Segue » Kris Ko

Late Night Robot Attack!!!

segbot — Sun, 23 Aug 2009 21:30:19 +0000

One of the things a blog should be about, and certainly for a band, is sharing some raw ideas. As I write a few different things for a few different publications week in and week out, I think I’ve let the original fun idea of a frequently used Segue blog fall into routine and a form of uniformity. Thankfully, I had a nice dose of inspiration on Friday night, heading out to catch the dual joys of Berlin Sessions at Bar Soma and Jody Wisternoff at Moon Bar. At the latter, Kris had a DJ set after Jody and ambitions to be entirely sober for it, and at the former it was great to catch up with the Logic lads and appreciate how far Nick and the crew have taken Bar Soma. So it was an interesting night. Kris dropped some originals, I lost my voice, various friends were escorted out of various venues and the usual collection of unprintable antics. I came home and threw together this little idea, before sleep overtook me and I eventually woke up wondering why I couldn’t speak anymore. I’m thinking it’s a voodoo curse. Or just talking loudly over loud music. In any case, here’s what I woke up to. It’s not a track. It’s an idea. And it’s about time to start sharing them more:

The name is literally the first thing I saw. Not being in much of a state to ponder deep and meaningful names at the time, and indeed, as per the picture above, being entertained at the time by a dancing Isobot robot in front of a rather moody lamp. Which is about all I really have to say on the matter.

A new studio assembles like Voltron

segbot — Mon, 20 Jul 2009 05:24:46 +0000

Other people were out frolicking. A somewhat old term that, but more than appropriate no doubt. Roller coasters, taming lions, computer games and possibly even disco dancing. Crazy kids. Me, I was moving the studio once again. Some readers of Create Digital Music might remember that it was just over a year ago that I wrote an article called “Moving Music: 10 Ways For A Geek To Move House”. I loved the space I had moved into when I wrote that article, with the studio gear dominating the lounge room in close proximity to the kitchen. The fun I had throwing fresh vegetables and spices around in a wok only metres away from Kris hard at work on Begin Again. On the flipside, picking up the refrigerator when trying to record acoustic guitars while reviewing microphones for Time Off. Mostly a great space, but a chance came up on a unique property only a short walk from the current one, and a few months ago it was all about cardboard boxes, carrying things up flights of stairs and trying not to drop things on my feet. With a modicum of success at best.

With a great German friend visiting for a short while, I set the studio up in the lounge room once again, this time temporarily, and even took the opportunity to sample her and some other friends shouting on my remix of the Vitreous track, Guise. While they were, of course, in the kitchen. While I am going to miss the reoccurring kitchen and lounge room theme, and recording Germans shouting things like “discotheque!!!”, I am celebrating the chance to finally set up the new space and get all the old gear out. I’ll post some more pics once I’ve had the chance to tidy it up and work out some of the sound treatment. I don’t think you really need an amazing room to make music, and there are countless examples of this (I wrote more than a few tracks in the old Segue live set in headphones and hotels while travelling for work), but I do have a wonderful feeling about this space and the hours I will enjoy creating here. Check the full studio picture on FlickR for a rough tagged run-through of what’s what.

Guise EP goes worldwide!

segbot — Tue, 07 Jul 2009 15:52:21 +0000

After a few weeks as a Beatport exclusive release, the Guise EP has gone worldwide. You can now grab it from your favourite flavour of online music store, such as Juno, 7Digital, Beatsdigital, and even iTunes. It is, of course, still up on Beatport and getting some great responses, so check out it and let us know what you think!

Segue + Snow = New Track Coming Soon

segbot — Mon, 29 Jun 2009 07:16:35 +0000

The video should say it all. Maybe not very well. And certainly in a rather pointless way. But there you have it. Segue. New track coming out. Remixers. Dektek Records. Drums and such. Awesome.

Segue remix of Vitreous “Guise” on Beatport

segbot — Tue, 23 Jun 2009 15:41:06 +0000

Climbing around some glaciers today, I remembered that it’s the Beatport launch date for the Guise EP! I did an impromptu handstand to celebrate, tore another hole in my gloves, and recorded a quick message for all of you back in the civilized world.

So bust a handstand, kick your rollersaktes off and check the tunes. After that, please pause for a moment of silence for my poor, torn gloves. I did it all for disco.

Segue get disco with Vitreous remix

segbot — Fri, 05 Jun 2009 17:45:28 +0000

Here is one that I completely forgot about. Despite working on a bunch of tracks with Vitreous, who is based in Amsterdam but formerly of the excellent act My Ninja Lover here in Australia, I had totally skipped the memory of telling Dektek Records that I was up for a remix of his latest release. Even more embarrassingly, I had been cheering on Kris-Ko as he worked through his own very awesome remix of the same track. With a couple days before deadline, the label asked how I was going on the mix. With a “good! Yeah! Absolutely!”, I took it as a chance to break my usual slow habits and use it as an excuse to try out some new gear. Here’s the result, as a preview on Soundcloud. The actual release date is 23rd of June 2009 for Beatport, and everywhere else two weeks later.

The “Segue Does Disco” Dub:

Vitreous – Guise (Segue Does Disco Dub) by segwist

The Original Mix:

Guise by Vitreous

The new gear I mentioned testing out was basically a Jazzmutant Lemur and a pair of Beyerdynamic DT770 headphones. The Lemur I talk enough about elsewhere, and the headphones replace an infamous set of Pioneer HDJ1000’s that I posted about earlier. This remix was quite fun, as I simply grabbed all the source files, threw them in Ableton and flagged the bits I thought sounded usable. Those bits I threw in a number of Ableton Drum Racks, which I have mapped out on the Lemur in a custom template I’ve built to act a little like an MPC. Think “modular sampler”. The fun part of using Drum Racks like a sampler is taking a melody, such as the original record of Chris playing his bass, and dropping it into a few slots. From there I just use the Start and End points to isolate unique notes, which I can then jam on the Lemur in real-time.

This let me flip the bass and melody grooves by replaying single notes, and the rest fell into place. Other fun stuff included some cameo vocals from guests around the studio that was as complex as pointing an SM58 at them, and digging through some old disco records for some cheesy fills. As I had a day to do it, I found myself second guessing the new headphones and the “sound” of my new studio space, being the first mixdown I’ve done here, so I went for a drive at midnight around the inner city Brisbane suburb I live in. Which is often patrolled by Police. Leading to me imagining them pulling me over and asking “excuse me son, why are you doing laps of these streets at midnight?”.

“Checkin’ the mix man. Just checking the mix”. I hope you check the remixes and original of Guise out when it drops in a few weeks!

Segue remix of Kris-Ko’s “Begin Again” out now.

segbot — Sun, 26 Apr 2009 12:45:10 +0000

Bringing his bulging laptop of musical mystery to the Segue studio, the occasional Segue collaborator and live drummer, Kris-Ko, has leaped back into the producers chair with a new track that has been billed as “an emotional piece of minimal-tech electronica aimed much more towards the lounge room than the dancefloor”. Working with Australian record label Dektek Records, Kris-Ko has taken a step back from the pounding tribal house that defined his style while penning D-KO’s “Tribal Gathering“, and has ventured down a melodic and electronic path.

Running on the “re-imagination rather than remix” angle, the Segue mix took the liberty of running wild with alternate ideas, before settling into a gentler idea inspired by a serendipitous night of partying on the Gold Coast with the Dektek Records crew. With a tip of the hat to the space disco, deep house and melodic adventures that have been infiltrating the Brisbane party scene throughout the early stages of 2009, this one is a flipside mix that shows a subtle side to the Segue live show antics.

Available now on Beatport, and all other digital retailers shortly. If you like the tunes, or are playing them out, let us know!

Scott Walker in the Segue studios before Nick Warren

segbot — Tue, 14 Apr 2009 15:13:21 +0000

Here’s a rough and ready snippet of video grabbed quickly as Scott Walker and Magoo warmed up for Nick Warren at Brisbane nightclub The Met, on 12/04/09. The track that is booming through the incredibly loud PA is Scott Walker’s first production, recorded recently in the Segue studios and currently out on tour with him in Asia. Despite the vague video recording, this is shaping up somewhere in the deep tribal house realm, with a dose of Balkan folk, care of my travels in 2004. With Kris-Ko also at the helm, and some hilarious recording sessions featuring Scott and some improvised percussion instruments, this is an exciting track and has been a lot of fun. Stay tuned!

Click here to view the embedded video.

Reset & Forever released by Smash Bang Records

segbot — Thu, 05 Mar 2009 14:11:43 +0000

Challenged with condensing years of gigs, arm swirls and smashed samplers into a debut release, Segue stepped off the back of an epic performance at the Big Day Out festival and temporarily retired the live rig to the studio with the goal of capturing the excitement from the stage into two tracks of raw electronic music. As homage to the excitement and energy of the live show, Dave Dri and guest percussionist Kris-Ko locked themselves away to record a double single featuring two of the original Segue bombs.

With the bubbling acid and tech riffs of encore favourite ‘Reset’, and the driving tech house grooves and abstracted vocal wanderings of ‘Forever’, this is Segue stepping off stage clutching samplers and synthesisers and headed straight to the after party. As the band evolves, its sound develops, and its players collaborate outwards, “Reset & Forever” is a classic slice of the energy and electronica that has defined a live act at its most smoke machines and strobe lights obsessed. Released on Australian label Smash Bang Records, “Reset & Forever” is available on Beatport now.

Segue in 2009 (Or “What 2009 is doing with Segue”)

segbot — Mon, 09 Feb 2009 05:42:45 +0000

Happy new year! We say in February. This is a quick update on what 2009 has meant for a resting and busy Segue so far. You can read the 2008 summary previously, but heres a taste test of some pretty exciting stuff for the year!

Remixes:
It’s been some time since the Chemical Brothers EBW9 remix went a little crazy and gave us an education on how manic some of these MP3 blogs are, with features and file leeching all over the place. Since then we have sat on a few remixes for some great acts, ranging from test renders of Flamingo Crash, Infusion and Dizzy Gotheca, but our attention has been on a few that will be out soon. On the immediate front are Vitreous and Kris-Ko on the Amsterdam and Brisbane tip respectively. Check out our Twitter feeds or the main site for more info when we can gush what’s next!

Tracks:
So “Reset” and “Forever” had some crazy delays that are worth an entertaining posts itself, so check out the site in the next few days when they drop. The good news is they are finally out on Smash Bang Records now basically, though some last minute issues with the Beatport update have thrown some bugs into the works. With them out, and some remixes of them dropping soon after, we’re focusing on fresh mixes of a couple more of the classic live set tracks. “Downsize” is getting a lot of attention with some string parts being worked into a pretty epic mix, and various flipping back and forth.

Gigs:
2008 was a bit of a rest for Segue after coating the walls of Brisbane for a few years. Its humbling to think our interviews and photos in street press have lined the best kitty litters or been used in moving house across the state. With Dave joining Kris in live DNB act Silent Shadow for some gigs recently has come some out-of-the-box exploration of live rigs and Segue has hit the rehearsal studio again to work the new material into live shape. As ever, stay tuned to the site for some video previews. You can boo at your computer screen or shout “yeh yeh yeh!”, its really up to you!

Overseas:
Its happening. This year. Excited. Cant type. Just yet. Cheesy we know. But really. What more. Can we say.

Segue on the Internetwebz:
We caved in pressure from some of our ultimate meta-geek colleagues and made a list of possibly useless social networking and web media links relating to Segue. As our attention is largely on getting through these remixes lately, we would like to thank those who jumped in and sorted some of these out. As many acts miss the boat with potentially useful web services as there are those that spend more time updating them then writing music. There’s also the aspect of band confusion, as oblivious new producers accidently take the name of an established act, but ultimately, this is a lot of internet. We hope some of it is useful, and again thanks for the geeks who helped out:

Segue on the Web
Segue on Myspace
Segue on Facebook.
Segue on Twitter
Segue Videos on Vimeo
Segue Videos on YouTube