NMScene

Oscillation 2008 came to a close this weekend, and left me with the usual feeling of some postpartum depression that usually comes with doing something huge and then seeing it finish up. While this was the most challenging Oscillation in years, it was also my favorite, I’d have to say.

I arrived at the Cell Theatre around 1 on friday, along with Markus, our sound master. I had already been to two Walmarts earlier, and been loading gear out into my car for the whole morning. Upon getting into the Cell, I found that we had a stage, but it was too long and shallow to accommodate what we do - so I had to bug the Cell’s stage man, Jared, to add another riser on. Then it was onto the sound load-in, which was not as magnanimous this year as it was last, but still a lot of gear. We were finally throwing speakers and cable up around 3pm or so, and then dealing with the usual, “Where is that AC hum coming from?” and “Is this cable broken?” issues that always happen when you’re busy like this.

Sound got set up nicely, our plasma screens went up for visuals, Basement Films set up shop to broadcast propaganda, and we were rolling. The night opened with Chem.Star, whose set I actually missed entirely, because I was dealing with many other things (as is par for the course with this production). As the night went on, things went well, but I’ve never seen so many tech issues back to back to back - sound issues, cables lost or forgotten, mics that wouldn’t work, all manner of things - and we ended up about 20 minutes behind schedule. Luckily things got back to where they should later in the night, and the Diverje set went well. The Echoing Green closed the night with a PHENOMENAL set, it is a real pleasure to have them out playing.

After friday’s end, Kenny and I went to the Agency to check out the DJ sets going down, and even at 1:45am, were pleased to find a HUGE crowd at the Agency. Things were going off, people were having fun, and it was going quite well. I spent some time there, and didn’t get into bed until around 4am - so, I slept about three hours.

Woke up saturday morning and had to go to three Radio Shacks and one Walmart to pick up the gear needed for our circuit bending and contact mic workshops, as well as a charger for my phone, as I couldn’t find mine, and my phone was dead. Not good when you’re the Director of a festival, and likely to get calls all day.

I finally got to the Agency at about 11:30, meeting Kenny and Jim of 512 software, and began the setup of tables, sound, projector and etc. for the workshops. The workshops were great, lightly attended, but seriously awesome. A group of people got to make their own Contact Mic instruments with Raven Chacon, and then got a look at Circuit Bending (which was great, nothing like glitching out a speak n’ spell), and finally everyone got a look at Numerology by 512.

I was near to passing out by the end of these workshops, so I was forced to get something to eat and sit down for a few at The Cell. Luckily, everything was already set up from the previous night.

Saturday started off much better, with an awesome set by Mala In Se - it sounded so good I thought a CD was playing at first - a testament to Markus and this awesome band. Geoff’s guitar added some wonderful range to Mala’s sound, and with some Drums and Steve’s Keyboards, this was one of my favorite acts of the night. Things progressed well, and on time, from there. I didn’t get to see everyone, but I did catch Tripping Dogs, Kenny’s Industrial act from over 15 years ago - this was the most amazing set of the night. True, old-school industrial sound, Guitars, noise, and a drum machine, and two guys dressed up in military Regalia and masks kicking ass. I cannot tell you how great this was.

The night closed up with Vertigo Venus (and one of our best sets yet), and the venerable Industrial powerhouse The Strand from Arizona - closing things off right. The house was packed, the room was hot as hell from everyone, and the energy was great. I could not have asked for more.

We loaded out sound and everything else, and finished around 3:30am. Not too bad, for a giant production such as this.

Inbetween sets, Keif from Basement Films dropped some knowledge on the crowd with obscure film on 16mm and educational bits on music. It was wonderful. Truly something I liked adding to the festival.

Dr. Thunder (Trace) dropped awesome visuals all night, with some lovely content he worked up for the bands. He has a very good future in visuals for himself, I have to say.

DJs Verablue and Xibabalola dropped old and new school industrial inbetween, keeping the heads interested.

Nancy of Burlesque Noir and Krissy kicked ass stage managing, keeping things on time. Thank you!

Kentifyr MC’d the whole event and actually got to see bands, for once. You my friend are a lovely person - thank you for your Kind words to Kenny and Myself, and for doing all you do.

Bethany watched merch, and kicked ass on that. We had a lot of volunteers who ruled their jobs as well, especially my lovely GF Molly on door and the lovely Rachill, without whom our door would not have been as solid as it was.

Thank you to Adam of Spork Films, Adric for taking pictures and promoting, Betty for promoting like crazy, Sparky, Jess, Sara, Geoff, Jason (Alphawolf), Jason Wolf, all the bands, DJS, all the volunteers, and anyone I am forgetting. Without you, we could not have made this happen.

I’m probably still forgetting a lot, but I have to say; this Oscillation was the best yet. It had the most challenges, whether is was dealing with drama due to our website, or losing people scheduled to do things, etc. - but it came together and went off. We made it happen no matter what, and it was due to the fact that so many people helped make it happen. The Agency, The Cell, and all our friends, thank you! We got out nearly 5,000 flyers in less than a month, and the promotion went off - we didn’t even have a very big spread in the Alibi, or any other publication, this time - but it proved that you just have to be persistent and say, “This is going to go off, dammit”.

There’s a lot of photos, video, and such out there, so we’re not done yet. I think I want to take some of Oscillation (with the blessing of those involved) in the direction of being slightly more educational - the Workshops showed me that there are people interested in learning what this music is, and how it actually has shaped much of the world they see. I think that I could do some great things with more workshops inbetween, and work that into Oscillation over the years.

Wow, I just said years. Well, what can I say? We have a hard time giving up on anything… it’s why, no matter what, I still love so much of what I have here in New Mexico.

FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

September 12, 2008
THE OSCILLATION ELECTRONIC MUSIC FESTIVAL ENTERS ITS EIGHTH YEAR!
(ALBUQUERQUE, NM) Fwank!Productions, Ohmni, Dark Beat Productions, www.Burque.info, Grandma’s Music, Music   Go Round, Five12 software, Basement Films, The Agency, The Cell Theatre and DSBP Records are pleased to announce the eighth annual Oscillation Electronic Music Festival.  The Festival will take place over three days, October 10-12th, at two Albuquerque Venues; The Cell Theatre (700 1st st. NW), and The Agency (111 4th st. SW).  Oscillation is the longest running festival of it’s kind in New Mexico.

Showcasing virtually every genre and sub-genre of electronic music and the bands and musicians who make it, this year’s Oscillation is sure to be the best yet, with a diverse Talent lineup of live music at The Cell Theatre October 10th and 11th, featuring:

The Strand (Industrial music from Chandler, AZ), The Echoing Green (the very popular nationally known Synthpop act who calls Albuquerque home), Leiahdorus, The Booty Green, Raine Vivian, Vertigo Venus, Diverje, Audiobuddha, Luperci, The Late Severa Wires, Mala in Se, The Nanoelement, Amplab, Noir Effect, brian botkiller, Tripping Dogs, Black Guys and Chemstar, as well as DJs Verablue and Xibalbalola.

In addition to the live music, DJs will be hosted at The Agency following the live music on October 10th and 11th, and 12th. Some of New Mexico’s most talented DJs will be bringing their unique styles for listeners to groove to, including IllKid, Justin O’Brien, Justin George, LevelHeded, Adem Joel and others.

This year’s Oscillation also introduces a new, exciting ingredient - workshops!  Three electronic music workshops will be held at The Agency beginning at noon on Saturday October 11th:

-    Circuit Bending with Ehren: exploring the world of Circuit Bent instruments and sounds, participants are invited to bring a battery operated sound maker of some kind for a chance to learn how to make sounds with a little soldering.  Or just come watch and listen!  Circuit bending is the practice of taking items such as Speak N’ Spells and turning them into tools of sonic creation.
-    Contact Mics with Raven Chacon: Raven Chacon is a multi-talented experimental musician and sound designer, and will be discussing the creation of instruments utilizing contact microphones.
-    Experimental music composition with Numerology Software by Five12, Inc.: Local software company Five12 will be showing off Numerology, their groundbreaking music creation software set to change how music is composed.

Ticket pricing for the festival and its events will be as follows:

-    $25 Full Festival Pass: Admission to Oscillation events at the Cell and The Agency.  By far the best value, this all-inclusive pass gives the festivalgoer the full experience Oscillation has to offer!
-    $15 night pass: $15 passes are good for admission to one night of entertainment at the Cell Theatre.
-    All other events are $5 (Workshops/DJ events at The Agency).

Presale full festival passes will be available online at www.oscillation.info.

All ages are welcome at Oscillation events.  Oscillation is a %100 drug and alcohol free, safe and positive event.

Dr. Thunder and Basement Films will provide visuals both nights at The Cell.  The event will be videotaped by Spork Films, and will broadcast on the Internet at www.oscillation.info via streaming audio and video.  DJ Kentifyr, voted Albuquerque’s best DJ for two years in a row, will host the event.

In addition to the live music and action, Grandma’s Music, Music Go Round and local record label DSBP records will be giving away software, music, and more over the course of both nights.

Because lineups are subject to change, the Promoters encourage those interested to visit www.oscillation.info for full and up to date information.  We look forward to seeing you for our eighth year of Sonic Independence!

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On Friday I made it out to Hunab Hookah for a little bit to catch some of The Acids and Basses electro jam, with guest F/M from Santa Fe.  Trippy, Ambient and experimental, quite enjoyable to just sit back and listen to.  F/M consisted of two technicians, Martin Back and Frank Rolla, a lute, two macbooks and a contraption which I will name the “random paddle”, a large standing instrument with many wooden paddles jutting from it, and small motors which randomly would cause a hammer mallet to play one of these paddles.  Think Japanese ambient, with some folk rock intertwined.  Acids and Basses, making use of 512 Software’s (located right here in Albuquerque) Audio Sequencing software, Numerology, makes ambient soundscapes great for film or just cooling out to.  It’s that kind of music that you don’t hear in your head until you hear it being played, and then you realize it’s always there, you just might not know how to channel it out.  An enjoyable night, followed by one sad bit of news; it is my understanding that Hunab Hookah will be closing at the end of July.  I never got to spend too much time at Hunab outside of Throwing Spark_Gap there for awhile, but I did enjoy the place when I was there.  It’s very hard to make a Hookah Lounge last in Albuquerque, I would imagine.

Then, last night, I re-opened Spark_Gap at The Agency, with the intention of continuing its tradition of live electronic jamming and IDM.  Well, it was half there.  We opened the night with a set by I Heart Teo ,  A young DJ from L.A. who has made his way out here, who dropped an hour set of heavy electro, and did very litterally blow me away. Myself and Clint had set up our rigs on stage, and were waiting for some of the other players to come, which unfortunately didn’t happen - and so Spark_gap turned essentially into an hour and a half long set from myself with backup by Clint.  It was fun, but it wasn’t what I had planned.  I had to have something to give people who came out (about 11 of them, including the ever vigilant Adric, to whom I am eternally grateful), so I thought that it made the most sense to just throw a set.  There was a little jumping around, which was good, but it certainly wasn’t an improv electro night.

So, what would I do differently?  Well, I think I won’t have a stage next time.  I don’t think it’s fitting for spark_gap to have a tall stage, unless I have some featured artists - which is the other thing I’ll do differently.  I don’t think I can keep the improv jam thing going right now.  If I can’t get a consistent number of players out to play (and I’m totally understanding of that, Saturday is also not a good night for something like this), I can’t really do an open jam.  So, I think I plan to have one DJ, one featured act, and perhaps anyone who wants to jam, in the next Spark_gap, and play it up as a dance party with some improv jamming.  I’ll have to see how it all plays out, I’m still learning with this thing, but I want to keep it going.

I also have to say thanks to Trace for coming out and throwing visuals for the night.  He very literally helped me to make the night 100% better.  Without visuals I really would have felt deeply failed at this outing, but having the bouncing lights on the giant white wall of The Agency really helped out.  Seriously man, thank you.

So, that, as they say, is that.  I wasn’t entirely happy with last night, I will say that, but the moral of the story is to look at what you’re doing and figure out what you need to do differently.  I’m seeing some of that, so I’m going to work on it, and as with anything, I’m going to take whatever help I can get for it, because I simply can’t do all this stuff on my own.

I just got back from the Agency’s Record Swap, and I had a lot of fun at it. It was nice to walk in and see quite a few people at tables with their big boxes and stacks of vinyl set up, as well as record players, books, and various other wares for sale. Raven Chacon of SickSickSick distribution was there, with his mass of noise and experimental music in tow, as well as my friend Adric and his many boxes of vinyl. I walked away with about 15 new records, and I know I need to go down there next time with my own stuff to sell.

Which, speaking of which, this is a great venue for bands to come sell their music. Because it’s not the flea market, people are actively searching for music, so your chances of selling are much better. I encourage musicians to consider coming out for the next swap, which will be the 2nd sunday of every month.

Hey everyone,

Spark_gap, the live IDM A/V jam, is moving to a new venue as of July 19th. We will now call The Agency, at 111 4th st. SW in Downtown, our new home.

Spark_gap still invites electronic musicians and visualists of all walks to come showcase their work in an open-jam, improv atmosphere with other like-minded folks. We provide the PA and Projector - you bring the beats, noise, video, laptops, drum machines or whatever else you got, and plug in. Keep an open mind and jam with others, find new music and have fun.

Spark_gap will take place on July 19th at The Agency. Doors are at 8:30pm. Players wishing to perform should plan on showing up at 8pm for load in/etc.

The event is all ages, and is $5. Various beverages (non-alcoholic) will be available.

I ask you sincerely to support this event and the music it promotes. Thank you!

Tickets and info at http://the-agency.org/

What is a SIMULVISION?

Resident house band, Agency E, will be performing the two hour rock opera style show titled “The Governors of War” both Friday May 23rd and Saturday May 24th. Incorporating video projections, computer generated audio, and live musical instruments, “The Governors of War” pushes the boundaries of underground entertainment and culture.
Those attending the highly creative yet unpredictable show should expect the intensity of a rock and roll show along with the experience of watching a movie, well, actually watching two movies played simultaneously.
“A Simulvision gets the viewers thinking about the coincidences in the videos, asking themselves if it was planned or not”, says Jason Wolf of The Agency. “The planned cues and improvisational music passages played by the band synchronize with the projections in exciting ways, giving the show an edgy feel of unpredictability. We are all looking forward to the debut show next weekend at The Agency and invite everyone to join us and check it out.”
History of the Simulvision
The first Simulvision was performed at in San Francisco by an psychedelic/acid rock band, Spork, in late 1998. The Simulvision was an idea pollinated by the like minds of Spork and Jacque of The Werepad, where the Simulvisions were hosted. The popularity of the Simulvisions grew over time, eventually selling out seats and having high profile guests attend such as Chet Helms, father of San Francisco’s “1967 Summer of Love” and founder / manager of Big Brother and the Holding Company.

Simulvision Shows were the place to go to get “underground” style entertainment with a touch of class and sophistication. There were nine Simulvision shows in total before the last performance in 1999.
Future of the Simulvision
Now, almost 10 years later, Agency E (resident house band for The Agency) are bringing the psychedelic happenings of the Simulvision to Albuquerque. This is the first of many SIMULVISION shows The Agency plans on hosting throughout the summer and fall. Calling on friends and guest musicians, Agency E plans on inviting guest musicians to sit in on new shows, adding yet another dynamic of mystery and excitement to each event.

I gotta say, The Stove continually puts it down properly when it does shows here in ABQ. Saturday may 3rd’s show was no exception. The night was the CD release for local ambient/noise master Alan George Ledergerber, and it went off. I arrived a bit late, missing one band, and stepping in in the middle of Alchemical Burn’s set, the one man wall of noise known as Ken Cornell. Ken dropped a unique mix of ambience and heavy noise and percussion that dragged you back and forth between the calm and the storm. Raven Chacon ripped ears off with his barely audible to BLASTING in your face power noise backed up with strobe lights linked to the outcoming sounds, even running into the audience at one point to hand an amplifier to one bewildered attendee. Good times.

I unfortunately don’t know who the next band was - all I do know is they were awesome, comprised of a female organist and two guys on guitar and backing her up on organ, with a drum machine providing rhythms. The whole set had that sort of epic, half saddening, half incredibly energizing sound. They blasted their sounds thru a stack of Peavey amplifiers, building from one rhythm to ten, with organ, two guitars and drums blasting out in harmony. Truly enjoyable.

Finally, AGL took the stage. Alan is known for being a bit raucous on stage; throwing his shoes into the crowd, breaking things; but as he goes along, his sound is always growing, and he’s not just the crazy guy with a broken guitar and some noise. This was Alan’s best set I’ve ever seen; he looped an electric guitar thru a multitude of feedback looped guitar effect pedals, playing notes here and there and then setting the guitar down to tweak knobs - and making sounds you never thought could happen with all of this. Everything from bells reminiscent of Pink Floyd intros to pounding bass drums were coming out of one guitar and it’s stomp-box friends. I am always blown away at what Alan does with such minimal gear - and this wasn’t just noise. There was a certain calm here, blown into smithereens every once in awhile by a pop of noise or Alan ripping a pedal out of the signal chain and tossing it down on the floor. By the end he was down to only a few, and in the middle of an ambient interlude, simply yanked a cable and was done. All we could do was clap - there’s nothing more you can do when you hear something this phenomenal.

As always, the Stove was packed to the gills, with people of all walks of life straining to see what was going on in the many corners of this awesome art space cum music venue. Be on the lookout for music from all of these acts, and for the Stove. This is the music you need to hear, especially if you’re tired of the same old same old that’s infiltrating our ears every day.