Many of our readers will remember that there used to be a kind of technology, a bit like a huge, flat, noisy slow USB key that stored less than 2 Megs of data. Not gigs, megs.
So anyway, these were called Floppy Disks (even though they were square and rigid (the actual disk is inside the casing) and the floppy drives that each computer had back in the before time, well they were NEVER ever used to make music like this, except by extreme geeks with too much time on their hands:
The sound comes from getting the disk to “seek” by moving the read/write “head” with its little motor to read different parts of the disk, but moving in a stuttering, stepping fashion. The stuttering speed is fast enough to make a “tone”. The tones can be “played” by (somehow) converting a midi file into commands that cause the floppy drives to move in just the right way when it’s their turn to play the “note”. Freak!
I’ve looked closely and can’t see any tricks. Yet this is the kind of dancing that could never have been conceived without modern digital video production technology as a reference point. Note the extended reversal.
How does one person change a whole mass of people? This amazing video shows one man going from nutcase to leader of a large crowd in about three minutes.
As the commentary says, note the role of the first follower. This person changes a nutcase who is acting alone into a leader. The leader must adopt the first follower as an equal and not exert superiority. The first follower is also a kind of leader.
Interestingly it doesn’t seem to matter that the first follower is possibly mocking the lone nutcase, to me it’s not clear if this is happening actually, but that’s probably mostly thanks to the reaction of the leader. The leader adopts and includes the follower and the follower turns to call his friends.
At some point there is an inflection point where the non-conformance of the breakaway group becomes conformance to a new dominant behaviour. People not following start looking more conspicuous than the followers.
Please excuse the poor video quality, I think the raw capture of a real, unscripted social effect is worth putting up with a wobbly camera.
My favourite bit is the girl at the very end saying from off camera:
This baby is getting filthy with the dubstep… and the chilli.
There are other dubstep babies, sure. Babies have a natural affinity with both grime and wobbles. But this baby is truly feeling it.. you can see it in her face.
Like attracts like. My good friend Dan Rosen (who is not merely very interesting to talk to) hit me with a link to this the other day and I have been debating whether to tip the Strong Like Water ship one more notch towards Skrillex’ direction and relay it to you my subscribers.
As you can see by this cute acoustic version of Scary Monsters and Nice Sprites, I have won the debate and so have you:
You can download that from the artist’s facebook page (for the grand price of one like) here: http://on.fb.me/qXb7yp
Andrew Flanders appears to be practicing Aphex Twin covers on acoustic guitar. An ex-rock guitarist, he’s challenging himself by playing technical music like this, practicing his finger work. A self-confessed lover of Aphex Twin’s music, this time he capably delivers an incredible take on Girl/Boy from the gorgeous Richard D. James Album.
Skrillex dubstep has featured fairly heavily on this site in the past week. In fact our server nearly melted when Skrillex retweeted us. 390,000 followers will do that. So I thought it might be a good time to share a cool sample discovery that had me laughing out loud. The sample has really strange origins that you would never guess.
The track features a really high energy sample right before the drop. This is characteristic of this kind of dubstep – a style some people love and others hate. The sample is of a girl screaming “YES! OH MY GOSH!”. Then the drop goes wild with bitcrushed, modulated bass wobbles.
I always wondered what was going on in that sample, what was the story behind it? Was everyone OK? Some of these samples turn me off this kind of dubstep – they’re frequently apocalyptic emergency sounding exclamations. I don’t like the thought of reliving someone’s life-threatening experience – even if it’s only a sample from a movie.
In this case the girl is real, Rachael Nedrow from the USA and she is a world champion Cup Stacker. Yes. That’s right. It’s a sport. You stack cups really fast. Yes you read that right.
I know.
There’s no denying she is fast, and she’s enthusiastic. The apocalypse in this case is her reaction to beating her own best record for a set cup stacking routine (called a “cycle”). Absolutely sound sample worthy.
Here she is, “united at last” with Skrillex in full sync.
OK so after my post on the excellent version of Skrillex’s Scary Monsters And Nice Sprites, I discovered the method the bass player uses to achieve the characteristic dubstep wub wub wub bass wobbles on an electric bass guitar.
Thanks all those people who emailed me to tell me what it was – many of you were even correct!
But before I give away the technique, here’s a closer look at the dubstep action live:
I’m sure it won’t come as a complete surprise that just buying the Hot Hand will not alone make you play as well as Nathan. But it looks like a lot of wub wubbing fun to me.
You have to admire their attention to detail. If anything though, I think it’s too close to the original but it’s an excellent yet simple video showing how they achieve this with live instruments. The bass wobble control is an interesting piece of tech I’ll have to look into. The filters seem to be modulated by the little blue thing on the bass player’s thumb. Is that a bluetooth theremin midi control or what? If anyone knows speak up.
Lemony Snicket, author of the fantastic books, A Series of Unfortunate Events, (now a Major Motion Picture™), a.k.a Daniel Handler had this to say, among other things, about the Occupy Wall Street demonstration that is happening in response to the global financial crisis:
Historically, a story about people inside impressive buildings ignoring or even taunting people standing outside shouting at them turns out to be a story with an unhappy ending.
Yeah! I guess he’s talking about the people laughing and drinking champagne from the balcony high above wall street protests.
, 
and 
are stand outs. 
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, (now a Major Motion Picture™), a.k.a Daniel Handler had this to say,
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