Released June 23rd 2009, the first Shufflebrain venture is a fusion of noise and ambient. Tortured vocals, heavily processed guitar, and chaotic synthesizers were utilized in these first five experiments. There was a disc crash during the recording of Experiment 4, and the three remixes are alternate reconstructions given the remaining files. It is also available to download from Jamendo.
1. Experiment 1: A Hologramic Theory (4:21)
2. Experiment 2: (redacted) (6:55)
3. Experiment 3: Sense Intensification (4:30)
4. Experiment 4: Memory Overflow (12:15)
5. Experiment 4.1: Memory Recall (6:38)
6. Experiment 4.2: Memory Recursion (4:27)
7. Experiment 4.3: CRC Error (2:51)
8. Experiment 5: The Hologramic Mind (6:31)
I took this photo a few weeks ago. Apparently they were gassing up on the way to a poker game.
I’ve picked up a bunch of new gear in the past few weeks including a Korg Kaossilator and the Native Instruments Kore 2 hardware/software package. I also got the Komplete 5 but I’m having issues getting it registered at the moment. I’m very impressed with the inclusion of paper manuals for all of the plugins and instruments, which also explains why the packaging weighed about ten pounds.
I’ve uploaded the first Shufflebrain album, which is entitled Experiments in a Holographic Universe. It consists of five “experiments” and three remixes. Look for a more detailed post sometime this weekend.
If it’s been quiet lately, it’s because I’ve been noodling around on my latest instrument, a six-string fretless bass. It’s taken some getting used to, as there isn’t much tactile feedback if I’m on the right note, but I find it’s a lot more musical and expressive. Plus, it has a nice ringing quality to upper register that reminds me of a sitar without the drone strings.
Fear came to me with seven legs
scuttling on tile at 10:40 PM
A flurry of brown and then gone
I waited, unsure what I’d seen
This phantom a symptom of
weary eyes and worry?
I stared, vigilant
Every hair tingling
as if tickled by silken thread
The invader remained unseen
When did it creep into my sanctuary
and did it have scurrying friends?
The night wore on
Every corner and crevice
in the dark an ambush
My mind’s eye busied
weaving tapestries of bites
and ballooning purple flesh
Slowly
Deliberately
a shape ascends my wall
I’ve just started yet another project, this one devoted to noise and power electronics. I have called it Shufflebrain after the book by Indiana University PhD Paul Pietsch.
Check out the first track: Experiment 1: A Hologramic Theory.
I’ve put up a bare bones myspace site as well.
Aside from getting more releases published on Kunaki, I’ve been taking a break from Caustic Reverie. I’m getting back into a more rock-based songwriting mode. There’s a contest on the SA forums to write a song based on a random Wikipedia entry that I’ve entered, so the past week or so I’ve been trying to put something together.
The lucky article: Jagadish Chandra Bose, a noted Indian physicist and Royal Society member who may have beaten Marconi to the punch on wireless transmission; a man who didn’t rest on laurels (or patents) and ended up devoting some major study to biology and plant growth.
This theme turned out to be much more workable for me than the Panama Canal was in the last contest. I’ve written a song about one of his books entitled Response in the Living and Non-Living. Below is the work-in-progress demo with scratch vocals and some VST instruments that I’d like to replace.
The latest Caustic Reverie album was featured on the experimental music blog The Glass Forest. Check it out!
Glacial Procession is the next project of Caustic Reverie. Bryn is more and more able to link field recording and ambient-music as atmospheric and artistic as possible. A freezing cold blows the listener away and tears him into the arms of the exciting and atmospheric world of Caustic Reverie.
I’ve just picked up a gently used Mandala 2.0 drum pad.
As you can see, it’s huge! It completely dwarfs the pads on my DS-10.
The black beauty snare emulation program seems to work great given the three minute demo I put it through. I had a harder time navigating the virtual brain software but if I can figure out how to involve some of my other midi gear, this looks a very powerful system.
