This installment is a twofer. During the second day of recording nickname: Rebel’s New Rock Church of Fire record (still working on it folks), I tried an experiment to loosen everyone up. Inspired by a session that Brown Cuts Neighbors had done for WRPI radio in Troy where, either the mics were cranked way up or the headphones in the studio were, so that every little movement or sound was incredibly loud, we tried the same sort of thing in a planned situation. I had a day of down-time in the studio (The old DeptEx/Magic Recording Eye studio of Jason Martin’s at 51 3rd St. in Troy) and scrounged the local Salvation Army and a couple hardware stores, and built a rotary saw cymbal stand (inspired by a similar rig of Steven Cerio’s and not uncommon in jazz circles) and a pair of bass springs (stretched out springs attached to a 2×4, amplified with either a guitar pickup or contact mic; inspired not just a little by Einsturzende Neubauten). So… Scott Smallwood, Aaron Smith and myself (and possibly Peter Barvoets?), recorded by Jason Martin, who had been instructed to crank everything as loud as it would go, consequences be damned, strolled into the studio (part of the composition as planned) and delicately touched and maneuvered the various implements of destruction. Various pianos, organs, electric razors, rebar, railroad spikes, walkie talkies and other detritus were also employed. Remember, it was not very loud in the room (and it was a very large room). A brief excerpt follows.

Horselover fat by WOWCOOL

OK. After seven days of February and just three posts, it is obvious that the gear blog will not be an everyday this month feature; but, I will try to keep it as a regular–once or twice a week-thing as long as the need is there.

Wild Planet’s Beat Blenders

Girls of Slender Means by WOWCOOL

Picked up this pair a few years ago and did damn little with them. Finally broke them out for the “Girls of Slender Means” sessions with Mike and Nick of nickname: Rebel (excerpt above). It’s a tricky double-backed beast and deserves a further look, and probably some serious circuit mangling. And just what sort of info passes through those RJ45 plugs? See video and links to circuit bending info below.

The Beat Benders Series: Bling Bling on TechDweeb | New Toy – The Beat Blenders on Unearthed Circuits

Beat Blenders Product Sheet (PDF)

Electronica Beat Blender on Amazon | Power Rock Beat Blender on Amazon.

Photo of the Beat Blenders was achieved by slapping those babies on a flatbed scanner. Came out pretty cool.

The Gemini MPX-30 is a Cheap (typically under 200USD), versatile and somewhat reliable CD turntable with effects, cues, loops, etc. It has been a standby item in my house party DJ rig and a favorite tool for Hallowe’en mixes since my brother in law left it at my house over three years ago. It’s since found it’s way into nickname: Rebel recordings, like the 2009 Ouroboros single:

The first thing that should be mentioned about this unit is that it seems to normally go under a different name – the CFX-30. Here’s a pretty comprehensive review at DJForums.com. The ’30 has been discontinued by Gemini and I’m not too impressed with it’s successors from what I can see. It’s hard to beat for the price. Digital out. Easy to use. Big, clunky design. I like it, but I’ll probably still get a Pioneer set up at some point. There is currently one available on eBay.

Stravinsky I-Ching
While on tour with Offset Needle Radius last April, we had a gig at Cambridge’s the Lily Pad, and opened with “Stravinsky I-Ching”. What you do is: Select random parts of arbitrary tracks (no sneaky previewing!) from, say, the classic 1968 recording of The Rites of Spring by the Chicago Symphony Orchestra, load them as hot cue points, fuck around with them, make loops, spin the wheel on different effects, etc. It was while doing this that I discovered an interesting ‘feature’ of the ’30. Spinning very fast with (I think it was) the Zoom filter you reach some sort of overload with an interesting audio result. It shows up about three times in the sample below.

Much more of this type of audio tomfoolery is better displayed by FM Einheit on his CDs Radio Inferno and Prometheus • Lear.

Stravinsky I-Ching by WOWCOOL

If all goes well, either me or Mike Keegan will be posting a profile of some piece of equipment we use in nickname: Rebel every day for the month of February.