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CHOB, Cool stuff, ctrlZstudio Podcasts, Hozpitality, Music Sound Noise Audio, WMOM

DEBUT Release from Hozpitality Ambient Spin-Off: CHOB!

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CHOB = Chad and Bob.  

C H O B

I had this idea, which came from the first track on this album, to create more music that sounds like the following:

  • Ambient
  • Space
  • Chill
  • New Age
  • Lullaby Channel
  • Massage music
  • Sound Collage
  • “Hold that chord and wait for a record contract”
  • and Atmosphere

Bob and I have many years of exposure to this type of music and thoroughly enjoy it as a unique and special artform.  We wanted to make some music that didn’t start from or required a rhythm section.  To be honest, there are a few drum tracks on this album, but they were intentionally moved to the back of the mix to make room for the sonic palette on display for these tracks.  There is no mistaking the quality of the sounds in the musical toys/instruments we use, and we wanted to have fun putting these on display a little more.

So there are no vocals/lyrics, and there’s not a lot of “hot driving dance beats”.  This is more of an exploration of the sonic “colour” in our heads and our devices.  The first track, “Egyptian Forward”, was the inspiration to start this journey.  To make a bookend, a portion of “Egyptian Forward” was segmented and shortened.  The left channel of this track was reversed while the right side moves in a forward direction, hence the title “Egyptian Crossing”.  (I personally loved the original track so much I thought it sounded good backwards too!)

Never enough credit goes to Bitchin Bob for editing genius, insight/perspective, and laughs o’plenty.  I swear we both learn more about the tools of this trade every time we do this stuff.  Learning has never been so much fun!

Track list:

  1. Egyptian Forward (3:23)
  2. From The Treetop (7:49)
  3. Pur Heaven (4:37)
  4. Dinosaur Suite (6:29)
  5. Egyptian Crossing (1:28)

Tools used:

  • Korg Kaossilator Pro
  • Korg Kaossilator
  • Korg Mini-KP
  • Adobe Audition (“What?  Are we crashing now?”)

Click here to download a .zip file of the album in .mp3 format including cover art. (24 megs)**

** You can’t charge money for this much fun, and it truly is fun making this stuff. As always, the best compensation for this effort would be any sort of comment left here on this blog. CHOB thanks YOU (because your comments are Pur Heaven).

NEW! BIG NEWS!  Hozpitality fans have a reason to live.  The follow up to Hozpitality’s 5th album Toddler Sized Shark Cage is coming SOON!  REMAIN CALM!

Cool stuff, Music Sound Noise Audio, Political, Uncategorized, WMOM

DAILY PRESCRIPTION !

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Politics pissin you off? The rape and pillage of the weak and suffering? Cant take it? Don’t know what to do?

Play this song REALLY LOUD until you laugh your ass off. Play it REALLY loud and see if you can piss anyone off with it!

Somehow it makes me feel better…

Scott Walker
A nice über cool picture of Scott Walker to look at!
Angry Hot Dog, Chronicles of the Absurd, Grinds My Gears, Political

A Thought: Why Yelp reviews are irrelevant…

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When you think about how everyone is being reviewed and critiqued on the Internet lately, it is amazing that something as inherently negative such as Yelp is considered to be a valid source of information.  If you aren’t familiar with it, Yelp.com is website that will allow ANYONE to leave a review or critique about a certain business (restaurants, hotels, plumbers, car dealers, just about anything that takes your cash, etc.).

Right now you are probably thinking, “that’s incredible!  I can make  a sound decision by reading these reviews.”

Here’s where you might want to reconsider what you just thought.  How many times in your money spending life have you thought of actually taking the time to log into something and write a review?  If you are having a wonderful experience or service scenario, these days, you are just thrilled that things are going as advertised and you are getting your money’s worth.

However, (ha), if the experience/service was horrible, I bet you and the majority of others would have enough anger/energy to compose a novella on Yelp.com about how horribly you were treated.

There is nothing in the Yelp mission statement about the balance of positive and negative reviews.  Take a look at the mission statement from the site (my comments are in my WordPress theme’s lame excuse for bold):

Our purpose: To connect people with great local businesses 
10 Things You Should Know About Yelp

  1. Yelp was founded in 2004 to help people find great local businesses like dentists, hair stylists and mechanics. (Lovely idea…  All search engines have been doing that for years.  Need a local one?  Try typing your locality in the search… Lazy idiots).
  2. Yelp had an average of approximately 78 million monthly unique visitors in Q2 2012. (Big deal.  Do we really give a shit?)
  3. Yelpers have written over 30 million local reviews. (Once again.  Quit stroking your corporate ego and give us your real purpose.)
  4. In addition to reviews, you can use Yelp to find events, lists and to talk with other Yelpers. (Do you really want to be called a “yelper”?)
  5. Every business owner (or manager) can setup a free account to post photos and message her customers. (Last I heard, this was called “e-mail” marketing.  Try using that instead.  “Oh shit!  Can’t you just use facebook?” (barf)).
  6. Yelp makes money by selling ads to local businesses – you’ll see these clearly labeled “Yelp Ads” around the site. (HERE LIES THE PURPOSE OF YELP!)
  7. Paying advertisers can never change or re-order their reviews. (Really?  How the hell would we know?)
  8. Yelp has an automated filter that suppresses a small portion of reviews – it targets those suspicious ones you see on other sites. (What makes a review “suspicious”?  How much is a “small portion” of suppression?  What is the criteria for this “automated filter”?)
  9. You can access Yelp via iPhone, Android, BlackBerry, and more – see the full list of mobile apps here.  (Can I access it in the newspaper as well?  HA!)
  10. The Weekly Yelp brings locals updates on the latest and greatest business openings & other happenings. (aka Spam.)

Left this comment on Huffington post:

To make this system of “everyone is a published critic/reviewer” function properly, it is of UTMOST IMPORTANCE that you submit a GOOD review to yelp as much as you would a bad review. Problem is that people are lazy when they are enjoying themselves and don’t bother saying nice things. Yelp then turns into a truly invalid source for information as it will only contain NEGATIVE COMMENTS. Yelp is irrelevant like most vox populi these days.

in response to this article.

Why did I do all of this?

  1. I’m angry with the world lately.
  2. Yelp has hurt some people that I know.
  3. It has been so long since I seriously sat down and spewed my thoughts into text, and it felt good to do it at the moment.  (see number 1 above).

Read this post very quick.   I may read it tomorrow, and be so embarrassed at how poorly it is written, I may just rip it down as fast as I posted it.  I hope this doesn’t bring anyone down, its more of  an opinion about the way things are changing in the mass media these days….. maybe just a simple request for people that “reads the Internets” to put shit into perspective.

…. my god…   what was i thinking?  that’s FUTILE!  Just leave a comment if you feel so moved.

c