http://www.thereminhero.com/

Theremin hero seems to adapt the theremin to function as a controller for guitar hero. The volume antenna controls the note trigger and the pitch antenna controls the note value. If you look at the note screen on the right side of the video, you’ll notice a little orientation arrow indication the selected note.

Impressive hack. If the little guitar shaped controller convinced people to take up guitar lessons, perhaps this game could inspire more people to take theremin lessons. I look forward to the day when throngs of disaffected youth punk-out in packed rooms watching a band stand perfectly still for an hour or more.

          

The game features new instruments, including an octave and half keyboard and a 17-fret guitar w/ six strings.

I’m not going to wax and wane philosophical about whether this is good or bad for music. If it’s a fun game, I think the creators have done good work, but with rumors of midi input adapters– will I be able to play with my DG-20?

More from Joystick:
and CDM: http://createdigitalmusic.com/2010/06/11/rock-band-3-gets-real-keyboard-guitar-and-midi-io/#comments

          

Tristan Perich: 1-Bit Symphony (Part 1: Overview) from Tristan Perich on Vimeo.

Released on a circuit, that’s plugs into an 1/8 inch jack makes this performance piece somewhat hard to describe. It’s not a conventional sound recording because the oscillations are not reproductions of an original source, but are original performance in the sense that all of the synthesis happens live as you listen to the device. Unlike a synthesizer which you’d normally think of as an instrument, it lacks familiar plasticity or interactivity(when used as designed). Instead the musical ensemble itself is packaged for your enjoyment.

http://www.paleofuture.com/blog/2010/5/2/jean-marc-cotes-visions-of-the-year-2000-1899.html

It’s like a postcard from the 1890s proclaiming wild visions of robot orchestras and lives of leisure for their human stewards. Although our interpretation is more subdued than this postcard– a few bits of wires in a white case– it still feels eccentric. Which is a good thing.

1-Bit Symphony official site
Pre-order here release date is 24 Aug 2010.

          

Daedelus “Righteous Fists of Harmony” from DestroyRockMusic Inc. on Vimeo.

The concept is a soundtrack for the boxer rebellion.

From brainfeeder:

After seventy years of China’s opium-related subjugation by Queen
Victoria and her allies, a force of resistance fighters — termed
“Boxers” by the British — rose to the challenge in 1898. Calling
themselves “The Righteous Fists of Harmony,” this secret society of
martial artists felt they held magical powers: they believed
themselves bulletproof, able to fly, and capable of raising the dead
(who would then fight alongside them). And so began the brief Boxer
Rebellion; three years later 100,000 Boxers had fallen, their magic
helpless against the cutting-edge machinery of war. The British
prevailed only to face ultimate defeat, as their empire rapidly
declined.

Daedelus endeavors to compose a requiem for the end — of beliefs, of
lives, and of an era. This elegy for a bygone battle sheds light on
our own contemporary conundrum: will our faith in modernity be our
downfall? Are we blinded by this age of wonders, doomed to be
destroyed by our ingenious inventions? Although Daedelus’ music has
always juxtaposed organic and electronic elements, they war as never
before on “Righteous Fists of Harmony,” a portrait of a tumultuous era
that came crashing to a close.

DAEDELUS – “Righteous Fists of Harmony” Tracklist:
BF006
23 MARCH 2010
Heavy Weight Vinyl / Digital

1. An Armada Approaches
2. Tidal Waves Uprising
3. The Open Hand Avows
4. Order Of The Golden Dawn (featuring Laura Darling)
5. The Finishing of a Thing
6. Succumbing To (featuring Kid A)
7. Stampede Me (with Amir Yaghmai)
8. Fin De Siècle

          

Someone in NYC decided now was future enough and built that building, but this one is for housing people not corporations. 200 Eleventh Avenue is a construction project in NYC’s Chelsea neighborhood that puts a floor level garage attached to each apartment and reachable by elevator.

Fun stuff for those with at least 7 figures in their housing budgets.

          

This video provides a wonderful description of an early sampling based instrument. Every sound was recorded on a tape track and played in sync with the other track. The keys appear to control the tape heads. The instrument has since appeared on an impressive list of popular recordings for such a novel instrument.

          

Yes, what you see in this video is a violin, viola, cello, and bass glued together. It was created by Diego Stocco(twitter) and is featured in Guy Richie’s film Sherlock Holmes.
Enjoy.

          

Mumbai Worili Sea Link

The Bandra-Worli Sea Link is an 8 lane bridge currently under construction across Mahim Bay, near Mumbai.

Future Highways

In the 1950s, Disney produced several videos offering people glimpses at futuristic wonders that may one day be part of everyday life. Many of these predictions are fantastic and outrageous, but explain some insight into the reasoning behind many of our contemporary highway faux-pas(wired.com: ten highways to raze now).

          

Perhaps the answer to his question rests in the nature of aleatoric music itself. Although Cage did experiment with other techniques, he is best known for his forays into chance. Despite its conceptual edginess, the musical performances, like much of our extraneous sensory stimuli, failed to make any profound or evocative statement.

But unlike the painters Ross compared Cage’s work to, the performances of Cage’s alleatoric music produced no enduring artifact. They are ephemeral, existing in the concert hall but making no lasting mark on those who share in the work. Which was perhaps Cage’s original intention.

“I have nothing to say, and I’m saying it.” –John Cage