When it comes to remixing a song from a big group like Radiohead, there are tons of guys producing ugly 4/4 club remixes and a few who create something truly original. James Houston, who’s just graduated from the Glasgow School of Art, definitely belongs to the second category.

“Based on the lyric (and alternate title) ‘Big Ideas: Don’t get any’ I grouped together a collection of old redundant hardware, and placed them in a situation where they’re trying their best to do something that they’re not exactly designed to do, and not quite getting there.”

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

I played yesterday at oblo. Below are some pictures and a video.

Very few people came but from what I heard they enjoyed the show. Unfortunately I couldn’t do visuals as there was no plug that fit my video output.

As usual I can’t say much about my set. I had definitely too much reverb and my guitar’s microphones which I had tuned to be extremely sensitive didn’t behave as expected (because of air moisture?). No pre-recorded stuff, every single sound was done live… I think it was not too bad actually.

Dave Phillips did a great mix of recordings he did while travelling in Thailand and Vietnam. Insects, water, storm… At the end he distributed this text to the audience. Interesting.

Some time after the show, Dave put some insane music like a fantastic “Eye of the tiger” sung by a crazy pakistani guy and some pop tunes from Thailand… That was pretty cool.
Thanks to Phroq who organized the event. By the way he’s gonna play at oblo on July 5th with Michael Gendreau. I’ll be there!

Update: I uploaded more videos on my YouTube account.

I’ll be playing at oblo in Lausanne on saturday. The main act will be Dave Phillips presenting his field recordings work. I’m glad to do a support act for him but I know he’s gonna tell me if I’m bad at it!
So I’m now preparing my setup… I bought a microphone a few weeks ago so I’m planning to do a lot of live sampling. I’ll bring some noisy objects and try to find some more there, that’d make interesting sound. I’m also planning to interact with the electromagnetic field produced by guitar’s microphones. The issue is that it’s so unstable that it behaves in a different way everytime I relaunch the setup. The last part is still open. I thought I’d make something with a contact mic and feedbacks. But again it’s quite unstable and there’s no way to reproduce twice the same sounds. I need rehearsals… few days left.

Oblo is a great place for listening to experimental music (quiet people, good sound system) and watching visuals (did I forget to say it’s a cinema?). So I also planned to add visuals to my music. I slightly improved the Processing patch I used one year ago for another concert. It’s a generative process that makes abstract drawings reacting to the sound.

If you like experimental music and don’t care about Eurofoot (Greece vs Russia on this day), you might want to come to oblo on saturday. I don’t know anyone yet who listens to experimental music and wouldn’t miss a football match.

I’ll be playing saturday afternoon (3:00 pm) at La Maison de Paille in Lausanne (I think it’s very near the Espace Autogéré) for Appendice, a radio show broadcast on Fréquence Banane (92.4 FM). This is supposed to happen outside. My friend James d’O et Patricia Bosshard (Mur//Mur//) play as well.
Sets last for 20∼25 minutes. Appendice is about experimental live music, so I’m gonna do something a bit more experimental than usual. No Jackie Chan or zombies this time, I’ll bring the contact microphone I’ve just built, magnet motors, TV remote and Wii stuff.

The second part of my live at frison is now available for download. The beginning is taken from Romero’s “Night of the Living Dead“.

tokoloten - live @ frison (part 2) [19:25 | 26.7 MB]

I’ll play at fri-son in Fribourg on March 25th.
There will be a live act of feldermelder too and we’ll do improvise something together at the end.
It starts at 10pm and it’s free!
Thanks to Marc who organizes k.o.roke.

After some soldering sessions last week I’ve (half)finished my DIY midi controller. So far I’ve only fixed 8 controls, 8 more to fix yet. I bought the box and the buttons in Akihabara, the shopping area for electronic goods in Tokyo and I’m using the Doepfer’s Pocket Electronic which makes all this quite easy to build actually.

My dealer in Akihabara!

I haven’t posted anything here for a while (I guess I’ve lost the few readers who were following) and I won’t be writing in the 2 coming weeks; tomorrow I’ll be flying to Japan and then staying in Kobe, as usual. I’ll also spend 5 days in Tokyo from 28. I checked the concerts scheduled for the 2 weeks both in Osaka/Kobe and Tokyo.
On 23rd I’ll attend concerts of Merzbow, Nobukazu Takemura, Pita, etc, at Sunsui, Osaka (my day of arrival, jet lag + noise might be tough…). And since I’m in Tokyo on 30th, I’ll definitely attend the event organized by mantle musics at loop-line.

A few venues which usually have a good experimental music program (among many others):
SuperDeluxe, Tokyo [http://www.super-deluxe.com]
loop-line, Tokyo [http://www.loop-line.jp]
Sunsui, Osaka [http://www.sunsui.net]
Bridge, Osaka [http://www.beyond-innocence.org currently down?]

A good source for japanese experimental music:
http://japanimprov.com

2 videos of the White Stripes… just because they rock on stage. I really need to see them once.

the remix of “D.A.N.C.E.” (Justice) by Jackson & His Computer Band again and again…

I’m trying to figure out how he produces such music. This is sophisticated and yet groovy. Very groovy. Bass and beat work so closely that there’s no clear distinction between them. And he’s got a strong sense of melody. Even the beat is very melodic.

I’m blown away… Jackson you’re one very talented little bastard!

http://www.myspace.com/jacksonand