Second Square To None


SSTN7

Monday, November 30, 2009 , 0 comments



Poster/flyer design by Chris.
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The last of our DEAF recordings sees idiosyncratic hip-hop flavours and masterful turntablism on show from Galway group Vince MackMahon. Plundering a wide-range of source material, twisting them into seemless explorations of sample contortion, Vince MackMahon finished off the gig in style.

Vince Mack Mahon
-are Tweek, Mikey Fingers, Deviant and Jimmy Penguin as well as Sebi C, Muipead, Rocky Meaney and Tony Higgins sometimes.
-perform original music using turntables.
-are the founders of COMMUNITY SKRATCH GAMES.
-are not in any way affiliated with Hulk Hogan, the Iron Sheikh or Bret "The Hitman" Hart.
-live by the beach.
-eat fish, tossed salads and make skratch ballads.
-are better than your favourite DJ.
-will play 2 sets: one using specially-cut vinyl dubplates of the Ten Second Rule tracks and another ambient / noise set prepared for Second Square to None.
Download part 1
Download part 2
Download part 3
Download part 4


Nice dynamic progression in this set. Big washes of synth open it, gradually shifting to thunderous analogue percussion and pulsing blips. PMC work their big analogue gear set-up to deliver the huge warm sounds you've been waiting for.

PushMoveClick
PushMoveClick are a live analogue modular group. They use three modular synths, MPC's, home-made noises boxes, synths, effects pedals, home-made touchscreen drum machine and sequencers. They start each track fresh with no set structure so anything could happen. At DEAF part of their show was based on creating a piece using random pieces of audio which were submitted to Second Square to None for our Ten Second Rule project. All the audio was processed through the modular synths and various machines. The rest of the show was then improvised with no set rules or boundaries.

If you're wondering why the set is in four different sections, it's because Ed hates you all. -C

Square Waves Radio

Sunday, November 22, 2009 , , 0 comments

Square Waves 2 by SquareWaves

Square Waves 3 by SquareWaves

Square Waves 5 by SquareWaves

Fionn Wallace (Fyodor) has been doing a radio show on Belfield FM that showcases an eclectic mix of quality music. He has now put some of the shows online & they are well worth checking out. Tracklist & info here.
Square Waves is broadcast on the UCD college radio station Belfield FM. It goes out on Fridays, usually at 9pm. To listen live go to www.belfieldfm.ie. The show is intended as an airwaves auxiliary to Second Square To None. It's aim is to showcase some of the finest in experimental musics, especially irish artists. The shows are loosely thematic as regards genre. The aim is to fluctuate between noise, beats, the weird and the sublime, perhaps even folk. I keep a quota of at least 25% irish artists, so if you make experimentalish music, hail from Eire and would like you're tracks played on the show, PLEASE SEND THEM, with info about yerselves. Thanks.

VVVV Video

Friday, November 20, 2009 , 0 comments

NIN "10 Ghosts II" from dottore on Vimeo.

Certain folk around SSTN towers are saying they're gonna learn VVVV (a software toolkit for real time video synthesis). If they do then we might be bringing this type of generative visual style to SSTN events in the future, here's hoping...

Alva Noto Live

Thursday, November 19, 2009 , 0 comments

Was reminded of Alva Noto by a recent post on Design Boom. Wasn't aware that his live shows looked so amazing.
'I describe what I do as graphic composing,' nicolai reveals. 'I’m always thinking in polarities, like yin and yang. I look for visualization tools that create certain images and then build archives of images generated by sound.'








More info and examples here.
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This week's live set is from the guy who makes this blog (and most of the fliers and design related to sstn) look like it does, Euphiophone, joined by bassist Melesta in her debut performance. Jumping from melodic and positively cheerful to distorted and dark, a distinctly cinematic feel exists in this set: ch-ch-ch listen now!

Euphiophone & Melesta
Euphiophone is an electronica artist based in Dublin. He played in a couple of bands in his native Monaghan that set the standards for late-nineties-rock-cover-bands-based-in-Monaghan before becoming a bedroom producer. His music is a dynamic hybrid of styles and sounds, with industrial beats and warm synth melodies combining with processed live guitar and laptop electronics. He has done a select couple of gigs about town, including supporting Black Dog. He is involved with the organization of the Second Square To None group.

For his live performance at DEAF he is in collaboratied with Melissa Conlon (a.k.a. Melesta), a graphic designer based in Dublin.
If you're of the iPhone/iPod Touch persuasion Soundcloud released an app yesterday that will allow you to listen to content uploaded to Soundcloud, as well as letting you favourite tracks & email them. Course this means you would be able to stream all content from the SSTN Soundcloud account. The app is available, for €0,79, at this app store link. Pretty sure you have to setup a Soundcloud account (they do a free one & it's not too involved) so that it can show you tracks from people you follow.

As a further incentive here's a couple other Irish acts & labels that we recommend on Soundcloud (obviously worth checking out with or without the app):
http://soundcloud.com/a-force
http://soundcloud.com/bluefood
http://soundcloud.com/chrome-metronome
http://soundcloud.com/drokkr
http://soundcloud.com/ed-devane
http://soundcloud.com/ebauche
http://soundcloud.com/eomac
http://soundcloud.com/euphiophone
http://soundcloud.com/filaria
http://soundcloud.com/fran-hartnett
http://soundcloud.com/fyodor
http://soundcloud.com/fyed
http://soundcloud.com/glandandconduit
http://soundcloud.com/iamprozac
http://soundcloud.com/jimmy-the-hideous-penguin
http://soundcloud.com/lakker
http://soundcloud.com/nexus
http://soundcloud.com/sixfootapprentice
http://soundcloud.com/spectac
http://soundcloud.com/vanessaparody
http://soundcloud.com/ventolyn-becotyde
http://soundcloud.com/welfare

http://soundcloud.com/acroplane
http://soundcloud.com/defrc
http://soundcloud.com/ghettoquietly
http://soundcloud.com/kaboogiemusic
http://soundcloud.com/rudimentaryrecords
http://soundcloud.com/squarewaves
http://soundcloud.com/sstn

If we've missed anyone, drop us a comment.

Also, here's a list of some dubstep-type folk that are on it.

More info on the app here.
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The second in our Ten Second Rule livesets features Fyodor tearing up the submissions using two custom made 10" vinyl dubplates. Attacking the records with extended turntablist techniques and then processing the sounds through an assortment of effects pedals and loopers, Fyodor created a cacaphonous wall of sound that thrilled the audience with its sheer physical presence.

Fyodor
Formerly the beats section of the now defunct John Mary Trilogy. Now trying to find his way around music composition, with a bent towards melodic quasi-noise, music concrete and turntable manipulation. Improvisation is central to his sound, he enjoys the immediacy of this approach and the heightened sense of each time he plays being a learning experience.

Photos from DEAF

Thursday, November 05, 2009 , 0 comments

With thanks to Aoife de BĂșrca & Melissa Conlon.

Facebook page

Wednesday, November 04, 2009 0 comments

For those of you who would prefer your SSTN fix on Facebook, we have set up a page here. We will (possibly) update this more than we did with the group page so please become our 'fans', the fact that you will have made us seem ever so popular will surely instill you with an enormous sense of well-being. We shall continue to reward your fandom with all sorts of delectable treats.

The group page will now be an orphaned bit of internet that nobody wants to be seen with.
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One of the highlights for me last Sunday was sinking into a Buddha Bag after setting up and listening to Dubreak's take on the Ten Second Rule pieces. Getting the day off to the best start possible it was a big rich warm sound, full of lush synths, enveloping bass and punchy beats.

Dubreak
First influenced by music at an early age. Dubreak and his older bro used to fabricate their own type of home-made radio shows when they were wee nippers, splicing and resampling snippets off LW radio shows and talking over the recordings. He moved on to two junk-shop HI-FI decks when he was 13, in his bedroom with doubles of records and some piss-poor scratching techniques trying his hand at being a 'superstar' DJ. He soon got sick of that, and has been making his own brand of music since. Currently he uses a Moog Voyager, ProTools and a rampant collection of other music stuff. Occasionally he gets to gig at a few festivals around Ireland, and works at a few 'live-sound' venues around Dublin as a 'Live Sound' Engineer. Dubreak will be using Ableton Live's advanced looping to mix and mash the Ten Second Rule into his own style.