| July 2009 news
July 31, 2009
AUDIO GENOME PROJECT
• tube'|179 - room101 - Longevity Acid Gene 1
«Another great album from Adam Balušík a.k.a. room101. Unlike his last release for test tube (tube148), this one marks a depart from otherwise typical loose drone experimentation into more surgically synth splintering - which sometimes still cross drone boundaries anyway. But it's not a defect, it's... just the way it is. A drone simply urges, begs to be used in a specific moment in the space-time continuum, or whatever. Adam knows how to use them, and the results are absolutely brilliant.
'Longevity Acid Gene 1' suggests something of clinical/scientific origin, so we went for some matching artwork that resembled the feeling of lab work experimentation. I think it fits real nice with the music, but you have to listen to the whole album to evaluate that. There are truly remarkable tracks here, and pretty much all of them are based on granular synthesis or something of similar origin. My favorites have to be 'LAG-1.4' and 'LAG-1.5.3' (awesome drone on this one), and the whole album is very cohesive without repeating ideas.
Adam really nailed it this time.» - Pedro Leitão
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July 24, 2009
TEST TUBE'S SPINOFF
YEAH!
Two members of the test tube family have been planning this for some time now and it's almost coming true: Impulsive Habitat is coming!
David Vélez and Juan José Calarco are the curators (besides being excellent musicians on their own) and will be selecting the new catalogue and the best music under the Field Recording/Electroacoustic specifications. Just for you.
But does this mean that test tube will not be releasing more of that kind of sounds? Not really, no. But we were expecting to take some burden off our
shoulders and dedicate more time to real, unclassifiable music experiences. That's the main reason behind test tube existance.
Impulsive Habitat is not fully online yet, but will be. Keep your eyes peeled.
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July 19, 2009
THE CAKE IS A LIE.
• tube'|178 - Spheruleus - Tales From the Labyrinth
«'A Labyrinth, unlike a Maze, has one clear/unambiguous/obvious route to the centre. Whereas a Maze has many complex and difficult to negotiate pathways.' - H. Towell
Although there's certainly wisdom in Towell's words, the choice of following (or not) the clear path of the labyrinth is always on the table when we initiate the journey; And here is no different: 'Tales From the Labyrinth' - the new work from Harry Towell's brainchild project Spheruleus - lays a clear path for the listener to follow, from beginning to end, but it also offers him other routes, some of which could be dead ends, making you go back to the start and re-initiate the journey. This is the perfect soundtrack translation into a music experience from what a Labyrinth is.
Towell is also right when he writes:
'The ancient ideas behind the Labyrinth were to create a spiralling pathway to the centre, where a holy shrine or statue would be. During the walk through the Labyrinth's spiralling pathway, the person making the journey would feel separated from the outside world and it would give time for reflection and to focus the mind.'
That said, the Maze's original purpose is to confuse the user into getting out of it, hiding the real way out in plain view, dissimulated. The only goal is to get out. There is nothing at the center.
The Labyrinth has clearly a goal at the centre. Close your eyes, play it loud, and use headphones to be guided all the way in.»
- Pedro Leitão
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WE NEED THE CMS DEVELOPER IN YOU! * UPDATE *
A month has passed since our call for help on June 19, and since then we got several e-mails from people with a genuine desire to help. Many suggestions were taken into account and I decided to comply with the offer from a test tube fan to fully develop a new website built on the Joomla programming language.
Gus - the name of the man - will have my undying gratitude, and I sincerely hope he will keep giving input to test tube long after the new website has been finished.
I have always seen test tube
as a ongoing community-driven project, and I have always welcome input from anyone who wish to give something to the netlabel. Unfortunately, this turned out to be a one-man journey most of the time, but If you have any cool ideas about where test tube should go from here, now is the time to share them.
Expect some real changes in the near future.
Also, expect a new newsletter in two or three weeks time...
Peace,
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July 14, 2009
WITHOUT SCAFFOLDING
• tube'|177 - 2methylBulbe1ol - Quelques Siècles d'Insomnie
«2methylBulbe1ol is the chemical alias of french producer Nicolas Druoton, based out of Dijon, northeastern France which is the historical capital of Burgundy. Nicolas produces some very nice IDM of the Industrial type, very melodic, solid beats and rough and dirty edges. 'Quelques Siècles d'Insomnie' is therefore a short but juicy EP and will appeal to all IDM fans out there.
The artwork is also amazing and you can confirm everything when you purchase the limited Vinyl edition of this EP. Nicolas has some copies for the hardcore fans. Check out his website's shop page.» - Pedro Leitão
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July 05, 2009
ALICE IN DRONELAND
• tube'|176 - LSWZ - Lost Soundtracks from The Wizard of Oz
«test tube veterans Gordon Tebo and Dan Schreck teamed up with another four musicians and friends - Mark Beasley, Alex Inglizian, Chris Powers and Daniel Stine - and decided to make 'the most expensive recording ever produced by man' (their own words). Did they made it? Well, LSWZ is here, and it's one hell of an album.
'Lost soundtracks from The Wizard of Oz', despite
being funny titled, is serious business. You get experimental country-electronica, with plenty of guitars abound, you get drones, foul language, broken records, looped voices. You also get rattlesnakes running around, field recordings taken somewhere far away, lazy drum machines, schizophrenic computer programs, etc. You also get lots of improvisation jams everywhere. And in the end, it still sounds almost like music!
'Lost soundtracks...' is a magnificent discovery journey into the minds of six talented artists who have decided to make something together. It crosses genre and style boundaries and ends up being something entirely new!» - Pedro Leitão
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