Blog
Heima a film by Sigur Ros
I love this film! It’s a beautifully shot, and wonderfully paced, look at Sigur Rós‘ homecoming to Iceland. It follows the band as they play intimate gigs in rural towns and forgotten spaces, engage with the people of Iceland. Heima is a wonderful way to spend two hours, listening to Sigur Ros’ music and taking an arm chair tour of Iceland.
The Relay Project
The Relay Project is an ongoing project initiated and curated by John Lambert. The premise of the project is that composers and sound artists produce a piece of audio taking the inspiration from the previous work created. It’s an interesting idea, kind of like a musical version of Chinese Whispers, with each person putting their own unique spin on the work that has been passed onto them. Some really interesting music has been created for the project, but I’ve included my two favourites below, haunt by Linda Buckley and A Beard of Mercury Switches by Sunken Foal. It’s great to see so many interesting Irish artists taking part in this kind cycle of inspiration, long may it continue.
Arduino: the Documentary
Arduino: The Documentary is a film giving some background on the Arduino boards, which have opened up technology for everyone. The film also looks at the wider open source hardware movements and talks about the kinds of effects projects like the Arduino is having on the way people learn about and interact with technology. One of the interviewees makes a very good point in the documentary that although there is now more technology than ever before there is also less understanding about how it works. The Arduino is one of the stars in the open source technology movement and it’s been allowing groups like artists and students to get hands one with their technical lives. Thanks to Javier Laguna Inzolia for the heads up about this documentary.
Disclosure: I have no affiliation with this product or service, I just think it’s epic!
A joyful slog
A joyful slog is a film about the DIY/indie music scene in Ireland, packed full of interviews and footage of musician and people active within the scene. It tracks the genesis of the scene in Ireland, from early exponents like Fugazi, and how the forerunners inspired and effected the current wave of DIY musicians. How the choices they made created a model for those who came after them to use to go indie. It’s a really motivational film and echos a lot of the sentiment that I heard in May at Music 3.0, ‘Just go and do it’. It’s also great to hear from the musicians and bands themselves, to hear about the process and what being independent means to them. If you’re interested in getting your own music out into the world it might give you some ideas or the kick you need to get started. Last, but certainly not least, the film is packed from beginning to end with excellent music. Well worth a watch.
a dark horse
This week’s something for the weekend is the debut release of the Dublin based band a dark horse. They launched their EP a few months back and have been generating a lot of interest since. I know one of the guys, Hugh, so I came across it when he posted about the release and got really into it. It’s really nice blend of ambient folk music which kind of reminds me of The Shins or The Postal Service. The music is undoubtedly instrumental, as opposed to electronic, but there’s a great sense of space and ambience which creates an atmospheric, almost cinematic, vibe. Apart from the music I like that the guys have taken a DIY approach to releasing their music, writing, recording, mixing it all themselves as well as making some excellent videos and really nice artwork to go along with the EP. The reason I’m posting this a day earlier than usual is that they’re playing a gig in The Grand Social this evening as part of Hard Working Class Heros which would be well worth checking out.
The Creative Coding Podcast
I’ve been listening to this podcast for about a year now. I first got into it when I started learning Processing, as they had some great interviews with code artists and digital creatives like Daniel Shiffman, Ben Fry and Golan Levin, who are heavily involved in the Processing community. The two hosts, Seb Lee-Delise and Iain Lobb, are very entertaining and there’s some great chat about being a creative programmer and discussion of the ins-and-outs of freelancing. The interviewees are always really interesting people doing interesting things, normally people at the top of their game in their field and I’ve found myself being exposed to lots of different, interesting projects through the show. It’s probably not for the non-coders, but definitely worth a listen if you’re interested in doing creative things with code. Here’s a show they did with the artist Kyle McDonald about being investigated by the Secret Service for an art work in an Apple store, as a taster.
Musical Rooms
Musical Rooms is a blog written by Sinéad Gleeson about the spaces in which people create music. It’s a really interesting collection of interviews with music creators about the where they make music and how it affects their process. The blog hasn’t been updated in a while but if you’re only finding it now it’ll take you quite a while to get through the more than a hundred odd interviews, it’s more than a weekend’s worth at any rate. I find it to be an interesting look at how the people behind the music and how they think and talk about what they do. As someone who makes music it has been great for me to read about other people’s experiences and try to incorporate ideas into how I work. There’s also some great photos of the musical rooms as well, Lisa Hannigan has to have the prettiest room, Valerie Francis the most minimal, there’s a great view from Teengirl Fantasy’s room and this one from Hunter Gatherer reminds me of my own:Disclosure: I have no affiliation with this product or service, I just think it’s epic!
Thom Conaty from _maker
This is an interview I did with Thom Conaty from _maker, a startup that is creating an online platform to help musicians learn about electronics. Full disclosure: I’m friends with Thom, already interested in this stuff, we did the same masters and even worked together on an art project last year. Bearing this possible bias in mind I think _maker have hit onto something really interesting. I got in touch with Thom to see what they’re up to.
Who are _maker?
_maker is myself and Colin Maher, the other director, and we’ve got Tom Canning, Stephanie McCabe and Philip Hayden helping out as well.
How did you get started?
I got interested in DIY electronics about 4 years ago when I got started circuit bending, which is taking apart old electronic noise making things and coaxing sounds out of them by poking around. There was no actual knowledge going on though, I was just poking around with circuit boards to see what I could find. Then the more I did that I became interested in what was actually going on? How do I control this a bit more? So then I got a few kits online and started building things and I got sucked into it. Read more
Brendan O’Driscoll from Soundwave
Earlier in the year I went to Music 3.0 a week long seminar on the future of the music industry. The week was a barrage of talks from interesting people doing interesting things and one of the talks that really struck me was given by Brendan O’Driscoll and Craig Watson. They were speaking about their company Soundwave, which is creating a way to find out, in real-time, what songs people are listening to. I got in touch with Brendan to find out more.
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How did Soundwave get started?
I started Soundwave with my cousin Aidan Sliney in November of last year. We applied for Launch Pad 4 with a completely different idea in July and got some really good feedback that was very motivating. We sat down and said ʻwe didnʼt get in this time but weʼre going to learn from this, take all the lessons, all the pointers and the comments and apply it to a brand new idea.ʼ So we just started brainstorming ideas. Read more