soledad penadés

Roterfleck guys have renewed their site. Time for going and download their releases (if you didn’t had them before, that is!). You will also find info about their live events there; you will probably find them playing live at Niu Bcn :-)

Following (or inspired by) Madgoblin’s to do list…, no strict priority order:

• fix more bugs and add more features to xplsv.tv
• learn more about vj’ing
• do more lives (vj + music)
• experimental vj live
• really learn ruby + rails
• improve my english
• learn how to play with my new keyboard
• compose another EP for roterfleck netlabel (I have the concept and one song)
• finish blue tuesday (just will need to finish a new scene and polish and clean everything a bit) done
  
• do a demo for mac (hence use the new code for mac & pc)  done with tube by xplsv
• fr…o demo (featuring madgoblin)
• secret demoscene project, number 1 was tube demo by xplsv (done)
  
• secret demoscene project, number 2
• music for tlotb experimental demo (will be the definitive challenge, either do it or die on it!)
• create video versions of my demos and add them as motions to xplsv.tv done
  
• adapt my events list implementation to the new code, including the impulse tracker exporter
• port ppg demos to mac (current blue tuesday code works on mac and pc)
• finish tlotb web
• add tags to all elements in my home page (that means restoring back the photos, demos, gfx and txt sections)
• play with flash8 and see what can be done
• go to breakpoint06 and release something decent there (and I already have the tickets!!)
• learn more standard, usable and accessible web techniques (or be more web2.0)
• read more books
• finish the almost finished songs that I have floating around my hard disk for more than 5 years now
• do more food experiments (but stop eating so many sweets)
• help sin with his demoscene search engine (salmiakki)
• help sml with his demoscene divulgation projects (scene school & related projects)
• stop doing to do lists, and get things done! :)

Casualmente se debe haber hecho un anyo de aquella pesadilla que duro un fin de semana enterito, el fin de semana del aiiiiii. Asi que celebremoslo con una peticion para ps (que llevo el aiiiii a pouet) y ayame: quiero poder comentar vuestros blogs!

A que santo eso de desactivarlos? Buuuuh!

Por otro lado parece ser que la bcnparty 101, que empieza manyana, va a ser la noiseparty del anyo, con un duelo ps vs limp ninja (y a saber si se une algun otro contricante, que eso nunca se puede preveer). Que le sea leve a los asistentes…

Y no olvideis asistir al 2ndstage. Me di cuenta ayer de que ya tienen imagen corporativa (gracias a acidbeat/threepixels). El cartel esta mas que interesante:

• dj’s: amb (roterfleck), acidbeat (threepixels), shine (xplsv), naif (hello ingrid)
• vj’s: acidbeat (threepixels), shine (xplsv), ?? (xplsv), hassasin visual project (a estos no los conozco, ya me contareis que tal son!)

Se contara con un bus conectando el local del 2nd stage con el local de la bcnparty (el cassinet d’Hostafrancs), asi que no hay excusa para pasar un rato escuchando las mezclas de los dj’s sceners y viendo visuals a mas de 5 fps y 320×240 pixeles (oh, no, esto no es una critica a los visuales comerciales, no me entendais mal…). Y sin preocuparse de que la vecina se queje por el ruido de la musica. Todo un lujazo gracias a sml y apigos.

Y se me olvidaba… la asistencia es libre y libre (gratis y opcional ;) ). Podeis llevar a todos vuestr@s amig@s scener o no, a ver si alguien se engancha y tenemos un nuevo scener creativo de la mega muerte en la familia.

Seems like trace is turning to be a bit shy (or busy). He has just released an ep, freon150, in roterfleck netlabel. It contains four songs and nice artwork (including even a wallpaper!). Everything has been made by him – and you’ll note that easily. I’ll start my analysis with the artwork as it’s what one can see meanwhile the first song starts to shape.

The design is pretty stylish, and a word which could describe it is poisonous. You see those pills and can’t really trust them, may be like the poison gas of The Rock, may be simply what appear to be sweet at the beginning but can have a bad surprise inside when you have eaten all the cover. You’ll simply be careful!

And about the songs. It starts very progressively with Introducing. It’s kind of scary with that beeping sound, and those dark strings which seem like somebody is running after you and will catch you if you aren’t faster than him. Then more elements are added giving it more pressure, until the percussion enters. It’s not a typical 4×4 drum line, instead is like broken, so you are a bit disconcerted while another beeping synth line enters over and previous ones somehow dissappear. You feel completely nervous now. If somebody touched your shoulder now you’ll probably scream! Now the rhythm continues and makes some strange, subtle changes, adding more and more dissonant sounds while removing others, like alternating layers. And finally they start dissappearing – just when you think you are scared of something – don’t know what!

Dark Ship starts with more long dark bass lines, which somehow could remind you of a boat siren. But it won’t last too much. Some acid bass lines appear and suddenly a light drum does too. You would expect something more powerful – it’s trace’s music isn’t it? But he compensates adding some weird random sounds, like industrial or alien ones. In the middle there’s like an hypnotic pad which gets compensated early by the same elements which appeared at the beginning. It has some space-alike sounding at all. So we have evolved from a dark boat to an alien spatial ship. Quite interesting atmosphere transition. Around 4:10 we get to what could define as trace’s sound v.2: something 4×4 but with more worked arrangements. It’s a pity it ends so quickly then!

Now it starts Velociraptor. This song was made a bit before the others, so you’ll note the sound is a bit different. It has a loop which now I don’t remember where I have listened to it before. Also there’s an strange vocoded voice talking about a velociraptor. May it be a scientific trapped in his laboratory? It stops, some cut off filters are applied and then the rhythm starts again. It’s interesting to see the pads responsing to the high compression of the song, and all the games with the synth textures.

Finally there’s Autech02. One could wonder if he’s been influenced by Autechre – I would say yes but in fact I think he’s got lots of other influences. This features some slow ghostly pads at the beginning and builds a whole arrangement sequentially by adding more instruments slowly. This is paced down, somehow like if there was some presence in a studio triggering sequences and muting and unmuting channels with some strange intention in mind, while playing some evil pads in the keyboard. Everything seems quite mysterious, so there’s again that dark atmosphere he manages to create. He also dares to add variations to his dark pad sequences, by introducing some major ones. Finally after that major chords extravaganza which is like the hill on the road, the song starts going down, some sounds appear and all other dissappear, except for a sad synth which remains there – reminding of something which was here for a while.

My conclussion? This is quite weird and original. Is it bad? No! But because it’s different, you have to listen to it several times until you start to understand the concept. I like to explain this in another manner: when you listen to typical music, your ears aren’t really listening but expecting to listen something. So they hope to find crashes, chorus, repeats, etc. For the case of this EP, you can’t find a typical structure so it will make you find a bit uncomfortable – your ears will be wondering: hey what is this? I haven’t listened to this before! And that is good… fresh sounds are always good: they keep your creative brain working!

C’mon trace… We want more strange weird music by trazzzzzzzza :-) !!!

Nada, que me voy de la Gran Bretaña durante unos días a ver si vuelvo a tomar un poco de color y abandono este look gótico-camden que tan poquito me gusta, y que en realidad llevo luciendo como desde hace dos veranos, enganchando un proyecto fin de carrera con prácticas de universidad y con proyectos absurdos en el trabajo, produciendo todo ello que mi  bronceado pertenezca a la categoría moreno monitor, tan poco glamouroso y combinable con las gamas de colores que más me gustan.

No hay más que recordar aquello que dijo la madre de Sardu el año pasado por estas mismas fechas: Llévatela a la playa, a ver si coge un poco de color. Total, ¿por llevar una camiseta amarillo azafrán, y que la piel de los brazos estuviera un poco [bastante] más clarita que la camiseta?, jejeje ;)

Así que un año después, me llevo (bueno, me lleva el avión un trocito) yo misma, acompañada del excelso trace, al cual le hace falta un poco de color también después de estar tanto tiempo entre nieblas y chirimirís. Aprovechando que estamos por Barcelona, acudiremos al MMT (Montcada Mig Tempo), un festival de dos días (8 y 9 de julio) bastante interesante participado/organizado por roterfleck y en el cual trace hará visuales, como el año pasado. Imagino que también se pasarán por allí insignes sceners como shine, sml o acidbeat (y todo aquel que se quiera apuntar) así que no hay excusa para no acudir diciendo que no conoces a nadie. Y yo por primera vez desde hace N meses, no tengo que hacer NADA!! ¡Viva! (me llevaré un libro para no caer en demasía en el frenesí calmado de la vida contemplativa).

Ya volveré… espero no tener que quejarme de Spain… temedme… ñ_ñ