Posted by admin on April 8, 2011 – 4:28 pm
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I recently got to chat with Tweaker mastermind Chris Vrenna. we talked about everything from his new album, his studio secrets, his views on modern music and american idol. Chris is one of the coolest and most down to earth musicians ive ever talked to. He had zero ego and answered every question i asked like we were old pals. |
Chris Vrenna is recognized as one of the top producer/remixers in the music world, having worked with artists including U2 , P.O.D., GAVIN ROSSDALE, as well as COLD, NELLY FURTADO, WEEZER, David Bowie, Xzibit, and Rob Zombie amongst many others. In addition to his current recording incarnation TWEAKER, Vrenna was one of the founding members of Nine Inch Nails. His new Tweaker album is available for pre-order now via www.tweaker.net and will be out on 4/20.
Damion: so hows the live band setup coming?
CV:we had tried to do a ya know, we were going to try to do a tweaker tour for the first record, but ya know, 9/11 and everything that could go wrong went wrong so that never got off the ground, although me and Clint and Paul(our bass player) we actually did get it together conceptually and half way musically so we’re just expanding upon that, we added a fourth player cause the new record, well, the first records more electro loops. it was more doable by 3 people cause I could just trigger more stuff and with the new record, the writing is much better I think, haha. more band sounding, we just needed and decided to add a forth guy musically
Damion: hopefully that will take some strain off you guys.
CV:it actually does, because I have to, well half the songs off the new record, I don’t have to worry about triggering anything, i’m just playing drums. which is just really fun and then there’s half the songs that the background arps like the verse of truth is or sleepwalking away, it starts off with all the little arps all those types of things, I break those up and sample them and then I trigger them all as loops. Read More »
Posted by admin on April 8, 2011 – 4:09 pm
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What do you think when you think EBM? Do you think “oontz oontz oontz oontz”? Do you think the same voice singing repetitive track after repetitive track? I used to…but not anymore.
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What do you think when you think EBM? Do you think “oontz oontz oontz oontz”? Do you think the same voice singing repetitive track after repetitive track? I used to…but not anymore.
Simply put, Newspeak by November Process is the best EBM album I have ever heard…and definitely one of the better albums I’ve heard. I received a link to this album about 3 weeks ago, and I’ve been wondering exactly how I can review it without just typing “BRILLIANT” over and over again, which would destroy what little credibility I have in the industrial music world. I’ve finally decided on giving the album a track by track rundown, followed by a general commentary.
The album starts with the track “Stability”, and it is a fine way to start the album. It starts with a very Virus-esque bassline and assorted synthwork, and then the groaning “evil” vocals come in. All good, all done before, until the voice suddenly pops over to a very clean, very well sung chorus…wait a damn minute! Yes, singing that is actually “sung” instead of groaned out through distortion and flangers is quite prevalent on this album. This is probably the most “generic” track on the album, but it seems to be very dance oriented (insert traumatizing pictures of me dancing here), so we can forgive that. Read More »
Posted by admin on April 8, 2011 – 3:54 pm
If there was ever a vintage synth company whose name bestowed a certain retro cool on all the instruments that bore its name, it was Roland. Roland instruments formed the initial spark of the analogue revival, and even today, dropping the words Jupiter or Transistor Bass into a conversation with any synth-head remains an effective way of provoking envy. There is no such luck however, for owners of the Roland SH2, a simple but incredibly useful monosynth that has somehow managed to remain overlooked by the vagaries of fashion.
The SH2 was launched alongside its little brother the SH09 in 1978 and their price was pitched to directly compete with Korg’s MS20 and MS10 respectively. In today’s used market though, the SH2 inhabits a strange limbo, priced almost halfway between simple single VCO monos such as the Arp Axxe, Yamaha CS5, Roland SH101 and more complex multi-oscillator designs such as the Sequential Circuits Pro One and Korg MonoPoly. However unlike both of those more complex synths, the SH2 doesn’t exploit the potential of having another oscillator by adding to the feature list and modulation possibilities, frankly a fair description would be that the SH2 was a dual VCO synth that still thinks it’s a single oscillator design. Don’t let that 2 nd oscillator fool you into thinking that the SH2 is a deep synth, this is still pretty much a one of everything synth, one VCF, one ENV, one LFO etc. Read More »
Posted by admin on April 8, 2011 – 1:50 pm
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Interview with Der Blutharsch before the God Curse show in Chicago
by October1. |
Darksonus: Chicago has a deep rooted history in the industrial scene. Were you in any way influenced by Wax Trax! artists?
Der Blutharsch (DB): No. I never really was aware of WaxTrax, I have two or three vinyls of them, but these are only re-releases of European editions. I didn`t even know that they had own artists under contract.
Darksonus: How do you feel about Austrian native Mr. Schwarzenegger being elected as the governor of California ? Is this whole thing a big joke back home?
DB: Well, I think many people are quite proud about him, god knows why. Personally I find it quit amusing, it is a strange world, but it doesn`t really surprise me, if I see what kind of people can get really high in power in the USA, Arnold can`t be that bad at all. Unfortunately him being Governor means as well that he won`t shoot any movies anymore, which I personally find a bit sad. Read More »
Posted by admin on April 8, 2011 – 1:19 pm
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The God Curse Chicago Interview
Conducted by OCTOBER1
I had the rare opportunity to have an interview with Douglas P. from Death in June on Friday December 12th in the afternoon via phone. I apologize with the delay in the review being posted. Douglas is a very interesting and down to earth person to talk to, and he cares about his fans quite a bit. |
Death in June formed sometime around 1980-1981 in the wake of the dissolution of Crisis. Douglas Pearce and Tony Wakeford were leftover from Crisis. Since than Death in June has utilized the talents of his friends to make Death in June a kind of collaberation project over the years. Today, Death In June uses more acoustic guitar and is said by many to be the alpha of Apoclalyptic folk, or militant music. This interview was done on the afternoon of Friday Dec 12th here in Chicago, a show that was scheduled to occur on the 13th, but fell through due to a leftist political protest. This is the only interview of official type for what is now known as the “God Curse Chicago” show. I spoke to Douglas for about forty minutes, and actually Douglas was using a phone card. We couldn’t arrange an in-person meeting, so we did the interview by phone, and I couldn’t write down everything we discussed. I did get some of the key points, But I didn’t want to take up Douglas’s time so my interview was rather compact. Read More »
