📚 Since we’re three-quarters through the year, here’s an update on my reading.

reading now

Labor and Value: Rethinking Marx’s Theory of Exploitation, Ernesto Screpanti*
Hard-boiled Wonderland and The End of The World, Haruki Murakami
Critique of Everyday Life, Henri Lefebvre

finished

The Origin of the Family, Private Property and the State, Frederick Engels*
One Hundred Poems From The Japanese, Kenneth Rexroth
Rebel Girl: My Life as a Feminist Punk, Kathleen Hanna
Big Sur and The Oranges of Hieronymus Bosch, Henry Miller
Francis Bacon (British Artists), Andrew Brighton
Long Day’s Journey Into Night, Eugene O’Neill
Revolution at Point Zero: Housework, Reproduction and Feminist Struggle, Silvia Federici
_Critique _ (first half), Henri Lefebvre
The Power of the People, Václav Havel
Looking After Your Autistic Self, Niamh Garvey
Redefining Black Power, Joanne Griffith*
Socialism… Seriously: A Brief Guide to Human Liberation, Danny Katch*
Ocean of Sound, David Toop
The Captive Mind, Czesław Miłosz

to read

Selected Poems, Federico Garcia Lorca (Tom Verlaine book)
From #BlackLivesMatter to Black Liberation, Keeanga-Yamahtta Taylor
From Marx To Gramsci, Paul Le Blanc

I’m not sure I’ll get to that last one, gonna try. That’d give me eighteen (as I don’t see finishing Critique of Everyday Life this year).

Things are a little hazy right now, at least in terms of musical progress.

The other day, I found out that one of my near field monitors wasn’t working correctly, so I had to send it off for repair. Also, the compressor issue I wrote about in June still exists. So, I’m a bit hamstrung right now. Which is odd, as I’m usually working on music 5-6 days a week. Several almost-finished projects depend on that monitor, and I refuse to start something new until more progress is made on them.

Soooo, the path forward feels about as clear as the one in this photo. Hopefully, in the next couple of weeks, things will be clearer.

Peace.

🎶 Another listening share, from the great Portraits GRM label.

portraitsgrm.bandcamp.com/album/spa…

A compellingly mysterious electroacoustic track by the duo of crys cole and Oren Ambarchi, paired with an improvisatory track of collected samples, also quite interesting by Giuseppe Ielasi.

#electroacoustic #experimental #listening

🎶 I listen to some pretty weird shit, I have to say, and I enjoy it all. :-)

It occurs to me that maybe I should share the joy. Fairly often, I post links to what I’m currently listening to on Mastodon. Now, I’m thinking maybe I should do that here; it’ll show up on Mastodon automagically anyway.

This morning’s listening has been to this gem:

bernhardwoestheinrich.bandcamp.com/album/mat…

Call it experimental electronic with more than a dash of sonic surrealism.

I hope you enjoy it.

#music #experimental #berlin #listening

Yesterday, I opened up one of my compressors in order to replace the lightbulb which lights its VU meter. Sounded simple. :-)

Lacking experience in a simple thing can make that thing lots more complex, or at least fraught with risk. So, I ended up detaching a wire unintentionally and will have to solder it back in place. Also sounds simple, right? But I’ve never soldered anything in my life. Meanwhile, the compressor is down for the count.

Still haven’t replaced that light bulb. 🙄

I’m currently working on two collaborative projects. One’s a bit ahead of the other and should be finished soon, and we’ll have to figure out whether to put it out ourselves or shop it around. The second project is going a bit slower for various reasons. Also, here’s a pic of some gear. :-)

I now have a presence on Subvert, a Bandcamp alternative which launched a couple of days ago.

From a listener / fan standpoint, you may find that it’s about the same. From an artist standpoint though, it’s quite different as it’s a co-op. So, it’s owned by the artists. Bandcamp, sadly, is owned by capitalists. Their most-recent owners fired almost the entire staff. They don’t love music, they’re just in it for the money. A common experience, but not something I’m on board with.

So, I’ll certainly continue to have a presence on Bandcamp, but future releases will also show up on Subvert, as well as another alternative, Mirlo. I’ll slowly fill in my back catalog on those two sites as well. Links to both are on my website.

I released an EP yesterday which is a Subvert exclusive. Take a listen if / when you have the time.

www.subvert.fm/steven-ra…

Continuing my effort to fill out my options in outboard gear, a new compressor arrived yesterday from Golden Age Project. The Comp-2A is an Opto compressor, which are often used to smooth out transients and kind of glue the various elements of your mix together, making it sound more cohesive. I actually used it on Day 1 as part of an effort to add some nice analog warmth to a track that I’ll be releasing as part of an EP at the end of the month.

Thought I’d share a track which I did in January. It was done for the Disquiet Junto, which encourages artists to respond to a simple prompt sent once per month. January’s prompt was to record the sound of ice in a glass, and go from there. When I finished the track, I could no longer discern the sound of ice in a glass, but I liked where the track ended up. I hope you do, too.

For me, it is quiet, contemplative, textural and mysterious.

Also, an image I made which was inspired by the audio.

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