Making for Radio is part-hoerspiel, part-performance, part-documentary about DIY electronic music culture. The making of an impossible and ‘real’ electronic instrument circuit become the starting points for the work. Processes, tools and their relationship to makers/musicians are crossed examined through short, humorous sketches and radio curios. Fact and fiction co-exist. There are musical interludes. The work brings together researchers and musicians from De Montfort University, Leicester, UK, and the Academy of Performing Arts (HAMU), Prague in a collaboration for Czech Radio.

Making for Radio was recorded at the Czech Radio, Prague 24 November 2017, and broadcast Czech Radio 3 - Vltava, 6 December 2017. Performers: Anna Björn, Bruno Cunha, Matouš Hejl, Katie-Jane Howard, Monika Jagerova, Steve Jones, Nick Luscombe (voice recording), Luigi Marino, Johana Ožvold, Martin Ožvold, Amit Patel, Michal Rataj, John Richards, Samantha Topley, Maya Verlaak, Max Wainwright, et al.

Making for Radio

Disruption, intervention, transference, halfway-ness, violation — the conversion of data/sound from one medium to another results in a new material phenomena, transmedia, found in the hidden corners of esoteric technological processes. Violations is an extended event that includes the construction of a specially commissioned Dirty Electronics printed circuit board artwork/sound object, rehearsal and a large-group performance. A feedback system is designed where audio of a sequenced pattern is used to re-program itself. The event further explores how sound and/or code can collectively coalesce and gravitate or not towards a mean. The artwork for the printed circuit board takes inspiration from Arjun Appadurai's book The Social Life of Things, and the exploded-view illustrations of fifteenth century artist-engineer Mariano Taccolafound in his De ingeneis (Concerning Engines) and De machinis (Concerning Machines).

Violations III

A voltage controlled digital noise Eurorack module ... with unique characters and chaotic behaviours 

We’ve created 32 new programs for the Radical22 second edition (64 in total). 

Each program is made from core wavetables and algorithms and can produce many, many sounds! 

All sounds from the Radical22 (second edition) un-processed. This is a small sample only from the 32 new programs.

Radical22 (second edition)
Cores
1. stanbard dog [0:00 - 1:17]
2. swine [1:20 - 3:01]
3. 1 wing [3:04 - 4:14]
4. an-yooouuuu [4:16 - 5:42]

More info at: https://www.dirtyelectronics.org and https://noise.technology

Radical 22 (second edition)

Radical22 (second edition)

Features works by Simon Atkinson, Dushume, Dirty Electronics, Steph Horak, and Max Wainwright.

Mute Synth II comes with a selection of works using the synth by artists associated with Dirty Electronics and Mute. The CD features Chris Carter (Throbbing Gristle / Carter Tutti Void), Simon Fisher Turner, Dominic Butler (Bronze Teeth / Factory Floor), Kidkanevil, Dirty Electronics and more. 



Dushume Mute Synth II Remix

There is often the temptation to de-construct the recordings of the circuits and edit them highlighting different timbres and rhythmic ideas. Yet, they are what they are: mono, battery powered, generative feedback circuits. Ugly Sketch 1 hides nothing. There is no attempt at ‘humanising’ the rhythms, filtering the ‘harsh’ frequencies or adding additional over-dubs. Two circuits sound and are ‘automated’ to create a short contrapuntal piece. VCA meets embedded electronics in analogue/digital hybrid. Re-edit Dushume.

Ugly Sketch 1

Dirty Electronics will be joined by long-term collaborator Nicholas Bullen (Napalm Death/Scorn) for a set at Supersonic 2015 featuring works from Dirty Electronics’ synth/album released on Mute Records, and pieces for the Supersonic commissioned Horn & Bells sound object. Over the last decade, John Richards (Dirty Electronics) and Bullen have worked together on numerous projects from releasing music as Black Galaxy to co-organising Fluxus events. Bullen has also written several performance pieces for the Dirty Electronics Ensemble.

Dirty Electronics feat. Nicholas Bullen

Studio mix of ‘crushed’ Mute Synth II and miscellaneous sound material

Dirty Electronics – Part 1 (Reykjavik)

Colossus is a miniature hybrid digital/analogue device designed around a PIC microprocessor that can be programmed and live coded using one knob and one tactile button, and a voltage-controlled analogue feedback circuit. The aim of Colossus was to develop a device that questioned the relationship between coding and sound generation, and to explore performance through tangible and collective coding. There was also an attempt to consider how a reductionist approach (imposed limitations) to instrument control/design could shape a particular performance style/creative output. Moving between read and write modes (using the button) gives a musical characteristic where tension exists between periodic, looped rhythmic patterns and freer gestures derived from ‘knobbing’. The title of the device/piece is taken from the gigantic mainframe computer of Bletchley Park that is considered to be the first digital programmable computer. Initial work for Colossus was developed for projects with the University of Birmingham and the Culture Lab, Newcastle in 2015.

Duet for Colossus – sketch #1

A live set split in to three extracts to mark the official launch of the Mute Synth. Featuring the Dirty Electronics Mute Synth and other Dirty Electronics instruments. 

The The Mute Synth is a hand-held touch and tilt instrument with copper etched artwork and contoured printed circuit board that was designed in collaboration with Mute and graphic designer Adrian Shaughnessy. The instrument brings together many Dirty Electronics aesthetics and instrument designs into one device in particular creating an instrument ‘of the hand’ (in terms of both playing and building), a noise-based device that utilises feedback, and exploring the relationship between artwork and circuit board. 

Dirty Electronics Solo Live Mix 1,  November 2011

A live set split in to three extracts to mark the official launch of the Mute Synth. Featuring the Dirty Electronics Mute Synth and other Dirty Electronics instruments. 

The Mute Synth is a hand-held touch and tilt instrument with copper etched artwork and contoured printed circuit board that was designed in collaboration with Mute and graphic designer Adrian Shaughnessy. The instrument brings together many Dirty Electronics aesthetics and instrument designs into one device in particular creating an instrument ‘of the hand’ (in terms of both playing and building), a noise-based device that utilises feedback, and exploring the relationship between artwork and circuit board.


Dirty Electronics Solo Live Mix 2,  November 2011

Dirty Electronics Solo Live Mix 3, November 2011

Stones and Noises (2016) John Richards
for stones, scrubbing brushes and noise synths

Stones and Noises explores sounds produced by repetitive actions of rubbing stones together and scrubbing with brushes opposed by a noise generator. The piece also presents questions about our relationship with tools and technology.

Live recording 
Katzin Concert Hall, Arizona, US 19/11/16
Direction John Richards
Performed by: Marissa Rohr, Justin Kennedy, Courtney Brown, Jack McConnell, Gabriella Isaac, Byron Lahey, Jacqueline Fazekas, Destiny Flores, Josh Bennett

Stones & Noises

‘How can something as primordial as the voice find its way into code to become data?’. ‘Can such data carry meaning?’, or, ‘Can the voice ‘become’ sound object? insomnia scream is a machine that takes vocal utterances and twists them into sequences of analogous noise. The machine utters. The machine converses. 

The sound object is a printed circuit board (PCB) artwork exploring the intersection between etching techniques and electronics and collaboration with artist and designer Wasabii Ng. Sequences of electronic noise and oscillations are created through screaming (or singing) into a miniature on-circuit board microphone that acts as an analogue input/sensor for a microprocessor. The sound object draws on a reductionist design aesthetic, a minimal control interface, and is ‘played’ through the voice. The printed circuit board is investigated for its visual qualities/characteristics afforded by its electronic components. PCB manufacturing techniques of solder finishes (copper/silver/gold) are also exploited. The object lends itself towards developing ‘devious slants’ for the performance of electronic music and live coding and, in doing so, presents a number of polar concepts: control/lack of control as a performer; human/machine interaction; voice as code/data; voice as instrument/sound; gestural vs. automated; loop vs. line; product as package, package as product; and active engager vs. passive consumer.

dirtyelectronics.org
maritaisobelsolberg.virb.com
www.ngwasabii.com

dirty electronics - insomnia scream, 2016

57mm wavetable synth/artwork pcb … political texts, protests and manifesto embedded in a microprocessor. Built-in mic and touch control. With Max Wainwright for Noisexistance Festival, Kampnagel, Hamburg 2018.

Kick Shout (with Max Wainwright)

The Mute Synth 4.0 comes with the Dirty Electronics Voltage Collection - a composition, group of sequences, set of data, range of patterns. For each day of Xmas, I’ll be recording a version of the Collection.

https://mutebank.co.uk/products/mute-4-0-synth

12 days of Christmas – day 1

The Mute Synth 4.0 comes with the Dirty Electronics Voltage Collection - a composition, group of sequences, set of data, range of patterns. For each day of Xmas, I’ll be recording a version of the Collection. Day 2.

12 days of Christmas – day 2

The Mute Synth 4.0 comes with the Dirty Electronics Voltage Collection - a composition, group of sequences, set of data, range of patterns. For each day of Xmas, I’ll be recording a version of the Collection.

Here is an added extra using an 808 cowbell to trigger the MS4 with the tempo of the Synth varied.

12 days of Christmas – day 4

The Mute Synth 4.0 comes with the Dirty Electronics Voltage Collection - a composition, group of sequences, set of data, range of patterns. For each day of Xmas, I’ll be recording a version of the Collection.

Another extra using an 808 distorted kick to trigger the MS4 with the tempo of the Synth varied.

12 days of Christmas – day 5

A mix of live excerpts in preparation for nonclassical’s club night Pioneers of Electronic Music, XoYo, London, 14 March, 2013. The mix also includes an excerpt from Simon Atkinson’s Four Modulations for Mutesynth II, No. 3.

1. Filthy Lady Bracknell Octet (excerpt) (featuring Hugh Davies’ Lady Bracknell) (John Richards)
2. mute_synth duo (excerpt no. 1) (John Richards)
3. Four Modulations for Mutesynth II, No. 3 (excerpt) (Simon Atkinson)
4. mute_synth duo (excerpt no. 2) (John Richards)

Dirty Electronics will perform an adaption of works by British pioneers of electronic music Andrew Bentley, Hugh Davies and Richard Orton. A large-group performance will feature: Bentley’s Poor Man’s Synthesiser, a synth made using terminal ‘chocolate’ blocks, a few electronic components and a screwdriver; Davies’ Lady Bracknell, an instrument/piece made from a tin can and fishing line that is named after the character in Oscar Wilde’s The Importance of Being Ernest; and Orton’s Kiss, originally a tape work for microphone and voice. The mouth tube, vocoder-like filer, and amplified lid clickers will also be explored in the work.

Later in the evening John Richards and Stu Smith of Dirty Electronics will preview the new Mutesynth II released on Mute Records, 2013: hard-hitting angular rhythms with dotmatrix visuals.

Dirty Electronics – Pioneers of Electronic Music Mix

Points of Failure was a five-date tour which took place at various art/music spaces across the UK in early 2020. The tour was a collaboration between John Richards and Tim Shaw. The idea was to explore the sonic possibilities of objects and materials through live making, failure and improvisation. We took a basic set up that would allow us to perform with a diversity of materials and objects. This included mixing desks, DIY synthesisers, a collection of microphones (hydrophones, contact microphones), speakers, bowls, metal objects and scrap materials. This tour focused on building an interactive environment with the materials we had at hand, episodic structures for performing through and revealing the failures related to making, performing and DIY electronics.

Recorded at IKLECTIK, London, 6/2/20

Iklectik Points of Failure

The Dirty Electronics Sonar 20th Anniversary Synth is an ultra minimal pocket-sized synth, black finished with silver-plated etched Sonar logo. The synth has a 20-step sequencer to celebrate the twentieth anniversary of Sonar (one step for each year). The instrument comes with pre-written sequenced patterns that can be either listened to in their own right or played. Bit bashing meets analogue noise and crumpled grooves. Dushume (aka Amit D Patel) remixes and edits of sounds from the Sonar 20th Anniversary Synth.

Dirty Electronics Sonar 20th Anniversary Synth, Dushume Mix, 2013

Since 2003, John Richards has been exploring the idea of ‘Dirty Electronics’ that focuses on face-to-face shared experiences, ritual, gesture, touch and social interaction. In Dirty Electronics process and performance are inseparably bound. The ‘performance’ begins on the workbench devising instruments and is extended onto the stage through playing and exploring these instruments.

www.dirtyelectronics.org

Dirty Electronics

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