Well at this point the Mini-Disk player is a technology of the past, my disks had been collecting dust for years, and my last working player  long been busted from carrying it in my stick bag where ever I went. Recently I opened this box and knew I had to dive in but first I had to get a hold of a player. Enter the wonders of eBay and the next thing I knew I had a great component player for around $40 and I was off and running.

This post is an initial collection of my findings. I’ve got some great vintage Grandfather Ridiculous performances, jazz sessions with some amazing students I was going to school with at the time including Marcus Strickland, John Lee, Richard Cruz, Reid Taylor, Joe Ashlar and others, and some live performances I have re-mixed that I had totally forgotten about.

Enjoy and check back later for more choice additions.

Nigel Sifantus – “The Vault” Recordings from 1999-2005 by Progtronica

Progtronica Ableton Live/Novation Launchpad weekly dj set. 2-11-20 by Progtronica

This week’s performance is the longest to date and has the most aggressive time signature changes. Here is the YouTube edit of the performance. To see the full thing visit this Vimeo link. Also I have provided the full audio to listen to here and download for free from soundcloud.

In other news, I’ve been experimenting with Ableton live’s “looper”effect which is loaded with live performance possibilities, but is also a tricky little animal. For those familiar with Ableton, a looper effect almost seems redundant since the whole program is based on looping. The effect, however, is a totally independent effect that works more like a “boomerang” guitar effect looper but is quantized to the tempo of the song. Using it I was able to do this little experiment creating a track with live layered drums. I haven’t yet totally figured out hot to have total control of this feature but I think is will work it’s way into my regular performance arsenal being that it is so dope nasty.

Progtronica Ableton Live Weekly DJ set Week 3, 2/11/10 by Progtronica

Performed on February 11th 2010, this is the 3rd installment of My “Progtronica Weekly Dj Performance Series”. All music created using Ableton live, mixed, re-sampled, edited, and mixed live using Novation’s Launchpad dedicated Ableton controller. This mix features the songs “The Beat Repeater” “Dreaming (feat beatboxing by Taylor McFerrin, Ryat and Shara Dae on vocals)”, “Progtronica 1 (with a small Cinematic Orchestra sample)”, and “Rolling with Strings” all from the upcoming album: “Progtronica – Live From Nowhere” due out later this spring. All the drum parts are recorded live me, then sampled, edited, and re-mixed. However, for this weeks broadcast there is some “real” live drumming mixed in to a couple of the tunes. All Live, all solo, all Raw! Progtronia weekly DJ Series 2010!

Progtronica weekly Ableton DJ set part 2 – 2/4/10 by Progtronica

Here it is! Part 2 of the weekly Progtronica DJ series. This one is a little bit longer then the first one and incorporates a few new tunes. Featured in This week’s performance I  mixed the tunes “Drum n bass for a Rainy day”, “Lets Face the music”, “Rolling with Strings” “Progtronica 2″ and part of “Progtronica 1″. The video in this post contains highlights from the 16 minute performance because with the restrictions of YouTube, I can only post 10 minutes of material. To hear the entire set click on the sound cloud player directly below the video. You can also download the mix for free. To do this simply click on the downward pointing arrow on the right of the waveform! Enjoy

For the past 6 months or so I have been creating “Progtronica” tracks as solo performances using Ableton Live software and a few different controllers most notably the Novation Launchpad which has completely changed my musical approach. I have been creating music usually centering around samples of my own drumming mixed with found sounds musically based and otherwise, then manipulated them, re-sampled them, and arraigning them so that I could make live interpretations of my own composed music. I have been publishing these solo tracks as single song entities here on this site and on youtube, Vimeo, and now on Soundcloud where the tracks can be download for free (for the time being). The tracks I have compiled are in the process of being mixed, mastered and will soon be available as an album: Progtronica- Live From Nowhere.

My other main goal however, has been to find a way to perform more then just one track at a time, but to mix them together as a DJ and put on full sets of this music, complete with time signature and tempo changes. I have tried out several different techniques that all had some flaws in execution, but recently I had a lesson with LA based Ableton guru Thavius Beck who gave me a few key pointers that totally opened my mind to an approach that works. Many thanks to Thavius for giving me a few key pointers and understanding completely what I was going after. That was the first “music” lesson I had had in years!

So now I’m hard at work re-arraigning my tracks into one mega set that I can take into clubs and bring a totally new face and sound to electronica/breakbeat/drum n’ bass/ downtempo/whatever. In the meantime I am starting weekly DJ set broadcasts, the first of which is featured here with the full set available on soundcloud for streaming and free download! Performed on January 30 2010 on a full moon, this is the first full dj style Progtronica mashup. Featuring 5 songs from the upcoming Progtronica Album,  ‘American Dream”, Progtronica 2, “Rolling with Strings”, “Progtronica, and “Lets Face the Music” are all mixed together live using Novation’s Launchpad.

Progtronica “Full Moon” dj style mega mix live 1/30/10 by Progtronica

This one is about 15 minutes long and is my first real attempt but I’m going to be doing these every week so in a little while this stuff should get pretty crazy. I also plan to get some live drums involved but for now I can create amazingly vast music with just my Laptop, a couple wires, and 2 little controllers. Kind of nice for a guy who’s lugged around a huge drum set, samplers, and midi controllers for years. Stay tuned…

2010 is going to be an exciting year for Progtronica. I am nearing the compleation of compiling all the tracks for my debut solo release “Progtronica-Live from Nowhere” The raw version of all the performances have been featured an all my recent videos. The next step is mixing, mastering and arraigning them into album form. Recently I have added 2 brand new performances featured on this page: “Rolling with Strings” and “Drum n’ Bass for a Rainy Day” both featuring my new (awesome) piece of gear, the Novation ZeRO SL Mk II midi controller, which has tons of faders and knobs etc. Partnered with my beloved Novation Launchpad and Ableton Live Suite 8 things are getting really crazy here in my studio. 2010 is going to be the year of Progtronica!
Also check out the new “Progtronica Live for No One” channel on Vimeo.

In this post are 2 recent live home performances: ”Progtronica – Live Extended Outdoor Edition” recorded outside on my deck under the setting sun of Long Beach California on December 20th. The second video is “Progtronica 2” which features a mix of triggered drum samples and live drumming on Roland V-Drums in a shifting 5/4 time. Both were recorded and performed using Ableton Live 8 and Novation’s new “Launchpad” a dedicated Ableton controller. All the drums are played by me live at some point, either at the point of performance, or at the beginning of composition. The other sounds are usually created from scratch using Ableton’s software instriments, or my manipulating samples of found sounds, chopping, editing, and transposing them to make melodic and harmonic phrases and textures.

Stay tuned for more info about the upcoming release which will be available for download and traditional CD purchase online through this website and all the other places where one finds music to add to their collection now days. After the release I plan to take this show on the road so watch out!

There have been a lot of inspirational words spoken by our relatively still new commander and chief over the past couple of years since he began his campaign, words that have affected almost all of us in one way or another, despite what you think of the job he is doing or agree with his governing philosophy. For me, however, a little slice from this one quote from his inaugural address “and nonbelievers” is the single thing that has most significance for me. I am an atheist, and quite proud of it. I have known it pretty much my whole life but could almost refer to myself as a “born again atheist” being that there have been a few times in my life where my faith in lack of “faith” has been re-affirmed, much like an American Evangelical is re-baptized despite the fact that they were already raised as Christians. I have issues with the concept that a child can be considered of a particular faith before they have the maturity to decide for themselves but that is another matter.

By calling myself an atheist, I simply mean that I don’t buy the existence of a god as we primitive humans understand it. It doesn’t mean that I dislike those who do not think as I do. Nor does it mean that I am immovable in my own beliefs, just that the only things I have “faith” in are reason, life experience, and the general tendency toward decency of most people, especially in times of crisis. I saw this first-hand living blocks away from the World Trade Center on 9/11. This tendency of decency towards one another I believe is an instinctual trait that has allowed us to survive throughout the millennia of our existence on this Earth.

The logic of religious theory simply has never added up for me. One of the most confusing aspects of the faith community is their claim that religion is a necessity in teaching us morals. To me there is no more helpful a tool for understanding morals and basic human decency then a good understanding of reason. Most of those I know who are atheist live their lives according to moral codes that are completely consistent and decent, even without the promise of being saved or absolved of our sins through repenting. We have to live with them and learn from the mistakes and successes in our lives using logic to help provide some navigation through a confusing and often difficult world.

Being a self proclaimed atheist can be a lonely experience, not because of a lack one feels by not having a belief in a helping hand of faith or in a higher power like everyone else appears to, but by the isolation one feels by being portrayed as part of the “far left fringe” of belief in modern America, as well as not reaping the benefits of being affiliated with a publicly recognized community of “like-minded” people. We are considered almost non-existent and are almost never mentioned in the vast dialogue on faith in America. So when Obama just threw in those two words (after loads of religious based language which I think he uses primarily as a tool to communicate to this perceived highly religious country) it moved me, and still does nine months later.

The fact is, according a study by the Pew Forum on Religion and Public life as well as a recent USA today poll there are more “nonbelievers” in this country then there are Jews, Muslims and Hindus combined, all of which are groups with voices in the public sphere. Self-proclaimed atheists do not encompass all of those in the “nonbelievers” group, but this I believe has a lot to do with the stigma associated with merely stating that one is an atheist as opposed to saying something more vague like “oh well, I’m just not religious”.

I am completely comfortable with my beliefs and don’t feel that they are meant as a threat to any of my friends and family who are “of faith”. My mother happens to be a Unitarian Universalist Minister who preaches every Sunday, and I was brought up in the UU church. For those who aren’t familiar, being a UU is about as close as you can get to being an agnostic while still being able to call yourself Christian, it is basically up to the member to find one’s own relationship with God, and Jesus is not believed to be the literal son of god as is the case in all other Christian based faiths. Still, even after growing up as a part of this community, for which I have respect, I found it was not for me.

For all this talk about how religious our nation is supposed to be, consider the facts:
- The Pew study found that “people who say they are unaffiliated with any particular faith today (16.1%) is more then double the number who say they were not affiliated with any particular religion as children. That means that approximately 8% of Americans drop their childhood religious affiliations when coming of age.
- Among Americans ages 18-29, 25% say they are not currently affiliated with any particular religion…That contrasts with those age 70 and older who say they are not affiliated with any particular religion (8%). This means as this time passes the faith-less are sure to become and even larger portion of the public.

This is leaving out the untold story of the scores of people who go to church every week but don’t really “believe” what is being preached to them 100%, as faith in nearly all religions is required to be considered “moral” or “truly religious”. Most of these people find comfort in the community, and enjoy re-connecting with their peers weekly and value having time set aside to reflect on things of “higher meaning”. However, if you ask many of these people privately and press them on the certainty of everything that was said in their respective religious ceremony, you will find that a vast amount of them aren’t as “faithful” as they might let on at first.

My point in saying all of this is that atheists are far from alone in this country, and do not occupy some “far-left fringe” space in this culture. It is hypocritical and self-incriminating of the general populace to not recognize this sizable group that makes up a significant portion of the population and to not confer to it the same sort of legitimacy and respect Christians, for example, have the luxury of “deserving”. I blame atheists as much as anyone else for allowing this status-quo to go unchallenged and to continue this denial of public recognition. If we apologize for our beliefs, and willingly hide who we are, we are surrendering rights everyone else in this country is given, all the while giving more power and influence to those who do not employ reason in approaching understanding existence, especially the intolerant religious fanatics who can only accept things the way they are being preached to to see them. If atheists do not have a voice, there will be no one out there saying what the premise of atheism is. It doesn’t simply mean “I don’t believe in god”, it means I am pretty solidly grounded in my belief that no one can claim to know with absolute certainty anything about the nature of existence.

Interesting references:

A USA Today interactive graph of the religious demographics broken down state by state

A link to the Pew Study