Howdy. I have many hobbies and post what I can, when I can, here. Here are some quick links:
STORM CHASING: Here @ davealex.com
ROCKHOUNDING: Here @ davealex.com
MUSIC: davealex.com Soundcloud: davealex :: multicast :: freq modif Facebook: davealex :: multicast :: freq modif Misc: Obliq Label :: Mixcloud :: Mixes @ davealex.com
Wow, the first Total Lunar Eclipse of 2014 was perfect! What a show! Was a clear (and cold) night with no wind, perfect for viewing the Blood Red Moon. This is the first of four eclipses that I hope to watch over the next couple of years. I was able to get Daphne and Erin up to see it, but Hunter said no way. Maybe next time! The next total Lunar Eclipse is October 8th. On my calendar, how about yours?
Total Lunar Eclipse April 2014
Great to see the blood red moon!
Total Lunar Eclipse April 2014
Total Lunar Eclipse April 2014
Total Lunar Eclipse April 2014
I have been loving this site; shows when the weather systems are coming into the area and how they get started out in the Pacific! It’s interactive too, just click on the word “Earth” or drag your mouse around on it! Look at surface winds or choose your height if you prefer upper air disturbances!
What is great is I can look at this one view and know when the storm chasing will likely be good and non-existent. Gives me a really quick look at the next 4-5 days, and helps me determine when further research is necessary!
4 *NEW* Multicast tracks (under the Mothership and Obliq Recordings side projects guises Replicast, Ted Sturgeon and Freq Modif) are featured on the late Pete Namlook tribute Die Welt ist Klang on Carpe Sonum Records! We are honored to be a part of this tribute to one of the pioneers of electronic music along with 30+ other great artists!
Here are the individual tracks:
Ted Sturgeon – Sea Foam Green
Freq Modif – Spy Hunter
Replicast (Multicast) – Gurrr
Multicast – Lowrider in Cairo
Back over 10 years ago a local movie company Kinotonik produced this awesome 35mm underground film Sleeping Pills. Featured in the soundtrack are several Obliq Recordings (i.e. my record label) tunes. The movie’s Director Michael Lauter has decided to put a REDUX version out on HD Blu-ray format!
This is an Indiegogo funding project, so jump out there and support it! One neat thing about this movie is it was filmed in many unique Colorado architectural facilities that have since been destroyed! This film is preserving these interesting Colorado relics!
Looking forward to finally having a copy of this great movie to watch again and hearing our music on a Blu-ray HD movie!
Just pitched the yeast in a new year’s mead. This one will be the same as my last one, Orange Cinnamon Vanilla Sweet Mead. Incredible stuff! I’ll put the spices in after the primary fermentation settles down.
4 Gallons Water
16-18 pounds honey (10-12 Dark Unfiltered Larkspur + 6 Light Ft. Lupton)
1/2 tsp Yeast Energizer Blend (Wyeast)
1 packet Red Star Premier Cuvee Active Dry Wine Yeast
OG: 1107 (Jan 1, 2014)
SG: 1050 (Feb 9, 2014)
Update: Feb 9, 2014.
Racked the Mead and added the spices. I tried it without the spices, it is REALLY good! I can’t wait! Here are the added spices:
7 Ceylon Cinnamon Sticks
4 Madagascar Vanilla Beans (may need more, I used 5 last time)
8 Oranges Zested
Here are the ingredients making it a Metheglin
2014 Metheglin – Naked Oranges
Vanilla and Cinnamon – We love Savory spices!
Spice bomb
Spice Bombs Away!
10 gallons of Metheglin Fermenting
February Batch’s Clover Honey from Costco
The second batch of mead used the yeast from the first batch; hopefully that will get it going quicker. So far just honey and water.
15 lbs Kirkland Clover Honey (USA and Argentina, isn’t as dark as Larkspur honey is)
4 Gallons Water
OG: 1114 (Feb 9th, 2014)
Stay tuned….
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Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens – Los Angeles Mescal ButtonsDenver based teacher & songwriter that put together a great EP available for free! Gotta love that. Nice western feel and great bassline for the title track. Remixes are good too! The Marcellus Lewis Remix has some nice squidgy sounds under a deep reverb tank that are great!http://jeffreywentworthstevens.blogspot.com/2013/09/los-angeles-mescal-buttons-singleremixes.html |
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Jeffrey Wentworth Stevens – The Holy Dogs of Other DaysAwesome album; and gets the creativity art project of the year award!!! Released on a 2” button that you can clip onto your jean jacket…just plug in headphones and away you go… track selection and volume control included. Plug into USB for a fresh recharge! One of the best packaging ideas to date; and the tunes are awesome too. Get the digital edition for free… http://jeffreywentworthstevens.bandcamp.com/album/the-holy-dogs-of-other-days |
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Cyberia – DYADWhat the hell is up with Denver bands this year! O F F T H E C H A R T S !!! This is off of some obscure cassette tape label (really?) from some hick town in Texass. One of the most listened to albums of the year; this is a great commuter release. Tight melodies and awesome production! If you haven’t heard it yet; well; you’re lame! |
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Locust – You’ll Be Safe ForeverI love Mark Van Hoen; and he again comes out with a strong release! I can remember falling in love with his sound from Weathered Well in 94; this is no-where near as strong of a release; but that one will never be bested by Mark. Not ambient, not dance; but somewhere in the void between…awesome rainy day music! |
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Adult – The Way Things FallStarting in 2012 I rediscovered one of my favorite genres, coldwave, on Soundcloud. Since I have been loving all the resurgence of this sound. I remember seeing Adult in NYC 2000 at the SiNFest and this duo has come a long way since then! Female vocals are a bit off; which just drives me nuts! For those liking an alternative sound, grab it! |
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Makina GiRGiR – TormentAnother incredible coldwave record. Beautiful female vocals over classic old school “new wave”. Awesome French start up label doing beautiful releases. This one is hand silk screened! Thanks to Soundcloud for tuning me into this one! |
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Various – Circuit D’Actes 3A great new startup label from France, Le Forme Lente is hitting it with spot on coldwave VINYL ONLY releases. Along with the Makina GirGir LP; this one is excellent. Featuring Kline Coma Xero from San Francisco, a great startup artist very reminiscent of Lassigue Bendthaus, and when I saw he had this release on vinyl I had to pick it up! The KCX track is incredible, and I was gifted with 9 other awesome tracks! A very disturbing version of “Ring Around The Rosie” ends the LP… |
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Miss Kittin – Falling from the StarsThis album has grown on me considerably. Not as much so as her last album Batbox (which is growing to one of my all time favorite techno-pop albums), but this 4LP heavy weight set has two modes—the first two LPs are more techno pop while the second two are more experimental and instrumental. Bought this pre-order from France, $21 shipped as it was not available in America; keep an eye on Amazon for great deals! |
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Dopplereffekt – TetrahymenaA latecomer to 2013; this is a classic Detroit style 3 track EP. Starting off with analog arpeggio and travelling through classic electro and dark techno; a classic release! Can’t get this off of the turntable! On my newest mix… |
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SP#1 – Retrofit2 tracks of acid techno bliss. I bought this on a whim from Amoeba (first visit since 2008!) –this is likely the most listened to record of the year for me. Ultra limited, you probably missed it… Mesmerizing deep acid techno; both sides are incredible—hypnotising! Also on the above mixtape… |
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Recondite – On AcidA recommendation from some label owner in Texass, this is one of the best acid albums in a long time. Not the typical dance stuff; but full of slide and octave up on the old 303! The vinyl sounds amazing! Wonderful record! |
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Trentemoller – Reworked & RemixedMy first (and only) official buy on iTunes. This is a remix compilation from his amazing “Into the Great Wide Yonder” album from several years back. Awesome self-remixes along with touch ups from other great producers; the fav is the surf track produced by Andrew Weatherall! Essential Trentemoller release! |
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Skinny Puppy – Weapon LPI saw them in 2012 and they still have what has made the one of the best electronic bands ever; what an amazing show! This LP was limited and worth the long wait; classic Puppy sound but with a modern feel and great synth programming as always. Solvent is a remake from their first cassette demo and takes you all that way back; the other tracks are fresh but also have the feel of early Puppy! Great record! |
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Atom TM – Pop HDI love most the album; except the horrible Who remake and the Jamie Lidell tracks. Uwe mastering makes the most of minimal samples and spaced sounds. BIG sound from little sounds! Production quality is something to make engineers heads spin—he is the master! Great fun! Stop Imperialist Pop makes me laugh out loud each listen! Can’t wait for the Blu-ray version! |
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I Dream of Wires Blu-rayProduced by Canada’s own Jason Amm (Solvent), this is the documentary of the year, maybe the decade. History of Modular Synthesizers is part I, part II explores the current Modular craze that is happening now. A synth lover’s wet dream…Hardcore Edition is > 4 hours long! |
Send me the ones I missed in the comments!
Was doing some cleaning and found this ad from an old Roland Users Group brochure. I had no clue these were from the ProForm Series of musical instruments. What is lost with time…they don’t talk about what the TR and TB stand for… Transistor Rhythm and Transistor Bassline. Everything is COMPUTER CONTROLLED !
I love the tagline at the end… Roland :: We Want You To Understand The Future. I guess they hit that nail directly on the head!
Roland ProForm Advertisement TR-606 and TB-303
The new Roland ProForm Series is a group of interrelated products, each providing a specific musical function. Like individual members of a band, each of the ProForm products can sync with others in the series to produce a totally programmable musical performance. The first of the products in the ProForm Series are the TR-606 Drumatix and the TB-303 Bassline.
TR-606 Drumatix
The Drumatix is a totally programmable drum synthesizer sequencer. The Drum sounds available on the TR-606 include: Bass, Snare, Lo and Hi Toms, Cymbal, Open and Closed Hi Hat. Each sound has its own level control for total mix flexibility.
With the Drumatix, you can program 32 different Rhythm Patterns which can be arranged to play up to 8 complete Rhythm Tracks (songs). After the Track has been programmed, the TR-606 can easily sync to other ProForm products, or many other products to play the complete drum track of the composition.
TB-303 BassLine
As the Drumatix is to the drums, the TB-303 is to the Bass, a fully programmable bass synthesizer sequencer. The remarkable stable synthesizer section features full voice flexibility with dual waveforms and controls for Tuning, VCF Cutoff, Resonance, Envelope Modulation and Decay. The programmable Accent and Slide functions bring true bass technique capabilities to the TB-303.
With the facility to produce up to 64 different Bass Patterns, the TB_303 BassLine allows you to arrange these into 7 different Bass Tracks, which can then be synced with Drum Tracks you’ve programmed into the Drumatix. The BassLine also can be easily synced with many other products by the DIN Sync jack or the CV and Gate outputs.
The ProForm Series is bound to appeal to any creative person for writing music, practicing, or simply communicating ideas to other musicians. Each of the products (and their are more to come), is battery operated with AC adapter capability, totally portable, furnished with a carrying case, and also contains a built-in headphone amplifier which lets you plug in a set of phones and write and practice music anywhere.
Roland
We Want You to Understand the Future
I found this several years ago and just came across it again recently. This is an old article on the Mineralogical Society of America’s web site about a Topaz dig at Devils Head. This is from American Mineralogist journal from 1945.
It talks about dig(s) during the summer of 1934 of Edwin Over and Arthur Montgomery. The article is technical and shows detailed drawings and crystallography of the Topaz they found at this locale.
http://www.minsocam.org/ammin/AM20/AM20_354.pdf
All of the journal is posted online here and free through 1999.
A few takeaways…
I have yet to find Topaz at Devils Head, but most of the larger smoky quartz I find is as they describe.
Watched near the peak (which occurs a little before noon our time) of the Quadrantids this morning. This shower of space dust comes from the minor planet 2003 EH1 and its peak is usually for a very short duration; literally hours–not days like normal showers. The radiant is around the big dipper handle straight up in the sky.
I watched for about 1.5 hours and saw about 25; 15+ were really nice. It was a treat this year because there was no moon…I have tried to watch this shower in the past and never saw much of anything! Here’s a couple I was able to catch…now let’s see if I can catch any sleep…
Quadrantids 2014 from Colorado USA – click for large image
Quadrantids 2014 from Colorado USA – click for large image
Howdy.
Happy New Year!
In celebration I recently posted about 100 free tunes on Bandcamp.com. A great site; these are free so preview them and download anything that you like! And tell your friends! Many of our older albums have been stacked with rare and unreleased material. The newest album is a collaboration with the great Denver band Equulei. Multicast and Freq Modif are represented here. Look forward to more releases in 2014!