Believe it or not there is a lot more to The Thing than just $2 records. In fact, the records themselves are confined to the back area and the basement. The rest of the shop is filled with unorganized piles of assorted bric-a-brac. Amongst these heaps, I happened across this gem of a book: The Development And Practice Of Electronic Music by Jon H. Appleton and Ronald C. Perera.

Being as old as it is, this book is surprisingly relevant. In a world that is being overrun by virtual-analogs and VST instruments, many musicians still find the need to employ true analogs to achieve the sound they desire. I’m not going to start a digital vs. analog argument here, but let it be known that SOAP sides with the latter.

This book thoroughly covers various theories surrounding analog synthesis. Those theories are as applicable today as they were when this book was written in 1975.

And there is enough vintage kit porn in here to make even the most jaded gear junkie drool.

Stephan - Wir Wollen Tanzen Gehen

*click on image to view full gallery

Holy F! I thank party gods that the Consumer Electronics Show had the self-awareness to keep putting on their annual show in Vegas. A brief rundown and photo expose from the road.

Sunday night, the cab to hotel, cab to 40/40 club, cab from 40/40 club. The sports bar ultra longe was dead, maybe no sports that interested the ultra rich that night. It was at the Pallazzo, which looks like the back alley to the Venetian. In fact, that’s the way most cabbies described how to get there, lacking enough aesthetic differentiation to stand apart from its more notable Italian counterpart adjacent on the strip.

After leaving 40/40 for the janitorial staff, we headed to the Hard Rock, for a massive, pulsing free-for-all of top 40 hip-hop mashups. Shit was intense. The Dj’s spastic mixing tore up rap from the 80s to the 00s, lingering on the newer dirty south tracks. Our convoy was even fortunate enough to see a staff-performance “Crank Dat” on the stair landing above the dance floor.

Indeed, Soulja Boy’s “Tell Em” was the song of the trip, and while the CES delegates may have not ventured as far off the strip as Hard Rock, there was no shortage of maligned Supermans in unpressed Banana Republic khakis all up in the clubs of Las Vegas Blvd during the rest of our stay.

On Monday morning, the Keynote speech assembled the tech press corps in a conference room to hear two primary speeches that kicked off the conference. First up was Consumer Electronics Alliance President and CEO Gary Shapiro, who passionately- if not melodramatically- espoused the importance of free trade. Referencing great pro-trade US leaders like Roosevelt and Clinton, Shapiro waived a finger at the current US administration and several presidential candidates for their regressive isolationist policies. Rather intense for a 9am kick-off speech; this guy was supposed to be the window dressing for Panasonic prez Sakamoto’s keynote.

Sakamoto came on to warm applause, delivering a well-tempered speech with moderate pauses, direct hand motions and delicate head nods. He unveiled several new technologies under the umbrella of bringing the family together, showing what’s in store for the upcoming HD age: Huge TV’s! Wireless connectivity! Touch-sensitive walls! On a grand scale, this represented the bulk of the CES offerings as a whole.

A few highlights of CES, the parties, and the people:

• Microsoft’s Surface, a touch screen coffee table that recognizes and uploads your personal devices.
• Intel/BMW’s F1 demo in the parking lot. Well setup, heavily staffed, lots of hands-on tutorials and periodic tire burnout demonstrations.
• Sony’s Rolly, a baseball-sized party to go
• LSU wins. Ellsworth wins bets.
• The Playboy suite at the Palms? Or near the palms? Or something?
• Toni Braxton’s massive building wrap ad covering the Flamingo Hotel. Who would have thought she still had it?
• Missed: What may have been the unexpected highlight of CES, a leapord print taser with a built-in mp3 player.

A few pics to complement the story, with lots of blurry pics of gadgets that I may or may not have been allowed to shoot. Enjoy

Tuff Little Unit - Join The Future || Warp

Amidst the flowering of ‘user generated content’ and the growth of the web’s bigger, more dynamic second coming, could there not be more easily digestible terms to describe these tools? Sure, there’s plenty of room for silliness. You can haz all the cheezburgerz you want, I’m sure I’ll be amused. But can we not find better names for the meat and bones of the Web’s personal publishing and user sharing processes? Seriously. “Blog?” “Blog?” As a noun and a verb? “Podcast” too?

The issue seems to arise when ‘blog’ or ‘podcast’ comes up in conversation- particularly in reference to an argument at hand- when many people react by rolling their eyes. To be fair, perhaps it’s a matter of unfamiliarity; for the most part, neither podcasts nor blogs appear readily on Google searches. While the multiple uses of the former and the sheer volume of the latter are forcing people of all ages to accept the inevitability of these Internet functions, it doesn’t make their names any less silly.

Fundamentally, blogs and podcasts are an empowering process, allowing the voice of one to be transmitted among many, for free. While the risk of playing to a crowd may lay the foundation for hyper-separation and ultimately (gasp) more music elitism, the music-face to the blog landscape is still a liberating tool for self-expression and music discovery. It’s too bad that whatever it is- a growing trend, a movement, or a waste of time- it can be dismissed so anecdotally because it sounds so lame.

Daniel Wang - Twitchy & Scratchy || Balihu

Daniel Wang - Gotta Get Up || Balihu

MTV’s leap into the brave new world of user-oriented multimedia existence has been precarious.

First, a highly publicized downsizing of the staff in February began a sort of internal cleaning a la Ford to downsize and upgrade their thinking to stay ahead of whatever lumbering pop culture mammoth they helped create.

Next there’s URGE, which is, to investors and labels, a partnership with Microsoft to create an online music subscription service that hopes to rival itunes. To the consumer, it’s touted as music “by people who get music,” meaning bloggers, critics and industry people, a fence straddled by the white lights of cash and exposure for the market of all things indie. Somehow, I’m still waiting for my phone call and nickel-per-syllable paycheck.

A new website is the last step in the tiered attempt to interact end-user and increase MTV’s street cred among the generation of the super web literate. To explain why, MTV launched MTV Labs, a Blogger-based blog that explains the rational behind the creative process, if only patronizingly so. Witness, MTV children, the new enhanced functionalities (faster, sleeker, user-ier), and behold HATS, a sort of “remix my logo” project that enlists the cool kids to put their creative spin on the logo, in rotation every time the page refreshes.

This is all to explain the dropping of a predominantly Flash-based site for one heavier in HTML. While the site succeeds in easier navigation, (perhaps) quicker load times, and better SEO (as if they really need it), the attempt at honesty through design- coming from MTV- doesn’t seem to clean the message. Indigestible is still indigestible, whether bubbly and flashy, or structured and minimal.

There has to be a balance between functionality and design. Sacrificing the former for the latter doesn’t seem pull it off. Turn on the computer, let the kids play with some pipes, and make something fun.

Luke Vibert - Freak Time Baby || Warp