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the din datin dudero: the two large discs are nobs (with knobs you know what they will do, with nobs you know not what but you'll feel somehin) which control a nabra (analog brain) within. the pins on the outside connect to nodes within the nabra... you can look at its orange heartbeats through a little window. so, there's also a sh'bobo (digital brain rewirer) attached to the nabra in a sort of symbiosis with it. the sh'bobo is very sensitive and it can only think in polar opposites, while the nabra thinks in shades of value. the sh'bobo listens to the nabra and interprets black and white values from the grey and undecided flows within the nabra. These arbitrary decisions mutate the sh'bobo's code registers. but the ever mutating codes control how the nabra's parts flow with each other, and so the sh'bobo controls how the nabra feedsback to itself. so the nabra controls the sh'bobo and the sh'bobo controls the nabra... With the shinths, if you would rub metal on the surface of the instrument, you might break it; all the nodes are revealed, and some nodes shouldn't touch each other, or else inflexible and strong nodes will overpower and break weak nodes. on the din datin dudero, i made the nodes into sandrodes (androgynous nodes). any sandrode can touch any other, and they will modulate each other depending on other states. most have several dimensions- current and voltage, and how it acts depends on what it's connected to. some are simply the revealed sensitive tank that is continuously filled and emptied within an oscillator; some are current-mode analog math functions.. sandrodes connect to the rods on the surface of the dindatindudero; you can touch any pin to any other with wire or actually anything you want, and not worry about breaking inflexible nodes. ddd likes to be covered in wires until the heart beats in a pleasant rhythm. let ddd hold there in the steady message. you can listen at any point, and you will hear a different facet of the web. you can move the nobs just a little bit and the rhythm will limp into a different style. if you touch some flows into the sh'bobo pins in the middle (try connecting them through your body), it will redirect the little orange nabra heart and it will try to find a harmonious rhythm- maybe the nabra and sh'bobo will find a way to work with each other. with ddd, the chaos between sh'bobo and nabra pleases,,, it's not intimidating, because even though you may never have the same flow again, you can come close and with more familiarity, you can learn the subtle ways of the chaos. this inst is not about quantification: you can't count how many styles it plays in, so there's no way to get to diso beat 4 immediately, but through experiments you'll eventually get there. Also, I was really happy to be making the physical case for such an instrument, cuz it's all inductive design- all the parts suggest their own placement, and you don't think about measurements, but delight in fits... tour april 2004 w/ Metalux: march 6: premier at deadtech chicago |
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din datin dudero tour w/ metaluxxxx::: Workin and solderin on the new tranoe ambrazier right up until jenny carbon and I left chicago for the show in lexington at Irene Moons. Got there kinda late, but didn't miss Prurient or Kites or the Hair Police, who we were playin with. Talked with Christopher kites after his show in Lexington. He told me that he builds sound machines not to arrive at an intuitive world of performance, but to realize structured music. His shows have a strong narrative, although they could sound like spastic noise to someone unfamiliar. He uses his own creations: oscillators and gates and stuff and (jessica told me later on) they’re all kinda connected to each other in dangerous ways. But with the chaotic possibilities of these electronics, he seems to want to make a longer gesture rather than focus myopically on the mini-spasms… The next morning we ate at jambalaya rice and weird spicy peanut stuff- the first morning on tour and no coffee even. Drove through horses all day to pittsburgh- arrived late and totally missed the local band hooliganship. They are awesome though, I saw them last time. This time Christopher was gonna play clarinet and electronics with peter b doing video. I feel like a loser for missing it. But we did see Michael Johnson play. I love how he takes hours to tune hiis non-synthesizers. He doesn’t make the same old heirarchy of filters and oscillators in whatever normal sound synth- he’s interested in designing stuff that just runs, like misty decoders. On the way to Toronto, jenny and carbon wanted to get a corn-cob pipe to smoke on stage. Next door in the little pennslylvania town, I went into the bait shop and the idea hit me like it seems to be hitting everyone else these days- buy worms. I suddenly understrood why I would need them later on in the show- originally the interaction was between me and the ddd, but now its three ways! The worms can wriggle around and short points and I can place them. We got across the border no problem they didn’t even search us which is weird because of all the weird stuff we had in our car. In toronto if you go down the main hipster drag, Spadina, and turn off into the most potholed alley, you’ll see a spraypainted door which is cinecycle. The owner, martin, lives there, has a little café, bike repair, movie projector, and stage. It’s great. Blake, fluorescent friend, started out solo with some skipping records and guitar and then his friend Liam came on and they spazzed. Twas great and the Sunday crowd was relaxed and ready to receive any kind of interaction. I told em to come real close like the manipulative american that I am and I threw the worms on the din datin dudero. The worms seem to like being electrically stimulated. It;s like we humans can perceive all sorts of senses- like tasting cinnamon and sage, but in the ground all a worm get's to do is bumb into roots and indifferently crawl around stinky grubs. with the din datin dudero, we can induce all sorts of new sensations in the worms- new waveshapes at new and unfelt speeds make me feel like jonquil or three kings, bible boquet or mandrake. They squirm into action as all the nodes are stimulating them and they crawl around touching thiings together and making it go crazy. Stayed the night in Liam’s house and we forgot a lot of stuff there the next morning, hah! Toronto bagels and cofee driving back and forth looking for basement doors to sneak intoi liams house to steal back our passports. Screw it we can cross the border back into the us without em. Got into Buffalo real early so we drove around the shell-town looking for places to eat- same old experience, very hard to find. Played at soundlab that night and stayed out real late with todd from voltage who was also playing. Carbon went back to chicago and Me and Jenny went on to New London for our first connecticut show with the "shock party"... We played with agent orange factor, kraut jam band and angel eyes, a post-donovan... well i don't know how to describe them but they rock and they're from boston and one member wears a headband. The stage there had blue wavy water patterns projected on it. I played for a short time with Jenny who played the new ambrazier and then i ran downstairs to the bar and told everyone to come upstairs and see worms getting electrocuted. twas a gimmick I know but it got the norms up to see weird stuff. Stayed in Providence for the night then drove back towards New Haven for the next show. On the way, stopped into a bait store to get new worms and to walk on the beach. Yelled at kids from far away on a rocky spit, things like giant ogre sounds and whines and random spewage the kindof stuff you yell at kids. in new haven the yale's were initiating all sorts of rituals, walking around with skull masks and robes and saying run little one!! And others were going on dates, but with masquerade masks on under black robes, sayin love poems to each other. in the bar, a different scene- goth kids walkin around, toy candy for free, uv lights and neon and a dj that beatboxed. the bartender: scary beach woman with the pink sweatshirt and "mystic" written in rainbow cursive. Went to the pizza place after the show- the one with fraternity emblems hung all around the oak room and a false "old-copper" atmosphere. getting onto the road finally, jenny and I stopped in a rest stop to get candy fish... 2am... when i went pee there was someone cleaning the potties and I asked him if i should use one he already cleaned or one he was about to clean. he looked up at me with pointed teeth beneath a smile? back on the road, no other cars. headlights coming over a hill far behind. soon, closer. again, I look back to see the shadow of the driver twitching and the headlights lighting a smoky corona in the back window. <><><><><>, hot smoke burns my arm, the dome light flashes so it feels like an exploding submarine, my glasses are gone, and the airbags are open, sagging again, over them in nearsightedness, we are moving towards a wall. we hit it and crunch up to it. now we get out of the car. In a hotel room halfway to providence at night. The room isn't dark at night, but the window is. The curtains pulled over the window: a rectangle of nothing black over a frame of leaked orange streetlight The morning, normalness, gotta get a rental car, find a way to providence. This is done but I don't remember it. We get there and continue being "normal"... tonight we are installing instruments in a show at RISD about people who make synthesizers. Jessica Rylan, Fashion Flesh, Twig, Lo-Vid, and more. It's great to see that this sort of creativity is finding its way. Later on we drive to Boston to play at O'Briens, where people are interrested in weirdness but the bartenders are really mean! This one dude was yelling at everyone to get out of the bar after the show, and he kinda flexed up for a second and growled like a self-indulgent bodybuilder on TV. I was standing right in front of him drinking water and I couldn't help it- I started laughing and snarfed water right out my nose. We stay at Jessica's for the night- she's got a nice old Serge and a huge collection of old transistors. I'm starting to understand her style. The next day we hurry to get back to Providence for the RISD show, which is in a big auditorium, filled. For me, this is uncomfortable- I'm used to playing at clubs where people don't sit in silence- they talk and drink and you can yell at them and stare at them. And also it's hard to get everyone close enough to see the worms playing the din datin dudero. So I asked them to get up and rotate around the room and come closer and peek at the worms. I think after the car accident, the worms have been getting slower, and they stink a little bit. This was a fun show though- it was great seeing everyon play! Talking with jessica on the way to new york, she’s interested in transistors because of the forgotten history of creative people- people who design physics creawtively. We talked also about the square machines and the round machines of the future. Noiw it seems most machines are square- their design has a goal, to create desire, like a cellphone or a blender or a kid's toy., but what about the machines that don’t have a goal-based design? Therse are the round machines of the future, and we must start making their elements now. They are inductive from the start- they don’t necessartily do anything that will fit into our world of “needs”… but they have some amazing properties once built- they can be cut at any point and then wriggle off like a worm as two separate entities that resonate and eventually find their own harmonies. That's why worms are so great to work with- I feel they have an ancient de-system of pure flexibility worked out- they can reproduce sexually, androgynously, a-sexually; they live passive lives of eating dirt; and their brain runs up and down their whole body. Back in Chicago- did a show at Texas Ballroom, curated by Jamillah marvelous person. Installations by Flo, who makes the virtual reality chambers for cats, other instrument makers, and some videos- Jenny's guitar project and some colorful stuff by Ptak. My worms keep on dying!! I need to find a cooler for them. Tonite I discovered that the worms I had bought in pennsylvania were non-worms, the dessicated carcasses of earth-dudes that had passed away many years ago in a Pennsylvania refrigerator. A few days later, up to Madison for a show in the Pizza Parlor there. Starts out with the Peace Terrorists, a local group of anarchead youth, lot'sa good energy and not too much crust in the punk. Analog Weapon (Nick Stage) played a broken mixer. After we all played, we went on back to the 23 productions abandoned office building, with Joanne wandering around with her saxophone all night in the back rooms. Next day down to St. Louis! I love this town, and I love what Mark Sarich, the organizer at Lemp Arts, has done for the neighborhood. A knight of de-gentrification, he has pastored an amazing crowd of interested people into his neighborhood. Unfortunately the worms died again, so I just threw hot worm slime at the ddd and it got reall nasty and bassy! Thanks to jenny and carbon and everyone else we played with! And thanks to the guy in connecticut who trashed my car so now I can enjoy chicago in the summertime on my bike! |
