Weirdest Playthrough of the Day Ever: Colin Marston Noise Groove

This one comes via the archives of our friend Nick Didkovsky of Vomit Fist. In 2002, while a student of music technology at New York University (and studying under Didkovsky), perennial MetalSucks/GearGods hero Colin Marston, of Krallice, Dysrhythmia, Gorguts, and Behold the Arctopus, composed the following little piece on Java-based composition software, Java Music Specification Language (JMSL) and JSyn (Java Synthesizer).

Whew. Now that’s a sentence.

This little ditty is a pretty entertaining listen and watch. I guess projecting it through time makes it a playthrough – maybe even a new kind? Prog-noise-computer-core?

Spake the young Mr. Marston of the piece,

The goal of this piece was approach the sometimes called “power electronics” genre from an atypical angle. Normally this type of noise music is completely improvised live with effects and feedback. Much of the time the sounds that are produced are somewhat accidental due to the nature of using equipment in this unconventional way. My goal was to achieve a similar sonic palette but make the music structured rather than exploratory. Approaching the music in this way allowed me to get very specific and detailed with the timbres and more complex with the interplay between different voices.

Cool stuff, right?

If you’re interested in this kind of music, one of Colin’s bands, Behold the Arctopus, is currently seeking a new drummer after amicably parting ways with previous skinsman Weasel Walter. In 2002, Arctopus were just a “hyper-compositional technical metal band that is yet to choose a name.” Look what they became!