Cruftworld #7: Cruftworld Theme Song

Anoraks UK, previously known as Tricot, turn in a crunchy instrumental number that has risen to become the cruftworld theme song. Unlike a lot of tracks in Cruftworld, this one is instrumental. And in a lot of ways, it's not really representative of the project as a whole, since it starts out so electronic.
But by the time the end rolls around, I hope you'll see why this track became the theme. It's about transition, about handing the reins over from a computer to a man. There are washes of distorted Mellotron here blending in with the naturally distorted guitar and bass. Dive in.

Listen to Cruftworld #7: Cruftworld Theme Song. - 4.4 MB

Audio Toy Field Test #10

Two items for todays agenda.




1) Microsofts really cool dragon thingy. I can only imagine how cool this will be. It seems to be a terrific way to sort through imagery and I love the whole book/magazine concepts. All in all I can't wait to scour through my own data using the same software. Truly ground breaking software.




2) Although this may seem less exciting and new, blipsandifs has successfully connected to it's database. This won't mean much for a while, but it does mean that the PHP book I bought on Valentines day as a gift from my wife was worth it. Being able to write my own data driven websites is very exciting. Many of the coolest websites out there use PHP and databases. I've got some grand ideas and can't wait to start trying them out...but first I'll just keep plodding along, singing my song, doing my job...wishing I could be blippin' 'iffing.

Audio Toy Field Test #9

Haile is a robot that 'listens' to a live players music in real time and jams it's own beat with them.

Watch the robotic percussionist in concert in this video from Georgia Tech.

A truly monumental moment in virtual instruments; a virtual musician that can improvise. This machine will assess the beat made my a human and create, based on algorithms and whatnot, it's own jam. This is almost as cool as seeing the Lemur at Adam's house and half as cool as Bigdog is scary. That haunting gas powered kind of darpa scary sound, bigdog is an Americal Soldier.
I love color TV, the internet, and many other magnificent things the American Military has brought us, dispite it's bad side, but if I see a bigdog walking round my neighbourhood with a machine gun on it's back I'll think different about how cool killing badguys in video games and watching YouTube videos are.

Unless it's bigdog beta... that's awesome.
Be sure to watch the Bigdog March Release before you watch the beta.

Blips and Ifs is dedicated to the future, and will not stop until it's over! Stay tuned...

Cruftworld Issue #8

More cut and paste action from Moil helps to produce the second zine in the Cruftworld. You gotta read this. This is what sets all these silly little rock and roll songs apart. It's full of confusing, metaphorical and occasionally funny writing. Hundreds of vancity rock parodies are hidden inside. But hopefully you can enjoy it just for the artwork and the rock value of it. Even better, print it, cut it out and staple and glue it together yourself. Are you dreaming of having a bookshelf full of cruftworld zines, tapes, miniCDs, and promotional collectable items? I sure as hell am.

Cruftworld #6:

Totally live. Totally raw. Totally cruft.
This track from The King In Yellow is absolute uncut real cruftworld music. Laid down in the new SZ C-world studio, even the drums. Weirder vocals than usual perhaps, but that's the thing with The King In Yellow. They're weird.

I'd rather not talk about this song so much. Let's just agree that it's old school, and leave it at that. You should be thankful that we haven't recorded it to cassette and then back to computer. Just be thankful for that.


Listen to Cruftworld #6: Where is my mind. - 3.5 MB

l33t bl0gg0r

i have managed to hack into BAI from behind the great firewall. For graet justice.

Cruftworld Poster

Cruftworld #5:

The cruftworld continues with this latest single from Futon. This is the first single they recorded at Cruft Studios here in Shenzhen, aka Boomcity. Note the whirling distorted octaves on the lead guitar --- the result of investment in an authentic Leslie cabinet. Futon is easily one of the hottest Cruftbands and has been filling up Cruftclubs and Cruftpubs all over the Cruftplace.

We currently have over 20 Cruftworld tracks backlogged and ready to go, so check back here each week for a new one --- or a Zine, or a Poster ---- we're up to our eyes in Cruft. We've been getting great reviews from those industry insiders who have heard the stuff, so stay tuned and keep on downloading.


Listen to Cruftworld #5: My Chest is Empty- 3.6 MB

Superflat Single #71 / [710W3]

Between the Cruft we bring you the latest Superflat Single, just another form of cruft really. This is from the remains of Groundhogsday 2008. The thirteenth one by my books. This single was found deep in the rodents hole after the little beast ran scared from it's shadow and burried itself for another few weeks...or months (it's hard to tell in this city). Curse that Groundhog, my shoes are still wet.

Listen to blipsandifs071.mp3 - 3.8 MB

Cruftworld Issue #7

Available for your downloading and viewing pleasure is The First Cruftworld Zine Release.
(In Medias Res --- we're starting with Issue #7).

This is the result of my musings on a strange topic: what if, instead of trying to create personas to record music under and get reviewed in various music zines, I created my own zine as a fictional construct which contained all my various pseudonyms and recording projects?

Long question, boring answer. Another way of saying this would be: what if we viewed a city's music scene as a single MMORPG server, and all the bands interacted like Warcraft guilds?

Either way, I came up with the cruftworld project. This world is composed entirely of bands that I myself create all the music for, or, in a few cases, includes my friends' bands. All the listings of gigs and everything is fictional. I feel it's necessary to explain this in the beginning because I don't want to defame anyone's reputation.

Lots of the bars, bands and personalities are inspired by or parodies of corresponding places and people in Vancouver's music scene or the Pitchfork-influenced world indie scene in general. Some references will be more obvious than others.

I've invested quite a lot of time into the creation of this world and have recently purchased a metric ton of music gear to realize the tunes. The PDFs will be accompanied by MP3 available for download from this site, beginning shortly. If you followed my remake of Public House's "Remains of the Lost Amphibians" cassette, you should be able to understand the related review in this PDF.

Anyway this is the long intro by the dungeon master at the beginning of the game before the first yellow Cheeto stains have been rubbed on the first Clix model. From now on, everything else will be in character and no more fourth-wall breaking.

Thanks to [710w3] for his entirely analog layout work.
And stay tuned to this location for more Cruft content.

Cruftworld #4: Fifties

Here's the last installment from the original Public House cassette. This was a total throwaway song that we just recorded because we had extra time left over. It was written by me as a faux-sellout joke song. But in the end it turned out to be the most popular song from the tape, and my friends from the time can even remember the (deep, meaningful) lyrics.

However, it has a certain charm. I was happy to get the chance to play a solo for this one --- as I recall, I played it on a borrowed Japanese Telecaster. And as for my updated version, I've thrown in a harmony line in the chorus that I can't believe never made it into the original.

Anyway, I got no time to go into more detail because I'm moving to China tomorrow. But I will say that this cruftworld series is definitely going to continue in 2008 "if the good lord's willin', and the crick don't rise."


Listen to the original Public House Recording of Fifties - 2 MB

Listen to the 2007 version of Fifties - 2.3 MB