Ethnopiper & BusinessControlled
Home Recording, Ney Flute, Electronic Music, Folk Music, Ethnomusicology
This is a short video clip from the “introduction” of a 30 minute composition I made for a live performance at Bloc+ this coming Thursday (18th April), in Glasgow UK.
The intro piece is performed with 5 loopers and an mpc one before it transitions into polyphony and rhythms. The video I made using Resolume and Fimora.
I will be playing at Bloc+ in the centre of Glasgow on the 18th April at 9pm. just got the flier for it !
Flier for Bloc+ at the Noise Box Event.
Noise Box is an experimental/electronic/modular etc. event, once a month. It will be the 2nd time I have played there, and it will be the 2nd time I have written a piece for it… New compositions are hard going… I am no good at deadlines! But it will be a mix of different genres…. loopers, synths, text, FX etc. partly improvised and partly fixed.
Here is the 2nd Podcast on my Bloc+ composition, in Glasgow on the 18th April.
I have scrapped the old project, and started with a new composition using the Boss RC505 mkii Looper. By using this a whole new life came possible.
Here is the 2nd recording/Podcast about the new musical direction using the Looper.
Nostalgia… a great song by the Buzzcocks, but also it is something to do with old age! An imagined past… or if it is in the young “nostalgia for an age yet to come….” to quote from The Buzzcocks song; either way it something imagined.
Music we listen too is a sort of Reminisce… did we appreciate it the first time around? Probably not, perhaps we skipped over a lot of it… but 2nd time around, now that is a different matter.
I like to create something new with something old. I am also guilty of reminiscing… a musical history with the books I read, the instruments I play, the music I research. Was punk music that liberating? Was Turkish music that mystical? Was Classical music that elitist? mmmmm well, maybe it was for Classical music !!!
But the glorified past of a Punk gig… no, they were chaotic and often had a crap sound. I watched this gig (in the video) with these thoughts in my head. I enjoyed their music, a good sound, and an audience what was not out of their heads on glue ! They were enjoying themselves, not trying to kill one another. Times change.
The music I played is based around the Turkish ney (trying to demystify the mysticism, i guess). Playing secular music…. tut tut…. and with nasty electronic music in the background…. but the ney ends up fading away under a shroud of reverb… is it music? to me, yes. Improvisation on an acoustic instrument with an a-tonal electronic music mashed together to create what? Nostalgia? I hope not. I will remember the first time around…. thank you very much.
I have been to a few gigs lately, and although there has never been any trouble, I often wonder how easily it is to cause trouble. A few years ago in Glasgow, there was a scene of people lacing strangers drinks in nightclubs, then it was injecting people… for no reason at all (no theft, rape etc.) they just did it…
When I was watching these bands I was always aware of how easily it could be done, people having a good time, they forget about their drinks or what they are doing.
So I made this video, a distorted view… from the person who has been laced. Blurred vision, seeing the world revolve… not in a nice way.
I had my drink laced once when I was a teenager, I did not know what had happened until the next morning. I knew the person who did it as well. It makes you aware… of the place we live in.
The final line up of next weeks Box of Noise event is out. I am playing first…. get it over with eh? I hope all goes well as there are 7 acts performing and it can be chaos with so many wires and synths lying around.
My set up is simple. the Mpc One is the brains connecting everything together via midi, going out to 3 volcas (FM, Sampler, Bass) and a Crave.
The Mpc One has 2 tracks of percussion with midi controlling the home made samples (it is amazing how a guitar can be a drum kit !!). The Mpc also has 1 virtual synth track and vocal sample track. The theme of the text is Opium Consumption… which could me a metaphor for drug taking in general in regard to pain relief, or other types of drugs like consumerism.
The style of the 20 minute piece is more melodic than rhythmic, not techno but more ambient… at 142 bpm !! and I am using harmonies as rhythmic percussion, Counterpoint and syncopated stabs.
5 small compositions make up one 20 minute piece, all synths go to my Zoom H8 mic, which I am using as a mixing deck which has a small amount of compression and plate reverb. This sends a stereo mix to the P.A.
I have altered the composition a few times, but in the end you have to say “stop” and just perform it. Here is an old version of the piece recorded 2 weeks ago. The only difference is the intro section.
I have been experimenting recently with acoustic instruments and electronic samples, that i make myself. It is a style that has interested me in a long while, mixing Trad music and experimental music. Once you have got a feel for sampling, electronic music and improvisation then it is only natural that I mix that style with acoustic instruments… ethnopiper and BusinessControlled, combined.
The Turkish ney is made for improvisation and A-tonal music, it is a non fixed pitch instrument and somehow it goes well with the precise tonality of a synth, but it is these 2 textures that compliment each other. Once you have come accustomed to the non-pitched tonality then you can fee yourself from rhythm and “playing in tune” and then the “game is afoot”
The video was taken at Bloc+, in Glasgow. It was supposed to be our anniversary and we went there to have a meal, but a punk band was in full set and we watched that instead… well, i thought it was a good night !!
After many decades, BusinessControlled is performing live at Bloc+, a bar/restaurant in the centre of Glasgow, UK. The event is a showcase for many acts playing electronic music under the title of “Noise Box”, a monthly night of techno and experimental music.
BusinessControlled is a solo project from the 1980s, it involves my own compositions, played live, before the songs/music was incorporated into a band, were it took on a different style.
In the 80s it was simply an acoustic guitar and vocals… a Billy Bragg before Billy Bragg !! But later it evolved into other styles and music. After a few decades of not playing electronic music live (I was involved with ethnomusicology) I am able to play again. This time using various synths and hardware electronic instrument (not a laptop or DAW).
There will be a few acts in one night, and it will be an interesting evening and I am very pleased to play and be amongst it all.
I composed this piece for a concert I will be giving on the 19th October, 2023. In Glasgow’s “Bloc+” a club/bar in the city centre. The event wanted a piece under 25 minutes in length, so instead of mixing and matching a few melodies into 1, I wrote this piece using one piece of midi.
The text is from “Confessions of an English Opium-Eater” by Thomas De Quincey. He lived in Cumbria in the 1840s (a county in the NE of England, where I am also from), his book is an insight into taking opium when it was legal commerce, a bit like buying a beer today.
I know of a few people who took opium, and know of a few people who takes hashish as a way of relieving pain, it seems these plants can help a lot of people who are struggling with day to day illnesses, illnesses that the medical profession can not relieve.
I am not an advocate for selling illegal or legal drugs… I am an advocate of pain relief. People should not be suffering where there is relief from that suffering, it is as simple as that. Only when the pain has subsided can a person logically talk about the pros and cons… of drug taking.
The music is a snapshot in time, I have already changed and adapted certain parameters since recording that video a few days ago, and I am sure it will change again before the 19th of Oct. That is the beauty of it, the structure stays the same but the sound is never the same, each time one plays it is it different, never constant. I like that, it is live and it is original. I learn about the instrument/s each time I play it.
The style of music is not very “gritty” it is a clean sounding piece, but if I am writing a type of counterpoint, then I let the melody/harmony do the talking… I do not need the gritty texture to make it interesting. I find this way of writing very interesting and surprising.
The music was recorded live using the Zoom H8 mic, then I added a plate reverb in post production using Reaper DAW. The instruments are: Crave, MPC One, Volca Sampler, Volca FM, Volca Bass.
Bruise Control performing at “Bloc+” in Central Glasgow on the 1st May 2023:
The Guillotines performing at Bloc+, on the 1st May 2023
Ethnopiper & BusinessControlled 