brettworks

thinking through music

November 6, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. A must-see video in which the jazz pianist Bill Evans discusses how to approach making music. “They would rather approximate the entire problem than take a small part of it and be real and true about it.” 2. A video in which the Turkish musician Gorkem Sen demonstrates his remarkable-sounding acoustic instrument. “The vibrations from… Continue reading

Curating The Week
November 4, 2014

On Using Voices To Sell

For a few years now I’ve noticed TV commercials using the voices of well-known actors to advertise services and products. I started paying attention to these voices during the 2012 Summer Olympics. It was an ad for VISA, and the reassuring, trustworthy voice was that of Morgan Freeman: There are other examples too. In an… Continue reading

advertising

Esurance, John Krasinski, Matt Damon, Morgan Freeman, Ty Burrell, Verizon
October 29, 2014

Alan Watts On Resonance As Consciousness

In his book The Tao of Philosophy, Alan Watts (1915-1973) talks about resonance as a form of consciousness: “when I tap on this crystal, which is glass, it makes a noise. Now that resonance is an extremely primitive form of consciousness…when you hit a bell it rings, or you touch a crystal and it responds,… Continue reading

resonance, Small Thoughts

Alan Watts, crystal, resonance
October 27, 2014

A Spontaneous Conversation About The Pragmatics Of Creativity

“How did you make this?” “I made it through making a series of small decisions, one after the other.” “Oh. But how did you know which direction to go in?” “Each moment prompted a small decision in need of making, which in turn suggested a path forward along which to travel.” “Did it take a… Continue reading

Spontaneous Conversations
October 25, 2014

An Article About Electronic Music Fandom

My article “Autechre and Electronic Music Fandom: Performing Knowledge Online through Techno-Geek Discourses,” is available in the journal Popular Music and Society. You can view an abstract of the article here. Continue reading

articles

Electronic Music Fandom, Popular Music and Society
October 22, 2014

On Creative Constraints: Inhabiting The Midrange In Music

A few years ago I bought a pair of monitors for my computer for working on music. Since limited desk space was a consideration, I chose a small size: the woofer speaker on each monitor is only about 4 inches in diameter. The sound of the monitors is uncommonly rich and powerful though, with a… Continue reading

bass materialism, musings
October 16, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An article about editing in electronic music. “For me, making an edit is like going on vacation. It’s a way of getting out of your head, your usual creative process, and just doing something totally different.” 2. A brief article about why we listen to sad music when we’re sad. “Listeners identify with the… Continue reading

Curating The Week

creative process, electronic music
October 15, 2014

Notes On Tiger C. Roholt’s “Groove: a phenomenology of rhythmic nuance”

Tiger C. Roholt’s Groove: a phenomenology of rhythmic nuance is a splendid, rigorous, and brief (140 pp) book that makes a compelling case for something many musicians already know something about: groove. Groove is the feel of a rhythm–that quality of musical time that can make it seem as though the music is pushing ahead… Continue reading

book reviews, groovology

Groove, Maurice Merleau-Ponty, phenomenology, Tiger C. Roholt
October 10, 2014

Curating The Week: Music-Related Stuff On The Internet

1. An article about fade-outs in popular music. “…the fade-out allows a song to live on beyond its physical self; the listener senses that it never truly ends.” 2. A video of a musician using an Elektron Octarack to improvise electronic music. 3. A video about a drummer who imitates machine-made patterns. “People started to program things that… Continue reading

Curating The Week

physical self, popular music
October 3, 2014

On Peter Mendelsund’s “What We See When We Read”

Peter Mendelsund’s What We See When We Read: A Phenomenology With Illustrations is a remarkable study of perception in the experience of reading. Just his book’s title suggests, Mendelsund explores what exactly it is that we “see” in our minds eye when we read. It’s an interesting question or set of questions really–What do we… Continue reading

book reviews, perception, phenomenology

Peter Mendelsund

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.