Key Of Grey

Photo courtesy of  Sparky18

February 6th, 2009 – In my productions so far, I’ve been happy programming drums using my Korg keyboard. I’m just use to playing “drums” using standard keyboard mappings. While I’ve been interested in the MPC, I never had the extra money to buy something that would be redundant for my needs.

Lately though, I’ve been hot for the Monome. Since I’ve been wanting to perform electronic music live, carrying around a Monome makes sense. It’s much more compact than a keyboard, has more available buttons than an MPC, and the possibility of organizing in matrices is a big plus. It also looks awesome, which makes a difference when you’re out there playing on a plain ol’ laptop. It is spendy though, but you get some quality handmade goodness for that money.

One of my favorite artists using a Monome right now is Edison.  His video “damn hoss” warmed me up to the Monome. All the videos I’d seen before featured its use as a loop trigger. Looping really isn’t part of my workflow; I like to trigger everything live. Combined with my tendency not to quantize things, and you can see that I like feeling and a little dirtiness. The human element is my utmost concern, whether I’m making a beat or producing vocal tracks.

“damn hoss” features Edison triggering without quantization or loops. It’s an impressive feat, and a damn good tune on top of that. Check out his other videos on Vimeo if you have a chance. Right now, his album “Not What Ships are Made For” is available free on IVDT. Snag it below and drop him a line if you like what he’s doing.

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