29 January 2013

the disintegration loops

Can there be any music more haunting than William Basinski's The Disintegration Loops? Despite being released over ten years ago it was only recently that it brought me under its melancholy spell. My life has felt slightly altered ever since.

The legend behind The Disintegration Loops goes something like this: in 2001, experimental composer Basinski decided, in the interests of preservation, to digitise a series of loops he'd recorded from an easy listening station in the 1980s. He set up his digital recorder and left a loop running. A while later he returned to discover that the tape was physically deteriorating with each pass across the tape head: the metal coating was coming away from the plastic backing. Consequently, the music was actually disintegrating with each pass through the spindle. Basinski repeated the process with other loops and obtained similar results. The result became The Disintegration Loops, released in 2002 and reissued last year: a series of extended ambient pieces of music that actually feel as though they are dying as you listen to them.

From the start each loop bears little semblance to the original radio station recording. Each has been slowed down to a repetitive, melancholy drone. The process of deterioration is slow (the shortest piece is ten minutes; the longest just over an hour) to the extent that it's possible to barely notice. That is, until the final minutes, when it feels as though the loop, faltering, stumbling, hanging on for life, will surely sputter out completely. It makes for a listening experience that is both heartbreaking and profoundly moving.

The Disintegration Loops Deluxe Box-Set is available from Temporary Residence Ltd

14 December 2012

L Shed


L Shed, Bristol harbourside

11 December 2012

no excuse

Photo taken from Brighton Bits blog
My friend Eddie and I always used to joke that you could tell a non-Brighton local a mile off from the way they would refer to North Laine as the 'North Lanes' (although arguably worse was hearing 'The Lanes' referred to as the 'South Lanes'). Particular culprits were always London journalists, waxing lyrical in the weekend lifestyle sections about their new seaside lifestyle and trying to palm themselves off as local when they'd only lived in the city for 5 minutes. Any article would inevitably reference the 'cool North Lanes' or the 'posh South Lanes'. It made me wince every time. But now there's no excuse to get this wrong! The fashion shop JuJu has spelled it out on one of their windows, as you can see in the photo. I guess this speaks volumes about what has been happening in Brighton in the past 15 or so years. But... great work JuJu!

via Brighton Bits

29 November 2012

Roadtrip USA


Roadtrip USA from Mike Matas on Vimeo.

A two week road trip from San Francisco to New York condensed into 3 minutes using 5000 photos. Love it.

via PetaPixel

26 November 2012

in the wild

Ever since I opened up my Flickr images to be freely available for use by all I've heard from appreciative folk using them for all sorts of websites and projects. Of course, I only know they are being used if that person lets me know. But without doubt they're being used elsewhere and I'm just not aware of it.

I was recently made aware of a site using one of my San Francisco sets on Flickr. I must say, I'm loving the way they're tiled here. Somebody had stumbled on the site and wanted to use the photos for their own site.

It's great knowing that my Flickr images are thriving out in the wild.

24 November 2012

something for the weekend

Always a treat at the weekend to buy some nice bread, get a few rashers of bacon under the grill. Topped off with a liberal dose of ketchup...

21 November 2012

19 November 2012

aperture out

Flipping burgers on Whiteladies Road
Always frustrating to look at your photos on the big screen and realised you got your focusing wrong. Here's one where things didn't quite work out.

17 November 2012

where are the moments that matter?

Back in the days of film, each shot had a real cost. People realized, "If I snap this, it will cost $ for film and $ for printing" because you couldn't pick and choose shots on the roll at most photo processors.
Then video happened. And digital cameras. And people got out of control.
When you had 12 shots on a roll, you treated each one like a precious gem. You took maybe one or two photos per event, and then you put it in a photo album, maybe framed it.
Now people don't enjoy their pictures because they have too many. When you record your entire life, where are the moments that matter?

via TUAW 

15 November 2012

voting for Bristol Mayor


Voting is going on in Bristol today for our first London-style City Mayor. First and foremost I'm hoping folks get out and vote - if you don't you're pretty much saying 'I don't care about the city I live in' which, frankly, is appalling. Secondly, I hope people vote for George Ferguson - an independent candidate with a good track record in the city who isn't shackled by a political party.