In this section, you'll find pictures from my insane techno studio, as well as photos from live-pa shows at raves, clubs and house parties. I'm lucky to have a very talented photographer for a girlfriend - Erin is always taking photos, and my live shows and gear collection are often a source of subject material for her. I'm also always looking for more, so if you've got photos from a MUX show, drop me a line and let me know.
I was contacted by the fine folks at NewMindSpace to see if I'd be willing to play at a different kind of event - a robot-themed dress-up party held on the Vancouver SkyTrain transit system! I really had to think about that one - pretty much anyone I mentioned it to told me I'd be insane, that we'd all be arrested, that the police would confiscate my gear, or it'd all get broken or stolen. Plus, I would have to setup in record time - five minutes or less - and play without a soundcheck!
Well, to their credit, the NewMindSpace folks had cleared the event with SkyTrain authorities, and we had almost no hassle - about 400 people showed up, dressed in all manner of robot costumes and apparel, and we prepared for a massive robot SkyTrain invasion! Unfortunately, the SkyTrain that showed up to take us on our voyage was the "old" style, with individual cars, instead of the new type where it's all one long car joined by accordion sections. That sucked, I ended up playing for one carful of people instead of six - but it was still fun. At one point it was so packed in that car that people were crowd surfing, and the whole car was bouncing up and down so much I thought it might leave the tracks!
Trancemission this year was lovely - a new stage configuration, more people than ever (the Burner party nearby was easily twice the size of previous years), and no shortage of awesome techno. Our crew represented gloriously.
No recordings, unfortunately... I managed to get a recording of nearly every other set but my own! The main generator broke down just before my set, knocking out the Edirol R4 recorder - apparently having backup batteries is enough to save it from a *loss* of power, but it conveniently powers itself down when the regular power is restored. Bah!
Five months in the studio, and the new 2006 liveset is ready to go!
My boys over in Alberta, the Rebel Sound System, booked me to headline a small rave for them, so off we went to Calgary, so I packed up the gear and the girl and headed over the mountains. This was the first show to use the new 2006 live rig (the mixer flightcase is gone, replaced by a closed laptop running Ableton Live). The new rig gives me a *lot* of flexibility, but of course, with growth comes growing pains. :) There were three technical issues during this set; a broken FX unit, a non-functional microphone, and at the end of the set, the power went out. Between the three problems, I managed to screw myself out of playing the two best songs in the set, and got shut down halfway through my "big ending" song. At that point I just said screw it and got DJ Anx to throw on a record.
Oh well, the reviews of the techno that *did* work were pretty good, tho I'm quite disappointed with how it went.
Well, the studio is settling into a productive configuration. Much has changed, though much stays the same. :)
In the first pic, the workstation hasn't really changed much in the past six months, other than adding an arm for whatever synth I happen to be working with at the time. Currently it's the Roland JP-8080, but more often that space is occupied by the Waldorf Pulse Plus. There's a five-string bass in the background; my friend Jason Stormchild moved to Japan a few months ago, and left that, a microphone, and his Tannoy studio sub for me to store for him while he's away. I don't actually play the bass (tho I do play guitar, so I can *kind* of get by on the bass), but I'm hoping to find someone who does.
The second pic shows the evolution of the live rig - the Pulse is actually in this pic, at the bottom of the rack, but it's not actually getting used live these days. Also, the SH-101 is missing from this pic, as it's on the workbench having a few cold solder joints fixed. The new rig features the MPC running the master clock, drum sample sequencing, and MIDI sequencing of the Nord Modular and SH-101. The laptop is slaved to the MPC, and runs Ableton Live for basslines, longer samples and percussive loops, as well as acting as the main mixer and EQ, via the rackmounted MOTU 828mkII soundcard. Also in the rack are a DBX 166XL processing the kick and bassline, and a BBE Sonic Maximizer for adding balls to the SH-101 and Nord. The x0xb0x provides the traditional TB-303 riffs, and the SH-101 can be switched live between being sequenced via MIDI by the MPC and being sequenced by CV/Gate from the x0xb0x. :)
The third and fourth pics show the mighty DRUMCLOSET, where I've got three badass old analogue drumsynths being sequenced by two x0x-style drum machines. All the outputs are going into a 16-channel mixer, with a bunch of FX bussed in, and the main outs go through a Behringer ADA-8000 into my desktop at 24bit, 48khz. Being able to walk up to the closet, hit play, and sequence out strange new drumloops is a blast - and with Live, I can capture those loops and keep them forever with a couple of mouseclicks.
The last pic shows the ghetto cable management solution as well as my two non-electronic instruments, an Alvarez Dana electric and my new baby, a Fender 'Concert Series' electric-accoustic. :)
Booked for another "Lotus Long Weekend" show - these are always a wicked time, and this time was no different. The only downside was that we were supposed to go until 3am, and at 1am the manager came up and told us that we had to shut it down at 2am. Not so good, since I was playing last, and Ricardo Almeida had only started like ten minutes earlier. We both ended up cutting our sets short, but I felt pretty lousy about it - since I knew before I started, I could cut down my set to only the best few tracks and swing a 30-minute set. Ricardo had to cut his down live though, and didn't end up getting to play his harder faster stuff. :/ That sucked, I'm a big fan of Ricardo's livesets.
Fun set - apparently it got recorded very well, but I slacked too long on retrieving it from the guy who recorded the show, and he lost the recordings in a hard drive crash. :/ Oh well. Win some, lose some.
Photographs 
