2009 Favorites

Experimental Albums:
01. Tim Hecker – An Imaginary Country
02. Jon Mueller – Physical Changes
03. Mountains – Choral
04. Hecker – Acid in the Style of David Tudor
05. Nmperign – Ommatidia
06. John Wiese – Circle Snare
07. Brian Harnetty – The Silent City (w/Will Oldham)
08. Kevin Drumm – Alku Tape
09. Schnee – Neuschnee
10. Nicholas Szczepanik – The Chiasmus
11. Volcano Choir – Unmap
12. Keith Whitman – Taking Away
13. Jim Haynes – Sever
14. Wiese/Yeh – Cincinnati
15. James Blackshaw – Glass Bead Game

Pop Albums:
01. Raekwon – Only Built 4 Cuban Linx II
02. Animal Collective – Merryweather Post Pavillion
03. Diamond District – In the Ruff
04. Beaten Awake – Thunder$troke
05. Neko Case - Middle Cyclone
06. Phoenix – Wolfgang Amadeus Phoenix
07. Mountain Goats - The Life Of The World To Come
08. Dinosaur Jr. – Farm
09. Sunset Rubdown – Dragonslayer
10. Sonic Youth – The Eternal

Live Shows:
01. Aaron Hibbs Hula Hoop Marathon – The Shelf, Columbus, OH
02. Peter Rehberg/Marcus Schmickler – No Fun Fest, Brooklyn, NY
03. Jon Mueller's Physical Changes – Art Damage Lodge, Cincinnati, OH
04. Bill Callahan – Used Kids Records, Columbus, OH
05. Raglani – No Fun Fest, Brooklyn, NY
06. Times New Viking V.U. Tribute – Wexner Center, Columbus, OH
07. Spykes Acoustic Performance – Sklyab, Columbus, OH
08. Beaten Awake – both times I saw them this year
09. Wolf Eyes – Skylab, Columbus, OH
10. James Blackshaw – Wexner Center, Columbus, OH

Stalemate in Hand

After spending the better part of an hour idling in line at the Post Office, I was finally able to sign for and walk with a box full of Stalemate CDs. This collaboration with Daniel Menche was recorded in Spring of 2008 and has finally been released by the wonderful Sonoris label.

I have them for sale for $12 ppd. US / $15 ppd. World.
Paypal to ms [at] gmby.net.

I have plenty of copies, so if you want me to hold one until Grandma's Christmas check clears, that's fine by me. Just email me and I'll set a copy aside.

Mike

P.S. This is a bass-intensive affair. Subwoofers highly recommended.

Vital Weekly Stalemate Review

Pretty good write-up by Frans de Waard:

MIKE SHIFLET & DANIEL MENCHE - STALEMATE (CD by Sonoris)
To make noise is pretty a not very difficult thing, but the main question remains: is it interesting for the listener? This where lots of noise makers leap away and do an endless barrage of distorted sound and think that the more is the better, and the louder it gets adds to the fun all around. I beg to differ. There is good noise and its not always about being the loudest for the longest duration, but to actually compose with unusual sources. It needs skill, imagination and experience, I guess. Mike Shiflet (former boss of Gameboy Records) and Daniel Menche have exactly those qualities. They work here with Hammond organs (odd, just like Golden Serenades on 'Hammond Pops' - see Vital Weekly 702) and electronics an create a three piece suite of electronics that is both minimal and maximal. Minimal towards the sounds they use, the actual composition and sometimes to the volume. Maximal to some of the louder parts of this work. They use a variety of layers in this work, built them up in a great, never letting go of the idea of 'noise', but at the same time think of the listener: what do we want to create that is also interesting for him/her to hear, who is so far away? They succeed well. This is a well-crafted, thoroughly composed work, loud, menacing but a great pleasure to hear. This is the noise I like very much! (FdW)

Perhaps a bit too much emphasis placed on our desire to create a listener-friendly work, but it could just as likely be that I'm reading too much into (or completely misinterpreting) his words. Copies of this should be arriving any day now. I'll post again when I have them for sale.

Pink Meadow

I took the above photo back in September and it's image has continued to pop into my head on a regular basis since. I decided recently to use it as the inspiration for a new work as - similar to the images used for my Ichinomiya CD - it doesn't appear to have any intention of vacating my memory's forefront.

Last night I printed it out, stuck it above my studio computer and decided I should share it here as well. The image links to the full-size original photo (5.4 MB) if you'd like a copy for whatever reason.

Stalemate

Menche.

Shiflet.

CD.

Soon.

Very.

Two New Cassettes

Cycles has been released by 905 Tapes, who previously released my Opening Act cassette, and Disrobed, Spitting Blood - previewed here - is out now on the Canadian label Scotch Tapes.

Get both directly from me for $13 ppd (USA) or $16 ppd (World). Paypal to ms [at] gmby.net

And if you are interested, I've also posted a clearing house list of items from the GMBY disto at make-offer prices on the Chondritic Sound board. Contact the same email above if you see anything you like.

Monolith Dream (Against Monoliths)

Last night I had a dream I was a sculptor. My works looked like little piles of post-apocalyptic waste with R2D2-like droid features poking out here and there. Whenever someone criticized or spoke about one of my works (in any way - negative or positive), either a small object would be added to the sculpture or an arrow would pierce, sometimes shatter, the work.

As a response to this, I constructed an Skyscraper-esque monolith that absorbed and destroyed all the critical and communal debris. The final image I remember is of a magnitude of arrows impotently clinging to the top of the structure, which for some reason was in the shape of a Spartan helmet.

This dream moved me quite a bit. For years I have been a proponent of the open interpretation of my work (often leaving what I considered key elements as intentionally hazy as possible) but have begun slowly moving to conceptual areas in which the thematic parameters are more defined. I hope that, despite this, there will still be room for middle ground in the creator-listener relationship and that I don't become too much of an audio dictator. I don't really want to build monoliths. I just have some things I need to say.

Editions Shiflet Mixtape 04: Unkool Thing

ES Mix 04 is an odd collection of tracks. It begins with one of my favorites, "Do Yourself a Favor and Forget" from the split LP with Mykel Boyd. Released in an edition of 100, the LP track is actually the most widely available work included here. Also in the mix are some compilation tracks, an outtake from a forthcoming collaboration with Raglani, and material from Blanco Niño, my duo with Brent Gutzeit. Enjoy.

Tracklist:
01. Do Yourself a Favor and Forget
02. For Talbot
03. Kintetsu
04. Collab Outtake [with Raglani]
05. Swords in the Sand/Bitches No More (Excerpts)
06. Blanco Niño Track 5 [Blanco Niño]
07. Haiku for Painted Black Windows (Excerpt)

Download HERE

Quartet

Here's short-but-sweet live set from a August that featured the gentlemen from Wasteland Jazz Unit and Pete Fosco.



Download

Tuesday. October 27. Columbus. Ohio.

Dirt

Live set from the Dayton Dirt Collective earlier this month, in two parts, filmed by Mike Haley of 905 Tapes:

Flickr

Namba Parks rooftop, Osaka, Japan, 2006


I created a Flickr account this week, using the handle ms_scene_destroyer. I've added a photostream widget to the blog here and any of you non-Flickrers can follow using this RSS feed if you are so inclined.


PS: If you were remotely curious, Scene Destroyer will be the B-side to the forthcoming Omnivores LP on Lost Treasures of the Underworld.

Scotch Tape

Recently mailed off a master for the Canadian label Scotch Tapes, titled Disrobed, Spitting Blood. They are apparently pretty quick with the turnaround on their releases, so it should be out soon. In the meantime, here's a sample:



Download

Blog's Been Quiet

I have not. It's been a noisy September. More posts coming soon.

Brief Blasts

Tonight I recorded five parts for two tracks of the project that has been occupying the bulk of my time this summer. This particular bit just had me in the zone and I felt like sharing. I have no idea if these 'blasts' will even stand out on the album when all is said and done, but here they are in their naked, isolated glory.



Download

Trio with Ben Owen and Brendan Murray

Here's a fresh upload for you: a trio recording with B.Owen and B.Murray from the same Brooklyn concert as the set which eventually became the Supreme Trading 3".

It's available here as a free mp3 from Compost and Height. If you are unfamiliar with what Patrick and Sarah have going on over there, definitely dig around. There's a lot of good material waiting for you.

Editions Shiflet Mixtape 03:Abbreviated Epilogues

The tracks here were all recorded during my final few months in Japan. Three of them are excerpts from an extremely limited (made to order) 3-hour, 3-disc set called Shiso Epilogues. I've always wanted to make some of that material available to a larger audience without betraying those who supported me when ordering for the original set. I think this is a happy medium.

Two four-minute compilation tracks bookend the ten-minute Epilogues excerpts. As they were all recorded at roughly the same time, they make for a very cohesive album; one I could easily imagine myself putting together in Spring of 2007 had things gone differently.

Tracklist:

01. The Stone and The Storm
02. Wide Valley Amp (Excerpt)
03. Homecoming Pulsewidth (Excerpt)
04. Sponic Transmitter (Excerpt)
05. The Shiso Mist

Download HERE

Quote

"I don't know about the Shiflet collab, just because I'm not a big fan of digitally created sound. I feel that computers are the realm of porn and video games and don't have much of a place in art. I have a hard time seeing how a pure expression of one's inner communication can be successfully navigated through a realm of 1's and 0's."

This was forwarded to me by a collaborator who is in the process of talking to labels. The name of the offender was withheld and I'm not particularly interested in finding it out; it just makes me smile and shake my head a bit. Rather than offer any kind of response, I'll just the words speak for themselves. Wow. 2009.

Logging Road, February

Logging Road, February was recorded back in 2006 and unfortunately never saw official release. The label I sent it to lost their copy and my master disappeared in a hard drive crash. All that remains is this mp3 which I had posted on my FTP site when initially proposing the release to the label.

The "meat" of the track is pretty much laid out in the title. You hear me walking up a mountainside logging road a mile or so from our home (at the time) in rural Japan with two mics dangling near my feet; gravel crunch augmented by the occasional flowing water and chainsawing. The trek is supplemented by a second recording (done a few months later if I remember correctly) of fans blowing on acoustic guitar strings, creating sine wave-like overtones.

I'm really happy to finally get this out into the public arena. As one of very few non-electronic recordings I've made (and one of my favorite recordings from Japan) this one has been nestled away for too long. Enjoy.



Download

Supreme Trading 3" Out Now

A lovely package (okay, an inside-out Adidas box) arrived from Italy today. Inside were copies of this 3" cdr of which I'm exceptionally proud. It's a live set, with room and direct sources blended together, taken from the tour with Brendan Murray last autumn and it has been released by the fine Dokuro imprint.

I'm offering them up at $9 ppd ($12 International).
Email ms[at]gmby[dot]net if you're interested.

And if you're the type that likes to taste before you buy, an excerpt of this was included on the first Editions Shiflet mixtape.

Video: Live. July 15. Skylab. Columbus.

Here are the opening and closing segments of my live set from this Wednesday. The above video is really just a short introduction piece, while the second is one originally intended to be short, but extended due to high levels of "feelin' it" in the air. I'm still working out the kinks of the guitar/laptop combination, but it's getting there.

"Any Location Can Be Interesting"

Field Recording and Experimental Music Scene
by Toshiya Tsunoda

Been meaning to post this for about a week, and am glad to finally be getting around to it. Please take a few minutes to read this wonderful essay by Toshiya Tsunoda on the ErstWords blog. It is highly recommended reading for those interested in vibrations of the highest genre-free, scene-free order. Seriously.

Much thanks to Jon and Yuko of Erstwhile for both initially requesting the essay and translating Tsunoda's Japanese text.

TV Pow and Mike Shiflet Three Pricks and an Asshole Live in Milwaukee

It was May of last year and Milwaukee was good to us. Even if the bulk of my memories revolve around "Devil Piss" (a crayon drawing with a very literal title) and cheese curds, I hold said memories quite dear. I don't remember much of this, but luckily there are little machines to handle that for me.

Weird audience recording of live set that starts off as one might expect and then proceeds to take several bizarre turns, each more suspect than the one before. A good time was had by at least a few.



Download

Apologies to Peter Woods and Hiroshi Hasegawa for potentially implying they had anything to do with this by posting the image above.

No Respsect, Parts One and Two

No Respect Part One: The Guest List

I was supposed to be on the list for an event last week, but when I showed up was not. Luckily this fellow "Andy Shifflit" didn't show up so I got his tickets.



Should note that this is no one in particular's fault. The venue is a strict union place and the act of putting a name on the guest list involves telling someone who walkie-talkies someone else who tells someone else to eventually talk to the person in charge of the guest list.


No Respect Part Two: On the Job

Unless I am completely relaxing, odds are that some thoughts about sound and/or my sound are running through my head. This leads to a lot of notes being typed into my blackberry and plenty of scribbling on scrap paper and post-its at work. I returned from a meeting last week to find a co-worker had made an amendment to an idea that I'd left sitting on my desk:



Would throwing in a Neil Hamburger "That's my life" here be the catchphrase equivalent of mixing metaphors? Not sure, but I'll stick with it.

Friday. June 26. Cincinnati. Ohio.

360 Degrees

Here's where the (most) the magic happens:



Click the image for the extremely wide panoramic mess, which is actually probably more like a 345º view. The doorway isn't much to look at.

New Members of the Family

Welcomed some new friends into the studio this week:



A Black Mass contact mic by Trauma Tone



And a pair of KRK Rokit 8 studio monitors


Good times.

Editions Shiflet Mixtape 02: Boba Fett Erotica

Title taken from a quote (by Mr. James Kennedy) in reference to the art skills of friend, former roommate, and awesome illustrator Paul Hornschemeier. "Paul’s not some jackass sitting in his mother’s basement, drawing Boba Fett erotica." If only we could all say the same.

The ten tracks here are culled from 2001-2003, the era in which I graduated from the youthful and obnoxious indulgence that almost all noise-makers must first wade through (and isn't all that different from that which keeps the internet's fan art supply heartily stocked) and finally started to hone my own approach to working with sound. These were very important years for me and this collection represents the era well. As I managed to find a couple other gems while digging these out, there will likely be more to come.

Tracklist:
01. George Washington's Wooden Heart
02. Second Thoughts (Excerpt)
03. (her) presence
04. January [Scenic Railroads]
05. High Freq. Interlude (BN remix) (Excerpt)
06. Being TV Pow is Funny (TV Pow remix)
07. Life, Death, Etc.
08. Example One
09. Remixed Rumors and Lies
10. Citrus [Scenic Railroads]

Download HERE

Elitist Snob

DJ Elitist Snob Boxmedia Mix (67.5 MB)

While digging through a box of old masters I found this disc. It was recorded in 2002 at the request of Brent Gutzeit for a series of DJ releases. It was also made so as to intentionally annoy Mr. Gutzeit, as with the inclusion of several Chicago bands and Thrill Jockey tracks. I never received copies of the disc, so didn't think it had actually been released, but Google appears to indicate otherwise.

It is all over the place, including several ridiculously layered tracks like Runzelstirn & Gurgelstock on top of Sam Prekop. I can't even identify many of the tracks at this point, but some artists who are definitely present: Kazumoto Endo, Pauline Oliveros, Apples in Stereo, Nerve Net Noise, Sunn 0))), Killah Priest, Refused, and Masonna. At 73 minutes, there's a little something for everyone, and a lot of nothing for no one.



Ripped at 128 to keep the file-size-to-quality ratio balanced.

NYC

Heading back to New York for No Fun this weekend (always a great time) so I figure now is an appropriate time to post a video of one of my last performances there.

This was my favorite set of the Sentimental Gentlemen tour and as my recording device failed to capture it properly, this video is the best existing documentation.

Much thanks to Acid Marshmallow for filming and sharing (and playing that night).

Vanity Searching, It's Not Just for Google Anymore

from flickr:















Images link back to their original pages on flickr.

Scenic Railroads, Live at ErstQuake 3 September 2006

photo by Yuko Zama

I remember quite a bit about our time in NYC the weekend of this festival - great duos by Phil Niblock/Jason Lescalleet & Aaron Dilloway/Lasse Marhaug stand out - but very little about my time on stage. The short list of things I do remember about this set:

• Very mixed reaction from the crowd
• My oscillator started smoking towards the end
• Christof Kurzmann enjoyed it

That said, it's one of the few live recordings I've enjoyed revisiting over time, perhaps due to the pretty stellar recording job done by Mr. Jesse Kudler.



Download

At Land

So I (and by I, I mean Joe Panzner) finally synced the live soundtrack I performed last year for Maya Deren's At Land with her original film.

Doesn't feel quite as good to me as it did with a projector and a nice PA, but if you enjoy it in all it's compressed glory, I highly recommend giving it a go with the full audio spectrum on the CD recording available from Snip-Snip.

In the Queue, On Deck, Up Next, etc.

Here's a brief rundown of forthcoming releases. People tend to think I'm slow getting stuff out, but in reality there's quite a bit out there with labels and things should be seeing the light of day soon.

Masters sent off:
Omnivores LP on Lost Treasures of the Underworld
Supreme Trading [solo] 3" CDR on Dokuro
Supreme Trading [trio with B. Murray and B. Owen] MP3 on Compost and Height
Stalemate CD [collb with Daniel Menche] on EMD.pl
Gutter Divas CD on Dokuro
split 10" with Lorenzo Senni on Presto?!

In addition to those, I'm currently working on mixing and editing collaborations with Raglani and Ryan Jewell, a release for Carbon Records, and a stockpile of solo and Scenic Railroads material.

There's also one completed solo album I'm demoing around as it really needs to be done proper. Get in touch if you have a label and some interest.

[EDIT] I knew I forgot one. Add a digital reissue (pro CDR, I believe) of the Mykel Boyd/Mike Shiflet split 12" on Somnimage to that list.

Editions Shiflet Mixtape 01: Strigiform Mystics

First in a series of mixes featuring a variety of tracks by yours truly (and a few friends). This one is inspired by recent owl obsession and the material ranges from 2005 to earlier this month. There are 2 compilation tracks, 2 excerpts from current recordings, 3 unreleased masters and 3 unreleased works-in-progress. Enjoy.

Tracklist:
01. "How's Your Late 90's?" Excerpt (w/Brendan Murray)
02. Let Crushed Bones Rejoice
03. Supreme Trading Excerpt
04. Untitled Skeleton
05. Unreleased Duo with Mike Bernstein
06. Untitled Scenic Railroad Recording
07. MS Doom
08. (Rehearsal)
09. Version Belize
10. MS Doom (twice) Remixed

Download HERE

Sentimental Gentlemen

A reissue of the tour CDR that Brendan Murray and I recorded together last year is out now on Sentient Recognition Archive

Audio sample HERE

How can you say no to a face like that?