Tuesday 6 November 2012

Post Visionary Kingdom

Last weekend I took some machines to Arnolfini for Visionary Kingdom:



(the two live shots are by Justin Yockney)

I recorded a couple of practice sessions too:


Friday 5 October 2012

Travel Weevil

A limited edition of 50 - only available at shows.
Comes with unique Map Print, individually numbered.

White PCB, Black Printing, Gold Touch-plates.
Three Oscs with Range switches, Starve, Balance, Light-Sensor, Minijack Output, Mini-Speaker.
c. 10 x 6 x 3 cm in size.

(click for BIG)




Thursday 27 September 2012

BugBrand Scandinavian Travels - October 16-28th

Yes! A tour of Sweden with a brief jaunt into Norway.
Travelling with a 2Frame Modular.
Getting out to play, to talk, to meet.

The dates:

Tuesday 16th October - Club L'Amour @ Fylkingen, Stockholm
http://www.fylkingen.se/node/1663
A live show! Also performing will be BugUser Girlal Baars.
From 7.30pm - 80 Kr Entry

Wednesday 17th October - Presentation @ EMS, Stockholm
http://www.elektronmusikstudion.se/presentation-tom-bugs-ems-17-october-1830.html
A talk and hands-on demo session!
From 6.30pm - Free Entry

Friday 19th October - Dans for Voksne @ Sound of Mu, Oslo
http://www.soundofmu.no/
A live show! Also performing will be BugUser Halvard Djupvik.

Saturday 20th October - TorpĂ„kra ljudstation - at Soundspotters
Facebook link
A Koloni production
An afternoon show!

Sunday 21st October - Lindblad Modular Meet @ Academy of Music and Drama, University of Gothenburg
http://www.muffwiggler.com/forum/viewtopic.php?t=67625 // https://www.facebook.com/events/182064561918595/
A modular meetup + demo! Organised by BugUser Palle Dahlstedt
From 3pm - Free Entry

Monday 22nd October - Lecture @ Academy of Music & Drama, University of Gothenburg
A lecture! (Open to non-students)
https://www.facebook.com/events/375475849194477/
Free Entry

Friday 26th October - A show in Gothenburg
Details To Be Finalised!

Sunday 28th October - Ljudlek @ Inkonst, Malmo
http://www.inkonst.com/2012/09/19/tom-bugs-bugbrand-modular-synt-demo/
A talk, hands-on-demo, and a live show!
From 4pm - Free Entry


(Click for BIG)

Monday 3 September 2012

Tuesday 21 August 2012

Slo-Mo #5

And another Cube outing a week later - http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#6913

Playing along to Mr.Hopkinson's SloMo videos - soundtracks by ME, Rasha & Paula, and Jem Noble

Friday 14th September @ 8pm - £5 entry



Amalgam #8 1/2

At the Cube - http://www.cubecinema.com/cgi-bin/diary/programme.pl#6864

Collaborations with Tony Orrell, Andy Keep, Stuart Chalmers and Jake Wittlin

Ooh ooh!

Friday 13 July 2012

Coming Up for the Summer:

The main website is somewhat stagnant!
So in run-down, here are the future live happenings:::
(technically, of course, September and October are usually considered to be Autumn, but I'm hoping that Summer may just be late this year and the seasons will shuffle around accordingly)

Friday 10th - Sunday 12th August - Supernormal Festival
Brazier's Park, Oxfordshire
This should be a great antidote to the usual corporate sh**fests.
Two main bug bits:
- headphone modular tours -> think this will be on the Saturday, in the afternoon, in a barn
- BugModular Technoid-Wobbles -> live on Sunday night
+ I'll have a Weevil in some form of automated orchestra installation thingy (clearly I am still unclear...)

Sunday 9th September - Amalgam at The Cube, Bristol
Really excited that I'll finally get to play (improvised) with Pete Judge (we were due to play together in the Blackout Tent at what turned out to be the final Ashton Court Festival) and Tony Orrell.

Friday 5th - Sunday 7th October - Tusk Festival at the Star & Shadow, Newcastle
I'll be rekindling the WOM workshop - http://tuskfestival.com/artists/tom-bugs-workshop/
(tickets are already selling quickly - don't delay if you're interested!)

November... maybe a couple more things but that is months off so....


Is this Traditional? 1Frame Setup


(click for big!)

Something of a Traditional Synth Voice setup.
I used this last night to make some demo sounds, controlled by a Midi-to-CV unit.
Lots of fun - very quick to arrive at powerful and versatile sounds.

Here's the set of sonics on soundcloud::
https://soundcloud.com/bugbrand/sets/1-playing-the-svfilter

Sunday 8 July 2012

The current Modular setup

Here's the 3(Shallow)Frames I've got set up for live use at the moment:
(click for big!)

For the live stuff I've generally been taking a master clock from the TR606 (via UTLX, top right). 
This clock is then used to drive Seqs, Divs, etc. and these derived clocks hook onwards into a Tama twin-drum module and generate events within the modular.

So, the top frame is mainly Clocking
The middle frame is a variety of different things (think I will lose the clocking modules in the middle of this frame) - inc. new CTL1 Touch Panel version (the green)
& the bottom is mostly the synthesis - several SYN2B Quadrature Sine Oscillators for FM goodness.

Lots of power, but relatively compact and portable. 

Wednesday 6 June 2012

Monday 23 April 2012

The Chasms come to Bristol

Richard Quirk is one of my most long-term supporters and also one of the most consistently creative, releasing with his bands The Chasms and Sandfingers and also producing his solo works. The pieces are often recorded in his barn on the Isle of Man or out around the island - follow the links as most recordings are freely downloadable and highly recommended.

On May 4th, The Chasms are coming to Bristol to play at the wonderful Cube Cinema. I am, naturally, very excited. I've actually played his solo record a few times between acts when doing sound there and there has been some surprise when his field recordings of the TT motorcycle race come on.

(other trivia - my old workshop was in a space shared with Eftus Spectun who open the night - I was certainly perplexed hearing them work for about 2 years on a 20 minute live performance - but since then I think they've taken on the amazing drummer Jan (ex-Safetyword) who is also from the Isle of Man)

Cube Programme Link - Friday 4 May / 8.00pm / £5 advance/£7 on the door




Friday 13 April 2012

Bugs (so called new live name?) supporting BassClef in London

Bass Clef

Raime (DJ)

Bugs
Ralph LTF (DJ)
Friday 18 May 2012 - at: Power Lunches - 446 Kingsland Rd, Hackney, London, E8 4AE
8.00pm - 2.00am | £6 adv

Read the full event blurb here (via QuJunktions). In support of Ralf Cumbers' new Bass Clef album.

I'm *meant* to be getting dancefloor rhythmic. Gotta hook some beat-machines up to the modular for wonky-clocks.

Monday 2 April 2012

BEAM Night @ Cafe OTO - 4th April 2012

For this night I'll be premiering a new installation/demonstration approach -> five sets of headphones hooked up to the Modular, with me giving 10-minute mini-performances to people throughout the night.

I see this as an interesting and direct method for demonstration -> the stereo sounds go straight into the listener, coupled with a close-up view of what is being patched (even if what is actually going on remains somewhat mystical).

I'll also be doing a 'regular' 20-minute Modular performance on stage.