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The Mire

Volatile Frequencies: call for papers

Volatile Frequencies: Topologies of Authority, Technology and Production in Contemporary Middle Eastern Music Practices : call for papers and performances NB: Due to request, the deadline for the submission of abstracts has been extended to 1 October 2010 and for full paper submissions to 1 November 2010 The Volatile Frequencies conference seeks to collate research that translates, mediates and frames practices specific to sonic disciplines (music, sound art, musicology) arising in relation to the Middle East and North Africa, and to critically connect with wider academic currents. It will emphasise current post-graduate research and scholarly approaches to new sonic practices, prioritising practice that favours experimental and exploratory approaches. Volatile Frequencies will be in conjunction with the first edition of the MazaJ Festival of Experimental Middle Eastern Music and is co-produced by Zenith Foundation, Sound And...

The Mire

The Outer Church: Position Normal

The man (men?) in the marshes above is performing a very rare Position Normal live date at The Outer Church tonight: well worth checking out I'd say – their self-titled last album, originally released on tape, was one of The Wire's Top 50 Records of 2009. Our own Joseph Stannard will be DJing, and best of all, it's free. And a small competition: if you can identify where the photo in the great Lila Hunnisett flyer above was taken, email myself at The Wire, and you'll get some on-the-hoof field recordings done by myself at an appropriate location.

Interview

Chicks On Speed

August 2010

Read an unedited transcript of Louise Gray's interview with Chicks On Speed, Dundee Contemporary Arts, 4–5 June, 2010.

The Mire

John Wall on Glossolalia

Tune into to Resonance FM tonight, 9 August, at 23:00 to catch the latest edition of Glossolalia , a show which, according to presenter Oliver Fay, is "produced with the intention of exploring the outer limits of composition, searching for those still thrashing uncomfortably around the perimeters of genre, the outsiders of the experimental music/sonic art frameworks." Tonight's edition features an hour long collaboration between digital composer-improvisor John Wall and poet Alex Rogers, both of whom fit Fay's brief for the show to a tee. John's last CD release was 2005's Cpohn , which contained just 20 minutes of material, and his live performances, while they have been growing more frequent in recent years, are still relatively few and far between, so this is a rare opportunity to hear one of the most unique and advanced (non-)musicians we have. As Helena Gough put it in The Wire 318: "His...

The Mire

The Wire Salon: Electric Eden

Our monthly salon series continues with a talk by The Wire ’s Editor-at-Large Rob Young based on his history of folk, folk rock, psychedelia and the British imagination, Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain’s Visionary Music (published by Faber And Faber, 5 August 2010.). The talk will be illustrated with film and audio clips and will be followed by a discussion of the book’s central themes; plus DJ Jonny Trunk will be in attendance spinning the sounds of wyrd and wired Britain. London Café Oto, 5 August, 8pm, £4. • Read: The Incredible String Band and The Hangman's Beautiful Daughter . Extract from Electric Eden: Unearthing Britain's Visionary Music by Rob Young • Read: Into The Woods . "Across folk, classical, pop and exploratory music, the sense of exile from Eden is key to the progress of British music...

The Mire

Monolake in Romanian

For all Romanian Techno and Ableton heads, you can now check out Derek Walmsley's interview transcript with Robert Henke/Monolake in Romanian on this excellent blog: http://boingbumchakro.blogspot.com/2010/07/interviu-robert-henke-aka-monolake.html .

The Mire

Jeff Keen: public meeting

Brighton's Lighthouse organisation is hosting an emergency public meeting to discuss how best to secure the archive of local underground film maker and artist Jeff Keen. Keen is ill with prostate cancer, and also faces eviction along with his wife Stella from their current home in the town. This necessitates them moving into Keen's studio, which currently houses his archive, which in turn necessitates relocating the archive to another location. Any interested parties are urged to attend the meeting at Lighthouse in Brighton on 28 July, whether to show support, or to offer practical solutions. Keen is one of the UK's pioneering experimental film makers. Three of his short films dating from the mid-1960s are currently on show as part of the exhibition Blow Up: Exploding Sound And Noise (London-Brighton 1959-1969) at Flat Time House in South London. The exhibition has been curated by The Wire's David Toop...

The Mire

How To Wreck A Nice Blog

If you haven't already had your brain rearranged this year by Dave Tompkins's How To Wreck A Nice Beach , an occult history of the vocoder from Cybertron back to the communication R&D labs of Second World War... well, you should. But if you want to try out your code-breaking skills before you buy (by the way, it's one of the most beautifully produced books I've seen in a long time) you can visit Dave's blog . Essential musings on Rammellzee's death, vocoder ephemera, an astonishing and essential mix taking in Jonzun Crew, ELO and The Human League, and many other enigmatic variations on the vocoder theme. All done by the dude above in the Luke Skyywalker jacket. Essential reading and listening... as is this completely singular book.

The Mire

Foundational text

“I was a sound recordist from the age of 11, long before Richard Kirk, Stephen Mallinder and I got together as Cabaret Voltaire,” announces Chris Watson in the new August issue of The Wire. “I was inspired by Stockhausen and Pierre Schaeffer and musique concrète. I also read this fantastic little yellowed paperback I still have called Composing With Tape Recorders written by an Englishman with the fabulous name of Terence Dwyer. There was a picture of a tape loop going round a jam jar on the cover. To see that as a 14 year old made me think that this was exactly what I should be doing: recording sound." Earlier in the same issue, Anthony Child, aka UK Techno producer Surgeon, tells Derek Walmlsey, "It began with playing with tape recorders, like a lot of people do, and then taking them apart, and...