Notices by mcc (mcc@mastodon.social), page 3

I don't like lying. I really, *really* do not like it when a software program requires me to lie

2. In the process of setting up my new phone, I at one point had to answer a nightmare CAPTCHA where the question was "Please select all objects crafted by humans", and then all the options were either fish or clocks, and that was was a fine question, except one of the clocks I was clearly required to select was *clearly* an image generated by "AI", meaning no it was *not* crafted by humans,

Meanwhile in dystopia news:

1. In Android 13 they made it even harder to disable Google Assistant. I activated it by accident like 3 times trying to disable. The first thing I did was uninstall Google Assistant, but this turns out not to disable Google Assistant instead it shuts you out from disabling Google Assistant. That is, to disable Google Assistant you must first install Google Assistant. Then you have to be careful not to tap it— that activates it— you MUST long-press and tap "Settings"

In other news, it turns out on stock Android now, disabling animations adds an additional, extremely disruptive animation. Everytime you home button it flashes the icon of the app you're leaving huge, blurry and screen size for exactly 1 frame. It's glitchy and photosensitivity-unfriendly

I thought this was an Android 13 thing, but no, appears it's stock Android and Sony had somehow disabled it on my main phone. People have been flagging this issue for two years.

https://www.reddit.com/r/pixel_phones/comments/tkci6q/new_minimize_animation/?rdt=59271

It feels like a loyalty ritual

Anyway sorry I spend so much of my time on this account complaining about computers, but is just the thing is, there are so many horrible things about them,

I like limiting animations, but the reason I HAVE to disable animations is the grotesque, nauseating full screen overscroll animation in Android where everything stretches oddy. So now it's like they give me a Pavlovian punishment for doing that. Periodic bright flashes in my eyes. I'd consider this frustrating but acceptable if this happened because I used the "Developer" reduce animation options, which naturally aren't QAed, but it happens with the builtin accessibility "reduce animation" too!

It may be that after all the many gross indignities I have solemnly endured at the hands of Google, Android 13 is the thing that finally drives me to build my own rom.

The full screen flicker is enough by itself, and on top of that, the thing where it displays a mandatory popup you must swipe to clear every time you copy anything is *really* bad. I thought it was gonna be bad and it really was

@dosnostalgic Oh snap!

Are these modern scene arrangements or were people rearranging this stuff for PC sound cards at the time? (Though I guess 97 is new enough for people to have 44.1k PCM systems.)

What I'm listening to today: "Funky Stars", Quazar

This is a poppy eurodance DOS tracker tune from 1997. Feels good, slick production, moody 80s/early 90s feel.

After 2000 the artist behind this .xm went on to have a conventional career as a producer, making club techno remixes for a bunch of hip hop artists plus Madonna under the name "Axwell", then cofounding Swedish House Mafia ("Don't You Worry Child").

This track is listed on some mod archives as "Hybrid Song".

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_C95D6imxGc

What I'm listening to today: "Zularic Repetitor's best friend Befaco Percall Modular Techno Jam featuring Kickall & Noise Plethora", tiimoik

This is a 20 minute industrial techno performance with a really good chilled (distinct from chill) feeling to it. The rhythm is alive and constantly evolving throughout— the "repetitor" applies an algorithmic form of African music theory.

(The video confuses me—it appears to be a 4-second loop of just one part of the performance.)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UJD-sXpMJxE

What I'm listening to today: "Edelleen ja edelleen", Sleepers Tomb

Quiet, insistent drone ambient track. You're asleep, your phone's alarm keeps pushing at the barrier from some other world trying to break through and drag you out, but it's not working. A piece built up slowly on a modular suitcase that splays the track's internal process open to view like something on a dissection table. Good mood. I think the name is Finnish for "On and On"

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XhSssL8JxWw

@dosnostalgic When I started searching for it to learn more about the author I found a lot of people saying similar. Can you shed any light on what the actual name of this track is (or if it just doesn't have a specific single name)?

What I'm listening to today: "Wallfacer"

Vladislav Delay has been making distinctive, often cryptic glitch-adjacent electronic music since the late 90s, and is considered one of the foundational artists of dub techno. He's now releasing lots of rapid-fire EPs on a Bandcamp subscription plan. This is from this year and feels dub-like in spirit (if not in stereotypical elements), beats and isolated abstract noises floating in dark space. A zen rock garden made of sounds.

https://vladislavdelay.bandcamp.com/track/wallfacer-2

What I'm listening to today: "Comfortably Heavy", Travis Benjamin Simpson

I've featured the Lyra-8 in this thread repeatedly, but usually in aleatoric ("noise") compositions where they're just generating general drones. This musician meanwhile uses two Lyra-8s, whom he calls "The Girls", in this slow but meticulously composed piece where he plays the Lyras like strange, slow-motion pianos. It's intense and moody, ponderous, tones and pendulums and long decaying release

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L5-Uf4ftTYs

What I'm listening to today: "11/7/23 'Blueberry 5200'? 'Smurf'? (2x Behringer ARP 2600 clones) + Mackie Mix12FX (02: Small Room)", Cfpp0

The ARP 2600 mega-synth is most famous not for music at all, but for *sound effects*; it's the machine that provides the voice of R2D2.

This track, made on *two* unauthorized 2600 clones, is itself practically more sound effects than music; it's a meditative, hypnotic sequence of sweeps, like AC waves breaking on an electronic shore.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=z5kE9-5iq_M

What I'm listening to today: "Killed By A Feedback", Dynamo

This is another track from the (Fact Magazine) "25 best dub techno tracks of all time" list I found. It's from 1996, and it's weird: The parts of a techno song as if heard from deep underwater, gradually building steam. There's a point where it flips over from confusing and abstract to extremely danceable and both sides of that flip are fun, in their way.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3TLn4VWlbEc

What I'm listening to today: "Illusory Walls", Cobra Truth

This YouTuber makes some traditional-standards dub techno with some interesting modern equipment: The Make Noise trio of noisy synths, a 303 clone, and the Digitakt drum machine (probably driving the Make Noise). Okay, so 2/3 modern. This takes a minute to get going but then it jams pretty hard, really nice bright and clean production. PS: No, the MS-20 visible in the background isn't actually used in the track.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=VsxENHzuYEs

What I'm listening to today: "Starlight", Model 500 (Moritz remix)

My posts this week in this thread wound up with a dub techno theme, so I thought for Friday I should listen to some dub techno classics and pick a really epic track to post on Friday. What I then realized is that dub techno doesn't really do "epic". "Satisfying" or "chill" is more its speed. So here's a seminal dub track from 1995 that is just really intensely satisfying. A tiny understated funk groove.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k1TwVLmOhiU

What I'm listening to today: "Machines talk about swimming - Lifeforms Sv-1 + Digitakt + Analog Four + TB03 electro rhythms", Bad_Mix

I could spend 400 chars abstractly describing the timbres of this track or I could just say "Do you like Aphex Twin? This sounds like Aphex Twin". No, that's not really fair. This is a really creative piece that feels like it starts with the vibe of very early Warp Records and flies off on some other elevated trajectory. Wonderful flavors

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bsOwp8RB_XM