News → 2001 → May

special edition

May 18, 2001

[posted on the site 2001.06.28]

WHERE'S NO TYPE?! >>

those who have tried to access the no type site recently have been in for a surprise, as the server is no longer responding.

are we dead? certainly not!

what happened goes back to a so-called "hacker war", launched against china by US citizens with idle hands & a thorough lack of clue. the US "hackers" (*) have thus "defaced" a number of chinese web sites, they say, as retaliation against the recent "spy plane" affair.

so what have the chinese "hackers" done? undaunted, they have in turn defaced about a thousand US servers, & mnemonic.net was one of them.

now, anyone with half a brain will wonder, why didn't the chinese attack something a little more coherent, like micr*soft or yah*o? part of the answer has to do with the autistic quality of the "underground", which pretends anything beyond its realm is not worth doing anything with. of course, that's not completely accurate & a great part of it is mere stupidity & unconsequential acting.

regardless, there we are, & our server is STILL not back up yet! our system admin, who has been helping us from the very beginnings, is currently loaded with finals & work, & has had very little time to fix everything up. he is, however, promising that the new system will be less prone to hacking.

initially we thought the downtime would be shorter than that, & we thought we would simply email everyone when the site would be back on the ground. the reality is that it's taking more time than we thought, & so we're sending out this special edition of our mailout to tell you that we're not dead.

thank you for your understanding & cooperation. we hope to be back up soon with yet more free music.

(*) NOTE: i'd like to apologize about using the word "hacker" here. the original sense of the word is meant to designate an exceptionally gifted programmer, without any "belligerent" undertones. in this case however, we are dealing with individuals with little knowledge & ethics. but how do you name them? script puppies?

LIVE LISTINGS >>

books on tape at the orlando magic fest >> "As previously noted way too many times, Books On Tape will be appearing at the Orlando Magic Fest on Saturday June 16th. No time info yet because the fest is run by slackers. There's gonna be a whole lot of hardcore and a couple indie bands playing, so all I guarantee is an interesting evening." - todd (books on tape)

diablatomica in boston >> "diablatomica will play in the lobby of his dormatory by the snack machines this saturday 19th in boston ma. drinks only a dollar (fruitopia and coke) (cough*). lobby doors lock up at 11pm." - estevan (diablatomica)

clonk >> clonk is a monthly series of live shows held in toronto, recently featuring no type artists! "dont forget naw vs Sutekh along side dick richards and ether mann June 22nd at clonk (toronto)" - neil (naw)

— david

May 2, 2001

intro >> ... & so the no type adventure continues, & the painfully lovely anarchists that we are have made music which you should wash your ears with. ow, was that last update really over two months ago? are we getting back to our old habits? have no fear, dear visitor. while it may _seem_ like these occasional lapses of presence from our part are the products of mere laziness & disorganization, the _real_ truth is that all this lagging is fitting perfectly into our thoroughly thought-out plan to conquer corporate america!!! wait, is that a camera in my room?! damn, i guess someone's taking us seriously after all!!!

047: kanito >>
one unusual collaboration between spanish composer kanito &, of all things, a billard table with actual billard players. _duo#1_billar [047] is the first in a series of live musical experiments using chance happening & unpredictably sounding objects & environments as a starting point for further improvisation. an interesting mixture of styles happens here: the billard table sounds harken back to the beginnings of musique concrète, while the postprocessing is done à la laptop, with a minimalistic touch for good measure. kanito has been posting music on the web for some time, & is also responsible for the _iusuk kit_ project. he performs regularly around hip places in barcelona. the next episode of the duos will be published on no type this summer.

048: morceaux_de_machines >>
it has been some time since no type has been host to the musical endeavours of érick dorion & aimé dontigny, the two founders of napalm jazz. they have certainly not been inactive, & the list of their happenstances in the past 2 years would fill this newsletter alone. needless to say, they have played together a great deal & have grown to become quite proficient at this computer improvisation thing. now, following multiple concert appearances with philémon, james schidlowsky & yves hudon (who also incidentally hangs around barcelona), as well as a 10-day residency at québec's own audio arts center avatar, morceaux_de_machines are presenting their first no type album, Cosmothérapie [048], a twisted blend of dub, space jazz & noise featuring a daring cover of king tubby's "psalms of dub". one of the most insane improv bands not featuring a drummer.

049: zammuto >>
a few months in the making but definitely worth the wait, this is no type's take at remixing guitar-n-clicks wizard zammuto. those who missed his rare _solutiore of stareau_ 3*cd-r might care to know that we have managed to rescue one song from it, the unfailingly groovy (despite its title!) "full martyr status", which doesn't appear on his subsequent, critically lauded album _willscher_ (available from the nice apartmentb records people & your local record store too, if you ask nicely!). this delayed single is also host to a plethora of remixes in the no type style you've grown to love for some reason. among the musicians featured: diablatomica, matrix assimilation, camp, 833-45, philémon, eucci & atomes lourds, who all have treated the material with equal originality & flair, making it a high-class course through multiple approaches with limited means. this is also a nice way to arrive to album #50 (namely the upcoming compilation CD ~ more on that below) with a nod to both the past & the future of no type. oh, & there's even a surprise zammuto track towards the end, stackoverflow style, if you can imagine that.

no type goes to clonk >>
be prepared, toronto residents, for no type is coming to your place on may 11! clonk is a hip monthly event where underground electronic musicmakers like tomas jirku go & play until very late at night. this month, clonk gives you the rare opportunity to attend an awesome bill featuring live performances by james schidlowsky, morceaux_de_machines, tomas jirku & naw, not to mention DJs camp & ether mann, & visuals by erin lewis. it promises to be chill, funky & weird, with breakbeats flowing around & errors dancing aloud, & that's just how we intend it to be. the location is 577 king street west & the price is a mere $5. come & see for yourself why no type has been called "jane jacobs' worst urbanist nightmare".

twelve inches of contrast >> the much-awaited debut from diablatomica's co-records, the _chiaroscuro_ 12" will be out on may 14th! featuring notypers 833-45, tomas jirku, diablatomica as well as newcomers obelisk device & pegasus, we can safely assume that this piece of vinyl is going to sound nothing short of great. more will be uttered on this topic soon.

eucci elsewhere >> eucci continues his seasonal offering of new music with 2 online releases, _??_ & _blossom & shatter_. the former is available on .tiln, & the latter is a limited single which replaces _at the jenifer st. western_. download them now before they disappear too!

now with more elasticity >> 2 new tracks from elasticlego, "metaphor" & "simile", have been posted on groovylab.com. more ambient goodness, & it's free.

& more zammutation too! >> just as i'm about to put this to press, i'm hearing that the first disc from zammuto's classic _solutiore of stareau_ is just about to be released on the infraction label. what can i say? i figured it would happen eventually. :)

upcoming illusion of safety >> oh, & also, we're glad to announce that illusion of safety's new EP _graintext_ (recently reviewed in vital weekly) will be released on no type very soon.

no type compiled >> the debut compilation CD from no type, entitled _the freest of the radicals_, is now ready for production & should be expected to be ready for public consumption this summer. when interviewed about the possibly explosive contents of this compilation, an RCMP official has been overheard saying "if protesters start throwing these things at policemen, then we might just have to give up protecting democracy." as we're commie bastards who don't care for modern capitalism, there won't be a lot of those made (first pressing will be 500) but they will be dirt cheap. not to mention extremely good: need i list the culprits? in reverse alphabetical order it goes viratone ballad, tomas jirku, themoonstealingproject, philémon, oeuf korreckt, morceaux_de_machines, matrix assimilation, le chien borgne, kalx, james schidlowsky, eucci, elasticlego, dick richards, camp, books on tape & 833-45 all catering to nothing but their own mysterious intuitions & calculations. we don't know if we're the freest or the most radical of all, but there's certainly plenty of freedom & radical thought in _the freest of the radicals_, & usually all at once. stay tuned.

upcoming >> so... if the compilation is 050 & that's the next catalogue number, does it mean we'll wait until it's out before we go to 051? hopefully not! what's coming after the compilation follows with the general ethic observed recently around these parts, with the return of themoonstealingproject [051] after a too long period of silence; continuing is a trio of a_dontigny/d_turgeon/k_wong [052] (yes, that's how they spell it) who you may recognize from diverse other acts & who once again do nothing like we expect of them; & then transient [053], noted swedish electroacoustic composer with a vengeance, will transport you into alien lands in search of beautiful electroacoustic landscapes. hear it. we know you will be satisfied.

thought >> no type: have us around when you're on a desert island.

— david