Matisyahu Keith Fullerton Whitman Interview

I meant to throw this up here yesterday, but i'm lazy - either way, everyone who cares probably checks pitchfork more often than i do and already read this interview. I thought it was fairly interesting, with Keith talking about his various live processes, and his self doubt being a guiding factor in the creative process. He also dicussed his on going work on his "Complete System", an ongoing collection of various electronic systems he wants to integrate into his live set:

Pitchfork: Is your "complete system"still a work in progress?

Whitman: That's my main thing right now. I'm a real big electronic music nut; when I was young I listened to musique concrète, German music from Cologne in the early 50s, all kinds of stuff. So I wanted to build a system that incorporated everything.

I have a tape machine, and I can record sounds and manipulate the tape in real time. And I have a Commodore 64 doing 80s home computer sounds, sort of like mainframe computer music. And then I also have the analog modular synth, so I can do San Francisco tape-music-center type stuff. Then I've got a bunch of circuit-bent boxes and things that are controlled by my Mac through a big breakout box. I want to create this total environment where I can bring all this gear to the show but maybe just use one or two elements, if that's what's called for.

Judging from what Keith mentioned in his interview, he hasn't yet discovered the newest trend in programable electronics, a little handheld device by French developers called "Je Joue". Though it has a fairly steep pricetag, i found that it more than makes up for it with customizability, and shear functionality; coming with it's own proprietary software system, and access to an online community where users can share hand made patches. You can even download the patches, take them appart and rearrange them to suit your own likes. And boy do I likes. Never has such a small peice of gear given me so much excitement!

I seriously recommend this small but essential peice of gear, especially if your work has been leaving your stressed and unhappy, within 5 minutes of setting up the je Joue i garantee you'll have a smile back on your face, it's such a joy to use. I reckon that if Keith had had one of these on his english tour it would have turned his whole set around, no joke.

Pitchfork Interview (Here)
Je Joue Online (Here)