NEW SPOTIFY APPS

   / Streaming music, Technology.

(Released in Danish, 2012 April 4th)

(Unfortunately Spotify stopped supporting 3rd-party apps years ago, although some of them was really good and useful. Sadly the (full) functionality of the apps haven't been adopted by Spotify. Some stuff is still useful in other ways. Read on below the video of a piece of music featured in the original article; music I discovered with one of the apps, Diggster's section on popmusic featured on Roskilde Festival that year... Adrian Lux: Teenage Crime)

The new apps (well, they were new in 2012, descriptions are edited to suit the present):

Classify:

You really could search and choose better than ever in classical music... composers, instruments, eras, moods, categories and "recommended".

The Complete Collection:

Not only music, but full album art, zoomable, flipable etc.

Def Jam:

Playlists from Def Jam label. Some are found on Spotify. Nice urban stuff. Link below.

Digster:

Their many playlists for all occasions are to be found in Spotify, and on their homepage (link below).

Domino:

Playlists from Domino label. Some are found on Spotify. Link below.

Filtr:

Was a great app for making playlists, where you select style, mood, instrument, artist and / or intensity from start to end of the playlist. The app is gone, but Filtr offers a homepage where you can do something similar, and then save the playlist on Spotify... Link below

The Legacy Of:

Sony Music. Artist's full backlist, highlighted albums, biography, photos and extended playlists with cover versions and artists that influinced them and who they influenced.

Matador Records:

Albums from that label, and tourdates of the bands. Categorized by year or "new". Experimental, hardcore and indie. Their playlists are to be found on Spotify, link below..

[PIAS]:

A sales platform / home for independant artist, and also artist's own playlists. Some playlists are still on Spotify, link below.

TweetVine:

A hitlist from tweeter, was updated every hour, showing what people tweeted with #nowplaying. Mostly mainstream.

The Warner Sound:

Songs, albums and playlists (also genre playlists) from Warner Music Group. Album of the day, with description, Family-tree where modern artists were chained to their musical roots, and the artist's own playlists.

MUSICClick:

Spotify: https://www.spotify.com/dk/

Def Jam Recordings on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/defjamrecordings

Digster: https://www.digster.fm/

Filtr: https://filtr.com/dk/spotify

Matador Records on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/matadorrecords

[PIAS] on Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/user/pias_uk

SPOTIFY - Apps

   / Streaming Music, Technology          (Posted in Danish, 2012 Januar 16th)

EDIT: There have been major changes in Spotify Apps, the following article is outdated, but check the musicvideo below. There will be a new article on this later ... link will be posted here: later

An apostate YouSee Play user confesses :)

I have for some months had the pleasure of comparing YouSee Play with Spotify. Spotify was an alright streaming solution, but Yousee Play did the same thing for free, if you were a YouSee costumer, so why bother, I thought ...

Then I discovered Spotify Apps and I was sold - since that I haven't been using Yousee Play, although it is of no cost to me. For those who don't know Spotify yet: it's a service that streams music, for free with commercials every 4 tracks or without commercials for dkr. 50,- per month ($ 7,19) or in higher bitrate and for mobile and so on for dkr. 100,- per month ($ 14,39). They have 17 million tracks right now (EDIT! Now more than 30 million tracks). You must have email or facebook account.

Now what's up with the Apps? ... people who don't know them ask (and the rest nods their heads) ... explanation follows below after this video with the band called Feed Me, which I did not know until I tried the app "We are hunted", where you discover new music in several ways.

The number of apps are growing...

Here's some interesting ones:

123 Toplists - Danish charts.

Radio - drag a song on the icon and you hear music based on the song's style and so on.

Billboard - Billboard charts from the USA.

fuse - today's short music news combined with relevant playlists.

Gaffa - Scandinavia's biggest music magazine, news, reviews, tracks, concerts and playlists.

Moodagent - drag a song at the icon, select your mood and whether the intensity should be increasing, decreasing or have another curve. Then you'll get a personal playlist.

Pitchfork - Reviews of albums, with playlists.

Rolling Stone - great music and lifestyle magazine. Lots of reviews, recommendations, and top-lists etc. From the past "many" decades til now.

Share my playlists - super area with all kinds of playlists from all sorts of people and places with every kind of music. Exciting.

Songkick - find concerts with your favouriet bands? Never again sold out!? Maybe not ...

Sound Drop - throw a playlist and invite friends into the listening room - across the country / world. Or go into a listening room - area is divided into genres.

Top10 - make your own top10 lists (maybe top10 songs on Copenhagen / winter / of an artist etc.) and listen to others.

TuneWiki - super app that finds and displays lyrics for the songs - if there is no lyrics yet, you can add your own.

We are hunted - as mentioned above, discover new music within areas and genres.

M U S I C Click:

Spotify:

https://www.spotify.com/

JAZZMUTANT LEMUR - electronica super machine

   / Instruments, Technology          (Posted in Danish, 2011 December 12th)

In 2004 JazzMutant (a company) presented a brilliant multi-touch musical instrument for electronica and DJ'ing. They were pioneers and had to invent the first screen ever that was able to track "an unlimited number of fingers" touching the surface. The device has been a great success, due to both the very high flexibility and the robust hardware.

Below is a taste of one interface and its options

Jazz Mutant, the French company that manufacture Lemurs, has been using good hardware parts, their own graphics processor and with wired interface with the connected machines, so you unlike an iPad won't risk a WiFi-stop, in the middle of a concert. It was the first multi-touch machine for creative use.

Here is Kanye West performing Stronger at the Grammy Award Show 2008, along with Daft Punk, who were sampled into the original number with their Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger - here they play on Lemurs, as  seen at 2:59 and onwards.

JazzMutant brilliantly made the user interface flexible and programmable, so you are able to shape and define your buttons and switches, displays and menus - it also features friction in faders and so on. And you can install interfaces uploaded by other users, and work on them. The Lemur also controls synthesizers, mixers, light and video installations. 

Here is another interface, where you see how Lemurs can be used as a sequencer ...

Some renowned electronica artists (and DJs and video artists) have used JazzMutant Lemur's for making music, including:

Björk 

Daft Punk 

Linkin Park 

Deadmau5 

Mode Selector 

Nine Inch Nails.

Below is Björk's Declare Independance (live from Paris)... the Reactable was filmed a lot 

(article on the Reactable: link in MUSICClick) and the Lemur was hardly filmed, it is seen briefly 

0:44.

EDIT: 

The Lemur was relesed in a version 2 (see more in links) and as an app for the iPad and other tablets. There is now good videos showing how to use it, see the links below. Many shows how it interacts with the popular application for music and DJ'ing: Ableton Live. Here is one of the videos showing how to use it and program your own interface.  There are more videos in the series, just do a search on youtube on "Lemur tutorial series" ... below the first video in a series about DJ'ing. 

Lemur V2 can be purchased for $ 1999, -

M U S I C Click:

JazzMutant's homepage:

http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_overview.php

Tutorials:

http://www.jazzmutant.com/workshop_tutorialslist.php

Lemur and iPad: 

https://youtu.be/ykgQrjZAgC0

Lemur V2: 

http://www.jazzmutant.com/lemur_v20.php

A DJ setup based on the Lemur: 

https://youtu.be/R1L-74MaL38

Article on the Reactable: 

http://musikkzag.blogspot.dk/2011/11/reactable-et-nyt-musikinstrument.html



THE REACTABLE - a new musical instrument

   / Instruments, Technology          (posted in Danish 2011 Nov. 12th)

In recent years, interesting "musical instruments" / synthesizers / beatboxes with multi-touch screen (mostly used by electronica artists) has emerged.

The "Reactable" was invented at the University of Barcelona  5 years ago.

It is in fact a computer / synthesizer placed under a circular transparent "board".

Maybe a video just to give an impression of what it really is, will be suitable. First a remix of Rihanna's  Don't Stop The Music , (give it just 45 seconds to start ... and turn off  advertising: click gears > annotaions off) performed on Reactable by "Robbo" ...

A video projector illuminates the tabletop from below.

The important "Tangibles" lies at the edge of the Reactable. A Tangible is a small block with a colored geometric pattern below (and some has patterns on the sides, so the block can be reversed) ...

One notes i.a. that the large / tall block is the one that "contains" audio samples of vocals and so on.

Below: a newer, longer track by ReacTJ, with more blocks in use, but with half a minute before sound starts, then 1½ minute intro - doesn't really "start" until after 4½ minutes.

The computer is programmed to recognize the blocks and each block has different functions (see Basic Demo in the links at the bottom) that affect / create the sound to be output, e.g. rhythm, frequency, samples etc.

Next: the German techno DJ Oliver Huntemann live in a show at The Arches in Glasgow. The music and the show is quite special, but fascinating. He can also be heard on Spotify. More about Oliver Huntemann at the end of the article.

The blocks on The Reactable can be grouped and then they interact. You control the settings of each block by turning it, or use a "panel" that lights up around the block on the table top, with your fingers.

Below: Robbo once more (featuring VP).

There are artists who have started using Reactables now, mostly at electronica / DJ shows. Björk had one on her Voltaic tour ... here she is with the song Declare Independence, which features the Reactable as one of several multitouch instruments. (Fun fact: check at 4:00 - Paul McCartney stands backstage having a good time.)

One of the reasons the Reactable is not yet as widespread, is that it costs up to € 50,000 - ... they are being displayed at shows and big nightclubs, and some technology museums have bought one.

EDIT: Prices have dropped, they can now be bought for between € 6.100,- and € 7.070,- in Europe, depending on whether you want bags and expansion sets, and whether you pick it up in Barcelona or you need delivery.

For ordinary people, Reactable released apps for both iOS (iPhone / iPad) and Android (Phones / Tabs / Pads) for a reasonable price, and they are also quite interesting.

Above we saw a demo / a-half track of Beautyful Life from Gui Borattos new interactive reactable album. An album where he has remixed 4 hits, you can watch, listen and even remix in real time, while the music plays on tablets or smartphones.

That is a very interesting development. Link to the album and Oliver Huntemann's interactive album in App Store / Google Play are below.

M U S I C Click:

Links to interactive albums: 

http://www.reactable.com/products/artist/

Reactable website: 

http://www.reactable.com/

Basic Demo 1: 

http://youtu.be/0h-RhyopUmc

Basic Demo 2: 

http://youtu.be/MPG-LYoW27E

Reactable on Wikipedia: 

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reactable