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

Rest in peace, Michael.

Tags: michael jackson, mj, Smile, tribute

Or not.

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.

Admittedly the results are at best an exercise in hilarity.  But then again it’s all about baby steps.  This sort of thing will likely evolve into something really fun in a game environment or karaoke.  I personally can’t wait to mess with it ~ so long as you can get enough under the hood to get it to freakback on itself ~ imagine what Cornelius could do with this thing and a hacker from Elance.

At any rate, lest you fail to register the irony of the headline, here is what Radiohead might have been had they started with Songsmith

Here is the commercial the nerds at Microsoft came up with for this incredible new innovation.  (Note the “musician” who wonders whether Songsmith might be the solution to the fact that his band thinks his songwriting has been a little stale lately.)

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 remember five or six years ago when the kids came down in a huge pack from San Francisco.  They were a bunch of Heads with some Drum’n'Bass, laptops and connections to M-Audio in their back pockets.  I am not sure why they came to the east side of Los Angeles or when they all assembled into the movement they created in Voltron-like fashion, but I do know that it wasn’t a moment too soon.  I had been starving in LA from the lack of any good electronic music.

The last time I had experienced it was when The Viper Room was still doing its ill-fated and totally kick ass Drum’n'Bass Tuesdays with people like Goldie and Warren G throwing down for hours on end.  But it had been at least a couple of years.

My friend Girlie8, an alien android with witchy powers and Fremen-blue eyes was my in to this immigrant circuit that included people like Anon, 8fm and edIT.   I would get invites from echolocation and other mailing lists to events that manifested everywhere from architectural art galleries to abandoned warehouses in Fresno.  The circuit was super-mellow and felt like family in and among one another.

I kept my eyes on them as time went on and inevitably had to direct my time in other parts of the world but when I got back some of them (Josh “Ooah” Mayer, Justin Boreta, Matthew “Kraddy” Kratz, and Edward “edIT” Ma) had formed into the monstrous collaboration known as The Glitch Mob.  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.

Which brings me to today’s MZ indie artist profile.  Vapor Mache is making glitch and he’s doing it right.  He confessed to being addicted to Glitch Mob’s latest podcast mix and wondered if I knew a way to link him up with them.

All I can say is, Vapor Mache won’t need my help.  Keep going at it like you are, and they will find you.  Here’s the interview about how Vapor Mache got to this point:

Read the rest of this entry »

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

Singer/songwriter and founder of the Constant Change Music label Keram Malicki-Sanchez (aka “Keram”) has posted a new live video from the Robot Pride Day festival in Toronto that took place this year at the El Mocambo in Toronto, Canada. He is joined onstage by former Blue Dog Pict band-mate Pete Devlin (electric guitar) and tabla master Ritesh Das of the Toronto Tabla Ensemble.

Keram also plays the comic villain Ink in the Lionsgate Film -- Punisher: War Zone which hit theaters nationwide December 5th, 2008.

Keram released his solo acoustic record Box in January 2008.

Tags: Acoustic Record, Band Mate, Blue Dog, Change Music, Comic, D1, Devlin, El Mocambo, Electric Guitar, Httpv, indie bands, Keram, Lionsgate Film, Malicki, malicki sanchez, Music Label, Pride, Punisher: War Zone, Robot, singer songwriter, Theaters, Toronto Canada, Toronto Tabla Ensemble, Villain, war zone, youtube video