MODULAR ACROSS AMERICA! Ep 02: Baltimore, MD (live popup synth acid!)
Baltimore. The city that never sleeps .... mostly because if you go to sleep you will probably be murdered. Just kidding-ish. I love Baltimore and it's impressively resilient DIY art and music scene. Tons of awesomely weird electro and visual art has come out of the Wham City scene, and the VGM/Chiptune/Nerdcore scene is one of the strongest in the country.
Last night I found myself at the Metro Gallery, in a particularly rad part of town. Unfazed by my lack of the hundreds of feet of extension cords I'd need to shoot outside, I instead elected to shoot inside, facing a colorful mural and firmly in the way of anybody trying to get to the restroom. I wanted some random passerbys, and I was richly rewarded. You might also notice our entire merch setup vaguely in the background. Viva commerce.
Baltimore and it's edge necessitated some smashy, hustling acid overtones, and I think I delivered on that. This piece also definitively speaks to the stress of trying to setup your modular rig, a camera rig, a computer pro tools rig and perform ... in the middle of a show in a crowded venue. Mutable Instruments Plaits takes it first turn as bass oscillator and my goodness. Welcome to sh101 world, except with an obscene amount of instantly accessible modulation possibilities. It even has a LPG built in, letting it work standalone without needing a VCA. In english this means you can send pulses to it and it will spit out gurgling acid basslines with incredibly little fuss. I like little fuss.
Ok, I like fussing too. I like it all. Stay tuned for some (probably?) pastoral tones inspired by place-you-can-go-i-know-zero-about, Kingston New York.
My video is at DLive
Some of the oldskool acid sounds are my favourite. You did a great job of balancing more "grounded" synth sounds with the "ethereal". Really noted this balance around 2:45.
I really dig this. Really nice texture and depth. Instant classic in my book. When you finish this series of tour video I have to come back to listen to Baltimore again in the hope of understanding better the flavor. This one in powder too please.
Now availible in 180g liquigel minidisc format.
Thanks again for the kind words my man. Haven’t forgotten bout our collab, just got hit with the serious business studio backlog before hitting the road.
Baltimore isn't that bad... I think. It was pretty shady growing up in VA when we would head up there. I think it has improved since I left. Maybe we just didn't notice because DC was worse at the time. Like a lot of places that have gone through rough times though it always seems to have a good DIY scene though. Great stuff again.
Drums are really awesome
We recommended this post here.