Squarepusher on 22 May 2015



Squarepusher was technically brilliant. The visuals and sound were amazing, particularly the real-time projection mapping onto his reflective garb -- which looked a bit like an Olympic fencing outfit with hood and visor.

The glitch was over the top but, when he took to the stage with his bass guitar for the encore, his solo playing on the instrument also reflected this aesthetic as he tapped and slapped madly. It was then that his jazz influence became more obvious and it kinda made sense of the barrage from earlier in the set, when the speed of notes and rhythms were more akin to thrash metal.

He doesn't work with many melodies but does add some nice splashes of chords among the maelstrom of bitcrushing, feedback and sped-up beats. Variety came from nods to genres, like a 303 or rave-y synth and one dubby sorta tune.

Dunno why this was at the Opera House though. Sure they have a great PA but the place seems to be one continuous staircase with no dance floor. Again it seemed like a jazz aesthetic, where the audience were meant to stroke their chin and clap politely.

Kids watching Scott Pilgrim vs. the World



Last night my son had a belated birthday party of sorts. He'd been asking for a "pizza party" for a while and we'd settled on eating then watching Scott Pilgrim with a few friends.

I'd been hesitating on screening the film since we last watched it. The representation of open homosexual relationships didn't seem appropriate for me to share with other people's kids. That was my issue with the film, anyway.

I really like Scott Pilgrim a lot and remember excitedly thinking I can't wait to share this with my then video game-obsessed toddler. I've seen it a lot since then and appreciate the way it evenhandedly represents relationships while being bright and loud and funny.

The kids persisted in asking for Scott Pilgrim and I concluded that it shouldn't be an issue for other people's kids to see homosexual relationships in a movie. One kid loudly questioned the gay character and everyone told him to get over it, which was great to see. By the end of the film there'd been more talk about veganism than homosexuality though, so maybe diet is more of a taboo these days?

Sexist sketches

Facebook's newsfeed offers many treats for the eyes and brain, the latest being a series of sketches on sexism at the Mentlegen page.

I showed these to my daughter and returned to hear her mother exclaiming pride. It was nice to also see her then redrafting and improving on her representation.

Someone's at the door


Still lifes for bonus lives

My daughter has been sick and stayed home for a few days rest. Last night she was delirious, kept asking when the school bus was coming.


Yesterday she started drawing a picture of a Gamecube controller for her brother. She knows he likes Gamecube games and wants him to like her art.

It made me look at the controller and imagine the perspective and the spaces within the shape and how I'd draw it. So I did.

Is AI a sensitive subject on Facebook?



Hadn't seen this message before and it made me wonder if it was Facebook's AI being self-conscious?

Raptures with raptors



Above is a song I wrote last year. It was a bassline I developed after trying to figure out a synth line for a pop song.

When I recorded it for a Naviar Haiku project, I added the Replicant 'four bar repeat' preset and it became a different composition.



Then I remixed the result for another haiku project, leading to a dancier track with synth parts.



More recently I thought it would be interesting to try playing it live in a single-take recording. When the Disquiet Junto set a suitable project, I had a go and was disappointed with the result.

So I tried again with a jammier sorta approach, using the Jam Man pedal -- which simplified the riff.



It's interesting to see the evolution of this riff because I haven't used the original composition yet. I should go back and see what other directions it can go.