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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 with Luna: Upper

For today’s Photo Hunt theme of Upper, we dug back into the archives for this photo of Luna on the upper ledge at CatSynth HQ:

Fortunately, she doesn’t walk up there too often (at least not when I’m around to witness it.)

We have embarked on a major clean-up of the upper level of CatSynth HQ. Compared to previous cleaning projects, this may be most extensive and ruthless in several years. Here, Luna sits in her favorite upper-level perch as various bits of detritus pile up before meeting the final destiny.

I was able to get a lot done last weekend (and Luna was of course on hand to supervise), but there is still a long way to go. This is as much a project of renewal as it is cleaning. Making way for the new…

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

The Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by the Florida Furrkids.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Weekend Cat Blogging: Good News from PAWS

We at CatSynth were inspired by our friends at Animal Shelter Volunteer Life and all the wonderful photos of the shelter cats at PAWS in Connecticut and made a donation late last year. We ended up sponsoring a cat named Toni.

It turns out Toni was featured on Animal Shelter Volunteer Life back in November, but we didn’t make the connection. But I was reminded about Toni this past week when I received a note from PAWS saying the she was adopted! This is of course the best news for a shelter cat, and for us to know that the sponsorship is no longer needed because she found a home.

As we have mentioned many times on this site, Luna was also adopted from a shelter. Please consider adopting a shelter cat or rescue cat in your community if you are looking for a new companion.

Carnival of the Cats will be hosted tomorrow by Socks & Scylla.

And the Friday Ark is at the modulator.

Fevered dreams

After a relaxed and healthy Saturday (including a 4-mile walk through SF), I found myself all-of-a-sudden quite sick for the second time this month early on Sunday morning, including a fever. It dissipated by midday, but not before some interesting fever-induced dreams. Here is one of them:

It took place in Western New York, but the landscape had been replaced with a relatively flat desert environment. At the south end was a transplanted version of Yale – there was still the New Haven town green, but the university had different architecture, more columns and arches. A large numbered highway (I don’t remember the number) snaked its way north from the university into the desert along the southern edge of a large shallow lake. The road then split into two that were labeled “Masculine Dr.” and “Feminine Dr.” on Google Maps (yes, Google Maps appeared in the dream). Zooming out, the lake was shaped exactly like the entirety of all five Great Lakes in miniature – probably about the size of one of the Finger Lakes.

Dreams aside, I recommend to readers in the U.S. that they get a flu shot this year.

Analog modular improvisation

Here is a little track I created last night improvising with a few of the modules in my Eurorack system. Enjoy!

This analog modular improvisation featured the Wiard Anti-Oscillator and Noisering from Malekko Heavy Industry, Make Noise Maths, and KOMA SVF-201.

World of Wonder with DJ CatSynth, January 2, 2013

Here is the podcast from my World of Wonder show that aired at midnight on San Francisco Community Radio.

12:00AM-12:00AM (0:48) Opening Chimes / Announcements

12:00AM-12:03AM (2:22) Marvin Gaye & Tammi Terrell “Ain’t No Mountain High Enough” from 20th Century Masters: The Millennium Collection: The Best Of (MP3, 2000)

12:03AM-12:05AM (2:46) Chris Cutler & Thomas DiMuzio “When Cracks Appear: Reappearance Of Birds” from Quake (CD, 1999)

12:05AM-12:15AM (9:35) Mulatu Astatke & The Heliocentrics “Anglo Ethio Suit” from Inspiration Information 3 (CD, Album, Reggae, 2009) on Strut (UK)

12:15AM-12:26AM (10:47) C.O.M.A “Verdical” from Verdical (MP3, Single)

12:26AM-12:26AM Announcements

12:26AM-12:36AM (9:26) Nico “(The End)” from Classic Years (CD, 1998)

12:36AM-12:43AM (7:38) Cobblestone Jazz “Change Your Apesuit” from 23 Seconds (2007) on !K7 Records (UK)

12:43AM-12:46AM (2:16) The Work “Scream Circle” from Woof 7 Inches (Rock, 2006) on Ad Hoc Records

12:46AM-12:52AM (6:34) Fred Frith “Heart Bares” from Cheap At Half the Price (CD, 2004)

12:52AM-12:58AM (6:08) Solcircle “Uncle Bob” from Solcircle (CD, 2002)

12:58AM-1:00AM Station ID / Announcements

01:00AM-01:08AM (8:34) Bark Psychosis “The Black Meat” from Codename: Dustsucker (Rock, 2004) on Fire Records

01:08AM-01:14AM (6:05) Myrmyr “Fire Serpents Lull” from Fire Star (CD, 2012)

01:14AM-01:22AM (7:20) Oval “Textuell” from Systemisch (1996) on Thrill Jockey (USA)

01:22AM-01:32AM (10:22) Yuji Takahashi “Mimi No Ho” from Finger Light (1995) on Tzadik

01:32AM-01:39AM (7:13) Deletists “The Lure Or War And Boredom” from The Deletist (CD, 2003)

01:39AM-01:40AM Announcements

01:40AM-01:42AM (2:33) Cardiacs “The Obvious Identity” from The Special Garage Concerts Vol II (2005) on The Alphabet Business Concern (UK)

01:42AM-01:46AM (4:00) Various Artists – Buda / Ethiopiques “Ene Negn Bay Manesh – Girma Beyene” from Ethiopiques Volume 8: Swinging Addis (2000)

01:46AM-01:52AM (5:31) Duboniks “Fi Don’ Givit” from Trip Hop & Jazz 4 (1998)

01:52AM-01:57AM (5:23) Polygon Window “Polygon Window” from Surfing On Sine Waves (1992) on Warp Records

01:57AM-01:59AM (1:27) Ilkae “Push Pop Nil” from Pistachio Island (2001) on Merck Records

01:59AM-02:00AM Announcements / Closing Chimes

Farewell to 2012

It’s time for our traditional end-of-the-year image. It is always a challenge to decide what to include, but we thinks this captures a few of the significant elements. 2012 was a crazy and at times and a bit nerve-wracking, but it full of richness and opportunity. I except more of the same in 2013. It’s going to be a busy and challenging year ahead, but I hope to be able to continue to keep this site going and maintain the friendships I have made here.

CCRMA Transitions

We close out the year with one final gig report: my performance at the CCRMA Transitions concert at Stanford University’s computer-music center. The two-night event took place in the courtyard of CCRMA’s building, with a large audience beneath the stars and between an immersive 24-channel speaker array.

I brought my piece Realignments that I had originally composed in 2011 for a 12-channel radial speaker and eight-channel hall system at CNMAT, part of my Regents Lecturer Concert there. This version, outdoors in front a large audience and clad in a provocative costume, was quite an experience, and you can see the full performance in this video:

The Transitions version of the piece was remixed to use the eight main channels of the speaker array at CCMRA. Once again, the iPad was used to move around clouds of additive-synthesis partials and trigger point sources, which were directed at different speakers of the array. The overall effect of the harmonies, sounds and immersive sound system was otherworldly. I chose this particular costume to reflect that, although I had also used it a couple of weeks earlier in my duo “Pitta of the Mind” with poet Maw Shein Win at this year’s Transbay Skronkathon. I am planning more performances with this character (but not the same costume) in the coming year.