I saw this photograph of Simian Mobile Disco playing live. It made me wonder if technology is ruining music. Both the way it is made and the way it is performed live. I know technology can be cool when it comes to stuff like blogs, digital pets, and iPhones, but it might be ruining music and the way that we buy CDs.
I am worried that former switchboard operators will have the upperhand in the future of music, as opposed to the people who truly care about making innovative music and other genres of intelligent-core electronic dance & trance-house music.
Most days, I’ll just rely on making sillie comments about sillie people, but I’m going to do my best to provide more exclusive opinions, and new ways to think about issues that people haven’t thought of yet.
[Photo by Half Alive Photos]
Remember the dancing bloghouse skank that loved SMD a lot?
http://www.hipsterrunoff.com/2008/03/lately-ive-been-really-into-girls-who.html
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IAmCarles.com
27 Comments
When will blogs become technologically obsolete? Whats the next step in journalism?
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technophobia is almost as objectionable to me as homophobia and misogyny. you know how much I love you, but this is one post that you’re going to have to live down before I’ll trust you again. this threatens our relationship – you have some work to do to re-earn my devotion…
technology has revitalized music. not just through making new sounds and styles and forms possible, but also by putting it into the hands of the masses – both as listeners and producers. we now have access to the work of musical geniuses who we might never have otherwise had the opportunity to hear. instead of getting our music fed to us by a bunch of suits who are ass-raping the artists, we can actually get direct access to work from anyone willing/able to give it a go. sure that results in a lot of crap, but it also results in a lot of brilliance.
technology has also completely changed the means of distribution to the benefit of both artists and listeners. maybe you’re too young to remember the days when we were at the mercy of labels and shops, and were forced to buy entire albums – sometimes before we’d even heard them – rather than being able to simply listen and vote with our wallets.
as for performance – it’s made possible some of the most amazing live shows. daft punk are the obvious example here – fucking insane, life-changing live show!!! but there are more traditional examples as well. roger waters with a huge neon prism spinning over the audience during the finale of dark side of the moon, brilliant lighting, sound and visuals from countless artists.
if someone has a sucky live show it’s not technology’s fault – blame the artist who has a pathetic inability to connect with their audience!!!
you have a lot to make up here, carles. I’m disappointed in you. :^(
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Carles is just bitter because internet hype made the teenagers less alternative.
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LUDDITE!
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I dont get it but I think he’s being a dork on purpose because correct me if im wrong, SMD uses a modular synth and that’s pretty like.. Old. where as a lot of bedroom producers are using SHIITE soft synth programs. and well.. im probably wrong but whateeeev
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I luv seeing SMD live.
One dudes liek “PLUG THAT WIRE IN OR ELSE THE NEXT TRACKS GOING TO BE RUNNINED AND WE’LL HAVE TO REDO IT IN ABLETRON”.
I only assmd this is happening be cause one dudes just wavin his hand at the other guy
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cales is scared of technology cuz he is ancient
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I bet Carles was born in 1983 in orange county and then went to UCLA and majored in English/philosophy/sociology or something dumb.
He now lives in Hollywood and works in retail/lives off his parents/is getting some dumb ma in art school and blogs too much.
He goes out some but not so much.
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he was pretty smart at his school in irvine and wasnt too popular and was one of the first kids to start listening to gay emo crap that sucked really bad.
therefore he felt like totally way cooler than the other kids in the dorms who werent that interested in bright eyes/the postal services, just in being asian and becoming a doctor/being white and becoming a lawyer.
He lost his virginity in that dormroom to a kinda fat white chick who thought his haircut wasn’t THAT gay and retarded looking.
He proudly put a sock on the doorknob because his roommate totally got “sexiled”
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carles didnt know exactly what to major in but like he took some poli sci classes and those were pretty cool, but mostly he spent most of freshman year smoking weed and downloading crappy music ON KAZAA then making his asian roommate listen to it.
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his parents kinda stopped liking him when he came home for his first christmas vacation and was way more emogay and had a beard or something stupid.
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^ HRO biographer above.
u r probly right
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i hope HRO’s biography makes it on the history channel, the world needs 2 kno
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SMD’s modular synth can be made with about $300 of spare parts at the local electronics surplus store. The flight case is the most expensive item. The best way to save cash is to omit any audio-outs. But that doesn’t matter, since your track is most likely playing off Ableton / a hidden DAT and you’re just miming all the fancy patchwork.
SMD = Simulated Mimed Disco?
Crystal Castles = Sometimes I feel like plugging my Korg in, sometimes I don’t?
Justice = Christianity and Marshall stacks bless my Ableton project?
Technology isn’t pushing music, community theatre is.
(By the way I produce with a modified CASIO circa 1986 circuit bent with the chip from HAL in 2001: A Space Odyssey I found in a dumpster. I gots some crazee KONAMI arcade sounds in my tunes! Never heard before unless you were born before 1990!)
BNGRTILIDIE!!!!!
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i am all about listening to electronic music… but going to a live show to see a bunch of dudes turn knobs – when it sounds exactly the same as it would if you just played a recording? I guess I am not enlightened enough to appreciate that.
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^ I feel you pain. but sometimes a talented dj set comes along and they mix tracks together well, which kind of makes the 10 or 15 you shelled out worthwhile.
plus there’s always the chance that you will be photographed by your local party pic website at these live shows.
THEN there’s an ever smaller chance you’ll be featured on this blog, which is pretty much my goal. haaaaz
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lol did anyone read maves comment? and does anyone think that HRO is :’( that maves is no longer a doting fan?
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I’m sick of people obsessing over ‘analog’ sounds. Too many bands and artists (and thus, an exponentially increasing amount of kids who want to play with synthz) pride themselves on their analog sound/recording style (LCD Soundsystem comes to mind). That’s great, but digital synthesis (and I’m not talking about soft synths, I hate those) makes possible entirely new realms of sound. Where would ambient music be today if it weren’t for Eno’s implementation of the DX-7 on ‘Apollo’?People no longer have to be beleaguered with a Roland Space Echo machine (oooh, analog tape!); they can now carry around a three pound, quality Roland/Boss Space Echo pedal (which sounds very, very close to the original). There’s room for analog, but why not embrace modern technology as well?
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luke, all i heard was fwap fwap fwap.
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PLZ FINISH HRO BIOGRAPHY. WHAT HAPPENS NEXT? WHERE DOES HE LIVE SOPHOMORE YEAR? WHAT DOES HE MAJOR IN????? WHEN DID HE DL HIS FIRST LADYTRON TRACK?
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sophmore year:
Carles becomes addicted to porn, which takes away from his studies, but he still fins time to download from limewire. One day he has to go to the hospital because the pants he was wearing were so tight that they lowered his sperm count so much that when he whacked off to the porn he was addictted to nothing came out. that was when he decided it was time to stop all that. So he went back to downlding, and decided to change his style of pants. but he loved tight pants style, so he started to think that he should blgg about it if he cant actually wear them anymore.
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to above:
Boooo! your story took a dive, better luck next time…
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wahhh it sounds like a car alarm wahhhh!
nowheretobe.wordpress.com
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^12:55 AM’s continuation of the biography is super stupid because it wasnt written by the dude who wrote the initial biography, which is me.
it basically ends there he just finishes college or something then moves to hollywood after like 2 months traveling in europe with his alt bros. he fails at boning any euros except one english chick/guy? who’s sorta fat
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digital synths suck
they just don’t sound as good. there are some good imposter digital synths but I would and do only use them out of necessity
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thats actually a modular synth which is completely analog and is not a technological advancement.
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Thats a modular synth. It makes all the music you like. Its been around since the 60s. Bob Moog pioneered it. The Beach Boys used it a lot. So did the Beatles, and Daft Punk, and Justice, and Health, and Ratatat, and Animal Collective. Its primitive. Justin Timberlake did not use it.
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