Aikido: the Japanese martial art of nonviolent self defense, of redirecting your opponent’s momentum and using it against them, and mixing VCA signals for creative and nuanced performance with Eurorack modular synths.

Bastl Instruments have been hard at work in the dojo with our favorite sparring partner, Casper Electronics, and now emerge with a new Eurorack module demonstrating our newly developed techniques in the ancient art of the Voltage-Controlled Amplifier: Aikido is a 4-channel performative VCA mixer with flexible submix routing and two styles of integrated envelope followers — and, naturallement, a whole heap more…

The Way of the Single Palm

Neatly compact, Aikido is a perfect tool for single-hand operation: independently mute each channel using stealthy, clickless mutes, and flex your sound using a single finger to control crossfader action, smoothly adjusting signal input strengths. 

A holistic discipline, students of Bastl Aikido will develop their mix prowess by mastering the pulse of CV, via premium attenuverters on the CV input channels; stealthily adjust the strength of the CV's parameter automation in true (positive) or inverted (negative) directions, allowing for deceptively simple or richly complex variations in sound, controlling all by a gentle twist of the wrist.

Dynamic Style: the Art of Compression

Grappling with both audio and VCA signals is simple even for beginners with Aikido: take your skills to the next degree with Aikido's dual spectral analysis and envelope-following techniques! 

The envelope follower found in other Bastl/Casper modules, such as the Ikarie dual-peak filter, makes a repeat appearance, allowing you to route audio signals into the chain to affect overall output volume and strength, or take the internal audio's envelope and patch it out to impact the behavior of your other modules.

Spectral Processing joins the fray, allowing you to take a magnifying glass to the high, mid, or low frequencies in your mix. Flick between frequency isolation for enhancement, de-essing, compression, even parallel side-chaining audio (can we get a "hai—ya"!?) that ascends Aikido well above the typical territory of Eurorack mixers.

No-one Fights Alone

Need more than 4 channels of this wizardry? Stack two Aikido modules together with jumper cables to bring the total to 8 channels. Or, take the mix output of Aikido and patch it through to your Bastl Buddy with the same jumper wires, opening up possibilities of parallel processing and much more. Switches on the back of the module allow users to customize the mute functionality between Pre- or Post- VCA settings.  

Where would we all be without feedback play? Self-patch Aikido's outputs back into the inputs to get that BVVRRR goodness, or take advantage of the cascading internal routing to play with the mixed audio, layering and bulking your sound. 

Discipline in training brings rewards, and the strength of the alliance between Bastl & Casper has yielded some of our best playability techniques to date. Aikido - your one-stop control shop for Eurorack in just 11hp. Pick your pre-order up from the Bastl Shop from the 7th February '23, or your local retailer. Shipping begins later in February.

Bastl AIKIDO

Flippant(DUBSPACE)

To Earth

The Gonad Huckster

Cluster Bomb

Bootleg remix of Award Tour by Tribe Called Quest. Created Summer 2024 by TRUNQS aka James Patrick.

Tribe Called Quest - Award Tour - DnB Bootleg

https://paulbirken.bandcamp.com/album/five-seven-five-ep

Paul Birken "A Pit In Wisconsin"

Massive big ups to @https://soundcloud.com/vxrgomusic (VXRGO) for this 30 min Jungle Promo Mix!

We've have been throwing some absolutely wicked Jungle and Drum & Bass parties over the last year or so and in that time we’ve grown to be one of the top parties in Sheffield. To mark a year of activity we’re stepping things up in a big way to deliver a huge line-up across FORGE’s Main Room and Workroom spaces. Some of the best DJ's and MC's in the scene have played at Unity over the last 12 months, artists like Mantra, Equinox, Digital, Dead Man's Chest, MC Chickaboo, MC Gusto to name a few. Unity have also featured some of Sheffield's finest DJ's and MC's including Charla Green, Widdzy, MC Ballistikus plus loads more.

Sat 16th Nov 2024 - FORGE WAREHOUSE, SHEFFIELD

LTJ Bukem
Tim Reaper
Bakey
VXRGO
Charla Green
King Chuga
RACH
Widdzy
ZUBZ
Stav
Adam C
Finkla
MC Chickaboo
MC Gusto
MC Ballistikus

Tickets: skiddle.com/e/39170940
Tickets: ra.co/events/1942502
Tickets: www.fatsoma.com/e/ut30d6vn/unity-…ound-1st-birthday

Unity: linktr.ee/unityunderground

Unity Underground Promo Mix - VXRGO

Basic Instinct

FM explorations using the Serge Dual PCO / Peak&Trough and the new "Rhythm" module - also a DSG XL and a RES-EQ (sub-bass!).

Serge Dual PCO meets Rhythm

Track F2 reveal. Paul Birken's "Perpendicular Provider"

The Tonewrecker!  When I first started attending raves in Toronto in the 90's my favourite Dj was Terry Mullan. He used to absolutely floor Toronto dance-floors with is blistering Acid sets. That is where I first heard Paul Birken. HIs Numbskull track on his Communique "Surfin' Superior" LP was the first of its kind I'd ever heard. I've not looked back since. I have all of his back catalog and buy every release, I've never been let down regardless of the style. Paul is incredibly creative and adept and I count myself fortunate to have spent time with him in various fashions and for various reasons. Both in his home town and here in Hamilton. Year in and year out Paul is in my top most played artists and will likely continue to hold that spot.  Machine funk writ large.

https://www.discogs.com/artist/4384-Paul-Birken
https://paulbirken.bandcamp.com/
https://www.instagram.com/tonewrecker/
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To celebrate 500 episodes of Bleep Radio...

In 2003 I began streaming live via Livesets dot com. Over the years the number of annually archived shows has always fluctuated, but eventually it appears 500 has arrived. Sure the actual number of streams is probably triple that or more, but that's harder to celebrate.

This 4x12" Boxed Set represents the artists whose music I play the most on Bleep Radio. Literally and objectively played the most. I'm a big number crunching statistics nerd and have trended my own track-lists for years as many of you know. As a Canadian, far removed from where the music I like shines the brightest I consider myself very fortunate to have been able to meet with and play alongside a lot of these folks in person and not just via the stream.

Bleep Radio is expected to hit show 500 on May 14th which is when --if all things align-- this release will be ready. The 500th show will consist of a mix of all of the tracks on this release by myself, plus...guests?

This release is isn't just a milestone, it's an open love letter to all of you whose music I play and will continue to play and support. Keep it wonky folks.

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Expected release date: May 14th, 2021

Mastered/Pressed: Curve Pusher, UK [ http://curvepusher.co.uk/ ]
Vinyl Distributed by: Vinyl Future [ http://www.deejay.de ]
Graphics: Ed Twist [ http://edtwist.co.uk/wp/ ]

BUY @ https://linktr.ee/isoprax
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Various Artists "All The Bleeps" Bleep 500 [4x12" Boxed Set]
Record 1
A1 - Sane "Auger"
A2 - Jerome Hill "League Against Jazz"
B1 - Johan Platt "Forged Jack"
B2 - Ben Pest "Tilt Lock"

Record 2
C1 - Norman Müller "Bamm Im Mond"
C2 - Luke's Anger "Sloth Father"
D1 - Tobias Schmidt "Le Interrupteur"

Record 3
E1 - Neil Landstrumm "Cleo Satan"
E2 - TSR Featuring Kosmonaut J "Can't Stop Thinking"
F1 - JoeFarr "To See Her"
F2 - Paul Birken "Perpendicular Provider"

Record 4
G1 - SES "Dumbiedykes"
G2 - Tobias Schmidt "Speak"
H1 - Joseph Garber "We Not The Wack Yeah"
H2 - World News "Black Cat"

The vinyl release will be primarily available via both Deejay.de as well as another special location that may include a limited cassette with more dj mixes of the tracks.

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Bleep Radio currently airs via MixCloud every Friday at 11:45am EST and runs until 1pm EST.

www.bleepradio.ca for archives and info about each show.

Cluster Bomb

Genome (Colonel Angus)