File download is hosted on Megaupload
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‘CollideCoallesce’ is the third mix in an ongoing series of heavily edited and crafted mixes wherein many elements are layered, combined, remixed/dubbed, or otherwise altered into (hopefully) a singular whole. It’s not quite easy listening, but it’s more accessible than the unwieldy tracklist might suggest. Featuring mostly giants in areas of experimental, electronic, a little jazz, post-punk, and ‘world’ music–Can, Cage, Suicide, Bjork, Stockhausen, OMD, Bill Evans, Reich, Autechre, Dave Brubeck, Miles Davis, This Heat–the mix nevertheless aims to recontextualise all of these to a degree that makes hearing them here a unique listen for avid fans and neophytes alike. The aim is to create something akin to a 3D sound environment, something like a binaural recording, wherein a stereo signal is perceived with full spacial depth. Of course, this isn’t really possible–but I’d like to hope that if one listens to as many elements as carefully arranged as this, it becomes something close to multi-sensory immersion, hence the ‘Sensory Replication Series’. Notes, tracklist and download beyond the break.
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This mix was my most ambitiously “mixed,” or “texture-matched” to that point, involving not only the nerdily obsessive layering of sounds, but also attempts at making “versions” in a pseudo-dub style (made live using panning and multi-tap delay and distortions) as well as remixing a couple of tracks into new or prolonged rhythmic builds. I also threw in a number of edited sounds from my own recordings. In all, there are 44 elements across just over 61 minutes. And yet I hope that the sum total isn’t a frenzy. At most points, there is a “spine” to the sounds involved–a leading track, sometimes even a song (with vocals) at the fore; around which other elements coalesce and/or collide to create heightened tension or release, emotional build-up or fragility, and so on. So if one listens, as we usually do these days, with only a moderate amount of attention, there’s still a discernible compilation of tunes to be heard, albeit a slightly odd one. With greater attention–or so was my theory–comes greater reward, as the minute details create a more enveloping experience.
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Of course, there are records that achieve this feeling in their own right–discs like Talk Talk’s peak output or Charles Ives’ #4 or Mingus’ ‘Black Saint & The Sinner Lady’ are my inspirations. And of course, binaural field recordings, even of fairly mundane locations, often seem to turn sound into music by demanding that we recreate all sensory stimuli from auditory senses alone, another inspiration. For me, a major impetus to thinking about sound-as-music, space-as-music was going without air conditioning (fatally broken) and without my CD player (stolen) through a Southern summer in my car, and thus listening to the ricocheting sound of my engine interacting with the noises of the world outside to produce the only “music” I had to accompany my drives–one of the few parts of the day where I wasn’t listening to “actual” music. This mix is perhaps less abstract than some others in the series, partly due to featuring vocals; but I hope something of all this babbling will come through to the listener, and you’ll start to imagine that the sounds, instruments, echoes have physical causes and locations. And if not–hopefully it’s worthwhile just as plain old music, nothing wrong with that.
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This mix was originally issued as part 6 of the Blogariddims series, which will soon complete a two year cycle with volume 50. I was honored to be invited by Droid of Weareie to participate, as probably the only non-blogging (at the time), non-musician/DJ in a worldwide collaboration of fortnightly mixes that eventually covered an immense area of music and expertise. At least one mix for the series went on to be officially released as a proper compilation by Soul Jazz Records. Do yourself a favor and check it out.
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Tracklist [61:35]
[00.00 – 01.50] 01 David Fanshawe “New Year Celebrations” (1974)
[00.20 – 05.30] 02 Miles Davis “Go Ahead John” {Version} (1970)
[03.50 – 09.40] 03 Massacre “As Is” (1981)
[04.00 – 17.50] 04 This Heat “Metal” (1979)
[05.20 – 11.00] 05 Bali Kacek Choir “Sekaha Ganda Sari” (1974)
[05.30 – 08.40] 06 Bjork & Robert Wyatt “Submarine” (2004)
[08.20 – 12.00] 07 Autechre “Stud” (1996)
[06.50 – 13.40] 08 AMM “Later During a Flaming Riviera Sunset” (1966)
[09.40 – 15.00] 09 For Carnation “Being Held” (2000)
[11.00 – 14.40] 10 Huun Huur Tu “Exile’s Song” (1994)
[14.30 – 21.40] 11 Luc Ferrari “Music Promenade” (1969)
[15.10 – 23.20] 12 Mark Hollis “A Life 1895-1915” (1998)
[17.30 – 24.40] 13 Maryanne Amacher “Living Sound” (1979)
[21.00 – 25.20] 14 His Name is Alive “Detrola” (2004)
[23.00 – 32.20] 15 {Modified Guitar}
[23.10 – 28.20] 16 Suicide “Frankie Teardrop” (1977)
[24.00 – 28.00] 17 Einsturzende Neubauten “Zum Tier Machen” (1982)
[24.20 – 27.50] 18 Specials AKA “Housebound” {Remix} (1984)
[27.00 – 36.00] 19 Deadbeat “Portable Memory” (2004)
[28.00 – 42.00] 20 Arthur Russell “Reach One” (1973)
[29.20 – 31.50] 21 John Cage “Six Melodies for Violin & Harp, No. 4” (1950)
[32.00 – 36.00] 22 Tanzania Tribal Musicians “Wagogo Marimba” (1975)
[35.10 – 45.50] 23 Harmonia “Sehr Kosmich” (1974)
[35.30 – 42.00] 24 Karlheinz Stockhausen “Kontakte” (1959)
[35.30 – 46.00] 25 {Modified Guitar}
[35.40 – 38.50] 26 Rachel’s “Artemisia” (1999)
[37.00 – 45.10] 27 Matmos “For Felix” (2001)
[38.40 – 43.00] 28 Low & Spring Heel Jack “Bombscare” (2000)
[42.30 – 49.30] 29 {Analogue Synth}
[42.50 – 46.10] 30 Dave Brubeck “Far More Drums” {Version} (1961)
[43.10 – 48.30] 31 Lalo Schifrin “First Chase” (1969)
[46.00 – 49.40] 32 Arthur Russell “Just a Blip” (1982)
[45.30 – 50.30] 33 {Analogue Synth}
[46.00 – 51.20] 34 Scanner “Emily” (2003)
[47.10 – 49.50] 35 {Modified Radio}
[47.30 – 50.20] 36 {Modified Radio}
[49.10 – 51.10] 37 {Modified Guitar}
[49.30 – 50.40] 38 OMD “Romance of the Telescope” {Remix} (1981)
[48.30 – 56.40] 39 Alvin Lucier “Music on a Long Thin Wire” (1979)
[50.40 – 56.30] 40 Can “Vitamin C” {Remix} (1972)
[52.00 – 56.10] 41 Steve Reich “It’s Gonna Rain, Part II” (1965)
[45.20 – 57.40] 42 {Modified Guitar}
[56.40 – 61.20] 43 Bill Evans Trio “Jade Visions” {Version} (1961)
[59.50 – 61.40] 44 David Fanshawe “New Year Celebrations” (1974)
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If you possibly can, indulge me–listen with headphones in the dark.
Edit: download link updated.
