Tag: This Sound Bureaucracy

Spin ‘Em Enthralled

October 2021
The Rossi Bar

So we start the evening with Dan Powell with his mic’d up tray of objects, and eschewing his Raspberry Pi for a shiny new laptop for processing. I couldn’t quite see what he was up to a lot of the time, occasionally is hands moving around through gaps between things. Or picking up something to bong on it. Starting with some scrapes and tones, big reverbs that have note-ish resonances, there are some beautiful space wobbles and synthy warbles that come through over the scrapes and chimes. Some seem sourced from clashes or clatters from his small bits and bobs, transformed by his Max MSP patches out into otherworldly oscillations.  It all actually feels oddly unhinged, detuned, deranged – but calm, relaxed even. Interestingly not “right” in the best possible way. Ambient but not in that stoner vibe fashion. There are times it reminds me of the electronics in “Outer space with sounds”, primal but not brutish, something from the deepest unconscious of electronics. Properly unnerving. 


Superficially rocking a similar setup to Dan, we had Nil By Nose with a cookie tin, mic’d up mat and small synth in a tiny box, it’s a very different output, fed through with a tonal line of feedback and distortion we come from a much more confined acoustic space. Thicker and more claustrophobic. Looping percussive clacks and ruler thrums, bringing in traffic from the upstairs street. Although it’s not a looper, it’s a very slowly decaying delay. At one point our masked hero bashes and shakes the tin onto the mat bashing out a rhythm that runs for a few bars, then a flurry of conversation, mangled up with intertwining repetitions, the feedback turned into a windy howl. Distorted thumb piano crushes play compression tricks on the whine. It sounds like someone shuffling office furniture.  


Rounding off the evening we had The Founders as This Sound Bureaucracy with their not entirely reliable history of the spirit of gravity. Tony running his usual looping set up, nice circular washes with a rhythm of ball bearings falling down a glass staircase – we had Nick slowly letting us know he was going to be verbalising this evening. He started the set taping a slogan onto the front of the box/table Tony’s kit was set up on, there’s a shift in rhythm and Nick starts his historical tale. This probably the best sound I’ve heard from tony, its driving, Nick sync’d up, pauses working right, changes right in place. My introduction got a nice distorted launch. As Nick gets properly into the Free Butt years, Tony winds down the rhythms and transmutes into a staggering noise pulse “we were fields, all fields” getting its usual appreciative reception. Tony gears everything back up, only thicker and noisier. Sirens. “Stand aside Nietzsche”. Then as a bonus, we get “The Manifesto Of Experiential Music”, proclaimed over laser jabs, raucous trills, noise bolts and general horrible noises. I’ve never managed to work out if Rilke was taking the piss with this manifesto, its accurate to the point of mockery. Tony finishes off the evening with a turgid, lumbering, detuned rollicking rhythm of noise and destruction. While Nick finishes off his tapework in the inevitable fashion.  


This was the first time we’ve had visuals from midi_error, which was a real improvement, the screen was a bit cobbled together – it will be better in November, but the visuals were great, from filtered landscapes to static straggling lines.


radiant saul

First up a big thanks to Fractal for supplying this months (October 2009) visuals.

not by radium fishing trip
transmogrifying into This Sound Bureaucracy.


Fractal mad some noise.


And T-Toe made some beautiful Popping sounds.

Then we have some video for you, too.


Not By Radium Live at the Spirit of Gravity October 2009 II

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


Not By Radium live at The Spirit of Gravity October 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


This Sound Bureaucracy at The Spirit of Gravity Oct 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


This Sound Bureaucracy at The Spirit of Gravity Oct 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


Fractal live at The Spirit of Gravity October 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


Fractal live at the spirit of gravity October 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video


T-Toe live at The Spirit of Gravity October 2009

The Spirit of Gravity | MySpace Video

February sunshine part II

When the spirit of gravity was founded, round here it was all fields,

Wise words from Mr Nick Rilke of This Sound Bureaucracy, the electro-poetic rantings of the permanently sane.


Here is a rerun of an old live favourite, the first time we’ve managed to snag it for ourselves.

this_sound_bureaucracy-bad_rap.mp3

Ry-Om spent a while loading their laptops with guitar scrapes squeaks and squangles.


Then slowly let them escape to run around the room.
ry-om-extract_of_birds-and_bells.mp3

Halal Kebab Hut defy explanation.


Listen to this and then it may be better to watch the video in part I
halal_kebab_hut-casio_thing.mp3

Heres another still from Ry-Om’s set, we liked this one, a nice shot of _minimalVector action.

The Battle of Brighton Live

SoG’s new out-reach programme nearly fell at the first hurdle when various acts were booked to appear in Bond Street’s trendy bar Riki Tik’s on 30th September as part of Brighton Live’s city-wide free music fest. Let’s just say that the selection of abstract electro-acoustic experimentation didn’t go down that well with the locals. Funny as it sounds OK to me when I listen to it now, particularly Dan Powell‘s set, which started the evening off:

Dan_Powell-BL06.mp3

This Sound Bureacracy followed, although technical problems stopped them producing the full range of sounds that were planned. Despite this, the set still came together from time to time:

This_Sound_Bureaucracy-BL06.mp3

The tentative nature of the performance didn’t help with the audience though, so here is the entirety of Minimal Impact‘s set, before he ran for the hills:

Minimal_Impact-BL06.mp3

Celled didn’t play at all, but the night was saved when, fresh from his triumph at Concorde 2, Rashamon rode in on his white charger and quietened the natives with a smooth performance of hypnotic beats and melodies, which quite frankly was what the whole gig should have been like if we had thought it through. I’m sorry to say that I was cowering in the corner by this time, so didn’t get a recording of the set, but please acept my word when I say it was a cracker.

Tony Rimbaud