I was pleased to learn recently that one of the most important albums of the past 25 years was remastered, and re-released: “Paul’s Boutique“, by the Beastie Boys. I played this album (cassette, then CD) to death (really). It’s one of the most lyrically-complex albums (that I’ve heard), and I can recite 95% of the lyrics from memory—that’s how many plays this sucker got.
This LP was a radical departure for the 3 lads from Brooklyn (well, 2 from Brooklyn, 1 from Manhattan)—at the time, they were expected by Capitol Records to release another “License to Ill“, and they did anything but. They split for LA, expanded their minds, and ears, and released this masterpiece in the summer of 1989.
At the time, Paul’s Boutique was a commercial failure. Panned by many music critics (but not all), and from what I’ve read since then, most felt that their 15 minutes were up. I didn’t know what to think—I was most likely too young at the time to pass any judgement on them. All I knew, is that I had never heard anything like it before, and I don’t think I’ve heard anything quite like it since. Time has been very kind to Paul’s Boutique (and the Beastie Boys). The album continues to make many top-album lists (including Rolling Stone, which, if I am not mistaken, panned it back in ‘89).
I recommend everyone experience this sonic adventure—’specially the new remastered version, but I hope most of you have by now…
This entry was written by , posted on 01/02/2010 at 11:25 AM, filed under Life, Music and tagged Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
I’m a massive user of the iPhone music-making, sequencing, synth, and techno music production apps. Making electro music was how I first became truly aquatinted with the personal desktop computer. What is now possible on the iPhone/iPod Touch is breathtaking. We’ve come so far, in such a short period of time.
There is 1 essential ingredient missing—a true audio sampler. Not a voice recorder, those are a dime-a-dozen in the App Store—but a traditional sampler.
To be able to “record what you hear” on the iPhone, save it as a WAV, and then export to the desktop is currently the missing link. Have a beat playing in Randgrid or TechnoBOX you are diggin’? No problem—we should be able to sample, save, and use this file in another iPhone app. Currently, in v2.0, once an app is closed (other than the built-in iTunes music player), everything stops—that’s it, game over. I am really hoping that this is addressed in v3.0 next month. This would add such an enormous new world of sonic possibility.
It’s an exciting time to be a… producer of mobile electro beats.
This entry was written by , posted on 05/23/2009 at 11:46 AM, filed under Design, Future, Mobile, Technology and tagged iPhone, Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
iPhonemusician.com is quite the incredible blog-resource for everything you could ever want: all the major iPhone sequencer apps, mobile recording studios, and classic analog synths are reviewed—and when available, video demos are provided. Special attention is paid to the classic Roland drum machines and classic synth emulator apps.
I love acid. I really do.
This entry was written by , posted on 04/24/2009 at 7:19 PM, filed under Mobile, Music, Technology and tagged App Store, iPhone, Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.
Acid house is a sub-genre of house music that emphasizes a repetitive, hypnotic and trance-like style, often with samples or spoken lines rather than sung lyrics. Acid house’s core electronic squelch sounds were developed by mid-1980’s DJ’s from Chicago who experimented with the Roland TB-303 electronic synthesizer-sequencer. Acid house spread to the United Kingdom, Australia, and continental Europe, where it was played by DJ’s in the early rave scene. By the late 1980’s, copycat tracks and acid house remixes brought the style into the mainstream, where it had some influence on pop and dance styles.
Nicknamed “the sound of acid”, acid house was different than the emerging styles of deep house or vocal house in that it was starkly minimal, being very light or absent of instrumentation and generally harder or trancier sounding than these. This bifurcation marked an early separation in house music that directly correlated to the origin of hard dance and trance and which developed in conjunction with the more underground and specialized rave scene. The starkness of the style was a result of the discovery of the strange sounds that the Roland TB-303 bass line synthesizer produced when tweaked and the straight 4/4 rhythm which though shared by much of house and techno music was programmed into much harder and more pounding rhythms than pop or electro. Both of these elements are present in most of the tracks considered core to the sound of acid house. Roland’s other famous sound, the Roland TR-909 drum machine is nearly as common. Acid house’s influence on dance music is tangible considering the sheer number of electronic music tracks referencing acid house through the use of its sounds, including trance, goa trance, psytrance, breakbeat, big-beat, techno, trip-hop and house music.
This entry was written by , posted on 03/13/2009 at 5:20 PM, filed under Life, Music and tagged Analogue, Music. Leave a comment or view the discussion at the permalink.