Drum & bass vinyl & digital this week. Used bin finds, netlabel releases, some old tracker mods, and a couple more recent pieces. This mix features tracks by Boymerang, Funky Technicians, Seba, two by Fanu (including one from his recent Old Tracker Stuff compilation), and more.
This mix is no longer available for download from this website. It is however available at mixcloud.
// / 108049409592305876
Tags:
linux,
renoise,
software.
Loaded Renoise onto my raspberry pi 400 last night, then spent a bit of time today digging out, connecting, and testing an old USB MIDI adapter.
For the second time in my life I have a tracker hooked up to a real audio interface and my MIDI gear.
Battle Girl: The Living Dead In Tokyo Bay, 1991, directed by Kazuo 'Gaira' Komizu. Low budget direct-to-video sci-fi zombie movie starring pro wrestler Cutie Suzuki. Nightmare logic and slow, hazy vibes. Cosmo Amphetamine. Punk arms dealers in their tricked out bus. A dirigible broadcasts a message.
I watched what I assume is an unauthorized upload on youtube (with ENG subs) on a warm afternoon. Was a good (and sleepy) time. Would love to find a DVD copy some day.
Good Luck Battle Girl.
Edit: Synapse Films released the movie on DVD in North America; it appears there are still copies for sale, so this goes on my list of things to buy.
// / 108031780075852685
Tags:
hardware,
linux,
software.
Got out some old equipment and built a small LAN yesterday so I could network my rpi 400 and my main computer. Now I can access my music library with xwax (and mixxx) on the pi.
For years now I've had to copy music onto a flash drive in order to play it with my DJ gear. Not having to do that is a pretty big deal.
A weird mish-mash of styles this week - ambient, dub techno, electro, IDM, etc. This mix features two tracks from the Heavy Dub compilations on Cold Tear Records and three tracks from Recycled Plastics. Also featured at the end of the mix is a new track by Vertical67 on Brokntoys (though unfortunately I talked over most of it).
This mix is no longer available for download from this website. It is however available at mixcloud.
I've written a number of shell scripts, mostly frontends or shims to other programs, to help manage the tags & content of my music library. In this article I will briefly go over some of those scripts and then give a simple demonstration of how I process & prepare new music files.
The scripts discussed in this article are all available in my read-only dotfiles git repo. (I'll hook up a way to directly download them eventually).
This is part 2 of a series on how I handle my digital music collection. Part 1 covered Formats, Names, and Tags, part 3 will cover playback (and tag editing) with cmus.
// / 107988031080775995
Tags:
linux,
renoise,
software.
Oh nice there's a new Renoise release, version 3.4. There are Linux ARM builds now, both 32 & 64 bit. I'll have to try it on the Pi 400.
The recent (last few years) Renoise updates have really improved the program. I guess I'm going to have to start tracking again.
// / 107983123858629174
Tags:
1990s,
horror,
movies,
review.
Watched the first Tomie movie tonight. (First time I've seen it). Such an unexpected atmosphere! Warm diffuse visuals & an odd indie electronica type soundtrack. Slow & kind of hypnotic; dreamlike.
Some unconvincing gore & special FX, looks like there wasn't much of a budget for that. Which is fine by me, that didn't feel like the point of the movie.
Was genuinely surprised (and scared) to see Yoriko Douguchi play a doctor again (looking similar to how she did in Cure).
The ending lifted my spirits in a kind of weird way. I am once again not sure it's a good thing I enjoyed this as much as I did.
// / 107976625598980280
Tags:
pdx.
The Roxy is closing.
The Roxy was the only 24-hour spot in downtown Portland (that I'm aware of, anyway). I ate at The Roxy late-night about once a month for the better part of 10 years. Used to hang out there after shows, usually on Wednesday, to wait for Trimet (public transit) to start running again.
They reopened in 2021 without the graveyard shift and weren't bringing in enough money, I guess. They close on the 20th, in a couple of days. I'll miss it, I'm really sad to see it go.
An hour of mostly Dub Techno. A couple new (2021 and later) tracks by Blurred Hologram and Dublicator, a few from old tunes from Deepindub, a few from Rohs Records. Taking it easy, letting tracks run long.
This mix is no longer available for download from this website. It is however available at mixcloud.
// / 107958448907231520
Tags:
1990s,
collection,
dub techno,
music,
video,
youtube.
Footwear Repairs By Craftsmen At Competitive Prices, the collected music videos of Underworld 1993-1997. Released 1998 on Wax Trax! & TVT Records. Music by Underworld, videos credited to various directors (see table below), art by tomato, packaged by biobox. VHS, NTSC standard, ~90 minutes long. x264 NTSC SD video + flac 16bit/44.1khz audio, 1.8G, archived on DVD+R media.
Youtube videos linked in this article feature rapidly flashing images and strobing lights. Please avoid the links if that bothers you.
// / 107942298145093675
Tags:
2010s,
horror,
movies,
podcast,
review.
Watched "Personal Shopper" tonight, the 2016 Olivier Assayas movie. Loved it. Love thinking about it now, too. Not really a horror, more a story about grief. Though some bad and scary and spooky things do happen in it.
Another one I heard about through the podcast Live At The Death Factory. One of the hosts of LatDF, Astrid if I remember correctly, compared it to William Gibson's Blue Ant trilogy, and I think that's apt.
Techno & dub techno for a change. I don't think there's anything new this time, but there are a few classics and recent reissues including tracks by Maurizio, Robert Hood, and Convextion.
This mix is no longer available for download from this website. It is however available at mixcloud.
// / 107931790551161918
Tags:
meta,
movement through thought.
Spent about six hours today dancing & mixing & figuring out tomorrow's set. I'm wiped out. Still need to cut one track from the list I think.
Eko Eko Azarak III: Misa The Dark Angel, 1998, directed by Katsuhito Ueno. A body in the morgue with a strange message leads Kuroi Misa (played by Hinako Saeki) to a school drama club where the students are rehearsing Wizard In Phantom World, a suspicious play.
Of the four of these that I've seen this one is the most fun, probably because Misa gets to use her powers for most of the movie. I imagine this must be closer to the comic. It's pretty uneven, it shifts gears between slow plot & character business, witch magic, and The Evil Dead, but I kinda liked that.
This is a follow-up to the 1997 TV series (and I've read it was possibly meant as the third season). English subtitles are available for only the first few episodes of that series, from what I can tell; I might watch it anyway (unsubbed) because I really enjoyed this movie.
