Ivan Ives’ latest and last installment in his 1st of The Month series was released today. Cover art by Greg @ goodluck/badluck.
Not cash money but actually paper to draw on and stuff. Im not sure how to do it yet but it looks completely reasonable. All I know is that it’s kinda disturbing seeing all the wasted paper, especially if you work in an office environment. To deal with my own guilt I’m considering starting to make my own. Of course I dont imagine a world where all I use is my own paper. Im thinking more like every three months or so I’ll take all scraps, junk mail, bills etc mash em up and make something useful out of them. Who knows , maybe it’s relaxing? Maybe the wet paper feels sessy?
Dark ass blog born out of frustration from lack of coverage by the Mexican government.
obviously lots of graphic content
Its taken a while to get out and about in the city. Ive spent most of the last four years exploring the city by day and making music and concentrating on releases by night. However, this last year has definitely been marked by more dancing and nightlife. I suppose Im making a conscious decision to get out more and interact on a local level, face to face with people/shops/promoters as opposed to what Ive traditionally done ( operate and interact on the internet with a more international base ) .
So, what have I discovered?
First discovery, albeit a little silly given their stature and the fact that Ive been here for at least four years, is Claude Von Stroke and the Mothership/Dirtybird label(s). How great, we’ve got a world class tech house label right here (and theyve got more style than the standard blip blop minimal house thing imo). They steadily release music, occasionally throw label parties, and provide a lot of awesome free mixes. check out mothership/dirtybird for more info.
Second small but sweet discovery is a club/lounge/bar/basement called 222 Hyde. You’ll have to travel a bit through the Tenderloin and all its keyed-up beauty to get there. This, in my opinion, is one of its strong points. Not many people just stumble up to the door (maybe they do but they’re just looking for cigarettes). The people who go there seem to genuinely enjoy house music. The dancefloor/room is nice and compact with good sound and bathrooms. The bar is 5 steps up and out of the basement. To smoke cigarettes you’ll have to go outside where there’s plenty of alternate entertainment out on the street (I happened to have a killer impromptu dance party with some woman to a song that has the phrase “squeeze em like a stress ball”. Judging from her usage of the universal sign for ball fondling I quickly determined “em” or “them” are testicles. ooh, and later saw a raccoon in a tree, what a night!)
Finally, I hope to be making a contribution to the local house scene with my new SUICIDER project. More info and audio soon : )
-chris
this saturday at 222 hyde
“Reflective Records pioneer Jonah Sharp (AKA Space Time Continuum) will be joining the C U L T this month, bringing with him his unique & experimental approach to electronic dance music. Inspired by everything from early chicago house to ambient techno, Jonah has worked with many amazing musicans and producers including Move D, Mickey Hart, Bill Laswell & Terrence McKenna.
We’ll also have Danjagirl (of Bass KIttens glory) in the place this month, throwing in some vocal magic, alongside Andre & Jenö’s dj skills. If we can get them to work properly we’ll also be bringing along an old Roland TB-303 and a Space Echo to spice things up. Acieed!
9pm Sat Nov 6th 10-2am 222 Hyde
$5 b4 11.30pm/$10 after”
from the “classy as fuck” party thrown by D-Structure at Submission.
it was a good night, did my thing in the gallery section of the venue. it had nice paintings, a rocking “horse” llama that was originally a stage prop( i fought to keep it there i swear) , and was eventually made into the smoking section.
enjoy the set!
So as the title says, ill be playing october 23rd in san francisco but am still waiting on the details/flyer. Looks like it’ll be part art show part music event.
2183 Mission Street (between 17th and 18th) San Francisco, CA
and I believe my slot is from 8pm – 9pm
more details as they come
-chris
I’m currently in the process of writing three piano pieces which are for the most part one minute long. Ive asked three video making friends (Colin Self, Jichen Deng, Dan Baxter) to join in on the project and each create a short film for the piano pieces (one film per director) .
So far Ive written one piece and experimented with my new/old four track recorder. The song was recorded into the four-track with the tape speed as high as it will go. Next the tape was played back at regular speed with the pitch wheel all the way down and recorded back into the computer. I did that about 4 or 5 times until it was practically an ambient track. I then did the same process but inverted (recording back into the four-track at slow speeds and working my way back up). As you can imagine the quality degraded a bit, good amount of hiss was added, some saturation, and a few speed changes/tape pushing. Oh the track was originally put through the spring reverb unit.
Im not really sure what exactly this process brought to the table other then some sort of sun warped vibes. Looking forward to seeing what kind of imagery will be coupled with it.
more news as it comes.