Paulstretch is available for Linux and Windows on the Hypermammut SourceForge page – and for Mac OS X here: http://music.cornwarning.com/2009/04/29/paul-stretch-extreme-audio-time-stretching-for-os-x-to-download/. Check out the SoundCloud groups Paulstretched and 800% Slower for more background info and a growing list of remixes.

My own effort was a paulstretched Ke$ha which made her sound very hung over… someone get this poor girl a couple of paracetamol and a strong hair of the dog:

http://soundcloud.com/irixx/kesha-tik-tok-morning-after-the-night-before-mix

….this brings us nicely onto a piece of work that IriXx is developing at the moment – ‘in shadow and in light’ – a 4 track composition (parts i & ii have surfaced so far) that shuts your body down, but opens your mind! We were blown away by ‘part ii’ and the sheer amount of texture you get within the track – it delivers on all levels!

Many thanks to Ian Hobbs for the review – who is himself a composer, and if you like enigmatic breaks and beats you should really be checking out the preview of his remix of Huunter’s ‘The Entanglement’ on Soundcloud.
Check out more fresh sounds from up and coming musicians, DJs and remixers at www.beatbeatblog.com or follow on Facebook and Twitter.

http://soundcloud.com/irixx/sets/in-shadows-and-in-light

My dubstep remix is hosted on my soundcloud page:
http://soundcloud.com/irixx/nez-erok-beautiful-irixx-remix – check out more remixes on Nez’s soundcloud.

I’ve also completed the first of a four part work ‘in shadows and in light’:
http://soundcloud.com/irixx/in-shadows-and-in-light-part-i

I’m finding the process of working on a series of pieces really engaging, its been a while since I wrote an extended work. I’m enjoying working with the movement structure in an almost classical Sonata-like fashion, sharing themes among the four movements. The title of the series refers to my personal exploration as a composer of ‘darkness’ and ‘light’ in music, and my need for shadows to complement and focus the ‘lighter’ or gentler ambient sounds towards which I naturally gravitate. Musical chiaroscuro, but perhaps less Italian and more of the dark silhouttes of Northern European portraiture.

Youtube even went so far as to link to Brad Templeton’s Downfall parody as an example of fair use – something of a public apology, perhaps. But their statement still leaves some questions to be answered as to the level of control media companies have in using their ‘Content ID’ services, and whether dispute forms are sufficiently user-friendly for a layman to follow, without fear of the threats and repercussions that one commenter on the Youtube blog noted.

Others commented that Youtube is dead… I’ll certainly be looking out for an increase in Vimeo use following this attempt to stifle fair use and contemporary internet culture.

Constantin Film AG should also by now realise that many have bought or rented this video as a direct result of seeing the Hitler parodies on Youtube. I am one of those who rented the movie not only because I enjoyed the parodies, but because I thought that the film looked like an excellent production, and indeed it is.

Brad Templeton, board member of the Electronic Frontier Foundation, created his own Hitler parody satirising the situation. Due to Youtube’s use of ‘Content ID’ fingerprinting to identify copies of a movie, it was swiftly removed. Templeton then filed a dispute claiming that his video constituted fair use, and soon enough, the clip was restored.

Others have not been as fortunate, but in the meantime, Youtube’s loss is Vimeo’s gain, as Templeton and others begin to move their films to Vimeo. To quote Templeton’s blog:

The fair use exemption to copyright infringement claims was created, in large part, to assure that copyright holders didn’t use copyright law to censor free speech. If you want to criticise content or a content creator — an important free speech right — often the best way to do that will make use of the content in question. But the lawmakers knew you would rarely get permission to use copyrighted works to make fun of them, and wanted to make sure critical views were not stifled.

These were the very reasons that I curated the Madonna Remix Project – as a demonstration against the more extreme measures of the DMCA, EUCD and similar copyright laws, and the destructive introduction of Digital Rights Management technology. Fortunately, as Templeton satirises in his video, DRM appears to have failed in recent years, and even Apple’s iTunes has begun to offer DRM free music as customers are turned away by its curtailment of their ability to play their own legitimate purchases.

Finally, an excellent essay by Benjamin J. Robertson of the University of Colorado – ‘Mashing-up the Past, Critiquing the Present, Wrecking the Future: The Kleptones’ A Night at the Hip-Hopera’ examines the degree to which the record industry is stifling the creation of contemporary art due to the excessive cost of licensed sampling. Robertson asserts:

Cease and desist orders served to artists who mine the archive of cultural objects to remix, mashup, appropriate, or otherwise make use of cultural history for the purpose of engendering new cultural forms, objects, and enunciations, represent attempts to exert control over said archives with regard to production.

Hear hear. Speaking of hearing – the Kleptones “A Night at the Hip-Hopera” and their latest album Uptime/Downtime are well worth a listen. My favourite track has to be ‘Welcome Back’… Guns & Roses vs The Chemical Brothers ftw.

I’ve very much enjoyed listening to their debut album Emergence and decided to create a remix from various tracks, featuring the haunting vocal by Amelia June on the track ‘Broken’.

My remix, ‘Ghosts’, is available on ccMixter at http://ccmixter.org/files/iriXx/26292 or via my SoundCloud page at http://www.soundcloud.com/irixx/ghosts.

“We will not be held responsible for any hearing impediment or damage caused to you by excessive exposure to this sound.” (thanks to acclivity @ freesound.org for the sample!).

My track ‘enigmatic xii – beacons’ is included in the latest pertin-nce net label release ‘things are bad in haiti’. Label owner Maxime Tanguay’s family were directly affected by the earthquake:

Hey all!

As some of you know, our label has a special connection to the earthquake ravaged country of Haiti – so in the tradition of our charity net releases we quickly pulled together this compilation to help out.
Thanks to our regular contributors and everybody who responded so quickly.

Luckily, all of our family in Haiti are safe, but as you can imagine, the damage to their homes was devastating, forcing the majority of them had to temporarily relocate to Florida, the Dominican Republic or other regions of Haiti where they are sharing housing and other resources.

Needless to say, getting our family’s lives back to normal requires money for the basics: food, water, clothing, as well as the resources to build new housing.
This is why we’re dedicating this release’s proceeds entirely to the Haiti relief cause.

When you download this Pertin-nce release you can make a donation via paypal at account [bleupulp (at) hotmail (dot) com]
and use reference ”pertin-nce_031”. All of these proceeds will go directly to members of our family in need.

If you’d rather not give money directly to individuals, we also encourage you to give to an organization of your choice.

Thanks and enjoy our latest collection of music!

Download, enjoy, and make a donation if you are able: http://www.pertin-nce.com/

I always liked the quality of sound from my H4, but was getting frustrated by mic bump due to the Zoom-supplied shield which was just a basic piece of black foam which slotted over the mic – meaning it never shielded it fully, and was always falling off – which was how I eventually lost it while out recording one day.

Whereas the Redhead fits snugly over the top of the device – cutting out mic bump even on a windy morning down by the beach. And it doesn’t fall off in the wind! I tested it this morning on a fairly windy day, and got some very nice clean samples of waves. They are available for the H4, H4n and H2 – the blog on the website features some impressive demos of video and audio recording out on the beaches in Maui, where the products are hand made.

And yes, I got mine in wine :). The only thing I need to worry about now is children and dogs trying to play with it.