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brettworks

thinking through music


  • August 15, 2025

    100 Bpm Dub

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    groovology, who cares if you listen?
  • August 13, 2025

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Ezekiel Honig’s “Broken Time Can Go In Many Directions” (2025)

    (Around 2002, when I was doing research for my dissertation, I saw Ezekiel Honig perform in a tiny bar on the lower east side. There were probably fifteen people at the set. At the time, performing electronic music using just a laptop and Ableton Live was a novel kind of musicianship. Honig’s music was built… Continue reading

    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • August 11, 2025

    Freeze Studies 12

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    Uncategorized
  • August 8, 2025

    Art As Search

    (Rembrandt, A Scholar in his Study, c. 1640s) In 1998, when Google introduced their proprietary Internet search engine, the definition of the word search shifted. Searching had long been a laborious process of seeking carefully and thoroughly for information and insight on a topic. It took a lot work, usually by an individual with a… Continue reading

    artists, asking questions
    AI, artificial-intelligence, technology
  • August 7, 2025

    Resonant Thoughts: Craig Mod’s “Things Become Other Things: A Walking Memoir” (2025)

    “Mostly, I remember anti-patterns. Teaching in what-not-to-dos” (29). “Although I’m walking roads, I’m also walking this map representing things beyond what we can see. A layering deeper and weirder than we ever dreamed” (53). “A series of astonishments” (56). “And so each time I walk these routes, these same paths, the conversations come back as… Continue reading

    anti-boredom, Resonant Thoughts
  • August 6, 2025

    Freeze Studies 6

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    Uncategorized
  • August 4, 2025

    Brett’s Sound Picks: Burial’s “Comafields” (2025)

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    Brett’s Sound Picks
  • August 1, 2025

    Curating The Week: Jaron Lanier On Musical Instruments, Spotify, Adam Gopnik On The Renaissance

    • An interview with Jaron Lanier about musical instruments. “To me, musical instruments are the best user interfaces that have ever been invented. If what you think a technology is for is to help a person affect the world with ever greater acuity, then musical instruments are the most advanced technologies that have ever existed.”… Continue reading

    Curating The Week
    art, music, reviews, technology, writing
  • July 31, 2025

    Fragments: Musical Advice

    Musical virtuosity and musicianship are not the same. The first is obvious and focuses on Me, while the second is subtle and dissolves into Us. The first iteration of a series of pieces is often the most interesting, because you don’t yet know what you’re doing. Preserve that naïveté. You don’t have to know all… Continue reading

    fragments
  • July 30, 2025

    Database: Oklou On Loops

    “…take as the basis of the tracks this idea of a loop that I could be listening to forever. Just because I think it sounds close to perfection. Shorter patterns and this idea of a cycle repeating itself forever and ever, and how I can build a pop song on top of that.” Oklou database… Continue reading

    database
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Thomas Brett is a musician and writer who holds a PhD in ethnomusicology from New York University. He is the author of Principles of Electronic Music Production and The Creative Electronic Music Producer, a book described by Sound On Sound magazine as “a deep philosophical analysis of the various creative inspirations, ideas and processes involved in producing electronic music.” His essays have appeared in the journals Popular Music and Popular Music and Society, as well as edited collections by Routledge, Oxford, and Cambridge University presses. Thomas has played percussion on Broadway since 1997 and writes about music at brettworks.com.

Recent Posts

  • Curating The Week: Blogging, Music and Truth-Telling, Memory
  • Resonant Thoughts: Daniel Poppick’s “The Copywriter” (2026)
  • Brett’s Sound Picks: Shane Parish/Autechre’s “Maetl” (2026/1993)
  • Aftertouch
  • Database: Jennifer Loveless On The Quality Of First Takes

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