Featured Audio Collection for March 2006

The Andy Brader Collection

This March we feature Andy Brader's Collection of sounds. Here's what Andy has to say about it all:

This collection features a range of music projects I have produced and/or helped others to produce. The first 19 tracks were recorded in Sheffield, UK.

In 1995 I founded a non-profit organisation called The Music Making Movement (aka MMM). The organisation’s mission was to provide free recording facilities for those who didn’t have access to production resources. I had been working in council funded youth services, running mobile production workshops and getting frustrated because we could not persuade UK funding bodies to accept our informal education ethos. We decided to fund our own studio/rehearsal space in a deindustrialised zone of the city, which is now heavily involved in the process of urban regeneration.

The music we produced during the period 1995-2002 was mostly loop based dance music fused with a variety of live performances. We also assisted the Lost Soulz Rappers develop their talent and recording skills. Although our studio facilities generated a great deal of demand helping local artists vent their anger and frustrations through creative processes, most of the music contained explicit language and samples without copyright clearance.

The selected tracks archived with ACRO are examples of the kind of work that can be achieved by struggling artists who manage to access recording facilities for just a few hours a week. Using royalty free loops and relatively cheap digital recording equipment we managed to offer exciting opportunities to local talent.

Since 2004 I have been running a recording studio in a Flexible Learning Centre Kingston, Queensland called “The Centre Education Programme”. The students I assist here are also making good use of ACRO. There are video and audio examples of their work in the collection. The music video “That’s how it was” was funded by a BP education grant. It contains inspiring pop/rap lyrics reflecting on teenage life and uses several stills and video clips from ACRO. “Talk’s cheap” & Digi Beatbox” are also part of the collection our students use as instrumentals.

I encourage ACRO users to do the same.

The collection also contains a demo album recording from a Brisbane outfit called “Stoutfinger”. This group of degenerates have been playing blues/electronica in and around Brisbane for the last decade. I have had the pleasure of recording and performing with them since 2004. ACRO is the perfect place to archive this collection because it was created through a mixture of sampling and original material. I hope other ACRO users will be inspired by our efforts. Using the “creative commons” ethos we hope that our music will be used by others to create exciting new digital, multi-media content. The process of recycling these products is ongoing. Please make the most of this collection and remember to put something back into the archive. .