12k website hacked July 31, 2006

found out today from a few people that someone had broken into the 12k web site and created a fake page with some sort of bogus IRS scam on it. kind of scarey… as once i found the directory on our web server i couldn’t even delete it. they had locked me out of my own server. fortunately, a call to the ISP was all it took to get the files deleted and passwords changed.

apologies to anyone who may have been affected, or seen it, i hope it was an isolated incident.

song of the day July 28, 2006

clock dva: sound mirror

(details of the new 12k compilation, titled, BLUEPRINTS, coming soon)

kenneth kirschner interview July 27, 2006

the website Loop.CL published an interview with Kenneth Kirschner last month and i’m finally getting around to posting it in 12k’s Press archive. it’s there now, and you can also see it in its original form at the loop.cl website here:

http://www.loop.cl/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=188&Itemid=26

song of the day July 27, 2006

Rafael Toral “Optical Flow” from Violence of Discovery and Calm of Acceptance (Touch: 48)

input festival cancelled July 25, 2006

received email today from the organizers of the Input Festival in Lleida, Spain that the festival has been cancelled due to a withdrawal of government funding… that really sucks.. it was going to be a great event with a really excellent lineup…

😦

these things happen….!

thursday afternoon July 20, 2006

well, it’s been a few days… just been really busy working and sorting out 2 new upcoming 12k releases.

one is a compilation called BLUEPRINTS which will feature 6 artists that have never worked with 12k before. some of the artists have releases on other labels, and others are quite new. all artists were contacted from demo submissions.

the other cd is from a band from Australia that is featured on the Blueprints comp. quite astonishing guitar stuff… nearly indie-rock in their approach.. certainly in their influences…

i’m not going to mention any names right now, just want to finalize everything first.

these 2 cds will be out at the same time, in october, following the new Fourcolor release.

oh, and that SSL Duende… totally messed up my system… i was working until 2am that day getting things back to normal…. sadly, i’ll be sending it back without ever having been able to pass a signal through it!

apparently it’s not compatible with Digital Performer or Peak.. which doesn’t bode well for many users.

now playing: interpol.

SSL in the studio today… July 14, 2006

i’m being teased… really, i am.

the music retailer i buy most of my studio equipment from lately offered to send me SSL’s new Duende firewire DSP processor… just to try out, he wants my opinion. totally free, no strings attached… use it for a few weeks and send it back.

yeah right. you know how hard that’s going to be?

well.. we’ll see. i’ve got to give it an honest workout. how does it affect the sound of the music that *i* do. which is one of the most mis-understood concepts in studio gear. all of this talk of SSL-this, and analog-that… well, people who review this stuff and use it in big studios are making a very different kind of music than i make. reading reviews and user reports on Gearslutz(.com) is one thing, but one can never tell if a piece of equipment is right for what *they* do unless they try it out on *their* music.

well, here goes… god i hope it’s horrible.. it’ll save me $1500. 😉

it snows in july July 13, 2006

very happy this morning to receive a really nice and well-written review of “Northern” in a French magazine called Ocotpus. i’m posting the english translation here… there’s been a few reviews coming in this week, they’re all in the press section on the website…

NORTHERN
They are not least paradoxes than to have listened to for the first time this disc under a heat festival sky. Northern, as its name indicates it, evokes north. But a cottony and luminescent north rather than rough and swept by the winds. A north, finally, with the image of its originator, Taylor Deupree, which returns here for the first time since January, published at Spekk in 2004, with a work of production as a recluse. Isolated in his new place from life in the medium of wood, the American musician operates a fold on oneself sincere which gives to its music a rêveuse crystalline flesh, a new consistency which sticks to usual, minimal and granular lines musical. Thus, the depth appears here by the sensitive one than by the sensory one, as on a “Haze it may Be” which subtly appears narrative, cast in a tablecloth of light and floating noises. In this alleviating sphere, the instrumental sources, the guitar, the mélodica and especially the electric piano seem to dissolve naturally in contact with the field recordings, except on the ultimate piece, “November”, which joins again with some sounder frangible joints. With this disc, Taylor Deupree could bewitch your summer well. After that, it would not miss any more but it snows in July.

song of the day July 13, 2006

mogwai: “small children in the background”

new 12k cd…. Fourcolor July 9, 2006

today i posted the cover and a preview MP3 to the front of the 12k webpage for the new Fourcolor cd due out in august/september.

for those of you who like Fourcolor (or Minamo’s) work should be very happy with this release.. it takes Keiichi’s signature guitar tones to some slightly new areas with the addition of a bit more beat and rhythm and, on track 2, a special guest appearance by Piana on vocals.

also, for those with sharp eyes, you may notice a slight difference in the cd cover… with this release we’re starting a new digipack design on 12k releases in anticipation/celebration of 12k’s 10-year anniversary this coming January. i had the new design done and was too happy with it to hold it off until January…

the Fourcolor cd should be available in our online shop in about 4 weeks and in stores a bit after that after the summer vacation season is over…

click the image below to see the new cover full-sized.