Midsummer Celebration

Here on the 40th anniversary of the Apollo moon landing I am happy to report I have reached my seventh show. While not as momentous as that awe inspiring adventure, it's for me an important milestone. Each show provides a variety of challenges and problems I must have overcome to meet my deadlines. What song to play? What to play after that song? What song best represents the artist? And other problems such as what do you do when your laptop crashes in middle of you producing the show? Or how do keep a recording session from being interrupted by a grandfather bursting in to engage you in lengthy conversation? My journey first began with the question "What am I doing?". Now, it's how do I do that nifty crossfading trick? Soon it will be how do I make my own original pieces for the show?

I decided the other day that a celebration was in order. I felt the spirit of midsummer needed to be part of the production of the show. I want to produce something reflective of that spirit, of days freewheeling and moments lighthearted. The Electrolysis show is meant to be a tongue in cheek examination of electronic music coupled with an legitimate desire to educate about role of electronics and computers in modern music. All of my recorded factoids and this Blog are an effort to encourage investigation and subsequent enjoyment of both the artists I showcase and the electronic musical genre. This adventure for me is much like our re -examination the lunar missions. A chance to look at where music is going by looking at where it's been.

For this part of the journey, the midsummer celebration show, all that I ask is that you listen and enjoy. Come and travel with me in a kind a of musically wanderlust. Explore with me something that may prove to be exciting, rich, funny and fun. I invite you to come dance with me in the midsummer sun(please bring sunblock)!

Electrolysis Virtual Party Tuesday July 21
10a PST / 1p EST Repeat: 6p PST / 9p EST

http://www.shoutingfire.org/

The World of Ghost in The Shell

I love the music of the Ghost in the Shell series. Whether from films or Television show, Stand Alone Complex, The soundtracks from Ghost in the Shell are startling and fantastic. With songs ranging the gamut from Heavy Metal to J-pop to Torch songs, The Ghost In The Shell (GITS) scores reflect the diversity of the world from which it springs. The film scores by Kenji Kawai are eerie and haunting, revealing strange, shadowy elements underling the story of GITS. Yoko Kanno’s music, from the Stand Alone Complex series, is thrilling, exciting

and dangerous as world the Section 9 characters’ inhabit. In fact music of GITS acts as an characters in the story, providing exposition and helps to advance the narrative.

This from Wikipedia
According to the soundtrack's liner notes, the haunting choral song that plays throughout the film is a wedding song, sung to get rid of all evil influences that are about to follow"-" -Kenji Kawai originally wanted to use Bulgarian folk singers, but was unable to find any, so he relied on the Japanese folk song choir he used earlier in the Ranma 1/2 anime. The song uses an ancient form of the Japanese language mixed with Bulgarian harmony and traditional Japanese notes.

The score of GITS are more than just elements to heighten the visual action screen.Their statements representing, I believe, the best of the artist who made them. In nature of collaboration when all parts combine to produce a such an remarkable whole, masterpieces are born. For the record (no pun intended) I'm not here to define GITS as masterpiece but merely to ask that you listen to it and judge for yourself. That's all. That's the quest. The Ghost in the Shell world is worth investigating, especially it's music.

ORBITAL

While doing the Orbital show I had a realization. While thinking I how much of it sounded it so familiar, commonplace even and then as I thought about it, Orbital, like many of the artist I feature on my show, were doing it for the first time. They were traveling this new terrain, uncovering and discovering everything we now take for granted.

I when first heard Orbital I marveled at their ability to compose using electronic devices. Their music, comprised of so many elements, would coalesce, build and develop into complex themes and motives. So much of electronic music of the time(1996 and now) seemed to hew to repetitious, at times monotonous, patterns, only changing when they came to a new song. Not Orbital! You could hear immediately the brilliance of their music both in within it's crafting and execution. It did the thing all great music does, it transcended. It moved beyond it birth genre and become remarkable, unique, a statement of musicianship and not just the flavor of the moment. I'm excited by my Orbital show and I hope you will be too.

MqD

http://www.shoutingfire.org/



About the Band

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Orbital_(band)

Orbital's Official Website

http://www.loopz.co.uk/

The Show I've dreamt of

Every since I can remember I been a Yellow Magic Orchestra fan and from the first time I heard their music (on a cassette no less) I marveled at the ingenuity and humor evidenced in their music. While I never though of being a DJ or having a internet radio show, I always wanted to showcase them and other artists like them at a party or a listening with a large group of friends. The show is not perfect(not like in my dreams) but it is heartfelt and true to having come full cycle. I even recorded the show in my mother's house the first place I ever heard the music.

From a grungy white tape with white orange stripped tape whose label had slightly peeled away to a shiny laptop that can easily store the entire content of that album and all their album. And in that dingy piece of plastic and crinkled oxide was one of the funkiest, futuristic, exotic music I had ever heard. Music that changed my life. Then on to this computer and into the software that allowed me to combine that same album into radio show format that can be sent in packets across the internet

My dream has been of doing what they did, taking computer samples of my favorite games and producing genius. While I'm not claiming genius I have achieved a dream that spans decades, a journey of years. Funny, like anything I've created, after it's made you have to let it fly free without looking of a particular outcome or lust of a result. The thing itself merely being created in service to the object upon which it was dreamt of