Forthcoming Album “Shōuchū”

jido-genshi "Shōuchū" album cover

Finally started work on the new jido-genshi album, tentatively titled Shōuchū. (小宇宙 – meaning “Microcosm”)

Though still electronic in nature – and experimental as always – I tend to be using more guitars on this release than I normally do on my jido-genshi project; though I do use guitars quite a bit on some of my other music projects.

This particular track has sort of a “Boards Of Canada” feel to it, except, as I mentioned, it is mostly guitars (with a synth thrown in here and there.) A good pair of headphones is recommened while listening to this; to pick up the subtle low frequency bass and kick drum. I happen to use the Sony MDR-7506, my favorite pair of headphones for well over a decade now.

Shouchu Preview 01 by genshi

As always, when the album is released, you will be able to find it on the iTunes Music Store as well as Amazon’s MP3 Store.

"GRIDSCAPE" by StarDotStar

 

 

 

… and for a quick sneak-peek preview of one of my other projects; this is my fun and bouncy, neo-electro-synth-pop project StarDotStar and a track from the forthcoming album “Gridscape”:

Gridscape Preview by genshi

(All album cover art/design © 2010 by Craig Anthony Perkins for Genshi Media Group.)

TouchOSC + Ableton Live + Apple Tablet?

Just one hour to go before Steve Jobs [hopefully] announces the Apple Tablet, or iSlate, or iPad.

For geeky tech heads like me there are mixed reactions. Many (yours truly included) are anticipating this new device hoping it will be a great new paradigm shift in computing. Some just don’t get it and will be left behind in their Windows world, as always (yes, I’m a Mac.)

For the average consumer, this will be a great device, because, as it turns out, the average consumer who owns a computer does nothing more than watch Movies, listen to Music, search Youtube videos, update their Facebook and answer emails… and what better way to do all of that than on a 10 inch tablet with the elegant simplicity that Apple always brings to their devices? Smaller, more portable and less expensive than a laptop; more screen real estate than an iPhone, and if Apple makes a killer user interface (which, reports have it, that people will be surprised how you interact with it) then this will be the perfect consumer-computing device.

For the electronic, software-based musician… (again, like me) this is a dream come true! Why? Because many of us dreamed of controlling our music software with something like the incredibly over-priced, but cool at the time JazzMutant Lemur (something I could never justify spending the money on) and then rejoicing when TouchOSC came out for the iPhone, which turns your iPhone into a mini JazzMutant Lemur essentially (see video below.) But to have that TouchOSC app on a 10 inch Apple Tablet will revolutionize music (and, in my humble opinion, computing in general.)

So this is a video of me doing a quick test of TouchOSC, going through OCSulator, to control the Ableton Live Suite 8 program on my Macbook Pro. The real powerful stuff will happen once I delve deeper into Max For Live, then if we can do all of this on a 10 inch Apple Tablet iPad… well, I will be a very happy boy!

Like I need another d@mn site!

Hello and welcome to all who visit this site. 

As the tagline says “like I need another damn site!” Well, for those of you who know me, I do already have way too many sites as it is. But each one seems to be either geared towards  a specific purpose (i.e. toy design, record label, etc.) or under one of my pseudonyms.

The purpose of this particular site is to simply have a nice, easy to update personal weblog under my own name… for once! So over the next coming days, weeks and/or months, I hope to fill these pages with entertaining views, thoughts and opinions of yours truly.

Enjoy!