Review of Symbol, a 3 LP box set by The Band Whose Name is a Symbol on Cardinal Fuzz

 
The Band Whose Name is a Symbol aka TBWNIAS was and is about creating the ultimate marriage of improvisation and hard rock edged pyschedelic music. TBWNIAS are based out of the legendary Birdman Sounds record shop in Ottawa. The group have now released 11 vinyl only LPs in miniscule editions in which their underground reputation has made them a cult among aficionados of hard thudding, rock riffing kraut.

Masters of the Molehole was released last year on Cardinal Fuzz and sold out within 2 weeks. It was their first LP that was widely available outside of Canada and you can read my review here.

Cardinal Fuzz have been given access to their archives and the result is a 3 LP box set containing 3 of their best LPs – TBWNIAS vs The Purveyors of Conspicuous Authenticity; Scrappy Little Jaw and Pathfinder – which were only previously available as limited edition 100 pressings. The box set is also a limited pressing of 350 and you are probably not surprised to find that it has sold out. The good news is that the box set is available from TBWNIAS bandcamp page as a digital download and is embedded above.

Cardinal Fuzz have selected three excellent albums to highlight the style and range of TBWNIAS. They have a really tight knit sound and create a superb and varied range of songs with great riffing and soloing, excellent use of distortion, feedback, wah and sound effects and solid drumming and bass. There’s a great range of sounds from uptempo distorted riffing to more laid back grooves.

Disc One : TBWNIAS Versus The Purveyors of Conspicuous Authenticity

Sour Kraut
A great atmospheric opening which has a western, lonesome kind of feel with violin and background sound effects. The drumming has a great live feel along with the bass which propel the song along. The guitar is quite subtle too. The change to a more defined groove has an excellent jam feel building tension through solos to a final release.

Talk Back Fatherland
A swirling synth sound against a bass drone to open, the drumming and bass give a solid momentum with some excellently arranged guitar chords and a lead line. Another great jam feel, some excellent tension at times.

Mezcal Temple
Very distorted guitar to open creates a great atmosphere and there’s some excellent background delayed sounds effects. A great psych sound with a dark edge, there’s a building of tempo with a final slide release. The organ sounds excellent, really adds to the feel.

West Nile Curiosity
Excellent drumming to open, a great presence from the reverb too. The bass gives a great laid back groove and the guitar is layered really well with subtle lead and chords. Another great jam feel to the song which has a great evolution with changes in feel and a slow building tension released to a section with a combination of chime sounds, shakers, ride cymbal and great tension from feedback. The drumming and bass builds tension again gradually with a picked riff to final release.

Humidex
Excellent distorted riff to open, bass and drumming provide an excellent laid back groove with great changes in feel and solid riffing. The background organ is subtle but very effective.

Disc Two : Scrappy Little Jaw

Berlin
A synth bass riff and drumming to open have an energy which creates a sense of anticipation, delayed background sounds add a great element. The riffing builds gradually into an excellent jam with layered feedback, background sounds and superb soloing and the song maintains an excellent momentum throughout.

Muldow
A purposeful opening with slow riff, drumming and guitar scrape effects. Nice harmonised lead guitar line, a solid jam feel with great momentum and edge of tension which builds through the song to a release.

Sask
A strummed slightly distorted riff to open leads into a great vibe with drumming, bass and organ. There’s a really nice change of feel to a mellow section with a middle eastern feel picking up the tempo and groove to end the song.

Circus Has Left Town
An excellent bass riff to open, drumming has an uptempo feel. Some great riffing and lead playing with feedback effects.

Blues in Goddamn
A bass riff to open leads to some great riffing, drumming and blues harp too. It’s an excellent uptempo jam with great changes of feel. I really like the use of wah and feedback.

Brass Balls of Daedalus
An excellently atmospheric opening propelled by bass and drumming with riffing, feedback and background sound effects. Quite an edgy and intense sound, some great soloing and a nice release of tension.

New Sudan
Uptempo distorted riffing to open, drumming provides a solid momentum. Almost metal at times, a high energy track with edgy use of feedback returning to the riffing to end the track.

Wooden Soldier
There’s a great contrast between the opening bass, pick scrapes and more ambient synth sound with the distorted guitar and feedback providing an edge to the sound. Another excellent jam.

Disc Three : Pathfinder

We’re All Gonna Die
Great sound effects to open lead into a laid back groove with bass and slow drumming. Distorted guitar adds a great element and a there’s a nice contrast between the cleaner and distorted sounds. I like the building tension and release to a bluesy infused solo to end.

Haf Hed
This song has an uptempo feel from drumming and bass with great changes in groove from the riffing. Feedback / distortion and use of wah build tension to a final release.

I’d Rother
A bass arp to open is propelled by great drumming leading into a bluesy / surf guitar kind of feel to the lead guitar. An excellent jam quality to the song with use of feedback / distortion and wah.

Penguistix
A great riff to open is accompanied by solid drumming, there’s an urgency to this song which has a great lead line and some excellent sound effects.

Prarie Doggin’
There’s a grunge type of feel to the opening of this song with distorted guitar and a heavy bass sound. This leads into a more laid back feel with some excellent sound effects, delay and improvisation before the distorted riff, drumming and distorted lead pick up the pace to a final release.

Pathfinder Blues
A kind of heavy rock / metal feel to the opening with riffing, bass and drumming leads into a great groove. The song has excellent improvised qualities with great changes in feel building tension to a final release.

Indira
I like the Eastern feel to the opening, it’s quite a sparse sound with sitar, percussive sounds and great drumming which evolves into a groove with a slow release.

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Review of Debasement Tapes album by Unqualified Nurse Band

 
Unqualified Nurse Band are a 3-piece band from Derby, UK. Debasement Tapes is their first album which was released in September 2016 as a digital download, limited edition red vinyl and CD.

This is a very intense and full on album at times, Unqualified Nurse Band have a sound that sits somewhere between sludge, post punk, grunge, metal and indie. There’s excellent use of feedback and distortion often contrasted with a less distorted sound. The drumming is solid and with the bass provides a great foundation. The vocals are superb too, having a great passion and intensity.

100 Beats
This song has distorted guitar and effects to open, a very heavy sound with excellent vocals which have a great intensity. Excellent riffing and solid drumming and bass.

Getting Sweaty
Feedback and distortion to open followed by an excellent heavy riff and surf guitar feel to the lead line. The verses have a more stripped back feel going full distortion in the chorus. Vocals again are excellent.

My Boots are Shaking
Great drumming to open, riffing has slight distortion with some really distorted chords in the chorus. Great vocal harmonies and a surf guitar feel at times too.

Growing Down
A great riff to open propelled by uptempo drumming and bass. Vocals are excellent again. Great change between a more clean and distorted sound.

It’s Inevitable
Feedback to open, a slower riff and drumming with some excellent lead guitar leading into a heavier sound at times.

There’s No Stopping Fate
An acoustic riff to open, drumming gives great momentum leading into a chord vamp type of feel at times. The vocals are great again and the song has an excellent indie vibe at times.

Get out of London
A great groove to open from drumming, bass and riffing. The vocals are excellent again. Another uptempo song with great changes in feel.

Two Black Eyes
Another great opening groove from bass, drumming and vocals leading into a heavy riff. There’s a surf guitar riff too interspersed with the heavier sections.

No Peaks No Troughs
Really uptempo drumming to open with pretty hectic bass, there’s an excellent surf guitar riff which has a call and response feel with the vocals. A great control to the song, keeps from going over the edge. Just.

You Pulled Through
Another uptempo opening from riffing, bass and drumming. Vocals are very intense again. There’s an excellent groove to this song again.

Death Will Stalk You
A crackle type sound to open with improvised drumming leads into a riff with a great groove. There’s some heavy chord riffing and nice contrasts with less distorted guitar riffs building and releasing tension. The vocals are excellent, a great intensity.

Gimme Life
Opening with drumming, the song has a laid back groove propelled by bass and guitar. Excellent change of feel to a really heavy sound.

 
Unqualified Nurse Band: bandcamp | twitter | facebook

Review of Litote Granular Exploration Box VST by Inear Display

  

 
Litote is a stereo granular audio effects plugin (note it doesn’t work on mono tracks) available as VST and Audio Unit for OS X and Windows in both 32 and 64 bit versions from Inear Display. It costs 39 euros + VAT and a demo version is available to try.

Litote comprises of a combination of granulizers, resonators and diffusion delays. Rather than giving the user control over the settings of these effects, Litote takes a different approach using ‘smart’ randomisation – which means that the likelihood of annoying results is minimised. This means that you can get on and use it straight away. As with many similar effects, the result will vary depending upon the input signal.

The interface has a very clean design comprising of 3 sections. The top section is the config menu which gives reseed options, user guide, access to the presets directory and a crash log; The middle part contains the XY pad, sound trajectory on/off switch, randomisation buttons; The bottom section contains the trajectory controls (when this mode is enabled) and level controls for input, output and mix.

The pad acts as a control and a visualiser. You can click or drag the target circle to a different part of the pad. Each corner corresponds to a different sound engine so the position of the target circle will determine the type of effect produced. The trajectory offers an additional control option and furthermore the X and Y positions of the target circle are available for automation within your host.

At the sides of the pad are buttons to randomise various aspects of the overall sound. The top left button regenerates the whole sound and the atom button below randomises the X and Y speed / range settings for trajectory mode with the on/off button for this feature underneath.

The four buttons on the right side randomise the sound of the four individual engines, each of which is symbolised by an icon representing the corner to which it is attached.

Trajectory mode provides automation with a smaller target travelling inside a defined area coloured green within the pad as shown on the interface image above.

The bottom section enables you to manually set the trajectory controls and the levels section gives control over the input level, output level and mix which is the dry:wet ratio.

In use, it is a very easy effect to start using. As much as I like tweaking effect settings to my requirements, there is something appealing and refreshing about using random settings for effects. I’ve tended to launch Litote, generate a random seed, regenerate the whole sound and then go from there.

Litote produces an interesting and wide range of effects from grain / granular textures, ring modulation type effects, a kind of tremelo, chorus, harmonics/overtones to glitchy delayed artifacts. You can get some very interesting results with drum loops, for example an added percussive layer with rattles and bass drones.

The trajectory mode can give a subtle or more pronounced movement in the sound and the availability of the X and Y positions of the target is a brilliant touch because in the DAW I use – Sensomusic Usine Hollyhock II – you can set up an XY pad with physics to control the speed of the ball bouncing around inside the box which then automates movement of the target.

I’ve really enjoyed using Litote, especially with the automation options. As a result I got a bit carried away and created an entire album titled ‘chronikos’ and a longer set of one of the songs which were recorded live in Sensomusic Usine Hollyhock II and subsequently mastered using Neutron by iZotope in Mulab 7.2 and are both embedded at the top of the post.

The opening track of the album, Anatoli Iliou, has quite a simple arrangement as shown below with manual triggering of playback of the field recording and settings for the grain sampler adjusted during the recording.  I’ve used automation of the target within Litote to create subtle movement within the sounds, on other tracks I’ve adjusted the position manually for more dramatic changes in sound. I’ve often used Litote in combination with Incipit, a delay effect also by Inear Display and the two effects work really well together. You can read my review of Incipit here.

 

Review of ‘We Stand: An International Compilation in Support of Planned Parenthood’ on Verses Records

 
We Stand: An International Compilation In Support of Planned Parenthood features 44 Artists representing 10 countries with all profits donated to Planned Parenthood.

It is the second similar release by Verses Records of Washington, DC, hot on the heels of their previous compilation Code Red which supports the ACLU.

Planned Parenthood is a United States organization, which is under siege like never before. The goal is to help raise funds and awareness for one of the nation’s leading providers of high-quality healthcare for women, men, and young people. We stand together for solidarity, equality, safe (and reliable) health care, as well as freedom of choice.

Verses Records is a collective comprised of: Monica Stroik, Dave Harris, Doug Kallmeyer, Dempsey Hamilton and Dennis Kane. It was created to release and promote approaches to music that are not represented in popular, mainstream culture.

‘We Stand’ is an excellent compilation and I’m very proud to have one of my songs featured. For $8 you get over 3 hours of music with a bit of everything from hynoptic ambiences, jazz grooves, glitchy soundscapes, dub-techno to harsher industrial sounds and dark edged songs in the knowledge that all profits from your purchase are going to a very worthy cause.

Hrim – Huldufolk
A kind of jazz meets folk meets glitch sound, it’s downtempo and cinematic with haunting and beautiful vocals. Superb arrangement and layering.

Blankets – A Lifetime of Happiness
Superb layered percussive rhythms with edgy synth sounds, vocals are a bit unnerving. Great tension to the song.

Stephanie Merchak – Dark Times
Excellent use of delay on layered percussion and drums creates a dynamic groove which contrasts really well against the sweeping synth / pad sounds.

Night Glitter – Raised for the War
There’s a brilliant vibe to this track, it has a laid back groove with shimmery guitar chords, well layered organ and synth riffs and dreamy vocals. There’s just a hint of distortion in the guitar at times which adds a great tension.

Julia Kent – sycorax
A great evolving ambience to the song which develops a great tension with the increasingly frustrated sounding strings.

Yoko K – Lou
Another beautiful opening, a really dreamy quality with the soft vocals, synths and background water sounds. It’s a hypnotic track, superbly layered sounds create a subtle ebb and flow feel.

Mellow Diamond – American God
A great arrangement of bass riff and deep strings which act like a drone. The vocals are excellent, they sit slightly back in the mix which gives them a kind of ethereal feel. Nice change of feel when the distorted guitar enters.

Fold – Something Gives
A laid back jazz groove with well written and excellently spoken vocals.

Huda Asfour – Sama’i
A very organic and natural sound to this song, lovely vocals, natural percussion and beautiful sounding instruments.

Divine Circles – Flower Song (demo)
A percussive instrument provides a great blurring between a melody and layered percussive rhythm providing a great backdrop for the violin part.

Dennis Kane – Loss and Confusion
An arp creates a great tension with layered piano chords and reversed chords, there’s a haunting beauty to the strings. Excellently atmospheric track.

Ghost Airplane – Nose Dive
A great choppy riff to open, the vocals have a dreamy quality. Great layering of synth sounds and nice change of feel with vocal harmonies and synth arp. A great riff towards the end of the song too.

Humanfobia – Olanzapine Moss Ethereal Temple
A sound like a dialling modem to open, it’s a bit glitchy, a bit drone with excellently processed vocals which sit low in the mix.

Blind Idiot God – Subterranean Flight (live at Roadburn)
An instrumental rock / metal sound propelled by solid drumming and bass playing, the lead guitar has great tone and the song is an excellent jam.

The Orchid – A Gentle Way of Getting Even
The opening guitar riff has a great pensive quality leading into a mellow rock sound with a nice change.

James Wolf- Refuge
This has the feeling of a live improvisation, layered strings and synths create really interesting harmonies and movement in the sound, it’s captivating with an edge of tension.

Sally Sparks – The Darkest Night Passes
A call and response feel between great vocal harmonies and strings leading into sombre sounding piano with brass, it’s a contemplative sound with a great ambience.

Addie – Lilia’s Butterfly
Beautiful vocals and a smooth jazz feel, this song has natural sounding percussion and excellently layered piano and strings.

Margaret Noble – The Beginnings
I really like the arrangement of the drone bass, arp and percussive rhythm, there’s an excellent evolution of the song with some very well crafted sounds.

YTAMO – Pool
Excellently layered sounds create an atmospheric opening, I really like the placement and panning of sounds. There’s great changes of feel through the song which has a great experimental quality whilst retaining coherence and continuity of sound.

Owlbinos of Northfield – These Grief Tourists
Complex layered glitchy rhythm, epic distorted sounds and ominous drone create an edgy soundscape with a great build and release.

Ivy Meadows – New Energy
Great contrast between the more urgent bass and laid back layered melody which has more of a floaty feel.

Guivulle – Fire on the water (Ft. Mercy Weiss)
Sparse synth melody compliments the picked acoustic guitar really well. The song has lovely vocals and interesting chord changes which grab your attention.

ensemble, et al. – Four
An excellent natural sound to this song with layered percussion, bass drone and xylophones. It has an urgency to the rhythm which contrasts with the more laid back melody. Great use of distortion towards the end of the song.

Dead Neanderthals : Mass Hypnosis
The drumming provides a great momentum for the really gnarly lead guitar sound. Great change in feel with the rhythm picking up pace before returning to the original tempo.

Housefire – incubatorawakeningsequence
There’s a great pulsing to this song, like a heartbeat, with synth and swirling vocals which can be heard without hearing what is being said.

Belly Full of Star – Jupiter
Lovely synth sounds with reversed elements, it’s a great ambience which also creates a rhythmic element. Some really subtle background sounds and effects which fade in and out seamlessly.

Silk Drop – Broken Mind
Lovely swirling synth and deep bass sounds, percussive rhythm is complex with some great delayed elements. The vocals are lovely. There’s just an edge of tension to the sound which works really well.

Roofhare – Come on Let’s Do It!
Excellent percussive rhythm with subtle bass and synth parts, there’s some very well crafted sounds which create a song which is quite hard to describe which is arranged and layered to great effect. The quotes add a great element.

Clara Engel – Uneasy Spirit
A beautiful and haunting song with a very natural sound. Captivating vocals are complimented by acoustic guitar, natural percussion and strings. Some lovely harmonies too.

Xambuca – OPTION+COMMAND+ESC
A great evolution in this song from a sonar type of sound to drone to an industrial rhythm.

DmIII – Ve
Plucked string to open, the violin provides a contrast. The bass is quite subtle but has a great presence.

Shane Parish – there is no reason to panic, there is no death
A guitar solo piece, it sounds like the guitar has an unusual tuning with the bass string resonating against the fret and some nice harmonies.

Andrulian – Beyond the lies and noise
This is my entry, feel free to add your own comments!

Tristan Welch – Taking Western Avenue
I love how the evolving, warm ambience of the synth is contrasted against a harsher distorted sound.

Glitchfield Plaines – Ambient Greats volume 1
Subtle distortion on the guitar works really well leading into an excellent riff which sounds like it builds from footsteps. Layered synth arp and bass give a great momentum.

Red Spells Red – Many Happy Returns
A wonderfully atmospheric ambient track with really well layered background sounds, pads and keys. There’s a subtle movement in the sounds which creates some excellent textures.

Lizzy Kindred – Neon
There’s a dark edge and a brooding quality to this song, the opening bass riff leads into excellently processed sparse percussion with an ominous sounding background drone and synth lead and effects. The vocals are beautiful and sit quite low in the mix which gives them a kind of ethereal feel and presence.

Soft Ledges – La Nina
This song has a slow indie / rock groove with a foreboding feeling. It has excellent piano, passionate vocals and distorted / feedback guitar which tells the sad story of abuse really well.

Sarah Schonert – Because I am Stronger
This is a superb piano solo with a really positive upbeat feel.

Chrissie Caulfield – Kick Start
This track has soulful violin which contrasts against a background sound which is a really well processed bass sound which is a bit distorted, slightly bitcrushed and has great movement. There’s a change to a more uptempo feel in the violin playing with some really interesting background sounds.

Oe – Keep the Light On
This song has a great ambience with a subtle movement in sound and some excellent textures. There’s great use of found sounds and impact sounds and some intricate percussive rhythms too. I really like the contrast between the ambience and the glitchy elements.

behr – Thoughts Swallowed Dub
A wonderfully atmospheric track with layered background sounds, synths and drum patterns. It’s quite difficult to describe, it has a kind of dub techno feel at times, more minimal at others whilst retaining an expansive sound. The bass has great presence.

Elisa Faires – Amaryllis
Comprised of vocal sounds such as ‘ooh’ and ‘ahs’, this song has excellent layering which gives some great harmonies and a great soundscape. It has meditative and hymn like qualities, a very calming sound.

 
Verses Records:
website | bandcamp | twitter | facebook | soundcloud

Review of ‘Bingo Halls’ album by Annie & The Station Orchestra on Bearsuit Records

 
There’s a brilliant sound to this album, it’s very atmospheric and difficult to describe in terms of a genre but is somewhere between indie, synthpop and shoegaze.

The songs are excellently arranged with great layering and use of contrasting elements. There’s some excellent distorted guitar and synth sounds and great use of effects too.

Time
This has quite an uptempo, edgy opening with distorted guitar. There’s a great variety in drumming and synth lead sounds with excellent layering. There’s a great vibe to this song, it has a kind of improvised call and response feel. This whistling section adds an excellent change in feel.

King of the Idiots
There’s an atmospheric opening with synth and delayed effects and bagpipes in the background leading into a kind of indie synth wave sound which builds through the song to a final release.

The Arms of Morphine
This song has an ominous sounding opening with drone and processed vocals. The kick pattern has a distorted, industrial feel. The upbeat feel of the synth lead contrasts with this really well. Excellent layering again with vocals and background sounds.

Here Come the Bears
A sparse opening with accordion, vocals and sparse percussion, the drumming pattern and synth enter to give a great dub feel. I really like the laid back groove and vocals.

The Return of Banjo Williamson
This song has a string type of sound to open leading into an indie vibe with excellent distorted guitar riff. There’s great layering with a synth riff which gives just a hint of dissonance.

Song for the Invalid Drivers
A classical guitar to open with synth and subtle distorted guitar, the sound develops through the song which has a Celtic feel at times.

Bicycle Jane
The opening reminds me of a Hawaiian type of sound, maybe it’s the portamento on the synth. The song has a kind of pensive feel. Propelled by drumming there’s an excellent build and release of tension with really nice changes in feel.

Blithering Idiot
Great piano, tremelo guitar and bass to open, the song has a slow pensive feel with a great change when the drumming and distorted guitar enter.

The Alsatian, Satan
An arp and kick pattern create an excellent tension, the layered vocals work really well. There’s an edgy feel from distortion / vinyl sounds and an emerging distorted riff increases the tension with looping vocals and percussive sounds.

To Bingo Halls
Electric piano and bass open the song with a delayed synth riff creating an excellent atmosphere with a really nice change to a more uptempo feel when the drums and distorted guitar riff enter.

Out of Time
Opens with excellently processed percussive sounds giving an industrial feel which contrasts really well with the synth sound. Great layering of distorted guitar which sits subtly in the mix and the song rounds out the album really well.

 

Bearsuit Records: website | twitter | faccebook | bandcamp

The making of an album using Algo Incantations, a project by Shardcore

 
I’m a big fan of the work of Shardcore and I’m very grateful to him for allowing me to use his work in this way. I first heard about him through Radio Eris, an algorithmic radio station based on the excellent book ‘KLF: Chaos Magic Music Money by John Higgs. Which by the way is a highly recommended book and at the time of writing is available from Amazon UK for Kindle for £1.99.

I’d seen Shardcore’s Algo Incantations and what caught my eye was the principle of using an algorithm to produce an incantation. Equally fascinating was the use of the Necronomicon by Simon. I’m a big fan of H P Lovecraft and his writing is a big influence on many of my releases so I found this intriguing.

That’s because the Necronomicon isn’t a real document as such, rather it exists in tantalising glimpses through Lovecraft stories and is a mythos that dates back to pre-human history.

What’s really intriguing is how this has become ‘real’ over time through the belief and practices of those who support and read his work and how much momentum it has gained in popular culture almost a hundred years after he wrote his stories. So on the one hand it ‘exists’ but only in the ether and there isn’t an actual official version.

So for a book that does not exist in the traditional sense, there have been a number of hoaxes and fakes and an awful lot written about it over time. The most widely known version is indeed the one by Simon, purportedly a pseudonym of Peter Levenda. However, it quickly gets very confusing because he remains somewhat enigmatic about this and maintains that he did not know anything about H P Lovecraft in the 1970s.

The Simon Necronomicon isn’t really the Necronomicon that Lovecraft wrote about. It’s actually a heady mix of a bit of Lovecraft, a bit of Crowley and a lot of Sumerian mythology / demonology. If Peter Levenda is the author ‘Simon’ then he clearly knew about Lovecraft because the Simon version links Lovecraft and Aleister Crowley – a number of sources suggest that Lovecraft would likely have been aware of Crowley but there’s not much evidence to suggest a stronger link than this. Equally it would seem that the link between Lovecraft and Sumerian mythology is also tenuous as far as I can tell, for instance Cthulhu does not seem to appear in Sumerian mythology.

When it was published in the 1970s there’s a suggestion it tapped into popular occult themes of the time and so is not complete nor accurate. There’s also suggestions that the sigils are somewhat arbitrary and on this basis some advise that it is not wise to use it for practical purposes because some people have apparently had very bad experiences for doing so.

That said, chaos magic isn’t particularly concerned with the subject matter, more about the processes and outcomes.

So we have a machine randomly generating incantations from a book that appears to be inherently chaotic, seemingly tapping into the popular culture of the time and making links that don’t really exist rather than being a complete system. I consider that the book itself is definitely real and not a hoax although the content is somewhat questionable. Maybe it is a trickster in our cosmology. So I thought it would be a good idea to immortalise some of these algo incantations in music.  And create my own sigils.

I’ve tried to make sure the pronunciation is as accurate as possible but as synthesised voices are used there may be some inaccuracies.

I’ve also avoided some of the more apocalyptic incantations where the dead rise and eat the living. Just in case.

In Gordon White’s book ‘Pieces of Eight: Chaos Magic Essays and Enchantments’ he describes a clay tablet in the British Museum upon which is inscribed in large script a Babylonian spell for banishing domestic ghosts:
Zu-zu-la-ah
nu-mi-la-ah
hu-du-la-ah
hu-šu-bu-la-ah

I thought I’d mention that here, again, just in case.

In keeping with the idea of the true will of the machine, I’ve used random presets for the synths and effects as much as possible and also used a number of random midi pattern generators and/or arbitrary midi patterns too. The incantations are voiced by either the Ivona Android voice or various voices from Alter/Ego, a singing synth by Plogue.

I’ve used a variety of synths and effects to produce the songs:
Dust (Soundmorph)
Polygon; Convex (Glitchmachines)
Deelay (Hornet)
Teulfelsberg reverb (Balance Mastering)
Carbon Electra (Plugin Boutique)
Alter/Ego (Plogue)
DDLY Dynamic Delay (iZotope)
Ambience (Smartelectronik)
Homing Pad; Groove Steps (Hollyhock II)
Incipit (Inear Display)
Vortex Soundwaves (Sample Science)
Frostbite; Space Strip (Audiothing)
Tremolator (Sound Toys)
Enzyme CM (Humanoid Soundsystem)
Noisetar (Nusofting)

This is the workspace for ‘receive the sun’.  I’ve used Dust and Polygon which are triggered by somewhat arbitrarily created midi patterns.  These are both excellent sample based instruments which I’ve previously reviewed on my blog.

For rhythmic parts, I’ve used Groove Steps and Homing Pad which are both part of Sensomusic Usine Hollyhock II.  Groove steps has lots of options and randomisation settings so you can quickly create some interesting rhythms, especially when feeding it to a dub-style delay in Incipit.

Similarly Homing Pad allows you to draw a pattern which is traced to trigger drum or percussion sounds and the picture below shows the random pattern which I drew.  With a bit of practice you get a feel for different rhythms whether you draw lines, circles, squares etc.

The songs were recorded as one take live recordings in Sensomusic Usine Hollyhock II and subsequently mastered in MuLab 7.2 using Neutron by iZotope. The songs were recorded and mastered by Andrulian.

Review of MuLab 7.2 DAW by MuTools

It’s been nearly two years since I reviewed MuLab 6 which you can read about here. So a review for MuLab 7 which was released in May 2016 is somewhat overdue. The latest version is 7.2.23 and is available for Windows (32 & 64 bit) and Mac (64 bit). System requirements are not too demanding – Windows XP and above, MacOS 10.6.8 and above; a decent soundcard / driver. A minimum resolution of 1024 x 768 and powerful multi-core are recommended but not necessary although it is an important point when considering how you will use MuLab. As you’d expect it will run more efficiently and with a lower CPU load with a higher spec machine but many modern synths and effects have complex architecture using a lot of maths and calculations and so require multi-core processors and their performance will be limited by your system rather than MuLab.

There have been a myriad of updates and improvements since the original review. To try and summarise these, version 7 brought improved sound; easier audio recording; improved audio marking; improved support for streaming files with different sample rates; a step sequencer; new modules including audio rate modulation, sample and hold, parameter randomisation (also works on VSTs), pitch bend; enhanced racks; user definable grids; swing parameter; improved piano roll.

Version 7.1 was essentially a re-write of the MacOS code along with a number of improvements and fixes. Version 7.2 included a grain player along with a number of improvements and bug fixes which have continued up to the latest version.

These are all listed on the change log page should you require any further information.

There are a number of different purchase options, a new MuLab licence costs 69 Euros which includes an integrated MUX modular system. You can purchase the MUX modular system separately as a plugin for 59 Euros and this allows you to use MuLab in other DAWs. You can also purchase both together for 99 Euros. Essentially you would only need to purchase a separate MUX licence if you are likely to run MuLab in other DAWs. Upgrades are also available at a discounted price. One point to note is that when you purchase the full version, you will be granted an initial user key so that you can use MuLab straight away. The permanent key is then emailed once the order has been manually processed which is normally within 1 – 2 working days.

The good news is that a free version is also available and it is recommended that you try this first to ensure that MuLab meets your needs. The free version is limited to 4 tracks and 8 VSTs. However, if you can create a great demo song (conditions apply, for instance no VSTs allowed) you could win a MuLab and MUX Modular plugin licence. Full details and terms and conditions can be found here.

What’s impressive is that with all of the updates that have occurred, users of MuLab 6 will still feel at home with the latest version. The GUI is familiar but the updated fonts and design give a more modern look and feel. It is still intuitive to use and setting up the audio and scanning VSTs is the same straightforward process. If you have a lot of VSTs like me it can take some time to scan them all but then any subsequent additions can be done very easily by scanning a single file or folder. Another useful feature when you upgrade versions is that you can copy your user folder to retain your user settings and files.

The factory content is also very impressive. There are a number of devices – MuDrum, MuSynth, MuPad, MuSampla and MultiSampla as well as MuEcho and MuVerb which are very good echo and reverb effects. The instruments cover a very wide range including bass, leads, pads, sequences, organs, soundscapes. Similarly effects include chorus, distortion, filters, delay, reverb, flangers and experimental units. There are also a number of audio generators, audio processors, event generators and event processors.

This is what the GUI looks like using one of the demo songs. The ‘Mulab’ and ‘project’ buttons in the top left provide the main menu / settings options. Next to these are the ‘compose’, ‘edit’ and ‘modular’ buttons which give you different views. Next to this is the transport panel and completing the top row is a focussed module keyboard.

To the right of the screen is the file manager where you can browse and load samples, midi files, instruments etc. The main part of the screen is determined by the selected view button. ‘Compose’ shows the whole of your composition, ‘Edit’ allows you to edit an individual sample or pattern and ‘Modular’ allows you to add different effects and modules and route the signal between them accordingly.

The left hand side shows the tracks within your composition and the bottom of the screen shows the racks. The racks hold modules, VSTs, effects, event processors etc and are very flexible. They can be linked to specific tracks, used as part of an elaborate effects chain or used for event processing to control external hardware for instance.

To see MuLab 7 in use, the basic intro video is really good. It introduces the workflow and demonstrates a number of the instruments and effects:

The devices are worth a further look because they offer lots of creative potential.

MuSynth is a versatile and flexible synth. It has 2 oscillators with pitch LFO and/or envelope; a multi-sample player with pitch LFO and/or envelope and a noise generator. These 4 sources can be processed by a ring mod and up to 3 filters which have very flexible routing options and there are also 4 plugin slots to insert global effects.

MuDrum is one of my favourite drum modules. It allows you to create virtual analog sounds, use samples or a hybrid of the two. As well as volume, panning, tuning and envelope controls you can also layer 2 samples which is a really useful sound shaping tool in itself. There are 4 racks so you can apply specific effects to individual drum sounds and well as 3 plugin slots to insert global effects. There are 12 pads which correspond to each note of an octave so you can trigger the sounds by pads or a midi sequence and save created drum kits as presets for future use. If you want to get really creative you also have access to a complete MUX which offers virtually unlimited modular options with envelopes, filters, LFOs etc.

MuSampla on the one hand is a ‘basic’ sample player but this is not the best description because it is very capable and flexible with parameters for amplitude envelope, pitch with envelope and LFO, filter with envelope and LFO which can be switched on and off as required. There are also 4 plugin slots to insert global effects.

The grain player is an excellent addition. You can get some very interesting effects by changing the start and end points of a sample and then adjusting the start, length and attack settings for the grains and then altering the global pitch settings.

I like the change to audio recording, it’s now much simpler. You create an audio track, select the input whether this is direct such as a microphone or from a rack. Decide how to monitor i.e. always or just whilst recording and then click record to record the desired vocals or vst output etc.

Snap markers are also a great addition. They can be very useful for precisely aligning vocals with a drum beat for instance. They are easy to use, simply put a marker at the desired point on the vocals and set as a snap marker so that the file snaps to the marker rather than the start of the recording.

The MUX modular deserves a special mention. This is essentially the engine behind MuLab and is a modular synth and effect. It allows you to create pretty much anything you like from synths to sample players to unusual effects. You can combine the three different types of signals – audio, event and modulation in the modular area and create a front panel to control the different parameters. There are a number of modules and presets that you can use to get started.

 

 
I’ve created a demo track which is embedded above using a number of VSTs and effects including Enkl (Klevgrand) processed with Incipit (Inear Display); Carbon Electra synth; Noisetar (NuSofting) processed with Spaceship Delay (Musical Entropy); sound effects processed by Convex (Glitchmachines) and Incipit (Inear Display) and also loaded a NASA sample of the final journey of shuttle STS135 into the grain player processed with Deelay and Spaces (both by Hornet). I also mastered the finished track separately in MuLab using Neutron (iZotope).

I find MuLab easy and intuitive to use. The workflow has a logical feel with tracks on the left, racks at the bottom and the composition components such as midi files, audio files etc in the main window which are arranged linearly. It’s easy to create racks by adding devices, effects or processing modules as required and select the appropriate routing for the audio signal. Completed racks can be saved as presets and you can also colour code them and arrange them in an order as you see fit. You can drag a rack to create a track or alternatively you can add a track and then assign it to a rack.

Once you’ve created a track, it’s easy to add an audio file or sample loop, load a midi file, create a new sequence and record this with a midi keyboard or enter it manually using a mouse. You can then copy and paste sections, edit to give variations, record automation of VST parameters or volume, adjust fade in / fade out, set sequence loop points for poly-rhythms and so on.

A screenshot of the project is shown above. I’m sure there are ways to do this more efficiently, for instance using loops on the individual sequences, using common effect racks instead of multiple instances of insert effects but like many DAWs you tend to find ways that work for you.

This is an example of a drum pattern using the midi sequencer. One tip is to give the pads meaningful names and then when you create a sequence these will be displayed as notes in the octave making it easier to enter your drum pattern as shown above. Incidentally there are some excellent examples of drum patterns and how to process drum samples in the ‘Beat Dissected’ section of Attack Magazine website.

For the demo song I recorded the grain player output to audio so that I could switch it on and off and edit settings live as I recorded. This is because I am used to live editing and live recording in Usine Hollyhock II whereas I could instead use automation and edit this to give a more precise recording. I’ve also started using MuLab for mastering as with the demo track and these are great examples of the flexibility that MuLab offers.

Overall MuLab 7 is a very capable DAW for a very reasonable price. There are a host of improvements that have been implemented since version 6 which make it an even more attractive option. It has excellent sound quality and despite the complexities is intuitive, flexible and easy to use. It also has good support in terms of documentation, an active user forum and regular updates and improvements.

MuLab and further information is available from Mutools