this week on Best in Show- Ars Dada and Xanopticon, live in Los Angeles, 2010

Ars Dada and Xanopticon, live in Los Angeles, 13 November 2010.

Sunday, 6pm west coast time, listen at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/.

this week on Best in Show- Christoph Fringeli live in Austria 2009

Praxis Records label founder Christoph Fringeli treats us to some heavy and gloomy electronics this week on Best in Show- a mix of pounding industrial, proto-breakcore, with bits of dark ambient, radio/tv dialog and a little classical music.

Live at Elevate Festival, Graz, Austria, 24 October 2009. Tune in Sunday at 6pm west coast time at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/.

this week on Best in Show- Corvx de Timor, LA 2013 and Yellow Then Blue, LA 2008

Couple unrelated live sets this week, although stylistically they'll appeal to the same crowd.

First up will be Corvx de Timor live at Complex in Los Angeles from 22 May 2013. Recommended if you like Gridlock's gloomy, crunchy, post-industrial/idm soundscapes and beats.

Followed by Yellow Then Blue's debut performance from the 12th of September 2008, also in Los Angeles. Imagine if Squarepusher and Aphex Twin had a baby, and it liked jazz and fusion rock as well as its parent's spazzy, breakneck idm.

Both sets are short, so the complete radio show won't be much more than an hour this week.

Listen in Sunday at 6pm west coast time at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

this week on Best in Show- Graz and FFF live in Santa Barbara 2012

Seattle ravecore mashup hardcore genius Graz teamed up with legendary Rotterdam breakcore junglist FFF for the SpringBreakCore tour in the spring of 2012, and this Sunday I'll bring you the recordings of their performances from the final show of that tour from the 24th of March 2012 from Santa Barbara.

And there's so much going on these days on the weekend, that I'm gonna delay the start time for the show another hour, so from now on the show will start every Sunday at 6pm west coast time, 9pm on the east.

Listen in at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/.

this week on Best in Show- KK Null live in Austria 2009 and Merzbow live in Austria 2010

 

Another combo show this week with a short (~20 minutes) but really amazing live recording of KK Null in Graz from 2009, followed by Merzbow live in Vienna from the spring of 2010, a performance for which he was accompanied by drummer Balázs Pándi.

Sunday, 5pm west coast time, listen at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

this week on Best in Show- Enduser, Las Vegas, 2007

Here's another one from the vaults, and another world premier! Enduser live from Las Vegas from Cinco de Mayo, 2007.

I have no idea how Enduser found time to produce all the music that he did leading up to this Vegas show, on top of his constant touring. He had released From Zero in 2004, Run War and Comparing Paths and The End and Calling the Vultures in 2005, and Pushing Back and Form without Function in 2006. Six albums and one EP of remixes (as well as a handful of 12"s and compilation tracks) in three years, all the while touring, non-stop, worldwide. That's ridiculous.

I've decided to move back the start time for the show by an hour. Now that the weather is much more conducive to outdoor activities well into the evening, I try to take advantage of it as much as I can. So the show will now start at 5pm west coast time from now on (or at least until I feel like moving it even later…).

So this Sunday, 5pm on the west coast, 8pm on the east, live Enduser from Las Vegas, 5 May 2007. Listen at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

this week on Best in Show- Abelcain (world premier) and Fanny

Tune in this Sunday afternoon on mixlr.com for Abelcain and Fanny recorded live in Los Angeles as they both played a Darkmatter Soundsystems party on 19 May 2006.

I've seen the Fanny recording pop up on a couple different places on the internet over the years, but I've since remastered this one, so it'll sound far better than any version that's already out there.

The Abelcain hasn't been uploaded, released or broadcast in any way, in part or in whole, so I'm very excited to get that one on the air and give it a proper debut to the world.

Listen in at mixlr.com/humorless-productions Sunday at 4pm west coast time.

this week on Best in Show- The Flashbulb live in Hollywood 2006

The Flashbulb live at The Vanguard, Hollywood, CA, 15 November 2006.

This one falls into the same category as my recordings of Venetian Snares and Richard Devine in that at the time, I recorded only my own audience bootleg, only to find out later that somebody in a position of authority had recorded and subsequently uploaded/released a board tape. I have combined the two, and the resulting 'live album' sounds infinitely better than either of the individual recordings by themselves.

My biggest hurdle with this project was that the board tape was riddled with serious problems. Really a disaster. Lots of nasty clipping. Channels dropping in and out with the accompanying sounds of cables being plugged in and pulled out. Stuff like that. I repaired/restored/fixed much of that, although there were some parts where it was totally FUBAR, but I did what I could with it. The good news is that not only did I make significant improvements in the board tape, but the audience recording helped in smoothing out many of the rough spots once I combined them.

In November of 2006 he was touring in support of his classic Flexing Habitual album so he plays many songs from that, as well as a few from earlier releases like Kirlian Selections and Reunion.

Listen in, Sunday at 4pm west coast time at mixlr.com/humorlessproductions.

SkinCage and Not Breathing live in Tucson, 17 April 2013 (audio and video)

Full sets from both. All audio recorded, mixed and mastered by me. Video capture and editing by me as well.

All-star night in Arizona as these two legends opened up for Negativland mainstay Mark Hosler (who I recorded as well, but hasn't (yet?) given me the go-ahead to post his recording anywhere, so that one will remain buried in the archives for now).

Audio here (which is the same recording, but it might sound a little sharper than the YouTube audio)-

SkinCage live in Tucson, 17 April 2013 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

Not Breathing live in Tucson, 17 April 2013 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

a few live Bestial Mouths videos from Das Bunker, 1 March 2013

Audio recorded, mixed and mastered by me. Video by me, too (although for this one I had only my little Canon S100 point and shoot, so the video isn't super spectacular, but for a pocket camera, it's pretty damn good).

this week on Best in Show- Raxyor and Techdiff, live in Vienna 2010

Combo show again this week with a couple recordings from the same night in Vienna, June 2010- first the pummeling fury of Raxyor followed by the surgically precise but no less abusive mayhem from Techdiff, as it happened that night at an event called Panzer Schokolade #3 at EKH.

Listen in at http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/, Sunday at 4pm west coast time.

this week on Best in Show- Mochipet

Mochipet has just wrapped up a victorious nationwide tour, which had him on the road since the end of last year.

I'll be broadcasting the recording I made of his set at The Ruby Room in San Diego on the night of the 3rd of April on this week's Best in Show.

Over the years, Mochipet has proven to be an artist that's been difficult to pin down. Starting out in the mid-90s as a laptop idm producer, he's bounced around between breakcore, mashup, hip hop, dubstep, minimal electronic, unclassifiable (Cuti Sadda…) and every other sub-sub-sub-genre of electronic music that you can imagine.

Nowadays (well, for this tour at least), he was blasting tunes that fit most easily in the style of the boombastic rock/synth/techno hybrid sounds of bands like Daft Punk or Chemical Brothers, and always with his idiosyncratic, distinctive style, making extensive use of marimba and his midi guitar with Kaoss pad (or something to that effect). For this tour, he also was accompanied by a live drummer. Super.

Mochipet live at The Ruby Room, San Diego, 3 April 2013.

Sunday at 4pm west coast time, listen at mixlr.com/humorless-productions

This week on Best in Show- Autechre x2

This'll be different than my usual broadcasts, because neither of these Autechre sets did I record myself. What I did was take a couple board tapes, did some extensive remastering and added a bunch of crowd sounds (subtly, artfully) to make them sound like an actual concert.

One from way back in 1993 (Incunabula, Amber, Anti EP era) and one from New York 2001 (LP5, EP7, Chiastic Slide era).

Sunday 4pm west coast time. http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

YouTube vs Mixcloud

Audio/music basics-

People don't care about music any more. Although they will watch/listen to just about any thing on YouTube, regardless of video or audio quality.

Case in point- my live recordings of Daedelus from March 2012 and March 2013.

The 2012 (audio only) recording has been available as an audio stream on my Mixcloud page for about three months. It's high quality, professionally recorded, mixed and mastered audio, comparable to any proper live album you've heard over the years. Daedelus himself has promoted the recording on his FB page, and as of today it has just over 50 listens.

The 2013 recording is of the same high quality audio, and even though the songs performed are different than the 2012 show, generally speaking it's the same show. The big difference is that this newer recording is accompanied by the video of the performance as well as the audio. It's up on YouTube, and Daedelus promoted it the exact same way he promoted the Mixcloud recording a year ago, and the video has accumulated over 400 views in 24 hours.

Of course, I don't expect that pace to continue, but it pretty much crystalizes my suggestion that people will check out videos on YouTube much more readily than they'll listen to audio/music without some video to accompany it.

Lesson learned- if you're me and record pretty much nothing but live albums, I wouldn't even bother do all the work to produce the recording without video, because next to nobody will take the time to listen to it. From now on, I'm not going to make any live recordings without video.

Perhaps one day I'll do an experiment where I'll put up the audio on Mixcloud and the video on YouTube of the same show and see what the response is.

Lesson for bands- I see a whole lotta Soundcloud tracks with thousands and thousands of plays, and that's impressive. But it makes me wonder what their play count would be if that same track was a video on YouTube. I make some original music as well, and (if I want anybody to hear it) I don't think I'm gonna consider putting it up anywhere other than YouTube with some video of something, even just a montage of random shots of nothing in particular.

(Unless I actually try to make any money from selling the mp3s, in which case I'll head to Bandcamp, but I think we all know that selling mp3s these days is a laughable proposition.)

If you're interested, here are the Daedelus recordings-

Daedelus live in Los Angeles, 29 March 2012 by Humorlessproductions on Mixcloud

This week on Best in Show- WMX

Yes, I know my Mixcloud is flooded with live WMX recordings (here and here and here and here), but this one will be newer than all those with new tunes.

Recorded at the Darkmatter Soundsystem party from the 2nd of March 2013 in Los Angeles.

As always, listen in Sunday at 4pm PST on http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

This week on Best in Show- This Song Is a Mess But So Am I

This week on Best in Show- This Song Is a Mess But So Am I (x2!)

This week on Humorless Productions presents Best in Show I'll be playing two recordings if This Song Is a Mess But So Am I, both recorded at The Smell in Los Angeles and only a few months apart in early 2007.

This Song Is a Mess was Freddy Ruppert's first musical project, and quickly gained legendary status after having released only one full length album and a smattering of tracks on a couple EPs and split releases. His renown was cemented not so much by his studio output, but more so by his incredibly energetic and captivating live performances, two of which you'll hear this coming Sunday on my Mixlr channel including his final formal performance as This Song Is a Mess.

Freddy continues to make music using the name Former Ghosts which has more of a melodic, melancholy synth-pop style as opposed to the more aggressive experimental industrial sounds of This Song Is a Mess.

First up on Sunday will be the recording from the 20th of January, 2007 and the second will be from the 26th of May from that same year, which was his final performance before starting Former Ghosts. I'm playing both because they each clock in at about 25 minutes, so it'll be a well spent hour.

This Sunday at 4pm PST on http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

this week on Best in Show- Daedelus

In anticipation of his upcoming swing through Southern California next week, I'll be playing Daedelus' live set that I recorded last year (almost to the day) in Los Angeles.

Tune in Sunday at 4pm PST here.

this week on Best in Show- Enduser live in Berlin, 14 May 2010

This week on Humorless Productions presents Best in Show-

Enduser live at Berghain, Berlin, 14 May 2010.

Exclusive live recording, not available anywhere else on the internet, to be broadcast once and once only. Marathon set- one hour and thirty five minutes, every minute of which will be aired.

Tune in Sunday at 4pm (California time).

Listen here- http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/

internet broadcast of my live recording of Bestial Mouths this weekend

Ok, I'm very excited about this.

I recorded Bestial Mouths last weekend in Los Angeles, and I'm super stoked that they've given me permission to broadcast/shoutcast it on my mixlr.com channel this coming Sunday.

http://mixlr.com/humorless-productions/ is my Mixlr page, and the time will be Sunday, 10 March at 4pm west coast time, which is 7pm east coast time, and I think midnight in London and 1am (Monday morning officially) in Berlin. As far as I know, it'll be a one-time-only broadcast and won't be available (download, stream or otherwise) once it's aired.

This is my first time using Mixlr, but I've done some tests and everything has worked just fine. 

Basically, it's a site where you can make a playlist (a la iTunes) of Soundcloud tracks and broadcast them to whomever wants to listen, and every broadcast has it's own IM/chat capabilities. So I'll just throw the recording in the playlist and let 'er rip.

You don't need to register an account with Mixlr to listen to the show, but you do if you want to join the chat room. Registration is free.

The audio is high quality, proper live album, not some crappy bootleg. If you're not familiar with any of my other live recordings (industrial, breakcore, idm, more…), jump over to mixcloud.com/humorlessproductions and check some out.

Bestial Mouths will be playing SXSW the following weekend, so hopefully this broadcast will add to the giant hype snowball that's been generating around them, and help push them through the Austin show and the release of their album and beyond.

I also grabbed a couple songs on video from this show, and have synced up my high quality audio to them. I may be able to convince the band to release them prior to the broadcast as a teaser, but we shall see.

Have I covered everything? I think so.

Please tune in, and spread the word. Thanks.

Brian. Humorless Productions.

Ssleeperhold live in Los Angeles, 1 March 2013

My (audio and video) recording of Ssleeperhold’s final two songs of his performance at Das Bunker, Los Angeles, 1 March 2013.

Recorded, mixed and mastered by Brian Albers at Humorless Productions.

Ssleeperhold on FB

Mono board mix 
Nady stereo condenser mic for room/audience 
Focusrite Saffire Pro24 preamp/interface 
Presonus Studio One 2 for recording 
Logic 8 for editing and mixing 
Soundtrack Pro for mastering 
Macbook Pro

Canon S100 camera
FCPX

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