We liked this heart-achingly sweet compilation of some rare Michaal Jackson video to the tune of “Smile”. If this doesn’t get the tear ducts going you might already be dead. Gentle giant indeed.

Tags: michael jackson, mj, Smile, tribute

Microsoft Songsmith is new software from Redmond that actually introduces a pretty cool technological maneuver: it parses a musical vocal passage and attempts to add auto accompaniment in a variety of styles, taking cues from the user as to emotional scale ranging from happy and sad to genre based generalities like “jazzy” and “twist” and gee, I dunno, a train smashing into a muzak jukebox.

Tags: auto accompaniment, baby steps, cues, elance, game environment, generalities, google, hilarity, irony, jukebox, karaoke, maneuver, microsoft songsmith, muzak, nerds, new software, Radiohead, songwriting

I could almost boast that I saw the evolution of glitch in front of my very eyes. Despite my own history making ambient music influenced by FSOL, Can and Pete Namlook, I claim absolutely no contribution to this movement, but I can say I was there. I think it had something to do with people who had the tools, the pedigree and the fact that they were making jingles, and so had hundreds if not thousands of bits of audio that they reassembled into micro-edited music-concrete. But the difference here, that made it something beyond experimental noise for the “advanced music appreciationist” was that it SLAMMED. This stuff was groovy, sexy and could stand up by anything the Neptunes could throw at you.

Tags: advanced music, ambient music, android, Aphex Twin, art galleries, blue eyes, dj music, dj remix, drum n bass, echolocation, edited music, electronic music, electronica, experimental noise, fsol, glitch, goldie, kratz, Los Angeles, music blogs, music concrete, music weblog, the glitch mob, viper room, warehouses, warren g