SquareWaves

Session 22 happened last month and the results are in! 

Head to our Bandcamp page for listening and downloading. Usual deal - the best cuts from our live improv recorded at Gorilla Studios, with no overdubs. This time featuring some post-rock vibes alongside IDM beats and glitches and some mega krautrocky grooves towards the end.

Listen/download for free here: https://squarewaveshull.bandcamp.com/album/session-22

SquareWaves live electronic synth jam 

Creator College 25/10/2016 

Mark Powell - Top Albums of 2016

Another brill selection of top albums from the last year, featuring some of the big hitters and some lesser known treats. Bonus points for adding comments along the way.

I’m afraid I can’t link you to any of his music as none is available online. But he has featured in many SquareWaves sessions.

David Bowie - Blackstar The final artistic statement from the ultimate showman and, frustratingly, his best album for years.

Nick Cave & the Bad Seeds - Skeleton Tree  Heartbreaking.

Radiohead - A Moon Shaped Pool A real return to form - Burn the Witch is a great opener, with a great video to match.

Monoloc - The Untold Way  Only discovered this recently, but it’s drawing me in.

Matmos - Ultimate Care II I saw them perform this at Cafe Oslo in London earlier this year and they blew the roof off… with a washing machine!

Charles Bradley - Changes Old-school soul - Ain’t it a Sin in particular is superb.

Mogwai - Atomic A soundtrack to a film about the nuclear industry by Mogwai - what’s not to like?

BadBadNotGood - IV On balance I think I prefer BBNG III, but it’s still a fine album.

Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS  Sunergy, her collaboration with Suzanne Ciani is also very good.

Juliana Barwick - Will The voice of an angel and the synths of Beelzebub!

The Invisible - Patience If you can sit still while listening to this you’re dead inside!

Max Cooper - Emergence Not sure yet whether it’s a much of a masterpiece as 2014’s Human, but it’s pretty great.

Ben Lukas Boysen - Spells As a label, Erased Tapes can do little wrong in my eyes and this is a lovely piece of work.

Azyss - Top albums of 2016

Another top album selection for 2016, this time from kosmische producer Azyss. Looks like Ghost Box Records is getting a lot of love. His picks come in three tiers, but unordered within each.

Check out Azyss on Soundcloud and Bandcamp.

Top 5: Belbury Poly - New Ways Out Kaitlyn Aurelia Smith - EARS Pye Corner Audio - Statis Steve Hauschild - Strands The Comet Is Coming - Channel The Spirits

Second Tier Bad Bad Not Good - IV Not Waving - Animals Pulselovers - Pulselovers The Pattern Forms - Peel Away The Ivy Whitney - Light Upon The Lake

Third Tier Anoushka Shankar - Land of Gold ANOHNI - Hopelessness Factory Floor - 25 25 Konx-Om-Pax - Caramel The Magnetic North - Prospect of Skelmersdale

Slash Three - Best of 2016

Slash Three picks his favourite releases for 2016, with a massive mix of electronic tunes. Some proper gems in this list.

Vaperror - Crystal Body (Juke Rework) Fla.mingo - U melt me Christtt - Judas Inside MSTRKRFT - Little Red Hen Halo Acid - No one Blanck Mass - D7-D5 Factory Floor - Meet me at the end Blank Banshee - My Machine Autechre - feed1 Daniel Avery - Sensation

Check out Slash Three on soundcloud and Bandcamp.

Gradient Echo - Best of 2016

Next up for our end of year lists is Gradient Echo, with two Top 7 album lists. In his own words: "Just pad it to 10 with loads of memes and the internet will love it". We chose not to listen to him.

[2016]

Avalanches - Wildflower Danny Brown - Atrocity Exhibition King Gizzard & The Lizard Wizard - Nonagon Infinity Hong Kong Express - Hong Kong Express Loscil - Monument Builders Meridian Brothers - Los Suicidas Oren Ambarchi - Hubris

[Other Years]

Ash Kooshra - Guud BLANK BANSHEE - BLANK BANSHEE 0 BadBadNotGood - III Deru - 1979 Open Mike Eagle - A Special Episode Of (EP) Run The Jewels - Run The Jewels 2 Stars Of The Lid - Carte-de-visite

Applemax - Top tracks of 2016

First up in our end of year lists from our regular SquareWaves collaborators is AppleMax. He’s given us a selection of 10 of his favourite tracks of the year. No particular order. Just 10 straight up great tracks.

Bonobo - Kerala The Beat - Side to Side The XX - On Hold Sleaford Mods - TCR Cate le Bon - Wonderful Nick Cave - Skeleton Key Iggy Pop - Gardenia David Bowie - Lazarus Petrol Bastard - Transit Van Wire - Nocturnal Koreans

Find AppleMax on Soundcloud here: https://soundcloud.com/applemax/

SquareWaves Session 20

We piled into BBC Introducing for a live improvised session plus three sessions from Hull electronic acts. It was a super evening and can be listened to here:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p03xfgzg

As usual, here’s the gear list from the set:

AppleMax/Electro Furnace: Korg es-1 sampling drum machine Korg sq1 sequencer Mutable Instruments Anushri Mutable Instruments Shruthri Novation xio 25 synth Korg chaos pad 3 + custom built Potoff matrix mixer for the Electro Furnace set for the SquareWaves jam Italia imola guitar, ebow, Boss cs3 compressor EHX Freeze Fender volume pedal Boss rc20xl loop station Boss rc3 loop station Boss rd3 digital delay

MyOneManBand: Korg ER1 ESX, MicroStarion Kaoss Pad 3 Kaossilator Pro Emu Command Station Alesis IO Dock x2 Flame Six In A Row Gibson Echoplex Digital Pro

Azyss: Roland JDXI Korg volca Keys, Beats and Bass Macbook Pro Ableton live 9 Native Instruments Kontakt 5 Native Instruments Komplete Audio 6

Mark Powell: Eigenharp Alpha Yamaha sustain pedal Keith McMillen Softstep 2 iConnectivity iConnectAUDIO4+ Apple MacBook Pro 15" i7 Ableton Live 9 Spectrasonics Omnisphere 2 u-He Diva Modartt Pianoteq Stage 5 Native Instruments Reaktor 5 Native Instruments Reaktor Prism

Gradient Echo: Korg Poly-61 Arturia Microbrute Dave Smith Mopho x4 Line6 DL4 Line6 FBV Shortboard MkII Akai APC40 mk2 u-he TyrellN6 Guitar Rig 5 Yamaha VSS-200  Native Instruments Blocks

Kev La Kat Ableton Live Ableton Push 1

DXN/Electro Furnace: Korg Volca Keys Korg Volca Sample Korg Monotribe Korg ER1 Korg Mini Kaoss Pad Alesis Micron

Matt Briggs: TC electronics Tuner Moore Yellow Comp Electro Harmonix POG Subdecay Liquid Sunshine Mk1 Electro Harmonix Small Stone Montreal Assembly Count to Five Zvex Mastotron Volume Pedal Electro Harmonix Freeze Catalinbread Echorec Empress Tape Delay Zvex Instant Lo Fi Junky Line 6 DL4 Moog moogerfooger delay mf104m Earthquaker Devices Ghost Echo Electro Harmonix 8 Step Program MOTU Ultralite mk3 interface 15" Macbook Pro Ableton Live 9 Ableton Push Yamaha Sustain Pedal

Two free talks/demonstrations on electronic music at The New Adelphi Club

Jessica Rodríguez + Reggaetron (Emilio Ocelotl and Luis Navarro) (Mexico) Exploring, through livecoding, different aspects of electronic dance music such as Hi-NRG, reggaeton, cumbia, 3ball and global bass Plus live visuals, bringing together organic video footage with the inorganics of code.

Hull electronic favourite MyOneManBand, known for his live improvisational electronic music, will also be joining us with a new presentation after his fantastic TEDxHull talk.

SquareWaves Session 15

Hear the cuts on Bandcamp here.

Quite a chilled session this month featuring lots of ambience and since we’d just had World Piano Day, a whole bunch of pianos. We also had a new SquareWaver, Mark Powell join us for the first time with his Eigenharp

Here’s the run down of musicians and gear:

MyOneManBand:

Octatrack iPad

DXN:

Korg Volca Sample Korg Volca Keys Mini Kaoss Pad Yamaha QY22 Gakken SX-150 Mark II

Mark Powell

Eigenharp Alpha iConnectAudio4+ Softstep2 u-he Diva NI Reaktor Prism  Pianoteq Stage

Azyss:

Roland JDXi Macbook Pro - Ableton Live, NI Battery, Kontakt M-Audio Keystation Mini 32

AppleMax:

Electro-Harmonix Freeze Boss CS 2 Compressor Volume pedal Boss RC xl looper Boss Digital Delay

Matt Briggs: (Bass in Shivering Wave)

Macbook Pro - Ableton Live Ableton Push

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SquareWaves Session 14

Hear the cuts on Bandcamp here.

A great session with eight musicians down packing into Zoo Cafe. This one got pretty crazy and chaotic (in a good way) at times - check out the latter half of ‘Star Fish Zone’ on the Bandcamp. 

Here’s the run down of musicians and gear:

MyOneManBand:

Midibox Seq v4 Microkorg XL

DXN:

Korg Volca Sample Korg Volca Keys Mini Kaoss Pad Yamaha QY22

Kev La Kat:

Laptop Ableton Live Ableton Push 1

Azyss:

Roland JDXi Macbook Pro - Ableton Live, NI Battery

Gradient Echo:

Arturia MicroBrute Macbook Pro - Ableton Live

AppleMax:

Miku Pedal> Boss CS 2 Compressor >  Volume pedal > Boss RC xl looper > Boss space echo

Matt Briggs:

Korg Microkorg Pedal board:

First in my signal chain is a Bright Onion Switcher Switch Patchbox then the first loop is:

Moore Yellow Comp > TC Poly Tune2 > EHX POG > EHX Small Stone > Montreal Assembly Count to Five > Zvex Mastotron > EHX Freeze > Catalinbread Echorec > Bespeco Volume > Zvex Wah Probe > Empress Tape Delay > Zvex Instant Lofi Junky > TC Ditto > back to Patchbox

And then the 2nd loop which depending on the switch either sits in my FX loop of my amp or at the end of the first loop:

Moogerfooger mf104m Delay > Earthquaker Ghost Echo

Creation Matrix:

Novation Mininova

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