The EMU Train IV

On and on and on and on the we go. Tim Gabbusch presented and analogue tape piece which was pretty dark. The original sounds were unrecognisable. I didn't even know that we had analogue tape to play with around here? Must have been back in the day... He also played a 3rd year Jazz band which sounded really good. He used a special microphone technique called "midside" to record the piano or MS if you’re searching for it on the internet.

Jake Morris showed another musique concrete piece called New Surroundings. Unlike any of the musique concrete which I’ve heard, he attempted to put a narrative to it. Whether or not he succeeded seems beside the point for me because I like it when people do ambitious things with old forms/traditions. It was about a guy called Orin and some demons which he escapes from in the end. Nothing like a bit of fantasy. The whole thing reminded me heaps of Warcraft

Ben Probert next. If Jake started the demonic motiff for the afternoon then Ben took the lead. His first piece was an experimental piece for voice and it sounded, surprise, very demonic. He did the manipulations in Audacity and Pro Tools. Then he did something in Ableton Live, which my notes cryptically describe as "schizo" and finally he showed us a Nine Inch Nails remix. Actually I'd already heard the remix because I was working late one night and Ben was playing it on the speakers in the audio lab. He stretched Trents voice so that he sounded like a girl and he called the song the bitch that slaps or something like that.

William Revill's musique concrete peice was entitled Neurotic Turbulance, and I could feel the flickering of fluorescent lights embedded on the track. He writes in the program note that it was a particularly traumatic experience getting this piece out. I think we can all relate to that.