hanging out with audiophiles - hanging out with audiophiles

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HOWA EP 64 - LOCAL NATIVES Feb 10, 2020

Show notes

Welcome to 64. 128 weeks of the pod :)

This time I'm in the company of two fifth of the band local natives.

I had the pleasure of sharing the stage with these 5 fine fellows many moons ago, somewhere in Ireland. A bland, underwhelming festival that we both remember as such.

We had afternoon slots. It was grey. The food was grey. So the contrast of this mini reunion was stark in the most pleasant ways.

Nestled in a secluded sanctuary, up a rambling incline somewhere in sunny LA, I caught up with Ryan and Kelcey.

It was on the 11th day of the 11th month of 2019 at 11 am! Triple 11s.

The chats took in the nature of extended band existence as we explore what it takes to play the long game.

We chat of the mystical album making process in a satisfyingly deep yet jovial fashion and I can see that making music with these guys would be a blast.

Their last album was produced by friend of the pod, Shawn Everett. The master of play, the master of effort over convenience.

It’s a Shawn love fest after a spell and rightfully so.

Hope you enjoy this deeply pleasant hour and a bit I got to share with this fine fraction of the wonderful band that is Local Natives!

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Music for this episode comes from far far away.

It’s songs from an EP called “fishing from an asteroid” by PlaneFace aka Daniel Pliner.

Just amazing work. Such a great grasp of the sound and flow. Damn. I was super impressed by this stuff.

Here’s a link for your listening pleasure:

Fishing from an Asteroid by PlaneFace

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Nitty sees me all clustered up.

I’m armed with a crazy computer and Spitfire audio string sounds up the wazoo

It only seems right to add layers upon layers of notes and scatter them willy nilly into the ether

Clouds of ascending strings.

Yep samplers to the ready

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Kind sponsorship of this episode comes from 2 badass makers in the synth universe 4 m s.

http://4mscompany.com

Makers of modular magic like the spherical wavetable navigator, the bonkers topographic delay, the shifting inverting signal mingler and LOADS LOADS more.

They’ve been at it since 1996. Amazing to have them on the show

Also amazing are the good folks at 1010 music

https://1010music.com

Makers of some delightful machines

Not least the bitbox that I NEED to get my hands on.

When I saw Richard Devine play at the korg booth this year at NAMM 2020, I saw he was using 2 of these bad boys.

You know if Richard’s using them, it’s gotta be sick!

HOWA EP 63 : WENDY MELVOIN Jan 27, 2020

Show notes

We have Royalty on the pod.

Sometimes when I do this show I really have to pinch myself and this was a case in point.

As a teenager I only had one idol and only cared about one band. I ultimately ostracize myself from the vast majority of my schoolmates since nobody in Huntington Cambridgeshire cared about Prince and the Revolution. I just happened to be one of those people that was completely and utterly immersed in that sonic universe. Initially I just couldn’t take my eyes off the bright light of Prince and let’s be honest he was quite the supernova.

The thing is as a fan I couldn’t help but wonder why there was something so different about the output between 1984 - 1987. (Purple rain, around the world in a day, parade and sign of the times)

Why did that era Stand out so wildly from the rest of his work? Why were the arrangements more daring all of a sudden? Why was the sonic landscape more varied and Rich?

Prince could do so much on his own but with the BAND it just went to the blooming next level.

I can truly say that without Wendy I never would’ve dreamt to be a musician myself. I may have gotten into Prince had she not been in the band I suppose but I feel like the incredible chemistry of everyone together was something that I felt all the way across the Atlantic and it sparked my imagination like nothing else.

I never knew Wendy’s story before this chat so I was fascinated to hear her open up about her incredible childhood. You’ll hear how she was surrounded by music on an extremely high level from a very young age and it clearly all went in and it all makes sense now why that beautiful mind she has added so much vibrancy and Colour to all that music. Wendy and Lisa continue to make great records to this day and are always searching and finding ways to express themselves and make thro it in this messed up music business. She wears the crown but she wears it with such grace and you’ll hear just how humble, generous, Funny, friendly and open she is. I’m still finding it hard to believe I met Wendy and had a chance to chat with her in her own studio, but that dreamer from Huntington walked into the room buzzing with anticipation and left with a Cheshire Cat grin.

It gives me great pleasure to welcome to hanging out with audiophiles the incomparable Wendy Melvoin!

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Music for the show comes from MALK

This is an unreleased recordedmade with by Nathanial Morse and his brother, under the name of MALK.

Find out about Mr Morse here:

http://www.efstudio.com.au/about-1

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Nitty sees my cascading. Riding the uppers and the downers. Messing with the fabric of time again. No big deal :)

HOWA EP 62 - TIGA Jan 13, 2020

Show notes

EP 62 - TIGA

Cosmic connection! Me and Tiga were born on the SAME day and the SAME year. PRETTY rare situation I’d say.

Feels right to kick off the 2020 with a little happy coincidence !

Hello by the way.

Who is TIGA? You kidding me?

Well let’s break down the man in a timeline styleee.

- He was born on an amazing day in an amazing year.

- He’s run a record store (I mean for YEARS)

- He’s DJ’d all over planet

- He’s been in a movie with other great Canadians.

- He’s a multi dad and he’s even a pod man like me :)

First off here’s the details about the pod:

“Last Party On Earth” is its name and it was launched in summer 2019 featuring chats with top folks such as

Annie Mac, Pete Tong and Carl Cox

He promises more to come :)

Tiga has made a load of music.

Like 3 LPs and a ton of singles AND he’s remixed just about everyone and their dog!

Here’s a taste of the levels:

LCD Soundsystem – "Beat Connection" (Tiga Edit)
Cabaret Voltaire – "Nag Nag Nag" (Tiga & Zyntherius Radio mix)
Depeche Mode – "Shake The Disease" (Tiga Remix)
Depeche Mode – "Suffer Well" (Tiga Remix)
Pet Shop Boys – "Minimal" (Tiga's M-I-N-I-M-A-L Remix) / (Tiga's M-I-N-I-M-A-L Dub)
The Prodigy – "Thunder" (Tiga Remix)
The xx – "Shelter" (Tiga Remix)
Disclosure - "Magnets (feat. Lorde)" (Tiga Remix)

He even tackled my 2010 single – "I Wanna Be Your Telephone" (Tiga’s Party Like It’s 1990 Remix)

It's rather banging!

Yep

We get into his LUCKY ways, the power of nativity

Minimalism as a lifestyle and a productivity booster

The reasons why we make art!

It’s alll here

Welcome to pod

TIGA

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In the nitty I reimagine note onsets and their relationship in space as delays from one another

That allows me to make a song about time.

Causality in action

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Music from the show comes from Body Copy and a new EP called Spirit Dance:

https://soundcloud.com/BodyCopyMusic

HOWA EP 61 - DAVE SITEK Dec 25, 2019

Show notes

Merry Crimble one and all!

Yo ho ho and so forth as we smoke some peace at Dave's house.

I hope you are all enjoying some down time and it's good hang. If not I call this one the escape pod so hopefully you can relax a little as we get into our hearty end of year ramblathon.

Dave is a legitimate legend at this point. His work speaks for itself. He's produced some heavy shit in his time. TV on the radio anyone? Yeah Yeah Yeahs, Beyonce, Weezer... Liars. The list goes on and on and it's all crazy and plenty magic.

At one point Mr Sitek is chatting about the

Jefferson starship guitarist. so here's a Jorma_Kaukonen link :)

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Jorma_Kaukonen

We get into a lengthy one about the power of boredom, the inevitable struggles with loneliness in 2019/2020 and many a juicy topic.

In the nitty I make EVERYTHING sleigh.

Yep. That's right.

Kind sponsorship comes from Dave's fave monitor folk ADAM AUDIO. makers of rather fine speakers. Dave has 2 pairs.

They are banging.

HOWA EP 60 - BAYNK Dec 09, 2019

Show notes

My son always reminds me that New Zealand is 8000 miles from Nashville. That number is etched in my head now but

What could it MEAN?

Surely being surrounded by that lush and splendid setting growing up must have a huge impact on ones sonic sense?

I feel a ramble coming on!

Yep we meander-chat about the wind, pavlova (important beef. Not beef Pav, the other kind of beef), the promise of 20% sax and the giddy power and cruelty of naivety in the world of Baynk.

I had a good writing hang with him in LA sometime ago and was happy we found a sec to natter.

I realized this chat is showing it’s age now as we had this convo a year ago.

I was curious how things might have matured and settled for Jock in this time. He has kept the releases very controlled and high quality. Well worth a listen!

His “Someone’s EP II” is superb and got a bunch of tasty remixes including one from Machine Drum, my guest on episode 40.

Only a few days ago a new jam hit the webs, an instrumental mellow burn called “High”

Please welcome to the show Baynk!

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Music for today’s show comes from.

Chris Nickolls who makes music under the name 'Kmodo'

'Cold Fusion' is his first release and features Berlin based singer Clara Hill

And you can find his music on/in? The cloud!

Soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/komodo/sets/cold-fusion-ep/s-pfkY8

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Nitty 60 sees me having a good ole sing into the rather superb DUBLER from UK company Vochlea

Here’s the link to their box of tricks:

https://www.vochlea.co.uk

HOWA EP 59- Rodaidh McDonald Nov 25, 2019

Show notes

Welcome Rodaidh McDonald

We met through our mutual pal Bobby Krlic (my guest on EP33) and got a brief chat in. I realized quickly that he’d working on the Sampha record that I really love called Process and I had so many questions. We get into that and oodles more in this face to face hang at Rodaidh’s brand new house in LA. He had literally just got his gear in the place and there were a bunch of boxes and dreams lying around so I was very grateful to be welcomed into that rather vulnerable scene.

He’s a creative force and has a stack of potent collabs under his belt.

To name drop a few:

Adele

Bobby Womack

The xx

Damon Albarn

King Krule

Savages

David Byrne

Brian Eno…

Yeah I mean he’s heavy. It’s clear his calm manner and focused ways clearly help him to see things through to the end. The hallmark of a true producer.

It’s a pleasure to ramble though the timeline with him!

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nitty 59 explores the transformation of the PA mic feedback “issue” into a layer cake of pitchy joy. Tall order!

No more “uh uh” just whip it through some cascades. Watch it spin into space. Something like that

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Music for this show comes from Mason Cos who are an electronic duo based in Denver, Colorado. Originally formed as a Krautrock-leaning live band in Chicago around 2016, Mason Cos then discovered the joys of experimenting with analog synthesizers.

Listen!

https://masoncos.bandcamp.com

EP 58 - MATT BLACK Nov 11, 2019

Show notes

The noise annoys Where would we be without John Peel ? In a time of noise we need selectors! Yeah man. We can all agree on something right? I chat with DJ VJ Label boss Zen Cyber punker Future surfer Matt Black He’s seen a lot. A LOT From making hit records in the UK (One that sat at the number 1 spot for weeks), to remixing Legends like Eric B and Rakim, INXS, Steve Reich, The Fall and James Brown (I mean what a list!)... from mulitmedia pioneering with everything from video art to software video performance instruments to the unknown sky. Matt has had his fingers in many a tasty pie. I was very lucky to catch up with him on the blower for a minute :) we chat about the zen delay which is a great collaboration between ninja tune and Ericasynths. Check this link! ZEN DELAY LAY LAY LAY LAY _____________ Nitty today is all about the mysterious and musical world of the morph. Exploring the space in BETWEEN. I use a few methods to explore this. the obxa's portamento, the emblematic systems "catalyst" which is a eurorack module for crossfading between stored states (in this notes) and lastly I use Ableton with midi faders to achieve similar results. I needed to make a max patch for this which is here: enjoy ! it has a help button :) ABLETON NITTY FADER! _______________ Music for today's show comes from 2 fine artists ! 1) 2 songs from Envelope music. These come from an album called "The Rift" which is a debut collaborative work by West Australian composers Ned Beckley and Josh Hogan. find the album here: https://envelopemusic.bandcamp.com/album/the-rift 2) 2 track by Adam Jay, a experienced techno chap! he's done a lot of banging shit! https://soundcloud.com/adamjay

HOWA EP 57 - RICHARD DEVINE Oct 28, 2019

Show notes

Richard and I go waaaay back.

Yep, we were touring America together back in 2002 and that was the first time I met him.

tWas a warp records tour with Mark Bell (RIP), Nightmares on wax, Prefuse 73, Luke Vibert and other nutters!

He was the guy fixing everyone’s laptops on the bus I recall. We were all busy getting wasted and he was onto something else.

That pretty much explains the man. Super generous with his time and pioneering in his goals and accomplishments. Not a follower.

Indeed, not content with just making LPs, touring and all of that trad life, Richard’s made his own path and now his work represents the high bar for sound design across the board.

Whether working for Google, Yamaha or Jaguar Richard is the guy to figure out converting the unknown into the possible. A no to yes convertor.

We talk about his toughest sonic challenge, the cutting edge of sound tech in 2019 and where he is heading in terms of his AI aspirations.

We chat about the world of sound that lives above 20kHz.

Why analog ??? and a lot more.

He’s a deep mind and this chat gets pretty specific in terms of tools used and so forth.

You’re welcome!

Richard talks about a purely algorithmically generated set of music

Here’s a link:

https://williamfields.bandcamp.com/album/fieldsos

Really something unexpected.

Also That Sanken 100khz mic !

https://bit.ly/32T0j54

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In the nitty today I dive into controlled chaos. Dipping an ankle into the portal!

It’s a lot of eurorack talk. Tricky to explain but I give it a go :)

CHAOS

CONTROL

CHAOS

?? bit of both like …

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Music for today’s show comes from Fake Baby. Check it here!

http://www.andyrivas.com

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Here’s the link to the competition giveaway thanks to Sonarworks!

What you stand to win!!

Speaker measurement software – find out where your monitors need help
DAW plugin – reference sound combined with zero latency for any musical endeavor
Systemwide – apply calibration to all outgoing audio
Measurement microphone for Recording Studios – sniffs out any faults your setup might have
Custom-tailored calibration file for your Sennheiser HD 650 studio headphones
Sennheiser HD 650 studio headphones

Enter now!

https://gleam.io/lroFH/howa-podcast-x-sonarworks-giveaway

HOWA EP 56 - ANDREW HUANG Oct 14, 2019

Show notes

My guest today has been watched by so many people it’s hard to imagine all the eyeballs!

Quite a harrowing image actually.

440 million eye balls!!

Yes, that’s the amount that have viewed his now uber famous and ace youtube channel.

An quick and undeniable word to describe Andrew might be prolific. I mean it FEELS apt since he’s made over 50 albums of original music.

It’s bonkers! The man must never sleep and yet he always looks so well rested! Many mysteries.. so many.

Many questions too.

I mean how to navigate the internet and win?

How are choices are amplified by the web?

How to forge your own path?

He’s a great teacher, formidable visual artist and musician and super positive hang :)

It’s the wild west out there and Andrew has been riding his digital horse into unexplored towns for years now.

He’s been around and seen a lot on his travels

Let’s get into it

Please welcome to hanging out with audiophiles

Andrew Huang

Check his amazing youtube channel :

https://bit.ly/28SFrz8

His 30 day class is underway..

Looks like you can Join a waiting list for next time

https://bit.ly/316oxqM

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In the nitty I get into the rubby universe of the microtone! We just dip a toe in but it’s a trippy toe

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Music for today’s show comes from a man that lives just down the road from me over in Knoxville TN

It’s from Nikki Nair. Keep that electro alive!

Links:

https://soundcloud.com/nikki-nair

https://www.instagram.com/nikki__nair/

ALSO:

I’m selling a bunch of heavy studio gear at an amazing store here in nashville.

Check it out!

https://retrogearshop.com/products

What am I selling?

Vac rac TSL 3

2x Neumann pres (with meter) (220v)

2x Neumann comp (220v)

2x V74 line amp

Kurzweil k250 RMX

Ensoniq mirage (with loads of disks)

Moog theramin etherwave (UK power)

2xUA2100 channel strips

DSI tempest

EP 55 - JOHN CONGLETON Sep 30, 2019

Show notes

A man who I’ve heard of many times and yet never had a chance to meet.

Gotta love the pod for this coz after my chat with Mr Vaderslice on Episode 51 I was introduced.

Mr Congleton is so fast. He’s quick witted and on point. He knows what he thinks and has clearly taken a long time to come to his opinions.

You know where you stand with that kind of attitude. You can see the strength of his character quickly from his twitter feed where he is not afraid to tell it like he sees it.

The fact there’s a quick way in with the man perhaps that explains how he’s been able to work with such a huge range of talent from a multitude of genres.

Time for a quick name drop. Although he’s worked with hundreds and hundreds of great acts (many of whom are wonderfully unknown) a selection of his high profile gigs include working with:

Lana Del Rey

Angel Olsen

St Vincent

David Byrne

My guest on episode 17 - Kimbra

Modest mouse

Swans

Erykah Badu

And

my guest from episode 16 - unknown mortal orchestra

There are so many more. It’s quite staggering to read a longer list of names from his wiki.

Needless to say “have you ever been experienced” is rather fitting

So in that mental cloud of psych dust lingering in the doorway lets jump into this coffee morning speed ramble with the powerhouse that is

John Congleton

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The Nitty sees me getting old school with my original looper. The same one I used to open for James Brown, Bjork and Beck! so simple by 2109 standards but it was 19 years ago :)

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Music for the show is from second violin :

https://secondviolin.bandcamp.com/

or soundcloud:

https://soundcloud.com/second-violin

Thanks to

ASC for the show sponsorship

Get some tubetraps ASAP !! They rule

http://www.tubetrap.com