Storms on the horizon...

The next Secret Archives of the Vatican release will be called Storms. The tunes, although independent of each other, are based on a theme, the Turkish Storm Calendar. We first came across references to this in a most excellent (and highly recommended) science fiction book set in Istanbul in the near future. The Dervish House by Ian McDonald provides no details of the calendar, merely mentions it. We were intrigued but found very little information on the internet - three or four webpages with incomplete or hard to interpret listings of the weather changes through a Turkish year. The names of the storms are evocative, however, and we decided to record a set of tunes related to them. We have, for a long time, been interested in the tuning systems used in Middle Eastern music, particularly Arabic music, but we decided to research the Turkish makamlar tradition which is similar but not identical. We found some good websites with details of the modes and scales used in Turkish music (makamlar). We then had to figure out how to make our synthesisers and samplers play the detuned notes that don't exist in our usual tempered Western musical scales. The makamlar tradition includes some melodic expectations and we were unable to find enough information to do justice to these, so our music is definitely not Turkish music and we haven't tried to make it so. It is our music, influenced by Turkish music. Not many people have used microtones in our world of electronica, so for many of our listeners, it will be their first exposure to music with a different tuning system. Many of the makamlar only have one or two notes that are detuned, so we think the music sounds natural and not hard for a Western audience to grasp. There are copious online sources of transcriptions of Middle Eastern hand drum rhythms, so we have used frame drums (which we love!) as well as drum kit sounds to programme our rhythms based on these and most, if not all, of the tracks on Storms are therefore not in common four-four time. Once again, we don't believe this makes the tunes inaccessible - many of these uncommon time signatures are rooted in ancient forms of dance music after all. We also haven't abandoned our flirtations with the Cronx's indigenous folk music, dubstep, and there are bass electronica sounds supporting the orientalist melodies throughout. We have a few tracks finished and some still in the pipeline so we don't have a release date yet. However, we'll be enthusiastically pimping Storms on all of our many online platforms in due course, so you'll know when it's out.

New release from Broken Drum Records:  Nine Ships by Thousand Yard Prayer. Middle-Eastern rhythms and tunings collide with dubstep-inflected Croydonian bass music. Eclectic esoterica for the musically open-minded.

Ethnostep 2 - new release from Subbass

 

Ethnostep 2 is the second in the Ethnostep series of releases from the Heidelberg based Subbass netlabel. There are fourteen tracks of glorious Eastern-inflected bass-driven electronica, including one from our own Thousand Yard Prayer and an exclusive track from Secret Archives of the Vatican. It's available on name-your-own-price basis but that can include free.

Find it HERE


 

They say this: Making music is the most primeval form of human expression. Imbued with a mystical power to communicate at an instinctual level that transcendends language and speaks directly to the soul. What we have in mind is to go to the one place that everybody carries within themselves. We believe that the whole external universe is also found within us all. There is one planet, and on this planet there is this peaceful, easy, partying tribe, everybody can connect to.  

Tracks

1. Rotem Moav - On The Wing Of A Green Dragon
2. Dub Breakah - Zen
3. Beatfarmer- Xeno's Dream (dreamstep mix)
4. Masala - The Bygone World
5. Digital Nottich - Momne Le
6. Thousand Yard Prayer - Sassanid
7. Temple Step project - Medicine Temple
8. Zillion - Isolate
9. Dansu & Extrabright - Serpent
10. Speciez - Amal
11. Ghosthack - In The Shell
12. Ben I Sabbah - Desert Moon III
13. Secret Archives of the Vatican - Stealth Camel
14. G0LIKE - Hypno

World Without End by Thousand Yard Prayer

Secret Archives of the Vatican's 2010 releases

It's almost Christmas and therefore it's a fitting time to acquire any of 2010's Secret Archives of the Vatican releases you may have missed.

They're free!



The Glidepath EP: http://secretarchivesofthevatican.bandcamp.com/album/the-glidepath-ep



Wisdom Truth: http://secretarchivesofthevatican.bandcamp.com/album/wisdom-truth-ep



Dreams and Visions: http://secretarchivesofthevatican.bandcamp.com/album/dreams-and-visions

This music will improve your holiday!

Conscious Rasta

Another highly recommended free release from one of our favourite labels, Fresh Poulp: France's Guitoud has released his third album, Conscious Rasta. It's a cracking album, featuring eleven tunes in classic dub and reggae style.

Full details and download link are HERE.

Crazy Clown Dub

The godfather of podcasting, Mr Pete Cogle, has just released episode 85 of the The Dub Zone podcast. You can download TDZ#85 from HERE. Full details are HERE.



Tracks

1. Rupa Music Dub - DubPlay
2. Soca Dub - Phoniandflore
3. Peace Treaty (Jackie Mittoo Version) - DubRifles
4. Television Dub - Liberators
5. Kwesi Trip - Lionyard
6. Warrior In The Dub - Dub Engine
7. Rainbow Children Dub - Zion Train
8. Clown Powder - Lion of Joppa

Gajoob

Back in 1990, I spotted an intriguing looking magazine on the racks at Tower records (I think...) in London. It was called Gajoob and it came from the US. It dealt with a pre-internet world that is now long gone but which was amazing and creative - the world of homemade music, sold and distributed by mail when the world's postal services were still quite good. Most items were on cassette and the scene had absolutely nothing to do with the mainstream music industry. I loved it! Gajoob reviewed thousands of cassettes and other homemade art.

Gajoob was a huge inspiration to me as I was starting Secret Archives of the Vatican. I had a Fostex four-track cassette-based home studio and was starting to release cassettes. Gajoob opened up a whole world of possibility and pointed me towards contacts, collaborators and other 'zines. At some point I made contact with the main man, Bryan Baker.



Well, here we are, two decades later and by the mighty power of Facebook, I've made contact again. Gajoob is still alive, albeit in web form and its offshoot/alter-ego, Homemade Music, is also thriving.

They say:
GAJOOB has been reviewing independent music since 1987. We review all styles of independently released CDs, cassettes, net albums and vinyl. We are returning to print late fall 2010.

Gajoob began in 1987 as a print 'zine by Bryan Baker focused on home recording artists and independent music activities. The final print issue was in 1994. Bryan produced a weekly 3-hour radio show from 1991-1994 on Salt Lake City's KRCL called Cassette Culture Shock which featured the artists sending tape albums to Gajoob. Bryan Baker began publishing The DiY Report in 1994, an email subscription newsletter which gathered news of independent music activities and featured articles and interviews with indie artists. 124 issues were published until 2001 and the content was archived via the web. The Gajoob website was also home to Gajoob Radio, a streaming RealAudio radio show of music and artist interviews.

From 2000-2010, Gajoob evolved into various interrelated activities and websites, including homemademusic.com, tapegerm.com, discoversounds.com, along with on-demand CD manufacturing and online sales.

2010 sees the return of GAJOOB Magazine , sometime this autumn. Bryan says that coverage will be much the same as before. They will strive to give voice to the creative impulse and hear what artists have to say about that. If you like discovering new music or want to keep up with creative music activities then GAJOOB Magazine is something you'll want to read.

GAJOOB Magazine will be published with a CD of 100+ tracks direct from recording studios around the world. Each track will carry detailed notes from artists about the making of it. To be included on the mp3 CD simply submit a track to homemademusic.com. Include details about making your music: what inspired you, what was the process, related anecdotes, etc.

Reviews

GAJOOB's album listings can contain much more than a review of your album. Artist commentary, interviews, streaming audio are included as well. They will review CDs, cassette, vinyl, DVD, and online album releases (also called netlabel and free music culture). Mailyour release to them or let them know where to find it via their contact page. See their submission guide for details.

GAJOOB Magazine on Facebook

GAJOOB Magazine on Twitter

Free music from Secret Archives of the Vatican on Bandcamp

We have been adding Secret Archives of the Vatican releases to the Bandcamp website and you can see our page HERE.

Bandcamp is great because you have a wide choice of download formats available - you're not stuck with crappy mp3s - in fact, the lowest quality mp3 available is the highest quality mp3, a 320kbps.

We've added our two most recent EP releases, The Glidepath EP and Wisdom Truth. Both are free.



We've also added our 2009 album release, Remembering Machine, and it is now free also!



We'll be adding more tunes soon!