It’s been a tough year for New York. This episode we check in with Geng, the man behind one of our favorite labels, Purple Tape Pedigree, and see how these fine “purveyors of weaponized media and information” are handling the pandemic and the uprisings. With live performance no longer an option, the model of mutual…
Photo: Chloe Jarnac AMULETS is the solo project of Randall Taylor, who produces music via an evolving system of tape loop processing in conjunction with his electric guitar. What began as joke witch house project became more serious once Taylor instrumentalized a TASCAM four-track Portastudio for performance purposes. Taylor has also become known for his…
Another old unpublished paper, this one from Spring 2015. Though I readily acknowledge the problematic nature of wasting any more space on Woody Allen, there’s a lot here I still like and think would be worth sharing.I use the film Another Woman to think through the relationship between psychoanalysis and acousmatic sound, which relates specifically…
In recent years, audiences in the United States have finally been discovering the Italian artist Franco Battiato. Battiato’s reputation has grown in part due to Superior Viaduct re-releasing four of his classic albums from the early 1970s on vinyl there for the first time. But in Italy, Battiato is a massive star beyond comparison. Aspects…
This short text was written in December 2005, as an end of term paper for an undergraduate philosophy course at SUNY Purchase taught by Prof. Frank Farrell, who also supervised my philosophy senior thesis. I’m somewhat reluctant to share such premature work, but at the same time feel some urge to make available writing which…
Montreal (QC) – 04/07/2021, 3:54 pm is my first contribution to the Presque Tout project. Alleys are a defining feature of urban life in Montreal, and during the pandemic I’ve become especially sensitive to the gradual changes that take place. Last summer, I noticed a Palestinian woman would often stop to pluck a few grape…
La Lumière Du Soleil Dans Un Semi Sous-sol is the third duo release with my friend Stefan Christoff. Each release has been its own project and the results are quite distinct. Les Rumeurs was made to document the Quebec student strike of 2012, comprised of field-recordings of protests and street actions we’d made independently, and…
Q. and not U. (or, Conspiracy Means To Breathe Together) a plunderphonic radio play https://files.cargocollective.com/c1063507/qandnotu.mp3 Presented as part of Disinformation Cultures Dramatis personae: Jean-Luc Picard Speech 2 Text Wu Ming 1 Q-grifter Guinan Q.(Star Trek) James Bond Q.(Bond) 45 Consigliere Chorus Talking Head Jodi Dean Q.(Bond 2) Counselor Troi Talking Head 2 Stéphane…
AMERICANS IN ROME Musica Elettronica Viva’s Trastevere Commune by Valerio Mattioli from Superonda: Storia Segrete della Musica Italiana (2016), pp 182-202 Translated by Joseph Sannicandro Trastevere, as the name suggests, is the Roman neighborhood that is “on the other side of the [river] Tevere”, that is, on the opposite bank from the heart of the…
The ongoing COVID-19 pandemic has once again brought the economic failures of austerity politics into stark relief. It may very well be the case that once the economy has “recovered” we can expect further cuts to public services, but it is just as likely that we may, finally, be entering a new phase. The global…
Dropping Out Into Music: The Audience as Orchestra Edith Schloss The Village Voice (August 7, 1969), Pg. 27. Rome – On the left it said “messieurs” and on the right it said “dames.” It was in the Museum of Modern Art in Paris in May. The tall tiled room next to the toilets reverberated to…
Past Inside The Present is pleased to announce Repetition Hymns, a double album from the enigmatic Black Swan. Comprised of 19 vignettes, the relatively short tracks impart a strong forward momentum despite the 80-minute runtime. Repetition Hymns is thus particularly well-suited to the temporal distortion of quarantine, in which each day feels like an endless…