On the Frontiers of Electronic Music

Nature documentaries of the 1970s used synthesizer music to score messages about species endangerment and environmental disaster prevention. Electronic instrumentation was in itself an ominous warning of the reckless advancement of technology and an effort to audition a utopian harmony between people and machines and nature.

Photay’s debut full-length Onism inherits the same historical tension in an age of climate change and social media addiction. It is also a reflection of personal conditions, a meditation on place, community, and its creator’s own embodied history. The word ‘onism,’ invented by John Koenig, means the frustration of being stuck in just one body that inhabits only one place at a time.

To grasp onism is to be apprised of how little of the world you have experienced, are experiencing, or will ever experience. Photay (Evan Shornstein) composed Onism in the heart of Brooklyn and shrouded by the silence of national parks or on trips home to the woodlands of the Hudson Valley in between touring the urban centers of foreign countries. Scattered but connected, Onism’s music is a constellation that rips across the night sky of time, charting an emotional reality defined by sadness and joy, dread and wonder.

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A Hip-Hop Time Machine

With Bud Ross by Steel Tipped Dove In the 1960s and ‘70s, Bud Ross carved out a role for himself at Philadelphia’s Sigma Sound Studios, the legendary recording facility associated with the city’s soul movement. As a prolific songwriter and producer Ross, now 78, estimates he was involved in the recording of more than 200 songs at Sigma Sound, many of which were characterized by honeyed melodies, lush organ lines, and gritty drums. Ross holed himself up on the fifth floor of the building, while the influential production duo Gamble and Huff worked out of the floor below. Despite never scoring a hit under his own name—he eventually left music to focus on a business selling cars—the 7-inch vinyl releases Ross worked on now fetch big bucks on the U.K. northern soul circuit, making him something of an unseen cult figure. Fifty years later, Ross’s music is now set to be introduced to a new generation thanks to With Bud Ross. It’s a hip-hop project unfolding in two stages. The first inv...

Interview with Manu_Bhaiya x Noise Music in India

WINGED RIBBON by crumbit335 manu_bhaiya is a pioneering noise music artist and a member of noise outfit Crumbit335. With a solid artistic background, manu_bhaiya also dabbles in visual glitch art and spreads his intelligence, taste and love as a freelance writer for prominent art publications. Winged Ribbon is Crumbit335's debut album and a must-listen for aficionado's of the obscure and nascent noise noobs. Featured Art: '#god' by manu_bhaiya [The below is a transcript from an interview with Manu_Bhaiya on the Noise Project show. Aired on zeno.fm/berlys-brain-dance] Firoz Berly 0:02 manu_bhaiya, welcome to the show! There's this question that usually comes to me when it comes to what kind of music I play on the Brain Dance radio. And my usual retort is that I avoid anything that's noisy, and it was during this time that you came along with your work in noise music. I come across your profile while scouring through Instagram and I see this solid and att...

Interview with Colin D'Cruz x Founder of Jazz Goa

Colin D'Cruz by Jazz Goa Jazz Goa is a collective, label and studio, which was founded by Colin D'Cruz and formed by a group of musicians and music lovers to promote jazz in and out of Goa. Their principal aim is to improve upon and provide an organised platform for local as well as visiting international jazz musicians and record local interpretations of jazz like Konkani Jazz. Beautiful surroundings, laidback lifestyle and the people's genuine warmth and hospitality has made Goa a destination for visiting jazz musicians and Jazz Goa has played host to these jazz musicians by offering them opportunities to perform in informal jam sessions as well as full fledged concerts and gigs at various venues in Goa that feature live jazz. Jazz currently has a niche audience in Goa and one of Jazz Goa's goals is to broaden the listener base by encouraging general music lovers to experience and enjoy the magic of spontaneously improvised music through workshops and interactive sess...

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