Trash_Audio

Jonathan Bates from Big Black Delta

Background
Born in Venezuela. Grew up in Miami. Lived in Boston. Hung out in LA and a woman bought me a drink. I never went back. True story.
I started playing guitar when I was around 13. I was good at it and could shred & shit, but it had no musical value. I didn’t really start listening to music and trying to write songs until I was about 19 or 20. Being a late bloomer is cool, cause I’m still freaking out about bands that people were over by the time they turned 16 (I’m 31). Besides jealousy, the prospect of a new sound or a simple song coming my way is the greatest motivator. The current name of the game is Big Black Delta and I also did stuff as mellowdrone

Currently
For Big Black Delta, Im planning to release an ep every 3-4 months. Im tired of spending a year and a half on LP’s. For this first EP, I’m giving a free mp3 download of a different song every couple of weeks. I’m using Topspin to do this. Down the road I’ll print up vinyl and CD’s but for now, I just want to get music out there. There will be AAC and every kind of format available once im done giving this first EP away.
My friend Caspar at Version Industries has been designing the visual media and website. As well as teaching me how to use Topspin. Could not have done this without him. While making the EP, Alessandro Cortini and I would meet almost weekly to trade each others music and critique. It really helps to get an objective opinion when making your own music. As all of us do, I tend to get lost in the wilderness and sometimes need a simple slap in the face.

Favorite Hardware
My Grado headphones, Akai LPK25 and a Shure SM7B. Not knowing where I’m going to record means I need a portable standard. These headphones help do that. SM7B cause it just works. I tried the mini controllers stuff from Korg, but I went through 3 of them in a month. The Akai is a lot stronger. Hate having stuff. Its just more shit to worry about, so the less hardware the better for me. I just end up bothering my friends.

Software
I write and record in Logic because of the ease and access. Its glitchy, but its worth it. The SoundToys suite has been a favorite as of late. Echoboy and the Decapitator are incredible. Michael Norris’ suite is great and free. Olga is a great shareware synth I use a lot. But what I use the most is the standard Logic compressor. When used incorrectly, its pretty neat. Besides that, I love collecting samples of non instrument-based sounds.

Workspace and Environment
The more isolated I feel, the better my imagination works, the better the music. So a space could be cocoon-like or outside in a field, as long as people aren’t around, I can create freely. It feels like my whole life, I’ve been recording in an apartment, or a friends house…

Ideal Location
In the woods, not far from the ocean. With lots of light and a quite bar nearby. I would like to try in Alaska one day. Or in one of those industrial-grade tree houses they have in Hawaii.

Ever Hear Your Music Playing In A Public Space?
Yes. It was like graduating from high school. I was like :”shouldn’t this be cooler or something?”

Extracurricular
I’ve had the pleasure of recently working with or producing/mixing: SONOIO, White Sea, M83, War Widow… and I just finished a Yogi Gong record.

Listen to Big Black Delta in the player below, or visit him at BigBlackDelta.com

Alessandro Cortini has been working non-stop for the past few months on his Sonoio project which launches it’s campaign today. At the launch site you can pre-order the album in different formats and packages, take a closer look at the SuONOIO instrument, and watch the teasers we put together. Trash_Audio will have an exclusive video and interview coming soon. Until then, go and enjoy the sights and sounds of Sonoio.

Visit SONOIO.ORG
SONOIO Facebook

Gorilla Box now has almost everything in stock including the Gorilla Cages which sport a Tip Top Audio power supply and Vector Rail System, road cases, 12U cases, switch covers, screws and other accessories. The Tip Top Audio power supplies are the best Eurorack power systems I’ve ever come across. To find more information on Gorilla Box from this site visit: Our Archives. The 3U racks are the only item not available yet.

- Visit Gorilla Box

Make Noise just announced a product that a couple of friends and I helped beta test, BRAINS. When combined with Pressure Points (1 or 2 chained together), it turns the pressure sensitive controller into a 4 or 8 step sequencer that utilizes the touch plates for performance orientated patterns. If you have a Doepfer A-151 sequential switch, the pattern length can go up to 24 steps with 2 Pressure Points. Don’t forget that Pressure Points also has gate outs making it a feature heavy sequencer. It features some strange things that I’ve never seen in a sequencer controller such as the Touch-Clock which, among many things, quantizes your interaction with the Pressure Points plates to an incoming clock so you’re always triggering on time. The standard sequencer modes are here as well such as Reset, Run, and Direction.

Read more about it here: Make Noise BRAINS

Two new releases today at the Fixt download store. The first is a collaboration between Surachai and I (Render:Error). The second is a sort of maxi single from me…

Render:Error – First

“Polyfuse and Surachai: professional sound designers by trade, accomplished electronic musicians by hobby. Both have received acclaim for their respective musical outputs, Polyfuse for his Acid/Techno/Industrial Dance that makes you lose it on the dancefloor as though controlled by a voodoo doll and Surachai for his self-named Plague Metal, a non-Euclidean geometry of tortured analog electronics and brutal cyber metal. After having run the Trash Audio blog and their own Shade:Red music label together for several years, one would expect some sort of collaboration between the two, and indeed there was, some time ago. Now, after languishing on a hard drive for years, this first single from the Render:Error project has seeped through a crack in the pavement to infect the citizenship. You can run, you can cover your ears, but it will do no good – Render:Error will find you, and you will obey.”

Polyfuse – Dagger Hero

“Over the past three years, Polyfuse has taken the Chicago underground by storm with his expertly-produced take on the modern Industrial genre, meeting somewhere between the frenetic, sharp-edged Acid Techno of yesteryear and the superbly-textured Electronic Rock of modern acts such as NIN. Last year, in between experiments in long-form dark ambient and jagged, minimal analog Acid, the remains of an aborted 2007 debut album were released for free. Now, Polyfuse is preparing for the release of the fully-realized followup, The Speed Of Forever, and serving as an advance warning comes this three-track teaser single with album cuts “Dagger Hero” and “Never Repeat These Words” and exclusive B-side “Floor”. With a sonic structure as threatening as the deadliest military hardware these compositions give testament to the fact that a repertoire of considerable force is being manufactured within the borders of the Windy City, and the eventual onslaught will change the face of modern electronic music.”

Prometheus Burning invited I, Parasite and Surachai to play at their release party in Pittsburgh this past weekend. They also had a number of local multimedia artists to display and sell their works as well. This was my first in depth look into Pittsburgh and as always, I was shooting in my chaotic documentary style and probably focused too much on Diesel. For more information on the events of the passed night, view the previous post: HERE.

Alessandro has just announced SuONOIO, a small synth that will be available as one of the physical releases packages offered with the release of Sonoio, his latest project. Harvestman was commissioned by Alessandro to make a small versatile synth with tons of functionality only the Harvestman could pull off. Additional information to follow….

- The Harvestman
- Sonoio

For an overview of a few of Harvestman modules, watch these videos: Malgorithm, Hertz Donut, and the Piston Honda.

Alessandro Cortini has a few special announcements he’ll make soon but for now all you get is a glimpse. Also, there is an open discussion over at the Sonoio Facebook page where you can ask questions. Link is below.

Sonoio.org
Facebook Sonoio Page

The Trash_Audio team is late for work! This is basically what goes through my mind on a daily basis.

All of the audio is original and not altered from the camera. This is probably what downtown Chicago would sound like if we were being invaded by outside forces. Explosions, gunfire, people flying out of building, military and fake breasts will be all over downtown Chicago for the next month because Transformers 3 is shooting.

sonoio2 from Alessandro Cortini on Vimeo.

Alessandro Cortini and I have been putting together teasers for his upcoming project’s album called Sonoio which comes out on July 28th 2010. Sign up below for updates and additional information. This is the second teaser, the first one we did is: Here! Enjoy!