demo audio of cassette based graffiti audio work for the CRITICAL GLITCH ARTWARE CATEGORY at BLOCKPARTY and NOTACON 2010 curated by the criticalartware crew (jonCates, Jake Elliott, Tamas Kemenczy and Mark Beasley.)
More info at www.criticalartware.net/nfo
Violet Systems - Sometimes It Snows in April (in Dub) - 2010 - sound/mixed media
Utilizing recycled tape media, indelible marker, marantz tape decks, and Ableton live, Chicago based Entro MC sets out to edit and reinterpret through fair use Prince's "Sometimes it snows in April." In dub.
The process samples heavily the studio techniques of analog tape pioneers like King Tubby and Mad Professor. By utilizing tapes rather than other media, there is the ability innate in the medium to physically augment and reappropriate the sound contained therein. It also heavily nods towards the anarchist street ethos of fellow subversive artists such as Weed Wolf, Oh Shit!, and Morgan by questioning antiquated concepts of legal boundaries establishing new autonomous zones.
Utilizing oil based opaque paint markers, the original cassette media has been tagged in pure white marker with the Korean word for "corpse" methodically every three open spaces of the audio tape case. The tape has been manually wound with a finger to cover the length of the original track. By the nature of the paint, each sigil varies in clarity based on the amount of time left for the mark to dry until the next rotation which ultimately changes the sound of the audio per inscription.
Once the original tape has been obfuscated, it is loaded into a marantz deck and archived digitally. Due to the effect of the paint on the tape heads, each deck also varies in sound quality and output. All three sources are imported into Ableton live and further cut, splice, chopped and screwed with their particular timbres and textures to recreated the original work.
The unlikely usage of Prince, who at heart is staunchly against free intellectual property, is ultimately the subject matter of the piece referencing varying themes of fear such as death, money, ownership, and loss. It is meant to be not a criticism but a reaction and meditation of the lack of control, which at its very heart is the essence of glitch.
Final work presented on Cassette at 7 minutes.
