From the Place Where Volcanos and Earthquakes Reside by Javo Onofre

In the next posts i´ll be talking about new latin american music, in the last years there has been a real explosion of bands, projects, labels, netlabels, blogs and i really feel that now more than ever latin independent music has taken a nice turn and there are quite a handful number of interesting projects to talk about and take a good and deep listening to...

I´m going to start with 2 of my favorite bands so far, both curiously from the country that has been in everybody´s mouth these days, Chile...a mix of talent, experience, energy, youth and great musical taste can never go wrong to a musical project and the first example its Fakuta, an electro pop musician/composer/producer/label manager girl from Santiago de Chile...

Fakuta its all about dream pop landscapes, with beautiful vocal arrangements and great structured melodies giving us an elegant outcome when she puts all of this elements together, an example would be "Las partes" track featured on her myspace www.myspace.com/musicafakuta an overwhelming pop piece with a contrasting aesthetic between lyrics and music, where you can feel the strength of the melody breaking inside the post apocalyptic lyrics...

When performing live Fakuta is joined by her vocal girls choir The Laura Palmers giving to the live act a lot of presence and personality which you can percieve in the next video...

If there is something i would like to make emphasis about these projects its the artistry and stage presence they have, there are no pretentions or false poses, they are who they are and they are honest about it, something most musicians/artists keep forgetting nowadays...

Another astonishing proposal would be Dejaneiros an art-pop psychodelia project formed by Milton Mahan and Pablo Muñoz also from Chile, i have to confess that the first time i heard this band my jaw fell to the ground by the impressive and enormous sound they accomplished, both sound engineers and part of another musical projects they made at least from my point of view one of the best independent records of 2009 with multilayered synths and spacial melodies

Plateado its one huge record.

They have a strong epic sound but somehow they managed to put also a lot of feeling into it, a melodramatic soundtrack for modern times...i really recommend Los Caribes track to have a big picture of what this project its all about...check out this great video for they single Montreal

de janeiros - montreal from al unisono on Vimeo.

You can find and download for free these and other really interesting music projects in Fakuta´s label Michita Rex here:http://www.michitarex.com/

See you next week...

From the Place Where Volcanos and Earthquakes Reside by Javo Onofre

Festival NRMAL / 2010 / Monterrey, MEXICO

Festival NRMAL / 2010 / Monterrey, MEXICO

For the Audio and/or Music Geek Inside of You

i will be starting to write for this blog about music, album and concert reviews, sound techniques, mixing and recording tips, music history, sound art etc, etc hope you enjoy reading

to begin with i´d like to start talking about a general debate among the music industry nowadays, what is better digital sound or analog sound?

in our daily life we come across all sorts of media from tv to newspaper to the internet talking about how wonderful digital world is, how we couldnt live without it and saturating us with the latest gadgets and gizmos available...in music there is no exception and actually music industry as we used to know it it´s already evolving into something yet unknown for us thanks to this technological progress.

our generation fell into this big gap between the collapsing of the record industry and the growing of streaming, and also between the falling of the huge recording studios full of amazing analog equipment emulating all of those sounds with plug-ins in a tiny little laptop for our home studios...is this a tragedy for us musicians, composers, producers, and everyone who just likes to seat down , relax and hear some music?? well there are two sides to view it:

why analog sound is better?

as society our ears are already used to hear music in its worst form and shape: MP3 the most popular data reduction format which basically takes all the information that our ears “dont hear” and erase it besides of crushing the dynamic range of our favorite songs just so it can be listened as loud as it can and you can fit a billion songs in your mp3 player.

From that point of view its more than obvious that digital world killed the beauty of analog sound. The best possible way of hearing music took place in the late 60's with totally analog recordings and the perfecting of vinyl records allowing people to hear their favorite records in stereo. There are still many people listening music this way but its more than a minority if we compare it with people streaming music or listening with their ipod through some cheap speakers.The most beautiful and iconic records were made through analog equipment taking for example the best album ever recorded Kind of blue by Miles Davis and in a more mainstream way Michael Jackson´s Thriller which is the biggest sales album of all time and as Quincy Jones (Jackson´s producer) would say “there is certain magic when you seat down and start recording, the way circuits and sound interact and the outcome of this interaction its just overwhelming”.

Unfortunately for us in these times with the whole industry going down its almost impossible to afford this kind of equipment or recording sessions, record companies are no longer interested in spending thousands and thousands of dollars in the production of an album if they can spend 8 times less using digital equipment and earn 8 times more with huge world tours.

why digital sound is better?

digital sound as it is could never be compared with analog since its only data stored in a computer but there are several reasons as to why its the best choice to record nowadays, its more affordable , more portable , and the quality its so good that for the regular ear its impossible to notice the difference from analog sound.

take your own conclusions and while we find out what is going to be the solution for music industry not to die the best thing i would recommend you to do is:

ºif you are a musician, composer, producer and want to get the most out of your home studio get the best Monitors you can afford, if you are not able to have a good listening to what you´re doing you are doomed, good Microphones to have the best possible captation of your recording and the most important thing above all, get also the best Analog to Digital Converter you can afford since we are already inmersed in the digital world you have to get into it as smooth as you can, as a personal recommendation you can take a look at these brands to get the most out of your recordings:

http://www.apogeedigital.com/ ---great sound quality for A/D Converters at reasonable price.

http://www.lucidaudio.com/ --- also great A/D Converters

http://www.rodemic.com/ --- for me Rode Microphones are one of the best choices in the market they are affordable and have an amazing captation quality.

http://www.adam-audio.com/de --- one of the best choices for studio monitors

http://www.genelec.com/products/?c=spain --- another groundbreaking choice for monitors

And if you are ever lucky enough to seat and mix in an analog console simply enjoy the ride

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For the Audio and/or Music Geek Inside of You

Grey Granite :Prince meets Trent Reznor.

Grey Granite & J. Brookinz / Photo By Carolyn Cuttill

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For over the past year, Grey Granite has been working closely with his partner in crime J. Brookinz to craft an album that pushed the creative boundaries of both artists. Lust Poisons Pride, an exploration of emotions and personal motives, was created featuring a sound that blends the duo's familiar hip-hop tendencies with electro-pop, indie rock, and industrial. 

Think Prince meets Trent Reznor.

Now Grey and Brookz are ready to load their new sonic weapon in the Heavy Gun machine, click Off Safety, and unleash it upon the masses. On February 22, 2010, Lust Poisons Pride debuts on iTunes and other music retailers!Featured in this trailer: "Colorful Mask" by Grey Granite. 

Oh!! Our review?? : Come on ! Their work is fucking great

Click here to listen the whole track

Grey Granite :Prince meets Trent Reznor.

SAVE THE DATE / MEXICO CITY

PHOTO BY: laP0la

SAVE THE DATE / MEXICO CITY