Kon has been working in sound recording for film and TV, and making music with Adjunct records.  He is getting out of the record business entirely in order to focus on his own family, work and music.  So anything that happens with Orac from here on out you can blame totally on Randy.

So, why don’t I just call it quits?  Because I look back at the catalogue and there’s a lot of music I’m happy with there and a consistent story that’s being told that I think has life in it yet.  So stay subscribed to email or RSS or whatever and one day we’ll figure out the next chapter.

I just recorded a podcast for the Made Like a Tree group, some of the people that have been promoting good electronic music in Seattle during our absence.  Kudos to Jeremy and Struggle for picking up the torch.  Check my summer revolution mix in MLAT’s Podcast section sometime in the next few days.

As the hordes flock to WMC, we are headed to Berlin for spring break German style.  Our own Caro is playing next week at club Weekend with producer and culinary wizard Sammy Dee.  Also on the club’s bill in the next couple of weeks are Akufen, the Mole, Mike Shannon, Adam Marshall, Jeff Milligan, Daze Maxim, Jan Kreuger, and Kate Simko.  No doubt we will have to suffer through all those Canadians telling us it’s not really that cold.  If you’re in Miami, think of us and raise a mojito.

Photo: ani!

Kutiman mixes YouTube. A brilliant affirmation that the whole can be much more than the sum of its parts, that together we can be funkier than solo.  And that’s what good mixing is about.  At times the internet can seem like a series of tubes connected to sad little habitrails, but here’s a reminder that it’s more than that.  Let’s play the mother of all funk chords together. 

Here is where you can find me this weekend:
Thursday: working on my set, missing:
10pm-2am Peloton Showcase with [a].shuffle at Sole repair

Friday:
6-10pm Optical 1 showcase @ NWFF
10pm-2am Jerry Abstract, Derek Plaslaiko, Jeff Samuel @ Sole Repair

Saturday:
6-10pm Optical 2 showcase @ NWFF
10pm-2am C2 @ Neumo’s
3-5am Dixon @ Church of Bass

Sunday:
2pm decibel BBQ with Caro, Jeremy Ellis @ Havana’s
6pm Ambient Showcase at Triple Door
10pm Supermayer at Neumo’s

In San Francisco this Thursday, see and hear a rare treat: a 1927 silent film by Gabriel García Moreno with live accompaniment by Sutekh.

This rare, remarkable silent adventure opens with a young man experiencing his first shot of morphine. To try to describe the rest of the breathless plot would be futile, but suffice to say that it involves hints of bestiality, homosexual orgies, a lecture on the horrors of drug addiction, documentary footage of strait-jacketed patients, and a pipe-smoking ten-year-old boy detective who helps save the day. A trail-blazing example of surrealism in the country that fostered Frida Kahlo and Luis Buñuel, the film disappeared from public view after a few screenings in Veracruz in 1927, until a restored version premiered in Mexico City in 2001. Silent, with Spanish and English intertitles and live musical accompaniment.

Thursday, August 07, 2008
Film Series
Angel of Fire: Kahlo, Mexico, and Film
El Puño de hierro (The Iron Fist)
Gabriel García Moreno, 1927, 77 min.
8:00 p.m.
Phyllis Wattis Theater

I realized that the barter system is absolutely and totally futuristic. What could be a better way to celebrate a weekend of future Cascadian Independence than through non monetary transactions? Figure out what skills you can trade for and barter your way into our dollarless futures.

Strategy

This one is for everyone who still thinks, sometimes, oh if I could only get that special piece of gear, I could really make some great music then.  Let me introduce you (unless you read Matrixsynth already) to Party Chambers, a one-man band --- he makes songs entirely on the Roland PMA-5. The unholy marriage of a Palm Pilot with a Sound Canvas.  You have known this for a while, but let me take this moment to remind you, that lack of gear, or lack of software, is no excuse for slacking on your music --- just take whatever you have and go go go because you only get one life and this is it.

You do have to pick a great name though.

Remember the pictures of that house in China standing on a pillar of dirt while the city was dug out around it?  We have our own version of the story here in Seattle, thanks to Edith Macefield.  Who turned down a one million dollar offer on her house from developers, making an enduring mark on our city.  Check our a little of her story, and recall it when it’s time to stand your own ground.

Photo: Joshua Trujillo, P/I

Bruno Pronsato / At Home I’m a Tourist / Hello, Repeat
Sammy Dee / Ultrastretch / Perlon
The Mole / Baby, You’re The One / Wagon Repair
Omar S / Psychotic Photosynthesis / FXHE
Conrad Schnitzler: 00/346 + 00/380 (Thomas Fehlmann mix) / Orac
Fingers Inc / Distant Planet / Jack Trax
Patrick Cowley / Primitive World / Megatone
Smash TV / Yellow Asteroids / BPitch Control
Villalobos / Enfants (Chants) / Sei Es Drum
Steve Reich / Come Out / Odyssey