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Mickey Hart to release new album


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http://www.sfchronicle.com/music/article/Dead-s-Hart-releases-long-in-making-album-12326624.php

 

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My job is to make new music,” he says. “Normally I don’t make rules, but this time I laid down some guidelines: no bass, no keyboards, no cowbells and only a few tom-tom fills.”

 

In the works since well before Fare Thee Well, Hart’s new album is the fruition of a technological marvel he has been building for more than 30 years called “RAMU” or Random Access Musical Universe. “It’s a digital work station,” he explains, “a sound droid.”

 

Operated through a bewildering array of knobs, sliders, switches, pipes and pads to bang on, “RAMU” contains a gigantic database of samples Hart has collected since the ’60s. Every drum in his huge collection has been sampled — and his collection is epic (he once shipped an entire container full of percussion instruments from Indonesia, and a portion of his holdings was displayed at the San Francisco International Airport in 2000).

 

He also collaborated with astrophysicists several years ago. Using radio telescopes, the scientists captured light from stars millions of miles away and Hart transposed the signals into noise using the astrophysicists’ supercomputers, a process he calls “sonification.”And he’s been actively involved for some time in neuroscience research relating to rhythm and the brain. He is a long way from Gene Krupa.

 

The combination of advancing technology and his increasing skills at operating the complicated system allowed him to create this unique sonic space he inhabits on “RAMU.” “Now I can dance with this like never before,” he says. “I am smarter. The instruments are smarter.”

 

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"Everything in the universe is ... is ... is made of one element, which is a note, a single note. Atoms are really vibrations, you know, which are extensions of THE BIG NOTE ... Everything's one note. Everything, even the ponies. The note, however, is the ultimate power, but see, the pigs don't know that, the ponies don't know that ..."

 

Spider: We are ... actually the same note, but ...

John: But different octave.
Spider: Right. We are 4,928 octaves below the big note.
Monica: Are ya ... are you trying to tell me that ... that this whole universe revolves around one note?
Spider: No, it doesn't revolve around it; that's what it is. It's one note.

Spider: Everybody knows that lights are notes. Light, light, is just a vibration of the note, too. Everything is.
Monica: That one note makes everything else so insignificant.

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11 hours ago, christopher3393 said:

 

Vedanta? Chandogya Upanishad?

 

The idea of the transcendental nature of sound can be found in different spiritual teachings or practices. The Vedanda and the Upanishads are philosophical systems that offer explanations with the help of reason, logic, and the like.

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  • 2 weeks later...
25 minutes ago, AnotherSpin said:

 

71-74 were great years. But, are you going to dismiss 77 for instance?

Not a big fan of '77....Even Cornell over rated.. Seems like about when opioids kicked in..

 

Grateful Dead drummers always kinda weak. Imagine with a power drummer like Bonham!

 

That double attack was as Jerry said on occasion like a popcorn machine!

 

R44

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18 hours ago, Rounder44 said:

Not a big fan of '77....Even Cornell over rated.. Seems like about when opioids kicked in..

 

Grateful Dead drummers always kinda weak. Imagine with a power drummer like Bonham!

 

That double attack was as Jerry said on occasion like a popcorn machine!

 

R44

 

Drumming is not about power, imho. Two drummers and their interplay with each other and band members is one of the most unique features of Dead. No other band in rock music come anywhere close to this rhythmic wealth, easiness and variety. Dead+Bonham? Mmm, let me unread it. I am a big fan of 77 and many other years. While I love 72 or 73, I wouldn't like to skip any other period.

 

Cornell is a true gem, imho again.

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On 11/21/2017 at 7:41 AM, AnotherSpin said:

 

Drumming is not about power, imho. Two drummers and their interplay with each other and band members is one of the most unique features of Dead. No other band in rock music come anywhere close to this rhythmic wealth, easiness and variety. Dead+Bonham? Mmm, let me unread it. I am a big fan of 77 and many other years. While I love 72 or 73, I wouldn't like to skip any other period.

 

Cornell is a true gem, imho again.

I don't hate 77 by any means it was just too much of the Terrapin kinda darker IMO. Things started to become formulaic about that time too.

 

Well not Bonham specifically but Billy and Mickey would forget their purpose; rock solid foundation. On recordings always weirdly mixed too. Popcorn machine! 

 

I think if they had more of a power drummer who just nailed the beat instead of trying to explore like the rest the rest would have gone further.

 

They never had any personality either. Bonham, Moon, Baker et al you know when you hear them. Heck Baker would have been the one! He knew how to swing, play power AND keep the rock solid beat! Look what he did for Cream.

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I wouldn't think what Dead or any member(s) of them "missed" ("rock solid foundation", etc.) and I found any comparisons of them with others futile. For me it is more than enough to hear what make them unique. Their rhythmic interplay and complex patterns are much more elaborated, natural and rewarding in general than anything I would hear from LZ, The Who, or Cream. Or, Phil Lesh was capable to deliver bass lines and structures which are very different from what regular bass players in rock were able to do. Their drum/bass section was very far from just keeping the time or creating a "foundation" for soloists, as it was typical for convenient bands. As Bill Graham said about the Dead: "They're not the best at what they do, they're the only ones that do what they do." 

 

I love Terrapin Station dearly. In fact, this studio LP was the very first Dead recording I heard 40 years ago.

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