Tag Archives: promo

CA056P: Future Security Agency | Partial Decryptions

A statement from Clan Analogue regarding recently decrypted data

On July 25th 2021, Clan Analogue were contacted by an anonymous source asking for assistance in decrypting a unique dataset. The source and their backers were seemingly unable to decrypt it themselves, so came to Clan Analogue for our expertise in both data and music. They were seeking music technicians.

Despite their scepticism, our IT team agreed to look into it, assembling an entirely-airgapped rack server constrained within a Faraday cage to safely examine the data without risk of wider network contamination.

The patterns that emerged did indeed match those of audio encoding frameworks, albeit an ultra-high resolution quantum audio format that we haven’t yet encountered. Furthermore, certain recurring temporal patterning indicated a correlation with music.

At this point, our source stopped communicating, leaving us with a warning that the data could be dangerous. “Yeah, it was pretty weird,” says Clan Analogue Label Manager Nick Wilson. “Possibly they were in fear of some kind of retribution. But we realised this was potentially interesting music. We just needed help to turn it into something we could hear.”

A team of Clan Analogue’s most adaptable and innovative artists were handpicked for the decryption effort. Their mission – to reconstruct these waveforms within the perceivable part of the audible frequency spectrum. These select artists were Chamberz, Tim Marcus Moore, Kable54, Reductionist and GJ Hannah. Each was given a discrete portion of the data to reconstruct as best they could.

Clan Analogue’s IT Manager Duncan Robertson tells us: “The team and I haven’t yet been able to completely decode the data… however we’ve partially decrypted it into quite a listenable format. I think of it as a four-dimensional jigsaw puzzle, extremely detailed but perhaps impossible to completely solve. If you squint your eyes, it’s actually quite beautiful.”

One other potentially significant piece of information emerged from the decryption process. Initially discarded as noise, it was realised that a piece of corrupt tri-code was actually some kind of metadata stamping algorithm. After applying several Fourier transform equations, the name Future Security Agency became apparent, along with an image. Possibly this is a key to the data’s original source.

In the interests of transparency, Clan Analogue have elected to make these Partial Decryptions available to our listeners via our Bandcamp page. We are sure you will join us in thanking Chamberz, Tim Marcus Moore, Kable54, Reductionist and GJ Hannah in their unparalleled efforts to make this audio perceivable to you.

Please note that we have been warned of potential danger arising from this data. Proceed at your own risk.

Many questions, however, remain:

  • What does ‘Future Security Agency’ mean?
  • Could the data ever be completely decoded into its purest form?
  • Why did the source disappear and warn of danger? 
  • Who or what created the original data, and why?

If you have information to offer, please contact us urgently.

Update: after further testing we have made this audio available through additional streaming and download channels.

Decryption List:
Decryption 1: tūūvv t l reconstructed by Chamberz
Decryption 2: ganrdo l reconstructed by Tim Marcus Moore
Decryption 3: lifea new l reconstructed by Kable54
Decryption 4: head rigdt l reconstructed by Reductionist
Decryption 5: blonli08i1 l reconstructed by GJ Hannah

30 Years of Clan Analogue in 2022

Clan Analogue are celebrating their 30th anniversary in 2022, with events organised for the Melbourne Fringe Festival in October and some great new releases scheduled for later in the year.

For those not in the know, Clan Analogue is a collective of artists focused on electronic music, sound art and associated art forms such as DJing and video art. The collective formed in 1992 in Sydney, by artists motivated by lack of support for live electronic music in the city’s then rock-oriented live music culture. The DIY ethos of an artist-run collective allowed members to pool resources and develop a range of projects, including live events and music releases in diverse areas of electronic music and art. From Sydney, Clan Analogue spread its branches to other cities throughout Australia as the 1990s progressed. Clan Analogue artists are now active in electronic music scenes all over the globe.

There are so many highpoints in Clan Analogue’s history that it is difficult to know where to start. The Clan Analogue Live at the Goethe Institut improvised music and video performance from 1994, released on VHS cassette and now part of the permanent collection at the Sydney Powerhouse Museum? The Intone: Voice Abstractions compilation, exploring experimental processing of the human voice, shortlisted for the Australian Art Music Award for Excellent in Experimental Music in 2015? Underground electronic hits by Disco Stu and B(if)tek from the late 90s and early 2000s, which were amongst Triple-J’s most-requested songs of the era? Michael Mildren’s 12-hour non-stop live performance at Bar 303 in 2016’s Melbourne Fringe? Or the 2014 Gear Shift series of monthly electronic music jam sessions at Loop in Melbourne’s CBD, with dozens of participating artists over the course of the year? Maybe 2020’s Lockdown Drone Live streamed via Twitch, with eight artists collaborating on an epic improvised drone set from home studios in Melbourne, Sydney and Canada? Or one of countless other highlights? Let the fans and music historians debate!

For some historical background on Clan Analogue check out The Early Years and The Middle Years for what went down in the 1990s and early 2000s. We will be updating the historical record with more details as we continue through this epochal year. Stay tuned!

Limited Edition TB-303 t-shirts

The Roland TB-303 has been an inspirational instrument for Clan Analogue artists since Clan’s beginnings in the early 90s. Sadly this limited edition t-shirt design has now sold out, so consider yourself lucky if you have one!

If you would like a 303-themed t-shirt, we recommend you check out our Cognition 303 t-shirt design, which comes with or without the Cognition 303 release.

Check out Clan Analogue Bandcamp store for all our merch options.

Become a Clan Analogue member

Clan Analogue is a not-for-profit incorporated association. We are registered in Victoria (as we are required legally to be registered in one Australian state).

Clan Analogue members produce new music, remixes, video art, podcasts, blogs, radio programmes, installations and live events which maintain a constant presence of original and innovative electronic music and related art in the public headspace.

We welcome members who are active in electronic music in Australia or who have some association with Australian electronic music. This could be through your own practice in electronic music or because you are an interested supporter of Australian independent electronic music.

As a member you get kudos for being a paid-up part of Australia’s longest-running electronic music collective. You are also entitled to vote at our AGMs and to be involved in decision-making for new projects, including releases and events.

Pay your Clan Analogue membership fee of $5:

Please use the above Paypal link to pay your membership fee. We will be in touch with more details on how you can participate as a member in Clan Analogue activities.

If you are happy to put more than $5 towards the Clan Analogue cause, please consider making a donation.

CA055M: Ming One | Addiction

Ming One’s dopamine-inspired Techno EP Addiction!

From 1990s teenage record store junkie to regular DJ at warehouse parties and clubs, Ming One has been a dedicated stalwart of Melbourne’s techno scene over the last two decades. After contributions to the recent Analogue Redux and Mobile Strategies compilations, Ming One has now produced his first artist release on the Clan Analogue label – the Addiction EP.

With six tracks and three remixes, Addiction celebrates all things techno – a musical style which has provided constant inspiration to artists throughout Clan Analogue’s history as Australia’s most legendary electronic music collective. Ming One unleashes his addictive personality on the styles heard pounding from Melbourne soundsystems over the years in a beat-driven journey across the techno soundscape.

Buy album from Beatport

Addiction opens with the melodic and EDM-inspired “Out of CPU”, merging into a progressive techno remix by Ollie Lee, another illustrious presence in Melbourne’s techno scene. “Segment” gives us stripped-back minimal techno before Addiction moves into techno breakbeat with “Aesia Break”. “Transition” explores a tech-trance direction, then “The Bells” takes us into the terrain of IDM-influenced sound. Perth’s Times of the Sines provides an electro breakbeat remix while “Galaga” is an acid techno monster, upping the adrenaline as the EP moves to a climax and concludes with a frenetic glitch-inspired remix by Melbourne breakcore hacker Aday.

Addiction has been forged in the fires of Melbourne techno. Bring on the rave wherever and whenever you party. Enjoy the sounds of Addiction.

Buy CD direct from Clan Analogue:

Addiction is available from Clan Analogue in streaming, download and limited edition CD formats.

Buy from iTunes

Track Listing
1. Out of CPU
2. Out of CPU (Ollie Lee’s DSP UpMix)
3. Segment
4. Aesia Break
5. Transition
6. The Bells
7. The Bells (Times of the Sines Remix)
8. Galaga
9. Segment (Aday Remix)

Originally released in 2021

CA054: Distance: Sounds for an Empty Space | Various Artists

The expanse, the microcosm, consciousness, time…

Drones can represent those aspects of existence that seem too large or abstract to fully comprehend. Drone music gives a sense of both stasis and evolution. It provides a space for contemplation, enables a moment of oneness with the universe.

Over the last year Clan Analogue’s artists have looked within to find renewed sonic purpose. The result is Distance: Sounds for an Empty Space: ten drone compositions blending noise and meditation in equal measure.

Each artist provides their own unique sounds for an empty space. Sectoral’s epic modular synth perambulation is an inner journey through imagined empty streets in our cities.  iubar project explores empathy with harsh ambience; Jennifer Lea’s contribution is a sonic blanket in a field. Nicole Skeltys creates a soundscape to accompany a monologue for a dying financial system. Michael Mildren builds on the epic synth drones of early 70s German electronic pioneers.

The sounds explored on Distance range from field recordings, to analogue synthesizers, ipad digitisation to modded antique computer soundcards.

City Frequencies sample and rework the noises cluttering cities in frequency ranges beyond our hearing. Zogam experiments with time-stretched guitar drones while WiLL-i-ROMS rewires the soundcards from early 80s arcade games to improvise layers of digital noise. Kazumichi Grime allows unconstrained pure oscillator tones and white noise hisses to build up into a wall of distortion and conflicting harmonics.

Download album from Juno Download

All the Clan Analogue artists contributing to Distance were encouraged to work free of any constraints of time or format. The result is the legendary Australian electronic music collective’s most abstract and expansive music yet.

Buy from iTunes

Distance will be available on all major music streaming platforms. A limited edition cassette set with drone-friendly tape hiss is available now from Bandcamp. 

Track list:

  1. figital l welcome to the future (part 1)
  2. iubar project l Empathy in Action
  3. Jennifer Lea l 13
  4. Sectoral l Spooksteeg Brug
  5. WiLL-i-ROMS l Boot Carpet
  6. City Frequencies l The Interests of Entities
  7. Nicole Skeltys and Bill Garrett l Old School
  8. Zogam l Artisanal Hand Sanitiser
  9. Kazumichi Grime l Trinity
  10. Michael Mildren l Process Four

CA053: Mobile Strategies | Various Artists

Clan Analogue presents Mobile Strategies: Battery-Powered Sonics

Clan Analogue’s new compilation album Mobile Strategies: Battery-Powered Sonics is a survey of international mobile music making. Whether using cheap portable synths, boutique miniature noise-making gadgets or apps on the phone or tablet, making mobile electronic music is expanding the possibilities of music creation and performance, turning the train ride into a production session, turning the local park into a studio.

Download album from Juno Download

Mobile Strategies includes contributions from music producers located on 3 continents and using a broad-range of mobile setups. The album’s 19 tracks include contributions from Tame Impala’s drummer Barbagallo, Germany’s prominent mobile music proponent Perplex On and the Melbourne-based KOshowKO who has pioneered venue-specific live audience sampling with the use of iPads.

A growing trend among the community of music producers is a return to the tactile experience of music creation tools and a focus on hardware that reduces the reliance on desktop systems. The different feel of mobile technologies impact upon the way producers choose to engage with particular formats. Portable technologies empower producers to redefine their methods of music creation in the contemporary digital space.

The mobile technologies used on the album range from the vintage TB 303, TR 606 and Casio SK-1 instruments used by Australian electronic act Rantzen & Spinoglio, through to a Gameboy Micro running custom software used by chr15m + Fenris to the latest invention by Teenage Engineering, their OP-Z sequencer, utilised by Perplex On in a nature-inspired, glitchy and bass heavy track produced during a hike in the Bavarian countryside.

Buy from iTunes

The album is available on all major music streaming platforms. There is also a special Bandcamp edition of the album, featuring a digital booklet detailing used equipment as well as the creative process behind each track. Customers who purchase the album on Bandcamp will also access a special folder with 6 bonus tracks not available elsewhere.

Mobile Strategies Executive Producer Martin Koszolko explains “Why a Mobile Music album?“

Track list:

  1. Barbagallo l Trek6
  2. KOshowKO l Neaty + Tidy
  3. Starpause l Curious Crochet
  4. Perplex On l First Warm Sunbeams
  5. Decorate With Skulls l Tides
  6. Ming One l Protégé Four
  7. chr15m & fenris l Yeah
  8. Damiano l London City
  9. 477 l Shytcunstepator
  10. Лучи Мечты l Oculist Conspiracy
  11. Grey Nest l JVOIGT
  12. maN Oeuvre l Her BastarD
  13. Rantzen & Spinoglio l Sniffer Dogs
  14. theultravisitor l Am That
  15. BLEO l Full-Featured
  16. Yoshima Petrosyan l Nonza
  17. Planet Nowhere l Elevator Woman
  18. Aday l Pressures Touch
  19. Globotom l Es ist zu spät
  20. Alex J Wise l Place of No Time [bonus track on Bandcamp only]
  21. Mono Tono l Night in Sirolo (Personal Itaka) [bonus track on Bandcamp only]
  22. Jeff Henry l Another Bedtime Story [bonus track on Bandcamp only]
  23. Pantsofdeath l Ophendid [bonus track on Bandcamp only]
  24. The Tuesday Night Machines l Butterbrot [bonus track on Bandcamp only]
  25. Tristan Burfield l Pole Position [bonus track on Bandcamp only]

CA049C: Michael Mildren | Process 3: Free Electronic

Michael Mildren launches the third Process album: Free Electronic
CA049C

Melbourne electronic music virtuoso Michael Mildren releases the third in his epic Process series of mini-albums, with Process 3: Free Electronic. Free Electronic follows on from Process 1: Studies in Kraft, where Michael recreated the music of Kraftwerk, and Process 2: Post-Kraft, where Michael applied the lessons of Kraftwerk’s production methodology to his own original work. Whereas Process 1 and Process 2 releases were created within tightly-specified musical parameters, with Process 3: Free Electronic, Michael explores a free-form improvisational aesthetic, largely discarding drum machines and utilising his live improvisational skills to create a selection of extended freeform pieces of atmospheric and kaleidoscopic nature.

Buy from iTunes

Download album from Bandcamp
Download from Bandcamp

Process 3: Free Electronic aims to reconcile two seemingly opposed ideas – complete creative freedom in the moment versus the machinelike nature of electronic music technology. To achieve this, Michael drew inspiration from many sources. In the 1960s, free jazz artists such as Ornette Coleman and John Coltrane aimed to jettison restrictive musical structures and express themselves directly from the subconscious. In the early 1970s German electronic artists such as Tangerine Dream and Cluster experimented with early sequencers to develop a “motorik” style, where the rhythmic momentum was driven by arpeggiated synth patterns rather than conventional drumbeats. And more recently, Michael Mildren performed an epic 12-hour improvised set in the 2016 Melbourne Fringe Festival entitled Music Non-Stop where he was able to explore this freeform approach to electronic music performance.

To create Process 3 Michael utilised his extensive collection of classic electronic instruments, ranging from new Arturia synths to rare vintage items like the Farfisa String Orchestra, Roland SH1000 and Korg Poly-800. The results are a stunning collection of extended electronic pieces that are evocative, meditative and suggestive of an undefined narrative yet to be written. Michael’s experience with electronic music goes back over several decades, his virtuosity allowing him to draw inspiration directly from his machines without the interruption of conscious thought – the ideal of Free Electronic.

Process 1: Studies In Kraft and Process 2: Post-Kraft from Michael Mildren are also available now from Clan Analogue. Process 3 will be launched at Swamplands, 744 High St Thornbury, on Saturday the 22nd of September at Analogue Processes, part of the Melbourne Fringe Festival.

Track list:
1. Submersive
2. Incoming
3. 300 Below
4. Siren
5. Space Dust
6. VHS
7. String Theory
8. South-Southwest

CA047B: Reuben Ingall & David Finnigan | The Bolted Report (Special Edition)

After Kill Climate Deniers comes The Bolted Report

“Ah, Canberra. Plenty of bong for your buck. Drug-addled politicians. Drugged kids reading ‘Kill Climate Deniers’. This is lower than the original town of Acton, sunk beneath the lake this last century.”

To commemorate the successful season of the Kill Climate Deniers theatrical production at Griffin Theatre in 2018, Clan Analogue are pleased to release the new Special Edition of Ingall and Finnigan’s EP The Bolted Report. Along with the original version of ‘Bolted’ (in both extended album version and radio edit form) comes four remixes of ‘Bolted’ exploring the philosophy of Bolt and his followers through the prism of a range of electronic and dance music styles, from classic late-80s techno to the hippest bounce sounds to leftfield experimental dronescapes.

When Andrew Bolt heard that some lucrative arts funding was going towards a possibly subversive theatre show called Kill Climate Deniers, telling the story of an explosive attack on Parliament House by a group of eco-terrorists, he wasted no time in unleashing his blog readership to vent their vitriol. Reuben Ingall and David Finnigan took the assorted ensuing rantings and incorporated them into the single ‘Bolted’ from their concept album Kill Climate Deniers, released in 2016 by Clan Analogue.

Following on from the album’s release Clan Analogue are pleased to follow up with Ingall and Finnigan’s new EP The Bolted Report. Along with the original version of ‘Bolted’ (in both extended album version and radio edit form) comes four remixes of ‘Bolted’ exploring the philosophy of Bolt and his followers through the prism of a range of electronic and dance music styles, from classic late-80s techno to modern bounce.

Download album from Bandcamp
Download from Bandcamp

Buy from iTunes

When EMF mainman James Atkin heard that Kill Climate Deniers was soundtracked by classic dancefloor bangers from the late-80s and early-90s he jumped on board with full house piano riffs blazing to provide his ‘Unbelievable’ remix.

Wade Clarke, the genius behind Aeriae, provides a hyperkinetic IDM mix under his new side project alias Profound Actor.

Electronica despot Future Conduits cracks open Bolt’s skull with his FUKD & BOMBD mix, sliding 90’s drug hysteria into KCD’s modern climate concerns.
Reuben Ingall gets bouncy as Dead DJ Joke with his tangential revisit.

Iubar Project stretch and mangle the blustering verbiage of Bolt and his acolytes in a sonic attempt to explore their innermost thought processes.

And Clan Analogue luminary Nicole Skeltys, formerly of B(if)tek, and her collaborator Robin Hemmings give us a new take on the Kill Climate Deniers album track ‘Tumblr Dot Com’. The original being far too catchy to improve on electronically, they went for a live reinterpretation, throwing in pathos, angst and howling harmonica.

The lyrics for ‘Bolted’ are derived from Andrew Bolt’s published writing on Kill Climate Deniers, and from the comments of his blog readership: “The Left is the natural home of the modern totalitarian – and of all those who feel entitled by their superior morality to act as savages.”

Visit http://killclimatedeniers.com for more information about Reuben Ingall and David Finnigan’s multimedia project Kill Climate Deniers. The Kill Climate Deniers album and the new Bolted Report EP are available through Clan Analogue at www.clananalogue.org

Tracklist:
1. Bolted (Radio Edit)
2. Bolted (James Atkin [EMF] Unbelievable Mix)
3. Bolted (Profound Actor Remix)
4. Bolted (FUKD & BOMBD Mix)
5. Bolted (Dead DJ Joke Mix)
6. Bolted (Iubar Project ‘High’ Remix)
7. Nicole Skeltys & Robin Hemmings – Tumbleweeds (After Tumblr Dot Com)
8. Tumblr Dot Com
9. Bolted (album version)

CA049B: Michael Mildren | Process 2: Post-Kraft

Melbourne electronic music virtuoso Michael Mildren continues his Process series of mini-albums with the second instalment, Post-Kraft. The Process series is Michael Mildren’s new collection of four mini-albums, each exploring a different facet of electronic music technique and artistic philosophy. Clan Analogue is releasing each instalment in the Process series monthly until early 2018, with Process 1: Studies In Kraft having been released recently.

Process 2: Post-Kraft follows on from Process 1: Studies in Kraft, in which Michael explored the music of Kraftwerk by replicating a selection of their greatest tracks with the equipment, techniques and musical mindset of these German electronic music pioneers. With Process 2: Post-Kraft, Michael Mildren has taken the lessons he learned through exploring Kraftwerk and applied them to eight new original compositions, all infused with the aura and consciousness of the German electronic pioneers. The result is a collection of songs which sound both classic and current, of interest to fans of Kraftwerk or to anyone who appreciates the sounds they inspired, whether new wave synth pop, Detroit techno, modern electro or the myriad of other electronic styles they spawned.

Buy from iTunes

Read What Michael Mildren Learned From Kraftwerk as he worked on the first two installments of the Process series.

Michael Mildren has made his mark with several acclaimed performances in the Melbourne Fringe Festival. These include his 2015 Men/Machine performance, where he reworked classic Kraftwerk tracks with vintage gear and period performance techniques, and more recently with Music Non-Stop, a stunning 12-hour improv set in 2016, where an array of guest performers augmented his layered atmospheres and propulsive rhythms throughout the sonic marathon.

Download album from Juno Downloads

Post-Kraft opens with the epic ‘Levels’, where Michael explores the development of electronic music from unfiltered noise through to manipulated drones before emerging into arpeggiated melodic polyphony and the propulsive rhythmic drive of the motorik German sound. ‘Like Me’ follows on with a song epitomising the machine-inspired pop of Kraftwerk’s late 70s style, with vocodered vocals and the theme of the effect of technology on human relationships.
‘GeoEngineering’ explores the early 80s Kraftwerk sound that inspired Detroit techno, with a minimalist take on a modern environmental issue. ‘This Is an Emergency’ pays homage to some of the slower, more contemplative tracks on Kraftwerk albums such as Autobahn and Radio-Activity. ‘Treading the Fine Line’ continues in the introspective vein, with a melodic reflection on existence before album closer ‘Meditation in G’.

Process 2: Post-Kraft from Michael Mildren is available now from Clan Analogue. Process 3 will be released this Summer.

Track list:
1. Levels
2. Like You
3. GeoEngineering
4. Satellite in the Sky
5. This Is An Emergency
6. Find Your Here
7. Treading the Fine Line
8. Meditation in G