As a theremin owner and user (well, if you considering making those alien noises all day and giggling about it as being a ‘user’), I can recommend this tutorial which is absolutely true! No really, would I lie?

I’m the proud owner of a Weird Sound Generator, produced by Sascha Neudeck. The musicians from Rooie Waas own one too, plus a Cacophonator II also by Neudeck. In their latest video Rooie Waas gives a great impression what you can do with those horribly beautiful pieces of machinery:

On the 14th (Amsterdam) and 20th (Rotterdam) of September 2012, you can see Rooie Waas and the machinery in action at their album release double party.

Die Antwoord has a new video out: Baby’s on Fire. Besides it being an awesome piece of work, it also contains a very old school rave sample in there. Does any one recognise Anasthasia by T99?

Honestly though, the sample in T99’s track is a sample too. Where the so called ‘Orch Hit‘ sound came from can only be answered by the producers behind T99; Patrick De Meyer and Phil de Wilde. You may that last one under the name Phil Wilde (whom I mentioned before), one of the two producers behind 2Unlimited.

There’s another sample in Anasthasia by the way; the “Music, maestro! Please?” comes from Bring It On Up by Love Unlimited Orchestra

Swwweeeeet! Check out the classic Moog Google coded and put up on their front page for Bob Moog‘s birthday! Wish he was still around to see that.

If you’re late for the party, you can find the synth on Google’s Doodle page.

I moved the site to a new server! B-sting.com has been kindly hosted by Jocelyn of Sugarcube.net for a few years, but since I got my own server at Pretty Hate Machine (not-related to the NIN album), I moved all my sites there. This one has been last to move, because migrating WordPress was a new challenge to me.

Yesterday the booking form for a gig couldn’t be filled in and e-mail sent to any address on the domain wouldn’t arrive for a few hours. Woops! But that’s fixed now.

Now that that’s out of the way, maybe I should get back to what I was planning to do, namely get EP02 out that I promised in my New Years post? About that: three tracks are pretty much done and might need a bit of tinkering before I’m completely satisfied. Then there’s also the issue of track 4. Every EP needs at last 4 tracks.

So right now the main obstacle is to create track 4. Granted I have plenty of half-assed ideas and experiments lying about, but stomping an actual track out of it is easier said than done. Wish me luck!

Never fool yourself into thinking that extra, expensive high-tech production tools are a necessity to make a great music. Or worse that when you use these tools, a song is therefore great. I’ve personally seen musicians blowing money and obsess over recording and fine-tuning a certain guitar-section to its optimal sound quality, while the arrangement was hardly stood out in the song.

A great song by passionate musician is a great song, no matter how you play it or what quality its recorded in. Brushy One String proves this point by displaying his vocal talents by just accompanying himself on a cheap, crappy-sounding, one-string guitar:

He reminds me of local legend street-musician Carlos. He plays at the Lijnbaan in Rotterdam day in day out and always with a smile.

YES! Kirby Ferguson finally released the final part (part 4) of his excellent series Everything is a Remix about how advances are made through copying, modifying and combining and current copyright and patent laws are starting to work against the flow. You can watch part 4 here, but if you haven’t seen the series yet, start at part 1.

(via Retecool.com)

I wish you all the best in 2012! Hopefully we’ll see each other a lot more in 2012 and hear even more. Speaking of which; I think an EP is coming this year! As a teaser, the title is in the picture above. I think I’ll have to explain that one, but I will later (cool points for any one that knows without using Google). All in  good time. Patience!

Yet another Rotterdam venue is closing its doors. After medium sized venue Watt being dropped by the city council, the smaller ones are starting to fold. Waterfront was destroyed in the merger with Watt. Heidiger is gone. The FFWD dance parade was no longer welcome. Dizzy was closed, but luckily re-opening soon. But for how long? Rotown and Baroeg are the last small venues to hear live music.

I saw this coming and this is why I decided to chose home-gigs as an alternative. But many Rotterdam musicians do not have that option.

Maybe it’s time for the old model of illegal gigs in unlicensed locations to be put into use. Last put to use in a period where Rotterdam became synonymous with a genre of music: gabber. At least then all the voters who are responsible for the devastating culture policy of the city of Rotterdam, will have something to really complain about. Make some noise for Rotterdam.

Bands and musicians of Rotterdam, I await your illegal rave flyers.