Greg Sage meant the Wipers to be records without a road. The mystique never paid the bills, but the records outlived the plan.
Ten seconds of memory, twelve bits and a sample rate half that of a CD. The E-mu SP-1200 was a limited machine, and the limits became a sound.
Gilman Street opened on 31 December 1986 with a ban on alcohol and a vote for every major decision. Four decades on, the governance is the thing that survived.
Most dance scenes can be traced to a record, a machine or a room. The Balearic one is harder to pin down, because its founding document was a DJ’s running order, and the man who played it could not follow it home. Alfredo Fiorito, the Argentine who became the house selector of Amnesia in Ibiza, […]
Simon Nicol turns 76 today. He gave Fairport Convention its name, its rehearsal room and, in the end, its continuity, without ever wanting to be the lead guitarist.
Eno's Music for Airports was built from sung notes and piano phrases on tape loops of unequal length, so the music never repeats the same way twice.
A Gibson leaned on a bass amp in October 1964 gave the Beatles a feedback intro. Who owns the technique is still disputed.
Underground Resistance refused photos, wore balaclavas and built its own distribution. How a Detroit collective turned anonymity into independence.
Roland put a stereo chorus inside the JC-120 in 1975, then moved the same circuit into a pedal. How the Boss CE-1 turned an amp feature into the sound of a decade.
A members-only room in a former parking garage, a custom Richard Long sound system and a DJ who retuned it all night. How Paradise Garage made the dance floor an instrument.
