BolloksCraft Xine Vol. 3
THE PIRACY ISSUE
BolloksCraft Xine
Vol. 3
April 2013
Edit/Layout Crew
Contributors Andrew.pedia Bender Ben Eastabrook Fiona False Tenille Fisher Ryland Fortie Lee Giddens Andrew Hood Chevy Johnson Jessie Kobylanski
Woody Lincoln Frank Luca Sean Luciw
Bruno Mazzotta Liam McGrath Rónan Mcgrath Vasyl Ko Brett Woolward
Opinion... pg 19 Impromptu Confession... pg 21 Cyborg Print... pg 4 Crocadilian Filidia... pg 10 Gagarin Poem... pg 9 Print... Inside Back Cover Ghost Box... pg 17 Contour... pg 21 Digital Digging... pg 18 FB Convo... pg 5 Untitled... pg 12 Turkish Hazelnut Frappé... pg 23 BCRecords... pg 24 Chromesthesia... Back Cover Border Post... pg 19 Slow Light... pg 8 Tree... pg 20 Haiku... Inside Front Cover Haiku... pg 4 FB Convo... pg 5 Toforwith... pg 10 Multiplication Mirror... pg 17 Ghetto Soccer... pg 11 Map to Pirateville... pg 20 Drawing... pg 18 Ears Out... pg 6 Ablestolen Live... pg 22 Bob Moog... pg 23 FB Convo... pg 5
Andrew.pedia Bender Andrew Blackwell Jessie Kobylanski Frank Luca Rónan McGrath Brunc Mazzotta Moon Baby RRTT
Designers Jessie Kobylanski Frank Luca
Front Cover Frank Luca
THANK YOU BCX Made Possible By: Anonymous Andrew Blackwell Mairi Budreau Bobby Case Woody Lincoln Ashley Mauerhoffer Bruno Mazzotta Siobhan McGrath wiL Shulba KPA Printers The Art We Are Fudge Yeah The Grind Hello Toast The Kamloops Art Gallery Movie Mart Red Beard Roasters The Smorgasboard Zack’s Coffee and Teas
BolloksCraft Xine Firstly, What is Bollokscraft? Bollokscraft is a lot of things: it’s a collective; a music label; an events co-ordination spot; a distribution point; some folks just hanging out; a hub for makers; and above all, a place for people to connect. We’re a developing community aimed at facilitating open and diverse projects. Bollokscraft is all about collaboration and community. Working in good faith with others to gain new perspectives; fill in gaps; learn new things; and just have a good time are tenets we strive to foster in our ventures. While working on ideas under the Bollokscraft umbrella we encourage thinking beyond inbuilt expectations; embracing new views; and practicing new creative methods. We want to tear down the walls between ‘artists’ and ‘audiences’ to nurture an inclusive doing/being community of folks who want to collectively produce and share works that are greater than the sum of their contributor’s particular skills. Participation at Bollokscraft is the process of celebrating the experimentally positive in all ways possible.
Bollokscraft produces, publishes, distributes, organizes events, and connects people and points.
How Does a Zine Fit Into This?
Our Xine combines the best elements of a classic zine with newspaperly publications. It contains the love for underground and the artistry and casual creative awesomeness of a zine, but has the consistency and approachability of a newsletter or traditional magazine.
Why Xine?
Our really cool X is a crossing and a meeting of different avenues and as such it stands for the freely associated convergence of the principles and values of many forms of publication. Our plans for the Xine don’t fit under the usual headings, but allow us to set our own course through that infinite fractal of print media, information and opinion. The Bollokscraft Xine contains a wide variety of article styles and content: from album reviews, to art info, to rad DIY projects, to blurbs on the awesome and inspiring, to comics and illustrations, to tear-out pages of art/photos/ origami and more. If you can
think it and make it 2D, we will always work to accommodate it. This Xine monster is maintained by some key people who inexplicably feel compelled to go above and beyond in putting in hard work during their free time (and sometimes even their not-sofree time). However, this Xine is nourished by a community of various kinds of people who submit their art, media, thoughts, insights and considerations for print. The Bollokscraft Xine is a tangible nexus to showcase ideas from the Kamloops doing/making community and beyond!
Submissions
Submitting any work to the Bollokscraft Xine means that you understand and agree with the following: You have labeled the document with your name or pseudonym, email address and phone number, title, medium and any special notes (ex. preferred in colour, is time sensitive, contains valuable/delicate material etc.). Text should be sent in a word.doc. If images are to be included, please send them separately as jpeg, tiff, png
or bmp files that are labeled with the image title and your last name. Ideally images will be 300 dpi. If you’re unsure about any formatting specifications, please just contact us. We are more than happy to help!
cover printing costs. This is not mandatory, but a small donation goes a long way to getting not only exposure for yourself and our community, but in providing a nexus point for doers and makers alike!
Your work will probably see publication. If so, you will be notified by email or telephone.
For any further clarification, please see the mandate/ guidelines at bollokscraftrecords.com
If the editing party thinks changes are required, you will be contacted (if you’re not there) and asked to modify whatever needs work. If an agreement cannot be reached, we will withdraw from working with that piece, but in no way discourage you from submitting other works. If you submit something to us, say a short story, and in the mean time you have also submitted it to a major publishing firm and they decide to publish your piece with exclusivity, it is your responsibility to notify us so we can pull it. We want to keep this legal and easy, so please keep us posted. By contributing works, you will also be encouraged to contribute a very modest sum (around $2) to help
Submit Works To: bollokscraftxine@gmail.com or mail it to Bollokscraft Xine 406 Nicola Street Kamloops BC V2C 2P8 CANADA
Support Bollokscraft is a donation and volunteer powered organization and since we prefer our Xine to be ad-free we welcome any kind of support. Monetary donations are the most direct way you can help out in sustaining this publication as an art/idea sharing space. If you want to send funds directly to the BCX coffers through Paypal, visit bollokscraftrecords.com/ support/ If you provide your name and address with your donation, we will see to it that you recieve a proper BCX thank you! (more details on the website) At the moment, the printing cost of every edition of this Xine is covered using the personal savings of our most involved community members. Any donations will greatly reduce that out of pocket expense and ensure the persistence of this thing. If you are more inclined to support this project through volunteering, contact us via bollokscraftxine@gmail.com. We look forward to working with you!
Ears Out on Black Pus - All My Relations --Thrill Jockey 2013-When I listen to Brian Chippendale in any context I find that the sounds invariably evoke mental images of spaces and objects. Unsurprisingly, Mr. Chippendale’s visual art is similarly evocative – rather than contentedly representing objects, people and stories, Chippendale’s visual pieces suggest a great deal of movement and sound that is not tied up in the characters or the plot. From his bewildering graphic novel, Maggots, to his outrageously violent and unwieldy web-comic series Puke Force, to his wonderful psychedelic-melting spazz frame-byframe adventure story, If’n’Oof, Brian Chips knocks it out of the sensory park for me every time. However, his work can certainly be overwhelming – Maggots is a graphic novel which isn’t much bigger than an Archie comic, but it has something like 30-50 frames on every page (meant to be read in this zany back and forth ‘serpentine’ manner… but not always reliably so). Other times, when Chippendale has more concrete edges to his projects (like with If’n’Oof, a graphic novel which features just
page from Maggots 2007
one big frame on every page), the obsessive-compulsive madness of his work can be - I use this term lightly - more easily digested and the sensory overload of his art can be dynamically experienced. Chippendale’s various musical projects can also be divided in much this same way. My introduction to Chippendale’s music was through his delirious frenzy of percussion and vocals in the band Lighting Bolt. Along-side fellow brain-flayer and Brian-namer Brian Gibson (bassist extraordinaire), Brian Chippendale has crafted some of my all-time favorite noise-rock jams – the feral synergy of Lightning Bolt can feel like a pack of jittery broken animals descending in convulsive dervishes upon the listener’s paralyzed body/ears. All of this sonic pummeling is even more appealing to me because, unlike much of heavy/noise music that has surfaced out there in the ‘indie-stream,’ Lightning Bolt has an utterly unpretentious atmosphere about their sound. Furthermore, despite the raw
propulsion of the music, Lightning Bolt rarely (if ever) exhibits the kind of macho technical skill flexing that sometimes permeates other bass/drum heavy music. Of course, all of this is surely familiar territory for anyone who can get past the first blasts of jarring bass melodies and thunderous drum beats that simultaneously affront and sooth while they provide the rattle, clatter, groove and stutter of Lightning Bolt’s sound. If you dig Lightning Bolt, I can assure you that the album here reviewed will fit right in – if you can’t do the Lightning Bolt thing then perhaps this is one piece of wax to leave for another day. This is to say, Black Pus’ All My Relations represents how what works so wonderfully for Lightning Bolt’s bass and drum duo-dynamic can play out when the Brians are split up and attempt to create full-fledged songs on their own. Although there have been quite a few albums to come out from Chippendale under his solo ‘Black Pus’ moniker in the past decade, none of them so
page from If n’ Oof 2010
effectively exemplify how dynamic a person can make noise-rock with nothing more than some pedals, a microphone and a drum kit as does All My Relations. The predictable qualities of an album by Brian Chippendale are all here: every track is a thrumming rock out that pounds away on the infinite psychedelic anvil; there are acres and acres of noise found throughout; the lyrics are for the most part ridiculous and indecipherable; and the drumming is seriously awesome - with all the hallucinatory fury of Lightning Bolt. Strangely enough, none of the tracks here really seem like self-indulgent experimental drum solo jams. With the exceptions of the oscillator-twisting and drum-wandering that takes up most of the second to last two tracks ‘Nowhere to Run’ and ‘A Better Man,’ much of the arrangement on All My Relations is shockingly concise and relatable. Furthermore, while Chippendale may be known for his constantly shifting snare/bass drum patterns and unpredictable one-off rhythm variations, the drumming found on this album often provides a much more constant layer to the songs. This shift in the constancy of the drum patterns has the effect of really toning down the improvised-feel often found in this kind of music and clearly facilitates more
dynamic manipulation of the drum-mounted oscillator (which provides the bass-like melody layer) and more complex vocal looping and processing. In this way, many of the songs on the album are almost catchy in a rather warped sense. Despite this weirdly catchy quality, All My Relations is a sonic bludgeon-fest – make no mistake. Choice tracks like ‘Fly on the Wall’ and
‘All Out of Sorts’ steamroll along in concussive and blown-out drumdrone paired with undulating noise periodically pieced and shredded by manic vocals variously mangled by pitch shifter and delay. What’s more, the most standout tracks of the album ‘1000 Years’ and ‘Hear No Evil’ blare with a savage bounce that makes them feel like Neanderthal death-pop hits of the end of the world. Everywhere, Chippendale conjures patterns
and melodies that suggest a huge amount of life and motion – albeit confused and unruly life moving in a blasted zone crowded with all manner of junk and decay. In the past, some of Brian Chippendale’s solo tracks as Black Pus have been overwhelmingly spastic; leaving many listeners in a battered daze and desensitizing them to the deeper effects of the music. On All My Relations, however, the songs are more hypnotic and evocative that ever before – every arrangement is steadier and thus harder hitting and more illustra tive. Much like the difference between Maggots and If’n’Oof, when the frenzy that compels Chippendale to create is more streamlined and cohesive the audience gets a more focused glimpse of the horrifying and wonderful parallel universe of chaos and queasy fun that exists in the man’s head. Athough I find that both styles are worthy of repeat engagement, I am well aware that most people are more inclined to prefer the latter. Either way, I suggest this album to those who seek immersive otherworldly music that grabs the brain by the ears and flings it around unfamiliar space – so throw on your post-apocalyptic clowning armor, drop some acid and give this disc of lunacy a spin!
Slow Light 13 A Review of Sorts The aesthetic of the cassette tape is something that I’ve been excited about for the past few years. The artwork, the fact that they typically only cost a few bucks: it’s all a part of the greatness of the tape. Getting a band’s demo that is only pressed onto 40 copies is one thing, but when it’s actually a pretty terrific listen (read: total noise and hardly listenable at all), it’s even better. Fortunately, this is the case with this tape I picked up earlier in the month by Slow Light. It’s a project from Erik King, formerly of the legendary and now defunct, PV/harsh noise act, The Endless Blockade and the
now reformed - sort of - Column of Heaven (not to mention a handful of other noise/power violence projects). Slow Light 13, as it is aptly titled, is eight minutes of harsh feedback/drums/cymbals/vocals; think harsh noise punk record – that’s about as straight forward as I can put it. Regardless, it’s good. Really good. This tape comes with a short photo zine to boot. As I mentioned earlier, this tape was released in limited edition; I received #14/40, so who knows how many are still available. However, I urge you to do yourself a favour and go listen to it for free at vomitingleaves.bandcamp.com
and looking down at everything chaotic everything known as beauty feet slowly lifting weightless off the steel floor below little shinny dots in black brighten with every ever-lasting second a scape not known by any other imagine thoughts ‘floating’ anastamosing through his head as the blood is relieved from the great earth’s pull to the core a state of freedom? perhaps much more something only a few will ever since feel i am not envious not a bit floating through infinitum the land of no man i don’t think i could return just close my eyes and drift slowly away in my capsule in my mind in peace away from the 3rd planet’s gravity
-- a thought by false fiona for the astronaut J. A. Gagarin commander of Vostok 1 space vessel first animal to escape Earth’s gravitational field
Toforwith Word Invention There’s this new word, “toforwith.” It’s pronounced “to, for, with” and appears as a one-word statement. Toforwith. Like that. Even though it’s presented as a statement (with a period or exclamation point at the end of the sentence), it’s really a question. A specific question, this one: “To, for or with?” So, “Toforwith” really means “To, for or with?” The question becomes more clear when applied to the verb “to do.” For example, “Did Jack do this TO Jill, did Jack do this FOR Jill, or did Jack do this WITH Jill?” So, in this example, assuming some sort of interaction between Jack and Jill has already been established, making the verbal statement “toforwith” would very specifically imply the three questions listed. It is also worth considering, in this example, whether it may have actually been Jill that was doing the doing to, doing for or doing with. By extension, the questioning of object/subject relationship should be included in the definition and useage of this new word. Also notice that the components are in order of increasing awesomeness: “to” is less awesome than “for”, and “for” is less awesome than “with”. You could write awesomeness heirarchy like this: To < For < With.
Untitled (Total Recognizable Freedom)
Untitled (Total Recognizable Freedom) This work of pastiche explores concepts of originality, authenticity, copyright, and kitsch. The figures were created with appropriated (or stolen, if you like) photographs by Walker Evans, originally commissioned by the U.S. Farm Security Administration during the Great Depression. A series of these photos, in catalogue form, were then reshot by photographer Sherrie Levine for her 1981 show After Walker Evans. Clearly bringing up questions of artistic rights to creativity and production, Levine also demands the viewer to consider the implications of documentary photographs in a fine art setting, and to perceive Walker Evans USFSA Photo the legendary poverty of the 1930s within a time of recession in the early 1980’s. Some twenty years later, Michael Mandiberg, a rather eccentric and well-humoured internet based artist, uploaded Levine’s photos onto two websites: afterwalkerevans. com and aftersherrielevine.com. The site encourages the visitor to download any of the images at a very high resolution and print them out while following very specific instructions so as to authenticate the printed out copy as a certified work of art. By doing so, Mandiberg takes the ‘artness’ of Levine’s photos and artistic intent, and gives the images back to the public as “photographic icons of American collective memory and history.” to highly graphic, cartoon style Untitled (Total Recognizable renderings, a style you could Freedom) uses five images say, I lifted from a fellow ‘con-artfrom Mandiberg’s plundering ist’, Roy Lichtenstein. Lichtenof Levine’s “theft.” Where my stein has been credited as being artistic hand comes in is in the highly innovative with compomodification of the images from sition and particularly daring black and white photographs in the 1960s world of abstract
expressionism for showcasing not only representational work, but ‘lowly illustrations’ in a gallery setting. Like Levine, Lichtenstein takes images from a source not considered to be fine art, and reproduces it with little or no change, in the latter’s case, he enlarges the images to fine art scale and occasionally changes the colour of hair or a shirt. Where Levine receives criticism and intense debate over copyrights, Lichtenstein is celebrated as a brilliant artist blurring the lines between fine art and pop culture, despite stealing images from comic book illustrators without permission or acknowledgement. One of Lichtenstein’s more famous works, Drowning Girl (1963) is merely a cropped and enlarged rendering of DC Comics illustrator Tony Abruzzo’s cover for Run for Love (1962). There are several websites dedicated to undermining Lichtenstein’s approach to appropriation, and one such author, David Barsalou, has dedicated much of his time to sourcing a vast amount of Lichtenstein’s work: some 350 paintings from 196165, all arguably stolen. While one may be disgruntled over either or both Levine and Lichtenstein’s work, both cannot be denied credit for their careful selection of images to reproduce. A stretchy-minded person could even consider them a kind of curator. Through Lichtenstein’s selection of typified female and male roles, guns, explosions, and generic beauty, he opens up a conversation about themes of gender roles and war in 1960s America. Levine’s choice to exhibit photographs of rural poverty in the southern states
during a time of Reagan-influenced conservatism and economic recession, begs one to wonder where the American Dream has gone. Though Levine may have done little to nothing to rework any of her borrowed images, she remains moral in her acknowledgement to the artist she cites. In this, I think her method is not just forgivable, but gutsy. Lichtenstein on the other hand, sinks to hack-status, even lower than the ‘lowly illustrators’ he stole from. Untitled (Total Recognizable Freedom) is my exploration of how imagery is produced, appropriated, criticised, celebrated and (mis)understood. I downloaded Mandiberg’s images of Levine’s photos of Evans’ photos, and rendered them in a Lichtenstein/uncredited-comic-
T. Abruzzo’s Cover for Run For Love
illustrator style of drawing. I simplified, cartoonified, and benday-dotified these historical images to create a work that speaks to all of the above mentioned, while maintaining my artistic voice. I chose to draw with marker on mylar, rather than paint on board or canvas, or simply to photograph my work and display the images of my drawings. I did so because while I can appreciate what Levine did and continues to do with her copy-based art, I prefer to create work that is clearly historically informed, but is just as clearly a work filtered an interpreted through me. The mylar also allowed me to play with transparencies and depth. Rather than assemble five separate images, I’ve integrated them into one piece by placing the three figures inside their domestic world, but in a way that is disjointed.
Only the central figure, the woman, is surrounded with an interior, one that breaks up behind her. The men to either side of her have exits in the form of negative space. I also felt it appropriate to combine these historically revered photographs with a comic book look because they’ve become somewhat of a joke despite, or probably because of the controversy surrounding them. Also that they have this ‘collective memory’ attachment that is very fitting to the traditional comic book illustrative style. It all screams Americana: garrish and simple only on the surface. The title is derived from a piece of criticism by Frank Whitford published in 1979 discussing his frustration with Lichtenstein’s work. This text is used in my artist statement alongside the modified “certificate of authenticity” which I’ve doctored to suit my modifications.
Lichtenstein’s Drowning Girl
The Multiplication Mirror The following procedure reveals amazing surprise symmetry in the multiplication tables, as introduced in my book “Chaos In Boxes: twisted adventures in music theory.” For this variation of the tutorial, I’ll start with the 4x table. STEP 1: Find the digital roots produced by the 4x table, by adding up the digits to become always one digit. 4x1=4 4x2=8 4 x 3 = 12, 1 + 2 = 3 4 x 4 = 16, 1 + 6 = 7 4 x 5 = 20, 2 + 0 = 2 4 x 6 = 24, 2 + 4 = 6 4 x 7 = 28, 2 + 8 = 10, 1 + 0 = 1 4 x 8 = 32, 3 + 2 = 5 4 x 9 = 36, 3 + 6 = 9 4 x 10 = 40, 4 + 0 = 4 4 x 11 = 44, 4 + 4 = 8 4 x 12 = 48, 4 + 8 = 12, 1 + 2 = 3 ...etc. As you can see, the 4x table produces the digital root series 4, 8, 3, 7, 2, 6, 1, 5, 9 and then repeats itself. The interesting part is coming up very soon. STEP 2: Make a circle with the numbers 1 through 9 spread evenly around the outside: STEP 3: Connect the numbers in the same order as the digital root series produced earlier: As you can see, number series 4, 8, 3, 7, 2, 6, 1, 5, 9 produces an amazing 9-pointed star shape! STEP 4: Repeat Steps 1, 2, and 3 for every times table (the 1x table, the 2x table, etcetera), savouring the discovery of each new surprise shape! STEP 5: Things are about to get even more interesting. Make a new circle with the numbers 1 through 9 spread evenly in the centre. Now arrange each of the star shapes (one for each times-table) around the outside of the circle, next to its associated number. Optionally, label each shape with a “+” for clockwise or “-” for counterclockwise. STEP 6: Behold the amazing result: As you can see, this collection of nine “9-stars” can be folded in half along the dotted line, and they all match up. What beautiful pictures these numbers spell out! With a feeling of considerable triumph, I found the Multiplication Mirror through my own exploratory processes and haven’t seen it elsewhere before or since. Booyah! However, it disappoints me that something so important has been omitted from mainstream education thus far. Kids like making pictures, so if they learn the Multiplication Mirror along with their Times-tables, the math talent quota may increase. Spread the word!
Digital Digging I’ve heard the argument plenty of times; digital piracy has ruined the musical hard copy. I will again say… NO! Sure there was an esteemed record culture up until the new millennium. From DJs digging in crates for the latest in dance floor magic, to producers hunting out that obscure vocal sample from a big band era crooner, or the simple connoisseur of Led Zeppelin’s latest output; records mattered.
created by online music communities. There is a shared enthusiasm for supporting artists and building the sub-culture you believe in.
Alongside these avatars you share music taste, thoughts and opinions with, there is an almost infinite world waiting to be explored. The obscurity of finding a record in a back alley Amsterdam spin shop certainly has a sense of ritual about it. But the tangibility of that experience is provided by the people you With the advent of online music sharing com- engage with in the shop, the ability to listen munities, the sale of hardcopies plummetto tracks before you buy them, and eventually ed… for a while. Though, oddly enough vinyl the monetary support you decide to give the record sales have gone up immensely in the shop, the label and the artist. This experience last couple years. I personally believe these is translated online for a generation that gets it sales to be based in the strong affinity spaces and accepts it.
My view on piracy is less focused on the ethics involved, but where it will take us. Despite the attempts to police the internet by media corporations, they have mostly been proven futile due to the resistance of torrent hosting sites. If a torrent is removed on one site, chances are it will be reposted by some other uploader a short while after. Situations like these prove that the monitoring of copyright over the internet is a poor use of time and money. As for the downloaders, it can take a massive amount of time to track down the individual of a given IP address – and the fact that an IP changes itself every several months doesn’t help in the least. Therefore, with this ineffective Big Brother program, it is clear
that stricter copyright laws are not going to help the problem of money lost to industry big–shots. I think what will need to happen is not more restrictions, but rather an opening up of fair–use agreements (unless the total abolition of copyright is realistic). For example consider Youtube: while some videos are constantly being shut down, some copyright holders have welcomed this violation (posting content without permission) as a bit of free advertising. This only shows that copyright violation is becoming increasingly petty, and accepted as a normal part of daily life. When this occurs, laws are created to ACCOMMODATE (rather than BANISH) lifestyle.
An Opinion
IMPROMPTU CONFESSION BY PRINCESS So am I knowing you now, only? I think we’ve got some love here, at least, we’re never lonely. I know each inch of chest to press,
If you could aid me in recalling whose skin it is we’re in and let me know which side is me and which is you I’m sure that I’ll remember
no more nervous breaths when we undress.
what it is I’m supposed to do.
You mapped as we mixed up our mouthsclaimed it tasted better to taste the same.
You see, I think I’m worried somehow
I gave my teeth and lips and tongue and you let me speak your name.
about all of those sweet thoughts I thought I (so shrewdly) swallowed up, perhaps even choking now on all the stories I misread the pictures I could have sworn plumed up above the geyser in your head.
Your body isn’t mine but I think, with all this time, that I’ll come to know it as if it were“Oh wait! just a sec now love! just thenwhen you thrust it in – I forgot where I begin.
Oh! and now this gnawing feeling that perhaps I should have said: I think together we’ll overflow.
All my things (dreams, schemes) seem to swell up, slip off and drip over the brim of the cool glass that I lift to your lips even though you control the number of sips because you don’t think that I know how to ration (alize).”
Ablestolen Live Fumbling through the emergence of one’s art is analogous to a child learning to craft things from their parent. The ability to bend the mind of the elder in mysterious techniques - to stretch the rules a bit - to get the wanted no matter how unattainable. As in childhood - as in art – the youth of us shapes the way we carry on in our life: those creative tactics we carved out as those mischievous childhood creatures. My beginnings in creating music are much in the disposition of childhood wonderment - to get what I desired - all the whilst not knowing the path to fulfillment of those desires. Coincidence, serendipity, piracy and ultimately monetary purchase has led to an illustrious musical career with my digital sweetheart: Ableton Live. Way-back when I received Ableton Live, version Delta-lite, free with a long forgotten/ busted sound card, I was launched into making my own music via computer. For several releases after Delta, I ran Live in trial mode. I would make up new email addresses every month as the
expiration date approached, download another trial from the website and create more. This method of piracy bent the way I used Live: I could not edit, save or master any projects in the trial mode. Creation was yielded in the moment and ultimately rendered in a unorthodox manner to cassette or minidisc for listening. It wasn’t until Ableton 6 that I pirated Live via torrent to unlock the full potential. I used this pirated version for several years while poor and a university geology student generating some of my most famous work. Plenty of these early recordings are mixed into my latest release Infinita. Upon graduating and working for the man, I was offered a computer grant and used the funds to buy Ableton Suite 7. Interesting enough I was able to upgrade from the Delta-lite version - which technically I still owned a license to - saving a few 100 bucks and was unlocked to everything that live offered in the security of it not locking me out in the middle of a performance (which happened). Again, later I laid down a few
extra hard-earned hundred bucks for Ableton 8 in which Infinita was conceptualized, mixed and rendered to high quality lossless format. On my birthday this year, the most powerful musical software (IMO), Ableton 9, was released and bought on my birthday - again a few hundred bucks out of my pocket to the Ableton team. I foresee a long and prosperous future working with Ableton and have introduced Live to many of my friends who now either pirate or buy the program. In the end, did I perform a disservice to the Ableton folks to steal the program for 6 years? Did I not participate in their evolution from a small time program to one of the most successful in the business. Was I a leach? Whilst mixing Infinita in Live 8, reflecting on my music evolution in the Ableton environment, I am convinced that the developers would praise my work, rather than ask me for the cost of the earlier versions - which in today’s market is zero dollars. Thank you Ableton.
Stuff We Like:
Bob Moog What a guy. Inducted into the inventors hall of fame this month. I will always love his analog audio synthesis and how it bends the sound of my guitar, keys and voice. The future is now. “To me the synthesizer was always a source of new sounds that musicians could use to expand the range of possibilities for making music.”
Turkish Hazelnut Frappé a la Red Beard If you’ve ever wanted to hug a cloud with your face, know that this drink is the closest you’ll get sans leaving the ground. Though it’s not a traditional Greek-style frappé (instant coffee, sugar and a bit of cold water shaken until combined and foamy), it is without a doubt palate-pleasing. The hazelnutness is subtle, reminiscent of a liquor, but without being overly sweet or boozy. I personally don’t know why it’s Turkish, but it’s just so overwhelmingly nice to sip through a straw that I forget to ask when I’m in Red Beard (usually dropping off copies of this very xine). It’s also worth noting that, given that the weather is semi-decent, I have on a few occasions walked the 8km round trip to obtain and devour this SUPER-TASTYHAPPY-BABBLEWORTHY-FRAPPEBONANZA-INA-CUP-FOX-INSOCKS-SIR! Go get yours before I drink them all out of stock!
From the Vault... Sorta
BolloksCraft Records Vinyl, Cassttes and More As of March, we’ve been selling used/opened (though sometimes sealed) vinyl, cassettes and cds. That’s right, vinyl in Kamloops – new releases, limited editions, affordable vinyl! If you’re lucky enough to live in Kamloops, we can deliver an order to your doorstep… like a pizza but cooler! If you’re local, don’t stress over shipping costs, but rather contact us directly. For those of you outside of Kamloops, know that we’re super bummed about how expensive shipping is these days. However, we try hard to keep costs low, and the quality of goods and services sky high! Inquire about bundles to save on shipping. Questions or concerns… contact us! 250 372 1963 or bollokscraftrecords@gmail.com * Please note that online prices are generally higher than our in-store/house prices (paypal and discogs fees take a bite). If you contact us
directly, you can definitely save a few dollars! To shop the BCR stock from home, check us out on discogs: discogs.com/seller/BollokscraftRecords Check out new arrivals on our website: bollokscraftrecords.com One of these fine days we’ll have enough stock and capital to open a physical location here in Kamloops. We need your feedback and support to do so successfully, so don’t hesitate to check us out! How? Come by 406 Nicola St. on April 20th between 1&6pm for our BCR Salute to Record Store Day. We’ll be there with our modest but awesome collection of records, tapes, and other goodies. Rumour has it a few of our record collecting friends will also be selling their stuff with us too. Celebrate vinyl with us on Record Store Day! We’ve got some sweet deals waiting for you.