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I recently had a one to one tutorial with one of my tutors, Adam, who advised me to refine my ideas a bit more in terms of my essay. He also pointed me in the direction of some very interesting sources to draw inspiration from for my sound piece, which I have noted in my notebook page below.

Moving forward into my research project for third year, I began to realise during the tutorial that I have done a lot of research for this current project, more than I probably needed to. However, the benefit of this is that I am now able to narrow down a focus for this essay, which I have decided will be on the connection of cyberpunk and drum ‘n’ bass, because I feel I have the most source material on cybernetics and science fiction within drum ‘n’ bass, which I feel confident in writing about. I will also be able to use much of my research to inform my dissertation essay, where I am keen to expand on the subject matter I have been diving into for the contemporary issues in sound art unit.

Furthermore, my decision to focus on cyberpunk and drum ‘n’ bass allows me to hone in on the intertwinement of humans and technology, which has sparked the idea in my head to create a sound piece that revolves around a narrative of a producer (me) and a computer fighting over a sample. I think it is a playful idea that I can have fun with, and it retains the focus of my essay which keeps a consistent flow between my academic and practical work. I feel I am harnessing the method that I learned in Mark’s lecture of allowing the essay and sound piece to conversate with one another, pushing and pulling each other in different directions. It feels more liberating and less stressful having this fluid mentality towards my work.

I listened to the Horacio Vaggione piece titled ‘Variations’, which is similar to Trevor Wishart’s ‘Imago’ in that it takes a single sample and manipulates it in extensive and creative ways to construct a composition that works.

I have also been listening to a lot of Squarepusher recently, and have been massively inspired by his willingness to disregard the logical trajectory of a drum break. I intend to reflect this approach in my work.

SOURCE: ISTVAN CSICSERY-RONAY “CYBERPUNK AND NEUROMANTICISM” (1988)

NOTEBOOK PAGES & FURTHER [BRIEF] ANALYSIS OF SOURCES

SOURCE – MARTIN JAMES “STATE OF BASS: THE ORIGINS OF JUNGLE/DRUM ‘N’ BASS” (1997 / REV EDN. 2020)

At this point in the project, and the course in fact, I am beginning to get a strong idea of what I would like to do post university. My research into drum ‘n’ bass has begun to expand into ‘intelligent dance music’ (I hate that term but I’ll use it for now), and my practice outside of university work is starting to fuse together concepts I have been introduced to throughout the course, new techniques I have learned and influences I have accumulated all through my own lens.

Alongside this contemporary issues in sound art project, I have been working on an EP titled ‘VOLTAGE_CTRL’, that encapsulates the ideas of human entanglement with technology that I have been focusing so much on in my research. I wanted to challenge myself and transcend the new perspectives I have gained into a cohesive and narratively consistent body of work aside from my sound piece and essay. The EP has been released, and I held a listening party at my first ever live performance which was at The George Tavern pub in Whitechapel. I played the EP at the end of my set before it released at midnight that night, which was great because it helped me flesh out my vision and bring a performative aspect to the project.

The project fuses many genres together, such as drum ‘n’ bass, UK dubstep, ambient, techno and hip-hop, and paints a clear sonic picture of where I am currently at in my sonic practice. The more I study sound arts, the more I am understanding and developing ways I can merge it with my music. My goals are becoming clearer now – producing scores and dance music, mix engineering and live performance are very prominent in my practice, and these are all things I am trying to contextualise within the world of sound arts.

Here is the EP for you to listen to!

And here is a video from the performance:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/1R0AmHjbR0saqHtjmPhUDTSOdTgas07rG/view?usp=sharing

Following my decision to base my sound piece around recorded drum breaks and heavily manipulating them in Ableton, I called my friend Felix who is an amazing drummer. My intention was to record him playing drum breaks at different tempos, firstly to get original material that I can process and chop up in my DAW, and secondly to experience the recording process of drumming which I haven’t yet experienced.

It was amazing to be in the room, as I didn’t actually do much in the way of setting up because he already had his microphone configuration sorted and logic up and running. I had noted a few songs that I wanted him to reference or drum along to, with the intention of forcing him to be inventive and play some interesting rhythms. I felt that having a variety of grooves would help me to stimulate and structure my ideas better when it comes to my own composition.

Here are the references I showed him to play along to:

And here is a video of the process plus the stems of the recordings:

https://drive.google.com/drive/folders/1Q6WnBd_8XRx8wgx–vqLHoujZan3RBaT?usp=sharing

SOURCE – SIMON REYNOLDS “ENERGY FLASH: A JOURNEY THROUGH RAVE MUSIC AND DANCE CULTURE” (1998/ REV EDN. 2013)

SOURCE – COLPA PRESS “UK RAVE FLYERS 1991-1996” (2021)

ROUGH ESSAY PLAN

In a recent lecture with Mark we focused on reflecting on our own personal journeys in sound, and how that can affect our work both currently and in general. Identifying the aesthetic that my sound piece will have is important, because projecting my own vision as accurately as possible makes it easier for me to produce the work and not worry about catering to the audience. Trusting that the audience will be captivated and invested by the sound editing decisions/style I make is a great step towards fleshing out a consistent track identity.

What I also found inspiring in the discussion we had after the lecture was the potential for the essay and sound work to have a conversation, where they push and pull back at each other creating an intertwining connection between the two. As much as my essay research informs my practical outcome, so too does the sonic experimentation influence the identity of the essay and give me the ability to strengthen my own voice within the context of what I’m writing about.

This is a point I want to continue reminding myself of and include this method in my daily work for this project.

SOURCE – DALE CHAPMAN “HERMENEUTICS OF SUSPICION: PARANOIA AND THE TECHNOLOGICAL SUBLIME IN DRUM N’ BASS MUSIC” (2003)

SOURCE – BRUCE STERLING “HIGH TECHNOLOGIES” (BRITTANICA – 2022)

I wanted to reflect a little bit on a recent lecture we had with one of our new tutors, Adam. The lecture led into a discussion which I enjoyed because it felt less like a lesson and in turn I felt more compelled to write about it here, as I got more out of it. The basis of the lecture was the transformation of sound, and how everything to do with sound is transformation. I liked how the lecture moved from the phenomenology of sound and experiences framed through the listeners’ perspective into discussing examples of transformation of sound, both good and bad.

This discussion really enlightened me to think more about what sounds I am using and what to do with them, as especially sounds that you are unfamiliar with can hold a huge importance or meaning in other cultures that are different from your own. I began to understand that I need to be fully aware of how I am representing a culture or a scene or a community with how I am transforming a sound, and have a sensitivity to the power I have in terms of representing these groups or places.

In regards to relevancy toward my project, I was particularly interested by a piece that Adam played us called ‘Imago’, by York based artist Trevor Wishart. The piece is purely derived from one singular recording of what sounds like a mug being hit with a knife or metallic object. With a run time of 25 minutes, Wishart runs the recording through a huge variety of technological processing, from delay to reverb, frequency modulation to ring modulation, resonance modulation to filtering. The progression over the entirety of the piece is astounding, and how he manages to manipulate the initial recording in so many different ways is extremely inventive in my opinion. I think this is a perfect example of the possibilities of what technology can do to transform a sound, and seeing as this was made from 1992-94 there are infinitely more ways of doing it now.

I really admired the focus and simplicity of the piece, because it hooked me in to identifying the original sound before taking me on a journey where I ended up feeling a connection to the sound, as if I had travelled along this treacherous journey alongside it. With my essay topic pointing towards an entanglement of human and technology, I think this piece by Wishart is an amazing reference point. I could record a drum break and pick two or 3 sounds, just enough to make a pattern i.e. a kick, snare and hi hat, and then manipulate them extensively over time and just let the technology lead me down whatever path it chooses. It seems like a fun way of creating an outcome for the sound piece element.