The Flashbulb

Post by **Aesthetics** » Mon May 22, 2006 10:14 am

A friend of mine told me about him the other week.. why didn't I found out about this guy before??

He is heavely influenced by Squarepusher, Venetian Snares and Aphex and even a little bit of BoC but he surely knows how to give it his on twist. I now know why he named himself The Flashbulb because a lot of songs go through a lot of different styles, he flawlessly rambles from one style to another and that's something I really like!

Styles like: Ambient, Breakbeat, Abstract, Glitch, D'n'B, Classical, IDM, Jazz (Fusion), Acid, Experimental, Breakcore etc. all these styles are packed into 1 album.

Why o why isn't Kirlian Selections on vinyl?

The Flasbulb

hexagon son · Post by **hexagon son** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:29 pm

look guys, if none of youse have checked him out, your truly missing something special! sometimes i get angry that i dont hear about musicians like this before. ive been having a problem with trying to get anything by solvent in my local HMV (the only place to get music on the IOW), and its a shame, cus i wanna give this guy my dime. i wish i knew about BoC in 1988. that wouldve been a privelidge. anyhoo, CHECK THIS GUY OUT!

Derail · Post by **Derail** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:34 pm

hexagon son wrote:look guys, if none of youse have checked him out, your truly missing something special! sometimes i get angry that i dont hear about musicians like this before. ive been having a problem with trying to get anything by solvent in my local HMV (the only place to get music on the IOW), and its a shame, cus i wanna give this guy my dime. i wish i knew about BoC in 1988. that wouldve been a privelidge. anyhoo, CHECK THIS GUY OUT!

Alright hex, that post put me over the top and convinced me to check this guy out. DAMN! I will be ordering something from him soon. What's the best?

hexagon son · Post by **hexagon son** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:37 pm

talking about killing yourself : off of : These Open Fields as far as I can tell.

Post by **Aesthetics** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:42 pm

Thanks for helping me out here hexagon

Derail, I think it's best to start with Binedump EP.

Derail · Post by **Derail** » Wed May 24, 2006 11:52 pm

I like the guitar infused sound and glitchy breaks of "Kirlian Shores". It's like a mix between Bibio and Autechre, really good. Does he have an album simliar to this style, cause a lot of the tracks I listened to seem to jump around a bit.

Edit: Damnit, I had the chance to see this guy live along with Telefon Tel Aviv and Cylob. I didn't go cause none of my friends like this shit, I'm rollin solo next time.

Post by **Aesthetics** » Thu Jul 13, 2006 11:22 pm

Last chance to check this great artist out or this topic will sink to the dungeons of Twoism forever!

ExitEuXa · Post by **ExitEuXa** » Fri Jul 14, 2006 12:19 am

Aesthetics wrote:Last chance to check this great artist out or this topic will sink to the dungeons of Twoism forever!

Well i did, and yr right again, a very great artist idd, i wan't more of his music.

kyriakos · Post by **kyriakos** » Wed Apr 18, 2007 10:56 pm

I just discovered Kirlian Selections last night. It's soooo beautiful.

hexagon son · Post by **hexagon son** » Thu Apr 19, 2007 7:13 pm

nice dump, kyriakos!!! i needed some influence on some new music.

jl · Post by jl » Thu Apr 19, 2007 11:20 pm

Cheers for the recommendation. Judging from the few tracks I'm listening to now he's superb.

hexagon son · Post by **hexagon son** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 8:57 pm

dump??? i meant bump! mustve been really tired when i typed that!

Infinite E · Post by **Infinite E** » Fri Apr 20, 2007 9:21 pm

two lives · Post by **two lives** » Mon Jun 18, 2007 11:50 pm

This isn't directed at anyone in particular. God I hate to sound like a right bastard but I checked out this Flashbulb stuff and thought it was really appalling. I'm presuming it is acceptable to express such opinions here. It's really cheesy and naive sounding, the production is like a sonic rendition of babylon 5 graphics and the whole glitch thing is really young and cliche. The bibio/autechre reference was what got me interested but then found that the comment was based around a lazily recorded guitar with some pitch bending and a bit of simple glitching - hardly anywhere near as well crafted as anything that bibio or Ae have ever done, but putting that aside, suggesting that it sounds similar to either of those artist kind of suggests a fairly naive outlook on music, so like whenever an electronic artist uses a guitar (even if it is recorded with a £3000 mic and staight into protools) it somehow has a connection to bibio, and if there's a few glitches in a track, it somehow sounds like Ae. I respect that one man's meat is another man's poison (or any other proverbial equivalent) - each to their own etc. but I have read some opinions on this forum which have revealed people belittling the works of really good thoughtful and forward thinking musicians and then I hear this flashbulb stuff and to be told this is somehow highly rated?!?! It's difficult to respect technical criticisms made about good music when this is somehow a template of achievement for a current artist. OK that's my unnecessary bitching done, I now apologise for offending anyone and will now leave you to continue debating over music, oh and for anyone who can't take this polite reaction now is the opportunity to tell me to 'f*ck off'. Bye.

wwbjd · Post by **wwbjd** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:04 am

Wow, nice first post

I agree a lot of the comparisons here, @ WATMM and pretty much everywhere are just ludicrous. People looking for music that sounds like BoC get directed to probably 99% of music that doesn't even sound remotely like BoC. Same for other artists.

"I want more music that sounds like AE!" "Hey, check out Burial". Etc.. etc.. It's always drove me mad.

Your response sounds kind of personal though, not sure why The Flashbulb would set you off.

I started listening to TF a lot after learning about Ben Jordan and a supposed "Tuss" connection. Really glad I started checking TF out. Some of his more string-based, slow moving music is really quite nice.

But I believe the gist of your post carries a lot of merit. Comparisons run rampant on the internet, most likely because people are just wanting to promote what they think is cool/good and hoping to find someone else that will pick up on their same likes/dislikes (hell, see my Acid thread!). It's much easier to make comparisons between singular tracks than to artists as a whole.

And the TF thread is really old, so you must have dug it up for some reason

two lives · Post by **two lives** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 12:33 am

I'm just visiting, I was lead here by a search and found myself reading through stuff, I'm not really aware of what's hot and what's not in here. I suppose that it does seem like my comment was personal, well it's not really, it's just when you read people trying their best(?) to criticise music and make themselves sound as if they have some special qualification to do that - trying to get technical and summarise someone else's hard work into comments like 'not enough layers' or 'not much going on' - it makes them out to be super intelligent, forward thinking people who crave something really advanced and deep and are dissatisfied with simplicity and minimalism, like they're on a quest to further themselves via music... at first I am intrigued at these people's comments because it might suggest that they are really into music and all of the subtle nuances and concepts within music production, but then all of their comments are suddenly (and this may seem harsh) almost invalidated for me by then claiming that flashbulb is so good it's really worth sharing... so I'm thinking, hmmm, bibio/ae mix, sounds like an intersting cocktail - but then it's like... shit! if this is amazing then how the hell are you listening to bibio or Ae? - With ear plugs in? But honestly, it doesn't bother me, I just thought I have as much right to remind people that their grandiose statements aren't so considerate and well thought out. People have been told all their lives that they have to justify everything they think/feel, so if they don't like something they have to explain why - the problem is, they don't necessarily know why they don't like something and then kind of try and formulate a reason which is as brittle and tranparent as glass. We're all guilty of it i think. I don't like celery, but I don't know why, I could blame the celery taste, but my mate claims it is heavenly so it's not at fault for him - the question is, do we taste it the same?

wwbjd · Post by **wwbjd** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 4:08 am

two lives wrote:I don't like celery, but I don't know why, I could blame the celery taste, but my mate claims it is heavenly so it's not at fault for him - the question is, do we taste it the same?

Probably not. And this response isn't just about celery.

It's a lack of vocabulary, for everyone, especially where the senses are concerned. More often than not it's hard to put into terms why we like certain things, when something does or doesn't connect to us in a specific way.

And you're right. You really can't fault someone because they've given say Bibio a chance and didn't like it, or said it "didn't have enough layers", while liking something else. Just a matter of taste (if they can taste it, better for them!).

It also helps if people do give things a second chance. I actually had a quick exchange with Bibio about his Ted remix. He asked me if I was a fan of Clark and I went on a small rampage about not being that big a fan and how Clark's music seemed rather LOUD and I could only take it in small doses. That was the end of the conversation.. however, that just made me revisit Clark's music and in the long run, a greater appreciation for it.

I'm not defending The Flashbulb of course, or anyone else's opinion. I just think it's one of the more interesting visits in a while

thedisavowed · Post by **thedisavowed** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 10:56 am

I listened to the Kirlian Selections in full one of the last weeks of April, but for whatever reason, aside from fucked-up break edit ala Clark, I don't remember much about it.

I do remember that a lot of it seemed very derivative, i.e. if you happen to like Aphex/Squarepusher/Ae/Clark you will probably like this too.

I know I do listen to artists whose influences are unmistakeable, but Flashbulb just didn't stick with me. I'll try again sometime.

two lives · Post by **two lives** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 11:34 am

Fair comment, but I have to disagree with the notioin: 'if you like a, then you'll like b' - people who like Ae/Clark etc... probably like it because it's really good thoughtful and mature music (I don't mean mature in the parental way, more the artistic way), suggesting they'd like something that's watered down, immature and cheesy just because it falls into the same genre is not likely.

I suppose what I find shocking is that people do treat Clark/Flashbulb as if they're comparable. They're really not, it makes me question people's listening skills when they make comparisns like these. The drums in flashbulb tracks sound like they're some session musician on a sample CD put through Ableton's beat repeat. Very naive. (However, the aforementioned technique could turn out really good if someone like...er... Clark did it). Maybe Flashbulb will get better and really blossom, but I find it difficult to respect an artist who can not decide when it's a good time to make their music public. I'm sure boc have done some crap in the past but they waited a very long time before they made it public. That is a massive chunk of the skill in being a musician - knowing what is tasteful and ready. It's overlooked far too often, there are plenty of embarrassingly distasteful virtuoso musicians in the world and then really talented, tasteful not-so virtuoso musicians. But the virtuosos get the asses licked all the time. Perhaps musicians should enter the olympics if it's so competitive.

Infinite E · Post by **Infinite E** » Tue Jun 19, 2007 2:37 pm

Hmm, I can see what you're saying, you make some fair points. But I really disagree with the idea that listening to music (or appreciating any art) is an objective skill. That suggests that there's an ultmate goal in listening to music other than enjoyment (like achieving 'musical sophistication'). To continue down that road leads you to cultural fascism. All arts are to some extent subjective, and that's what makes them 'democratic' for want of a better word.

I totally appreciate that a little experience in music production or learning a little theory can heighten the experience (I've found that myself), but my enjoyment of, say, hand cranked (which I liked way more than fi btw

) is totally incomparable to somebody else's enjoyment of cheesy 4-to-the-floor trance. In the end, an open mind is the best tool for appreciating music.

I could elaborate this into a bit of a rant but I've got to go to work now, post more later