errantember

Inspired by the recent InSoc and Cruxshadows shows as well as by Generation Ecstasy, I fired up Ableton Live (v. 5.x) tonight and started disassembling InSoc's hit single "Running." The goal was to break the song down into it's individual elements, such as the bass line, the high-hat, the vocals, etc, so that they could then be re-combined in interesting ways. One major technique I was hoping to use to better advantage is subtractive synthesis. This is where you take a noise that's easy to isolate (like the beginning bass line) and then subtract it from the rest of the song. The result? The rest of the song, without the bass line!

Simple.

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InSoc returns for a repeat performance.

Information Society played Elysium for the second time this year. The less-professional show they put on this time was probably a result of the Austin Game Developers Conference. Kurt Larson, the lead singer, works in the gaming industry, and was likely in town for the conference and thought, "why not? It worked last time. "During this concert, he forgot the words to his own music often enough that he mocked himself onstage. Ironically, he also briefly mocked Christopher Anton, the singer on all the songs of the newest Synthesizer album except Seeds of Pain. I still had fun, but it was substantially disappointing, even considering my lower expectations.

This past Friday night, I breathlessly attended the Information Society concert at Elysium. I've been an InSoc fan since their first Tommy Boy album in my pseudo-hacker 80's youth. The five concerts I've been to span over fifteen years, two during the Hack tour, two during Peace and Love, Inc., and this final one for their new album, Synthesizer. In high school I hung out extensively with Aaron Price, aka Boomer, the SysOp of the Yellow Submarine BBS, and, at the time, InSoc's biggest living fan.

My musical tastes have broadened since those halcyon days of youth, but I can still honestly claim that there's no other band I identify with more closely than Information Society. The Bitmaster, my hacker pseudonym and SysOp identity, still lives on in the electron pathways of my soul.

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Information Society, my favorite-band-of-my-youth, not only has a new album, they are TOURING THROUGH AUSTIN on January 18th at my All Time Favorite Dance Club, Elysium!

I'm going to go change my underwear now.