Popular Monitress by Wobbly

released February 5, 2021

Voices captured and edited 2015-2020.

Special guests: Mark Hosler - Guitar on “Lent Foot”. Drew Daniel - Rhythm programming on “Every Piano”

Mastered by Thomas Dimuzio. Album artwork by Max Allison.

Thanks to: Evans Hankey (for the loan), Zeena Parkins, Jennifer Walshe, Doug & Max, Seth & Seeta, Drew & Martin, Emma & Méabh and especially my parents.

Like its predecessor ‘Monitress’, this is an album about machine listening.  Once again my mobile phones and tablets are running pitch trackers and synth apps, converting the sounds they hear into error-prone melodies.  The trackers are solely reflexive — they can’t learn, or remember — but they output sounds of unarbitrary complexity, or — music.  But one less defined as a form of self-expression, and more as a model of relationships within society, specifically those relationships being formed between ourselves and our tools.  

If the last album focused more on improvisations and abstraction, this time around I prepared more in the way of ‘tunes’ ahead of time before turning them over to the trackers.  I also let myself push the results around a little more.  The title is less ironic than a long standing sense that the music you don’t like yet is the music most likely to come in handy.

Referenced: The Barrons, David Tudor, Max V. Mathews & John Pierce, Lejaren Hiller, Pierre Barbaud, Iannis Xenakis, Herbert Brün, James Tenney, Gottfried Michael Koenig, Pietro Grossi, Sister Harriet Padberg, Gordon Mumma, Roland Kayn, Raymond Scott, Joel Chadabe, Douglas Leedy, Laurie Spiegel, David Behrman, The League of Automatic Music Composers, Don Slepian, The Hub, Maryanne Amacher, David Cope, George E. Lewis.

Equipment used: Sonnus G2M, Midimorphosis, MIDI Guitar 2, TC-11, Phawuo, GrainBender, Scythe, Manetron2, PPG WaveMapper, djay Pro, Taqsim World Piano, ARK-1 Arabic Keyboard, Shire Whistle, FieldScaper, Animoog, Virtual ANS, Cube Synth, microTERA, Tera Synth, AudioLayer, Phasemaker, iVCS3, iLectric Piano, Synth One, Infinite, NeoSoul Keys, ComboOrgan, Ruckers 1628, VoxSyn, iMonoPoly, World Scales, Moog Model 15, Moog Model D, ODYSSEi, Streetlytron Pro, tardigrain, Korg Module, Dedalus, SampleWiz, Quanta, Sylo Synth, Shoom, Thor, Steel Guitar, ReSlice, Fractal Bits, Maschine 2, iConvolver, GliderVerb, Poseidon, bitKlavier, iSEM, SoundyThingie, DXi, iOptigan, FM4, iCathedral, SingingFingers, Galileo, iMini, Stria, iPulsaret, 76 Synthesizer, iPolysix, Burea, Turquoise DS, SeekBeats, bent.fm, Alina, AUFX: Dub, Oriental Strings, iSymphonic, MegaCurtis, MicroTones, Moon Beam, Photophore, Samplr, Stone Echo, Syndt, Jussi, Baervaag, Enkl, Fugue Machine, Audio Reverb, Drums, Drums XD, Ripplemaker, FunkBox, DRM-32, FM 304, Elastic Drums, DrumKick, DM1, DM2, Argon, AD 480 pro, Attractor, Movement I-V, Drumatron, Wilsonic & aardvark -- plus Mackie 1404 & Pro Tools HD.