(re)Composition

(re)Composition is live remixing.  Original material combined with prepared material all assembled on-the-fly using hardware and software. The product creates new sounds, new songs, and crowd friendly electronic music with a cerebral resonance for anyone carrying a well tuned ear.

Not just tasty samples but a combination of real analog systems combined on the fly mixing the finest in electronic ideas and creations. Also, this is not the latest trend or pop fad, but instead modern electronic music with intelligence, historical and modern references, and forward thinking to establish sounds for strong people.

Tools

A key element is the inclusion of tools and skills common to the DJ trade. The cut, scratch, mixer, mixing, fading, beat juggling, and approach inherent to the DJ trade takes Ableton to the next level in the hands of DJ Not So Much.

Another critical ingredient is outboard control of sound in the (pure) analog realm.  This is accomplished by  custom controllers built by DJ Not So Much to exacting design specifications and performance requirements.

Electronic engineering is combined with a love of DJ scratching to create a new performance.  Using a straight forward analog system smooth scratching and unprecedented control is accomplished  using no turntables or digital DJ technology.

Then and (k)now…

(re)Composition is the brain child of DJ Not So Much. The ideas individually are hardly new.

The traditional mixing board, with routing, send loops, and direct inserts, allows control and processing that is rarely discussed in the context of instruments. The use of mixers as an instrument is rarely seen (with the exception of true turntable-ists and battle DJ).

This is unfortunate.

The addition of delay (externally) is delivered with a few simple modifications to increase control. These are more examples of quiet leaps forward in the time line of effects processing and technical advancements made over the past 40 years. These quiet jumps forward tend to be ignored by the traditional musical construct, all the while new waves of artists push the envelope musically with these tools.

Speaking of envelopes, the modern (electronic) musician will spend as much time creating an envelope as perfecting a melody.  These same musicians are investing in radical waveform synthesis, serious hybrid processing schema for performance, and programming on all levels to achieve desired results.

So (re)Composition is live remixing.  The (re)Composed song is defined in the scope of performance using prepared material.  The final product is difficult to place in a box, but flexible enough to excite the crowd.

Musically speaking, DJ Not So Much always felt confined in the classic and traditional methods. Considerations of how standard musical notation is in many ways limiting and antiquated is a mantra revisited over and over when applied to modern music.

So things are changing!

All of this thanks to a few decades of DJ’s putting others music together via the mix.  The DJ era was but a prelude to the new technology and methods such as Ableton, Traktor, Serato, and devices talking via the OSC protocol.

The consideration by some as cheat methods is false. Instead we simply drive and push our new tools harder and further. According to DJ Not So Much:

My Live set and rig is more challenging physically and mentally than anything else I have done musically. This includes playing hard bop at high BPM solo on the piano with intense solos.

I will be participating in the Creative Electronica Petting Zoo September 4 & 5. http://www.electricavenuedenver.com/

August 6, 2010 I will be dropping some set at Lucid Gallery.

July 14, 2010 : I will be hosting the Ableton Colorado Meet up and social mixer. For details go here.