Remote

Michael U

@jet@cloudisland.nz

mastodon 4.5.18

I chat about quiet instrumental music, music-making (Bitwig - my solo music is as Jet Jaguar, my most active collaboration is a duo, Tonkyn Pearson), linguistics, movies, cooking...

My day job is helping mostly public sector organisations to improve how they manage their information. I doubt I'll write much about that, but very open to conversation about it.

Profile pic is from a 1953 Peanuts, Charlie Brown listening to a detuned radio. Header a photo of a cat next to a disco ball & sun rays.

587 Followers

313 Following

50 Posts

Joined April 30, 2022

my music:

https://nonwrestler.com

Ambient NZ directory:

https://ambientnz.com

pronouns:

he/him

pixelfed:

https://gram.social/jet

Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1w ago

Replying to

I’m en route to this supreme nerdiness and am so looking forward to it. One of the two on site tutors, Kate Carr, has released music from my duo Tonkyn Pearson (formerly Montano) on her excellent Flaming Pines. Really nice to meet her on top of all the rest of it. https://www.campfr.com/onsite/sonicgeographies

CAMP / Residential Arts & Music Courses

CAMP / Residential Arts & Music Courses

Residential arts and music courses high in the French Pyrenees, with Chris Watson, Laure Prouvost, Julia Holter, Matthew Herbert, Terry Riley, Tai Shani, Simon Armitage and others

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1w ago

Replying to

@exlibrarykris@cloudisland.nz no time Toulouse! etc etc

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

Accidentally stumbled upon the site of the cover photo from Autechre’s Amber yesterday. Sightseeing in Cappadocia and there those hills were, *opposite* the thing we had stopped to look at (Uchişar castle). A weird feeling. #IDM Sightseeing

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 3w ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

No genre fiction on this flight, please

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

Mad music-related lego sets. The Neve mixing desk is particularly detailed. https://numode.net/

Numode – Custom Building Sets

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1mo ago

Boosted by @trending@homestead.social

I'm having fun with this free plugin Polarity-RES, thanks @polarity@social.bitwig.community! Here I've got the pitch of all of the resonators wobbling in sync, but also the individual gains of each node modulating at different speeds (Curves modulators for those using #Bitwig). The visual is like yo-yos! Fun! https://polarity.productions/polarity-res/

Polarity-RES - Resonator

polarity.productions

Polarity-RES - Resonator

Polarity-RES is a free native resonator VST3 and CLAP plugin effect with a spectrum-graph editor, up to 32 steep bandpass dots, note and harmonic snap, MIDI follow, and pink-noise excitation.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

I decided to buy this audio plugin Aava today which is the fanciest kind of convolution "reverb", where you can throw in 4 different sounds (impulse responses) and blend your input signal through all of them. Plus you can change the size / pitch of the impulse responses in real time without the whole thing falling silent, which is something I've not seen any other convolution tool handle. I was pretty much sold by that audio demo "Turn your drums into a bassline" on the page below, but having a 30-day trial is great too. https://viiri-audio.com/ #Musodon #MusicProduction #LinuxAudio

Aava - Viiri Audio

viiri-audio.com

Aava - Viiri Audio

Aava is a groundbreaking convolution plugin that allows you to adjust all IR parameters in real-time, even at audio rates.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

If you know J Dilla's album Donuts, the amount he *didn't* mess with the samples he took from this track for 'workinonit' is kind of eye opening. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-sraKulMHZw

TOPPOP: 10CC - The Worst Band In The World

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to on beige.party

@TwoClownsEating@beige.party @distinctdipole@tech.lgbt side note: I like that the story involves queueing so we know it’s in the UK

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Week 31 of #WeeklyBeats This week's is really different to what I usually do, process-wise, because it is a single-take live jam on a synth that doesn't have a keyboard or play fixed pitches, really, Lorre Mill's Double Knot 3. https://weeklybeats.com/jetjaguar/music/in-different-registers #Musodon #ElectronicMusic

In Different Registers

weeklybeats.com

In Different Registers

This week my aims to do something different were: Use one hardware synthJam liveNo edits Process notes on my blog as usual.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

A good little write up on New Zealand techno from this century, including touching on how Mu happily went there even if people don’t think of Fat Freddy’s Drop that way. https://selectedworks.substack.com/p/exploring-the-sounds-of-2020s-techno #techno #NZ #NZMusic #ElectronicMusic

Exploring the sounds of 2020s techno, electro and EBM in New Zealand

selectedworks.substack.com

Exploring the sounds of 2020s techno, electro and EBM in New Zealand

In which I take a look around at some of the work being produced across Aotearoa and Te Waipounamu over the last decade.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Week 30 of #WeeklyBeats I feel like ‘Our Beloved Piss + Gary’ deserves an explanation, I can only offer this photo I took in a Melbourne bar about a year ago. For those using #Bitwig this started with exploring the new beta Sampler feature that munges an entire sample on to one detected pitch. I’m applying that to a grubby old recording of bass guitar and was excited by how it went wrong. 😅 https://weeklybeats.com/jetjaguar/music/cosy-attitude #Musodon #ElectronicMusic

Cosy Attitude

weeklybeats.com

Cosy Attitude

Aims for doing things differently this week: One loop throughoutHip-hop-ishChopped and screwed That's it! But the second bit obviously takes me away from recent JJ territory. Process notes on my blog, again again.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1mo ago

Replying to

@emptyvessel_nz@social.bitwig.community the art of the understatement!

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

I learnt today that techno-ish producer The Field has a day job as the cook for a series of kindergartens. I kind of love it.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Week 29 of #WeeklyBeats My main aims for doing something unlike usual this week were a chopped and screwed hip-hop beat. Slushy. I wrote my own groove, about 95bpm, then bounced and resampled that, pitching it down -5 semitones which from memory is about the drop in speed and pitch from a 45 record being played at 33 1/3. https://weeklybeats.com/jetjaguar/music/cosy-attitude #Musodon #ElectronicMusic #Bitwig

Cosy Attitude

weeklybeats.com

Cosy Attitude

Aims for doing things differently this week: One loop throughoutHip-hop-ishChopped and screwed That's it! But the second bit obviously takes me away from recent JJ territory. Process notes on my blog, again again.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club @gahlord@post.lurk.org ha thank you for your alt text services!

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

This bod's previous alias Starcircleanatomy hurts my brain. Even once I saw it was just 3 complete words minus spaces I still keep rebracketing it or whatever the term is.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club this is really cool. I found @amedee_de_murcia@sonomu.club is out here too!

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@GrahamFluster@mastodon.social @emsquared@social.coop “mild claws” 🤭

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

The gap between original and cover is even more extreme than with this and Soft Cell’s version, imo https://youtu.be/9obvlVPJBEg

Tainted Love

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Make pop songs less definitive Mostly What I Wanna Do Is Have Some Fun Hardly Ever Gonna Give You Up Many People Were Kung Fu Fighting Few Things Are Gonna Stop Us Now ...

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Week 28 of #WeeklyBeats “Y” is auditory slug gurgling, experimenting with a lot of spectral stuff and taking inspiration from Topdown Dialectic / False Aralia. https://weeklybeats.com/jetjaguar/music/y #Musodon #ElectronicMusic #Bitwig

weeklybeats.com

Y

My aims for doing something differently this week: Go nuts with spectral processingProcess the master track Process notes on my blog, as always.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@mementomaori@kind.social slick! Yeah weirdly I can’t think where I saw him play but I had a good time

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@gahlord@post.lurk.org ha! I get why putting capitals into hashtags is so desirable for readability! The worst version of the domain name problem is anything with “therapist”…

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@PhilWill@aus.social thanks! It was fun to just chuck it down and then walk away, but I agree it would be nice to use this as a basis as something a bit more worked through

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club … also quite a gap 😅

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@isaacfreeman@cloudisland.nz I found out recently a friend helps teach a high school class that is mostly epistemology, just not called that. I think it’s something like “Knowledge” and it covers some information sciences / research stuff. But mostly it’s digging into what we can know, what it means to know something, etc.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club omg this is a solid take, I hadn't thought about it

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club hell yes! A friend once told me he liked it when I shared stuff but he felt like he couldn't say anything articulate about why he liked stuff. I urged him to not worry about that and just do the sharing bit, I think lots of folks don't care about the description / reaction...

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club ah yeah I don’t find the website super reliable! Glad you enjoyed, I had fun making it

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

TIL an older English name for “penguin” was “arsefoot”. Also that penguin is Welsh.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to on ephemera.vital.org.nz

@stephen@ephemera.vital.org.nz yeah seriously. I partly wrote this to say "out loud" it's only been two days. I know it gets easier, but all so vivid right now.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

Ooh Take 5/8 is quite fun too https://youtu.be/g67Ee_NzY6o

Take 5/8 (Take 5 but the 2nd 8th of every beat is missing)

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I heard about the above music from online social connection with one of the performers. I used to be kinda self-conscious about the extent to which I felt #ambient is a genre of music mostly listened to by people who are also making it, etc. So often if someone gets in touch with me online it turns they are also a music maker. But nowadays I'm not sure why I thought that was somehow negative. I like community.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

K*Saba and HoneBeGood - Bird of Paradise A couple of the lesser known affiliates of the whole Young Gifted & Broke crew (most famously Homebrew, @Peace, etc.). Wellington producer / Auckland MC. Not that much hip-hop wanders off into looping acoustic instruments and such. K*Saba has done a bunch of theatre work and it shows (in a good way). #JukeboxFridayNight #Birds #NZMusic https://ksaba.bandcamp.com/track/bird-of-paradise

Bird of Paradise, by Karnan Saba + Hone Be Good

Bird of Paradise, by Karnan Saba + Hone Be Good

from the album Bird of Paradise

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

@defaultmediatransmitter@social.bitwig.community ha I love Partial Eclipse 😆

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

We said goodbye to a cat of 15 years two days ago and this is my first day working at home... really missing how _around_ he was, keep expecting him in every room and around every corner. We used to say he was running puppy software, he loved following people about and being near them. We have another cat, but he's a much more trad, aloof guy.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

The trailer for 2003 flop Tiptoes really looks like a parody. Matthew McConaughey and Kate Beckinsale … with Gary Oldman playing someone with dwarfism by kneeling all the time - and even if the movie were somehow good, the flavour of the trailer is just horrifyingly like “things were great until this *terrible revelation* that her bf’s family all have dwarfism!” https://youtu.be/O3qGGk5ymQ4 I would love a documentary on the making of. The director massively denounced what became of it, swearing that it was a serious project that got derailed by the studio.

Tiptoes (2003) - Official Trailer - Matthew McConaughey Movie

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to on beige.party

@TwoClownsEating@beige.party Ha, now singing to myself "Underground, overground, Mongoling free"

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Huh, a friend told me today that DJ Krush's 2001 album 'Zen' is not named after the Buddhist tradition. It's an obscure homophone meaning "gradually" or "bit by bit", more commonly said "susumu" in Japanese. Krush seems to be into word play / fucking with people, heh. If you can read Japanese or Chinese you'd presumably this up straight away from the album cover. I find logograms super interesting in this respect, how they disambiguate homophones. For once I decided to edit Wikipedia, we'll see if it sticks.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Replying to

I will say the chaos of having an address @nonwrestler.com has caused me no end of confusion and second-takes from retail staff etc over the years. Sometimes fun, sometimes tedious.

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 1w ago

Replying to

@c_reider@sonomu.club as is Watson’s, as is Scott’s… only one I don’t know is because she is much more about the field recording than the music, I’m sure I’ll learn plenty from her

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Gulls - Edith's Waltz One for fans of Talk Talk and such, a solo artist from Dunedin who's received zero attention AFAIK... choosing this for the artist's name, rather than the theme of the music, but hey. https://gullsorgulls.bandcamp.com/track/ediths-waltz #JukeboxFridayNight #Birds #NZMusic

Edith's Waltz, by Gulls

Edith's Waltz, by Gulls

from the album GULLS

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Michael U @jet@cloudisland.nz

· 2mo ago

Anthonie Tonnon - Bird Brains https://anthonietonnon.bandcamp.com/track/bird-brains #JukeboxFridayNight #Birds

Bird Brains, by Anthonie Tonnon

Anthonie Tonnon

Bird Brains, by Anthonie Tonnon

from the album Successor

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