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Sun Ra Exotica

01.04.2019 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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There’s an effort to make the entire Sun Ra catalog available online, and that’s no easy task. The inimitable jazz artist’s catalog is vast and perplexing, and previously unknown recordings are unearthed on a regular basis. Admittedly some of his work is impenetrable to the uninitiated, creating an impression that Sun Ra is a cacophonous weirdo. That would be a misunderstanding. Irwin Chusid, who is managing the reissue series via Sun Ra LLC, had this to say in an interview with Bandcamp Daily:

He is an institution. He is a cosmic force. He is a genius. He’s one of the great neglected composer-musicians of the 20th century. There’s no question what this man created is singular. There’s no one like Sun Ra. […]

I think 75 percent of Sun Ra’s sprawling catalogue is accessible … Is it slick? No. Is it smooth? No. Is it mainstream? No. But it’s fun. It’s musical. It’s engaging. It’s adventurous. It’s diverse. And a lot of it is jazz.

Diving into the catalog is daunting but rewarding, and it’s not difficult to find starting points. That Bandcamp Daily article suggests many good intro albums. This piece in Vulture has some excellent recommendations, too.

I’ve been going down the Sun Ra rabbit-hole, exploring the extensive catalog available on Bandcamp, and ran across the compilation Sun Ra Exotica. I do love the strange ‘50s genre of ‘exotica,’ exemplified by the likes of Martin Denny, Les Baxter, and Arthur Lyman. The style, in a way, is a precursor to what Jon Hassell coined ‘fourth world music:’ a blending of different traditional styles with Western music to create a previously unimagined sound.

I had never thought of Sun Ra in the context of ‘exotica,’ but it makes sense. He was, after all, an exotic dude. And his oeuvre is so expansive that contextualizing groupings of his compositions under a theme, like ‘exotica,’ reveals something new about Sun Ra’s work.

From the release notes to Sun Ra Exotica:

Was Exotica kitsch? Did it represent “cultural appropriation”? Was it a dilution of indigenous art? Who cares? Music should be enjoyed on its own terms. … Exotica has roots, but those roots are uncopyable. What emerges is something derivative, yet original. Here you have Sun Ra, of African-American extraction, influenced by Les Baxter, a Caucasian from Texas, who was in turn influenced by primitive jungle rites. It’s a cultural feedback loop, best enjoyed by leaving politics out of it.

Sun Ra Exotica is a terrific starting point for those unfamiliar with Sun Ra’s spaceways. It’s also a pleasure for this longtime fan, the 25 tracks fitting together effortlessly in Ra’s cosmic sonic puzzle. It’s the soundtrack for my weekend.

Categories // Listening Tags // Bandcamp, Exotica, Jon Hassell, Martin Denny, Music Recommendations, Sun Ra

What Am I Doing Now? (Jan 3, 2019)

01.03.2019 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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  • Readying Monta At Odds‘ Unsuspecting album for release on January 18 on my 8D Industries label. This is a reissue of the Kansas City combo’s first album from 2005, and I’m planning for it to be the first in a reissue series for this prolific band.
  • I’m also expanding my consultancy, a big plan for 2019. I just sent a proposal to one prospective client and will be checking on a couple of others next week. There will be a website for my music publishing consultancy, which I’ll be working on in earnest once January 18 passes. I’m also debating another site focusing on my DIY label management consultancy.
  • The daily blog practice has been amazing. I’m so happy I relaunched this. So far, I only missed a few days around Christmas and NYE. But I must remind myself it’s not a competition — there’s no pressure.
  • After spending a week in the sticks (that is, a remote wooded location), I’m back home in time for some beautiful Florida weather. We’ve paddle-boarded two days in a row and it’s possible we’ll make it three. That might be it for a while as the weather looks to go downhill starting tomorrow.
  • Movie: last night we watched Leave No Trace and loved it.
  • Music: listening to Ultramarine’s terrific new album, and today’s been a Sun Ra day with the albums Crystal Spears and Sun Ra Exotica (the latter a great starting place for any Sun Ra neophytes).
  • Reading: How To Make It Big as a Consultant. At times an amusing read as it’s a little outdated but there’s plenty of useful advice within.

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // 8D Industries, Book Recommendations, Monta At Odds, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, now, Sun Ra

Every Year Feels Like a Year of Transition

01.01.2019 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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2018 has bolted away like a space probe blazing past Ultima Thule. Cue mass introspection. Sure, dates and years are universally accepted ‘imagined realities’ and, yes, it’s just as fruitful to reevaluate and assess in May as it is on January 1. 1/1/19 ain’t nothing but a number. But, even if we resist, this time of year is still when we think the deepest about our next steps. I believe the general lull of the last two weeks of December is partly to blame: we end up with a lot of time on our hands — time to think for extended periods free of most work distractions — and we’re spending a lot of it in close contact with our families. Reflection and contemplation come naturally.

I’m not any different. My week in the sticks afforded ample time to go over my strategies moving forward, where my goals lie, how I’ve veered off track in 2018, and what else I can do to increase joy in my life. Some of these thoughts are deep — I don’t feel I have a firm grasp on my goals and what they mean to me — and some are tactical. In the latter category, I’ve done another (!) redesign of my daily work routine, a bunch of Omnifocus tweaks (new perspectives and constraints, oh my), and am going to experiment with more incorporation of a calendar in the workflow. I need the discipline that scheduling and time blocking encourages, and I aim to exercise this discipline as if building a skill.

My friend (and fellow altMBA’er) Dean Caravelis has a plan. He publicly listed his 2019 goals for all to see. Dean’s also printing these out and putting the list in a place where he’ll encounter it each day first thing in the morning. I like this.

I’m still thinking about my own goals, but I do know that I’d like to write every single day (and post the result on this blog, but no pressure); I’d like to get at least six new 8D Industries releases in listeners’ hands within a year; I want to read at least two books a month; and I plan on regularly writing and recording new music once again. I know there’s about five more I can come up with and I’m giving this some thought. As I said, it’s that introspective time of year.

Dean has also listed his ‘word of 2019:’ Intentional. The first thing that comes to mind for my 2019 word is ’transitional.’ That might be a cop-out as every year I feel like I’m in transition. But, for some reason, 2019 feels more so — not just for me, but for everyone.

I’m also going to return to my ‘album a day’ practice, which I wrote about here. I’ll do it a little differently — not as strict, and I doubt I’ll regularly post my listening habits on social media — but I think it’s important that I keep my mind fresh with new music daily.

To start, today’s soundtrack is apt: a thoughtful ambient album by Utah’s Grizzly Prospector. Titled dream story, it’s out on the intriguing Japanese label White Paddy Mountain. It’s bright and ringing, recalling vibrating strings, and there are some lovely vocal tracks (nearly a cappella) towards the end. The music gives off an air of future hope, just what the doctor ordered.

Here’s a tip: ‘follow’ your favorite labels and artists on Bandcamp. Then you’ll receive an email when there’s a new release. Create a rule in your email client so that those messages skip your inbox and are automatically archived and grouped into a predesignated folder. Then, when you’re looking for something new and tasty to listen to, open the folder. A list of new releases will be waiting for you. That’s how I ran across Grizzly Prospector.

Cheers to 2019. Let’s make it as good as we can imagine.

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Ambient Music, Deep Thoughts, Music Recommendations, Productivity

Limpid as the Solitudes

12.14.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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I’m fascinated by the album Limpid as the Solitudes, a collaboration of collagist-composer Félicia Atkinson and multi-instrumentalist Jefre Cantu-Ledesma. If there were a record bin nearby, this would probably get filed in the ‘ambient’ row. That would be a mistake. Limpid as the Solitudes is too restless to be background music; it asks for a piece of your attention, sonically waving to remind you of its presence if you happen to consciously drift away.

There are found sounds, environmental sounds, sounds that keep us guessing, all accompanying pensive drones, far-away splashes of guitar, sparkles of piano, and other melodic snatches. I’ve played around with environmental sounds that create an imaginary space, a mental movie that fills the listener’s head. But while my music movies used one long take, Limpid as the Solitudes practices quick edits, jump-cuts, and sudden changes of setting. That may sound jarring or disorienting, but the masterful random-but-its-really-not placement of the sounds unexpectedly soothes. It’s like our thoughts, falling from one memory to another, haphazard but oddly reassuring.

The album’s press release mentions film as an inspiration, naming Chungking Express, Tarkovsky’s The Sacrifice, and Antonioni ’s The Passenger (by the way, those latter two films each feature a famously long shot as opposed to quick cuts). Brion Gysin and his book The Third Mind (co-written with a William S. Burroughs) are also name-checked. The Third Mind offers that when two people collaborate they create a third presence, a creative partner that didn’t exist before. Its reference is probably not just pointing to the duo of Atkinson and Cantu-Ledesma, but also to what’s summoned by the combination of disparate sounds. The ‘third mind’ is also evoked in the manipulation of communication, including sound, visuals, and the written word. It’s important to note that Gysin saw a hidden truth resulting from these mash-ups in words and art. The occasional addition of Atkinson’s whispered, often unintelligible, voice anchors the collage in this human language.

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Back to memory, these ‘cut-ups’ (as Gysin called them) might resemble the processes of our brains. One memory leads to another, leading to another, leading to another until we have no idea where it started. There’s an inspirational chain leading us on, with the intersections as blurry barriers hiding how the combinations connect. To me, that’s the sound of this album.

In an interview, Félicia Atkinson says, ”I want to make music that makes people dance, but in their dreams, or in a state of slow moving.” Last night I listened to Limpid as the Solitudes in bed, with headphones, and quickly fell into that slow-moving dream dance. The uninitiated may think this album is too filled with distractions or too experimental in appearance to be ’sleeping music,’ but I found it calm and comforting. It felt like an inventory of someone else’s thoughts while putting my own aside. That’s an acceptable description of a dream if I’ve ever heard one.

Listen now to Limpid as the Solitudes on Bandcamp or all the other places.

Categories // Media Tags // Ambient Music, Andrei Tarkovsky, Brion Gysin, Experimental Music, Music Recommendations, William S. Burroughs

The Best of Music to Check Out

12.13.2018 by M Donaldson // 1 Comment

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How have end-of-the-year album lists changed since the advent of streaming? I think they’re entirely different, both in how the lists are compiled and how we, as music listeners, read them.

‘Best Of’ lists weren’t as freewheeling as they are now. There was pressure for the publication and its critics to have selections in the top slots that were familiar to the reader, even if just casually. And it seemed that lists were limited to a top 10 or 20 — 25 if we’re feeling crazy. After all, these were suggestions of music you should buy. Previewing these releases, if you were so bold, meant taking the list to the record store and asking the person at the counter to play a little bit off each record. You’re out of luck if there aren’t any open in-store play copies.

These lists are no longer meant as suggestions for purchasing — it’s music to check out. Fire up your favorite streaming service and take the top ten for a stroll. Or, if you’re feeling ambitious, sample the entire list. But that can take a while as today’s end-of-the-year album lists can go to 100.

The differences don’t stop there. While the pre-internet year-end music lists in Rolling Stone or The Village Voice included selections that generally spanned all genres, online publications offer specialized options. It’s curation, in a sense — find the site or blog whose taste you trust, and that’s the ‘Best of’ list meant for you. And these specialist sites (and even more general music sites) have no attachment to keeping things safe and familiar — it’s not rare when an album you haven’t heard of occupies the number one slot.

I’d argue that, in most cases, these are no longer ‘Best Of’ lists, but they’re more like playlists. That is, playlists of albums rather than songs (though there are ‘best song’ lists, too), curated by the taste that guides a blog or a site’s editorial staff. A top ten has always been subjective, sure, but now we’re talking about albums that we should sample, not purchase with hard-earned money. In a way, this makes these lists less subjective. “These are the albums that we enjoyed this year and, if you like our site, perhaps you will, too.” The difference is listener investment, and, though there are also some negatives to that (which we may discuss someday), it does inspire risk-taking.

I’m not saying the critic doesn’t believe his or her #1 album is the best of the year. But I do feel the path to making that choice and the other choices that populate the rest of the list are less determined, less rigid. And I’m happy with that.

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I’ll be sampling a handful of ‘end-of-the-year’ lists over the next several weeks. It’s a December tradition. I’ve picked my favorite lists, and I’m going through them, giving each album at least a three-songs-chance before I decide “yay” or “nay.” I’ll make a note of the ones I like the most and will go back to them later for repeated listens.

This last part is essential. One significant difference in charts then and now is that if you purchased the #1 album, it had better be good. You lived with it for weeks and got to know the album, sometimes even if you weren’t crazy about it. That’s the attachment of investment that streaming doesn’t offer. As music fans, we now have to be intentional in our listening. Streaming is nothing more than a tool for access, but it encourages a casualness by nature. The majority of music listeners have always listened to music casually, so there’s nothing lost there. But if we’re die-hard music fans, it’s necessary to be aware and vigilant in our habits as streaming users.

OK, here are the ‘end-of-the-year’ lists I’m listening through:

  • Quietus Albums Of The Year 2018 — My favorite list. It’s an assorted hodge-podge of all things leftfield.
  • Resident Advisor: 2018’s Best Albums — These are mainly electronic selections. I’m always impressed by Resident Advisor’s album review team. You might think it’s all club music, but it’s much more eclectic than that.
  • A Closer Listen: 2018 Top 10 Ambient — Here’s an old-fashioned top 10, focused on excellent ambient releases you probably haven’t heard.
  • The Vinyl Factory: Our Favorite 50 Albums of 2018 — Another fantastic editorial team. Note that these selections are presented as ‘favorites,’ not the ‘best.’

Once I’ve exhausted those (unlikely, as it’s a lot!) then I may explore what I haven’t listened to in the more general lists, such as Pitchfork’s The 50 Best Albums of 2018 and The Best Electronic Music of 2018, and NPR’s Best Music of 2018.

Happy hunting! I’d be curious to know your go-to end-of-year lists … and your #1 album picks.

Categories // Commentary Tags // Curation, Music Recommendations, Streaming

Hash Brown No Filter

12.08.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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That’s an actual photo of this morning’s sunrise. For reals. As Kimmy Schmidt says, “Hash brown: no filter.”

I soft-launched the new blog today — which means I let my ‘friends’ know about it on Facebook — with an expanded version of yesterday’s tribute to Pete Shelley. The reaction so far is positive. David even thinks I’ve got a “good blog name.”

I was posting mini-blog posts on Instagram (or, ‘status updates,’ as I was calling them, inspired by Warren Ellis’s experiment) to get warmed up for the daily blogging routine, which I’ll explain tomorrow. Once I get going here I’ll probably stop the Instagram posts — or maybe not? This is a work in progress, and I’m happy to change it day-to-day.

We watched Hereditary. That’s a crazy movie. Crazy good, too. Terrific score by Colin Stetson. I like how its nuttiness is on a slow simmer for most of the movie, and then in the last fifteen minutes the nuttiness pot boils over and messes up the stovetop. It reminds me a lot of Kill List, a movie you should see if you haven’t (and, like Hereditary, best watched without knowing anything about it). Am I the only one who thinks the hidden subtext of Hereditary is a warning about the dangers of smoking bowls in high school?

I got the notion to watch Hereditary because Terry Grant AKA More Ghost Than Man created a Spotify playlist of his favorite modern film score selections. It’s a fantastic listen, from top to bottom:

Here’s a paragraph I like from the article Twenty-Five Years After His Death, Frank Zappa Lives On in Playboy (insert ‘reading it for the articles’ joke here):

Zappa always flirted with Modernist string music, but he really married the form in 1983 with the release of London Symphony Orchestra, Vol. I, his fourth project to employ an orchestra. The album inspired revolutionary recording and editing techniques to take on an orchestra, but when asked if he expected to make any money off the concerts and tapes he flatly said no. “Why then do you do it?” a TV reporter asked him at the time. “I came here to spend money on an English orchestra to record my music so I can take it home and I can listen to it. And if somebody else likes that kind of stuff I will make it available on a record so that they can hear it,” Zappa replied.

I’m not the biggest Frank Zappa fan (his appearance on Crossfire is my favorite work of his), but I have loads of respect for the sentiment of making the music you want to hear, and if someone else comes along who’s into it then bonus time.

I’m obsessing over the look of this blog. That’s what I’ll be doing most of the weekend — working on a blog. The theme is called Alia, and the developer has been a sweetheart, kindly answering my constant questions with helpful nuggets of CSS code. I think this place is looking pretty good so far.

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Film Scores, Frank Zappa, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations

Unhelpful Minimalism

12.06.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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Stepped outside yesterday afternoon and happened to look toward the easterly sky, and caught the tail end of a SpaceX rocket as it left the atmosphere. We’ve got a great, unobstructed view of Cape Canaveral launches from our house, even though we’re just under 60 miles away. The sky was cloudless, so I wish I had seen it from the beginning. Is there any way to receive alerts for impending rocket launches from the Cape? There are a couple of iPhone apps I’ve tried that supposedly do this, but they don’t work — no notifications received yesterday.⁣⁣⁣ (Dec. 18 Update: the iOS app LaunchTime did send a notification an hour before today’s aborted launch.)

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Read a fine profile on Phillip Glass in the Washington Post, titled If You Think You Know Who Philip Glass Is, You Probably Don’t. ⁣⁣⁣From that article:

Glass also addresses the fallacy that all he does is play the same chords over and over. Certainly the language he developed, unhelpfully labeled ‘minimalism,’ involved subtle variations of similar patterns. But, “It never repeated all the time,” Glass writes in his memoir, “for if it had, it would have been unlistenable.” The chords are constantly shifting and changing; that’s the point. ⁣

Some amusement here at the label of minimalism as ‘unhelpful,’ as most approach the categorization head-on.⁣⁣⁣
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Last night we watched the documentary McQueen (streaming on Amazon Prime): fascinating, heartbreaking.⁣⁣ I learn a lot from documentaries about creative people who I previously knew nothing about.

Watch on YouTube

I’ve started slowly working my way (and it will be slow) through Quietus’s ‘Albums of the Year’ list, a yearly tradition. I’m at 100 and enjoying the album Lekhfa by Maryam Saleh, Maurice Louca and Tamer Abu Ghazaleh … we’re off to a good start. (UPDATE: now I’m on to 99, the latest Simian Mobile Disco album, which a treat as well.)⁣⁣⁣⁣

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Minimalism, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, SpaceX

What Am I Doing Now? (June 2018 Recap)

08.01.2018 by M Donaldson // 1 Comment

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  • This month’s theme was motivation, or how to get it back or track. After weeks of eye complaints and restraints, and back-to-back travel from Nashville to Edinburgh, it was a challenge to rediscover my productivity mojo. I spent way too much time rearranging my Omnifocus set-up, thinking about morning routines, and optimizing for capturing a deep work mindset. The first couple weeks felt like slo-mo, a lot of running in place, not getting much accomplished. Of course, the secret is to dive in — perfect Omnifocus set-up be damned — and start. I’m finally at a solid daily clip, which is good as I’ve decided on some ambitious goals over the next few months.
  • Related to my motivation pit, current events (especially here in the US) have me down. I know I’m not alone in how this affects the work mood. Some of my peers talk about moving to another country, but I think a better solution is to create my own (mental) country. Distance me from the news, outside influences, current events — build a creative utopia of my mind. Focus on making things to make the world better. I can’t do my best work and be helpful if I’m curled up in a ball worrying about the state of things. I had already done this to a degree (this article by Ryan Holiday is an inspiration) but there was some leakage, especially from Twitter. David Moldawer says Twitter turned his phone into a ‘depression machine’ and I can relate. Though I’m not leaving social media (but tempted, see Jaron Lanier), I’ve decided to treat it as a one-way street. I’m posting, but I’m not reading. If you @ me, I’ll look and probably reply, but that’s as far as my interaction goes. And no more social media apps on my phone or tablet. Not in my country.
  • On the other hand, I’ve rediscovered Day One and Pocket and have enrolled in the subscription plans offered by both. Pocket has added highlighting on mobile devices (please add this to the browser version soon!) which makes noting and cataloging sections of interest in articles a breeze. Then I can shoot those articles into Day One, add the highlighted text and appropriate tags, and I’ve got fodder for blog posts or future reference material. I’ve also started journaling daily in Day One as paper journaling was a personal bust. I really wanted to make a paper journal work, but I find more inspiration in an electronic platform (and I start each entry with a photograph of that morning’s sunrise over our lake, which motivates) and writing by hand only reminds me how awful my handwriting is. Even I have problems deciphering my scrawl. I’m happy with this set-up, and am even moving my digital commonplace book out of DEVONthink and into Day One (no slight intended on DEVONthink … it’s a terrific Evernote alternative that I’ll use primarily for business purposes here on out).
  • The Timucua Arts Foundation and its White House concert venue are Orlando treasures, and I wish your town had them, too. Combine with local arts collective Civic Minded 5 and our city is regularly treated to mind-expanding music in a beautiful live setting. The Hans-Joachim Roedelius and Zeena Parkins performances were recent, legendary treats — and this month brought the Paal Nilssen-Love Large Unit all the way from Scandinavia to deliver an incredibly intense set of explorer jazz. The stage at the White House is small and intimate, which made this unit seem larger than it already was: two drummers (creating a lovely stereo field), two bass players (alternating between stand-up and electric bass), an accordionist, a brass section that included tuba, trumpet, trombone, and three saxophones (with occasional switches to clarinet and flute), a guitarist (percussive, noisy, great), and an electronics/laptop dude who stepped in front to manically conduct the band at one point. It was as impressive as it sounds. Any time there’s a Civic Minded 5 promoted show at the Timucua White House, it’s a mandatory event.
  • I reconnected with Dave Tomaselli, whose Statra label I used to promote at 8DPromo. He’s now working with Paperchain, a technology company worth checking out. There’s a promise in their model of tracking and advancing royalties, and I’m even more intrigued by an imagined future of automated royalty calculation and payout to artists, creating a solution for labels that are allergic to and unreliable with accounting (which is like 98% of them).
  • My client Buddhist Army released the vinyl 12” version of Arthur Landing’s Spring Collection EP this month and it’s making some waves. Gilles Peterson played a track on his 6Music show, and Test Pressing published a quick interview with Arthur’s Landing founder Steven Hall.
  • What I Read This Month:

    Rework

  • What I Watched This Month:

    Bombshell: The Hedy Lamar Story
    Logan
    Silence
    Dunkirk
    A Quiet Place
    The Terror

  • What I Listened To This Month:

    IF Music Presents You Need This: An Introduction To Black Saint & Soul Note
    Arp – Zebra
    King Tubby & Prince Jammy – Ghetto Dub
    Kamasi Washington – Heaven & Earth
    Agitation Free – 2nd
    SQÜRL – Paterson (Original Score)
    Alessandro Cortini – AVANTI
    Melody’s Echo Chamber – Bon Voyage
    Skee Mask – Compro
    Technicolor Paradise: Rhum Rhapsodies & Other Exotic Delights

  • A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:

    Poppinuts 001 – Eno
    Synthedelia: Psychedelic Electronic Music in the 1960s
    Djs Having Assistants Picking Tracks For Them Is A Dangerous Move
    Inside Vaporwave’s Floppy Disk Micro-Boom
    How Did A Major Label Manage To Lose A John Coltrane Record?
    A Brief History Of Our Addiction To Loudness
    Detroit is Techno City, and Techno is Black
    Robert Fripp’s Frippertronics Explained
    Speak & Spell: The Toy That Talked Back
    Legendary Experimental Composer Jon Hassell Is Still Dreaming Up New Worlds
    The Futuro House: Spaceship Living On Earth
    The Legacy of Conny Plank
    Has 2018 Killed The Pop Star?
    How Headphones Changed the World
    Remembering The Engineer Who Created Rock’s Unmistakable Fuzz
    Why No One Answers Their Phone Anymore
    How David Bowie Invented Ziggy Stardust
    No Hope, No Fear: Industrial Music In Zagreb

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Buddhist Army, David Moldawer, Jaron Lanier, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, now, Ryan Holiday

What Am I Doing Now? (May 2018 Recap)

06.01.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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  • Continuing the story from last month, I spent the early part of May nursing my wounded eyeballs and anticipating a new pair of contacts to help correct my keratoconus. For the past several years I’ve used hybrid lenses for my special vision needs, which were prescribed early in their development. My new eye doctor (who is fantastic btw) recommended a more recent contacts tech, these intimidating scleral lenses. I say intimidating as they are much larger than my hybrids, and they are hard enough to tap on (while the hybrids were mainly floppy, only hard in the center). The first few days with the scleral lenses were hell as my right eye was still somewhat injured and not happy about this unfamiliar lens. Lots of pain in the first 48 hours or so. And removing the contacts with a mini-plunger was a whole new thing for me — I could use my fingers to take out the old contacts — and that took a bit of getting used to. But I am pleased to say that after a few weeks of trial and (lots of) error I am on board with the sclerals. They are comfortable, and I believe I’m getting better, clearer vision than before. The eye saga continues.
  • Good thing I got the eye issues worked out as in the second week of the month I was off to the MusicBiz 2018 conference in Nashville. This is probably my favorite industry conference, partly because it’s amicable and casual, and partly as it’s in the always fun city of Nashville. I took in a lot of panels, with Monday’s offerings being the highlights — the ‘Legal Summit’ panels were all educational, and the new ‘Podcasting Summit’ panels, hosted by Jim Griffin (my favorite panel moderator), were excellent. The issues of music licensing in podcasts were covered in depth, and I appreciated the dive into the weeds. I hung out a bit with Craig from ReverbNation and Mike D. from Chicken Ranch Records (who I’ve known since my stint in college radio when I was like 19) and caught up with longtime friends/Nashville residents Jamie Blaine and Terry Grant. I also floated around some new ideas as to where I’m taking 8D Industries, and everyone I used as a sounding board was receptive and encouraging. Stay tuned.
  • As I’m getting ready to leave for the airport Mike D. asks, “do you have time for a drink with Tyler Mahon Coe?” Thus, on my way out of Nashville, we stop at a local dive bar and have a great conversation with Tyler, who hosts the brilliant Cocaine & Rhinestones podcast (as well as the hilarious Your Favorite Band Sucks podcast). I wrote about Cocaine & Rhinestones in last month’s entry, and Tyler’s show helped me get through the worst days and nights of eye trauma. It was cool to be able to let Tyler know this in person and to relate my podcast-inspired experience listening to Neil Young’s On The Beach for the first time. Tyler was as knowledgeable and cool to talk to in person as you might imagine. I’ll continue to follow his work, and he’s planning some exciting things.
  • I’m only home from Nashville for three days, and then I’m off to Scotland. This was a long-planned vacation with my spouse and my mother, to be tourists and explore the history of the Scottish east coast. My mother has ancestors from the region (and, of course, so do I), so she was interested in seeing it all. We had a fantastic time — I recommend Rosslyn Chapel and Sir Walter Scott’s house if you’re visiting and want some history. I also had time to find my old friends Jaco (Jaco & Co) and Iain (Funky Transport). It’s been too many years since I’ve spent time in Scotland, and this vacation inspired me to plan regular visits once again. My favorite home away from home.
  • What I Read This Month:

    Thinking Fast and Slow

  • What I Watched This Month:

    Nostalghia
    A Man Escaped
    The Wages of Fear
    Borg Vs McEnroe
    The Farthest: Voyager In Space
    Dying To Know: Ram Das & Timothy Leary
    Magnus

  • What I Listened To This Month:

    Cluster – Qua
    Brian Eno – Music For Installations
    Mary Lattimore – Hundreds of Days
    Deutsche Elektronische Musik

  • A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:

    Questlove’s “Creative Quest” talk at Google
    When America’s Hottest Jazz Stars Were Sent To Cool Cold-War Tensions
    Pirate Radio Stations Explode on YouTube
    How The Kent State Massacre Helped Give Birth To Punk Rock
    Ornette Coleman – The Atlantic Years
    My Dad Painted The Iconic Cover For Jethro Tull’s ‘Aqualung,’ And It’s Haunted Him Ever Since
    Yuri Suzuki’s Musical Appliances Are Designed To Enhance Your Mood
    Glenn Branca: Punk Composer Who Turned Minimalism Maximal
    Elliott Sharp Remembers Glenn Branca

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Book Recommendations, Keratoconus, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, MusicBiz, Nashville, now, Podcast, Scotland

What Am I Doing Now? (March 2018 Recap)

04.01.2018 by M Donaldson // Leave a Comment

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  • I started testing a new music marketing consultancy package that I plan to unveil next month. The process in a nutshell: I interview the client and audit his or her online assets and overall presentation. I create a report with my initial insights and recommendations, and we get on a call to discuss and brainstorm. I follow this conversation with an expanded, final version of the report containing actionable tasks that the client can immediately implement. We then have a limited email exchange to go over any questions about my recommendations, and I’ll follow-up a month later to check on progress. The client is also welcome to schedule regular brainstorm sessions and audits to keep the process going. The goal is to set the client up for the next stage in his or her music career, whether it’s for an upcoming release, a tour, or just a professional ‘polish’ to become more attractive to the likes of record labels, promoters, or managers. I can work this magic for recording artists or labels — or both, as was the case with the first client to go through this procedure, the talented techno producer Deepak Sharma of Hidden Recordings. I’m excited for what this will bring and the people I’ll be meeting and advising.
  • Two new releases I’m assisting with that you should check out: Arthur’s Landing – Spring Collection EP on Buddhist Army; and More Ghost Than Man – The Courage To Lie To A Dying Man on Westerns With The Sound Off. Also, we’ve received vinyl copies of Nirosta Steel’s The Dry Ice Remixes (featuring remixes by Sleazy McQueen), and these should be hitting the cool record stores at the very beginning of May.
  • I’m always testing new systems to improve daily productivity. This month I’m trying out Cal Newport’s Daily and Weekly time-blocking scheme. In the past, I attempted time-blocking using a calendar app but found this to be too rigid. For example, there was no room to extend a task ‘on-the-fly’ for a few more minutes when nearly finished, and it was difficult to change a schedule if confronted with the unexpected. These issues, combined with nagging calendar alerts, stressed me out more than increasing effectiveness. Newport’s system allows some ‘float,’ is refreshingly paper-based, and it’s easy to rearrange the calendar if things get out of whack. I also like the idea of a Weekly Plan reminder in my email inbox. It’s become a game to have that reminder email be the only thing in the inbox at the end of the day. The early results are encouraging and, if it continues to work, I’ll do a blog post about this and the rest of my productivity system.
  • Great discovery: Kanopy. If you’ve got a local library card (and you should), then chances are you will be able to access this streaming movie service for free. You’re limited to five movies a month, and the selection is strong, including more than a few Criterion classics (French New Wave, Italian Neorealism, those samurai movies I love …) and recent independent offerings.
  • What I Read This Month:

    Genghis Khan and the Making of the Modern World
    Steal Like an Artist: 10 Things Nobody Told You About Being Creative
    Wait But Why: The Elon Musk Post Series (which is basically a book)

  • What I Watched This Month:

    Kim Dotcom: Caught in the Web
    Wild Wild Country
    SHOT! The Psycho-Spiritual Mantra of Rock
    Journey To Italy
    and @garydvisualz took me to my first 3D blockbuster, Ready Player One

  • What I Listened To This Month:

    Gwenno – Le Kov
    Ryuichi Sakamoto & Alva Noto – Glass
    Mariah – Utakata No Hibi
    Kenneth James Gibson – In The Fields Of Nothing
    The wonderful ‘long’ versinon of Wire’s “Outdoor Miner”

  • A Few Other Things I Enjoyed This Month:

    Anil Dash on what it’s like to be a ‘non-celebrity’ with 500,000+ Twitter followers
    An interview with the mayor of the curious, Orwerllian town of Scarfolk, UK
    Planet Earth as described in the 116 photos aboard the Voyager spacecraft
    This video of Brian Eno getting giddy over his Ultra-Harmonizer in 1994
    Ten moments in the history of Cocteau Twins … some which were new to this longtime fan
    That time Sterling Morrison left the Velvet Underground for an academic life in Texas

Categories // From The Notebook Tags // Book Recommendations, Buddhist Army, More Ghost Than Man, Movie Recommendations, Music Recommendations, now, Productivity

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8sided.blog is an online admiration of modernist sound and niche culture. We believe in the inherent optimism of creating art as a form of resistance and aim to broadcast those who experiment not just in name but also through action.

It's also the online home of Michael Donaldson, a curious fellow trying his best within the limits of his time. He once competed under the name Q-Burns Abstract Message and was the widely disputed king of sandcastles until his voluntary exile from the music industry.

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