Retro raving, impossible music, drug debate and tech treats.
“Big businesses à la Ushaia can [mould the Ibiza scene] with their ‘take no prisoners’ approach to what we do – morons.” After announcing the Broadbents’ retirement from We Love… co-founder Mark Broadbent speaks to DMC World about the commercialisation of the island, the highs and lows of his time at the helm and his plans for retirement to the Gypsy Quarter.
Moog announces Minifooger analogue effects pedals. The five pedals (Boost, Drive, Ring, Delay, Trem) are primarily for use with electric guitars and bass but look like they’ll work very well on synths and drum machines too. They have an expression pedal input that provides control over a function and allows experimentation beyond the panel settings. Four of the Minifoogers are due in the UK in October, with the Delay to follow later. All will be priced under £169/$200. Read more here.
Witness some rare retro raving to Autechre. Robin Rimbaud aka Scanner has unearthed this footage from 1991 when Autechre played the Sweatbox 2 party at Bojangles in Manchester. Some serious hairdos, some serious moves.
SFX raises $260 million in US IPO, which will help the New York-based company compete with Live Nation, currently the world’s biggest promoter, and fund further acquisitions. SFX’s sales increased from $378k to $37.6m in a six-month period last year, but CEO Robert Sillerman insisted that electronic music is not a fad: “There are already 23 separate sub-genres.” Are you sure, Bob?
Universal Audio announces API Vision Channel Strip Plug-In. The channel strip emulation from API’s Vision analogue console is for the UAD Powered Plug-Ins platform and Apollo audio interfaces. It comprises five modules: mic preamp emulation, high/low-cut filters, gate/expander, compressor/limiter and 4-band equaliser. Retailing at $299, more info here.
The dark world of Black MIDI. Technological art magazine Rhizome explore the world of Impossible Music. Musicians use MIDI files to create compositions that feature astounding numbers of notes, unplayable by human hands. In standard notation the compositions form almost solid black and kudos goes to those who use the most notes. Here’s how 4.6 million in just under four minutes sounds.
Deaths from PMA (sold as MDMA or ecstasy) on the rise. Suzi Gage investigates the increasingly missold drug, which is toxic at a much lower dose than MDMA and takes longer to have an effect. For useful information on PMA see this Independent Scientific Committee warning for ecstasy users.
Warehouse Project drug-testing scheme submitted for debate in the House of Commons. Following last week’s death at the Warehouse Project, an Early Day Motion (EDM) has been submitted by John Leech, Lib Dem MP for Manchester Withington, urging the UK government to support WHP’s pilot drug testing scheme. So far the motion has two signees, have a look here.
Arturia bring their emulation of the legendary 1974 Oberheim SEM synth to iPad. The iSEM app recreates the SEM, known for its distinctive multimode filter and rich oscillators. Features include Audiobus support, Core MIDI and hundreds of presets based on the company’s TAE analogue modelling. Retailing at $9.99, read more here.
“I thought your new record was a load of conceptual bollocks when I heard it first but it has grown on me, so well done.” Oneohtrix Point Never takes to Reddit to answer questions about vaporwave, albums beginning with R, sneakers, philosophy and using ‘generic MIDI presets’. Read some highlights or check out the full onslaught here.
