auto_chico

Sat, 25 Jun 2005 19:49:31 GMT

I wanted to send out an apology to all of my LJ friends who had to listen to me complain about last nights sound debacle.

There are, obviously, more important things to talk about. I'm glad Caro's set went well. Randall was handling the keys like a pro. God, was there even a computer on stage with him?

It was nice seeing everyone again!

Photoshoot

Mon, 11 Apr 2005 18:57:36 GMT

Do any of my LJ friends happen to own a Lion/Parakeet/Zebra or any larger wild type animals?

Is anybody a zoo-keeper?

I need a new press photo. I wanna stay out of Olan Mills if at all possible.

Thank you for your attention to this important matter.

Kisses,
AC

Mil-effin-Waukee!

Mon, 28 Mar 2005 17:39:50 GMT

Hello LJ Friends.

I played Milwaukee this past Friday and it was truly unbelievable. There are a good 150 kids there who are totally devoted to tesshhhhno! There is a really tight nit scene of kids there that are bringing in lots of minimal cats. The night I played, 4 hours away in the Twin Cities was Cabanne. One show in the US, and it was in Minneapolis. There is a sort of network of people between Madison/Milwaukee/Twin Cities. These guys have brought in Sammy Dee (of Perlon not classic), Jay Haze, Cabanne, they're bringing in Zip and they just had Sean O'neal of Tuning Spork/Someone Else fame. I can't believe that in these cities there is such an interest in this sound. It's like they are all about minimal techno. Bleep, bleep.

Anyway, I'm heading up to Minneapolis soon to play a show and am pretty excited about it, as the enthusiasm there is really unparalleled.

I was able to do an hour and a half set which is downloadable from this link: www.undosounds.com/public/Mantra.zip Dudes, make you earn your dough in the Midwest.

Also, there was a guy there snapping photos, which if you like checking out photos of beaters in front of computers you can check it here:

www.tylerman.net -- just go to the "gallery section" and check the Bruno Rick Screen door slide show.

WARNING: In some photos there is a glowing Apple, I did my best to obstruct that image, lest I be ripped apart from our bro Jeff...But it is there...I'll be a little more careful of that in the future : )

Kisses,
Auto

MUTEK 05

Tue, 22 Mar 2005 22:24:51 GMT

For all of my friends on LJ -- it's official. I was invited to play Mutek today. I'm not sure of the line-up at the moment because details are being worked out, but I am playing on Friday June 3 for those of you planning on going.

My Ape Masquerade single on Musique Risquee was released Monday on the Kompakt site, which mean it should be hitting stores in the next couple of weeks...

Thanks to R9 for sending the Mutek guys the *package*.

Hell yes.

Musique Risquee

Tue, 22 Feb 2005 17:15:00 GMT

I thought some of you might enjoy this quick article on Musique Risquée. It's a cool little piece with Marc LeClair and Vincent talking about the label. They also interview the people over at Zupton about their whacky covers. And a few words from your truly as well on, well not much.

Mon, 14 Feb 2005 18:19:23 GMT

It's been a while since I posted something on here, but I thought now was a good time since a few things of note have transpired.

So, the Caro -- My Little Pony EP *finally* came out. I think Randall has been tweaking that thing for a long time now. So I'm happy to see that out in the world. That thing is flying off the shelves -- you guys better grab it while it is still around.

I have to say that from the moment I heard snippets in early production a year or so ago, I knew that track was a dance floor monster. That track is Chaya's track, btw, and don't anyone forget it! She wanted a song about a pony, and she got it. Nice one, Randy. And I must say that I was pretty stoked to get my mitts on that track as well -- processes, re-process, filter and process. It was a great track to begin with, so re-working it was a breeze and super-fun. Unlike my recent attempt at a U.S.E remix -- ughhh.

I just got word today that my Musique Risquee single, "Ape Masquerade" is in production as we speak, and should be out in early/mid march barring any weird Kompakt delays -- there is no holiday coming up is there?

That thing came out pretty quickly, so that's always nice to have some fresh tracks out in the world. Matthew Dear was playing out the second track, "Dirty Goodbyes," on his latest tour. So, that's pretty cool to know that thing has been "feild-tested" and been somewhat successful. You never know till the numbers start rolling in tho. Fingers crossed. I owe a big one to iMonk on the Auto Chico track. We went round and round, back and fourth discussing the arrangement of that thing. iMonk really helped a lot pulling me out of the murk on that.

Also, I was contacted by Michel Baumann of Jackmate/Soulphiction fame to do an EP on his Philpot imprint. I'm pretty stoked to be working that guy. I almost have that single wrapped up but am waiting....waiting....waiting on a vocal track from Caro. That beater has some serious construction outside of his house right now that is preventing him laying into this thing...Why must sewer lines break when release schedules must be met?

I have to say the big clincher for me was Randall informing me that Richie Hawtin is licensing "Read_Me" off my Silver Cities release for his upcoming mix cd. Can we talk about jaw-dropping good news? Shit. I was pretty floored. Basically walked on mashed potatoes all weekend.

Anyway, some of you may know that I finally got my website up & running. But some may not. So there it is. It's not some flash thing. I wanted it pretty basic. Kinda just get some info and get the hell out of there thing. My bro did all of this nice .php stuff for me so I have this neat admin panel thing to do all the shit I need without having to bother him or screwing some code. Take a look when and if you get a chance.

Now that I got that off my chest, what about you?

Fri, 10 Dec 2004 19:27:56 GMT

Man, what a great show last night. I have to say that Matt Corwine did an amazing job last night. I'm really digging his sound a lot. Anybody know when his EP comes out on U-Freqs? Excited to hear that thing.

Matt Dear was awesome as well. The weird thing to me is to see so many kids out in Seattle dancing to minimal techno. It's like people have been putting on minimal techno shows for the last two years and we get the same 20 or 30 folks out. I'm not complaining by any stretch, but where are all of these people at other shows? Can you imagine that many people down at Lower Level? It would be amazing. At any rate, it was a nice treat to see so many friends in one place. I haven't seen most of you all in like months -- and all in the same place.

Don't forget about that Caro, Aaron B.,Tomas Jirku & Rob Warren show on the 17th at Lower Level. I'm hoping to see that many kids out for our Canadian & local friends.

Oh, and here is my email for the people that asked.

steven@undosounds.com

Au Canada

Thu, 09 Sep 2004 17:24:51 GMT

I had to rush some tracks out to Montreal that I had been promising this person for the last 2 months. I'm not done with the whole EP yet, but he's gonna be in Porto and he wanted check them out on the dance floor and insisted I get them to him ASAP. So I told him I could get these tracks to him overnight style. Or at least by Saturday. So Randall jumped in and did a fine mastering job, or as he put it, ran a feather duster over them. I grabbed the .aifs this morning, burned a CD, and headed to the post office confident the tracks would be there by tomorrow, Saturday at the latest. When I get to the counter, I find out I have to fill out three different forms to send these bloody cds -- 3. And it's not like just a signature -- it's like a lot of info. I spend 10-15 minutes writing the same shit on 3 pieces of paper. Then the woman wants to see the contents of the package. Holy shit. Is this normal to effing Canada?

So I wind up paying like 16 bucks to make sure it gets there "by Wednesday." And Wednesday is the earliest they can promise the arrival of the package. Man, I remember sending stuff to Germany, packages even, with very little trouble.

Is this like some new anti-terror thing? Gross.

Busted Ears

Fri, 13 Aug 2004 19:24:53 GMT

I had a pretty big accident yesterday morning.

I slammed my ear against my desk while reaching for a record that had fallen. It was pretty stupid: I had my knee on a rolling chair, coffee in the opposite hand and was reaching over the table when the chair moved. Because my other hand had a cup in it, there was no way to prevent the impact. DING!!! There was a good 2 hours where I couldn't hear *anything* in my left ear -- deaf style.

Now the issue is that my left ear can process high frequencies fine, it's the low frequencies that are missing. For example, I can only hear a kick drum or a sub-bass in my right ear. So the mix is perfectly round with headphones on, only my left ear is missing a kick drum, which is supremely annoying.

Has anyone ever experienced this sort of hearing loss? I'm hoping this is something that *won't* require a visit to a doctor.

I know that ear drums can be ruptured and can heal on their own, but I can't wait 2-3 months for the repairs.

Contexterrior 08

Thu, 29 Jul 2004 18:37:35 GMT

Man, I've been really loving this new Jay Haze vs. Ricardo Villalobos.

a1. Prefer Summer -- This one has that really smooth and bubbly-reverb-lfo trick going on again, which is slowly but surely becoming a villalobos trademark. This track sounds pretty much like a full-on villalobos number tho, but one of the cool standouts is that it has a really very well done arppegio thing going on. Most of the time arpeggiation really gets on my nevers, but again, villalobos (perhaps this is Haze) does a really great job of keeping it tasteful. It runs throughout the track in various styles but is accompanied by various breezy cool-summer pads & tuff as hell tee-tiny percussion. This is def a Cascadian summer song. Wouldn't work in, say, LA.

b1. Cactus Love -- I'm feeling like this side is a little more collab. style -- perfect-sounding collaboration between haze and villalobo's style. All the smooth villalobo's sounds are a tiny bit obscured, tho still there, by Jay's gigantic bass line and powerful sound workout. This track is down right stunning in its execution. It's got some really clever sound design in it mingled with a jaw dropping bass line. Plus, they're using this really raw sounding snare, almost has a "room mic'ed" sound to it. And I 'm really into this sound at the moment. I just did a remix of Caro's "My Little Pony" track, and goddamnit, this is what I did, too. Should I change it? Eff it. It stays.

b2. Archive -- Wow. This track has such a groovy feel to it. I mean, it's tracks like this that make you really wanna effin STRUT. I don't mean as a metaphor for dance, I really mean strut. Jagger-style. Here we have that sound I mentioned in a1. the drippy water, reverb percussive thing going on. Minus the LFO this time. But it is a perfect fit for the repetitive wah-ed synth line humming trough out the track. The bass line is super bumpy hobling up and down through the track switching up syncopation randomly. Really this one has a super cool musical factor to it that is missing from a lot of techno tracks. I think on this one I'm really getting the sense that these guys are in the same room playing instruments together and like "feeling" the next move in the track because it's not really adhering to this 8-bar change up bologna we are so used to in techno. Stabs, bass lines switches, slips & all this great stuff just happening when it's right for the musicians and not the dance floor.

The cool thing is you can sit wherever you are and listen to the whole thing thru some streaming mp3 player here:

http://www.contexterrior.com/index2.php

Ayyh Yes.