I am Ashley Elsdon

someone who's doing some things

Tag: music

I love music. Making music, listening, talking about it and anything else too.

Thinking about Spotify

Posted by on in Listening, Mobile Applications, Tech

I’m considering getting a Spotify subscription. I was somewhat taken with the spotify apps (SPAPPS) that I saw at Music Hack Day London last month and it got me wondering about giving Spotify another try out. So I’m almost there in terms of making up my mind about it. The only nagging doubt is that the last time I tried Spotify I actually couldn’t find too much music that I liked on it, which is a major drawback for a music service.

Perhaps it’s changed now, as it was a while back since I used it.

Mick Karn: Dreams of Reason Produce Monsters

Posted by on in Listening

This is without a doubt my favourite Mick Karn album. It has a great feel to all of the tracks and a real sense of flow from one piece to the next. Every time I listen to it I realise just how much I love this album and I seem to find something new on every listen.

In fact, I may have to listen to it again soon now that I’ve been playing it again for the first time in a while.

Mick Karn: Titles

Posted by on in Listening

I didn’t really get to listen to Mick’s albums last week, so I thought I’d remedy that this week, and I started with Titles. Mick Karn’s Titles was his first solo album after Japan split up, and I think you can really tell that he felt free in this album to show just what he could do with a fretless bass.

Having said that, the entire album shows a very high standard of musicianship and ranges from the almost pop like tracks like ‘Sensitive’, to quite experimental (if that is a valid term to use) pieces like ‘Tribal Dawn’.

It was great to go back and listen to this album again, and to recapture the feeling I had when I first listened to it all those years ago. To me it still sounds fresh and vibrant and it has a unique sound. In my view it’s well worth a listen.

Mick Karn’s Titles

AxisPad on the 3G

Posted by on in Mobile Applications

Well I took the plunge and bought StyleTap for my 3G. I think it works pretty well so far, although I think I’d rather have StyleTap for Android at the moment, but never mind.

Getting AxisPad running on it was great. AxisPad was one of the last Palm OS music apps to appear, and I still really like it. I think I have all the miniMusic apps running on the 3G now, which is good. I still couldn’t get Bhajis on there, but perhaps I’ll have more luck next time I try.

Music apps I haven’t used in ages: Future Sound

Posted by on in Creative Process, Listening, Mobile Applications

This was an app I got right back at the start of iOS music making. In fact, before it was iOS actually. It was one of the more innovative apps that came out, and more like art than a music making experience. It’s interesting to go back to it now as in many ways some of these ideas have been taken on by the likes of RJDJ in the work they’ve done with their Inception app and also with scenes in general.

I looked up their website and they’re still going, although it seems as though the iOS or mobile world isn’t the entirety of what they’re about, which is good. Interesting to see what they do next, although they don’t seem to have a blog or news feed sadly.

Messing about with Jasuto Pro

Posted by on in Creative Process, Making things

Messing around with stuff is great fun, and if there’s an iOS app that is superb fun, then it’s Jasuto Pro Modular. I haven’t played with this app for ages, and so it’s great to get back into it and discover stuff that I’d started but not done anything with.

The patch, or sketch, or whatever the proper name is, that you can see above uses a sample file that was recorded using RJDJ on a journey home one day. The idea was to record a week of travel sounds using RJDJ and then create patches for it in apps like Jasuto Pro.

I must work out how to get the audio out on this track, but perhaps on another day.

Remembering Mick

Posted by on in People

One year ago today the world lost an amazing musician. Mick Karn. He was too young, much too young.

Mick’s music was an inspiration to so many, me included. His music lives on and I’ll be listening to a few of his albums later this week and posting some thoughts on them. If you don’t know Mick Karn’s music then stay tuned as you’re going to find some amazing music to listen to soon.

I can’t believe it was a year ago he passed away.

New RJDJ scenes

Posted by on in Listening, Tech

I tried out a couple of new RJDJ scenes today. I hadn’t noticed them before. They are:

  • I site & hide
  • Norra Vinter

The first one I wasn’t too impressed with as it was more of a thing to promote the artist, which is fine, but not for me really. The other one is a bit more interesting, but I haven’t had enough time to get into it properly as yet. Once I’ve spent a little more time with it I’ll write a bit more about  it. Even so, it’s nice to find some more scenes to play with.

I should really get on with writing one of my own shouldn’t I.

Listening to PJ Harvey, Let England Shake

Posted by on in Listening

I bought this a few days ago and I’ve just been listening to it, and I really love it. What a superb album! I only got it as a friend of mine recommended it and I was looking for something new to listen to. I think I might have to get some more of her work soon.

http://rcm-uk.amazon.co.uk/e/cm?lt1=_blank&bc1=000000&IS2=1&bg1=FFFFFF&fc1=000000&lc1=0000FF&t=thepeoplofthe-21&o=2&p=8&l=as4&m=amazon&f=ifr&ref=ss_til&asins=B004IXJEWK

Messing about with Oramics

Posted by on in Exhibitions, History, Mobile Applications, Sounds, Tech

Having seen the Oramics exhibition again I thought I’d spend some time with the Oramics app again as I haven’t used it in ages. I think that the first time I used it I didn’t really get the hang of it, but playing with it this morning I really enjoyed it. I think I might record some pieces from it too.