Southbridge Slow Electronics && NUMBERS●FM

SELECTED HIGHLIGHTS FROM Southbridge Slow Electronics && NUMBERS●FM by jonCates && Jake Elliott (2008 - 2017)

Southbridge is the label for the musical genre of Slow Electronics circa 2009

Southbridge is the label for the musical genre of Slow Electronics. We are concerned with decoding and resisting crypto-fascist patriarchal Power Electronics. We believe in the process of slowness in terms of processing power, data streams and carefully considered recursions folding in on themselves through 'screeching waves of feedback, analogue synthesizers making sub-bass pulses or high frequency squealing sounds, and screamed, distorted, often engaged and relatively unknown lyrics.'

We consider most Power Electronics to be celebrations of structures of domina(nce|tion) and a performance of the open embrace of shadow self that often surfaces as a sort of "extreme" shadow play of sexual violence.

We read Power Electronics according to this interpretation and responding to it on those terms. We hope that this opens conversation, because while we are familiar with explanations by some Power Electronics artists of their intents and strategies we feel that on the whole these intents and strategies have a tendency to go largely unquestioned and spin out of the realm of open questions thru self-parody and into acquiescence.

This is one of the Southbridge points of origin. Another important vector we travel is concerned more with experimental strategies (for|of) slowness as a way to work+play between the cracks of various technologies, especially audio technologies. We use electromechanical sound + devices that can be slowed down i.e. the turntables we use for our radio show that go to -60% speed, obsolete software to modify playback in realtime to .01% speed, a speculative cassette player that can be cranked by hand, or the 'southbridge' on a computer motherboard which connects the processor to the 'slow electronics' like the snd card + keyboard...

UPCOMING RELEASES

?Live/Recording by jonCates && Jake Elliott is the first release on Southbridge, a 12" limited edition vinyl in handmade packaging, available in Fall 2009.

Lisa Slodki (aka Noise Crush, of collaborations with HAPTIC and The Fortieth Day) will be releasing a new solo VHS-based audio/video work on Southbridge.

Lori Felker (of collaborations with Cotton Museum, Weasel Walter and others on her Bild Quilt DVD) will be releasing a new solo 16mm film projector-based audio/visual work on Southbridge.

Slow Electronics Field Recordings Compilations are forthcoming compilations of slow electronics based on interpretations of the experimental subgenres of micro.crowd, electro-acoustic, academic research and Artware. The Slow Electronics Field Recordings Compilation series will be released on various Dead Media formats such as ZIP disks and JAZZ drives in highly exclusive limited runs.

If you are working in the genre of Slow Electronics, please contact us

glitch●fm Southbridge Slow Electronics Show (2009 - 2012)

We were extremely stoked to receive an application from these two world touring ambient sound-collage artists who bring forth music anywhere from beautiful melodic soundscapes to lushus techno. They'll be taking a deliciously chilled Sunday afternoon slot!

2009 Biography

"Southbridge is the label for the musical genre of Slow Electronics. We are concerned with decoding and resisting crypto-fascist patriarchal Power Electronics. We believe in the process of slowness in terms of processing power, data streams and carefully considered recursions folding in on themselves through 'screeching waves of feedback, analogue synthesizers making sub-bass pulses or high frequency squealing sounds, and screamed, distorted, often engaged and relatively unknown lyrics.'

Southbridge DJs are Jake Elliott and jonCates. Jake and Jon have been performing and DJing in the international noise, new media art and techno communities since the 20th century, including shows in Chicago, New York, Mexico City, Linz, Montreal and Beijing."

glitch●fm Southbridge Slow Electronics Show Description

"A weekly broadcast of Slow Electronics - measured sounds in active inversion of misogynist+fascist Power Electronics. The grind of disused VHS decks, turntables at -500%, low-power high-impact wall-of-drone solutions."

NUMBERS●FM (2012 - 2017)

FROM THE NUMBERS●FM FAREWELL LETTER:

“NUMBERS●FM passes into the twilight of this good night”

NUMBERS●FM has been a labor of love which we were happy to underwrite, run and offer freely to folks for the duration of its existence. while we never directly profited economically from the project, we were happy to be able to share it with you, to facilitate making it available for you as a platform and as a way for you to share your work with the worlds.”

Interview with Jake Elliot and jonCates - NUMBERS●FM by Evan X. Merz for COMPUTERMUSICBLOG●COM (11/29/2011)

CMB: Jake & Jon, Thanks for doing the interview. Feel free to answer or ignore any questions you like. I will only edit your answers for grammar and maybe cut the entire thing down to fit in a blog post.

Why? Why start this sort of radio station right now? What was the inspiration?

jCJE: The name of the station comes from those so-called “numbers stations,” shortwave radio broadcasts of people reading lists of numbers -- probably encrypted dispatches to spies -- that have been going on for the last 70 years or so.? The messages in those broadcasts are encrypted using a technique mathematically provable to be impossible to decipher, so stumbling across one is an encounter with some human-generated but ultimately unknowable audio composition, something that really blows our minds and reminds us a bit of experiences we’ve had discovering experimental music and sound art.

More directly, we are inspired by our experiences on glitch●fm where we do a weekly radio show from the perspective of our label Southbridge Slow Electronics. We are really into a lot of what happens on glitch.fm but also we wanted to pursue a more open and experimental format, such as those used on radio stations like WZRD, the Wizard, in Chicago. We started to think of online stations such as rand()% (which was an automated net.radio station streaming realtime generative music) and Resonance. We also draw from our experiences with online platforms for Noise or Glitch musics such as furthernoise and microsound. As we discussed all this we imagined an actual “numbers station” that would also feature experimental shows.

CMB: How does this project relate to Southbridge Slow Electronics? What other groups are involved with Numbers●FM? How is it funded?

jCJE: Southbridge Slow Electronics is the record label we run, and also “Slow Electronics” is a genre we set out deliberately to create at the intersections of experimental Media Art and Noise. Southbridge has released a limited edition 7” vinyl by LORI Felker called Light Makes Music, a 16mm film projector-based audio/visual work and we will be releasing a limited edition VHS videotape artwork from Lisa Slodki (aka Noise Crush).

Many of the folks who will be performing and DJing on NUMBERS●FM are artists connected to Southbridge or who we’ve met through our long-term involvement in noise & experimental music scenes, i.e. here in Chicago. Also there’s a way in which Southbridge’s existence as both an experimental music project and a conceptual/media art project is something we really want to keep pushing with NUMBERS●FM, and create a platform for artists who have that same kind of sensibility.

CMB: You have quite a list of hosts on the main page. Who are these people and what sorts of shows will they be running? What will differentiate the shows? How do the hosts pick the music they will play?

jCJE: They are, as we suggested, artists we know through our label Southbridge or we know and have worked with in the noise & experimental music scenes. For example, Lampo is a nonprofit presenter of experimental music and intermedia events, based in Chicago. Lampo presents international artists performing in special events of music's leading innovators. We have begun to work with Lampo, streaming live from their events. Similarly, ENEMY is a venue for Noise, Free Jazz and avant guard Electronic Art in Chicago. Founded by Jason Soliday in 2005, ENEMY has hosted performances by international artists for almost 7 years now. We are also working with ENEMY to broadcast from events as well as having Jason Soliday perform/DJ on NUMBERS●FM.

CMB: What is slow electronics? The answer on the southbridge site is pretty cryptic. What is “crypto-fascist patriarchal Power Electronics” and how does slow electronics relate to that?

jCJE: Slow Electronics is a genre that we set out explicitly to define and produce within the record label Southbridge.? It’s about playing “slow” noise music -- records at 0.01% speed, sonic events that take a lifetime to ensue, processes that are too simple to codify but take too long to repeat -- and also about “slowness” as an inversion of the claim to “power” in the genre Power Electronics, which we consider to be a theater of misogyny and fascism. So one thing we do is these Slow Electronics “remixes” of Power Electronics records -- usually playing them slowly and/or backwards & thru other processing.

CMB: My experimental electroacoustic music station on Pandora doesn't always work so well. Can a radio station like numbers●fm succeed when listeners all have such different views on what electroacoustic music is?

jCJE: Pandora works great for music that has really mass appeal, where it’s possible to think “I’m looking for something light-hearted with guitars and lyrics about broken promises” (the kind of categories Pandora uses to sort its music catalog and relate tracks to one another) and still come up with something that two people could agree upon just by virtue of having a huge pool of listeners to draw from and pluck some consensus out of.? But stuff like noise music, weird dance music sub-genres, sound art, etc. is much more niche and so individual voices, tastes and other quirks are all above the noise floor.? So this kind of more bespoke, handcrafted -- not to mention live -- approach is much more natural to the kind of music & sound we’re all invested in.

CMB: Going forward, how is numbers●fm going to change and expand?

jCJE: Right now we’re figuring out our process, getting all the tech in place and documenting it for new DJs, and generally finding our voice.? We have a handful of shows scheduled to start with that we’re totally thrilled about, and look forward to building that roster out as we go.? We also hope to do some weird stuff with the station as a platform for our own mysterious encrypted broadcasts and we already have all the code for the station’s online platform (for the playlist/archive tools & and website) available openly: https://github.com/jakevsrobots/NUMBERS.FM

CMB: Do either of you have any projects in the works that the EA music community on the internet should be waiting for? What are you guys working on?

jCJE: Lisa Slodki’s limited edition VHS videotape artwork on Southbridge is coming up next on our label. Lisa also works under the name Noise Crush with the band The Fortieth Day and under her own name with the band Haptic. She is a Chicago-based artist who has exhibtited at the Museum of Contemporary Art, Chicago with Haptic. She makes VHS tapes as individual "loops" with samples on them taken from her own and other sources. During live performances she runs a series of VCR's through mixers in an analog video world! Her work is flowing and slow-moving video which has been referred to by reviewers as dissonant, hypnotic and haunting emotional states, so we’re really looking forward to that!

NUMBERS●FM NOTES - jonCates, circa 2010, Austria

dark delays decay grinding away in waves of feedback & fragments from timestretched transatlantic noise networks haunted by digital/analog ghosts whispering in the unknown drones of machine kunst

NUMBERS●FM PERFORMANCES by ARTISTS

Lori Felker, Lee Blalock; Jason Soliday; Jeff Kolar; stAllio; Keith Fullerton Whitman; Fujui Wang; C. Spencer Yeh; Nullsleep; Martin Howse; Camilla Ha; DRAINOLITH; REGRESSION; Violet Systems / Entro MC; Shawn Decker; Thomas Ankersmit; Matt Carlson; Ethan Rose; Cracked Ray Tube; John Kannenberg; Julia Miller; Cole Pierce; The Drum; Ultrademon; Darkthrone; Neil Jendon; and many more?

NUMBERS●FM PARTNERSHIPS with

GLI●TC/H, the original Glitch Art Festivals of Noise && Dirty New Media in Chicago featuring Rosa Menkman; ENEMY; Sonic Acts Festival; Experimental Sound Studio; LAMPO; Stasisfield; Neutral Ground Contemporary Art Forum; Neon Marshmallow Festival; etc…