Magical

(pic from here.)

Apple have released a revolutionary new product.
It contains a microprocessor.
It can run one pre-approved application at the same time.
It lets you browse some of the web.
And it comes with the ability for you to send money to Apple right out of the box.

Jonathan Ive may be a genius, but isn't it a bit weird to make a video eulogising about your own product design as if it dropped from the sky? If I started doing that, I would be regarded as the biggest coq who ever lived.

"The thing about Cylob tracks is the way you have this incredible friction between the dissonant and the harmonius, and yet these seamless transitions from one section to the next. The way they are constructed is flawless. What you have in the end is something where the effect is just... magical."

(edit @ 29-1)

NEWS

We are already 16 years after The Day Today comprehensively demolished television news, and while it surely isn't much of a secret how this weird made-up world operates any more, especially since Brass Eye mopped up the gravy, this clip is still very enjoyable and so it goes into the scrapbook. See you for my super-secret live set tomorrow!

Got To Dance

I got a tip-off about this today from a Mr. M.S. of North London (thanx): There's a dance talent competition on Sky One (UK) at the moment, and one of the groups, called "Beyond Repair" (!) used my track. I feel a bit spun out to watch it, since it's an X-Factor type production... you can see it here (beware they make you watch an advert before the clip.)

[edit 31 Jan: as now parodied on Harry Hill's TV Burp - as can be seen here @ 3:40]

So, would you like to read some blah about this track? It's my "remix" of The Ampex Twins track "Vimto". I made it one early afternoon in 1994 when I was living in Bounds Green. I was in a really bad mood at the time, which coloured my perception somewhat, in fact I marked it on the DAT inlay as "shit track." When I was lucky enough to have the opportunity of having a remix out on the aforementioned release, I gave the choice of this track or the track called "Sixed" and this one was chosen, much to my surprise. I subsequently liked it more, once my memory of having made it, along with whatever mood I was in, faded. It seems to be held in high regard by mid-90's electronic music affectionados, and I won't argue with that... the strings buildup is totally nicked from Trans Europe Express and the tunes and beat are pretty simplistic, maybe that's the secret of its appeal.
I won't make any broadcast royalties from this, as it's technically written and produced by someone else, but that cuts both ways as I get the mechanicals from the remix of my track that appears on 27 Mixes For Cash, and that sold quite a lot!
I think remixes are generally a bad deal for the artist, as it means letting go of a piece of music forever in return for a flat fee. It's only good if there is a significant amount of money or recognition to be had, or both (see above.) But even when it does, it makes me sad. It's like selling a baby for adoption. You lose control of things like the way it is mastered. It's frustrating to sweat over a track and be really happy with the result, only to listen back to the finished copy and realise that they have simply put it through some kind of poor quality VST compression plugin that has mangled the transients and turned it into a gloopy mess, which has then been pressed as the second track on that side of the 12 inch, thereby reducing the quality even more.
Also, if you are a big name artist and have done enough remixes that could be put together as an album, you may find yourself in the position of having a shady music business operator quietly going around and licensing all of those tracks in order to make a "new" album "by" you on the sly, from which you will earn not a penny (thus forcing you and your record company to squash this attempt by licensing the tracks for an "official" version, for which your fans accuse you of being a rip-off merchant!) It's one of those things which is technically absolutely above board but morally stinks. Which is a pretty good description of the music business overall. The music business is like the porn business - it's not the people who are actually doing the f***ing who are making the money! And as this post threatens to turn into a rant, I will finish it here!

Net Radio 2200 GMT Tonight Thursday 7 Jan

Not much notice about this I know, but I only just found out! The set I played in Berlin a couple of months ago is being aired on brap.fm tonight sometime after 10PM GMT, more info here.

Jan 2010 UK Nano-Tour

Here are the dates from the January UK Nano-Tour!

Friday 15 Jan 2010 - Manchester, UK (with DMX Krew)
10pm-4am, I'm on @ 2 am. Doors open at 10, close at 12, at 'The Music Box', 65 Oxford Street, central Manchester.
Tickets £10 on the door, £7 online here. More info: http://www.groundzeropresents.co.uk/

Saturday 16 Jan 2010 - Bristol, UK
Micro_Rave, Level 7 - Circuit-Bent Hero Special, 9pm-3am. I'm on around about 12.30 - 1ish.
Boneyard Bar, The Old Firestation, Silver St, Bristol. £6. With residents: Mulch & Brother Wetlands.
More info at: http://microraves.tumblr.com/
The theme of the party is something about defending the earth from banal music using circuit bent instruments, sounds good!

I'm looking for any opportunities in London on Wednesday 13th, Thursday 14th or Sunday 17th! If you have some ideas then please get in touch @ dj_cylob@durftal.com

(updated 2, 16, 17, 20 Dec)

iPod SC & OSCemote Demo

There are a few Open Sound Control controllers available on the iPhone platform now, the way they are usually used is to join the same network as a computer and send messages there to perform (for instance) synthesis tasks. Now that SuperCollider itself is available on the iPhone / iPod Touch, even the synthesis can be achieved on the same machine. Usually it's impossible for the user to run two programs together, but there is a program called Backgrounder, available on Cydia for jailbroken devices, which lets you do this. The video demonstrates OSCemote and SuperCollider running simultaneously: everything you hear is coming from the iPod itself.

The code is pretty crude but it demonstrates the principle of using the OSCemote multi-touch screen and is available here:
http://code.google.com/p/oscemote/wiki/OSCemoteSuperColliderExample

DJ Cylob @ Berlin, 27 Nov 2009

[UPDATE] I'm supposed to be on at 4AM!



A mini-gig in Tacheles, which will be my first and probably last time playing there - I thought it had already been shut down but it's still hanging on, the last little piece of anarchy left in the centre of Berlin.

Freitag 27 November, 2200 Uhr @ Tacheles, Oranienburgerstrasse, Berlin-Mitte.
Lineup:
Cylob (Rephlex, Breakin’, Cylob Industries)
Puzzleweasel (Tigerbeat6, Sublight)
Quip (The Centrifuge)
Vertical67 (Acroplane)
Nexus (The Centrifuge)
Herv (Acroplane)
TCO (The Centrifuge)
Loom (Acroplane)
Atlas Moth (Rock Paper Scissor)
Phlex (Rock Paper Scissor)
missaw (The Centrifuge)

More info: http://www.thecentrifuge.co.uk/

DJ Cylob @ Brussels, Fri 4 Dec 2009

The punishing winter tour schedule has yet another date crammed in, so be sure not to miss out on witnessing my Belgique Freak Technique (this paragraph will end here due to sudden increase in nonsense.)

BOYA Tones

Line-up:
Cylob
Acid Kirk (live)
Squeaky Lobster (live)
Ucture (live)
BIshop Dust (live)
Al Capile (live)
BOYA sound system

Venue:
KultuurKaffee (VUB)
Pleinlaan 2, Brussels.

4 décember, start at 22h
Entrance: 7€

More info: http://www.myspace.com/boyaentertainment

Tiny Music System

You can now get SuperCollider on your iPhone / iPod Touch. I have an iPod and so last week iProdded RedFrik to install it for me, and now a new software project has begun, the Tiny Music System. So far there is just a drum synth / sequencer, demonstrated in this little video I just made.

The CPU load % of real time synthesis on this first generation device (running at 412 mhz) is about 10 times that of my laptop (2 ghz) which is about what you'd expect. It's a sort of miracle that it exists at all, and one I intend to exploit.



[UPDATE] Part 2

Banal Picture

I'm not sure when I took this picture, it must have been when I was 9 or 10. The boring subject matter, wonky angle, bleached out and uninvolving colour pallette, lack of focus and balding man somehow make for a weirdly compelling exercise in banality that surely deserves to be rendered in oil paints on a huge canvas.

DJ Cylob @ Moscow, Thurs 17 Sep 2009

Moscow gig is back on! If you are in the area then please come, if you have a friend there then tell them about it, because this doesn't happen every day. Less than a week's notice from me, sorry, I had to wait until everything was sorted out for sure before making an announcement.

17 September 2009 "ADD Noise" @ Solyanka club. 23:00 – 06:00
featuring Cylob, Novel23, Salfetky and dj-residents.

http://www.lookatme.ru/cities/moscow/events/73885

Ambient News CSR 007

Ambient News is a new 14-track album on Cylob Industries that has just come out on Bleep. You can buy it as MP3s or 24-bit WAVs, i.e. the actual master files themselves. The rest of the label back catalogue in this format will shortly follow.

http://bleep.com/index.php?page=release_details&releaseid=21305

Ambient News on MySpace
Ambient News dot com

Full preview download available here.

Listen To Cylob

Be my guest.

Catching Up With Pods Fully Cast

(image from Vintage Synth Explorer)

I've been a bit lazy about checking them out, but EDMX's podcast series is now up to number nine, although then again it's not so bad to have an extended session of the ones I haven't heard yet. If you're unaware, they feature tracks being played one after the other with Ed talking inbetween, musing about the history of the music and people he has encountered. It's like Radio 2 only with decent music. Plus there is this ancient page from the site that hasn't been updated in at least 18 months!

[update] Just found out I'm a human sex machine (@ Podcast 8) glad to hear it!

Big Shot

I answered a few Q's for this DJ focussed magazine and here is the result:

http://newsflash.bigshotmag.com/?p=4209

(p.s. despite pleas to the contrary, the photo is unattributed, for what it's worth it's by Taavi Tulev and thanks again to him.)

DJ Cylob Berlin 18 July 2009 on MP3

It was a nice little party, the sound was good and I had the video display on the go as well, which was cool. The crowd were rocking which made it a lot of fun to play. My recorder underwent some sort of temporary operational meltdown so there are a few minutes missing early on.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?4wwtfhqnn2l

DJ Cylob @ Berlin, Sat 18 July 2009

OK so I'm playing this little Berlin party in a week and a half. I got the call from friendly Mr. Jackson and couldn't resist his charming invitation. Unfortunately the name of the party isn't so charming (and I thought "Skid Mark" a couple of months ago was bad!) I'm told it's a quote from GG Allin, who was quite good value for money when he was alive, and that it is to test the legendary Berlin sense of humour. Personally I am not down with the use of the second F-word, but I'm an old man so naturally out of step with what the kidz say nowadays. I play at 3AM (based on current info subject to change at no notice.)

"BLUE SPERM" presents

"Freaks, Faggots, Drunks & Junkies"

Event curated by JACKSON (Warp)
in partnership with .HBC & TILT!

2 over-floors > all-night-long:
- 1_Wonderfull & Tiny Terrace in Open air
- 1_ Panic Room for angels & demons

Start Time: Saturday, July 18, 2009 at 7:00pm
End Time: Sunday, July 19, 2009 at 11:00am
Location: TERRASSE & JOSEF (@ Club Maria)
Street: Schilling Brücke
City/Town: Berlin, Germany


Upcoming Line-up //

________________________ JACKSON (Warp - De)
PLAPLA PINKY - live - (Fr)____________________
_____________________________________________
CYLOB_______________________________________
__________ABSTRAXION (Biologic rec - London)
_____________________________________________
MARCOS DOS SANTOS (Paris rec - Paris)______
_____________________________________________
______________NIKI (Broken Heart club - Berlin)
EM//E (TILT! - Paris)_________________________
_______________________PETULA (.Hbc - Berlin)
____________________________________________
____________________________________________
______+ A VERY SPECIAL EXTRA-GUEST!______
____________________________________________

** UPDATE ** And here's the flyer:

Gig Update

*UPDATE 29 June* Portugal gigs are off for the time being, but keep your fingers crossed for the future!

[original post follows]
Moscow got pulled, I've agreed to play Lisbon next month with a possibility in Oporto but I don't have full details yet.

DJ-ing in the usual bleeding edge way!

Fri 12 June: Seattle, WA, USA (details below)
Sat 13 June: Portland, Or, USA (details below)

[edit]
XXXX (Maybe some future time): Lisbon, Portugal
XXXX (Maybe some future time): Oporto, Portugal

DJ Cylob @ Seattle, WA 12 June 2009

Bonkers! @ Re-Bar, 1114 Howell Street, Seattle WA 98101
June 12 10PM+
$9 - 13
Cylob / Hecate / Cursed Chimera / Citizen Mori

Visuals

This is what my visuals system looks like these days, it's been tweaked a bit over the course of the last year. Made with SuperCollider as usual. Thanks to Chris Moss Acid for the pics and video!