Marathon Devlog 3: Various Improvements

by Dæv Tremblay

Github link

Marathon has been on the back of my mind ever since I started messing around with it. I still remember it not being 100 lines long and still be able to make microrhythms in MIDI. It was a bit crude, and simplistic, but it worked! I was so excited to solve an issue that bothered me, a musical cul-de-sac, with my flimsy programming skills. Since then, the little code grew bigger as I added presets (like a pre-made “swing” option, and similar choices for gnawa and samba rhythms) and functionalities (like the text command option, which I … Read more

Oort Smog, Serpents of Pakhangba, White Pulse, Rïga, Mopcut, and Toned

by Dæv Tremblay

Oort Smog – Smeared Pulse Transfers (Sweat Band Records)

Oort Smog is the collaborative output of saxophonist Patrick Shiroishi, of Corima fame, and Mark Kimbrell, both of which also play in Upsilon Acrux. Needless to say, the release of this twenty-minute EP is long overdue! Coming out on 26 April, Smeared Pulse Transfers sees the duo at their best—performance- and creativity-wise—and it’s a most satisfactory snack while we wait for the next full-length of their main band(s). You can have an avant-goût of the [incredibly good] album with this live video, just imagine this with much better production value … Read more

Weekly Release Dump

by Dæv Tremblay

Saturday, 2 March

Shock Troopers – Глуво доба (Gluvo doba) [EP] (sludge metal)

Skopje, Macedonia

Serpents of Pakhangba – Serpents of Pakhangba [EP] (avant-garde metal)

Mumbai, India

Tuesday, 5

Maddison Carter Quintet – Elbow Room (modern jazz)

Melbourne, Australia

Wednesday, 6

Rïga – Totem [EP] (experimental electro)

France

… Read more

Fet Nat, Kitzl, and Battlebear

by Toys Etcetera

Fet Nat – Le mal [no wave, punk jazz, musique concrète]

Fet Nat—stylized FET.NAT—presents a unique and exciting excursion into sound collage, spoken word, and dope drum and bass. With Le mal the group gives us a work that defies any notion of convention and breaks fresh ground with every infant second. Ambient tapestries are woven through hypnotic grooves with the … Read more

Marathon Devlog 2: Text Command

by Dæv Tremblay

[Link to Github]

Hey there, I’ve added a new, very useful preset to Marathon this week so I figured I might as well write a post about it. I added preset “99”, which is text command. Before now, you had to create a MIDI file by yourself, using an external program, and Marathon was really fragile about that. So, for now, I suggest to stay away from preset “1” and try “99” when creating custom beats, unless you are certain that your procedure for creating MIDI files is tolerated by the program.

With Text Command, you can write out rhythmic … Read more