Re: that thing you do

["Dennis W. Leas" <dennis@mdbs.com>]

Jim Carter wrote:
> 
> > being a solo guitar live looper kinda dude, i am constantly being asked
> >
> > "so, uh, what kinda music do you play?"
> >
> > anybody got a good, brief descriptionof live looping??
> >
> 
> I usually describe my music as
> techno-trash-blues with a bit of a gamalan feel.
> I guess tree-hugging-hippie-shit would be just as good.

This is a good queston.

If I were to be serious, I'd say things like:
"live looping" describes the technology, not the musical style.  You can 
use a looper to play a 
variety of styles.  For example, I play structured and unstructured music 
with loopers.  The 
structured might be Celtic, rock, folk, etc.  The unstructured might be 
ambient, soundscapes, or 
agressive in-your-face rhythms.

If I weren't being serious, I'd say things like:
"I play difficult to understand music that most people probably wouldn't 
like."  I've advertised it 
as "experimental folk music - not for the faint of heart", "Celtic 
looping", and "sonic sculptures" 
even "neo-post insidious bebop"; anything to destroy preconceptions.

I'm not trying to sound pretentious, it's just that "Talking about music 
is like dancing about 
architecture."

> ps - anyone using two echoplexes (echoplicis?) to layer asynchronous
> loops, rather than single loop in stereo? Something like Phillip Glass
> Music in Twelve Parts were repetative sequences move slowly move
> out of phase the generate new counterpoints.

This is one of my favorite things to do.  Usually I use two different loop 
lengths.  Sometimes I 
"unsynch" the EDPs but try to make the loops the same length for that 
"phasing" effect.

- Dennis Leas
-- 
dennis@mdbs.com