singsweetsoftware_15

 
june 18, 2009
"Flaccid Disk", a sweet-smelling sticky sculpture of untold origins and materials by Malcolm Seymour. Thanks Malcolm!

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On its initial release, Dimension Intrusion (developed by FUSE) received our highest score, 5 joysticks out of 5, but that ranking stirred up more controversy than we expected. In the bloody aftermath of online forum discussions and vicious e-mails we were left scratching our heads. We loved this game - how could anyone be anything but certain that this was well deserving of a perfect score on all metrics? Sure, they could have tightened up the graphics a little but come on - it was 1993! We weren't all rocking GeForce cards and hyperthreaded multicore processors! This game was built on classic hardware like the Roland TR-606, SH-101 and some early Mirage sampler no doubt!

But we listened to your feedback, readers - even the letters that weren't worded "so politely" if you catch our drift (there were lots of curses) - and we think we got a pretty good idea of where the conflict started here: Dimension Intrusion is a hard fucking video game.

Well to make it a little easier for you non-hardcore gamers to get a grip on the awesomeness that is Dimension Intrusion, we've come up with a little strategy guide to help you through some of the game's more challenging moments:

Level 1: A New Day
As soon as the level starts, drop all the drums out and go straight for one of the clean melodic parts. Drop the pitch on it and use plenty of low pass filters and you should be good. Keep it loopy for a bit and maybe throw in a little extra 606 bass kick (but lowpass the shit out of it or you'll use up your hearts too fast!) just to keep things rocking.

Level 2: F.U.
As the title of this level suggests, it's basically a minefield planted by the game designers to mess up your strut! Keep it simple, don't resist the siren call of the squelchy acid bassline but also focus on the hi-hats and just let them fill the room up.

Level 3: Slac
This is another one of those levels where you can just find some melodic loops and then coast on them for a while. For an extra bonus, keep your distance.

Level 4: Dimension Intrusion
Ok here's where it gets hard again -- and incidentally this is one of the levels our readers were the most divided on. It's admittedly a little counterintuitive because of all the back-and-forth loud/soft shit going on in this part of the game, but you're going to really want to hold back and just let this one build on its own. If you can get through this level in under 5 minutes you're doing great.

Level 5: Substance Abuse
Try not to freak out, take it slow and you won't be disappointed.

PROTIP: Try not to freak out.

Level 6: Train-Trac.1
Plenty to work with here; it's a little breather the game designers threw in there to let you catch your breath before you suffocate from hard levels.

Level 7: Another Time (Revisited)
The secret to this level is that it's based on city maps. Take a map of Detroit, Michigan and lay it over a map of Windsor, Ontario. Then rotate the Detroit map like about 3 degrees clockwise and it should be pretty confusing. That's what you need right now.

Level 8: Theychx
If you've played the popular iPhone game 'cubercoolische' then you probably already know this level backwards and forwards. Just pick part of the melody to loop, let it run for a while and try slowly turning up the reverb. That game is totally overpriced.

Level 9: UVA
You can warp past this level with judicious use of the hi-hats, but it's worth playing through. Just don't spend too much time on it because you'll need all your glowstick juice for the finalé.

Level 10: Mantrax
This is the level they used in the movie "Bubble Metropolis" when the Drexciyan wave jumper has to navigate around the Zyklus to aim the intensified magnetron but her expensive japanese telecom system is all busted up so she just listens to the phase of passing currents and calculates her location by the doppler effect. Anyway, if you've seen the film you know what to do.

Level 11: Nitedrive
By now you should know the trick. Bonus: use slightly longer loops for larger multipliers.

Level 12: Into the Space
This is actually a pretty fun level but at this point you're near the end and your main concern is keeping your multplier up for the final bonus. Pitch it down low and try to use it percussively so you can hit the bonus level in stride.

(bonus) Logikal Nonsense
This bonus level will appear on the main menu if you've completed the game twice on "punishing." It's basically just a bunch of musicians getting high and giggling on the radio. Pretty awesome.

This podcast is a loopy digital mix of FUSE's 1993 album Dimension Intrusion, released on Plus8 Canada and Warp Records.

13 intruders:
1. FUSE / A New Day (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
2. FUSE / F.U. (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
3. FUSE / Slac (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
4. FUSE / Dimension Intrusion (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
5. FUSE / Substance Abuse (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
6. FUSE / Train-Trac.1 (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
7. FUSE / Another Time (Revisited) (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
8. FUSE / Theychx (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
9. FUSE / UVA (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
10. FUSE / Mantrax (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
11. FUSE / Nitedrive (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
12. FUSE / Into The Space (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993
13. FUSE / Logikal Nonsense (Looped and processed) / Plus8 & Warp 1993

 

singsweetsoftware_14

 
june 1, 2009
Floppy disk drawing and self-portrait by Amazon Mechanical Turk worker #AM0QVBV8L6QCJ Thanks, #AM0QVBV8L6QCJ!

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Write a description of a song you'd like to hear in this scenario:

All world economies have collapsed into a fragmented array of mutually fearful barter-driven micro-markets. The global elite have retreated to luxurious and exotic underground mansion-bunkers, leaving the bulk of humanity to rebuild some semblance of international civilization from the ground-up, if they can ever push back the tidal wave of tribalism that presently threatens to eclipse all hope for a unified human race.

Meanwhile, you and your friend are getting high on valerian root somewhere in the jungle: things are good.

Describe the song you're listening to on your handcrank-powered boombox.

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #AFYRQRAUBEX12
"It would be a song about the giant underground worms that are attacking and eating the elite undergroung. It would also sound raggea because that would go well with the valerian root. The ending would kind of fit the theme of dont worry be happy."

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A26L9PS9WW7ZI4
"There are no instruments left but the human body. The slaps of hands on flesh make percussion, and the ragged voices of those who know no more civilized harmonies. They rise and spiral together for long minutes, drifting from the speakers out into the jungle mist."

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A3J5TLOMMRCDOU
"I imagined myself listening to All Along The Watchtower by Hendrix. Its a song that borders on political and wild and would be perfect. "

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A5TONUJ0MWU5E
"We begin to crank the boombox, our feet hammering in anticipation. The sound stumbles in, a clinking back and forth metal on glass, a frantic but rhythmically solid triangle. Then voices begin to hum in unison in another language. An unusually heavy rhythm breaks in, booming timbre; here we shake violent and ecstatic. The simple throbbing thumping has ground the rest out but soon an odd insect like vibrato breaks out, oscillating high and low. Rusty, dusty, mottled horns squawk like scared birds and howler monkeys. Yeah, we kind of get off on this, it's noisy and unreasonable, nothing but jungle content."

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A3D6RM8ESUKMT6
"I think in this scenario I'd be listening to ""It's the end of the world"" by REM. It sounds like that song you listen to when everything crashes down around you but you think you'll be ok."

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A1VLAE1WP4UPOH
"I would be listening too ""if today was your last day"" by nickleback because to me it preaches change, while Id be presumably high Id most likely be more affected by the idea of the news of what is happening outside my bubble in the jungle. one line I particularly like in the song is "" its always worth the fight"" which is a common theme in the song, reminding me that if something is worth anything its worth fighting for and so while the elite may be the elite bcause they have labelled themselves so, more than likely there is a higher number of the ""unelite"" and if they group together to change it they can always have an affect to reverse the statement."

Amazon Mechanical Turk Worker #A2UTIMR5YD1J83
"When things are good what my friend and I would listen to with our hand crank powered boombox would be happy music. Plenty of peaceful flutes in the Jethro Tull, or Chicago style. Times were tough then, but this music would keep you blissfully high and greatful to be away from realitiy. Music that was upbeat and yet sexy. Jamaica or Bahamian music with its strings and drums always gave you a great feeling on vacation - so if this were a more permanent vacation - hell give me some Island music too. All these songs if lyrics were necessary would just reinforce that we were in the right place, at the right time and no worries - be happy mon!"

13 shantytown anthems at the edge of forever:
1. The Revelations / Take Care Of Us / Numero Group [NUM026]
2. Sety / Mogane / Circus Company [CCS028]
3. Dub Taylor / Subtle / Force Tracks [FT11]
4. Ripperton / Slipstream / Dessous Recordings [DES86]
5. Kris Wadsworth / Shootin' Moves / Morris Audio [morris audio 64]
6. Damian Schwartz / Barrunto / Oslo [oslo 11]
7. Matthias Kaden / Lucidas / Freude-am-Tanzen Recordings [FAT 035]
8. Goldwill / Matikal / liebe*detail [ld27]
9. Ray Okpara / We Keep / Oslo [oslo 12]
10. Coyu & Edu Imbernón / El Baile Alemán / liebe*detail [ld27]
11. D. Diggler / Just Pimpin' / Force Tracks [FT5]
12. STL / From a Distance / Smallville Records [Smallville 12]
13. Omar S / Oasis#4 / FXHE Records [OAS-1100 LP]

 

singsweetsoftware_13

 
may 18, 2009
floppy disk variations by matt dennewitz thanks matt!

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"Phase"


Two oscillators that have the same frequency Archaeological phase and phasing refers and different phases have a phase difference, to the logical reduction of and the oscillators are said to be contexts recorded during excavation to out of phase with each other. The near contemporary archaeological horizons that amount by which such oscillators are out represent a distinct "phase" of of step with each other can be previous land use. These often expressed in degrees from 0 to 360, but not always will be or in radians from 0 to 2PI. a representation of a former If the phase difference is 180 degrees land surface or occupation level (PI radians), then the two oscillators are and all associated features that said to be in antiphase. If two were created into or from interacting waves meet at a point where this point in time.

A they are in antiphase, then destructive interference simplified description of phase would will occur. It is common for waves be that" a phase is of electromagnetic (light, RF), acoustic (sound) or a view of a given other energy to become superposed in their Archaeological site as it would transmission medium. When that happens, the phase have been at time X". difference determines whether they reinforce or weaken examples of phases that would each other.

Complete cancellation is possible for have no associated occupation surfaces waves with equal amplitudes. Time is sometimes are phases of a site used (instead of angle) to express position that have been horizontally truncated within the cycle of an oscillation. A by later phases and only phase difference is analogous to two athletes elements surviving of the truncated running around a race track at the phase are those that were same speed and direction but starting at below ground level and the different positions on the track. They pass subsequent truncation at that time. a point at different instants in time.

Subsequent or earlier Phases are But the time difference (phase difference) between representations in changing occupation patterns them is a constant - same for and land use use over every pass since they are at the time. Phase is an extremely same speed and in the same direction. important concept in Archeological excavation If they were at different speeds (different and post excavation work. Phasing frequencies), the phase difference would only reflect is achieved by compiling smaller different starting positions. We measure the rotation groups of contexts together through of the earth in hours, instead of the use of stratification and radians. And therefore time zones are an stratigraphic excavation.

14 signals drifting out of synch:
1. Joe / Rut / Hessle Audio [HES007]
2. Martyn / JW on a Good Night / Revolve:r [REVOLVER012]
3. Ramadanman / Humber / Apple Pips [Pips005]
4. 2562 / Channel Two / Tectonic [TEC015A]
5. Scuba / Ruptured (Surgeon Remix) / Hotflush Recordings [HFRMX003]
6. Robert Hood / Side Effect / Music Man Records [MM 138]
7. Planetary Assault Systems / Temporary Suspension / Ostgut Tonträger [o-ton24]
8. Surgeon / At the Heart of It All / Tresor [Tresor 117]
9. Scuba / Volt / Abucs [Abucs 005]
10. Shed / The Lower Upside Down (Surgeon Remix) / Ostgut Tonträger [o-ton20]
11. Kutz / Travelling / Soul Jazz Records [SJR 208-12]
12. Kutz / Tarantula / Soul Jazz Records [SJR 207-12]
13. Ramadanman / Carla / Soul Jazz Records [SJR 183-12]
14. Ramadanman / Dayrider / Soul Jazz Records [SJR 199-12]

 

singsweetsoftware_12

 
april 29, 2009
psychedelic rainbow floppy animated gif by alex inglizian thanks alex!

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We went there to get off the grid, and found ourselves very busy.

At first, it was the labor:
1. The cows (milked)
2. The games (judged)
3. Repairs on the interior highways (smoothed, constrained, made tractable and visible)
4. The homes (painted, hidden, made accessible, waterproofed)

The work begun, we felt a certain solidarity in lonely sleepiness, but we were still haunted by nightmares about buttons, staplers, (light) switches and (heavy) machinery. Nocturnal fugues scored by the high muted clicks of cuticles on keyboards, trowels on dead leaves... we already knew what it was like to be alone and entangled.

But: a new experience! We were deathly thirsty! The water had to be purified; an apparatus was built. Strained in and parsed out, molecule-by-molecule, the perfect trickle of pristine, clear liquid... perfect, pristine and completely without character. We may have put some of it in disposable plastic bottles. We continued by drinking from the pond.

Eventually, loneliness got less complicated: we knew who they were and who we were. They were on grid and we were off. They ran laps around chemical, artificial apartment compound ponds and we aptly lapped life-giving chemical compounds from real pondwater. They were together and we were alone.

We each dug into it, got together and dug our way through it, ploughed it and planted a field of bells and slept together on a bed of crickets. It got to be fun - we stopped judging the games and started just playing.

Finally, we were ready to come back. And this time when we stood at the luminous grid and squinted into it, we saw bits of moss growing in the cracks.

This set is a mix of my grandpa's records and mine; it was recorded live with with vinyl, delay pedal and mp3 player.

15 faintly throbbing points of light:
1. Droll Yankees Inc. / Goat, Geese, Ducks / Droll Yankees Inc. [DY-18]
2. Peter Broderick / Games Again (Alternate Version) / Bella Union [BELLAV182]
3. Oren Ambarchi / Highway of Diamonds / touch [TS 05]
4. Dan Gibson / Among the Giant Trees of the Wild Pacific Coast (processed) / Solitudes [DG-81003]
5. Tangerine Dream / Circulation of Events / Virgin [2676712]
6. Fennesz / June / Table of the Elements [Fm 100]
7. Michael Stearns / The Dragon's Dream World / Continuum Montage [CM 1006]
8. Syntonic Research Inc. / Tintinnabulation (Computer Synthesized) / Syntonic Research Inc. [SD 66002]
9. Godspeed You Black Emperor / Dead Flag Blues / Kranky [KRANK 027]
10. Syntonic Research Inc. / Dawn at New Hope, Pennsylvania / Syntonic Research Inc. [SD 66002]
11. Robert Bearns and Ron Dexter / Temple Garden / Awakening Productions Inc.
12. Fennesz / On a Desolate Shore / Touch [TS 04]
13. Fripp & Eno / Evensong / Editions EG [EGS 103]
14. Cardboard Computer / 909s & Dandelions / unreleased
15. Move D & Benjamin Brunn / Love the One You're With / Smallville Records [SMALLVILLE LP01]

 

singsweetsoftware_11

 
april 13, 2009
floppy disk pencil drawing by holly croydon thanks, holly!

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we have crafted a dance! (for our friends)! yes it is complex, but it requires almost no "skill" to execute. after all we ourselves have at least 3 left feet, and no more than eleven thumbs.

but we find that - even with such third-rate physical coordination - the right rhythms can coax from us a psychic samba, a philosophical foxtrot.

ours is one of those!

please find below the steps & pattern.


StepTempoDescription
0Backward and forward. To the Left, Forward, to the Right, Back.
1SlowlyPreparatory step. Turn in reverse
2Half-speed of QuicklyReplace feet with hands
3Twice Again More Slowly Than You ExpectStop.
4Still, As If the Moment of Movement Has Already PassedConsider all possible negative side-effects of beginning a compost in your closet. Weigh them against the innumerable benefits. We think you will find you have made the right decision.
5NOWYou are too late!
6Slowly, sadlyQuickly and happily kick left, then right, then left (as if gravely ill).

dance steps

13 belles at the energy ball:
1. DJ Sprinkles / Reverse Rotation / Mule Musiq [mule musiq 33]
2. Soulphiction / Regrets / Philpot [php035]
3. Timos / Vendor (reboot remix) / Sonido Records [son001-6]
4. Bruno Pronsato / Where'd you learn to kiss that way / Hello? Repeat [Hello013]
5. Kate Simko / She Said (barem remix) / Spectral Sound [spc-51]
6. Melchior Productions Ltd. / The Hypnotist / Perlon [PERL 66]
7. Pantytec / A Glimpse / Perlon [PERL 14]
8. STL / Strahlemann / Perlon [PERL 67]
9. Argy & The Martinez Brothers / Debbie Downer / Objektivity [OBJ011]
10. Mikael Stavöstrand / Breezenseagulls pt. 2 / Defrag Sound Processing [DFRG_13]
11. Omar-S / Motor City jackpot!! / FXHE Records [aos-111]
12. Jacek Sienkewicz / Green River / Recognition [R-EP021]
13. STL / Paperboy / Something Records [something 07]