Bust-it!

Posted on August 30, 2011 by Dan

Well I must say that although I have been working on a range of interesting projects the last few months – much of it has really been about the boom and the bap!

I have had the pleasure of working with Robert Foster (aka.HUGO1) to smash a beat together for the latest installment of the cutting edge socio/political satire hip-hop  juggernaut that is RAP NEWS. Distributed exclusively online via the Juice Media I am indeed a huge fan of Hugo and Giordano’s often brutal but always dope productions.

Having the opportunity to work with these cats is just another one of the awesome things about living and working in this town called Melbourne.. In other news, my main man Mantra’s new album Speaking Volumes is out now and going gang-busters. The album is killer and I am privileged to have a track included on it – an interlude  smack in the middle entitled ‘A Pretty Marvelous Story’. Head over to the Selected Audio page to check it out – big ups to DJ Wasabi for the cuts!

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Rules and Regulations

Posted on November 15, 2010 by Dan

So, the thing about writing music on computers is that you are spoilt for choice. To speed up my decision making process, I have been setting myself a different set of rules of audio engagement for each project I am working on. for example, I am working on some new material with the outstanding Hailey Cramer who writes great catchy and soulful tunes. To give the tunes a sense of cohesion, we negotiated a set of parameters for instrumentation and rules of how we played and recorded the instruments.

1. Rhythm tracks are played by hand (shakers, claps, clicks, metal tins, bins, glockenspiel, wood etc) and are multi-layered to build tone and groove
2. Synth parts are minimal and played on analog hardware in real time (no MIDI)
3. Kick drums are cool, providing I have recorded it myself (thank you Ben Vanderwal!)
4. Keep editing to a minimum, go for long phrases rather than editing within the bar

Now as we all know, rules are meant to be broken and it’s important to note that I embrace the joys of sequencing and editing at an intricate level – however, we have found it most effective and as Hailey and myself are both pretty busy playing lots of musics, it does give us a focal point, a common ground and a way to get to bringing out the song.

Also, now that I have joined the masses and got myself an iPhone 4, I have been taking this rule business to the pocket. I have just finished the first beat for my new ‘concept’ project: Fifty9 Dolla Kap. Consisting of the free TweakyBeats app, a Kaos Pad Mini and the half an hour it takes to get from Preston to Flinders Street station.

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Breaking blogging slackness..

Posted on May 18, 2010 by Dan

Hey there, been crazy busy last few months making, recording and collaborating on tracks. Have also been doing some duo laptop a/v shows with Eugenia Lim, did Next Wave Festival Club last night and it was great fun – big up to Marty Coutts for the gig!

Just got a copy of Kate Vigo’s new EP Someone Better. The remix of Left Alone which I did is on the record. It’s mastered by Don Bartley @ Benchmank.
Check it out here.

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Have also been recording a range of poets for a new project a friend of mine is doing for City of Melbourne – it’s going to be available as a podcast of poems based on locations around the CBD. You will be able to download it and do the walk while listening to the works. Aside from that have been working on some beats for Motley for our collab EP.

Check out some of the work in progress here (super Ruff etc)
Bazooka Beat

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Tumi visits Tweak and Twang

Posted on November 22, 2009 by Dan

tumi

Straight outta Jo-burg, South African hip-hop legend Boitumelo Molekane (a.k.a. MC Tumi) ventured out to sunny Preston and blessed the container last Friday. After coming down to Dig Deep (the hip-hop mentorship program I run on Tuesday nights) and meeting the young crew, he generously offered to do a posse track with the DD collective. A consummate professional, Tumi wrote and rocked an 8 bar verse from scratch – backing it up and giving shout outs to boot. Looking forward to laying it on the Dig Deep folks this week… Big thanks to MC Que and DJ Prowla for hooking it up. Tumi – you are totally killer, great hang and great music.

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Fully Funtional..

Posted on November 8, 2009 by Dan

fully-functional

So, I have just got back from a two week tour with Sylent Running. It is a band with Barney McAll (piano/synths) and Nir Felder (guitar) from NYC, Chris Hale (bass) and Gian Slater (vox) from Melbourne and Ben Vanderwall (drums) from Perth. I was playing Ableton and doing some live input vocal processing of Gian. Killer musicians and great shows up the east coast culminating in two nights in the back room of Bennett’s Lane before some awesome Melbourne crowds.

Barney and I did the record over the internet, sending Protools sessions via FTP – it was at times manic but an incredibly fun experience. All the Melbourne components for the album were done in the container, so I thought it was time to put some shots up of how it is looking. I built some baffles with my good mate Ptero_Stylus from Diafrix (thanks Glen!) and got some of the new SoundBites panels from local crew Sound Acoustics for ceiling reflections. The baffles are movable so can be reorganized depending on what you are recording in there. For the Sylent Running album Empathy Chip, I recorded Gian’s vocals using an awesome U-87 clone from Australian company Jeanne Audio – check them out.

Prior to the Sylent stuff, I did sound for Eugenia Lim’s Nowhereland exhibition which ran at Blindside Artist Run Space in the Nicholas Building, Melbourne. A component of the sound design for this work involved me recording iconic dancer Yumi Umiumare as the reassuring inner voice of Japanese cannibal and minor celebrity Issei Sagawa. Spooky…

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Windows, Power and Paint

Posted on June 14, 2009 by Dan

Glass, Paint and Power

Guess what I did this weekend? Painting that’s what! The interior now has two coats – these shots are at night without a flash so surfaces look a bit greener than they actually feel inside. Sergio came over and powered the box up from the house so we now have light and more importantly,  power for tunes while putting the finishing touches on before we start working up the treatment of the space acoustically. Going through the photos left to right we have: (left) holes for the extractor fan based on the old mouthpiece from an old push button phone creatively interpreted by Jayce – cheers dude! (middle) Outside view of bunker light at night, and (right) Control room view with light box mounted from vocal booth doorway.

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Desks and Doors

Posted on June 4, 2009 by Dan

Heavy duty… 35 mm MDF has been used for the desk and shelving around the window which Jayce has done a superb job on – this gear is solid!  The desk is on lockable casters to allow reorientation of the room. All nail holes have been filled and sanded back ready for painting on the weekend. I have decided to not stain the plywood floor but just Clearcoat it to keep it true to the material it is. Check the middle shot of the door out, it is a 35 mm solid core door with an airgap and a couple of sheets of MDF thrown in for chunkiness. I also picked up a couple of speaker stands at the Factory Sound sale – awesome.

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Floors and Vocal Booth

Posted on May 28, 2009 by Dan

floors-and-boothThe outline for the interior is finished and the tongue and groove ply floor is laid on 3 layers of super dense acoustic underlay. Jayce has cut the hole for the vocal booth window which will have two pieces of non parallel heavy duty laminated glass. The solid core doors are being delivered tomorrow as is the materials for the framing of the exterior window. I am staining the floor this weekend and have found a place in Laverton where I can get small runs of the marine paint I got the container sprayed in for touch ups.

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Interior Shapes Up

Posted on May 23, 2009 by Dan

Batton the hatchSo, the basics of the interior (walls and ceiling) are complete. We used Acousti-therm bats for the insulation (not the tontine pictured in the corners) and 18mm MDF for the walls. All the other materials have been delivered and construction of the floor and vocal booth begins on Monday. Jayce has been doing some awesome work and  I am starting to get a feel for what it is going to be like working in here…

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Wiring up

Posted on May 13, 2009 by Dan

Wiring upSergio came over yesterday and laid all the wiring for what will be many powered music making appliances. After initially thinking we would just put a GPO socket on the outside, I have decided to have the container hardwired on it’s own circuit. The middle photo is the line running up to the roof of the box which is where the line from the house will connect.

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