Out with vinyl; now anyone who’s anyone releases on Eurorack? Regardless, the Akai S950-inspired module from Mumdance and ALM Busy Circuits sounds brilliant.
There does seem to be a new correlation between people pushing musical innovation and making their own hardware. And it’s no coincidence Mumdance, aka Jack Adams, would get into modules – the man is a certified Eurorack synthesizer nut.
Back in November, FACT were granted an in-depth look at the module and its inspiration and evolution, featuring both Mumdance and ALM’s Matthew Allum:
Mumdance and ALM Busy Circuits have made a Eurorack filter module that can “fucking scream”
Now, they’re back in the studio with Mumdance to have a look:
Unlike some muddled modules, this one is the model of simplicity: big cutoff knob, big resonance knob. From there, you have ample, complete control – dual audio ins, and the ability to control essentially everything via voltage, as you’d desire. Frequency, resonance, and the amplitude of incoming signals are all patchable. Also, standing apart from many modules, you get fine-grained attenuation of cutoff and resonance and a handy manual control for input level. (Sheesh, it’s almost like they think you may know what you’re doing or something.)
There’s also an internal control, as the video notes, that gives you the ability to fully close the filter – something the Akai couldn’t do. (That might be worth the adjustment, simply because now you’ve got CV control over cutoff and not only, like, your hand.)
This comes at a nice time, as Mumdance has made a fine name influencing every aspect of the scene around him in London. There’s his exceptional radio program, which has been on top of some of the best artists operating at the moment. There’s his ability to span genres, from grime to techno to hardcore (nicely embodied in this module, in fact). He’s made Roland presets for their relaunch. And there’s his label.
I point this out because, while it does require the luxury of time (gah!), these are things I think that can’t really be faked. Trying to fill all these different roles certainly isn’t advisable for every artist, but Mumdance does exemplify what’s possible in radical multitasking – when there’s a guiding sensibility.
I hope that this clears the way, meanwhile, for the weirdo modular builders outside of the music in-crowd to get some respect as musicians, too. It should be plainly obvious that the once-separate categories of musician and “modular builder freaks” are no longer distinct.
Keep an eye on Mumdance:
https://www.facebook.com/mumdance
And label (with Logos – more on that Chevel release that’s coming end of the month soon, as it’s brilliant):
http://differentcirclesmusic.bigcartel.com/
Equal credit to ALM Busy Circuits. They’ve stayed nicely focused – and this sort of filter just calls out for the modular treatment, as a color you might want to add to any particular place in your work.
The module:
http://busycircuits.com/alm018/
More of that: