ukiro

Don't rely on the site, call the store instead. The stock is not big and prices are not very exciting, but I drop by every now and then to check for rare oldies. They pop up quite often =)

Standard audio cassettes don't have a sample rate because they're analogue. DAT do have a sample rate, because they're digital. I have about 1600-1700 vinyls and 900 CDs, so I guess I prefer vinyls, but I'm obviously no CD-hater.

Well no, I actually already had pics =) The vinyl shelf is an "Expedit" shelf from IKEA, completely standard but PERFECT for vinyl. No separators for the CDs yet, I need to reinforce the bottom of the drawers first since the CDs are very heavy - there are about 150 in each drawer, and with a weight of maybe 100-110 grams per cd case it's like 16 kilos... per drawer. Send me your CV and I'll consider you for groupie status =)

http://ukiro.com/vinyl2.jpg http://ukiro.com/cd_drawers.jpg Some new stuff I've had since my last post, but I bet I'm forgetting some: Bola - "Soup" http://www.discogs.com/release/1923 Bola - "Fyuti" http://www.discogs.com/release/22665 Bola - "Gnayse" http://www.discogs.com/release/354055 Dreamweaver - "Spiritual Heritage" (1 euro!) http://www.discogs.com/release/71816 EDIT: forgot one: Terra Ambient - "The Darker Space" (Some of the best ambient I've ever heard) http://www.discogs.com/release/327270 Oh, and I bought some CDs that I need to listen to before I decide wether to keep them or not, so I'm not listing them yet... I'm also expecting several VERY nice vinyl shipments over the next week. But overall I haven't bought much recently, been a bit low on the cash flow...

Sure it does: http://www.mpdqx.com/digitalstructures/framepage.htm

Well, to be fair, they're notorious for making their live sets so abstract and complex it's more sound art than music - they pretty much never ever play album tracks live, it's all speciallymade for the live performances. At Roskilde this year they played very danceable stuff though, I'm told.

I have like 14 autechre records... my girlfriend has 50 (!!!). She's the biggest autechre fan I've ever heard of.

haha, retort of the week =)

No. I do however intentionally provoke the interviewee by phrasing them as such. Not horrible at all, and a very valid question. It should be included.

A slow day at the office here, so I'll write some questions, using the CODE tag to separate them from the rest of the text: Psychedelic trance music was first concieved to be something alien - otherworldly music for otherworldly experiences. All the early stuff was highly experimental. Sounds, keys, patterns and song structures deviated from almost all other music that existed at the time. As the genre has grown, all these elements have slowly vanished, to the point where mainstream psy-trance of today does not push the musical envelope more than any MTV- R'n'B music. Why has the genre gone from being something where innovation and surprise were key elements, to the conformity and formulaic production we hear today? I know what I would answer here, but it would be interesting to hear a big name's take on this topic, especially if said person was around from the beginning, back when there WAS innovation =) A slightly shorter one: Do you consider yourself to be producing primarily dance music or psychedelic music? If the latter, wouldn't the psychedelic effects of music be easier to achieve with less restriction in terms of tempo, time signatures, sounds, song structures etc, than what the psy-trance dogma currently allows? If the artist is simon posford you can safely cross out that question =) Another question: For me, music becomes enjoyable when it changes my state of mind to something that is interesting - not necessarily alltogether pleasant, because music could also be used as a tool for inner exploration, a way to reach states of mind that are otherwise difficult to get to. Do you agree with this view? If not, what attracts you to music as a listener and as a producer? ...and another follow-up to that: Do you enjoy listening to the same type of music as you like to create, or is the output and the input separate needs? This I've wanted to discuss for a long time: In this question I talk about a drugged state of mind, but what I mean is a hallucinatory, psychedelic and tranced-out state which could be created by other means as well, so I'm not necessarily advocating the use of drugs. But assuming that you agree there is a connection between psychoactive drugs and this music (historically, at least), do you prefer when psy-trance music attempts to describe the mindstate that psychedelic drugs create, or when the music tries to induce said state? Or is there perhaps a third alternative, where the music and the drugs combined create a third element, a state of mind, that either of the two cannot reach on their own? Do you agree that the role of psychedelics has diminished over the years? Oh, and these things I just have to ask: Do you buy a lot of records? What music do you listen to outside of the studio? Both electronic and other stuff. Do you ever like to challenge your mind with music that is really hard to understand, or do you find that frustrating and pointless? If you enjoy doing this sometimes, name some really "difficult" music that you have come to enjoy. Where do you get info about new music? Do you ever go hunting for new stuff, exploring new genres, labels or artists? This ties back to the first question somewhat, so you might want to sort these in a different order when/if you forward them to the artist: How conscious are you about the commercial aspects of a track while producing? Do you ever say to yourself "this sounds awesome, but people might not get it, so I'll change it to something else"? Would you like to release more experimental music than the market demand allows? And in the same vein as that question: As a veteran producer, do you still experiment a lot with your equipment, or do you mainly use the tricks you already know? What was the last cool technical thing trick you did, production-wise? And more: Artists in the electronica/IDM field like aphex twin and autechre have played live gigs without a single note of released music, and sometimes exclusively played ultra-experimental stuff that resembles noise or sound art more than music - is this something you'd like to do, or do you prefer pleasing the majority of the crowd? I'll post some more later perhaps. EDIT: tried to fix the first drug-question a bit, it's tricky to get it right... still a bit too easy to misunderstand but whatever.

What I want to know is when people will be making analogue, organic-sounding music again - why is it that if there is a filter sweep these days (and they're frighteningly rare), it's automated? Why doesn't ANYONE use knob tweaks as a way to create buildups etc anymore? Why is everyone so afraid of some barely audible hiss that they use stale-sounding software instead of hardware? Actually, you may scrap all that and just ask this - When will psy-trance be psychedelic and trance-inducing again? 'Cause it sure aint now. /Mr Bitter

Nope, haven't heard them... I actually try to avoid hifi stores, since I don't have the money anyway =) I'll just grow frustrated and end up robbing a bank... And while the NAD C370 is specified to 2x120W, it can actually deliver 2x200! I don't have time to dig out the review with the numbers right now, but it's erally way moer powerful than the specifications say, as is usual with NAD... they always have a very big margin.

I have this too. A fucking BEAST! =) I also have Focal/JM-Lab Cobalt 806 speakers on Atakama stands, Supra 3.4/S speaker cables, and a very outdated Onkyo CD player =( It was a test winner in its time, but it's very old by now. I would love a Pioneer DV668 player, because it takes SACD and DVD-A as well as having STELLAR CD audio performance. It's a eral bargain, that thing... but still, I can't afford it. I also have a pair of turntables and a mixer, but that's not hifi =) I have a pretty good Thoréns turntable for serious vinyl listening, but I have yet to replace the damn cartridge on it. EDIT: Listened to the Focal/JM-Lab Elektra limited edition bookshelf speakers recently, and while my Cobalts sound very nice, I now want new speakers for €2000 too =/ The sound characteristics of JM-Lab speakers are my absolute favourites, each time I get to compare them to other brands they win.

Then show us this evidence, find a picture of the entire wall. If you can't then don't expect us to blindly take your word for it! I can admit that whoever drew the Squaremeat cover may have seen the works of this grafitti guy, but a rip-off? No way, not judging by the "evidence" you've put forth so far. Put up, or shut up.

LawranceTaylor, that's not nearly similar enough to be considered a rip-off. You're obviously too biased in this to see that...

If the squaremeat cover is based on a known grafitti design, then that's a bummer because it's a really neat cover, one of those you can look at for a really long time and that I imagine goes well with their music =) The second one is very stylish, and has decent typography as well, which is extremely uncommon in this genre...

Nice catch! I've been meaning to check out some of his remix/production work from this era...

Seb of Son Kite is Sebastian Mullaert. He's Swedish. Sebastian Krüger, who has nothing to do with Son Kite, is German. This mix is by Marcus Henriksson, the other half of Son Kite. clear? =)

It's gone for 30-40 euro at times, and if I didn't have it I'd go as high as 30. I sold a copy for about 30-35 a few months back. Really an awesome compilation.

I got Schlabbaduerst 007 yesterday =D

In my last gig I played both Tiny Little Engines and Domestic Bliss, actually... right after eachother, in that order =)

Filteria, who has a nord lead 2, was very impressed when I played stuff from Discovery for him. According to him there is very little difference in the sound... And that difference may well have been due to the different listening environments - his mixer and monitors obviously sound different from my sound card and hi-fi amp/speakers. But I'm sure there IS a difference, as benf52 says. It's just that this VSTi seems to be extraordinarily true to its original, and the nord lead 2 isn't an analogue machine anyway, so it's easier to mimic...

The release date is august 20th, so it's over a month to go (at least - as you know, this business isn't good with dates...)

From a quick glance, this appears to be only old tracks. Some are in previously unreleasedmixes, but still... this seems to be from 1994-1998, all of it. Seeing as I already have most of these tracks in some version, I'm disappointed... but I understand that the old Trans'Pact (and Subliminal) releases are almost impossible to get, so it's only fair to re-release these tracks. But IMHO Avatar should be more open about this being a compilation of older stuff and not new productions. At least the inclusion of Juno Transportation finally verifies that Zig Zag (which was the original artist name for that track) is just yet another alias for mr. Thevenet =) ...And why does Avatar insist on referring to him as Martin Cooper when that's not his real name? It's just another one of his aliases...

My copy is like yours and cinos'. So I think it's fair to assume its legit.