Chris McCormick

This is a free album of breakbeats, bloop-bleeps, and guitars which I never properly released. So now I am. It is Creative Commons licensed, so feel free to download, copy, share it if you like it.

Enjoy!

It would be nice if a few more people hear it, so if you like it I would really appreciate it if you blog/tweet or whatever about it.

This album was composed with a type of old school software called a tracker early this decade, which was and still is often used to make video game music.

Thanks for listening.

On the train back up to Edinburgh at the moment, drinking a red wine, watching the sunset, and also connected to the internet. That last bit is still flipping me out. As my friend Fenris said when I told him about this:

you could only get more futuristic than that if the train was travelling around a Culture orbital.

Trains are so damn cool.

One of the practical consequences of using proprietary software is that your right to use that software can be revoked at any time. Recent conflict between Ebay/Skype and the founders of Skype is an illustration of this. Ebay themselves, and millions of Skype users who rely on Skype for their day to day communications with family, business associates, and friends, have put themselves at risk by choosing proprietary software and protocols. Another illustration of this was the music software Logic Pro which alienated its Microsoft Windows user base when Apple bought the product in July 2002, and discontinued the Windows version. Quite apart from events like that, companies often close down, get bought out, go bankrupt, or discontinue a former line of software. This is as true for modern "cloud based" companies like Google as it has always been for companies like Apple and Microsoft. When you invest your time and energy in proprietary software, and software with closed formats, you are disempowering yourself. Free and Open Source Software is, practically speaking, a much safer bet.

I am playing two gigs in London this week. The first one is a livecoding gig, which will be my first time livecoding, so I'm a bit nervous that I will be really boring. I will basically be constructing Pd patches and sequences from scratch.

The second one is an Ill FM gig which will be broadcast on the radio. I'll be doing my normal Pd-with-the-laptop-lid-closed-and-a-midi-controller set.

Wednesday night

++ PUBCODE2 ++

Part two in the first series of livecoded music events in London.

http://toplap.org/uk/

Live coding is a new direction in electronic music and video, and is starting to get somewhere interesting. Live coders expose and rewire the innards of software while it generates improvised music and/or visuals. All code manipulation is projected for your pleasure.

When: 7pm - 11pm, Wednesday 5th August 2009

http://toplap.org/uk/event/pubcode2/

Featuring: chr15m (making machines that make machines make music) MCLD (beatboxing + livecoding, is it possible?) Yee-King + Click Nilson (algorithmic choreography) openSlub (crowdsourced livecoding)

Place: The Roebuck 50 Great Dover Street London SE1 4YG

Map

Door tax: Free

Tube: Borough (5 mins walk) London Bridge (9 mins walk)

More info: http://toplap.org/uk/

Thursday night