n0mad23

Far from being a pest, I'd say this is about the greatest compliment you could give. Actually 9 of the songs here are available on my Totems from the Diaspora album for sale on all major digital distribution sites (iTunes, Napster, mp3, rebeat, etc.) and it's a trip seeing it for sale on Japanese sites. I'll shoot you an email with some details. Thanks and cheers!

Yeah, some sort of CGI experience behind this would be amazing. I can see it it my head: stepping through the boundary of the fairy ring and landing in the space of Frog. Strobes and tracers galore. Thanks for the listen and review!

Thanks for the lovely review and listen! This one's got an official Mega Monster Music video as well located here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pOKbh5h47Tg

Cheers!

I was having a pull to do NOIZE when I came to this one, so it's a Wall of Sound for sure. I'd still like to change the ending on this one, but it still works. Cheers.

I used to play with a band called Spirit House. We often opened with a piece called "Wu Wei" and started with a ney (Turkish end blown flute) and a didgeridoo. I made a didgeridoo out of giant timber bamboo from South China that was in the same key as the eucalyptus one the other player had.

We did a rave and were the 3AM break set. We were totally acoustic, weren't even amplified - sat on a Persian carpet on the cement dance floor of this underground event. You could put your fists together and have them both fit into that bamboo didg, it was that big around. The sound was equally as big.

And this was underground. I doubt any of the 300 + people there were over 25 years old. There was so much E floating about that it was impossible to fend off the contact highs. When we began to play, a line maybe 30 people wide stretched out in front of us about 3 feet away. Behind them, the mass of people crowded in so they could see us.

After 3 or 4 minutes of the ney/didgerido duet I came in with mine. The sound rolled out across the concrete and the audience all took a huge step backward. We nearly dropped our instruments.

That's what sound can do.

Ah. Trying to talk about the nonverbal stuff. Cool. This is my real excitement - the digital environment is finally capable of recreating sound that can achieve the same psycho-acoustic phenomena that I thought was only possible in Real Time/Space. On the other hand, talking about it is about as elusive as ever. Your imagined cinematic scenario does get the point across.

Thank you, friend! I listened to and reviewed one of yours before replying here - certainly going back for more as you're doing genres of interest and outside my own scope. I figured it had to be Fusion as there are sounds/traditions from each continent. Thanks for the encouragement. Cheers!

Thanks DJsDragoN. Don't think I've heard any Way Out West before, so thanks for the head's up. Thanks also for alerting me to your presence - I'll be checking out your work shortly. Cheers!

This one was a challenge for me - I could hear what the sounds wanted to do, but had a really tough time making it match with what was happening in my head. The vocals are transposed down about 4 or 5 keys, as well as lightly effected. Ultimately, it came out just fine and really has me jacked about doing more work with vocals. If only I hadn't lost my singing voice (peer pressure) in my teens!

Hi Estefano! I guess it's becoming pretty apparent that I began performing with the didjeridoo (in `93) and regardless what I do, this instrument's sensibility permeates my music. Of course in this track, the drone is created by playing a Donnie_Vyros bass track in 2 channels both transposed in different octaves. Wicked drone! This is one of my live recording that I'm most pleased with. Thanks for the review and the fave, mate!

Sometimes it's good just to listen. I'd rather have a thoughtful review than otherwise. I'm glad you've explained the icon of the Hungry Ghost, as it's something I've never done with a description on this one. This is really a first for me: creating an intentional conceptual piece of music - "a Halloween song." It's also the first time I've played "live" overdubs while importing into Ableton. Learned a lot about latency issues (all resolvable), too. It's "Importing Hungry Ghosts" as I wanted to keep it within the sonic realm I'm doing (lot's of non-western instruments) and simultaneously make a nod at the historical moment (is art political by nature?). The Hungry Ghost, as metaphor or analogy of collective impulses is an important one. A bit like the current economic situation, no? Thanks for the review!

Interesting...I wonder if it's possible with my aesthetic to do something that doesn't have "ethnic" flavors. I think it's due to my needing to do percussion as if it's tuned - no simple beats, and either percussive or hidden melodies driving them. The flute's actually an illusion here - it's from a pad loop played backwards using massive reverb and delay effects. The chimes were added in the final mix-down, and still one of my favorite sounds in this one. Thanks for the review and getting me thinking about things!

It's a strange composition - what may sound beautiful one day, may in turn sound rather toxic on another. Such is Nature reflected in Art.

But you see what I mean about introductions? This is an odd one, as it wanders initially, but still forecasts some of what's to come. The other point to pay attention to (I think anyway) is something the didgeridoo does fairly early in the song - a sort of rising howl - this is repeated when the song closes. This and the intro are things I've taken from writing and applied to this piece. I still have reservations, but think that it works.

Wayne,

There are two geng-gongs (http://www.looperman.com/users/detail/247253&pid=3225 the 2 actually played here) played in this, and everything else is samples or loops. The geng gong track (3 tracks - ie 2 overdubs) was an experiment I did a few years ago while living in Bellingham. This was my first experiment with blending 'live' analog recordings with the Ableton Live 7 environment. The geng gong bit I called "Amphibian's Metamorphosis" as I'd tried to do a bamboo Jew Harp blues piece (not very successfully).

I really need to write the n0mad23 Musick Manifesto at some point - but you're right/rite about the grounding, though I'm drawing from a plethora of traditions. I lived in Cameroon and Indonesia in the late 60's, early 70's and sort of 'fell into' things as a kid - so much so in fact, that my mother insisted on getting her kids home before they went "totally native."

There are many traditions where music is used very deliberately to induce emotional and/or psychological states (religious and/or spiritual in context) in both the musician and the audience. I've consciously been fascinated by psycho-acoustic phenomena since my first Indonesian Gamelan orchestra performance. Not only were hidden melodies very obviously revealed, but the frequencies of some of the bronze instruments did physical things to my body.

No surprise really that it's struck this particular chord then. I am a product of the collected experiences and conclusions reached by one of the first Space Age children who grew up in much older forms of apprehension.

Thanks for the fave!

Thanks Estefano! This was really a lot of fun to do. Full on saturation of sound, but it's all clear enough that it'll do very strange things to your head on a deep listen. I really love how the two finger pianos recorded and what they added sonically and conceptually - I used a Sony clip on mic circa 1980 and dropped it into the body of each instrument. Thanks for the fave! Cheers.

Estefano - I think the 3 geng-gong (bamboo Jew's harp) tracks are really reminiscent of the digeridoo, so perhaps that in combination with the frog's voices is the outback vibe? For sure, in playing both I've found each informs my technique and sensibility with the other. The seven tracks (and 12 loops) of frog field recordings represent all habitable continents, so "Frog Song" seems like the appropriate title. Glad you enjoyed this, and thanks for the fave! No greater form of compliment! Cheers!

Ken - I've indicated that this medium is quite new to me - starting experimentation in April/May of `09. One of the major insights I've had has been in my own connection/interface to musical production. I've always 'felt' that instruments dictate what is played on them. Not so much the traditional means of playing, but what the sounds invoke. I pluck and bend strings on my mandolin in more of a blues approach and never do the tremolo strum thing. In this digital enviroment, I'm finding the same thing to be true for me. Certain sounds (samples) dictate the approach and in turn the composition. This is true whether using only samples or a combination of live recordings of 'analog' instruments. DJ4Real's "Light Saber" loops for me sonically resulted in this song. Finding the other samples to support them was the real challenge, and the rest was tweaking everything to make it work. For example, the vocals have been transposed and are at a subsequently lower register than the original samples. I think it's why this and other songs I've made 'work' - it's really not that different in approach to what I've always done - it's just now my fellow musicians exist in their samples, and I'm playing all my electronic devices as a single complex instrument. Systems approach, maybe? Cheers for the lovely review, friend!

Spivkurl - I started this piece to exercise my attraction to making Noize. For some reason, everytime I sat down to make something lovely, these industrial sounds would begin to emerge. I thought making something loud and abrasive might get it out of my system, but instead it got directed into something else entirely. The drum samples from Maldives (3 loops) really were the launching point, but it was in listening to some of the other sonic choices that the Principal arose and I could hear the voice of Bonobo (the Chimp is a metaphorical me) challenging the noise. Once I identified what was trying to happen, it actually became a lot of fun and a personal challenge to bring it together. So many sounds in this one speak directly to other ones, and I think the sound of thunder and rain really drives the point home. Layers and layers of reflected meaning. Thanks for the review and encouragement here!

Thanks Slap - "Frog Rock" works, though I'm thinking "n0madick Jungulation" might be more appropriate to the genre I'm exploring currently. You know - I love this site specifically because of the encouragement there is from real artists in trying out new things. It's a bit daunting always dancing to the beat of your own drummer, but it's reviews like this that give me license to keep going. Webbed feet are helpful for dancing to this jam, however I've found that hip-wader rubber boots will suffice in a pinch. Cheers, and thanks for adding this one to your faves - that is the ultimate nod of encouragement in my book.

AD9 - interesting that you should invoke 'wetness,' as I'm currently working this one, and making it even wetter! Eshar's kindly done some spoken word/poetry for the piece, and I'm deep in the early drafting stages uncovering the direction this track needs to (or wants to?) go. Thanks for the review, and I'll alert you to the next version when it's ready. Cheers.

This collection is actually an self-conscious examination of my own mythology and symbolic system, so you've nailed that one on the head! For my next 'epic' work, I'd like to identify and articulate the archetypes that have arisen in the last 30 years but are still invisible on the conscious level. To do this, it seems that first it's important to understand my own means of apprehension. Hence the "Totems from the Diaspora," as the prequel to what's coming. I'm convinced by thoughtfully examining history (and nonHistory) we can thwart any nightmare futures - but it does take effort and personal responsibility. Art has always been the premonitions or forecasts of what might come. It sure gives a different sense of the responsibility of dreaming, doesn't it. Thanks for the fabulous review, friend!

And the voice cried, "Know thyself!" before the skin sluffed and shed...and that too was added to the Totem. Actually Abe, a cryptic review from you is like a breath of perfumed air, (apple orchard in springtime bloom) and I'm honored you had a listen to this one. You're right - it has evolved significantly from its first attempt, and one I'm really happy with. Stale World Music bootstrapped dynamically into Something Else entirely. My favorite moment is towards the end, when the Egyptian fiddles slide in and the drums pan insanely before the pygmy refrain returns. To me, that's what this song's all about - we are all without exception children of the diaspora. Thanks for this review, Abe. It means more than you know.

MU2TUNES - thanks for the listen and review! If it's genre expanding, then it's a success in my book. Your "hot like the wind" comment reminds me of the harmatan winds that blow across the Sahara, and that sounds like success, too. Cheers.

The Fifth Element! I love that movie - the art designer was Moebius, my all time favorite sci-fi graphic artist! Sweet. Brought a much needed grin to my face upon reading this. This song is available on nearly all digital distribution sites currently (iTunes, emusic, etunes, 7digital, etc.) along with 8 other tracks. To see the complete album list, check out my page - http://megamonstermusic.com/index_files/Page391.htm Thanks for the major compliment here!

My 11 year old is writing a story about pirates circa 1700 and she asked me tonight about magical traditions which might allow instantaneous travel. Naturally I immediately went to the Sufi masters and the legends of them neither being bound by time or space. I've been fascinated by this tradition more because of the music - how musicians with the right tones can create visions in the minds' of their audience. For mystical understanding, look no further than what the didgeridoo can teach! The first instrument I began performing on was the didgeridoo in Seattle around 1993. It's marvelous as a percussive instrument and guaranteed to make toddlers dance spontaneously. Even more interesting is what happens to the player after circular breathing and playing drones in the course of 45 minutes or so! Hopefully with these tones and instruments I can "transport" my listeners on voyages that are both significant and enjoyable. Thanks for the listen and wonderful review!