Cat Boucher says she loves experiments at Cat's Art MusikCircus and truly she does as she has been giving far more than she tells anyone to keep experimental and progressive music alive in Second Life.
Last night Voodoo Shilton said he was going to go out to the Universe with this next number and, baby, he didn't just go on to this Universe but the next one besides. Meet you in the next world, don't be late.
This was the most brilliant performance to date in a series going back well over and a year in which Voodoo Shilton constantly seeks to make more of the incredible music he was already making. Making more is one thing, making it different is another and this is an extraordinary part of his genius as he has an uncanny ability to weave the sounds of diverse instruments into a coherent whole in which all the parts make sense together and add to each other.
In the early listening with Voodoo, he was something of an instrumental purist in that he used diverse instruments but all were analog (i.e. real instruments, zero computers).
Add the passage of time and, well, it must be almost two years now I've been listening.
Last night Voodoo added in big synth sweeps and those are the sounds from when the artist plays a chord and it doesn't only play, it grows and swells ... and fills the Universe with butterflies. This is the type of sound that fills concert halls and people gasp in wonder.
So, what does that have to do with an acoustic guitar playing flamenco. Only everything in this Universe and the next one besides. Even as he tries some things which already would have been considered outlandish, he says, hmm, Silas loves experimentation so let's push this out there. He did. Way out there.
But.
It wasn't quite far enough to reach Cat, except in spirit, as I know now Internet troubles prevented her from coming. Everyone looks for her when they come as she IS the MusikCircus. I could hang out there for another few years maybe but still it would be the same as I'm not the MusikCircus, I'm the guy who helps the MusikCircus. I often tell people I just hang about to dance and play once in a while. There's much more to it than that but nothing that needs to be known. I'm quite happy to be the dancer although no poles on-stage, please.
All through the set I was thinking, oh man, Cat did NOT want to miss this one. Of course she doesn't want to miss any of them but last night be brought an even newer Voodoo and I had not heard him before, not like this.
This retelling might be quite a tragedy for Cat ... except for one detail. I bought the recording of the performance. Get this, Voodoo sells them for less than €5. He only sells them to people in the audience so there is no re-sale offer here or anything of that nature. I mention it specifically to let Cat know she is covered, she will hear the concert, but I also say it to you that these recordings are never the same. His concerts are always hugely more than playing his set lists in a different order or some such.
If you're a cook, you may know garam massala is an ingredient often used in Indian food. Chefs in India constantly seek more sophisticated combinations of spices to make their food more exotic and compelling and garam massala is one of them. Voodoo does the same thing musically as he knows garam massala is great for Indian food but what happens if you put it into, say, some Texas chili. Maybe it explodes and everybody dies. How should he know unless he tries it and you bet he will as I may overstate the risk of explosion.
The ability to masterfully blend diverse ingredients is the hallmark of the master chef and is in a very similar way it is also the hallmark of a master musician. Maybe all this diverse sound creates the impression of a death rock band in which they play everything at once so you can't tell the chords anymore, you have no idea what the singer is doing, and your head hurts. No, this is not that.
Despite all the instruments Voodoo manages to weave into a piece of music, the deftness of his approach is immaculate. It must be immaculate or it couldn't possibly work. The genius isn't so much the precision as that's the craft of it and not so much the inspiration, the genius is thinking of it in the first place. Visualize the mind of the artist as he listens to a piece he has written and thinks, no, man. This needs garam massala.
In some ways, the best part of a show can come after it is over as I talk sometimes with performers and this acceptance of a one-to-one relationship with me is an exceptional time as hardly anyone knows of me as a programmer. We spoke of the music and that came to what comes of me. That was not my intention but Voodoo is a highly-empathic soul. This is when questions are such lovely conversational devices as they are so good at making the conversation about someone else and my purpose isn't to tell about the content ... except in one regard.
Voodoo asked about my use of MIDI and that really isn't talking about myself so much as kit so here's an overview of background. In the dual-car garage days, mine was filled with hardware and one rack contained nothing but synthesizers, MIDI-driven effects, or synth drums, all with an Opcode MIDI controller. The net result was hundreds and hundreds of potential channels.
The result of such a system is experimental potential that is dazzling as I could mix sounds from different synths, make them affect each other in various ways, and generally make all these electronics bark at the Moon. (Yes, we did play out with this stuff.)
But.
Keeping it working is only for someone who likes sleeping on a bed of nails and often enjoys putting ice on his private parts to help himself think. Add as many torments as you like as after a while it just ain't that much fun and I was spending more time with the computers and the synths, etc composing things than I was actually playing. Since that time, my drive has been in full-reverse from that and a 'computer' isn't used for anything except an iPad serving back tracks.
Voodoo's approach is going the other way, from a state of virgin purity to the dark burning hell of computer-augmented music synthesis but, in balance and moderation, everything can work. That's the marvel as he does make it work and to hear him it sounds effortless.
Voodoo should be forewarned, however. Even now my electronic excesses continue to haunt as I fell to sleep pretty quickly after the show last night. After some long sleep time in which time goes forwards, backwards, all the stuff it does in sleep, I heard a beep like it was Skype. It didn't wake me completely but enough to think this can't be happening as I know the computer is off, it must be a dream. Dreaming I hear Cat on Skype isn't so unusual as it wouldn't exactly be the first time.
But this time it really was happening. When I did finally awaken, I discovered what had happened. It really was Cat and there really was a beep ... but it came from the iPad as rust never sleeps and, neither, apparently, does an iPad. Judging by the incredible rate of Voodoo Shilton's musical evolution, I can't imagine how he finds time to sleep either.
Last night Voodoo Shilton said he was going to go out to the Universe with this next number and, baby, he didn't just go on to this Universe but the next one besides. Meet you in the next world, don't be late.
This was the most brilliant performance to date in a series going back well over and a year in which Voodoo Shilton constantly seeks to make more of the incredible music he was already making. Making more is one thing, making it different is another and this is an extraordinary part of his genius as he has an uncanny ability to weave the sounds of diverse instruments into a coherent whole in which all the parts make sense together and add to each other.
In the early listening with Voodoo, he was something of an instrumental purist in that he used diverse instruments but all were analog (i.e. real instruments, zero computers).
Add the passage of time and, well, it must be almost two years now I've been listening.
Last night Voodoo added in big synth sweeps and those are the sounds from when the artist plays a chord and it doesn't only play, it grows and swells ... and fills the Universe with butterflies. This is the type of sound that fills concert halls and people gasp in wonder.
So, what does that have to do with an acoustic guitar playing flamenco. Only everything in this Universe and the next one besides. Even as he tries some things which already would have been considered outlandish, he says, hmm, Silas loves experimentation so let's push this out there. He did. Way out there.
But.
It wasn't quite far enough to reach Cat, except in spirit, as I know now Internet troubles prevented her from coming. Everyone looks for her when they come as she IS the MusikCircus. I could hang out there for another few years maybe but still it would be the same as I'm not the MusikCircus, I'm the guy who helps the MusikCircus. I often tell people I just hang about to dance and play once in a while. There's much more to it than that but nothing that needs to be known. I'm quite happy to be the dancer although no poles on-stage, please.
All through the set I was thinking, oh man, Cat did NOT want to miss this one. Of course she doesn't want to miss any of them but last night be brought an even newer Voodoo and I had not heard him before, not like this.
This retelling might be quite a tragedy for Cat ... except for one detail. I bought the recording of the performance. Get this, Voodoo sells them for less than €5. He only sells them to people in the audience so there is no re-sale offer here or anything of that nature. I mention it specifically to let Cat know she is covered, she will hear the concert, but I also say it to you that these recordings are never the same. His concerts are always hugely more than playing his set lists in a different order or some such.
If you're a cook, you may know garam massala is an ingredient often used in Indian food. Chefs in India constantly seek more sophisticated combinations of spices to make their food more exotic and compelling and garam massala is one of them. Voodoo does the same thing musically as he knows garam massala is great for Indian food but what happens if you put it into, say, some Texas chili. Maybe it explodes and everybody dies. How should he know unless he tries it and you bet he will as I may overstate the risk of explosion.
The ability to masterfully blend diverse ingredients is the hallmark of the master chef and is in a very similar way it is also the hallmark of a master musician. Maybe all this diverse sound creates the impression of a death rock band in which they play everything at once so you can't tell the chords anymore, you have no idea what the singer is doing, and your head hurts. No, this is not that.
Despite all the instruments Voodoo manages to weave into a piece of music, the deftness of his approach is immaculate. It must be immaculate or it couldn't possibly work. The genius isn't so much the precision as that's the craft of it and not so much the inspiration, the genius is thinking of it in the first place. Visualize the mind of the artist as he listens to a piece he has written and thinks, no, man. This needs garam massala.
In some ways, the best part of a show can come after it is over as I talk sometimes with performers and this acceptance of a one-to-one relationship with me is an exceptional time as hardly anyone knows of me as a programmer. We spoke of the music and that came to what comes of me. That was not my intention but Voodoo is a highly-empathic soul. This is when questions are such lovely conversational devices as they are so good at making the conversation about someone else and my purpose isn't to tell about the content ... except in one regard.
Voodoo asked about my use of MIDI and that really isn't talking about myself so much as kit so here's an overview of background. In the dual-car garage days, mine was filled with hardware and one rack contained nothing but synthesizers, MIDI-driven effects, or synth drums, all with an Opcode MIDI controller. The net result was hundreds and hundreds of potential channels.
The result of such a system is experimental potential that is dazzling as I could mix sounds from different synths, make them affect each other in various ways, and generally make all these electronics bark at the Moon. (Yes, we did play out with this stuff.)
But.
Keeping it working is only for someone who likes sleeping on a bed of nails and often enjoys putting ice on his private parts to help himself think. Add as many torments as you like as after a while it just ain't that much fun and I was spending more time with the computers and the synths, etc composing things than I was actually playing. Since that time, my drive has been in full-reverse from that and a 'computer' isn't used for anything except an iPad serving back tracks.
Voodoo's approach is going the other way, from a state of virgin purity to the dark burning hell of computer-augmented music synthesis but, in balance and moderation, everything can work. That's the marvel as he does make it work and to hear him it sounds effortless.
Voodoo should be forewarned, however. Even now my electronic excesses continue to haunt as I fell to sleep pretty quickly after the show last night. After some long sleep time in which time goes forwards, backwards, all the stuff it does in sleep, I heard a beep like it was Skype. It didn't wake me completely but enough to think this can't be happening as I know the computer is off, it must be a dream. Dreaming I hear Cat on Skype isn't so unusual as it wouldn't exactly be the first time.
But this time it really was happening. When I did finally awaken, I discovered what had happened. It really was Cat and there really was a beep ... but it came from the iPad as rust never sleeps and, neither, apparently, does an iPad. Judging by the incredible rate of Voodoo Shilton's musical evolution, I can't imagine how he finds time to sleep either.
No comments:
Post a Comment