iDJ Review

iDJ magazine has reviewed Certain Frequencies in its latest issue. It gave it 9 out of 10, which is absolutely incredible.

Current

The last of my solo albums from the Silent/Flask days is now available for sale. Called Current, it was released in 1995 and was one of the last things I put out until my rebirth (ahem) as Kemek the Dope Computer in 2001.

Current is available here.

I'd like to continue putting old releases up. If interest exists, I plan to put up the Arthur Dent & Deeper Than Space album Drift plus some unreleased stuff, and even the 303 Terrorists.

Spaceship Melody Remixes

The re-releases continue with Spaceship Melody Remixes, a 5-track EP of remixes from my debut album, Earth Rise. The chief reason to get this is "Spaceship Melodies" itself, a minor hit for myself and my collaborator, Dreams Without Number aka Dabecy. There's also a version of "Deeper Than Love" done by myself and Arthur Dent aka Borful Tang.

Lots of goodness on this one. Get it here.

Deeper Than Space Now Available

I've decided to make my early albums available again, starting with "Earth Rise" by Deeper Than Space. It was released on the Flask imprint of Silent Records way back in 1993 and has been out of print for many years.

The album is available here: http://deeperthanspace.bandcamp.com/. You can pay as much (or as little) as you like.

I plan to eventually make them all available, including some stuff that was never released.

A Helpful Guide To Better Ambient Listening

First things first: Ambient music can be many things, but there are three things it most definitely is not:

It is not merely techno slowed down.
It is not just a bunch of sound effects records played at the same time.
It is not boring.

If the ambient music you are used to hearing is any of these things, chuck it in the garbage, because it's a waste of your time. Ambient music requires one to listen, and these elements are all shortcomings to actually listening. It is the easy way out. And that's called 'pop music.'

Like Muzak, ambient music creates an environment that you enter while listening. Notice how no other sense is necessary for this experience: no fractals to look at, no patchouli to smell, no bean bags to lie on. These are all superfluous. All you need are your ears and an active, open mind. Ambient music can get you there—minus the jet lag, minus the come down. All it requires of you is to listen.

And when you've turned off the stereo, keep listening. Ambient music is constant. Birds, wind, cars, people—a rhythm of random, natural sounds perpetually performed: the concert of life. As John Cage has said: "Music is all around us, if we only had ears." So listen, listen to your own rhythms: your heartbeat, the sub-bass rumble of your circulating blood, the music bubbling forth in your brain. Don't tune them out because you've heard it before—it's beautiful, and it's free.

Travel deeper than your surface perceptions, listen behind the sounds, around the silent spaces. Beats begin to emerge from the clutter, voices from seemingly unintelligible sounds (my first ambient experience was hearing rhythmic voices from a running dishwasher as a child). And listen actively—we have been conditioned into passive listening, an activity that requires virtually no action. Ambient music can help you fly, but you still have to flap your arms. How hard you flap only depends on how high you want to go.

Adam Douglas, Redwood City, 1993

Brilliance For A Better Past

Brilliance For A Better Future by kemek

In 1994 I co-curated a compilation of Bay Area techno artists for Silent Records. It was called Brilliance For A Better Future and it wasn't a bad little release. I've uploaded the two tracks that I was involved with to the Soundcloud.

This is just a taste of the re-releases of my Silent Records material I've got planned. Watch this space for more info.

dts

Here's An Old One

Sine Language on YouTube

Someone put up a video of my "Sine Language" track on the YoobTubes. Thanks!

Thanks

The Gypsy Diaries has been kind enough to say a few words about Certain Frequencies on her blog, and play the lead track on her radio show. Thanks much!