SAVED is a new initiative from Green Thing where unwanted and unloved T-shirts are Saved from waste by adding a design and story that makes them wanted and loved again.

Jonas Bendiksen’s ”Satellites” contains some amazing photos from spacecraft crash zones.

The Big Bang Was an Explosion OF Space, Not IN Space.

New Reverse Vending Machine Pays You to Recycle,

Interview with David Toop, one of our favorite music writers.

The iPad, the Kindle, and the future of books.

Why Funnel Marketing Doesn’t Work.

Uncommon Act of Design: The Secret of Getting Kids to Eat Veggies? Move the Salad Bar.

Guerrilla gardeners use candy machines to sell seed bombs.

The Progress of the Platform.

5 Reasons your marketing plan will fail.

New editions of The Hitchhiker’s Guide to the Galaxy series let you create your own cover art.

An investigation by The Smoking Gun unmasks the leader of Pranknet and the miscreants behind a year-long wave of phone call criminality.

Nathan Shredoff has released a series of free syllabi and teaching materials to help instructors teach students key topics for the future.

Learn logo design from top brands.

Taking Steps toward zero waste.

Olympus announces LS-11, a compact digital audio recorder.

I am pleased to announce my 2008 Summer mix podcast (1hr05min, 74.9Mb MP3) of original music for your consideration. It’s equal parts reflective, chilled-out, lazy. A suitable soundtrack for your morning cuppa, yard and crafting projects, reading on the couch, afternoon coding sessions and breezy evenings on the front porch.

Track order:

1. Lost Things (Cascade dub)
2. La Palma (1984 CIA Factbook mix)
3. BASIC language
4. Departure Lounge, Pan-Am
5. 3mb (2008 Tabla revisit)
6. Circular Object (Sunset Island dub)
7. Dexu (2008 defenestration)
8. Aguadulce

I have uploaded a mix of recent original music (1hr19min, 90.61 Mb MP3) for your consideration.

Track order:

1. Book of Morvern
2. Chthonic (min)
3. Meshed
4. Agmatist (S&S dub)
5. Loaded (acid vs. mix)
6. Little iniquities
7. Disco drift
8. Electrum
9. Helial II
10. Paths of Unintention

Bonus outtakes (13.8 MB zip archive):

1. Tight house – has more variation in the original that didn’t export
2. Untitled (2008-02-03) – didn’t fit well in the overall mix

My digital collage set on Flickr 

I have uploaded a mix of recent original music (65 minutes, 107.93 Mb MP3) for your consideration. Lots of ambient, granular, drone and chill this time around.

Track order:

1. Dub V-Dub
2. Slow Dance
3. Fineness
4. Untitled (2007-11-25)
5. Deep Time (parts 1–3)

I have uploaded a mix of recent original music (70 minutes, 117.96 MB MP3) for your consideration.

Track order:

1. Deterritories
2. nwRdrSbcltr (this.slowWater remix)
3. DBA (version)
4. Clockwork children (slowSun mix)
5. Blue Ocean Labs
6. Math art

1. The ‘American Top 40′ years: Most of my exposure to new music was either from listening to popular radio, my older sister or a classmate or the occasional middle school dance.
2. The ‘Radical Romper Room’ years: Most of my exposure was from a late-night, local radio show which showcased ‘alternative rock’ and ‘modern music.’ I used to stay up long enough to start recording it on Sundays, then listen to the tape the whole week and note what I liked.
3. The ’120 Minutes’ years: Same as above, but leads were garnered from videotaping the late-night show on MTV and tracking down what I liked.
4. The ‘long haired’ years: I bought (and sold) a lot of CDs at local record stores, taking a chance on whether I would like it or not.
5. The ‘underground (aka rave/chill-out room)’ years: I acquired music as inspiration for my work — music as the soundtrack to my life.
6. The ‘post-cool/hip’ years: A lot discovered on Much Music, MTV2 and the internet — music as personal identity.
7. The ‘digital/eclectic’ years: Largely discovered on Amazon, iTunes and Usenet — music as supplement rather than center.

/musings.

A moment of listening to various songs can evoke vivid memories and take me back to former ‘chapters’ in my life. I’ve noticed that certain music delineates into distinct segments:

1. My pre-teen and early teen years (late elementary and middle school):
   Billy Joel, Journey, Bon Jovi, Def Leppard, Duran Duran, Lionel Ritchie, Men at Work, Michael Jackson, dance and electro by Herbie Hancock and Afrika Bambaataa.
2. My mid teens (early high school): U2, The Smithereens, Agent Orange, The Alarm, INXS, The Call, Genesis, The Kinks, Led Zeppelin, Bruce Springsteen, Vangelis, Prince, The Police.
3. My late teens (later high school): The Cure, R.E.M., Depeche Mode, New Order/Joy Division, Erasure, Clan of Xymox, Dead Can Dance and other 4ad artists, Yaz, Cabaret Voltaire, Violent Femmes, The Smiths, numerous ‘college rock’ and acid house artists.
4. My early twenties (college): Meat Beat Manifesto, Front 242, My Bloody Valentine, The Wolfgang Press, Harold Budd & Brian Eno, Steve Roach, Cocteau Twins, Hugo Largo, Bel Canto, numerous alternative, new age and ambient artists.
5. My mid and late twenties: The Orb, Orbital, Biosphere, Michael Brook, Olive, Blur, Future Sound of London, Insides, Autechre/Gescom, Aphex Twin/Polygon Window, B12, LFO, Black Dog, Warp Records artists, Galaxie 500, The Spinanes, Lou Barlow/Sebadoh, Portishead, Abra Moore, Roger Eno, LTJ Bukem, Mouse on Mars, Neotropic, Cardigans, Lamb, Hooverphonic, Funkstorung, Richard H. Kirk/Electronic Eye/Sandoz, Kruder & Dorfmeister, numerous IDM, big beat and bhangra artists.
6. My early thirties: Boards of Canada, Faithless, Amon Tobin, Blonde Redhead, Cat Power, Miles Davis, Joseph Arthur, Plaid, Lemon Jelly, Zero 7, Bent, Air, Arovane, Cinematic Orchestra, Thievery Corporation, Kid Koala, Ninja Tunes artists, Monolake, Tara Jane O’Neil, Hem, Ladytron, Lali Puna, numerous chill-out/lounge/trip-hop and indie artists.
7. My mid thirties: see my profile on last.fm.

Notably, certain ‘one-hit wonders’ evoke the most vivid memories — possibly because I listened to the hell out of and then promptly forgot about them. Now that almost everything I listen to is digital (minus the records in our basement lounge) via iPods, home and work computers, the boundaries seem to have dissolved. Perhaps in hindsight patterns will emerge…

When I was in high school, I listened to a lot of early New Order (and by extension Joy Division). The albums Unknown Pleasures, Closer, Still, Movement, Power, Corruption and Lies, Low Life and Brotherhood made up a large portion of the soundtrack of my teenage life.

At that time, finding their records (CDs had yet to become ubiquitous) and much information about them was difficult. Their cover artwork was cryptic and intriguing, and the air of mystery around them and their work gave me the sense of inclusion in some subversive, secret society. Being a fan meant playing part collector and part detective.

Recently, I watched New Order Story (their bio vid from 1993, produced in connection with Republic) to get some insight on their emergence. It’s worth watching to get the inside story but also feels dated, suffering from overproduction and hubris (possibly from their new record label).

To this day, the sinister edge of their post-punk, proto-electronic early work still takes me back to that bygone era. With that, I have uploaded my own version of one of their seminal tracks for your consideration: nwRdrSbcltr (this.slowWater remix) (11:28 minutes, 22.1 MB MP3).

I have uploaded a mix of recent unreleased music (38 minutes, 63.4 MB MP3) for your consideration. It begins with a building wall of sound and pattern before winding down to a sparse reverie. Enjoy,

Track order:

1. Wavebots Converge (alt.version)
2. Last Stretch to Gateway Two
3. Labwork I : Division
4. Chymical Comfort Farm
5. Labwork II : Learning Modules
6. Granular Winds
7. Labwork III : Clear and Exit

I have uploaded Sprt.Wys (Spirus Unites All Worlds Apart in Dub) (10:14 minutes, 19 MB MP3) for your consideration.

Back in 1997, I played around with reworking the song Joyful Girl by Ani DiFranco. I thought her sedate vocals combined with the simple acoustic guitar for a nice listen—and sample-worthy material. I also liked the ironic, trip-hop-ish version featured in this video (YouTube). I never got very far with that remix, but I’ve kept a few loops in my sample library ever since.

While testing some Audio Unit plug-ins I made with SonicBirth (it’s free and open source now, BTW), I dug out those loops from ten years ago. The result is a relaxed, ambient travelogue (slightly reminiscent of Aphex Twin’s extended remix of Journey by The Gentle People, a favorite from my ‘chill out room raver’ days).

I have uploaded Jfl_Grrl (Chill Kids Rework) (18:12 minutes, 34.5 MB MP3) for your consideration.

I have uploaded a mix of recent unreleased music (50 minutes, 87.37 MB MP3) for your enjoyment.

Track order:

1. Nerd Rock, excerpt
2. Laxometric
3. Snwd_Ndr
4. Little Book of Germs vol. III
5. Ocean Strategy, Blue
6. Slow Ghosts Rise
7. The Thaumaturgeon
8. Sector Boundary