Of Recordings

5. Sydney Blu

4. Rktic

3. Boards of Canada

2. Telefon Tel Aviv

1. Venetian Snares

Honorable mention: Metro Area

Edit: Lifetime achievement award: Afrika Bambaataa.  (Thanks Darius.)

This list was surprisingly difficult to assemble.

Techno producer, DJ, and fellow Buzzard Ronny Pries recently re-launched his blog.  Among other things, he has been posting many valuable tips on which of the hundreds of free VSTs are worth downloading.  His latest is on Nomad Factory’s Warmer Phaser plug-in.

Create Digital Music reports that the Moog guitar was not a mere April Fool’s joke; instead, it was a bizarre meta-April Fool’s joke, in which we are fooled into believing that the product is a joke. Well played, Moog Music.

A highly scientific survey conducted by Of Recordings reveals that musicians currently in my apartment are split between confusion and apathy:

5. “Music is Math,” Boards of Canada.  (Bonus: “The Smallest Weird Number,” but only if you accept the axiom of choice.)

4. “Algebra,” Bryan Zentz.

3. “Phi*1700 (u/v),” μ-ziq.

2. “Pi*r^2″, Clint Mansell.  (Bonus: “2*Pi*r.”)

1. “Cross Product,” The Alpha Conspiracy.

Honorable mention: “Trickonometry,” Aaron Kelley.

Basically, a second-rate Echo and the Bunnymen. Grl astutely picked up a copy of “Change the Weather” for me while record shopping. I wasn’t even sure if it was the right band for a minute, but sure enough, Rick Smith and Karl Hyde are in the credits. The music is vaguely generic new wave. The album cover even shows them posing self-consciously in sunglasses and tight black t-shirts.

The music is not actually bad, but I estimate the correlation between liking “Change the Weather” and liking “Second Toughest in the Infants” at 0.2.

Via Sonic State: On his current tour, Jean-Michel Jarre is performing “Oxygene” on the original gear.  Awesome pics.

5. Tom Tykwer et al, Run Lola Run.

4. Air, The Virgin Suicides.

3. Vangelis, Blade Runner.

2. Clint Mansell et al, Pi.

1. Wendy Carlos, A Clockwork Orange.

I don’t actually watch a whole lot of movies (so why are you writing this list? - Ed). I feel pretty confident in number 1, though.

What’s the deal with all these inverted keyboards?

(12:01:15 PM) Aaron: that was all buzz?
(12:01:19 PM) Kevin: Yeah.
(12:01:34 PM) Aaron: you used a buzz sampler?
(12:01:37 PM) Kevin: Yeah.
(12:01:44 PM) Aaron: i forgot they had one

Ferris Bueller has an Emulator II!