A new SIGHUP track is available today as part of a free compilation put out by Intelligent Machinery Productions. You can the whole compilation here:

Thoughts of the Long Now compilation

If you are just interested in my bit, here it is:

SIGHUP – For you and your big sunglasses

If you are wondering, the track title is mostly meaningless, just struck me as funny to make something as a tribute to the vapidity of the big sunglass wearers in these times of celebrity worship and overheated consumerism.

As for the compilation, it’s long (2.5 hours) and for me, a bit uneven. IMP head honcho John’s goals for these compilations are different than mine, and I believe his our predicated on encouraging communal efforts and broad participation. I’m much more interested in the monolithic aesthetic/artistic gesture. In that spirit, if you find yourself unable to sit through the whole thing, here is my revised and preferred playlist from the compilation. No slight intended to those participants I’ve excluded, this list is just a reflection of my personal tastes and interests:

01 SIGHUP – For you and your big sunglasses
02 BpOlar – Gospel 4 Si
03 dust – Headphone Drone
04 gurdonark – Sub-Atomic Joy
05 vespers – december (candles for the dead)
06 Controlled Dissonance – Bin Full of Cables
07 Slug (37 2 C) – Solaris
08 Mystahr – Drowne

I think that set makes for an excellent and engaging listen (or disengaging, as some cases may necessitate).

Usually on the last day of a calendar year, I post a stupid riff, some aimless bit of crud I, for some inexplicable reason, had sitting in my works in progress folder for a sizable portion of the year. This year is a little different in that I’ve pretty much gotten in to the habit throughout the year of deleting any stupid crap I can’t seem to do anything with.

However, there is one thing that has been sitting around for a while, something I can’t quite finish right but can’t quite let go of. So in the vague spirit of Stupid Riff Day, I give you my attempt at applying my general ambient noise approach to a dub stylee. I don’t think it’s completely without merit, but I also don’t find it very satisfying. If I don’t post it, though, the damned thing just won’t leave me alone. So here it is, SIGHUP’s Stupid Dub Day 2008.

SIGHUP – StupidRiffDub2008

And for the sake of walking down memory lane and enjoying some of my more awful musical moments, here be the stupid riffs ought six and ought seven:

Stupid Riff 2007

Stupid Riff 2006

[Update] Synthtopia has taken up the stupid riff mantle. First step toward memehood.

Chris at Analog Industries has put out a challenge to the loyal to write a song in ten minutes flat, from pre-setup to finish. Fun exercise. Here’s my entry:

SIGHUP – 10min

I did this in just under ten minutes, from opening Audiomulch to running some quick final touches on it in Sound Forge. I chose to go with something more musical than my usual drone/ambient/noise thing, since the audience at AD is likely to be less in to that sort of thing. Played MrRay73 (an e-piano VSTi plugin) into Loopyllama, recorded a quick 8 bar loop and one overdub, stopped, added effects, moved the e-piano over to a second mixer channel, added some more effects, hit record, played along with loop, saved, added a fade and some compression in Sound Forge, and saved. All done rather stream-of-consciousness stylee, as I had no preconceptions or specific ideas as I went in. There’s some flubs in there, it’s mostly plunky aimless stuff (although I think it turned out pleasantly entertaining), and the fade isn’t quite right, but then, it was all done in under ten minutes after all.

Hop on over here to Chris’s blog to check out what others have done and to post your own. Chris will pick his favourites from the bunch and give them a free copy of the forthcoming Audio Damage Automaton effect plugin. I already have Automaton, so I’m not in the running for the prize.