This past summer, Japanese noise artist/turntablist and Ground Zero founding member Otomo Yoshihide collaborated with a group of installation artists at the Yamaguchi Center for Arts and Media for an exhibit called Ensembles (here's an interview with Yoshihide about the show). One of the grooviest pieces in the exhibit was "without records", which filled a room with 100 portable record players and left them running, you know, without records. It's a nice rumination on the loss of vinyl, and the unique sound that turntables have to offer - something that can't be said of digital music.
"hyper wr player - without records hi-fi version" is a similar concept with a uniquely constructed version of the turntable that all DJs know and love.
And here's Yoshihide in action, from the Australian experimental TV series Subsonics.
Previously on Beware of the Blog:
Altered States and Otomo Yoshihide (MP3s)
A taste of the sampledelic Hirose + Otomo Duo
Yoshihide's sometime bagpipe collaborator David Watson
When did we lose vinyl?
Posted by: Hatch | December 31, 2008 at 09:31 AM
Well of course those of us in the know didn't, but you know what I mean.
Posted by: Resident Clinton | December 31, 2008 at 09:35 AM
Here's a free plug-in you can download to make your MP3s (and WAVs) sound like vinyl:
http://www.izotope.com/products/audio/vinyl/
Believe it or not, it's pretty good. You can raise or lower the level of mechanical and electrical noise, add dust and scratches if you want -- even make it sound a little warped. I run everything I like through it.
take care
---Jones()
Posted by: Jones() | December 31, 2008 at 10:00 AM