Spending more time trying to absorb myself in this work, I think I feel like I have a more solid grasp of what I want to write about, and it is kind of funny to me that I am going to be writing about Power Electronics since it is going to likely set myself up for failure as proper “analysis” of it is kind of missing the point I feel like (or at least for the majority of it), but that is appealing to me to be fair, that idea of treating something with an antithecal approach to what is intended, and I’ve written about Harsh Noise Wall prior which is even more knowingly absurd to take that position with. Anyway, the goal I have decided on is to demonstrate how Power Electronics’ prioritisation of extremity and “harm” aesthetics creates a hindrance to works that seek to tackle more earnest, researched subjects, by either the classic self sabotaging method of morally ambiguous presentation (with the artist acting as if the work is non-representative of their own belief, and that it is simply “presenting things as they are”) that can be seen as “muddying the water” of its ethics – as seen in Whitehouse and Nicole 12 who’s hands off attitudes to the morality has backfired with the artist’s statements incriminating them and removing the benefit of the doubt for many that PE audiences often have. Another hindrance is made purely through the sonic quality of the work’s insistent violence similarly having a masking effect to the artist’s intention as was demonstrated in the last blog regarding American Psycho, which’s use of excessive violence masked the artists’ intention of the work being a satire of the 80s, and brought it closer to sensationalist violence. I think this is especially apt after remembering an interview with extremely (and justifiably) controversial artist Mikko Aspa regarding Nicole 12, and how strangely well versed and “artistically minded” he was about a project that has cheap shock written all over that has given it a genuinely vile reputation for its cover art and themes. I think this is pretty common for Power Electronics though; it always had the appeal of being the complete opposite of what this course strives to be, just kind of mindlessly trampling over extremely sensitive topics with the least grace imaginable. I have been stressing over whether or not it is a sensible topic to cover. Still, I think from a more detached perspective, it might be interesting to tackle something as difficult as this. Still, it is also extremely intimidating, the likelihood of overstepping is probably too far, but also, it seems too in line with what I’m reading right now to just move on from really.

The chapter in this Aftershock book as well helps build a vocabulary around this kind of work;

“Sometimes actually reduced to lists of names – as if biblical incantation were enough for the canonic defence to achieve its hypnotic effect – the most compelling aspect of this quantitative strategy is that it reveals a telling anxiety on the part of the critics who employ it. Compulsively cramming as many references as possible into a small vacuum of potential structure, the hope is that some relevant theoretical link will eventually be uncovered that contributes meaning to this work that they fear may be meaningless.” Pg 98.

The appeal to its history to justify morally abhorrent work is not only extremely apt to what I am covering, visibly making art critics panic about a work is I guess amusing and I like this chapter’s kind of apparent dislike of both the art critics’ writing of the work and dislike of the Chapmans’ art coming through a bit despite the demeanor being relatively kept impartial.

“Because aesthetic defences are exploited to justify or vindicate the ethical status of morally problematic works like Zygotic Acceleration, this doubly transgressive art cannot be defended on aesthetic grounds; and because it is iconic, obvious, banal and severe, this sculpture makes a literal, if extreme, moral statement.” Pg 122.

This kind of illustrates the appeal of Power Electronics also in that, because of the immorality of the presentation, it prioritises evoking an extreme reaction at the behest of the aesthetic appeal. What I am skirting around a little, though, is how I can illustrate or explore any of this through practice, so I decided to start working on an idea for what my audio work could be relative to the Power Electronics centric topic.

My concept is to create an atomised version of Power Electronics, with the approach I take with my own Drone Noise work with granular effects used to inform the sound design for a Power Electronics track, that does everything it is supposed to within its traditional context. The only issue at the moment is that I am in the process of moving out, meaning most of my gear is back home and unusable, so I have instead taken the somewhat blasphemous approach of making the basis for the work on laptop (which I mean isn’t entirely unheard of, groups like Cathode Terror Secretion and even some modern Sutcliffe Jugend uses it).

I spent a while on a patch that has enough going on that I don’t have to do many overdubs as to prioritise the ‘liveness’ of the work, which I did a take with to work out how to structure the track with but it was missing something, so I think I’m going to re-record next week playing the output through an amp or through tape.

I will briefly go over the functions of each part of the patch, though, to make itmore vivid what I plan for it to sound like.

This is a section for the 2 ‘noise’ oscillators, I’m using the clock output to sidechain the oscillators and control their levels better due to the volatile feedback on the funnily titled “PLEASE KILL ME” Biset Oscillators. I’m using these because of the feedback function, giving the sound a beautiful grit and analogue-feeling extra harmonic distortion. It is great for feedback emulation, which the Prince of Perception delay is also adding to. Prince of Perception is made for ultra-tight delay time synthesis, and automation of this parameter creates tonal stretching sounds and exciting feedback frequencies that can interact with the tones created from the oscillator. Both are being run through the XFX TUBE Distortion because it is the only distortion sound I like in VCV rack because of it’s Xtra-Bass setting which is extremely deep even without much distortion applied.

This section running into the Macro Oscillator is the main ‘drum’ sound, which has a Drum Sequencer running into an ADSR to control its characteristics. The Drum is then being sent into the same distortion and into a Supercell module to give it a reverb and have more of a shimmery release that strangely gives it a metallic timbre. The Surge Flanger is used for the same reason, the extremely low Rate and Depth makes it obvious that I’m not using it traditionally, I’m using the Feedback Depth and Comb filter to use it as a Resonator, as most of the Resonators I’ve used in VCV rack are too tonal. This gives the ‘drum’ more physicality and abstraction from an otherwise boring deadened kick pattern.

Above is the more tonal sounds that can be brought in, the Complex Simpler playing a piano loop into a Quantised Harmonic String mode resonator, which I often use to ‘purify’ sound into pure sines. The Macro Oscillator is being used with an LFO to cycle through the Colour on the Flute mode as more feedback emulation, with the “IT’S GOOD CHOLESTEROL” being used for its dreamy pitch shift and bizarre digital stretching delay (with more delay included after to mask the stretching for development).

Because the other elements are somewhat too fixed despite a lot of random automation and feedback, this is a Supercell patch running the master channel through its input, so that it creates chaotic feedback-heavy glitch noise interacting with the rest of the track, the Simpler is mostly there in case for development I want to replace the feedback in one ear with the loop.