. that could also be looked into.

a

17/08/2007

hmmmm

I kind of just feel like writing on the blog without too much to say, Aj what are you thinking for the artwork? Make? Print? Combo?

I'd like to refilm the super 8 of my brother's wedding if that's ok with you, thanks for lunch last week, it was sweet to come over and hang with the girls.

What sort of set are you thinking for Sept 8? I haven't worked on gem, if you are sending a cd can you add that to it? my shuffle has stopped working so I haven't been able to get the file off it.

I'd like to listen to all the vocals we've recorded so far to hear if the songs are consistent with each other, I think I'd like to relisten to Send Away and maybe do some last minute tweaking. Have you thought/recorded any more 'natural/organic' sounds to integrate into the album? I keep thinking about flapping wings, not sure why.

M

13/08/2007

this is the remix thing

i now officially have all the remixes that we are expecting at this point in time. i got andreas' one this morning - a remix of this is the new thing. his official solo name is sunstroke militia. it's just great - it only uses the sounds we gave him, so it sounds like us, but it has this brooding, german thing going on which is perfect. my feeling at this point is that we use the six remixes we have on the actual e.p., they are diverse but i think flow well if we order them right. then any copies we send off to radio we add the original of this is the new thing at the front and try and get some ariplay for that, as well as any of the remixes that different people might like. and that may hopefully build some interest for the album, to be released in a little while.

06/08/2007

postmodern folk music

well, we have a whole bunch of new remixes to work with now. i set today as a deadline in order to give us time to get it all together for september 8. the quality has been pretty impressive. it's interesting that 'tape noise' was the most popular choice of track to remix, though everything on the list i posted got chosen by someone. i'll keep forwarding the download links as i receive them. so far there's marshall watson (which you've already heard), broken chip and all india radio doing 'tape noise', andreas has done 'this is the new thing' which he'll send over tonight, and TiefenKLANG has done 'laughing at trees' (title to be confirmed). i also have a cd at home from andy rantzen which i'll mp3 and send to you - it's a monster 9+ minute epic of growling rhythm experiments based on 'item number'.

artwork, anyone???

02/08/2007

we do still breathe!

yay - another voice!

i haven't mixed anything that we recorded yet as i haven't added my own vocals to it. i've been busily recording and mixing eliza's e.p. (the one i played a song for you a while back) but that should be done by next week so i'll get back on task with telafonica recording then. i think for your voice we really just need to get a final version of gem worked out and recorded. did that file we put on your usb stick work? any progress on turning it into a song?

gig dates - we are definitely on for september 8 at mars hill cafe, where we will launch a remix e.p.. carlos will be painting with us there. then the following week, september 15, we have a 30 minute set at laptopjam which is in the uts building. i haven't talked to carlos about that one yet - do you think 30 minutes is enough for him to use? perhaps i should be asking him that! do you guys know others who would be interested in painting live as well - it would be good to change it up now and then. then there is another possible gig at feral media's powwow thing at the seymour centre in either november or december (i have the date at home but can't remember off the top of my head).

i try to write as if it's just a conversation between us, but the knowledge that others will read can never fully be erased - just pretend you're on reality t.v. and are too much of a bimbo to be self-conscious.

david, any advances on some artwork for the remix e.p.? i'm thinking the two strip, 8 panel system is the way i'd like to go. we have 4 weeks to get it together!

good to see that kindpermission is back up and functioning as an on-line entity - perhaps a prelude to real life? ;)

30/07/2007

Today I blogged

Today was the first day I came home from work and could face another screen, I think it was because last week I was in outback NSW and wasn't in front of my computer at for, wait for it, 3 whole days - whoah! This thing even has a spell check, nice.

So Aje I'd like to hear some stuff we recorded - is there anything you can send me as an mp3 etc? What other stuff do we need to record? I always forget where we're up to. Can I view the rest of the blog while I write?

How was Sophia's birthday - I know I can ask that here but do you want to answer? Should I stick to things I know you'll want to answer.

David asked me today did I get the email about the gig dates, I may have got it too, but I don't pay too much attention to personal emails at work, it's all too hectic, I skim read then go back (hopefully and usually not ever) so they can sink in.

So we're playing 8 Sept in Parra any other city gigs? I have a friend from work who's keen to see us and after playing with Carlos I think I will let her, I felt that gig was a full package and I think we felt that which meant we we're able to be a whole package rather than playing like we're a half package.

How do I put pics in this?

Do you write as though only we will read your blog or do you write like anyone will read this? I think I'm writing as though anyone will read this. I think it changes my voice, perhaps that sounds wanky but you know, it is what it is.

I'll join your quest to be Sufjan, maybe I should be a Sufjanette.

M

17/07/2007

i'm becoming an html genius ;)

i do believe that i have sorted out the issues with both the telafonica and 4-4-2 music websites. on going through them, i discovered that some had a 'base href' tag in them which referred to the things that explorer has been trying to find and obviously not succeeding to do. for some reason, firefox doesn't seem to be affected by the tag, as it seems to ignore it. i played around a bit, and found that removing the tag completely (it wasn't present on every page anyway, so i figured it would work) means that both sites now function perfectly in both firefox and explorer. i'm very proud of myself.

11/07/2007


are you guys interested in going out on friday night? i've been reading lots about dubstep et al (including the article in this month's wire magazine) and listening to lots of it, but i'd really like to hear it on a proper system which, by all accounts, is the only way to really get its impact. and a bunch of the djs are people i know, so it should be reasonably friendly etc.

i've been planning future sounds (yeah, i know, the album will be done soon) and i think some of these rhythms could be what excites me in our own production for the near future. there's already elements of it in tracks like 'requited love' and 'item number'. but i'm thinking i'd like to try the rhythms and subsonics with something else completely over the top - i.e. telafonica. so anyway, i'm quite keen to hear it loud, which i haven't really done so far, except for a few bits when we went to the becks bar earlier in the year.

09/07/2007

theatre

does anyone wish to join me on my quest to become sufjan?

06/07/2007

nowhere man

i work so many hours that my life and identity have completely dissapeared. So has my blog posting. That said - i've always hated people apologising for not posting on blogs.

HDR should still be up on the noise site somewhere - but i might upload a QT to my own site. (which of course i've been meaning to remodel)I never forgave them for renaming my artwork themselves without asking me. This in principle is bad - but it is doubled by the fact that they called it 'traces in time' which is currently in the running for the anti-tate prize in the category of worst name for any artwork ever.

i'd love to play another show with carlos again - that was something i really enjoyed. I really liked it when cell helped out too! In terms of getting the album out there as a set - this seems like a great sounding post for how we feel about the songs. Let's do it.

04/07/2007

carlos


carlos has said he'd love to come and paint when we play at just like now.

i've been thinking that i wouldn't mind playing the actual album through as a set. it goes for about 50 minutes. it won't actually be released at the time but would still be nice for people to hear all the tracks, most of which we haven't played in front of our regular audience, in one go.

03/07/2007

hard disk residue

by the way, david - is the hard disk residue video up online anywhere? or the entire image that you made as a poster last year?

calling all troglodytes

o.k. so i've been trying to track down the issues with running the telafonica and 4-4-2 websites. this is all i can discover - using firefox, it recognises the root as my i.p address at netspace. however, explorer tries to use 'index.htm' as the root for the telafonica site, and the c: drive on my computer for the 4-4-2 site as the root. therefore, neither site works past the opening page in explorer (and the image doesn't even load on the telafonica site as it also needs to get to the correct root to find the image). my html skills aren't enough to help me detect the problem in the code, but that is basically what's happening - explorer is looking for the wrong root address. is it worth me going through and manually changing them to the full address on each link (yuk!) as a workaround?

marcella, we've got sophia's birthday on saturday morning - is there another time to get some vocals recorded? i haven't had a chance to play with what we did on the weekend yet.

just as a forewarning, i've booked us to play at just like now on september 8. it's alongside sound it out.

also, andreas has asked if we'd like to contribute to a netlabel compilation he's putting together on electrolyt. this is what he says about it -
"the compilation will be called "seek and destroy..." . there are no real guidelines when it comes to the style. electronic in some way i guess. and always keeping in mind: interruption, destruction...then i came to relax on the beach. :)".
i'm thinking maybe 'hearing but never understanding'. any other suggestions?

25/06/2007

remixes et al

i received the first fruits of our search for some remixes today. i've just got an mp3 at the moment. it's from a guy in a band called this sad machine. they've done 'tape noise' (can anyone think of a better name for that track?). i'll e-mail it to you. let me know what you all think of it. andreas has chosen to do 'this is the new thing' and andy has chosen 'item number'. it's nice how different people are all being attracted to different pieces.

i've fixed all the links now so they all open in new windows. we also received our first blog spam today, we're really moving up in the world.

any progress on web stuff? our various sites are getting stranger - i haven't touched anything but now telafonica.com opens up as a directory menu on firefox, though it still opens them main front page in explorer (only with everything linking back to my pc so it doesn't work). let's hurry up and get rid of it!!

does cell have any time to come and do some more vocal recording? i've got some holidays coming up so plan to get a fair bit of this stuff finished.

20/06/2007

Detach the emergency pod detachment!

Well – apologies for slow to no posting in the last little while. As I think I mentioned on the phone - I’ve been experiencing a period of profound vagueness for about 3 weeks… which I’m sure has limited my ability to write sentences. I cant really describe the situation except to say that I’ve pretty much lost touch with reality to the point that most everyday activities feel like an out of body experience. There is a popular theory developing that I don’t actually exist! I’m doing my best to prove this untrue by finishing sentences and maintaining eye contact during conversation as much as possible. (Not necessarily an easy task!) Either way – the best tactic I can create at this stage for escaping this mysterious limbo is to ride it out… this worries me slightly as I usually like to be proactive when faced with existential crisis.

All my failures are public and all the kids are laughing only at me

Regarding the 4-4-2 website – I can only suggest that I’ll need to go through the site and work out what’s going on. I could probably do this over the next week or so… In the meantime, perhaps we should put up some kind of holding page… because it is a rather ugly break! And as much as you’d like to deny it – people use IE.

Can we please check that we can set all links to open in new windows before we change public links to the blog?

18/06/2007

why does internet explorer suck so much?

i've uploaded the fixed 4-4-2 index page you sent me. it's fixed some of the problem, but it is now trying to link back to my computer rather than the server. now this is just bizarre, because you did the code and i didn't edit it - why is it defaulting back to my computer??!! the same issue is also happening on the telafonica website (which will no doubt be superceded any day now anyway) - all the links and images are trying to be retrieved from my computer, therefore nothing actually works.

of course, none of these problems seem to be occurring on firefox.

17/06/2007

updates

o.k. i've updated the side bar stuff so that all of it is now in html elements rather than the presets blogger gives you. so everything opens in new pages down the side bar now. if we add links in a post, can we use code to open in a new page without overriding the css thing?

so, if there's no further objections, i'm going to switch all external links to this blog to the new address which will mean everyone else gets to see the pretty side graphic as well.

15/06/2007

10 000

it is absolutley beyond my comprehension, but 'the man with the golden sickle' e-single which was released right at the end of december has now officially been downloaded ten thousand times. i'm just really not aware how these things happen and who is therefore listening - i wish it could be tracked! but this month's e-single which has been up for about 2 weeks already has nearly 3000 downloads. so it seems to be reasonably consistent when i get around to advertising it well!

i've been reading the march edition of wire, which is the most recent one locally, and there's some great quotes i need to write down. i'll do that later. but a question - it's obviously done on purpose, but why does arguably one of the best music magazines in the world have such poor art direction? is it reactionary? is it to avoid the ageing process (i.e. if there's no aesthetic then it's a timeless aesthetic)? can music and art not intertwine in a way that is good but not fashion driven? can we pull off something like that?

07/06/2007

non-format

o.k.. this is going to take incredible self control - NO FORMATTING on this post!!

most of the stuff down the side of this blog is reasonably related to what the actual blog is for - i put a 'recent inspiration' thing there for if we ever want to just add a link to a site that may have something to do with what we are discussing or just something we might take on board - you suggested something like this a while back to save making a complete post. so i guess it's kind of like the allb blog, but specific to telafonically inspiring things - feel free to use it.

same with the reviews - i figure the music i'm listening to and what i'm thinking of it will help contextualise the music we make - likewise the allb blog as it relates to visual inspiration.

i put the telafonica releases up but have to agree in thinking they're probably not quite that necessary here as to make them dominate so much. i've streamlined the compilation section and am thinking i'll probably do something similar with our own releases once i get home and can resize the images etc (none of that uploading large images and have html code to resize it down - makes for very ugly residue - something i learned from some obscure designer).

i'm keen to keep as many links to our things as possible there because, especially with the links in from cyclic defrost etc - it's a place that there is a reasonable chance people might make first contact with us, so i think it's good to be able to direct them out from here.

i'm also beginning to like the virb site quite a bit. we had our first friend requests in the last couple of days - 5 in all. as a social experiment, i decided to make 5 friend requests to start with (things like caribou/manitoba, underworld etc) and then see how it grows by itself from people making friend requests to us. probably a bit of an egotistical process, but i'm interested to see how it goes! i also think that the virb site is the one most likely to work as a content base - full release details (there's separate pages for each release on virb), photos, gigs etc. it can be manipulated around as much as the blogger site, so we can keep their aesthetics reasonably close.

i spent last night around at andy rantzen's place - we're planning a retrospective of some sort on 4-4-2 music. it will be a combination netlabel release/limited edition cd-r release/discography website thing. wanna help me!!??

lastly - i'm thinking that a july gig/cd launch may be a little close! how would you feel about playing just like now in september? the band already booked for then is an electro kind of thig called 'sound it out'. their demos are getting a bit of buzz on fbi (including ajax playing it regularly and calling it one of his favourite local things at the moment) and it will be their first ever gig. i think we could fit in reasonably well.

06/06/2007

CSS infighting

If you keep adding your own embedded style formatting to your posts - we continue to be unable to control it without editing individual posts. grrr.

disconnect

It does work well to have links and info down the side of the site. It does feel like it’s changed the focus of the blog somewhat. This is not necessarily a bad thing, but it almost seems to place this dialogue at the core and everything else is a side note. I wonder if we could use just links that jump to catalogue, profile, bio etc rather than listing things out so much.

Could we make a new title for ‘other blogs we contribute to’ so it only goes on one line. I was going to do it the other day, but my mind went blank when I tried to make a new title.

Html holes. Urg. I will try to get a look at it asap. Is it the new version of IE we’re talking about?

Interesting comments about the zine thing. It’s interesting when limitations become a design focus. Sometimes this works wonderfully well, but other times it feels… well limited. I think a designer’s motivation for using materials or techniques does bleed into the design – whether it be just by means of sub conscious influence. So, when something is made a certain way just because there was no choice it shows in the design – but when a limitation is embraced, stretched, explored and inverted – the whole thing becomes not about limitations but possibilities.

I’m really interested in the contrast of complex or detailed black overprints on simple bold colours; perhaps coloured paper or colour screen prints, stencils or free painting. I had actually used a coloured circle on the blog header design which I then removed for some unknown reason! It would be great to use a whole bunch of papers in one booklet.

03/06/2007

trackworks

i've been playing around with putting content onto this site - what do you think of it. it's fairly basic in terms of its aesthetic, i'm happy for you to play with it. but that kind of stuff should free up telafonica.com so it can be art rather than information. i'm thinking this kind of content can also go on the virb site, and possibly the myspace site, so that however anybody stumbles across us, they can find out stuff.

also, i seriously need you to dig me out of the html hole that i've created on the telafonica.com site as well as the 4-4-2 music site. neither of them functions in internet explorer. which would be fine, because i hate explorer, but 95% of the world or something uses it by default instead of firefox. both sites work fine on firefox, but both resort to strange link names, or links back to my computer (which therefore obviously don't work) when run on explorer. what's the best way to go about fixing them up?

02/06/2007

d.i.y.

we went in to the zine fair that's part of the sydney writer's festival this afternoon, and bec and i both spent a few dollars here and there on different things. but what it mostly brought home to me is the idea that when i think of handmade, i think of quality that is better and more interesting than mass production. while there was lots to like at the zine fair, a large chunk of it is that nihilistic kind of aesthetic. it has its place and i don't dislike it, i just don't ever imagine wanting to produce it myself. photocopiers, for example, can be used in part of something that looks quite beautiful, it doesn't have to just be low quality because it's cheap. it's something i know we've discussed a fair bit already, but it just confirmed in me that what we think about handmade is because it's what i actually do like the most - not because i've been talked into it!

with that in mind - there's also another project for 4-4-2 music that has arisen in the last couple of days - a bit of a dream release for me - so i'll tell you about that in an e-mail.

soooo....what are we doing for telafonica packaging!!! i do like the idea of a book of some sort with a cd in it, rather than a cd that has a booklet attached. looking at the blog design you did i also like the black and white, but have been thinking that tiny splashes of just one colour are really effective in that context. for example, we both agree that the orange writing is probably a bit much, but i could imagine that if everything is b&w&grey, then, for example, the name 'telafonica' was orange (or whatever colour) it would be really striking. and that idea could possibly be extended into things like the packaging - overlaying single colour screenprints on greyscale prints on nice paper etc.

30/05/2007

what's in a blog?

the internet is a wonderful, bizarre, self-referential place.

look at this.

i won't say 'i told you so'! :)

better start uploading that new format.

Cascading Style

It is frustrating me that i can't find an easy way to override individual post CSS. So any formatting that has been inserted to individual posts can only be changed by editing that post. Grrr.

28/05/2007

the words

tape noise

listen, it's in the details

this is the new thing

falling out or falling in
i'm not really ready but i'm jumping in
and the way ahead is very long
and the night is dark and your will is strong
which are worse - the punches or the lies
or the years together now denied?
"and every prediction is coming true
and every prediction points to you"

i can feel the bones beneath my skin
every one is digging in
don't desert me once again
where are you my only friend?
"and every prediction is coming true
and every prediction points to you"

the sun sets on the age of the instrumentalist

"sound machinery de-skills and de-physicalises music, allowing thinking and hearing precedence over gymnastics. practising is no longer necessary." (attributed to kraftwerk, paraphrased by kodwo eshun)

requited love

do you still the scars on my face? do they bother you at all?
do you still hear the tantrums in my voice? will you reach down when i fall?
do you still see the wrinkles on my heart? do they bother you at all?
do you still recognise the selfishness in me? will you reach down when i fall?

'cause when you look at me
and see what's really there
when you look at me
and place yourself there
your love is requited

do you still feel the sweat on my back? does it bother you at all?
do you still feel my wanderlust? will you reach down when i fall?

blending the edges

see the tree growing on top of the dusty hill
drive around here for hours it's all the same
pray all you like for rain but your missing the point
if the roots are deep enough the sheep will sit in the shade

i'll never do it again
i promise i'll never do it again

gloria - the life's already there

listening in for static

i've never been hardcore, i've never been true to my roots
i've never been hardcore, i've never been true to my roots
so look into the future, baby and listen to the future, baby
look into the future, baby and listen to the future, baby

we float around these days and never really enter in
we twist the meanings of useless words that would otherwise mean nothing
so look into the future, baby and listen to the future, baby
look into the future, baby and listen to the future, baby

i've never been hardcore, i've never been true to my roots
i've bastardised every piece of music i've heard
and just strung together every little shard of culture
don't break my fall
i always wanted to know that feeling
don't break my fall
i always wanted to know that feeling

++++++++++++++++++

the rest of the lyrics are yours and cell's.

i have perfect faith that whatever you decide to put up will be excellent for the website. (it's just the timeframe that worries me :) ) i think it would be fine to post it up in a formative state and then let it grow and develop over time. i don't think it needs to be worked out and complete to start - give it scope to continually evolve, even after the album and everything is finished. i still think you should not worry about having to fit any of the existing content into the new site - if there's things you would like to include, that's fine, but don't worry about making it fit if it doesn't naturally - we've got plenty of places to put traditional content.





love, hate, good and evil... which is which?

I’ve been thinking about the new website. And I really like the idea of structuring it more closely to the album. So under the overall framework – ‘I saw this and thought of you’ – a series of graphics and text linked to the songs on the album. Using lyrics etc. We could still include other photos of gigs etc. I’d like to design this also with the album artwork in mind – so the experience of listening, holding and looking is tightly linked. I’m not suggesting throwing out the current sketches – that’s still a structure and aesthetic i’m keen on. If you like this idea – could you send through the current lyrics you have – so I can start putting together some design sketches.

Also – I need to talk to you about possible construction of the TMN package so I can develop a more functional design sketch.

Ps – I hate having a day job

25/05/2007

in my head

i think it's already the title of the album in my head. it fits with what i think the album is mostly lyrically based on - cautionary tales of an odd sort, directed at people who are not me.


do you know how to shift the title bar in the css for this page so that it sits right across the top, instead of starting justified with the text a third of the way in? i think the title image is going to go off to the side once anyone starts looking at it on a smaller screen.

Growing without pains

I have to say - the title "I saw this and thought of you" is really sitting well with me as a title. I find it to be quite rich with emotional resonance for me. what do you think?

24/05/2007

22/05/2007

not quite quicklier

i think the fact that this blog is mostly housekeeping is precisely what could set it apart from other blogs and make it interesting. the idea that people can see the process we go through in making decisions. i could be wrong, of course, but i like the fact that it's a different idea to other blogs. and there's other places for us to air opinions about the world etc (allb, etc).

my opinions on the different sites:
www.telafonica.com - a visual site where you (and me, i suppose) are free to place art/design/anything without concern for necessarily presenting lots of information. it's telafonica's aesthetic place.
www.myspace.com/telafonica www.virb.com/telafonica - this is where we can make announcements, list gigs, list discography etc etc. they're the info sites for telafonica. i'm keen to get virb happening because it is much nicer, but at this stage, myspace needs to be kept up as well because that's where people actually are and actually look at the moment. i'm happy to look after all the content stuff. if you want to play with them aesthetically, feel free, especially in terms of linking them visually to telafonica.com
www.telafonica.blogspot.com - the housekeeping. but also letting people on to the 'inside' and seeing this exact process. as i said, i think that's an interesting enough idea. and there's no harm making it public and have no-one see it. but there might be the odd person who would be interested. again, aesthetics can be edited to match, but aren't particularly the focus.

i don't mind at all that it's spread out over these things. everyone expects that these days anyway, and as long as they all link to each other, it's no different to separate pages on a single website, except this way, people's expectations of what kind of thing you'd get at each site are met at those sites.