Xuiqen

Based out of ATX, xuiqen serves as a vehicle for the exploration of geometric abstraction through dance music.

To the listener, this is often felt by the presence of odd and/ or phasing rhythmic structures. The listener is then encouraged to find their own groove to latch onto.

Ultimately, there’s no wrong way to move to the music, just as there is no wrong way to pronounce the name:

Interpretive Dance Music, if you will.


Detroit Underground has just released the debut album, moiré.


Album Notes:

Moiré consists of 6 live performances, recorded over the course of 2 months, featuring the Elektron Rytm and Digitakt. Video was captured of each performance as it exists on album.

Featuring exclusively odd-time and poly-meter, the aim of Moiré was to deliver the height of rhythmic psychedelia. A few notes detailing the rhythmic constructs have been included below:


Track Notes:

vvəel: Intended as a bit of trial by fire, the dominant pulse on the Rytm is in 17/8, while the dominant pulse on the DT is in 15/8; there are no phase resets for the entire length of the track.

Alfred Hitchcock’s The 39 Steps: As implied by the title, the prominent meter of the tune 39/8.

rchmöd: The core rhythmic structure is a 12/8 (toms) layered over a 9/8 (kick + snare).

Init_π: Beginning in 27/8 and ending in 21/4, ‘Init’ is the height of compound meter abuse on the release.

Moiré was chosen to be the title track, as it best exemplifies the philosophy behind the project. The meter is 35/8, which is intended to lead the listener to feel 9 with a slight skip. However, the presence of 5’s is intended to challenge the listener’s resolve to feel it in 9.

In contrast, five/nine closes the release with the only true linear piece, as the global step-length was set to 59 (the listener feels 15).


The following is a playlist of performances as they exist on the album:


The following is a playlist of our live sets:


Social Media:
https://www.instagram.com/xuiqen/

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I was hungering for more Autechre-like music… nice work!

dig those dense kick rolls… the general density of it all. it’s crisp-sounding, too. sweet, timbral variety

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wow, no need to apologize for the length! that was a trip

are there two people playing? or am i seeing things?

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Yeah. this is me and my roommate :slightly_smiling_face: I’m on the rytm, he’s on the takt.

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sick

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Care to discuss the process? Or what sounds might be coming from where?

Very cool

Sounds like healthy use of retrig at times

:slight_smile:

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I wouldn’t mind. Honestly, was the point of trying to capture it all in camera, though I’m aware the removing of i-frames in the 3rd section’s glitch overlay caused some drift between the two.

Regarding the process, I generally cook up something over the course of the week + have him cooku up something spontaneously on the ‘takt in the span of time it takes me to refine/ bolster one on the AR.

After about 5-7 hours of mixing the two together, we’re generally ready to record. At that point, we’ll either record into PT (if it’s behaving), since I prefer to master in PT, or Reason (if PT isn’t behaving).

Regarding video, we record on a Sony a7. The footage then gets dropped into either FCPX or Premiere, though I’ve been using FCPX most since it seems to work best on my computer. If necessary I’ll then port out a slightly more manageable file (or series of files as it was in this case) for him to reencode (via ffmpeg) to various codecs to then hexedit and/ or god knows what else for the glitches. After that’s done (typically takes a couple days), he’ll return fire, and I’ll overlay/ export.

also. @bruin, thanks man. the comparison means a lot. I’ll pass the kind words along :slight_smile:

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awesome

It’s amazing what a second pair of hands can do for a setup :slight_smile:

be interested to hear what kind of food gets fed into both boxes

keep it up

edit: in regards to DT vs AR speed of use, wonder if that’s down to visual representation of the sample on the takt? Actually - makes me realise - I should use OB more often to visualise what the sample is doing on the AR

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yeah, this is ultra (tactile, animated, fluid) - also, refreshing to see/hear two people at it… feels raw, too

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Honestly, the AR is pretty much entirely synthesis. There are a couple things that got layered in for transients. The snare is a rim shot from one of the packs layered over a noise generator and filtered with a bandpass, but it’s nothing special. The only other that I can think of is what was placed on pad 9. I believe it’s a looping transient from the junkyard pack.

As for the Digitakt, everything is stock. I don’t think he’s done anything but resample the 'takt, as well as a couple patches from his Micromonsta - though I’m quite certain everything that was used in this was stock.

Regarding speed of use, it’s just that I’m generally routing a load of modulations in the scene/ perf macro/ aftertouch mod pages. That + synthesis just takes longer, in my experience.

As for keeping it up, we intend to. :slight_smile: We have a facebook page and a soundcloud under the name “xuiqen”. We’re looking to release an album of these at some point. So far we have 3 recorded (still in the process of mastering the 3rd), and we’re calling the genre ADM (‘abstract’ for the odd/ polymeter abuse).

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awesome response man!

I’m always interested to hear more about what’s going through artists heads or their intentionality in the instrument. gives a little more insight than YT or Insta upload and the gearlist

i’ll Be sure to follow, cheers!

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Right on. :slight_smile: I am throwing an IG account together atm. (probably gonna end up being for less formal vids/ glitch photography, etc.)

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What do you mean by resample? I hear that word used in so many different ways that I’m curious what you mean by it (just so I’m clear on the process). Great video btw.

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It’s a colloquialism coined to describe the recursive nature of sampling/ mangling/ resampling, ad nauseum. In this instance, you can record/ sample the output of the DT, internally.

And thanks :slight_smile:

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just listened again on the way home. so killer. love the video too. might be the best thing I’ve ever seen uploaded done on Elektron boxes haha. not that my opinion matters but… fucken dope

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:open_mouth:

idk about that, but we’re both incredibly honored by the sentiment.

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This jam is so dope! :heat:

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thanks man. gotta hand it to these machines; they give us a lot to play with. :slight_smile:

fuck! well done, man. inspiring. great stuff! :slight_smile:

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:blush:

seriously means a lot, man.