Looper's Delight
Looper's Delight Home
Looper's Delight Mailing List info
Support
Looper's
Delight!!



Looper Profile

	
View List of Loopers   |   Looper Profile Menu   |   Looper's Delight Home


James Bailey
Age:52
Location:171 Booth Ave., Toronto, Ont., CANADA M4M 2M5
Phone Number:(416)462-3365
Email Address(es):jimab@rogers.com
Website URL(s):http://www.recordism.com/dissongs/DSProfiles.html
http://www.myspace.com/jimab
http://www.myspace.com/tidalpools
Projects/Ensembles:Although I've not done any looping with them (yet), I'm a member of the Urban Refuse Group. As the name implies, we perform on instruments made from the detritus of the urban environment. An off-shoot of this has just formed, which allows for the use of 'real' instruments, under the umbrella moniker of 'Six Heads,' although each manifestation will have a different name, of the format: 'The xxxxx of xxxxx Band.' e.g. 'The Smiling of Bees Band.' I'm also part of a trio called Odradek, with whom I have used looping on occasion. Newest projects are another trio, called NOiNO, with quite a lot of looping, mainly software-based, and an extended vocal duo called Tidal Pool.
Instruments:Mini-Moog, Roland JX-3P, Casio DM100, Cheap Imitation Telecaster, Teisco Del-Ray guitar, SWTP theremin, and anything else that will make a noise (found objects, kitchen implements, etc.).
Looping Gear:Two Tandberg tape recorders (9200X, 9200XD), and sometimes even a third (3341x)! Also, if it counts as a looping device, an MXR analogue delay pedal. Newest toy is a Zoom RFX 300. Since it has two ins and two outs (1/4' and phono, both stereo), I found that one can set up a feedback loop with either and get some great sounds. Even newer is a Lexicon LXP-5, which has all sorts of stuff.
Influences:Pauline Oliveros, Ann Southam, Violet Archer, Terry Riley, Fripp and Eno (together and separately), Steve Reich, Philip Glass, and a host of others too numerous to mention.
Musical Style:Hardcore Electronic (i.e. 'serious' type electronic, not punk), Ambient, Experimental.
Recordings Available:solo - 'Dimensions' independent release (vinyl, 1986; CD-R, 2003), 'Little Bag o' Loops' independent release (3' CD-R, 2004). Available through http://www.pingthings.com
Six Heads - 'The Appearance of Hairs Band' (CD-R, 2002)
Six Heads - 'Small Rubber Voice From the Spectral Furnace' (CD-R E.P., 2003)
Six Heads - 'Ether' (cassette, 2007)
NOiNO - double CD-R 'Bend, Fold and Mutilate' (w/Pholde) / 'Not the Town in Japan' (2007)
Tidal Pool - 'Tidal Pool' (CD-R, 2007)
I am untrained as a 'musician', but enjoy exploring manipulation of sound.My first good quality tape deck was the 3341X, in 1974, although I had occasionally played with a cheap Sears machine that my parents had bought to tape messages for relatives in England, and which I actually used with the 3341X for my first loop! Desiring to do something different from the guitar stuff of Fripp (going beyond, as it were :-] ) I decided to try reading something like a poem, reasoning that the structure would be suited to looping, as a line could be read, wait for it to be repeated, then read the next line and so on. What I actually used was a story by D. M. Thomas entitled 'Seeking a Suitable Donor', mainly because of the way it was printed on the page (hard to describe here). With the large amount of distortion from the Sears deck, used for playback, each repetition was still audible for several generations, but did not interfere with new input. The result is quite interesting. There wasn't space, unfortunately, to fit it onto the record, but it is now available on the second release, 'Little Bag o' Loops'. After acquiring the second, and then third decks, quality of results improved (although not necessarily more interesting - in trying to redo the story, it became a garbled mess). The rest, as they say, is history.

The LP 'Dimensions' contains three tracks. Side one is a 24-minute piece called 'The Train to the Eighth Dimension' created using the Mini-Moog and tape delay. Starting with modulated and filtered white noise, it sounds like a steam train leaving a railway station, complete with conductor's whistle - hence the title. Modulation speed and filtering are increased slowly, and at exactly the halfway point, the filter resonance kicks in changing the white noise to more of a sine tone as the 'train' enters 'the eighth dimension.' Modulation is then gradually slowed until the 'train' glides smoothly into the 'station.' Having the channels swapped in the return path causes the signal to sweep from side to side, resulting in some interesting movement and phasing patterns. Side two has a couple of guitar pieces, the first, 'From a Window - 1 a.m.,' is a simple overdubbing of prepared guitar over a chorus of crickets and occasional traffic; the second, '4HC,' is another loop piece, a bit like Frippertronics, but very subdued, without the wall-of-sound effect.

p.s. I do a weekly show on community radio up here (Electric Storm, CKLN http://ckln.fm), so would be more than willing to trade for material which would then be included in the programme. For that, you can contact me via: electricstorm@ckln.fm


Previous Profile  |  Next Profile

Looper's Delight Home | Looper's Delight Mailing List Info
Copyright 1996-present by loopers-delight.com
contact us
Support
Looper's
Delight!!

In Association with Amazon.com
Any purchase you make through these links gives Looper's Delight a commission to keep us going. If you are buying it anyway, why not let some of your cash go to your favorite web site? Thanks!!