{"id":813,"date":"2008-10-24T04:35:38","date_gmt":"2008-10-24T03:35:38","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/simoncpage.co.uk\/blog\/?p=813"},"modified":"2009-04-21T14:37:03","modified_gmt":"2009-04-21T13:37:03","slug":"bt-this-binary-universe","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/simoncpage.co.uk\/blog\/2008\/10\/bt-this-binary-universe\/","title":{"rendered":"BT – This Binary Universe"},"content":{"rendered":"

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\nBT or Brian Transeau is my favourite electronic musician and his latest album this Binary Univese is simply a fantastic musical creation. When I first heard his IMA<\/a> album, which\u00a0my friend Andy bought me\u00a0one Christmas, I just couldn’t put it down and\u00a0wanted more and more.\u00a0From there on\u00a0he has delivered, ECSM<\/a> (Electric Church Sky Music) being an album I have probably listened to more than any other.<\/p>\n

His latest studio album (albeit released in 2006)\u00a0is This Binary Universe<\/a>, and is something a little different than anything he has done before. This album is one of the most abstract pieces of music I have listened to and yet it has a really elegance to it which is difficult to explain. The tracks have no vocal collaborations like in previous albums (Emotional Technology<\/a>), and the track “Everything That Makes Us Human” was written exclusively in an audio programming language called CSound<\/a>. Here is some code snippets from that track:<\/p>\n

kfadefilter line 1500, p3, 25000
\nkfadefilter2 line 100, p3, 8000
\nkverbpan3 lfo 20, p3*.02
\nileveloscs = p4
\na1 hsboscil kenv*.18, ktone, kbrite, cpspch(p5+2.0), 2, 3, 10, -1
\na2 hsboscil kenv2*.18, ktone, kbrite2, cpspch(p5+3.0), 2, 3, 10, -1
\na3 oscil kenv3, cpspch(p5+3), 4
\na4 oscil kenv3*0.01, cpspch(p5+1.6), 4
\na5 oscil kenv3, cpspch(p5-2.4), 4
\na6 oscil kenv3*.2, cpspch(p5-2.0), 4
\na7 oscil kenv3*.2, cpspch(p5-1.4), 4
\na5hp butterhp a5, kfadefilter2
\namixhp1 butterhp a1+(a2*.1), kfadefilter+1000
\namix = amixhp1*.1+a3+a5hp+a4+a6+a7
\nacomb comb amix, .007, .01, 4.0
\nal, ar babo acomb, kverbpan3, 0, 0, 8.39, 7.86, 40,
\nahilinput = (amix+a3+a5hp+a4+a7) + (al*.3)
\nkfreq linseg cpspch(p6), p3, cpspch(p6)+.001
\nahilL, ahilR hilbert ahilinput<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

BT’s\u00a0fascination with mathematics, thinking outside of the box,\u00a0creating\u00a0tracks\u00a0purely in code without the aid of sequencers or instruments, and even developing his own software (BreakTweaker)\u00a0whilst producing this album has made it something purely unique and the album he is most proud of.<\/p>\n

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There are fewer tracks here than on any previous album, and they are all long, unresponsive, unwieldy, and very much have an innocent, childlike “hey, remember Aphex Twin” quality to them. They alternate between extremely quiet moments where nothing happens and loud, bombastic moments with full orchestras.\u00a0He is no longer adhering to the 4\/4 dance groove and pop sensibilities preferred by his fan-base, choosing odd keys and uneven time signatures that change pace and direction, naming tracks after mathematical concepts like the Golden Ratio (1.618), time correcting minute slivers of samples that no one will notice, slicing down 2,048th notes and micro-edits, and inserting hidden Easter eggs and advanced sonic tricks (particularly now that he has started working with 5.1 audio). None of these will be apparent to you, however, unless you look at the source code.<\/p>\n

This Binary Universe<\/a> is like Marmite – you either love it or hate it. It’s really isn’t something, I find,\u00a0you can’t easily listen to\u00a0as say background music, as it make you stand up to attention\u00a0and try to understand all it’s beauty – this really is creative design, but don’t take my word for it check out one of my favourite tracks:<\/p>\n

See You On The Other Side – This Binary Universe<\/h2>\n


\nThis Binary Universe is available on CD with Bonus DVD<\/a> with 5.1 DTS surround which sounds awesome on my new 5.1 kit<\/a>, which I recently reviewed.<\/p>\n

M-Audio interview\u00a0BT about This Binary Universe<\/h2>\n

<\/p>\n

Recent quote from BT<\/h3>\n

The second interest of mine is in mathematics and computer software. I started a software company two years ago called Sonic Architect, and we spent two years building a drum machine called BreakTweaker; every beat on the record is done in BreakTweaker. It’s the first ever surround sound drum machine, and it’s going to come out next year. But we built it so I could do the beats that I wanted to do on this album: note figures of 2,048th and 1,024th notes that spline down into 8th note triplets exponentially over a dotted quarter note. And all of this granulation takes place in surround sound. Nothing that’s commercially available can do this yet.<\/p>\n

Resources and links<\/h3>\n