Program - Interactive Music

Creative Music Technology: INTERACTIVE MUSIC Friday 24 May : Basil Jones Orchestral Hall William Bartlett, Tiahne O’Brien, Yianni Hardy - DnB Shenanigans DnB Shenanigans hopes to take you on a riveting journey through space, time and, more specifically, the electronic genre of drum and bass. The piece begins with a heavily-chopped splice of samples, featuring one of the best club tunes of all time (but we’ll let you figure out which one). Our next section embodies 'melodic' or 'liquid' DnB, utilising one-shots and various sampled breaks for the drums; a plethora of celestial synthesis; a saw, or 'reese' bass; and spacey, ethereal vocals, with lyrics to match. This segment takes significant influence from artists such as Tove Lo and Kenya Grace, with sounds designed to emulate being lost/floating around in space. To follow, we move into a homage to 'artcore'; a world of fantasy. Final Fantasy, that is - a pairing of the DnB grooves we all know and love, plus instrumentals reminiscent of your childhood memories spent with the PlayStation (or just ours, at least!) This section features samples from some of the greatest JRPGs of all time, some very unique synths, and the trumpet’s lesser-known older brother – the flugelhorn. A wise man once said, “I can’t escape the Amen Break and I don’t want to anyway.” The Amen Break is coming to get us all, and it’s succeeded, being the star appearance in the final section which pays homage to the twisted subgenre of Breakcore. A sound that celebrates the art of sampling old drumbreaks paired with loud blaring subs, and other sampled bits and bobs. Be sure to tell us if it’s too loud (but we may not be able to hear you). We’ve likened the use of the static sample between some sections to the changing of television channels; highlighting the difference between each segment and creating a bit of a disruption. Our group members have all composed individual sections of tonight’s piece, which we then spliced together through transitions collaboratively. DnB Shenanigans utilises a wide range of technologies to create an interactive performance, including a MIDI guitar, a Novation Launchkey, an Ableton Push and a MIDI Fighter 3D, with live modulation through MIDI mappings. Throughout the performance, we all switch roles on each of these devices, but some particularly notable moments are: Yianni doing some particularly impressive finger-drumming; Tiahne on vocals, and Will on MIDI guitar.