You deserve a summer break. Here’s a dark disco love ode to a moustache, made by Greek-Argentinian partnership of Local Suicide and Skelesys, with a cheeky video by Lebanese-born video artist Zaher JR. Come for that silliness, stick around for a who’s-who of music artists redefining queer identity and the harp, acid to post-punk and beyond.
Music
Interview: Michael Vincent Waller connects concert music and hip-hop
Music Stories December 26, 2024
Live radio from Gaza, Khan Younis and Bethlehem-Hebron choirs meet
Music December 24, 2024
Liz Pelly’s Spotify book reveals how company uses ghost content
Music Tech Web December 19, 2024
Get the BBC Symphony Orchestra Discover instantly with Spitfire Audio – free, lightweight
It’s got all the basic elements of the BBC Symphonic Orchestra in plug-in form, it sounds great, it’s easy to use, and it’s all in a tiny 200MB. And now it’s free instantly, no strings attached. (No pun intended.)
Memory Knob is an elegant phrase recorder for anything in Ableton Live, by ayrtbh
Sequencer Electronics keeps giving us musical, inventive gadgets for Max for Live, from two of our favorite artists, Gooooose and ayrtbh. This one just records knob movements, which in Device form is both more visual and accessible for improvised parameter tweaks than traditional Automation.
Free Mod Squad v2 adds missing modulation, envelopes, and trackers to Ableton Live
It’s incredible this package is free – a full set of fifteen carefully crafted, native-feeling add-ons for Ableton Live that add everything from bread-and-butter modulation to dub-style effects. It’s a chance to dial in human expression and bring those sessions to life, all driven by probability.
NASA’s Webb telescope could transform how we imagine digital art, along with our cosmos
Amidst meaningful and justified disenchantment with digital media, NASA’s Webb offers a different course for understanding our relationship with technology. It offers a chance to peer into our existence with greater understanding. It could be this generation’s “Blue Marble” – looking instead outward and deep into time. And it promises to be more than one image – way more than just one.
Free Piloslib for Pd makes patching easier – and sounds totally hardcore
The modular sound environment Pd (Pure data) is wonderful. Pd is free. Pd runs everywhere. Pd is … frequently lacking some of the stuff you’d ideally want out of the box. Enter Piloslib, totally free and just released.
“Singing Daxophone” makes incredible eerie quasi-vocals out of an experimental instrument
The “daxophone” is a new acoustic instrument invented in the 80s. Its creator was a German typographer. It’s name is derived from “badger.” It sounds like an half-human, half-alien vocal. And virtuoso Kazuhisa Uchihashi has been able to coax a whole album out of it – with jaw-dropping results.
GForce Oberheim SEM, perfect £30 plug-in of a 1974 gem, made with Tom and Marcus
In 1974, lunar modules were landing in quick succession on the moon – and the Synthesizer Expander Module (SEM-1) landed here on Earth. Developer GForce turned to creator Tom Oberheim and 80s Oberheim veteran Marcus Ryle for input on this one – and it shows. This is a unique, very analog-y feeling software instrument. It’s simple, elegant – and at 30 quid, a no-brainer.
These custom keycaps give synth controls to your mechanical computer keyboard
Here is one tasty-looking custom keycap design, adding the faders, knobs, and synth-y visuals your mechanical keyboard so desperately wants.
It’s about time – Resolume 7.13 adds time readouts, slice options, Wire features to visual tools
Resolume keeps packing features into their Arena and Avenue VJ / live visual / media server tools every few weeks. This time – easier-to-read, customizable time readouts, and a bunch of new features for slices.