Second Square To None


Flyer: Osaka Christmas Party tonight

Thursday, December 23, 2010 , 0 comments


If you're willing to brave the elements this evening this should be a good gig.

www.osaka.ie/

Stop/Run photos

Saturday, December 18, 2010 0 comments



Photos by Aoife de Burca.
  Jimmy penguin [it depends what your into] by Jimmy penguin

Really nice mix from Jimmy Penguin. He has a great knack for getting an organic flow going within a mix and the selection here is a perfect mix of off-kilter electronics touching on hip-hop, electro and experimental electronica. Includes tracks from Sunken Foal, Laura Sheeran and Jimmy himself aswell as the likes of Loops Haunt, Lorn and Plastikman.

soundcloud.com/jimmy-penguin
myspace.com/jimmythehideouspenguin

Track listing


Moody atmospheric electronica here from Black Sea project aka Stephen Rennicks and thatboytim. Sounds quite reminiscent of old-school ambient techno which is no bad thing. Available on a pay-what-you-want basis from bandcamp.com.
Takeover Recordings commences it's winter campaign with the release of Black Sea Project's long awaited second album, "Passage".
Based on loops and sequences sent by Stephen Rennicks (drexciyaresearchlab, author of Wire's Drexciya Primer) to thatboytim (Tim Smyth,Takeover Recordings owner), and structured into tracks over a two year period, "Passage" draws on a dark palette of influence, including electro, dub, hiphop,EBM, and techno, influenced by the dancefloor, but not necessarily for it.
http://takeoverrecordings.bandcamp.com
http://www.takeoverrecordings.com/

Dubh thrian

Saturday, December 11, 2010 0 comments



Two-step from Leitrim. The recently-released Isolator EP is worth a listen if you're into the Floating Points/2562 end of things.

dubhthrian.bandcamp.com


Dublin-based audio artist Ed Devane presents Stop/Run: part concert, part installation, part sound sculpture, part experiment.

7 composers actively involved in electroacoustic / experimental / new music have been commissioned to write pieces for 5 instruments especially built by Ed Devane. The compositions will be performed at the opening in Severed Head on 11th December, and audio/visual recordings of the performances will be played in the following week.


String feedback prototype from Ed Devane on Vimeo.

More info about the composers & the instruments on www.eddevane.com
Facebook event
Somehow we neglected to point out that Meljoann's album is now available for digital download for €6.00. Get one of the albums of the year on Boy Scout Audio.

'Squick' advances the electronic funk-pop sound introduced in the 'Tour Guide' EP, combining tight vocals and experimental production. Influenced by musics such as 80s and 90s R&B, electro, Detroit techno, Minneapolis funk, electro-acoustic/academic composition, 'IDM', and dance hall.

These nine tracks range from stompers to slow jams, with interludes to aid in your journey.
  Square Waves 2.7:...and now for somethings completely different... by SquareWaves

SHOW 2.7. Tracklist and info

Artist: Clang Sayne
From: Wexford, Ireland and London
Track: Lady Grey’s Allotment
Album: Winterlands
Label: Self-Released
From:
Year: 2009
Notes: Written and Produced by Laura Hyland, performed live without edits, overdubs or outtakes by Laura Hyland on voice and acoustic guitar; James O’Sullivan on electric guitar and objects; Peter Marsh on double bass; Matt Fisher on percussion. recently finished recording their second album, (with Paul May replacing Matt Fisher on percussion) and plan to release it in December 2010. Laura is currently working on a new choral project with composer/vocalist, Judith Ring and vocalist, Laura Murphy. Visit www.clangsayne.net for more details…


Started doing this post yesterday about experimental music/media performances and workshops being organised in Cork by Black Sun as part of ArtTrail, but in the meantime Sweet Oblivion has written a blog on the subject so check out Sweet Oblivion (or Black Sun) for the full details.

From themutation.com:
This December 6th, to mark the grand finale of this year’s ArtTrail festival, Black Sun will be hosting the debut and sole Irish performances of New York’s snuff jazz legends, Borbetomagus, Dutch composer/saxophonist Thomas Ankersmit and Edinburgh’s finest junk merchants, Usurper. There will also be an experimental film programme of work by Stéphane Marti -curated by Maximilian Le Cain. Cork based made-to-order vegan desserts company ‘Sugar Moon’ will be on site selling delicious cupcakes, cake and raw chocolate treats.
Tickets for the grand finale are €14 are are available from Plugd and on door on the night.
For more information on exhibition, workshops and main concert, visit www.arttrail.ie.
blacksuncork.tumblr.com
www.arttrail.ie

Also, really the flyer design by Holly Burgess and deathorperfection


Beautiful work here by the ridiculously prolific Jimmy Penguin. Recalls the glory days of forward thinking instrumental hip-hop by J-Dilla and the like. Download it on Soundcloud.

  depiano by jimmy the hideous penguin

In addition, he has another release, Thumb (Depiano, above, is the first track), out on the Fusion Netlabel. Download it for free on archive.org.

www.myspace.com/jimmythehideouspenguin
www.nozlrecordings.com/
www.myspace.com/fusionnetlabel

Crash Ensemble tour

Thursday, December 02, 2010 , 0 comments


NOTE: Show in Castlebar has been cancelled. More info on crashensemble.com.


NOTE: Show in Dun Laoghaire has been moved to Belvedere College off of Parnell Square in Dublin 1. More info on crashensemble.com.


Encouraged by their unflinching approach to the weather I can say I will be most definitely going to check the Crash Tour out when it stops in Dun Laoghaire on Sunday. Irish composers are strongly represented in the programme with work by Gerald Barry and John Godfrey, as well as the Irish premiere of Donnacha Dennehy's 'As an Nós' (Soundcloud clip below). Am also intrigued to hear the 'Argentinian Klezmer stylings' of Osvaldo Golijov, while the Jacob TV pieces seems to articulate quite nicely why I have a love/hate opinion of contemporary compositional concepts:
The composition is based on sound bytes from the streets of New York: an angry 'evangelist' on Times Square, and a small choir of the Salvation Army. The groove is based on rhythmical baby talk from 2 little girls: 18 months old Welmoed and 2 year old Amber. The work was inspired by the post 9-11 trauma and the role of religion in the history of man:'God kills'. Is Jesus really coming? It is about time...
Description from Jacob TV's Youtube, which has a video of the piece.

For Dun Laoghaire tickets available here, or on 01 231 2929

The tour starts tomorrow in Galway and continues for a very busy week around the country:
Dec 3 : Stranger Folk (Galway) [CANCELLED]
Dec 5 : Stranger Folk (Dun Laoghaire) [VENUE CHANGE]
Dec 6 : Stranger Folk (Castlebar) [CANCELLED]
Dec 8 : Stranger Folk (Tralee)
Dec 9 : Stranger Folk (Cork City)
Dec 11 : Stranger Folk (Newbridge)
Details for all the concerts can be found on the Crash website.

As a Nós by CrashEnsemble

crashensemble.com

New music: Sunken Foal

Thursday, December 02, 2010 0 comments

New tracks from Sunken Foal. Worth a listen.

Chizzlers by sunken_foal
This one features Carol Keogh, who he plays with as Natural History Museum. They perform this weekend in Smithfield as part of this Young Hearts Run Free gig. Flyer below.

  Coal Swamp Calamity by sunken_foal
Really like the haunting percussive string melodies and sparse percussion in this one.

Gravy Ladle by sunken_foal
Interesting to hear these sort of off-the-cuff type tracks, where you get a real sense of artists just tinkering and having fun in the studio, in this case creating delicious pumping aural mush from bass guitar recordings and found samples.
Sampled loads of acoustic bass guitar string harmonics and made an upset rhythm out of them - someone left a rake of 1940's hollywood show tune records in a bin at my apartment so I rescued them and sampled some warbling
Sunken Tweets
Sunken Soundcloud
www.myspace.com/wesunkthefoal

Metal percussion musing

Thursday, December 02, 2010 0 comments

Not Irish-related but I thought this interview with Blixa Bargeld (of Einstürzende Neubauten) on The Quietus was interesting, particular this bit about choosing material for percussion.
We always experimented with pickups, with contact microphones, which pick up the internal vibration within the metal, and get a totally different sound. In San Francisco David Harrington from Kronos Quartet took me to their rehearsal space. They play Neubauten pieces, including ‘Armenia', and they went to a junkyard to try and find some pieces for it. I just had to smile when I saw them because they were so unexpertly chosen. The mistake is to choose something by the sound you make when you hit it, that it is a resonating skin. They had these bathtub things, but the point is you can have a massive block of iron and you put a pick up on it and you have the internal frequencies working for you, which is a completely different thing to thinking it is a kind of metal drums. You have to think out of the normal musical instrumentation. The thing that we have used for the longest time is the amplified metal bass spring. If you hit that without the amplification or the microphone, what do you get? Nothing! You just get a click. The trick is getting the frequencies as they run through the spring, and that is not in the normal category of instruments.
Goes to show that even seemingly arbitrary decisions (I always assumed they probably grabbed whatever industrial detritus happened to be lying around the nearest Berlin warehouse) by an artist are often conceived in a very considered and controlled manner, achieved by being carefully attuned to what you're after and applying lots of dedication and experimentation.


http://www.neubauten.org
http://thequietus.com

Mix: Eomac - Mo’Mix

Thursday, December 02, 2010 0 comments

Nice mix of bass music with rolling acid, dubstep. funky and two-step flavours.

Tracklist: