Machinefabriek

[zhao]

been listening to the huge MF collection all morning... and it's certainly not without dull moments, especially some of the older releases...

 

[polystyle]

Listened to his 'Live at DeSingel Antwerp' over the weekend , found it interesting.
It took 20 plus minutes to get where it was going , but the destination was ok if a bit 'background' musik-ish.
If you have more that you find good /great, please let me know Zhao

 

[man and machine]

i was just chatting to someone about this yesterday. for someone as prolific as he is, his work is remarkably consistent. it is true that once you're got the working method down you and churn this sorta stuff out in no time, but he does seem to evolve and continually change his method

Dauw is great! I particularly like his collaborations...
Cello Recycling/Cello Drowning with Aaron Martin
Drawn with Soccer Committee
Box music with Stephen Vitiello is pretty cool too

But my favorite has to be Fabriek Bakker Fabriek with Anne Bakker & Leo Fabriek

he's playing cafe oto on the 12th of may...

 

[Viral Radio]

Another reason why Machinefabriek is so prolific is because he documents well. We recently released an album together of three concerts we did, the CD Vloed, with performances at the Bimhuis and Oude Kerk. Those are all edited recordings of concerts from 2006 and 2007. He does this a lot, using the live material to release a tiny piece. Most of his releases are quite short. Rutger is prolific and is imaginative as a live artist. I hope his gig at Oto will attract a large audience, he is worth the effort.

 

[michael]

*MACHINEFABRIEK + SOCCER COMMITTEE** _REDRAWN_

MF-RDWN • CD

machinefabriek + soccer committee remixed and covered.

The album "Drawn" by Machinefabriek and Soccer Committee is interpreted by an
incredible lineup of talented artists. Although there are a lot of different
approaches on this disc it feels like a homogenous whole. There are intimate
singer/songwriter-style tracks as well as thick layered digital drones and raw
guitar explorations. But everything as a delicate touch making this compilation a
beautiful trip.



> **REMIXERS INCLUDE:**
>
> andrea belfi
> holden goldmund
> taylor deupree
> mark templeton
> the puddle parade
> nate wooley
> tori, reiko + namio kudo
> francisco lopez
> németh
> the north sea
> steinbrüchel
> squares on both sides
> gary smith
> lawrence english
> kenneth kirschner
> annelies monseré
> the fun years
> stefano pilia
> peter broderick
> xela

Looks interesting... I like many of the remixers.

 

[subvert47]

saw him play in Nottingham last night — on a zither with controllers and stuff and lots of bric a brac à la Keith Rowe

very fine

 

[Leo]

http://www.machinefabriek.nu/jongejaren/

a new free DL of stuff, recorded 2001-2004...

 

[connect_icut]

Speaking from personal experience, there are two ways you can go when making this type of stuff. You can just do a bunch of improvs and burn them to CDRs or you can spend ages editing your improvs together into more structured "songs". I take the latter route but I often wonder whether it's worth spending two years putting together an album that nobody will buy, given that most of the raw improvs sound pretty satisfying on their own.

One of the other differences between my personal experience and what Machinefabriek does - time-wise - is that he has a much more punk rock attitude. I spend months and months tinkering with Max/MSP, building the exact instruments and effects I want to use, whereas he uses whatever is at hand. I think most of his stuff is done with guitar pedals. Apparently all of his computer work is done in Macromedia Soundedit - a beautifully simply, utterly obsolete audio editor for OS 9!

Anyway, I think he is able to produce precisely the sound he is going for by working with simple tools, within strict parameters and simply not over-thinking it. Why this approach works for him and not others who take a similar route, I don't know. Maybe it's just a case of aesthetic focus.

 

[Dunninger]

Speaking from personal experience, there are two ways you can go when making this type of stuff. You can just do a bunch of improvs and burn them to CDRs or you can spend ages editing your improvs together into more structured "songs". I take the latter route but I often wonder whether it's worth spending two years putting together an album that nobody will buy, given that most of the raw improvs sound pretty satisfying on their own.

When it comes to things like this it's really important to not compare yourself to other artists but do what you have to do. It can be frustrating to see other people churning out good stuff while you're editing and arranging and programming your ass off (I have the same "problem"). But in the end everybody has their own tempo and if it takes you two years to make a record it isn't in any way devalued by the fact that somebody else put out 20 in the same time. The only thing that really bugs me is that I haven't found a satisfying way yet to perform live because I could never pull it off in real time. I always have to think about the british noise band Aufgehoben, while it's common in noise to have a new release every two weeks their records are painstakingly assembled and edited over years.

 

[connect_icut]

When it comes to things like this it's really important to not compare yourself to other artists but do what you have to do. It can be frustrating to see other people churning out good stuff while you're editing and arranging and programming your ass off (I have the same "problem"). But in the end everybody has their own tempo and if it takes you two years to make a record it isn't in any way devalued by the fact that somebody else put out 20 in the same time.

I think a lot of it comes down to whether of not you have an audience. If anyone gave a shit, I could easily be releasing a couple of pretty decent improv CDRs a month. In a way, though, my lack of an audience is actually a good thing because it forces me to take the time to create something that might make people sit up and take notice.

The only thing that really bugs me is that I haven't found a satisfying way yet to perform live because I could never pull it off in real time.

That's one of the reasons I had to force myself to learn Max/MSP. The existing software/hardware didn't really allow me to perform my music in the sort of spontaneous, hands-on way I wanted, which required me to build my own GUI in Max. The next stage will be getting a fully programmable touch-screen MIDI controller. The iPad should sort that out.

Of course, given all of this, the fact that Machinefabriek makes so much great stuff with such a modest collection of gear is pretty humbling.