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Ambient/Post-Rock/Textural bass playing thread

#6,142
Bob_Ross said:
Reminds me of a show I saw 20-something years ago by Invalid Link Removed and CCCC. If you guys ever wanna get deep into Story Time ask me about that show...but the part that's germane to this thread is that two of the people in her four-person band were playing barbecue grills that had been fitted with contact mics, and then run through a huge chain of stompboxes. (To round out the ensemble, there was also a bass player who had a huge chain of stompboxes, and the fourth musician as far as I could tell simply had a huge chain of stompboxes...no source that I could identify, so probably self-oscillation or homebuilt tone generators.)
Click to expand...

I’m ready for story time. Feel free to PM if it’s not thread appropriate.
 
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#6,143
monsterthompson said:
I’m ready for story time.
Click to expand...

LOL. Okay, let's see if words can begin to describe this experience:

This is early 1990s. I'm in New York, the rest of my band is in Boston, they tell me they just hosted a Japanese noise band called CCCC who are touring the US and I should check them out when they get to NYC. I knew nothing about CCCC's music -- and, in hindsight, very little about what "noise bands" really were prior to this. CCCC's NYC gig is at a weird tiny performance art space on the Lower East Side called Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory, which had a well-deserved (though very under-the-radar) reputation as fine purveyors of weirdness.

So I go. As mentioned, the band is a quartet, fronted by a lovely Japanese woman named Miyuko Hino, who is wearing a traditional kimono, standing in front of a table littered with stompboxes, and holding the metal meat rack from a barbecue grill in one hand, scrapping it with utensils. The grill has several contact mics on it, feeding the stompboxes; the resultant sound, an eerie crunchy/grindy icepick of noise, is HELLACIOUSLY LOUD. Like seriously OSHA-violating we-are-all-gonna-die-from-exposure loud. Painfully caterwaulingly deafeningly loud.

...and the other three guys in the band haven't even started playing yet. Musician #2 has a similar rig to Miyuko's, with the mic'd up meat rack. Musician #3 is playing one of those 1980s Yamaha headless basses with the streamlined body, not quite a Steinberger clone, into a large chain of stompboxes. And Musician #4 just has a crap-ton of electronic gizmos on a table, I could never quite identify what were the signal generators and what were the signal processors.

When the full quartet kicks in it is the loudest most painful fear-inducing cacophony I have ever experienced or could have imagined. Every hair on my body is standing on end, my skin is tightening, jaw clenching, my head feels like it's in a vice, I feel like my vision is starting to be compromised. If you told me blood was pouring out of both ears I would not have been surprised in the least.

I don't know what it was that compelled me to stay. These days I woulda been outta there in two seconds, I have no patience for that kind of self-abuse. But 25 years ago I was younger and dumber and less responsible and possibly more open to new experiences just for the sake of having them. So I stayed for their whole set. There are maybe 20 other intrepid audience members with me. CCCC is turning the air in the room to pure serrated metal. They produce this full-bandwidth barrage of noise at 130dB SPL for 40 solid minutes.

Here's the part where words probably fail: After enduring this sonic onslaught for 40 solid minutes, something happened in my brain. The music stopped being a barrage. It stopped being painful. It stopped being loud. It became serene.

I am positive that this had nothing to do with a change in what the musicians were playing. They were still up there scrapping the metal grills and wailing on the bass and twisting knobs vehemently, with just as much intensity and sheer SPL as before. My brain just chose to concede and recontextualize the experience. And so it suddenly felt soothing, embracing, almost quiet. It was absolutely uncanny.

And at the exact moment where my brain decided to embrace the noise and interpret it as soothing serene quietude, Mayuko puts down her barbecue grill, lights a candle, removes her kimono, and pours molten wax all over her naked body.


=========

After ~10 minutes of this the band stops playing, there's a moment of (real) silence, and then Mayuko puts her robe back on, walks up to a microphone and says in very quiet broken English "Thank you. For encore we play five minutes noise."

I left then.
 
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#6,144
Bob_Ross said:
LOL. Okay, let's see if words can begin to describe this experience:

This is early 1990s. I'm in New York, the rest of my band is in Boston, they tell me they just hosted a Japanese noise band called CCCC who are touring the US and I should check them out when they get to NYC. I knew nothing about CCCC's music -- and, in hindsight, very little about what "noise bands" really were prior to this. CCCC's NYC gig is at a weird tiny performance art space on the Lower East Side called Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory, which had a well-deserved (though very under-the-radar) reputation as fine purveyors of weirdness.

So I go. As mentioned, the band is a quartet, fronted by a lovely Japanese woman named Miyuko Hino, who is wearing a traditional kimono, standing in front of a table littered with stompboxes, and holding the metal meat rack from a barbecue grill in one hand, scrapping it with utensils. The grill has several contact mics on it, feeding the stompboxes; the resultant sound, an eerie crunchy/grindy icepick of noise, is HELLACIOUSLY LOUD. Like seriously OSHA-violating we-are-all-gonna-die-from-exposure loud. Painfully caterwaulingly deafeningly loud.

...and the other three guys in the band haven't even started playing yet. Musician #2 has a similar rig to Miyuko's, with the mic'd up meat rack. Musician #3 is playing one of those 1980s Yamaha headless basses with the streamlined body, not quite a Steinberger clone, into a large chain of stompboxes. And Musician #4 just has a crap-ton of electronic gizmos on a table, I could never quite identify what were the signal generators and what were the signal processors.

When the full quartet kicks in it is the loudest most painful fear-inducing cacophony I have ever experienced or could have imagined. Every hair on my body is standing on end, my skin is tightening, jaw clenching, my head feels like it's in a vice, I feel like my vision is starting to be compromised. If you told me blood was pouring out of both ears I would not have been surprised in the least.

I don't know what it was that compelled me to stay. These days I woulda been outta there in two seconds, I have no patience for that kind of self-abuse. But 25 years ago I was younger and dumber and less responsible and possibly more open to new experiences just for the sake of having them. So I stayed for their whole set. There are maybe 20 other intrepid audience members with me. CCCC is turning the air in the room to pure serrated metal. They produce this full-bandwidth barrage of noise at 130dB SPL for 40 solid minutes.

Here's the part where words probably fail: After enduring this sonic onslaught for 40 solid minutes, something happened in my brain. The music stopped being a barrage. It stopped being painful. It stopped being loud. It became serene.

I am positive that this had nothing to do with a change in what the musicians were playing. They were still up there scrapping the metal grills and wailing on the bass and twisting knobs vehemently, with just as much intensity and sheer SPL as before. My brain just chose to concede and recontextualize the experience. And so it suddenly felt soothing, embracing, almost quiet. It was absolutely uncanny.

And at the exact moment where my brain decided to embrace the noise and interpret it as soothing serene quietude, Mayuko puts down her barbecue grill, lights a candle, removes her kimono, and pours molten wax all over her naked body.


=========

After ~10 minutes of this the band stops playing, there's a moment of (real) silence, and then Mayuko puts her robe back on, walks up to a microphone and says in very quiet broken English "Thank you. For encore we play five minutes noise."

I left then.
Click to expand...
Wow. Thank you for the story.
Very enlightening. I have a very similar experience with "noise" music. The chaos become "calming" and "serene". Its like the brain rewires connections to embrace the experience.

Edit....you're pushing me to finally pull the trigger on some contact mics.....but maybe not bbq grills.

;)
 
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#6,145
cosmicevan said:
yeah, I'm pretty passionate about my love for the Tensor. Maybe it's because it was the first pedal that really challenged me and sent me down this rabbit hole of weirdness? I definitely wanted to sell it after first plugging it in and I felt like "hey this isn't what I thought" but after getting to know Tensor, it has become my desert island pedal. Knobs alone, it does reverse, pitch shift, high speed pitched fast solo, and has the random knob for all sorts of fun, plus you can use it as a looper so it covers the ground of all the glitcher/weirdos out there in a fairly accessible package.

let's stop for a second and break this thing down. here she is (granted this is a special edition sparkly version stock photo...so I'm really tugging on your wallet :laugh: ):

View attachment 3815559

I want to draw your attention to the 2 switches between the bottom row of knobs. the one on the left is for the left footswitch (HOLD) and the right is for standard Tensor or the right footswitch (ON). Also, note that each footswitch has a toggle above for either momentary or latching operation. The thing about the left footswitch is that when you set if for momentary, it acts as sort of a tap tempo meaning that you press and hold to set your "length" so it can be a quick stutter or a nice long hold or a fraction of a beat or a beat or...(you get the idea!!!). That immediately opens that footswitch up for a TON of possibilities. Then let's look at the functions, you have OVR, REC, NXT...I'll leave ovr and rec to your imagination because who cares about those anyway when you've got NXT?!? NXT = next, meaning that it is a rolling buffer that the effect will be applied to. you can guess what "DIR" and FWD, ALT, REV mean for the ON side of the pedal.

When you stop to think about it, even without add-ons, you have a variety of sounds you can get with this device from your feet without having to twist any knobs. The possibilities are HUGE. I love weird and challenging pedals, the Tensor is one of the most accessible and versatile pedals I've tried. Mind you, I have CooperFX outward, Pladask Elektrisk frabrikat, Particle v2, Count to 5, blah blah blah so this is sort of my sweet spot (granted, some I've spent more time w than others). Tensor also offers MIDI through USB (which is a little annoying but manageable w add-on), expression pedal functionality (opens up presets that you can smoothly transition between), and support for 2, 3, or 4 button footswitch for presets/looper functionality).

It's a f.cking AMAZING pedal. While I'd rave about a variety of other pedals w similar passion, the Tensor is my desert island.
Click to expand...
This is helpful...

See, my dilemma is this. I find most of the sounds the Tensor and the Particle make, in their naked form, something I normally wouldn't like or use, as y'all know, I tend to not go for chaos/noise in my stuff. HOWEVER, both of those pedals' respective sounds also sound like they could be a good base that, with some extensive processing, I could turn into more blissful drone type stuff. I'm just trying to figure out if I'd use either of them enough to justify the cost.
 
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#6,146
Bob_Ross said:
"Thank you. For encore we play five minutes noise."
Click to expand...


:laugh::roflmao::D:roflmao::D


p.s.

And at the exact moment where my brain decided to embrace the noise and interpret it as soothing serene quietude, Mayuko puts down her barbecue grill, lights a candle, removes her kimono, and pours molten wax all over her naked body.


:thumbsup:
 
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#6,148
steubig said:
:laugh::roflmao::D:roflmao::D


p.s.

And at the exact moment where my brain decided to embrace the noise and interpret it as soothing serene quietude, Mayuko puts down her barbecue grill, lights a candle, removes her kimono, and pours molten wax all over her naked body.


:thumbsup:
Click to expand...
Ya....quite a coincidence. Hot wax on a naked woman can have that effect on some people.

;)
 
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#6,149
Bob_Ross said:
LOL. Okay, let's see if words can begin to describe this experience:

This is early 1990s. I'm in New York, the rest of my band is in Boston, they tell me they just hosted a Japanese noise band called CCCC who are touring the US and I should check them out when they get to NYC. I knew nothing about CCCC's music -- and, in hindsight, very little about what "noise bands" really were prior to this. CCCC's NYC gig is at a weird tiny performance art space on the Lower East Side called Gargoyle Mechanique Laboratory, which had a well-deserved (though very under-the-radar) reputation as fine purveyors of weirdness.

So I go. As mentioned, the band is a quartet, fronted by a lovely Japanese woman named Miyuko Hino, who is wearing a traditional kimono, standing in front of a table littered with stompboxes, and holding the metal meat rack from a barbecue grill in one hand, scrapping it with utensils. The grill has several contact mics on it, feeding the stompboxes; the resultant sound, an eerie crunchy/grindy icepick of noise, is HELLACIOUSLY LOUD. Like seriously OSHA-violating we-are-all-gonna-die-from-exposure loud. Painfully caterwaulingly deafeningly loud.

...and the other three guys in the band haven't even started playing yet. Musician #2 has a similar rig to Miyuko's, with the mic'd up meat rack. Musician #3 is playing one of those 1980s Yamaha headless basses with the streamlined body, not quite a Steinberger clone, into a large chain of stompboxes. And Musician #4 just has a crap-ton of electronic gizmos on a table, I could never quite identify what were the signal generators and what were the signal processors.

When the full quartet kicks in it is the loudest most painful fear-inducing cacophony I have ever experienced or could have imagined. Every hair on my body is standing on end, my skin is tightening, jaw clenching, my head feels like it's in a vice, I feel like my vision is starting to be compromised. If you told me blood was pouring out of both ears I would not have been surprised in the least.

I don't know what it was that compelled me to stay. These days I woulda been outta there in two seconds, I have no patience for that kind of self-abuse. But 25 years ago I was younger and dumber and less responsible and possibly more open to new experiences just for the sake of having them. So I stayed for their whole set. There are maybe 20 other intrepid audience members with me. CCCC is turning the air in the room to pure serrated metal. They produce this full-bandwidth barrage of noise at 130dB SPL for 40 solid minutes.

Here's the part where words probably fail: After enduring this sonic onslaught for 40 solid minutes, something happened in my brain. The music stopped being a barrage. It stopped being painful. It stopped being loud. It became serene.

I am positive that this had nothing to do with a change in what the musicians were playing. They were still up there scrapping the metal grills and wailing on the bass and twisting knobs vehemently, with just as much intensity and sheer SPL as before. My brain just chose to concede and recontextualize the experience. And so it suddenly felt soothing, embracing, almost quiet. It was absolutely uncanny.

And at the exact moment where my brain decided to embrace the noise and interpret it as soothing serene quietude, Mayuko puts down her barbecue grill, lights a candle, removes her kimono, and pours molten wax all over her naked body.


=========

After ~10 minutes of this the band stops playing, there's a moment of (real) silence, and then Mayuko puts her robe back on, walks up to a microphone and says in very quiet broken English "Thank you. For encore we play five minutes noise."

I left then.
Click to expand...

Awesome.

The closest thing to that I’ve experienced was The Locust opening for Andrew WK in 2004 at the El Rey. I stood behind the sound booth, on the floor. It’s a decent sized venue, bigger than a club but not a theater.

I had heard a few stories about The Locust but wasn’t familiar with them. I was expecting weird and I got it. They hit the stage in jumpsuits with hoods and did the thing they do. Near the end of their set the keyboardist hit something on his keyboard that was just unholy loud and dissonant an held it. Piercing high frequency feedback stuff. The rest of the band put down their instruments, and then everyone walked off stage with this sustaining knife in the ear sound ringing out.

The crowd started putting fingers in ears. Then started looking around at others and shrugging shoulders. Some went out to smoke.

Standing behind the board, I could watch the clock ticking and see all the needles in the red. It was about 10 solid minutes of just that noise before they came back on stage.

When they did come back, there was no 1234 I could hear, but they all just jumped on a beat and kept going like nothing happened.
 
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#6,155
lordradish said:
For some reason, I'm picturing you backed into a corner, with guns out, protecting your wallet from a wall of synths and pedals rapidly encroaching on you.

Disappointed, a bit? Or relieved?
Click to expand...

It's really about my time and space, more than my wallet. I can't keep adding new things to the pile without turning my home into a warehouse, or without slowing my already slow production rate. I'm okay with a new preamp (which I just ordered) because it's a plug and play item for me, and it will help me with a few signal path ideas. This would be too much learning curve, and doesn't "solve" any existing issues I have.
I've got an embarrassment of riches for a hobbyist. I need to use them or flip them before something new comes in.

Right now, I'm really enjoying the Zoia.


 
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#6,156
I just found out Tangerine Dream put out a new album a few months ago - how did I miss this??? It has reworkings of classic material - here's an article from Prog Magazine:

Tangerine Dream to revisit classic tracks on Recurring Dreams album | Louder

And here's a track:



I'm a big fan of the current version of the group - I think the Quantum Gate album is great. They were working on it with Edgar Froese when he died, he had a new "quantum concept" whatever that means and apparently they have applied it to the old material on this new album. I'm listening to Monolight now on Spotify, it sounds good to me!
 
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#6,158
I'm still just a fan of their classic Berlin school era and not much else, maybe a bit shortly after, like Stratosfear. Too much of their stuff just sends my chees-o-meter into the red, and I can't really get into the idea of a band that has zero original members using the name in this way. Different strokes, y'all.

I feel the same way about Klaus Schulze - his Berlin school stuff has had a profound influence on where I'm at, today, but his stuff after that... it would cure insomnia.
 
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#6,159
lordradish said:
I'm still just a fan of their classic Berlin school era and not much else, maybe a bit shortly after, like Stratosfear. Too much of their stuff just sends my chees-o-meter into the red, and I can't really get into the idea of a band that has zero original members using the name in this way. Different strokes, y'all.

I feel the same way about Klaus Schulze - his Berlin school stuff has had a profound influence on where I'm at, today, but his stuff after that... it would cure insomnia.
Click to expand...

Can't argue with any of that. I agree it's weird to keep a band going with no original members, or even any from the "classic" lineup. Lots of their later stuff is cheesy, though some of their movie soundtrack stuff from the 80s is okay.

When I saw them in 2012 Froese was the only one, but seeing as how I was like 5 years old during their Berlin School days that was as close as I was going to get. Froese died not long after so I'm glad I got to see him live.

And one thing I remember was when he was shaking hands with fans his bandmates were watching nearby, and I could see their admiration for him in their eyes, his guitarist (Bernhard Beibl) and violinist (Hoshiko Yamane) at the time. Both seemed pretty honored to be touring the US with the guy. Something I won't forget.
 
#6,160
lordradish said:
I'm still just a fan of their classic Berlin school era and not much else, maybe a bit shortly after, like Stratosfear. Too much of their stuff just sends my chees-o-meter into the red, and I can't really get into the idea of a band that has zero original members using the name in this way. Different strokes, y'all.

I feel the same way about Klaus Schulze - his Berlin school stuff has had a profound influence on where I'm at, today, but his stuff after that... it would cure insomnia.
Click to expand...

I totally get it. But the Quantum Gate album both has Edgar Froese playing on it and also sounds very different from anything from 1983 through the stuff up to 2014. Apparently he came up with a new concept - I'm going to have to dig around for it - and to me the music on Quantum Gate (and the EP Quantum Key) is totally different than what came before in the 2000s. I've listened to Quantum Gate & Key so many times, it's one of the only things I've listened to consistently the past couple of years. Apparently it was Froese's wish that the band continue, I feel like he had figured something out and wanted it to continue - the Quantum Years...

And I admit it is weird for a band to be touring with no original members, but I guess I was already mentally preparing myself for KISS to tour without Gene or Paul... (not that I would go see that!)
 

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