My Website

Ok so, with the help of an artist friend of mine my website is starting up.... however, it will most likely not be fully funtional until some time in the uni holidays. I will be posting snippets of my work there.

BrokenHeads Official Website

Are You Saturated??

Unless your talking about a Nord then the colour red is usually a bad thing in audio. In the digital realm, it signifies clipping/clipping distortion which is unanimously considered a 'bad' thing. However, if you push analoge tape to its limits you don't get clipping, you get saturation.... aaahh yes, sweet saturation. It actually sounds great. I often saturate many things with tape.... sometimes a wierd melodic line but usally a secondary drum part. that's all im gonna say about it..... just listen to it. listen to any of boards of Canadas work and you shall see what I mean!

Looking for a unique sound?? -- Then bend your childhood toys

A few years ago I tried my hand at producing Psychedelic Trance..... Although I wouldn't say I failed in my mission to write what I thought was Psychedelic Trance, I could see that other people couldn't relate to it as specifically, 'Psychedelic' trance... why? well.. I'll tell you what i think.

Psytrance, has had the tendency to become a uniform style of production and structure at the mercy of a few different elements. Two specifically spring to mind.... that is.. the very distinguished characteristics and modulation possibilities of the Clavia Nord Lead and the Access Virus synthesizers. For me, classifying something as psychedelic then restricting it to particular sounds-scapes seemes to lead the genre on a path to self destruction... and so... although I still participate in the festival part of the scene I no longer wish to participate in the production of the music itself. Sure, genres can always be lead in different directions and I could have attempted to do this but it seems I have became more interested over time not so much in dynamic modulation of filters, envelopes and oscillators that Psytrance artists do so well, but in Signal manipulation.... that, and I wanted to experiment more with percussion... Psytrance by its very nature restricts this somewhat.


So, signal manipulation.... what is that exactly? for me, it implies a form of manipulation of a digital signal that extends beyond the usual modulations of the synthesizer..... why is this so interesting? well, the process by which you do this can be entirely unique... giving you a sound that can be truly yours, which is something many artists aspire towards. Using the machines other people have made is going to render you with similar results that others will have using those same machines. But, how many people have opened their toy piano and messed with the circuitry the same way you have... well, not many; this is the appeal of circuit bending. Circuit bending is the art of rebuilding machines, toys or whatever to make unique sounds through their unique circuitry.... fascinating.




(Above) A video demonstrating some circuit bending in action

Unfortunately, I do not have skills in the field of electronics and so I haven't done any as yet, although, I do have a toy piano I picked up in an op-shop in rural Victoria just begging to be messed with. For some excellent info on Circuit bending visit Getlofi.com

John Cage & Brian Eno -- Pathing the way for sound today!

Recently whilst walking to Uni on a particularly sunny day I was listening to some music I had composed, I tend to listen to my own music many times over particularly when i am working on a particular project. I was pondering on how one can see their own music in an objective manner... so, I turned the music off and decided to leave it for a while. In this period of non-listening and thinking about objectivity I started to wonder why it is that I like the particular music that I do. Surely, it has a lot to do with my personality and what I'm looking for in music but I realised it has a lot to do with the pathways in which my own personal musical evolution has lead me. Also, I realised that music that is currently being released is in many ways the result of the past..... so, what was it that shaped genres such as IDM and experimental electronic music to be what they are today? Well, amongst the myriad of artists that have influenced me and others... two artists stand out for me; John Cage and Brian Eno.


John Cage (above), prominent in the 1950s, was actually a classically trained musician, however, what he did was very different. He was one of the first to challenge the limits of what people would define as music. He challenged the traditional harmonically structured approach to music and instead used things such as prepared piano and everyday sounds in his compositions. He also pioneered what is known as chance music through composing in such a way that the outcome of the performance is seemingly random.


(Above) John Cage performing 'Water Walks' on a TV show in 1960

Brian Eno, is a well know electronic music pioneer who still writes today. His work with tape loops and randomly generated music has been an inspiration to many electronic artists today. Notably, his album 'Music for Airports' has been an inspiration for my own compositional style although a completely different aesthetic. Using tape loops at different length brings a pleasant randomness to a composition if done well.

It has been through these founders of electronic and experimental music that aspects of the music have evolved to be what they are today.....