Author: catsynth

Elim Street

I took this photo in downtown San Francisco almost three years ago as an exercise in cityscape photography.

What I did not know at the time was that the most interesting feature was neither the old brick buildings nor the forlorn lot, but rather the alleyway barely visible on the left side of the image. This is Elim Street, the second narrowest street in San Francisco. I explored this tiny alley in detail earlier this month, with both my big camera and iPhone on hand.

On the southwest side (adjacent to the lot), it is wide enough for a vehicle. But beyond that, it narrows down to just 2 meters, or 6.6 feet.

No stopping seems like a good idea. 6.6 feet between two large old buildings feels dark and closed-in as one might expect. I don’t quite have the arm span to touch both walls, but someone only a little taller would be able to do so.

Looking upwards, the narrow slit of sky is especially bright.

The eaves of the two buildings come quite close together at the front of the alley on 1st street.

Here is some pipework on the older brick building in the alley.

Apparently Elim Street has existed this way for quite a while. But it is uncertain how long it will last in the heavy redevelopment of downtown San Francisco. It could get squished out of existence. Or new buildings could celebrate this narrow street with their architecture. I hope it is in fact the latter.

New Podcast: World of Wonder, Cat Edition

My latest podcast is up. This is an episode I have wanted to do for a while for my show The World of Wonder on San Francisco Community Radio (KUSF in Exile). It features tracks by several friends, and a special guest appearance by “DJ Luna.” Please check it out.


World of Wonder, Cat Edition, March 14, 2013

With DJ CatSynth and guest appearance by DJ Luna

10:00AM-10:04AM (3:44) Ubiquity “Everybody Wants to Be a Cat (The Aristocats)” from Rewind! 5 (2006)

10:04AM-10:10AM (5:58) Cujo “Cat People” from Trip Hop & Jazz 4 (1998)

10:10AM-10:14AM (4:13) Protea “Mau Bast (feat. Retribution Body)” from Going Forth By Night (Rock, 2011) on Protea

10:14AM-10:18AM (4:08) Pram “Track of the Cat” from Dark Island (2003) on Merge Records

10:18AM-10:24AM (6:06) Psychic TV “BLACK CAT” from Trip Reset (Rock, 1995) on Genesis P-Orridge

10:24AM-10:31AM (6:40) cEvin Key “Wind On Small Paws” from Music For Cats (1998) on Metropolis Records

10:32AM-10:42AM (10:18) cEvin Key “Meteorite” from Music For Cats (1998) on Metropolis Records

10:42AM-10:44AM (1:30) cEvin Key “Musik fur Cats” from Music For Cats (1998) on Metropolis Records

10:44AM-10:48AM (4:35) The Lions “Jungle Struttin’” from Jungle Struttin’ (CD, Album, Reggae, 2008) on Ubiquity Recordings, Inc. (USA)

10:48AM-10:50AM (1:39) Joseph Keckler “Cat Names” from Cat Names – Single (2011) on Joseph Keckler

10:50AM-10:55AM (4:47) Amar Chaudhary “Octave Cat Improvisation 24 April 2007” from Octave Cat Improvisation 24 April 2007 (Single, 2007)

10:55AM-10:57AM (1:58) The Felines “Daddy Walk” from Daddy Walk – EP (2012) on Dirty Water Records

10:57AM-10:59AM (2:21) The Felines “BOOTS” from Daddy Walk – EP (2012) on Dirty Water Records

11:00PM-11:04PM (3:38) The Cure “The Love Cats” from Staring At The Sea: The Singles 1979-1985 (1983)

11:04PM-11:13PM (9:12) Nommo Ogo “A Call to Cats On the MMoon” from Across Time and Space (2009) on Record Label RecordsLocal

11:13PM-11:18PM (4:52) ISAN “Kittenplan A” from Lucky Cat (2001) on morr music

11:18PM-11:25PM (7:06) ISAN “Caddis” from Lucky Cat (2001) on morr music

11:25PM-11:29PM (3:59) Dale Hoyt “Transgenic Hairshirt” from Transgenic Hairshirt (Single)

11:29PM-11:30PM (1:26) Kristin Miltner “Space Shooter: Girl Avatar” from Library Catalog Music Series: Music For Dreaming and Playing(2010) on Asthmatic Kitty (US)

11:30PM-11:32PM (1:24) Kristin Miltner “Leapster WordChasers (like Pac Man, with kitties)” from Leapfrog Leapster

11:33PM-11:38PM (4:44) Mindaugas Piecaitis with Nora the Piano Playing Cat “CATcerto” from CATcerto (Single, 2009)

11:38PM-11:42PM (3:59) No No Nancy “Metal Squirrel Space Adventure HQ” from Metal Squirrel Space Adventure HQ (Single, 2004)

11:42PM-11:44PM (2:44) Kodek “The Tin Foil Cat Groove” from Offline Synthwave (2012) on UNIVERSAL FUNK RECORDS

11:44PM-11:49PM (4:57) Protea “Sa Sekhem Sahu (feat. tara ntula)” from Going Forth By Night (Rock, 2011) on Protea

11:49PM-11:50PM (0:40) Theresa Wong “Feline Pantomime” from The Unlearning (2011) on Tzadik

11:50PM-11:53PM (3:20) Kitten On the Keys “Mister Deep Blue Sea” from Salty Meat Girl (2007) on Rug Burn SF

11:53PM-11:59PM (5:38) Cat Power “ENOUGH” from Myra Lee (1996) on Smells Like Records

 

Surplus 1980, ReCardiacs Fly, Cash Pony at the Starry Plough

Today, we look back at a recent performance with bands ReCardiacs Fly and Surplus 1980 at the Starry Plough in Berkeley. The “Plough” has become a frequent location for my more rock-intensive projects. And it’s usually a good experience with beer, good food, and an appreciative audience. We were joined by the band Cash Pony, who opened the evening.


[Cash Pony.]

They had a more psychedelic sound, but still quite intricate and rich. I was particularly having fun with the heavy effects-laden bass and the appearance of an electric sitar in some songs.

Then it was time for ReCardiacs Fly to take the stage. For those who are not familiar with this project, it is our tribute to the UK band Cardiacs. This was our first show with our new lineup featuring Steve Lew on bass and Mark Clifford on percussion. Both of them fit right in and picked up the songs quickly. This now means we have two “Marks”, though guitarist Marc Laspina spells his with a “c”:


[Mark and Marc (and Moe!). Photo by Mark Murrmann.]

Overall this was one of our best shows to date in terms of our playing and energy on stage:


[ReCardiacs Fly. Photo by Mark Murrmann.]

Here you can see Polly Moller and Chris Broderick out in front and getting into their respective characters from the original Cardiacs. The music is still as loud and complicated as ever, but with more practice it becomes more fun to play and add our own voices to it. You can hear a bit of the performance in this video:

No sooner was ReCardiacs Fly done then I had to turn around and get ready to play with Surplus 1980. Steve Lew and Moe! Staiano also pulled double duty in both bands. Surplus 1980 is a post-punk band, with lots of heavy, loud, but metrically complex parts. And we have three guitarists: along with Moe!, there is Melne Murphy and Bill Wolter. Tom Scandura rounds out the group on drums.


[Surplus 1980. Photo by Mark Murrmann.]

It was a relative short set, but we played it well, and I had fun adding embellishments to the music with not only the main keyboard but a vintage toy piano. Indeed, the toy piano closed our final song Ed Saad with a repeated riff.


[Surplus 1980. Photo by Mark Murrmann.]

It was a grueling night in some ways, playing with two heavy rock bands, but it was a lot of fun to have both of them together that night. Hopefully we will get a chance to do it again sometime soon…

Pi Digits Revisted

For Pi Day, we revisit my composition based on the digits of Pi from 2011. Enjoy!

Note that this is based on binary digits, not the familiar 3.14159… in decimal notation. But the number itself is the same regardless of the base one uses to represent it.

Weekend Cat Blogging and Photo Hunt: Monochrome

This week’s Photo Hunt theme is easy. We have tons of monochrome photos, from art photos to snapshots and everything in between. Here is a snapshot of Luna taken this morning with a black-and-white film preset on the iPhone Hipstamatic app:

This photo, with Luna walking among the chrome pillars around CatSynth HQ, could have easily worked for last week’s theme as well.

Looking back, I have definitely moved between periods of color and black-and-white in my photography. 2010 was probably the most monochromatic year for me. Here is a monochromatic close-up portrait of Luna I used for a Weekend Cat Blogging back in 2010.

We should do some more portraits like that again this year.

My video from last week’s performance came out quite dark, and ended up being a de-facto monochromatic piece with a purple tint. I encourage visitors to check it out in yesterday’s gig report.

The Saturday Photo Hunt is up. This week’s theme is Monochrome.

The Carnival of the Cats will be up this Sunday at Mind of Mog.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Godwaffle Noise Pancakes (March 3, 2013)

Pancakes and noise music may not be the first combination one thinks of for a Sunday brunch. But that is precisely what is offered at Godwaffle Noise Pancakes, a monthly noontime show organized by Grux at The Lab in San Francisco. I had the opportunity to perform at the most recent event on March 3.

I opted for a “purple theme” revolving around the purple Monorocket case I have for my Eurorack modular system. I selected an outfit and hair to match, and even found an old toy keyboard that was purple.


[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The performance itself was on the subtle side, attempting to dial in on specific sounds and module combinations. It was an exercise in managing unpredictability and finding musical structures and phrases even in the noisiest of situations. You can see the performance in the video below.

Godwaffle Noise Pancakes live performance, March 3, 2013 from CatSynth on Vimeo.

The hall was quite dark during the set and my attempts to lighten the video resulted in a lot of artifacts. But it does complement the sound in a way. One take-a-way for future performances with the instrument is to be mindful of how one adapts the output of the small Eurorack jacks to standard live-sound systems. Investing in some strong audio adapters for the modular itself will cut down on some of those unpredictable pops. But overall I was quite happy with the set, and got a lot of positive feedback (about the visual as well as the aural).

The next performance featured Abyss of Fathomless Light featuring Bert Bergen. His fast moving performance combined vocal recordings on a series of cassette players with analog electronics into a thick and fast moving soundscape. He was followed by fslux, whose performance moved between longer more mellifluous sounds featuring her vocals and harsh electrical output from effects pedals.


[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

The performance by J. Soliday (Jason Soliday) was undoubtedly the loudest and noisiest of this noise-based show. There were long sequences of repeated loud glitches that required a bit of effort to listen to, but also a few gaps and pauses with space for quieter detail.

The final performance featured a collaboration by Wobbly and Thomas Dimuzio. I have seen them perform together before, but this was the first time with the technological combo of Dimuzio on analog modular and Wobbly on iPad and other digital synths.


[Photo by Michael Zelner.]

This was the longest performance of the afternoon (all the others including mine were quite short), but also the most captivating. They were able to create enveloping soundscapes that at times felt otherworldly and at others more meditative. The overall texture was lush, but there were dry moments with more staccato details from both the analog and digital instruments.

Overall, it was a fun afternoon of music. I am glad I was able to participate and hope to do so again soon.