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NEWS INDEX 2003 - 2007
News from late 2005 until current 2007 in pdf format here.
November 11, 2005: Now you have a chance to contribute to TouchXtone.com and weigh in with your opinions; we've added both a Blog and a Forum to the site. The Blog has a little more editorial control from our side, but the Forum is more free-form and hopefully will reflect more of your personality and ideas. Let us know what you think. Click on the buttons above.
October 21, 2005: We'll be doing our annual TouchXmas concert at JavaMonkey on December 17th this year, a Saturday. Check out our schedule for more details.
October 1, 2005: Musings of the Maestro, Oct. 2005 Spring, Summer into Fall. Where does the time go? A cliché, I know. Spring: Philadelphia and the “Electro Music Conference”. An interesting “detour” thru Baltimore and DC. The I-85 route nearly killed us. Stand still traffic, practically all the way. Did I mention the rain? Mary offered to handle the ignition; Jim took a breather in the back seat and I fired up Iggy Pop and what rum I had in the passenger seat. I enjoyed the sights. I don’t see much of this part of the world and the ports, empire and industry were impressive. We took a different route home through the Pennsylvania countryside. Kept waiting for the Amish to ambush, but that’s another story.
“Electro” was an interesting gig (won’t go in to the details of the Chapel Hill gig). Met a lot of new faces. Many thanks to Bill Fox for, among many things, laying the groundwork by making us the honorary “band of the month” on his “Galactic Travels” radio show (http://wdiy.org/). Over all, it was a fun and eye-opening experience.
On the touristy side of things, Mary and I went in to downtown Philly on Sunday and had “the good shit” at Ishkabibble’s Philly Cheese Steak, posed at the Liberty Bell (had to do it) and finally afternoon daiquiri’s at Fat Tuesday’s (tourists apply here). Couple of old graveyards caught my attention. That’s where I almost broke Mary’s camera, but that’s another story (it was the headstone, Mary, honest).
On to Summer: working (somewhat) very hard on the promotion/distribution of the Conrad Schnitzler collaboration, “Mi.T.-CON 04” CD (http://www.touchxtone.com/MiT-CON04.html). It’s hard to believe that Conrad delivered the final product last November. In between getting the cover art decided, the song order decided (I played with this ‘cause I felt there may have been a need to “front-load” the tracks – and come to think of it – “back-load” as well), mastering and getting the CD to the manufacturer, it took damn near 6 months to get this thing “on the shelves”. I was also careful about keeping Conrad “in the loop”, particularly in the cover art department. After agonizing for weeks, I finally had two cover art versions for Con to choose from. In true Con-fashion, he didn’t care which one.
Proud to say “Mi.T.-CON 04” seems to have gotten off to a good start. Eurock (http://eurock.com/), Horizon Music and soon-to-be Wayside Music (http://waysidemusic.com/) have sold and will be selling it. And of course, I am selling “Mi.T.-CON 04” on the Touchxtone website (at a discount, no less) so have you got yours? Thanks to all, and particularly Con.
On to Fall: the Touchxtone lull has given me a couple of opportunities for some new collaborations. Most interesting is Evgeny Romantsov (www.evgeny-romantsov.com) with whom I’ve been engaged in doing some Francis Lai-style orchestral-synth arrangements. Not sure what, if any, of this will see the light of day. I, for one, would like to see something come out of it. Also doing some earnest collaboration with Nick Sutton of Electrobunny fame (http://www.electrobunny.co.uk/). We’ve been putting together some funky shit. I have a good feeling about this one.
Finally, wanted to say thanks to all who voted for Touchxtone in the Creative Loafing “Best Of”. This has come as a complete surprise. It’s terrifically encouraging to think that you guys would take the time to vote for us. Until next time, thanks again and happy listening to whatever you are listening to. Michael, Oct. 1, 2005.
September 30, 2005: Creative Loafing's readers have voted TouchXtone as the Best Local Electronic Act in the September 29-October 5th Best Of Atlanta issue. Thanks to everyone that voted!
September 24, 2005: Jim is still recouping from Different Skies. See photos and video of him and the other participants at http://www.differentskies.com/differentskies20.html
Also check out the DVD and CD of last year's Different Skies at http://www.differentskies.com/differentskiessh.html
September 12-17, 2005: Jim will be joining over 20 other musicians from around the world at Arcosanti, Arizona for the 3rd annual Different Skies Electronic Music Festival. The weeklong event brings performers together who do not have much chance to work together, and they spend the week composing new music that is then performed to about 125 people on Saturday, September 17 in Arcosanti's Colli Soleri Amphitheater. See photos from last year's event here.
September 10, 2005: Jim's bags (two Pelican cases and a Quik Lok case) are packed and he flys out early Monday morning to Phoenix, where he will meet up with a couple of the others flying in the festival. Tucson resident and fellow performer Doug Wellington will pick up Jim along with Paul Nagle from the UK, Tony Gerber from Tennessee, and Paul Vnuk from Minnesota.The other 15 people are either driving in or flew in earlier.
September 3, 2005: We're doing our small part to help with the relief efforts of the Red Cross. Buy a copy of either One or Two from CD Baby or from Ping Things, and we're donating our proceeds to the Red Cross. See all the bands participating at CD Baby here:
http://cdbaby.com/group/redcross
Ping Things is here:
http://www.pingthings.com I've been to New Orleans a couple of times, once to perform and once to attend a gathering of multimedia producers and see the associated multimedia festival. Both memorable events.
I performed at a place for some reason I remember as the Kit Kat Club. This was in 1982 and I was keyboardist for a new wave band called New Jetz out of Dallas/Denton, TX. When we arrived and setup, we discovered that Willie DeVille (of Mink DeVille fame) was hanging out acting as the club DJ, as his significant other seemed to own the club. We played to about 10 people at midnight, tore down quickly and made a pass through the French Quarter before heading home. New Orleans is a mythological place. I hope the people and place that is really New Orleans is able to recover and reestablish the roots that affect us all so deeply.
September 2, 2005: TouchXtone perform at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA, 8:30pm After such a horrific week, this was an antidote. A mostly "positive" vibe for the evening with the exception of a brief "Force Of Nature" interlude during the second set. A full patio for most of the evening, with Arteum, Mary, Deirdre, Leana, Molly, Julie and friend, June and Tracy giving moral support. This was a spartan setup with Michael only playing his Korg MS-2000b and his DJ rig and Jim sporting a Novation Nova, Korg ER-1, and a Lexicon Jamman all driven from a Sequentix P3 and Novation ReMOTE25 keyboard. Lots of loops and counterpoint sequences, ambiences and sound effects. The evening flew past quickly so it must have been good. Lots of new material.
August 24, 2005: Air Raid! A siren so lound, if you put a piece of paper in front of it, the paper catches on fire. http://www.victorysiren.com/x/main.htm
August 22, 2005: Bob Moog passed away yesterday at age 71. If anyone can keep the cosmic oscillators in tune, Bob is the right man for the job.
August 9, 2005: We now have 6 CDs available on CD Baby; One, Two, Three, PlanetXarium II: Equinox, Astroboy, and headmiX. Check out clips from these CDs and order online at http://www.cdbaby.com/all/touchxtone
The Different Skies 2005 Electronic Music Festival just launched a redesigned website. Information on the event can be found at http://www.differentskies.com
July 31, 2005: We forgot to mention that we had 6 tracks (both from our CDs and some unreleased music) played on the StillStream internet radio show Organbient on July 7. They played Woolgathering Commons, Subterranean, Sub-Species Rendezvous, Oasis, Lake O'Shalmirane, and Cold Stone Of Tiananmen Square. You can find out more about StillStream at http://www.stillstream.com
July 22, 2005: TouchXtone perform at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA, 8:30pm It was a night of chillout music under a warm and humid Decatur nightsky. But no rain on top of all the rain we've gotten recently. Jim was working with his new gig rig centering around his new Sequentix P3 sequencer and newly purchsed Novation Nova synthesizer, supported by his Korg ER-1 drum machine, Lexicon Jamman looper, and Novation ReMOTE25 keyboard. Michael expanded his rig back out to his Ensoniq EPS-16+ and Korg MS-2000B.
The music defintely leaned toward the drums'n'bass, and loopy sequencer driven layers. There were sonic homages of Tangerine Dream, Jean Michel Jarre, and Weather Report thrown together in a normal TouchXtonean stew. Michael and Jim were certainly having a fun time on stage.
The only downside of the evening is that the CD-R recorder broke before showtime and the night was not recorded. But perhaps that freed up the music experiementation.
Thanks for Jeff, Kara, Mason, Debbie, Stu, Julian, Mary and Arteum for making the scene!
July 11, 2005: The patron saint of the synth world, Bob Moog is battling a brain tumor. Here is a website his family put up to keep friends and family up to date about his condition. Send the man some love and positive vibes. http://www.caringbridge.com/cb/inputSiteName.do?method=search&siteName just type in the word bobmoog for site name.
July 9, 2005: On a lighter note, the annual Creative Loafing Best Of 2005 contest has started and you can vote for TouchXtone in the category of Best Local Electronic Act. The voting box is here:
http://posting.atlanta.creativeloafing.com/gbase/bestOf/bestof
Polls stay open until July 22.
Also, if you haven't signed up for our email list, please do so on the home page. We're using an email service to help us stay compliant with CAN-Spam email legislation, so if you haven't opted in yet, please do so now. And tell your friends about TouchXtone and get them to sign up, too. We send out a monthly email with upcoming concert info, press and radio updates, and new music and photo uploads.
July 8, 2005: Our thoughts go out to all our friends and all those affected in the UK. The many levels of pain these events cause is sobering and chilling. One hopes the gordian knot can be cut. Logic, reason, sanctity, evangelism, outrage, martyrdom, mayhem. None of this is cutting it now.
July 2, 2005: Lost a couple of incredible musicians yesterday. Back when I worked for CBS Records, I was fortunate enough to see Luther Vandross when he was first signed to EPIC. The CBS annual convention was in San Juan, PR in 1981 and Luther was one of the performers who played that year, belting out a capella versions of his debut, "Never Too Much," in a hotel banquet room in front of several hundred CBS-ers. Standing ovation.
The second CD I ever bought was Marvin Gaye's Greatest Hits. Mainly for the song What's Goin' On. Obie Benson was the writer of that song and the bass voice in the Four Tops. Can't Help Myself (Sugar Pie, Honey Bunch) and Reach Out (I'll Be There) were huge Four Tops hits that I sang along to as a kid listening to the radio in Texas. The complicated song structures and vocal harmonies hooked me.
June 25, 2005: Received word from Electroambient Space eidtor and publisher Phil Derby, that TouchXtone will be the featured artist reviews for August 2005. He'll be reviewing TouchXtone CDs One, Two, Three, and EyeDrum And Beyond.
A preview of those reviews is published here (thanks Phil!).
June 19, 2005: Listened to the recordings for last Friday night and am really liking the results. There's definitely some magic moments, and the additions of live percussion and P3 sequencer are quite wonderful elements in the mix. One of our listeners made a remark at the break that our music pushed folks to the edge of anticipation, waiting for a change, challenging their sense of verse-chorus-verse. Then we force a change in expectations, a letting go, and at that point, the audience becomes swept up in the music, drifing with it.
If that's what we do, Eno would be proud.
The sonic overflow from the Decatur beach party took its toll on the second set and the first set is more cohesive as a result. But affect on the second set was not so much as bleeding through the microphones, but I can tell much of our performance was being masked by all the low frequencies from a block away bouncing around inside the patio hut. May not have been apparent to the audience but there were loops continuing to play that I thought were simply rumbles from the concert down the block. In reality they were both. I'm just glad I used whatever beat was resulting as my guide beat to what I was playing!
I really like the way Java Monkey has transformed their patio space into a little performance area. The wooden bleachers are great and the openness feels better, plus the fact that it makes the stage feel more like a stage and less like a postage stamp.
June 17, 2005: TouchXtone perform at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA, 8:30pm A new look on the Java Monkey patio. Nice work, Mike! A whole new thang for TouchXtone, too. As Phil said, "You're shifting again." Michael brought his conga (and played it like he used to be the middle guy inSantana's band) and a stripped down setup with just Korg MS-2000B and his loopy CD players. Jim continued to break in the P3, hooking it up to a Kurzweil K2000, a nice combo. The JD-800 and the Jamman made major appearances throughout the night. And a smattering of hand percussion and the magic melodica. We got both sets recorded end to end. A very trippy, drums'n'bass'n'fx kinda evening.
Thanks to Mary, Phil and Vickie, Phil and Katherine, June and Stacy, Julie, Deirdre, Leana, the couple from Alabama who bought our new CDs, and the other people who attended the show.
June 15, 2005: The other performers I want to mention who made an impression at electro-music 2005 are two groups a little closer to our neck of the woods: Amaranth Signal, well two of the three Amaranth Signal players, Mark Mahoney and Michael D. Peck, turned in an inspired set with wonderfully dark ambient moments and lovely lead melodies accompanied by a beautiful video backdrop. They hail from Johnson City, Tennessee, and we hope to do a joint show at some point in the near future. Incredible musicians and just good folks. Their set featured a walk-on performance by Amy X. Neuburg, who added ethereal vocalizations to an already ethereal piece. Magic.
Recompas, aka Travis Thatcher, aka Atlanta's WREK radio host for The Mobius, put in one fine set of laptop shananigans in front of an adoring crowd. Take killer beats, mix liberally with 8-bit game sounds and live sax, throw in some free jazz mangles, with a requisite touch of glitch and beauty sounds, topped by a popmeister's dollop of structure and melody, and viola! Recompas.
Finally, I want to acknowledge the incredible work of the organizers for the electro-music 2005 festival, Howard Moscovitz, Greg Waltzer, and Bill Fox, plus all the people who volunteered to make the experience so seamless for the performers and participants.
June 12, 2005: Well, as you can see by the photos in the photos section, we had a great time on our trip to Chapel Hill and Philadelphia. It was a small crowd at Nightlight on Thursday night, but we needed the rehearsal in addition to breaking in the new P3 sequencer and it was just nice playing in a new town and venue. The recording of the evening came out well and there are one or two things we played that will wind up on CD at some point.
The next day, we drove what turned out to be a 9-hour trip in the rain and traffic up through Washington DC, Baltimore, and into Philadelphia. We had hoped to arrive early afternoon, but the bumper-to-bumper didn't allow that, so we checked in to our rooms and headed to the Cheltenham Arts Center around 7pm.
The event was in full swing by that point and we caught most of the evening's entertainment and a few beers in the process. Got to catch up a bit with friends from Different Skies including Greg Waltzer, Bill Fox, and James Lacey. Also met Gert van Santen and his fellow Wave World partners Harry and Rolf who ended up the evening with us polishing off Michael's rum. We all dispersed around 2:30 or 3am. Back up and out to the hall at 11am and begin a long process of setting up for our evening's performance in the main theater. There were 4 groups sharing the stage during the evening and Amy X. Nueburg was doing an afternoon seminar, so we set up in one corner at the front stage left.
There were too many great bands to review, but a few really made an impression:
Amy X. Neuburg totally blew everyone away. Hard to explain her act but suffice to say she creates out of thin air entire songs and arrangements/orchestrations using pretty much her voice, a looper, a rack synth, and a KAT drum controller. Smart, funny, and though provolking. Definitely set the bar very high on the performance scale.
Wave World; the guys from the Netherlands tore the roof off withan inspired set of amazing visuals and even more amazing sounds. We found out later they had a major glitch about 30 minutes before their set, but recovered nicely and received a long standing ovation for their work.
Electrobunny is the name Nick Sutton goes by when standing in front of his tiny Mac laptop rig. The music that comes out of that rig is dense, complex, yet completely melodic and danceable. Orbital comes to mind, but an Orbital at the top of their form and at their most hummable. And since Orbital have hung up their gear, Nick can easily slide in and take over. Nick's only 20 and from Bristol UK and I see a huge career ahead of this guy. I can say I ran sound for him at electro-music 2005!
More later...
June 4, 2005: TouchXtone perform at the electro-music festival in Philadelphia, PA, 7pm.
June 2, 2005: TouchXtone perform at Nightlight in Chapel Hill, NC, 9pm.
June 1, 2005: The van's packed up and we're heading out early tomorrow morning for Chapel Hill. There's a new Sequentix P3 coming along for the ride that will see it's debut tomorrow night and lots of new MTR stuff just waiting to be unleased. We're bringing boxes of new and catalog CDs plus a box of tour t-shirts for the multitudes. Lots of excitement here and anticipation. I'll write it all up once we return home.
May 10, 2005: WDIY is doing "a month-long focus on the Atlanta Georgia-based TouchXtone." The Featured CD on May 5th was "One." http://wdiy.org/programs/gt/playlists/2005/focus05.html
WDIY 88.1 FM, Allentown and Bethlehem, PA, 93.9 FM in Easton, PA and Phillipsburg, NJ, 93.7 FM in Fogelsville and Trexlertown, 92.9 FM on Service Electric Cable, and webcasting on the internet. Listen on-line to WDIY at http://wdiy.org and click on the LISTEN link or go directly to:
http://rm1.refugemedia.com/ramgen/encoder/wdiy.rm
GALACTIC TRAVELS web site - http://wdiy.org/programs/gt/
May 5, 2005: For electronic and progressive music fans in and around Atlanta, RogueFest 2005 is happening at Jake's Toadhouse on Saturday and Sunday June 18 & 19. Giles Reaves (Jim's fellow Different Skies alumnus) will be performing his incredible brand of space music with Nashville band Spacecraft,and Atlanta's own Z-Axis, whom TouchXtone performed with at last year's East Lake Commons benefit, is on the bill performing an intricate set of pristene progressive rock. A treat not to be missed!
May 2, 2005: My sister's birthday! Happy Birthday Carol! Received our copy of Sequences Magazine today from the UK. Discovered that the track they picked is actually Virgin Saw (instead of A Perfect Future In Real Estate). Virgin Saw is an unreleased live cut that we recorded at the East Lake Commons Benefit Concert last year at this time. Cool to see this track become available just as we release headmiX, which has other selections from the same show. Got a nice picture and blurb in the magazine, too. Thanks Nick! Ordering info is at the bottom of the page.
May 1, 2005: We've posted samples from all new CDs. Check out the Downloads page for free headmiX, Astroboy, and Michael's Mi.T-CON 04 sample mp3s.
April 30, 2005: Another CD we're going to talk alot about is Michael's new CD, Mi.T.-CON 04, which is a collaboration with Tangerine Dream and Kluster founding member Conrad Schnitzler. It's way cool and an extraordinary romp through a spikey sonic forest. Check it out here.
April 16, 2005: The masters for our two new CDs are winging their way to the pressing plant.
headmiX is a CD of remixes of the best unreleased material over the last year. DJ Mi.T. took the producer chair and worked his mighty magic after combing the archives for beat&slam-worthy material. With some sprinkles of sonic icing and some novel mixmastering, Mi.T. cooked up a tasty feast. We're really enthused with the music and the cover art, which is a collaboration between photographer Mary Souther, and monsieurs Mi.T. and Ji.C. It literally is the many faces of TouchXtone. There's even an official Tour T-shirt up on our store for those of you who are interested in such things. 56 minutes +
astroboy was Jim's favorite cartoon growing up in Oklahoma. Well it is now one of his favorite TouchXtone CD's as well. Edited from live performances at the January 21, 2005 JavaMonkey show, these 9 songs showcase the heavier, electro drum laden sound and theatrical atmospherics that resulted from the forced hiatus of the band over the 2004 holidays due to Jim's bout with bronchitis and the remnants of preparations for a 2nd TouchXmas show. Jim's melodica and vintage CS-50 make their recorded debut, each representing polar opposites on the soul spectrum. And Michael's inspired melodies and arpeggios and even a Bernie Worrell-channeling funky bass synth solo take this CD into new territory for the band. 53 minutes +
April 14, 2005: Musings from the maestro (Mi.T.) - I listened to set 1 of the last Java Monkey show (March 25) and must say that I really, really (that's two "really's") like it. It's just as I recalled: gentle, sparse, melodic. Almost a turning point in what Touchxtone has been formulating the last six months or so. The challenging parts are there; in some ways it's relentless in the bloops and bleeps and continuous onslaught of rhythms and ideas. There is a great peak when the church bells come in for the second time (after a creepy inter-stellar interlude). I recall getting some goosebumps when we were performing (and looking up at audience member Phil, who nodded appreciatively). And it doesn't stop there! Jim brings out another crunchy industro-rhythm, speeding it up quite effectively, and I cap everything off with a gentle techno rhythm with sparse chords and a tasty melodic line. This last piece could seemingly go on too long, but I find it infectious in its confidence and stridency, not to mention its lush harmony. There were some P.A. issues when we were performing, particularly with the Wavestation volume level, but what ended up on CD is exactly how my headphones sounded. The Wavestation is somewhat diminished and adds a "sheen" at times and brings out a melody every now and then. A clear winner!
April 11, 2005: Mick Garlick, editor at Sequences Magazine in the U.K. sent a note today letting us know that our track, A Perfect Future In Real Estate, was selected and included on the sampler CD that accompanies the new issue of Sequences magazine.
The skinny on Issue No30: "With so many EM artists having fallen by the wayside it's a real blast to see that Durham-based British EM veteran Ron Berry is still active making music in 2004, an interview and a new track from Ron is featured. We have chat with the legendary Andy Garabaldi who with Nessie relaunched the audio magazine Inkeys last year. Always expect something new from Ian Boddy's DIN label which brings us diverse and original sounds, sometimes more experimental than the usual EM, news, loads of new releases reviewed." www.micksequences.demon.co.uk
US copies should be available from Archie Patterson at Eurock. PO Box 13718 Portland, Oregon 97213, U.S.A., e-mail: apatters@eurock.com (credit cards, USA Checks)
April 7, 2005: In all the years TouchXtone has been performing, we've never performed out of state and we've never done a "road trip" tour. The first week in June we'll have the opportunity to do both! First stop is a really cool club called Nightlight, then on to Philly for 3 days of electo-music 2005 festival and a showcase spot on Saturday night.
With several new CDs just being finished up, this will be a release tour, too.
March 25, 2005: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Big crowd at JavaMonkey on Good Friday. Weather played a big part, cooperating with lots of sun and warmth during the day. Michael and I did a full night build, second set seemingly even better than the first. Think we got our balance locked in better in the second set as the crowd was pretty noisy in the first set. Adding more acoustic instruments as we go. In addition to the melodica and tibetian bells, slipped in a little recorder in the second set. Michael brought out the Wavestation for this show and got a wave sequence going at the end of the evening. I'm leaning on the JD-800 as my primary sounds and the Korg ER-1 as the main drum machine, with the SH-32 filling in and around.
Thanks to Dorie, Deirdre, Moria, Leana, Susan, Phil, Vickie, and Mary for being the cheering section. And thanks to Arteum for picking up a CD and the prog links!
March 20, 2005: Live concert at Agnes Scott College Delafield Planetarium in Decatur, GA.
Wow, what a blast! Another great time at the Planetarium, with special thanks to Chris DePree for inviting us out again. As usual, Chris' visuals were wonderful to look at and just the thing to drift off on.
It was an all new music set for us, 5 or 6 new pieces ranging across synthy, spacey, ambient, and pop. We started out ambient for the sunset, evolved into a sequency section, into more rhythmy ambient sections, into some stringy parts, back to sequency, to pop, and woke up (or fell asleep as the case may be) to a very spacey ambient ending.
It was again an honor to see Mrs. Calder again at the show, as this concert is named for her husband. Her comment as she passed by, "a beautiful marriage of visuals and sound." I thought so, too.
Thanks for everyone that attended and to those who purchased CDs. We're glad you could enjoy it with us!
March 13, 2005: Elegy for a lost fish (the song that got away from Jim): I spent all day Saturday working on music for next weekend's Planetarium show and had just finished up a really nice framework piece, just ready to be mixed down, when I crashed the hard drive with the music on it. It was operator error, I tried to save into a volume that was in the midst of being backed up. Let's just say that it did not fail gracefully. All gone, drive needed to be reinitialized in order to work. Neither Norton nor Disk Warrior could find any traces of the nearly 200 gigs of data previously on the drive.
This was not a total loss. I backup all drives on a regular basis. So everything other than what I was working on for the last week was safely archived (and is now streaming back onto the drive in question).
Only two music projects were affected by the crash and I have stems from one of them burned off on a disc (and I think the master files were backed up last week). But one is gone, completely. It was a good one, too. There was a discussion of the sand paintings of Buddhist monks on one of the lists recently. I clearly have work to do on my 12-fold path. It was a shock to lose that music. It's taken me all day to come to terms with it.
March 10, 2005: More info on the electro-music festival can be found here.
From the Electro-Music.com website:
We proudly announce electro-music 2005(TM), a three day conference/music festival to be held at the Cheltenham Art Center in Philadelphia, June 3 - 5, 2005. The program will include lectures, demos, jam sessions, and concerts.
The scope of this festival is very broad, covering all aspects of electro-music, experimental electronic music, including circuit bending, computer music, electro-jazz, modular synthesis, musique concrete, improvisation, noodles (generated or automatic music and algorithmic composition), multi-media, visual art and much more. The focus will be on participant involvement, sharing, community development, audience education, and great music.
The majority of the activities at electro-music 2005(TM) will be contributions of members of electro-music.com, an international community of composers and musicians that share a passion for electro-music. Electro-music.com is a place where artists and musicians meet, collaborate, support each other, sell CDs, and nurture their audiences. The community exists to create its own critical mass; to enable its members to develop music on their own terms. Electro-music is new music; still undefined; happening all over our planet. Electro-music is the natural result to techno/social trends: the availability of low-cost powerful electronic music technology, and the communication revolution enabled by the internet. Electro-music is not defined by a particular style or sound, but by its primary motivation being the joy of creation, and the love of electronic sounds. It can be slow and spacey, or fast and rhythmic; it crosses many genres.
The Cheltenham Art Center is an ideal facility for a multi-day event like this. (see: http://electro-music.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=4390). It is a beautiful building with a relaxed and informal ambience, located in a secluded wooded section of Philadelphia. We'll have two excellent concert venues and two galleries for our activities during the full three days. The Art Center is accessible by public transportation (bus and train) from central Philadelphia.
Philadelphia is a great historic American city with a rich cultural heritage and a very active electro-music scene. Philly has an excellent international airport and abundant accommodations. It is a wonderful cultural/tourist destination in its own right, and is situated between two others, New York City, and the Baltimore - Washington, DC area. Many people will want to combine electro-music 2005 with a tour of the eastern United States. Europeans, the exchange rates have never been better for you.
electro-music 2005 will be a defining event for our electro-music community. Not only will we ourselves find it enriching, informative, fulfilling and fun, but we will get unprecedented public exposure. It's time for the world to take notice of the electro-music scene. To paraphrase Dylan, something is happening and they don't know what it is. We are about to change all that.
This event will also serve as the annual Nord Modular users' group meeting which has previously been held in The Hague and London.
March 9, 2005: TouchXtone will be performing at and attending the Electro-Music Festival in Philadelphia, PA from June 3 - 5, 2005. More information will be posted as we know it.
March 7, 2005: TouchXtone has once again been asked to be the featured performer at the William A. Calder Spring Equinox Concert on Sunday, March 20th at 2:00pm. From the last time we performed:
"We can’t think of a better venue than the Delafield Planetarium and consider ourselves quite fortunate to be able to feel the inspiration of the place, as well as Professor De Pree’s enthusiasm and knowledge for all things celestial. The fact that this is a concert in honor of William A. Calder, the founder of the observatory, makes for another very special event. It’s an electronic musician’s dream. We set up in the back of the planetarium for two reasons; first, any little bit of light destroys the total blackout necessary to project the star fields from the Starmaster, so being behind the audience helped us contain the light produced by our keyboards and needed to see what we’re doing while playing. Secondly, we get a much better view of what Chris De Pree is doing with the visuals by being at the back so can react better to what the audience is seeing and use that to influence our improvisation.
We'll have a capacity audience for the show that will included many families and kids of all ages. Electronic music gets a bad rap sometimes in regard to the kind of audience that is drawn to it. In our experience, and this show is a prime example, both men and women ages 8 months to 80 years enjoy the music, especially when the venue has so much to offer, like the Delafield Planetarium." Seating is limited for this PlanetXarium event to 70, so come early to make sure you get a seat.
March 3, 2005: MUSINGS OF THE MAESTRO (MTR) MARCH 2005
Found this on the web today-
http://www.au-lapin-agile.com/agilea.htm Click on Today, then scroll down to The Best Training:
THE BEST TRAINING.
Cabaret as a forum for expression is the best school in which to train artistes,writers, composers and performers. In France, there is great artistic potential in all these fields; the proof lies in the number of auditions requested by the young artistes of Paris and the provinces who wish to perform in public. As the Quebecois author Doris Lussier writes in Le Père Gédéon: "The cabaret is an art school of the highest value. There are no teachers as in the conservatory, but there is a public who teach you the things that you would never learn in the big professional schools. The best teacher that an artiste can have is the public. That is true and has always been the case. For the cabaret, however, it is particulary true, because there the public is uninhibited. By that, I mean it is not mesmerised by the slightly stiff atmosphere of conventional theatre. Here we are at ease and can let our hair down. We express spontaneously what we are feeling and applaud or whistle without embarrassment or constraint." The Lapin Agile is the perfect definition of the artistic cabaret. Everyone, artiste and audience, combines to form a company to cross the time barriers.
They take pleasure in singing together old provincial songs and discovering unknown artistes -- poets, writer-composers, musicians, humorists and singers. Sounds familiar!
February 27, 2005: Is TouchXtone the Sound Tribe Sector 9 of the coffee house set?
February 26, 2005: A couple of stories from last night's gig... Our extreme fans, Phil and Vicki, braved the long drive in from Winder, Georgia to check out our show. Between the drive and the parking, that's alot of motivation and a nice tribute. Phil picked up another couple of CDs from us, which I think makes him the owner of the largest TouchXtone collection in Georgia (outside the band). There's only one other guy in the world with a larger collection (superfan Andrew in the UK). It means alot when folks respond to what we do, and to have them do that on a regular basis is quite gratifying. Phil is a fan of ambient tones on top of a beat, so our new stuff is definitely filling the bill. We've got two new CDs on the way (plus a secret special Michael Thomas Roe collaboration) that will lean very heavily in the drums'n'bass direction, so stay tuned.
We had a gentleman (Mike?) come up at the break and buy a copy of our "2" CD. He said he and his wife and another couple were walking around the area after dinner and thought to go to Java Monkey to sit and talk. His wife, seeing all our equipment set up, commented "No, they've got a band playing tonight," but the suggestion was made to poke their head in and see what the band sounded like before finding another place. Well, an hour later, they're buying a CD and saying "These guys are good!" We're glad we can continue to surprise people and make music that is both fun to play and enjoyable to listen to (and not too distracting from conversations with friends and family). Another gratifying experience. Thanks for giving us the chance! Hey, I found a copy of Venus Hum's "Big Beautiful Sky" at Decatur CD for $3 today!
It's a huge coup to get folks you work with to make it out to see you play. For one, they see you all day long, and two, in our case, electronic music may not be their idea of a happening night on the town. Both Michael and I are blessed with a great set of work friends. Last month, Michael had a huge contingent show up that partied well into the evening. That kind of showing really makes for a fun gig because the energy level is already high to start and we can add frosting on the cake with our playing. Last night, a new co-worker, Anna K and her friend, stopped by during the second set inbetween dinner and karioke with a larger group of friends. I didn't even see her arrive, but looked up at the end of the set to see her amongst the crowd during the final applause. One final example of how you make it all worthwhile. Electronic music can be such a solitary project, but TouchXtone has very much become a shared experience. That's pretty special in our book.
February 25, 2005: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Bells and melodica, drums'n'bass, a nice crowd of both familiar and new faces, and a cool but rainless evening. All the makings of a laid back electronic music night at Java Monkey. The ambient pieces with a beat probably were the standouts of the evening. We much appreciated the great show of support from our friends and especially those who picked up CDs!
February 18, 2005: Jim is one of 21 performers that will be appearing at the Different Skies 2005 electronic music festival in Arcosanti, Arizona. Date for the final concert perfomance is tenatively set for Saturday, September 17.
February 6, 2005: We've pulled all our music clips off the music streaming service we were using and are now hosting all our clips off www.touchxtone.com. That means you point your friends to the downloads page and they can get a CD or two worth of TouchXtone music for free. Of course, we think the best of our music is still only available on CD, but the clips on the site are not too shabby either. We hope if you like what you hear, you'll come back for the real deal, complete with high fidelity sound and gorgeous cover and cd artwork.
January 27, 2005: MUSINGS OF THE MAESTRO (MTR) JANUARY 2005 Happy New Year to all and thanks for checking us out in the past. Time is being spent trying to determine future course of events for Touchxtone. Last year seemed to grind to a stand still. And it happened so eventually, it was hardly noticed.
But lots of air-clearing, I suppose, and it’s time now to think of future things and what could and should lie ahead.
The priority one for next year is new music. It’s dawned on Jim and me that all the Touchxtone music available on CD is over a year old. And there have been hours and hours of new stuff since. Composing music is the easiest thing being in a band. It’s almost effortless. What some would call “spontaneous” or “improvisatory” is really just a laying down of tracks that have already been knocking around the brain for a while. It’s a matter of time and place for the sounds and melodies to surface. And thank goodness they do.
Santa was good to me. More Ennio Morricone soundtracks than I can digest. Francis Lai, too. I was able to score the soundtrack to “Plastic Tree”, which Francis had mentioned to me when I met him in Paris, April of 2003. I wasn’t even sure the soundtrack existed, but I found it thru a Canadian CD-shop. It is very cool, with crisp acoustic guitar and English singing by Nick Hamilton. I’m thinking this one should be quite rare. Get out the plastic sleeve and shelve it!
Got a Morricone BBC documentary on DVD. The first time I had really even seen the maestro move, let alone talk, compose and conduct. My Dutch friends met him in Brussels a couple of years back. I was sitting here in the States suffering from being an American. What a drag. Why I have this inclination for European music (and beer!) is beyond me. I suppose my chances of ever getting close to Morricone is slim to none, but never say never, eh?
Actually, I’ve had some pretty nice brushes with famous people. One of these brushes will be announced shortly on this very web site. It may surprise you. It may startle you. It may… even… terrify you.
Stay tuned…
January 21, 2005: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. We like Friday nights. A new year, some new gear, a full patio, lots of friends, colleagues, neighbors, a warm dry night, a fire in the fireplace, cozy warm. Almost (if not all) new music tonight. A little more drums and bass, lots of ambient/atmospheric. Songifific.
We gave out milagros as a belated TouchXmas present for all present. Many thanks to all of you that made the night a blast!
January 1, 2005: Happy New Year!
November 27, 2004: Live "ThanXgiving" concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. In honor of ThanXgiving, Michael and Jim pulled out all sorts of new stuff for the audience. Jim went all pre-MIDI gear (Roland Juno-6, Roland CR-5000, Roland SH-3a, Yamaha CS-50), most of it 25-30 years old. Amazingly, considering the cold and the rain, it all stayed in tune and sounded wonderful. Jim also brought out his melodica, and put it to good use on several tunes, most notably the beginning songs for both sets. Michael was king of the voice samples, orchestral strings, sound effects, and excellent piano.
The crowd showed up during the second set, quite a contrast to the couple of solitary tables during the first set. We went from a whisper to a scream somewhere around 10 o'clock.
Lots of new material got previewed tonight.
November 23, 2004: Live concert at Brandyhouse in Atlanta, GA, opening for Belljar.
Thanks to ARIA (Art Rock In Atlanta) for invitiing us out. We enjoyed being in a new place, playing for some new people, with a rockin' PA system (plenty of low end), and a big stage. Hey, Jim even got to set up his 30 year old Yamaha CS-50 and add its dulcet tones to a couple of tunes. It doesn't get much better than that! Big thanks to the 40 or so folks who came out on a wet Tuesday before Thanksgiving.
It was a mostly "greatest hits" set list, opening with Fences, moving into Procession, Doughbot, Woolgathering, Rhodes Groove, Sparkly Sahara, an improvised ambient interlude and closing with Tennis Shoe. Lots of new sparkles and wrinkles over familiar material.
Belljar was the headline act for the evening and their power quartet of bass, drums, acoustic guitar and vocals was a breath of fresh air with the absence of electric guitar: Lots of open space in the middle frequencies to better hear what everyone was playing and singing. Think intelligent Evanesence with interesting chords and rhythms.
November 5, 2004: Benefit concert for Waldorf School of Atlanta 5th Grade Olympics at Ashton's in Decatur, GA.
A really nice show at Ashton's. A good crowd for a great cause. Michael brought out the Korg Wavestation in addition to his MS-2000B and Jim was all Roland with a JD-800, a Juno-6, and a CR-5000 CompuRhythm in addition to his Parker NiteFly guitar. The evening started with a refined ambient dual between loopy guitar and spacey synth and slowly evolved into a Tangerine Dream-esque sequencey jam. The rest of the evening tended to more "kinder, gentler" tones and beats, though the evening ended with a rather atonal and angular concoction of guitar, noise percussion, and sound effects.
Thanks to Luma at Ashton's and Deirdre for organizing!
October 30, 2004: Live "HalloXeen" concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Shout outs to everyone who came out and made our HalloXeen party including Phil & Vickie, Mary and friends, Deirdre and our friends from Dublin Margaret & Seamus. Michael went all out to both decorate the stage with appropriate scary items and contributed many great horror film samples throughout the evening to put everyone in the proper mood along with a unique couple of sets of darker TouchXtone fare.
October10, 2004: Drove Brian and Clark back to the airport and then boarded my flight back home. There was a Robert Fripp lookalike on the flight. I'm exhausted. But very happy.
October 9, 2004: Concert day. There is a group of about 60 Arizona State University architecture students coming today to tour Arcosanti and do a question and answer session with Paolo Soleri. A subgroup of us perform for the students during their lunch break in an attempt to woo a few back for tonight's performance. We get a chance to sit in on the discussion with Paolo and it is quite amazing to hear his take on current urban development and the unsustainable nature most of the world (especially the US) operates under.
We begin the day by optimizing all connections through and to the PA mixer to try to remove as much noise and gain as much signal from the lines as possible. Giles, Mike, and Paul Vnuk worked their magic as they went from performer/rig to performer/rig. I've never seen so many Mackie and Behringer mixers plugged together at one time.
The evening began with the many visitors streaming into Arcosanti and touring around the complex. Sue took our group photo by the Vaults and then we proceeded to the dining hall to join the concert goers in a gourmet meal with white tableclothes.
The concert began promptly at 7:30pm with a short intro by MC Metlay. The opening number had been thought up mid week by Otso and featured an open D drone. The video screen projected an Arcosanti image with the name of a performer on it, Mike hit an Arcosanti chime and pointed his spotlight, and the performer had a 30 second spot over the drone to showcase a sound or style for the audience. Kind of an aural and visual introduction to each player. I got chills as the piece progressed and think that one piece displayed the variety and spectrum of music that would be performed that evening in an incredible way.
The concert sound has gelled and sounds like a nicely loud stereo system, full in range, not distorted, with all instruments clear and strong. I wasn't sure it would turn out this way, but obviously the work Giles, Mike and Paul did worked wonders. I should also state that for the most part, there was no sound engineer controlling the sound, only the professionalism of the performers and their good ears kept the sound in a great place.
The show continued with the more songform pieces from Mutation Vector and Ozone Player. Then there were more ambient, more jazzy pieces. Tim, James and my piece, Divine Wind, was situated at the backend of the middle section of the show. I improvised a little human interaction between the last really slow ambient piece and our really clangy loud electronic piece by running to the middle of the stage and engaging the audience in a little mime exercise to get them to make a lot of noise that Tim seamlessly used to start the piece. We, like everyone, received a loud round of applause before the next "team" of musicians hit the stage. That was alot of fun!
Once the main program was complete, everyone came back on stage for a thirty minute freeform jam that was started by Paul N and Nick. And before we knew it, the show was over. We gave ourselves a few minutes to chat with remaining concert attendees and pat ourselves on the back, then proceeded to tear everything down and pack up for our early departures in the morning.
October 8, 2004: We have two shows today; an afternoon show and tell with 40 students from the local high school and an evening show for the residents of Arcosanti which will serve as our tech rehearsal for the main show tomorrow night.
October 7, 2004: The migration to the mainstage begins as everyone starts to dig in for the main show. Rigs are adjusted and moved, new rigs are moved in. The set list becomes solidified for both Friday and Saturday shows. Tim Walters has invited myself and James Lacey to contribute to an experimental piece called Divine Wind that will feature Tim's supercollider work, James' outerworldly analog electronics, and my Roland JD-800.
October 6, 2004: Media day today for Mike Metlay, Nick Rothwell, and Jim Combs on the local PBS station's Arizona Morning show. The local version of Regis and Cathy Lee spent about 7 minutes interviewing us on what Different Skies is about and what people could expect from the show. Mike did a masterful job of condensing things down, Nick showed off his Buchla Thunder controller, and Jim talked about being the newbie and performing with an older synth and a laptop. More rehearsals and band groupings. I spent some time working with Tim Walters and his Super Collider setup doing some nice ambient stuff that we decided to thin out a bit for the Saturday show.
We are getting more formal with the PA times for the day, having sound off time for headphone rehearsals, and then PA time for performers to get their stage sound adjusted.
The after dinner jam proved to be quite impressive. Excellent sounds and visuals, the group going through lots of rhythmic changes and dynamics, and it all held together quite impressively for such a large group. Bodes well for the shows at the end of the week.
We've added a Friday show for 40 school kids from the area. Kind of a show and tell with a short concert.
We played a small concert down in the "camp" for the residents and other Arcosanti workshop attendees. We used alot of electronic and acoustic drums, one Korg Prophecy monosynth, one seven-string guitar that functioned both as a bass and guitar, and a melodica. Plus Nick's incredible Max processing.
That was preceded by Jim, Giles, and Otso keeping a close eye on a 3 foot rattlesnake that wandered in front of the dorm rooms. The local snake wrangler Ron came down and helped move it away to a less populated area of the desert. October 5, 2004: Day two was mainly about getting absent pieces of the PA together and getting the video system set up. People started rehearsing predetermined pieces and experimenting with different combos of performers. As you can see from the photos, much of this collaboration occurred under headphones, so everyone could practice without blasting the sound system and drowning each other out.
After dinner, a full blown impromptu performance jam sprung up and allowed the performers to stretch out and David Tristam to exercise his incredibly beautiful visual artistry. The last piece featured some incredible percussion by David Brewer on Handsonic and Rus Foster on his big electronic drum kit, all with much dense sound clouds generated by about eight other musicians on stage.
October 4, 2004: Flying to Phoenix was relatively painless, though I did have every piece of luggage searched and I just made it under the weight limit for my JD-800 case and my suitcase which had a bunch of cabling and mixer, CDs, clothes, etc. in it. I crossed my fingers and everything arrived intact.
I met Brian Good and Clark Salisbury at the airport baggage claim, and once we rented a car, we were on our way to Arcosanti. Brian is a wind player and brought his sax and Steiner EWI (Electronic Wind Instrument) with him. Clark is a guitar player and brought his MIDI'ed Strat and a bunch of processing gear.
We arrived at Arcosanti and begin unloading gear onto the stage and everything else into our rooms. Much of the rest of the day was just getting set up and checking to see that our equipment still worked after the flights, chatting with everyone to get acquainted and starting our week of wonderful food and drink at the Arcosanti dining hall. The wild part of the dining hall is that dinner is served just as the sun is setting and because the architecture is both covered and open to the outdoors, bats began flying around the space like the owls in the Harry Potter movies. Quite cool.
October 4 - 9, 2004: Jim attends/performs at Different Skies Electronic Music Festival at Arcosanti in Arizona.
September 28, 2004: Still listening to last weekend's performance recordings. I think we really brought the planetarium to the JavaMonkey this time. I can see all sorts of planetarium imagery as I listen while in my car. Not necessarily the best thing while driving around Atlanta, but pretty cool all the same. We'll try to get a clip up this weekend.
Jim is rethinking his traveling rig to Different Skies: After the show this weekend, I came to the conclusion I needed to bring my Roland JD-800. The laptop rig is still going with me, but it is not reliable enough for me yet to be my one and only instrument. I'm looking forward to seeing what the other attendees do with there's and how they configure them for performance.
September 24, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Wow, great show at JavaMonkey! Thanks to all who filled the patio to overflowing. Your attention and deep listening was much appreciated! Just listened to the beginning of the first set in the car on the way home from the gig and really like the atmospheres we were drawing out of our boxes. Sometimes when you turn on the spout, it just flows out. Many thanks for the CD sales and tips!
September 18, 2004: From Jim- Being one of the fortunate ones invited and able to attend the Different Skies event this year, I’m having to re-examine pretty much all notions of what it means for me to be a performer of electronic music.
Different Skies will bring 18 musicians together with 2 video artists and a couple of sound engineers, many of whom have performed together before and a few (including myself) haven’t yet met anyone else (except via email). We will spend the better part of 5 days at Arcosanti in Arizona collaborating together for a concert on the 6th day in Arcosanti’s huge amphitheater.
So at this point, I don’t know who I’ll be playing with (though everyone attending in my eyes is crème de la crème) and I don’t know what I’ll be playing (somewhat par for the course as my own band is improvisational). So I have to find a way to be both unique and generic/flexible in both sound and style so I can be both additive to the collaboration AND fit in where ever I wind up.
There are a couple of self imposed and environmental restrictions I have to keep in mind. First off, I’m flying from Atlanta to Phoenix and sharing a rent car for the drive up to Arcosanti. They’ll also be a fair amount of movement around Arcosanti as different rehearsals are conducted and getting 18 performers on a main stage at the final concert dictates being as minimal as possible with the equipment footprint. Since my normal performance rig takes up my entire car, that means I have to greatly reduce what I’ll be bringing.
So if you are keeping score; jettison or change most of rig, don’t know who I’m playing with or what we’re playing. Be unique, be flexible and accommodating. Oh yeah, better be good to keep up with the talent around me. Right. No problemo. I normally gig with one of two main keyboards (usually my Roland JD-800 or sometimes my Kurzweil K2000), a secondary keyboard (my Roland Juno-6), and occasionally a tertiary keyboard (either my Roland SH-3a or Yamaha CS-50). Since I have to carry everything I bring, I’m limiting myself to a backpack, a large suitcase with wheels, a 4-space portable rack, and a small box with a keyboard stand.
So my Different Skies rig will shift to software. I’m taking my Apple iBook with Reason 2.5 and Native Instruments B4. I’m hooking up my Novation ReMOTE 25 USB keyboard and will live with only having 2 octaves of keys under fingers. I’m trying to learn Subtractor enough to get it to behave like my Juno-6 and Malstrom to behave like my JD-800. Like being the operable word.
I’ve mostly used Reason as a beat maker up until now, so I’m not totally unfamiliar with the program. But it’s been my ”mobile” composition unit and never my main sound sources, and never my main performance rig.
So what else is going in the backpack? Sharp Mini-disc recorder/charger/microphone, Nikon digital camera, cell phone, sunglasses, Sennheiser headphones, reading material, travel info, a flashlight.
What’s going in the suitcase besides clothes? Hold and volume pedals, 150’ of XLR cables, my Melodica, Behringer mixer, TouchXtone CDs for sale and trade, an extra tier for the keyboard stand, blank CD-Rs, 100’ of AC cables, assorted connector cables and adapters, batteries, ethernet cable.
That leaves the portable rack case: 8 output AC power conditioner, Lexicon Jamman, Headphone distribution amp.
This should be interesting. So far, it’s been a lot of fun. What is my “sound”, what range of patches do I like to have ready to go, how do I set things up in a virtual space that mimics my physical set-up? A useful examination every now and again. In the end, I basically just have to let go of the outcome. If I don’t forget any cables and the equipment works, I’ll be fine. Frankly, if I just looked over the shoulders and listened to the other wonderful musicians who will be around me, I will be perfectly happy.
But the whole point of Different Skies it seems to me is to produce something unusual, beyond the norm. For me, the whole exercise has produced the unusual and it has definitely not been normal. I’m excited to see that theme continue into my playing and am anxious to hear the results.
I’ll give a shout and let you know how it turned out.
September 9, 2004: Live concert at the downtown Atlanta-Fulton County Library, Atlanta, GA at 12 noon.
Thanks to Anthony Miller for inviting us to perform at the downtown library, and take a short adventure in electronic music with us. A nice crowd of about 35 people attended over the course of the hour. Fulton TV come out and interviewed us and took some footage of the first part of the concert. The jack hammer outside the window tried to compete with us, but the power of TouchXtone prevailed and those industrial tones were smoothly incorporated into the overall sound. It was nice to "shake the floors" for a change without blasting out our ears. Hey Edwin, thanks for the Sun Ra discussion. That man definitely had the space thing down!
We were in stripped down mode for this show, Michael on his Korg MS2000B and Jim with his Roland JD-800. Nice to change the palette a bit and feature a different soundset. It was also a blast to make a bunch of noise at the Library.
August 28, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA.
Interesting show, being our 1st anniversary of playing at JavaMonkey. And our new friends, Vickie and Phil, stopped by celebrating their 1st wedding anniversary. Happy Anniversary yall! Shout outs to Mary, Jim, Deirdre and Leana for also coming out to support us.
First set was kinda spooky and disjointed with lots of layers and loops. Things gelled nicely in the 2nd set and we settled down into more of a groove thang. Nice to see a big crowd on the patio.
August 12, 2004: The rest of the year is shaping up nicely thanks to a string of gigs booked at our favorite JavaMonkey. Gracias Senior Guthrie and Senior Gallagher! We're also working on another date for the Planetarium, too. We had great luck with our TouchXmas show at the JavaMonkey last December, so we'll look to repeat that, and with the other bookings falling so close to the other end of the year holidays, HalloXeen and ThanXgiving look to be great shows as well! Different Skies gets closer and closer.
July 31, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. What a fun show. Incredible first set and a nice second set. A full patio. A good group of both friends and new audience. Jim had a new setup wiith his trusty Roland JD-800 and a new addition of his Novation ReMote 25 keyboard and Mac iBook running Reason 2.5. Played much new material including new sequences from Michael and a new tune Jim composed on the airplane home from his vacation in Seattle. Check out the sample from the show here.
July 25, 2004: Jim's eBay sale was very successful and he thanks all those who purchased his odds and sods. As a result, he has paid for his ticket to the Different Skies festival and for the room and board at Arcosanti for the week.
July 24, 2004: Jerry Goldsmith, famed soundtrack composer, died this week. Truly an incredible musician and composer, whose use of synthesizers as part of an orchestra was extremely organic and emotional.
July 10-18, 2004: Jim and family in Seattle visiting relatives. Musical activities include a trip to the Experience Music Project and Science Fiction Museum which are both totally cool and well done, plus a trip south to Yakima to visit Chikira's studio (which was just featured in Keyboard Magazine btw). Jim also got one new song programmed on the plane on the way home.
July 5, 2004: Jim starts preparing for Different Skies. "It's too far to drive, so anything I bring has to fit in a suitcase, in my backpack, or checked as luggage. My normal setup totally fills up my car, so I have to think up a much lighter way of making music. I had bought a Novation ReMote 25 controller and Propellerheads Reason as a way to make drum loops while I was on the road last summer. It looks like that and my Lexicon Jamman looper may be what I evolve my rig to for my Arcosanti exploits. I'll certainly be giving it a tryout at our next few gigs."
July 4, 2004: Happy 4th of July.
July 1, 2004: June is best month ever for traffic on this web site. Having all our content available seems to be appreciated. It certainly is feeding the search engines.
Steve Kurtz's charges have been down graded but gov't still has teeth bared, see details here. Michael Moore's next movie should be about this case.
New TouchXtone live CDs on the way: Our first recorded show at EyeDrum way back from about a year ago (plus a couple of Three outtakes) and our latest PlanetXarium show at Agnes Scott College this past March on the Equinox. Both of these discs are pretty special. We'll update the order page when the CDs arrive from the plant.
June 28, 2004: Different Skies press release officially announces lineup and venue.
June 27, 2004: Saw Michael Moore's Fahrenheit 9/11 last night. Are you registered to vote? The Georgia Secretary Of State site seems to be down, which makes it hard to get the forms online, but here is a link to what is needed and where to send the form.
June 24, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Another hot and humid night at the Java Monkey, but a lively audience enjoying the Thursday night wine tasting that Michael Gallagher puts on. We definitely put the chill set on during the first half of the evening and then blasted into space during set 2. Good to meet Jim M. from Atlanta and glad to know folks are reading the web site. Let us know what you think of the CDs, Jim. And thanks for the recommendation Mr. Ship!
June 19, 2004: Decyphering the Grammar of Mind, Music and Math Thanks to Dr. T for pointing this one out.
June 16, 2004: No word yet on outcome of Steve Kurtz's Grand Jury hearing yet. Lots of support from press and art/academic world.
June 13, 2004: Proof that electronic musicians are passionate about people. Know any other musical genres where this would happen? http://www.craigpadilla.com/michael_garrison.htm
June 12, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. It was a hot night on the Java Monkey patio, with lots of brand new material getting a try out. We really apprciated the audiences applause and interaction between songs. Great to see some folks out for a repeat performance and thanks for the CD sales.
June 6, 2004: We added a bunch more TouchXtone music links to our Downloads page. These are all high resolution streaming mp3 fiiles. We'll try to make more songs available over the next few weeks. We're not able to do a streaming TouchXtone radio station yet, but we've been able to create a TouchXtone playlist in iTunes that is pretty cool. Fun to hear the studio and live tunes mixed in and around each other.
How to sell clothes in France: http://www.lepow.com/tag/
Jim is reading his friend's memoir: Stacy Horn's Waiting For My Cats To Die
June 4, 2004: This off the arts list: Helsinki / Amsterdam, June 4, 2004 Dear friends and colleagues,
We are sure that many of you have been following the deeply worrying events around the subpoenas that have been serfed to members of the US-based arts collective Critical Art Ensemble. We, Amanda McDonald Crowley and Eric Kluitenberg, have taken the initiative to write an open letter of protest asking for an immediate cesation of legal proceedings against our esteemed and distinguished colleagues. We think that this case signals a most worrysome trend in public political life in the United States and cannot be left unaddressed. We ask all of you who have worked with the Critical Art Ensemble in recent years, and others who feel offended by this unacceptable infringement on artistic freedom, to contact us to sign this letter of protest as members of a deeply concerned professional community.
Please find the letter below. if you wish to sign send us an e-mail stating your name, your profession, your institutional affiliation (if you have one) and possibly a url that best represents your work or professional activity.
Thank you.
Amanda McDonald Crowley amc@va.com.au Eric Kluitenberg erick@balie.nl ---------------- To whom it may concern, We, the undersigned artists, curators, critics, cultural producers, theorists and writers who have worked with or followed the work of the collective known as Critical Art Ensemble, are writing to express our serious concern over legal proceedings brought against members of this highly respected artists group. Critical Art Ensemble (CAE) is a collective of internationally recognised artists who work within pedagogic frameworks and art contexts to raise awareness of a range of social issues. Most recently their work has been directed towards providing the general public with awareness and understanding of issues to do with biological research. Their work is not alarmist but rather provides knowledge.
CAE's work is always undertaken in a safe and considered way, using materials which are commonly available in scientific education and research practices. Their main motivation is to provide the publicwith the tools needed to make informed choices.
It has come to our attention that there was a recent seizure of a substantial amount of the artists' work and research material. The international art scene was shocked and surprised to learn that the US Federal Bureau of Investigation, following an analysis of the materials by the Commissioner of Public Health for New York State which returned the result that the material seized posed no public safety risk, have continued with their investigation and are now seeking to charge members of the collective under the US Biological Weapons Anti-Terrorism Act as expanded by the USA Patriot Act.
Whilst it is perhaps understandable in the current international political climate that such research might raise alarm bells withAmerican authorities, it would have also been clear, upon investigation, that the aims of CAE are not a terrorist act, but an awareness raising action undertaken with cultural, artistic and educational agendas. Indeed CAE's work is quite in keeping with mainstream art practices, which have, throughout history, had pedagogical aims.
Having worked with CAE in various settings throughout the world we havefound CAE's approach has always been to understand and to know the topicthat they are presenting. It comes as no surprise, given the current focusof their work, that the research tools included biological material.However, those of us in the art world who have worked with this artists'group also know that their work is undertaken with thorough research, incontinuous consultation with members of the scientific community, in orderto ensure that the artworks they produce are safe, but also real, in termsof the investigations they pursue. The work of CAE is internationallyrecognised as thorough, investigative, educative and safe.
This matter is one that raises serious concerns internationally that theactions of the American government undermine the freedom of artisticexpression, a fundamental democratic right, which is one of the cornerstones of the liberal democracies. As the materials have been tested and been shown to pose no public healththreat, we demand that the American Government immediately cease legalaction against members of the Critical Art Ensemble collective.
The good reputation of Critical Art Ensemble must be immediately restored.
Yours faithfully,
Amanda McDonald Crowley, cultural worker/ curator, currently executive producer ISEA2004 (International Symposium of Electronic Art 2004), Australia/Finland, http://www.isea2004.net
Eric Kluitenberg, Head of the Media Program, De Balie - Centre for Culture and Politics, Amsterdam, The Netherlands, http://www.debalie.nl
June 2, 2004: A roller coaster day today for Jim. On the positive side, he was invited to participate and perform at this year's Different Skies Electronic Music Festival at Arcosanti in Arizona in October. It's such a great honor to be selectedfor the event, as some of the world's leading performers of electronic music are scheduled to attend, collaborate, and jointly perform. "I owe it all to my friend Michael Thomas Roe for making TouchXtone an amazing musical experience, and Heidi Hyvönen and Otso Pakarinen for turning me on to Different Skies and encouraging TouchXtone to get involved. I'm extremely humbled to get to work with people I have long admired and respected. Michael and I will work on what TouchXtone DNA to bring to Arizona."
He began the day with this seemingly weird news: http://www.indybay.org/news/2004/05/1682370.php, only to realize that the story is about old friends from 20 years ago, Steve and Hope Kurtz. "I lost track of Steve and Hope when I moved from Dallas to New York City back in 1983. I remember them both with great fondness. The tragedy of Hope's death coupled with the actions of the police and FBI is too sad to take in. This shows too clearly how the Patriot Act undermines our rights and liberties."
June 1, 2004: Wow, you all rocked touchxtone.com during the month of May! The stats for the month were the best of any month since we launched last year. And that includes April when Jim sold his Juno-60 on eBay and had a link to the site as part of the item description. Downloads were off the scale in May so thanks for listening! We'll try to get some new sound tidbits up on the site soon. It would help if you let us know what you liked and just as important, what you didn't like. We took a listen to all the samples we have available on our downloads page (it had been a while since they were posted) and know we need to adjust the balance of clips on the page. So if you'd like to hear more ambient clips or more drums'n'bass or more "Berlin School" or whatever, please click the "Send a comment" link on the left side of the page and let us know.
Also, it's nice to know everyone is interested in what our studio setup is like. That page got more views in the last 3 days of the month than any other page. Face it, the gear and the music pretty much says it all.
BTW, we finally got to watch the DVD that Frank Lopez did for us for the Equinox show at the Delafield Planetarium, which he set to the music of our second CD "Two." Not only were we blown away by the awesome video magic that Frank put together (bravo maestro!) but it was the first chance in a while we listened to "Two" all the way through. Hard to believe that recording is literally the first time Michael and Jim played together. Recorded live into a CD-R machine.
May 31, 2004: We don't want to get out of May before commenting on a couple of band anniversaries this month. First, back on May 10th, we celebrated the anniversary of our first live performance in front of an audience. That small event (after only 5 studio performances or about 10 hours of "practice") led to a total of 15 performances for the year in 6 different venues in front of about 600 people. Which leads to the second anniversary: Our first 2 CDs were released a year ago on May 16th. Since that time and perhaps against conventional wisdom, we released another studio CD and 5 live CDs for a total of 8 CDs for the year.
So we've been pretty prolific this year and we thank you for coming out to the shows and picking up the CDs and letting our brand of unconventional music be part of your soundtrack.
For those of you interested in the realities of the independent record business, that is the producing, pressing, and promoting of your own CDs, here's the bottom line:
The reason we play & produce our music is because we love music, period.
The reason we perform and sell our CDs is to get feedback on our art from people. Applause and CD sales are two more tangible ways we obtain this feedback.
We produced all our CDs in our own studio with our own time and skills. Total cost- Next to nothing.
We've pressed 2066 CDs to date, including a thousand copies each of One and Two. Total cost- $2575
We've sold 129 copies. Gross sales- $935. Positive feedback in our book.
At the time we started, pressing 1000 CDs was about the least expensive way to get a CD manufactured (minimum orders and such). So we did that with both One & Two. Since that time, there are ways to press as little as a single copy of a CD. The cost per CD is about 5X higher than pressing 1000 copies, but the upfront investment is far lower and one can recoup that investment far quicker. In our case, for the 66 CDs pressed this year (Three, plus all the live CDs), we've already recouped our investment and have remaining inventory, so we'll make a profit on those discs.
It'll be a while before we recoup our investment in One & Two. But at the same time, they make an affordable promotional item and we have already paid for them (psychologists would call this a rationalization).
We've sold most of our CDs at our live performances. Friends and family are the second biggest buyers. Sales off our web site are third. Online stores like CD Baby and Ping Things are fourth. Coming in fifth are retail stores. And dead last so far are the virtual stores like iTunes, MusicMatch, etc. where we have yet to sell a single song.
We have 2 new live CDs ready to be pressed and a couple of more recorded but waiting to be edited, so we'll continue to invest in our music. Not because it makes us rich (though we do hope we break even), but because the personal value of doing so far surpasses the investment.
May 30, 2004: Our new web site went live last night. It was becoming obvious that more people were looking at the web site than were subscribing/reading the newsletter, so we redesigned the web site to incorporate all the content from the past newsletters (concert reviews, CD reviews, various ramblings, photos, performance schedule) into the structure of the site. We also redesigned the presentation of our recorded work, including CDs and unreleased live recordings, to make it easier to download the sample mp3 clips, and hopefully easier to purchase those recordings you desire. We tightened up the home page to put new announcements, schedule info, new music, and links to the most popular content on the site. And finally, we've added a section on our recording studio and gear that will grow over time as we add more details about the synthesizers we play.
This News section will take on the role of our band Blog (weB LOG, in essense a journal on the web) and be both a collection of milestones and commentary of what's going on around us. We've collected all the newsletter content for the past year to seed our Blog and divided it up into the News sections you see on the upper left hand side of the page. But going forward, we hope to add to it on a more frequent basis than the once-a-month schedule the newsletter was on.
May 22 - 30, 2004: Michael visits Ireland.
May 15, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA.
April 24, 2004: Live benefit concert at East Lake Commons in Decatur, GA., April 17, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Concert reviews as follows:
It seems fitting that TouchXtone end their first full year of playing out with concerts at the place that has given them the most opportunity to work on their sound (JavaMonkey) and the place that they performed their absolutely first live gig (Music Under The Stars). It would be hard to say that alot has changed in a year, because all the elements have remained fairly consistent in that time. But starting with the Delafield Planetarium concert in March, TouchXtone has achieved a new plateau in its playing, definitely finding a groove and level of maturity in their compositions and layering of sounds that hints at great things to come.
Some of this might be attributable to some interesting additions to the band’s equipment arsenal that we’ll talk about in more detail later. But the most important change is also the most subtle and seems to be that monsieur’s Roe and Combs have become completely at ease with the way they create their unique style of music and have refined the way they weave their synthesizer textures together. “My chops have gotten considerably better with all the performing we’ve done in the past year,” states Jim. “Michael is a phenomenal musician to begin with and he just seems to make exponential leaps ahead every time we perform. It blows me away to listen to our concert recordings because they are always surprising and keep getting better. We literally have more music in our catalog than we have time to listen. Who could have predicted that a year ago?”
Outwardly, the band’s gearlist looks quite similar to what they started with last year; Michael still plays 2 keyboards and Jim’s keyboard stack has floated between 2 and 5. But several of the stalwart synths that defined the sound of the band’s first few albums have been left in the studio and a new set of synthesizers have moved into their places at concerts.
“Michael totally revamped his rig by shelving his Yamaha DX-7 and Ensoniq sampler for awhile and getting his Korg Wavestation repaired and adding a Korg MS-2000B. That all feeds through his own mixer now. He’s got a ton of control over his sounds and he’s putting all those knobs to good use!”
Jim has also moved one trusty synth back to the studio. “I stopped using my Kurzweil K2000 after the Miro’s Garden gig. I wanted to force myself to sculp special sounds using my older non-programable synths, so I’m using my Roland Juno-6 and SH-3a which date back to my college and high school days, respectfully. They are truly ‘never the same sound twice’ machines. I’ve also just bought another ancient analog monster synth, a Yamaha CS-50 that I used for the first time at Music Under The Stars. What an incredible sound! With my Roland JD-800 and Michael’s wonderfully expressive collection, these old analog synths have helped create the lush layers of evolving sound that make up the TouchXtone palette.”
The JavaMonkey show on April 17 was a beautiful night and warm, with the patio open and stretched out to the street. As usual, the audience consisted of the block of die-hard fans who are gracious enough to stop by at every show, plus a nice contingent of folks who had never seen the band play. The two sets of music spanned the range of the band’s styles and featured several new tunes.
The Music Under The Stars concert on April 24th was again held on the green at the East Lake Commons Co-housing complex in southwest Decatur. Following a great set by singer/songwriter Judy Arnold and preceding a rocking set by post-progressive 4-piece Z-Axis, TouchXtone had the pleasure to play the “sundown” set taking the audience from day into night. The music drifted back and forth between some louder drums’n’bass tunes with some nice ambient sections that helped give a little “space” to the overall proceedings. The interplay between Michael and Jim was as seamless as ever and the sounds emanating from their keyboards sounded quite symphonic at the volume the PA was putting out. There were some really nice stereo effects from Michael that gave the impression of a huge sound stage.
April, 2004: Reviews of One & Two published in Dutch electronic music magazine Alfa Centauri
March 21, 2004: Live concert at Delafield Planetarium, part of the Bradley Observatory at Agnes Scott College in Decatur, GA. “Warm up” for show is a Frank Lopez DVD to TouchXtone’s “Two” CD, March 11, 2004: Live concert at Miro's Garden in Atlanta, GA., March 6, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA.
Concert reviews are as follows:
It was really amazing for us to play three gigs in as many weeks. We’re starting to see some “regulars” and we can’t thank them, and everyone else, for that matter, enough for showing their support and appreciation. We know full well the weather has been uncooperative and it’s a heck of a lot easier staying at home by the fire with the cat curled up. We actually played our first JavaMonkey gig with the patio flaps pulled up since August of last year. A nice early spring evening and the crowd spilled out toward the street. We used the opportunity to preview some new tunes and rhythms, starting with a more electronic set and ending with a more world set. We had alot of new faces at this show, but a very appreciative audience that got bigger as the night went on. Seems everyone was enjoying the early spring air. The music has been picking up steam, too. We’ve dipped our touchxtoes in to “World Music” of late, sampling bossa nova, African and even Egyptian rhythms and flavors. There is sure to be some music on CD coming out of that. Both the JavaMonkey and Miro’s Garden performances featured heavy doses of theworld, and Andre at Miro’s Garden challenged us to expand our Brazilian rhythms for our show there and we had a lot of fun going into big band bossa nova and salsa mode.
We played at Miro’s Garden as part of a world music Thursday night series during February and March. Though this was our first time at Miro’s and we were playing a total world music set which is somewhat new for us, we had no trouble laying down two hour-length+ sets. A big part of the audience enjoying the great food, location and music were lots of folks we’ve seen at other shows, and we were really happy to see such a strong crowd come out to a new venue on a weekday night. It’s really easy to perform with such a great turnout!
Our second time to perform at the Agnes Scott College Delafield Planetarium was a good opportunity to bunker down and get back to the good old “space music”. We can’t think of a better venue than the Delafield Planetarium and consider ourselves quite fortunate to be able to feel the inspiration of the place, as well as Prof De Pree’s enthusiasm and knowledge for all things celestial. The fact that this was a concert in honor of William A. Calder, the founder of the observatory, and his wife was in attendence, made for another very special event. It’s an electronic musician’s dream.
We set up in the back of the planetarium this time for two reasons; first, any little bit of light destroys the total blackout necessary to project the star fields from the Starmaster, so being behind the audience helped us contain the light produced by our keyboards and needed to see what we’re doing while playing. Secondly, we get a much better view of what Chris De Pree is doing with the visuals by being at the back so could react better to what the audience was seeing and use that to influence our improvisation.
We had a capacity audience for the show that included many families and kids of all ages. Electronic music gets a bad rap sometimes in regard to the kind of audience that is drawn to it. In our experience, and this show was a prime example, both men and women ages 8 months to 80 years enjoy the music, especially when the venue has so much to offer, like the Delafield Planetarium or Miro’s Garden or JavaMonkey.
The planetarium show was preceded by a wonderful video show produced specifically for the event by Frank Lopez and set to the music of our second studio CD “Two”. Folks who arrived as the doors opened were able to view this visual treat and the applause for his work simply underscored the mastery of his ambient impressionistic visual work.
The actual music performance consisted of one long flowing piece of music that was divided into three different subsections; Section 1 was about 30 minutes long and had a very ambient, spacey feel that complimented the sunset and star field visuals above the audience. It featured some nice long loops and spikey tonal passages that kept the audience from floating away too far from the spaceship. This section faded into a 10 minute section with more prominent sequencer patterns called Doughbot that featured some short tasteful solos by both Michael and Jim. The final piece was another ambient section about 14 minutes long that led the group back from space to the sunrise. We hope to be back at the Observatory for the Summer Solstice. We’ll let you know as details develop.
March 17, 2004: Email from MTR to JC: Liner Notes to Jah Wobble's "Elevator Music Vol. 1"- "My philosophy of life is very simple. I discovered a few years ago that I am the centre of the universe...without me none of this ... (by this, I mean all this) would be possible. Unfortunately being the creative centre of the universe comes with certain responsibilities. Yes even I have to follow divine law. Anyway, now is not the time to go into all that. I do still have hobbies, one of them is making music. Elevator Music, to be more specific. I recommend that you listen to this music in this fashion; Simulate the conditions of a typical elevator... invite friends around to your house/room, pretend that you don't know each other. Stand, silently, in close proximity to each other. Try, in a rather self conscious fashion, to avoid eye contact. Attempt to get everybody to cultivate 'coffee breath.' If like me you don't have friends use mannequins, and spray them with home made coffee breath essence. Listen to the music at a level that is always slightly too low. The whole experience should be; uncomfortable, disconcerting, mildly irritating, vacuous, and devoid of meaning. Enjoy." -- Jah Wobble
March 2004 Newsletter:
Local Decatur Music Suffers Another Blow, Discover Music Closes Longtime Decatur music outlet, Discover Music, closed its doors last week, evidently evicted from their premises. Discover Music had been a consistant supporter of TouchXtone for the past year, being the first store to stock our CDs and always finding a spot to display our concert posters. “I’d stop by a couple of times a month,” said Jim. “Jeff was always there, always interested in how the band was doing, and turning me on to other bands, eclectic jam bands like Sound Tribe Sector 9. Discover was always my mental center of town thateverything else revolved around. I’m going to miss it.”
The void will hopefully be taken up by new CD store, Decatur CD, which just opened up recently down the street about a block and a half west on Ponce. You can find all three of TouchXtone’s CDs for sale there. Say hello to store owner Warren Hudson and tell him we sent you.
Six Degrees Of Separation
On March 14th, the television show The Simpsons will feature Brave Combo as the Oktoberfest celebration polka band performing as Marge naively looks for non-beer drinking activities for Homer. Brave Combo hails from Denton, Texas and is well-known for its nuclear polka brand of music and for being to Denton as REM are to Athens, GA. Jim Combs produced his first album way back in 1981-82 for Denton band, New Jetz, who he also performed with playing some of the same keyboards he plays today. The New Jetz were friends with Brave Combo, who were already well known at the time. In fact, Brave Combo’s drummer at the time was living with New Jetz singer Lee Ann Zimmers, and both bands did some hanging together and definitely played some of the same clubs in the area.
So check out The Simpsons and if Brave Combo ever come to town, definitely go see them. They’re a consistantly good show for over 20 years.
February 21, 2004: Jim's article on survival and business in the underground EM scene is published by Electronic Shadows web magazine.
February 12, 2004: Live concert at Eleven50 in Atlanta, GA. Concert review is as follows:
TouchXtone was privileged to take part in a music and dance benefit concert in support for Afghan Women at the Eleven50 club in midtown Atlanta. TouchXtone warmed up the crowd with an hour set of new world music-tinged ambient drums’n’bass before the main event began. The main event brought together about 16 individual world dance performing groups and musicians doing Middle Eastern, Greek, Brazilian, African, Indian, Modern, Latin and other styles. Really magical event with a crowd of about 400 people with excellent donated Moroccan food from Imperial Fez and Nicola’s restaurants. The event raised over $3000 for Afghan Women’s relief organization RAWA (www.rawa.org).
Michael observes, “I had my eye on playing at Eleven50 for a while, having clubbed there plenty in the past (oh boy, do I have some stories) and having seen live bands like Ariel perform there. It’s actually where I ran in to Frank Lopez and asked him if he wanted to ‘jam’ with us. The venue did not disappoint by way of sound system and set up. I was thinking, in mid-performance, that I could get used to this.” “Musically, I did a little research in creating loops. I listened to some popular Moroccan, Indian and Egyptian music.
The mish-mash of orchestral, jazz, techno and even disco music in these popular recordings informed what I would play. At some points a little ‘Bollywood’ surfaced, which I think is in keeping with what I try to do with Touchxtone: maintain a lightness of touch and spirit so the music, and atmosphere, doesn’t get too dense.”
Many thanks to event producers Stephanie Keselowsky and Rachael Rollings for inviting us to contribute and making the evening such a wonderful experience, and to Eleven50 sound guy extraordinaire Reign and events director Bill Kaelin. And to meu amigo, Erik Voss, for his unwavering support and big picture ideas.
February 5, 2004: Live concert at JavaMonkey in Decatur, GA. Concert review is as follows:
TouchXtone got called at the last minute to perform at the Java Monkey café’s Thursday night wine tasting event in downtown Decatur, GA. Owner Michael Gallagher said it was the first time JavaMonkey had used a band like TouchXtone for the wine tasting events and at the end of the evening, everyone was happy with the results.
“We probably played with more restraint than usual, partially due to the ‘wine tasting’ ambience” said Michael Thomas Roe. “We didn’t feel compelled to ‘intrude’. The first set was quite mellow and surprisingly pleasurable for us (no pressure).”
This was certainly one of the loudest audiences the band had played for. “Our normal Saturday night crowd has usually come to see us specifically,” states Jim. “This crowd was specifically there for the wine tasting and enjoying each other’s company. You can’t say that we were competing with the audience, because it was no contest, the crowd was having a great time!”
The patio stayed packed throughout the evening. Some of the comments from the audience included “Relaxing, great, refreshing, mellow” and “Awesome, so glad I came.” CDs again were a popular item. Jim continues, “This was a nice gig for us because it gave us a chance to try out some new material that we ended up using for the Eleven50 gig a week later. Even though it was a little rough around the edges, the Java Monkey crowd really responded to what we were playing which was great feedback and helped us refine our approach. We’re lucky to have such a great audience to try out new ideas.”
So in spite of the cold, rainy weather, a good time was had by all. “It’s gotten to the point where if it’s raining, it must be a TouchXtone concert,” says Jim with a laugh. “We’ve had like 6 gigs in a row where the weather hasn’t cooperated, but we’ve also experienced some of our best audiences and had a great time. So while we’re hoping for spring, we don’t mind the cold.”
February 6, 2004: TouchXtone's thrid CD "Three" is released.
January 17, 2004: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Concert review is as follows:
TouchXtone performed again on January 17th at what has become a regular venue for them, the JavaMonkey café in downtown Decatur, GA. This was their 4th gig in 4 months at Java Monkey, and each time they play, they’re never quite sure how things are going to turn out, what direction the music will take, what the composition of the audience will be. It’s safe to say each show at Java Monkey has been a very different experience for the band and for the audience, and from our perspective, it gets better everytime they play. But going into this show felt a little less certain than before. It was cold and rainy. Jim was really tired after the set up and sound check. Michael had been sick in bed all week.
Jim chimes in, “I’m totally convinced this is going to be the worst gig we’ve done, period. So, I go home after sound check, take a shower, eat a little dinner and take a 20 minute nap on the couch. When I arrive back for the gig, the place is already full and the energy in the house is jumping. The patio fireplace has made everything warm and toasty. The energy in the room was really upbeat and inviting.”
By the time the band started playing, the space filled up with a few regular fans but also a whole lot of new people. Jim started by just improvising with a 32 second looping echo on his Jamman, which he and Michael proceeded to turn into a 20 minute jam. They continued with 3 other pieces (one vaguely middle eastern, an arpeggiated piece with piano that evolved into a very spacey ambient piece, and one with a caribbean feel) and before anyone knows it, an hour has gone by and the band is taking a break.
The audience broke into a huge applause. People came up to the stage and gave them hugs. Folks who had never heard the band before commented positively on the music and simultaneously picked up their CDs. This scene repeats itself and by the end of the evening they’d sold 14 CDs, a record number for any one gig so far. Jim continues, “When you are making the kind of improvisational music that TouchXtone performs, there’s several different ways you know if you’ve connected with the audience. First is that they’ll come to the shows and stay to listen. Second is if they’ll reward the performance with a contribution to the tip jar. Third is if they’ll buy a CD to take the music home. Finally, if they tell their friends about us. At this show all four of those things happened.
I’ve already edited the recording of that performance and put together a really solid 75 minute plus CD. So, you never can tell when the muse will hit, it will show up when you least expect it. I continue to be amazed at how powerful the simple interaction between Michael and myself and the audience takes everyone to a step higher place. For us, the magic is in the audience. We hope the audience feels a little magic coming out of the speakers.”
December 23, 2003: Editing begins on live show recordings at Common Sound Studio.
December 13, 2003: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Event is recorded for future CD. Concert review is as follows:
The final show of the year was the start of a new tradition for TouchXtone; the 1st Annual TouchXmas Holiday Jam & Party! The cold weather finally kicked in at the 3rd show at JavaMonkey, but the patio was warm and dry with holiday spirits overflowing for band and audience alike. “They say the third time’s a charm, and I don’t know what was in the eggnog lattes, but the last show of the year turned out to be our most inspired show to date. I just got through editing the recordings and am totally blown away by the layering of evocative holiday sounds and modern beats,” waxed Jim Combs.
The band once again rearranged itself to squeeze all their keyboards and equipment onto the tiny stage, but this arrangement seemed to open the band up more to the audience. Vince Guaraldi’s classic “A Charlie Brown Christmas” was playing as the band took the stage, and for the first few minutes, Michael and Jim provided improvised orchestrations for Guaraldi’s “Christmas Time Is Here.” As the song faded, the band slid into a long set of new TouchXtone material that harkened back to those traditional holiday records we all grew up with, albeit with a decidedly electronic flair. Bells, chimes, choirs, grand pianos, regal trumpets, bag pipes, church organs, holiday crooners, sleigh bells, strings, tympani, beat boxes and dreamy outerworldly sounds danced and collided in a mesmerizing musical kaleidoscope.
The band stopped at several points during the evening to chat with the audience and hand out gifts to those who had braved the cold and rain. “Being that this was a holiday party, I wanted to give gifts to those who attended,” said Jim. “I found little Mexican silver milagros that had the right combination of piety and absurdity. Milagro means miracle in Spanish, and it seemed right that TouchXtone be able to give a miracle to our audience members, cause it was a miracle they came out on such a cold wet evening!”
The crowd continued to grow during the evening and by the second set was overflowing the patio space. “While a couple of our hardcore fans were in attendance, the crowd was mostly made up of folks who had never seen us play before. In some regards, that takes away some of our safety nets, but in other regards, it opens up a range of possibilities. The holiday theme allowed us to stretch out into places I don’t think we would have otherwise gone. Both Michael and I really resonated with the sounds we were producing and the emotions they conjured up. It wasn’t a dewy-eyed kind of thing. More the fun of recalling holiday sounds through the lens of 40 year old memories.”
Thanks to all who attended and made the 1st Annual TouchXmas Holiday Jam & Party an event that even Fezziwig would have enjoyed! Special thanks to all the staff at Java Monkey for keeping the ale flowing and the spirits high. And once again, thanks to Blake Guthrie for making all possible! December 2003 Newsletter:
Our Top 10 List For 2003: This is the time of year when everyone puts out their Top 10 lists for every activity and genre known to man. We figured why should we be any different so we wanted to give special thanks to a few People Who Rocked TouchXtone’s 2003 World in alphabetical order-
Ash Arnett (designed our logo and with Ali Harper, our first concert poster), Blake Guthrie (our man at Java Monkey), Chris DePree (showed us the stars and the moon at the Delafield Planetarium), Chris Rake and the folks at Disc Makers (did a great job pressing up our CD), Rik MacLean (first person to both review our CD and stock our CD), Robert Cheatham (helped launch our live performances with a booking into EyeDrum), Seppo Palminen (invited Jim to Finland this summer thus enabling much photo-taking which became many concert posters), Vickie Thomas-Edge (shot our band photos and provided great assistance at our shows), and X-specially The Wonderful Audiences (that came to all our gigs)!
One For The Road (Remembering Marian Langley):
We’d like to mark the passing of one of Jim Combs’ neighbors and TouchXtone’s early supporters, Marian Langley (shown on left with friends Karen & Terry at TouchXtone’s EyeDrum gig back in July). Up until her retirement in 1997, Marian was the owner of Frames ‘n Fine Art in Little Five Points and perhaps the major supporter/promoter of African and African-American art in Atlanta. She also was an art educator and advisor to major art institutions and organizations including the High Museum. “I came to know Marian through all her work in my neighborhood, and I slowly came to find out her deep roots in the art world,” said Jim. “I was deeply touched when I saw her at our EyeDrum show, mainly because I knew of her background in supporting the arts and felt honored that she would take the time to grace our first real public concert. Marian was good at making you feel great with the seemingly smallest of gestures. She will be greatly missed.”
December 1, 2003: Music from TouchXtone's "Two" CD is used as soundtrack to Episode 10 of the Cathode Ray Tube program on Atlanta cable station PeopleTV.
November 21, 2003: Music from TouchXtone's "One" CD is used as soundtrack to Episode 9 of the Cathode Ray Tube program on Atlanta cable station PeopleTV.
November 14, 2003: The TouchXtone web site www.touchxtone.com is redesigned after MP3.com announces it is selling its assets to CNET and TouchXtone loses its streaming media outlet.
November 10, 2003: KXCI in Tuscon, Arizona plays cut from "One" CD.
November 1, 2003: Live concert at Java Monkey in Decatur, GA. Event is recorded for future CD. Concert review is as follows:
“It must have been a great show; when I woke up the next day, my ears were ringing,” Jim commented when we asked how the JavaMonkey gig went. Itdefinitely was a rockin’ show and many in the audience remarked how it was a different performance for TouchXtone, perhaps one of the best shows of the year. “We were caught a little off guard the first time we played Java Monkey buy the amount of talking that went on during our sets. It was quite disconcerting because the material we played then was very ambient and the talking just overpowered us. We literally couldn’t hear ourselves play. So this time, we went for a much heavier sound, much more drums’n’bass, much more density of sound.” Once again, the band played to a full house that was at points standing room only. The audience raved about the “new” and “happier”, “more positive” approach the evening’s music took, perhaps owing to the liberal use of uptempo drum beats and major keys. “As usual, we had a great audience that included both familiar and new faces. And we played music that was also both familiar and new.”
November 2003 Newsletter:
Happy Birthday TouchXtone! TouchXtone turns 1 year old!:
It’s hard to believe but the month of November marks the 1st anniversary of TouchXtone. It was on November 6th, 2002 that Jim first ran the ad in theAtlanta Creative Loafing looking for “atmospheric sound and visual collaborators for multimedia performance group.” On November 19th, responding to the ad, Michael met Jim for a spontaneous jam that, luckily recorded, became the material for the “Two” CD. And the rest as they say, is history.
“In the first couple of weeks, we did two sessions and ended up recording nearly 2 CDs worth of material,” said Jim. “Then my work had me commuting to Canada for 5 months. I made the decision to release the material and did as much editing as I could on the weekends I was back, but it was an extremely frustrating time to start a band. The music was amazing, but you can’t do a band long distance. Michael had every right to give up on me and pack it in. Thankfully, he hung in there until I was able to return and finish up the CDs. Then we immediately started booking performances.” Michael elaborates, “I was disappointed at first at how long it took to get things off the ground (I had visions of success or is that delusions of excess), but I think things are progressing nicely. I’m still waiting for that bedazzling sun shade dazzler to slip in to a performance, cell phone in hand, and “discover” us. A guy can dream, right?”
With the first half of the year focused on recording and editing the “One” and “Two” CDs which were released on May 16th, TouchXtone has spent the last half of the year launching and refining their live performance, doing 5 shows at venues as diverse as EyeDrum, Delafield Planetarium, JavaMonkey, and an outdoor benefit concert in Decatur. The visual side of the band was made real when Frank Lopez joined the group at the second gig, EyeDrum. “No visual artists responded to my original ad,” said Jim. “But Michael knew Frank and happened to run into him as we were preparing for the EyeDrum show. Frank’s imagery was magical for the audience and we knew another piece of the puzzle had fallen into place.”
With the lineup complete, the band used the rest of the summer to hone their performance framework. Jim describes the work: “We approach each gig as a unique show, a new venue, a new set-up, and mostly new material. We might have played a couple of things twice, but if we did, the renditions sounded or looked very different. For both the audience and the band, every performance is a surprise because most of what is experienced is being seen or heard for the first time. We’ve gotten pretty comfortable sketching a few things out during the soundchecks and jamming on it during the shows.”
So what’s in the works for year two of TouchXtone? More gigs in interesting places! And a CD of the best stuff recorded since the last CDs. And continuing surprises for the wonderful TouchXtone fans!
A Shout Out To Jupiter Coffee: Many thanks to Michelle and Zack at Jupiter Coffee (in Oakhurst on East Lake Drive) for helping us out with the coffee service for the Delafield Planetarium show. Space music, planetarium show and Jupiter Coffee! Out of this world! If you are in the area and want a great cup of java, stop by Jupiter.
10 questions with Frank Lopez:
1. Favourite ice cream flavour: Vanilla with chocolate syrup
2. Person you'd like most to have dinner with: Stanley Kubrick. Yep , it sucks he died and that he did not get to Direct A.I.
3. Best last concert you went to and why: Radiohead at Hi Fi Buys amphitheater.
4. Do you dream in colour? Yes in color and in Spanish and English
5. Orbital or Orb? God I love Orbital but "little fluffy clouds" is still one of my favorite songs. I got to meet The Orb at friends wedding. Cool guy.
6. Most underrated musician/band: My buddy Omar Torres aka Soulrider, aka Hologram, aka Diode . He is a brilliant composer who can cross over genres and produce equally solid tunes. When I met him he was producing sick IDM. These days he is scoring films for Showtime, rocking soulful house beats for Hallucination Records, tweaking knobs with Richard Devine and blowing minds with Skinny Puppy on top of providing tech support for Native Instruments. Check some of his tunes out at: http://www.hallucination.com/, http:/ www.newsoundtheory.com/vol1.html, http://www.skinnypuppy.com/
7. Best excuse to get up in the morning: To spend more time with my girl
8. Burial or cremation? Nude burial with an orange tree planted on top.
9. MP3's: friend or foe? Friend. More music is getting out. Business models for indie labels that work are being devised and corporate music is dying, what else do you want?
10. Best excuse not to get up in the morning: To spend more time with my girl. •Frank Lopez web sites are at http://submediatv.com/ and http://YETI.tv•
What Is Getting Your Attention These Days?:
Michael Thomas Roe- Well, I must be on some kind of autorepeat. The Morricone thing is still pretty strong (my collection has escalated dramatically in the CD department). I’m trying to steer myself in other directions, just for sanity’s sake, but it’s not working too well. I tend to go in major phases. I’ll listen to something/someone until I am absolutely sick of it, or more appropriately, have wrung every bit of juice out of it. That’s not to say that I’ll ever get “tired” of Morricone. I’ve been listening to his stuff since my senior year in college. But I do suspect a “cooling down” will come soon. For Heaven’s sake! Meanwhile, I’ve been enjoying the Fall and all of the unique fun and festivities that occur. For good heart stopping fun I would suggest the “Crypt of Terror” over on Fulton Industrial Boulevard. I have not laughed (or screamed) that hard in a long time. It’s worth seeking out.
Jim Combs- Let’s see...on the reading front, I’ve started Eric Ta |