Hanalgig AMA, July 2022
After Hanalgig was uploaded to YouTube by Paranoidal Dyslexia, on July 24th, 2022, Sean, using the YouTube account "XH HX", answered several questions in the comments below the video.
The questions have been arranged in the order they were answered by Sean, with any subsequent replies moved to the appropriate question, so context isn't lost. Any unanswered questions or comments without questions have not been included.
Transcript
XH HX: yo, sean here
a few people asked me about this today so here goes:
it's one of two cds i burned for playing a dj set at dave hanal's birthday party in mcr.
i left it in his laptop by mistake, oops :D
not much of it's solo stuff (two tracks, you can guess) and there's a few i didn't work on but were recorded in my studio, apologies to those concerned (who will remain nameless of course).
most of it was unfinished and a few are just parts, or they cut off early etc.
track 01 - ae, 2011
track 02 - ae - from oversteps sessions, 2009
track 03 - gescom - unfinished stakker cover/remix, 2007
track 04 - gescom, 2005
track 05 - ae - from quaristice sessions, 2007
track 06 - ae, 2006
track 07 - gescom, 2007
track 08 - gescom, 2006
track 09 - gescom, 2005
track 10 - gescom, 2008
track 11 - dj mix i did for dave's birthday, 1988
i hardly ever log into this account so i might be a bit slow answering any follow-up q's (if ever)
cheers mate
Phoenix: thanks sean! did any of the tracks have any titles (besides the obvious?)
XH HX: nothing beyond working titles which are frankly unfit for publication, i'll leave titling as an exercise for the reader
Jukani Nekina: are any of them perhaps called "spaghetti and meatballs" or "funky town"?
XH HX: No
reasonablywintry: Gotta ask, tr.2 being oversteps sesh's, was that max or something else/both? IDK if you've ever said if oversteps studio tracks were hardware for sounds or nah
XH HX: XH HX: a combo of max sequencing and logic running (iirc) fm7 or fm8
Anuel: if i may let curisoity get the better of me, what did the other cd contain? just more assorted ae and gescom tracks?
XH HX: yeah similar stuff, outtakes and assorted detritus
Namex: sean can you name my amgia 500 please
XH HX: i don't do that shit any more but ok your amiga 500 is named fred harris
Namex: thanks a bunch and sorry for the spammy comment haha
Anuel: A user I know is going insane about track 2 having elyc sounds, can you confirm this? Would be really interesting to know the elyc stuff was dating back to 2009
XH HX: just a coincidence, the elyc stuff was 2014/15 iirc
Bill-O-Vision Studios: sean, just wanted to thank you very much for that twitch ama, I had had the worst day (was my dad's birthday, lost him in 2020) but going over it while looking up some of the artists you mentioned really turned it around. I'd put on Chiastic for him in 1999 and he insisted I leave the disc for him, anyway thanks again very much
XH HX: you're welcome, glad if it helped in some minor way
threedividers: Any plans for more audiovisual work in the future, or anything interactive? Would you work with Chris Cunningham again?
XH HX: no plans at present. idk if chris would ever be up for doing music videos again but it would be cool to work with him on something. we're still in touch with alex rutterford and might do something with him again at some point.
disco becky: i wanted to ask during the twitch stream but work caught all my attention; are there any plans to release structural/functional msp stuff similar to how the elektron/mpc content was released?
XH HX: slight maybe, if we ever stopped using it
Move Often: Hi Sean. Do you remember what year were "Stop Look Listen" and "Konlied MX" recorded? Were these archived/outtake tracks or did you recorded them for those specific Warp compilations?
XH HX: they were recent-ish tracks at the time, i think stop look listen was a bit older (done around LP5 era)
real dog: hi sean, thanks for the track info (ts1a being from 2006 is insane LOL). really wanted to ask during the twitch AMA but forgot-- will the quaristice versions/quadrange stuff ever see a rerelease on streaming services? thanks for the tunes as always :^)
XH HX: i thought quadrange was already on streaming, but i'll look into it if not. quaristice versions is gonna stay physical only for now, can't have everything up there
Anuel: last question before i dip, what prompted you to comment on this leak? cheers back mate!
XH HX: it was bugging me that it said my name on this listing despite it being mostly gescom bits (thanks to @Paranoidal Dyslexia for editing that without me asking directly)
palm: hey man...I listen to your 4utechre Twitch stream stuff a lot, especially while animating. its GREAT as a background while im working. any chances of you guys uploading some more of that kind of thing? great stuff.
XH HX: if we get another lockdown i might, been a bit busy lately. rob might do some from his twitch if you beg him
disco becky: imsosorry it is killing me o my god can you name my Digitone imsosososorry thank you for all you do
XH HX: tony le mesmer
quailson: Hey since T ess xi is in here, is most of your sequencing done in the event thread (ie bangs / messages) or the audio thread (sig)? I’m super curious how you get sick syncopation in this track specifically, like if it’s from clocking at off intervals or Elektron style off grid placement. Or even if it’s just delay~ objects.
XH HX: that track was mostly sequenced in logic but in max it's a combination of event/audio sequencing depending on what we're doing
n7z: How's your life going, Sean?
XH HX: pretty good apart from somehow ending up doing a stupid ama on youtube today
redapplefour: wheres all the XHK XH HX names come from, any specific meaning?
XH HX: it's a secret
Prvi Drugi: Hi Sean! Can you pls tell me was the 6th track (ts1a) sequenced or even completely made in Max? Thnx
XH HX: No
Veselcraft: hey sean, have you been using some open source alternative to msp/max like pure data?
XH HX: not used pd at all apart from ~12 years ago for some rjdj patches, not used on any releases
Joaquín Martínez: Hey Sean, hope you're well, the track 5 was sequenced on maxmsp ? also, have you guys thought on making re-issues for the 2000s releases?
XH HX: that was sequenced with renoise
XH HX: oh yeah i almost forgot - re-issues for confield and draft are in the works
XH HX: thanks for all the questions but i gotta dash for a while, have fun out there
XH HX: i just noticed one of those dates is wrong, track 6 is supposed to say 2009
rusnachre: Hi, Sean. Thank you for music. Can you tell how was made an "All End" ?
XH HX: idk, ask rob
ozone Turnt: Hey Sean, just wanted to say I thoroughly enjoyed the recent twitch AMA, has kept me busy for some time with all the music / film talk! Is there any chance of another one? It was awesome. Cannot wait for Barbican.. :)
XH HX: yeah maybe, seems like a lot of q's here
(comment is deleted)
XH HX: old mate from rochdale
Antichess: Hey sean. i'm sure you have countless hours of unreleased tracks. do you ever plan on releasing a lot of them, like you did with nts sessions? if so, would it be some sort of formality like an album, or just a bunch of random files?
XH HX: i doubt it, most unreleased things are gonna stay unreleased unless they leak
whylessness: do you like vanilla, chocolate or strawberry milkshakes best?
XH HX: chocolate milkshake, but vanilla yoghurt drinks are good
Meson Natividad: Was drane just a drum machine pttern and a delay pedal (boss dd5 maybe or whatever version was around in 95 or whenever it was). Top 5 ae trk m9
XH HX: Natividad quadraverb
dtprg: cheers man! t2 and ts1a are so top notch FM mastery. when ts1a landed i was fkn obsessed how it was made and thougt it was made with some casio's PD monster like VZ10m (thanks god i didn't got one). also track2 sounds like synplant but more and more detailed. sick! thanks and full respect!
XH HX: actually i think you could be right, after i said fm7 i was wondering if it was fs1r or zebra but it could easily have been synplant, i don't have the files here to check
Gabe M: years ago you were listed as a maybe-last minute line-up at a psytrance festival in hungary called "sun festival". have you ever played at a festival like that? I would be really curious what you'd play to a bunch of darkpsy nutters, was bummed that they picked someone else
XH HX: i don't rem this booking at all but it's possible. i think we would have just done our usual thing there though
Alexander S: you guys were awesome at the Acropolis <3 :)
XH HX: i thought it sounded a bit weird in there tbh (without the subs and with their sound limit), but thanks
Rory Cheyne: If you're still doing Q and A things, what is it you are controlling during the live sets, are you switching premade patterns or defining new ones on the fly? Cheers, enjoyed the Primavera gig heaps.
XH HX: more like the latter, there are no patterns as such apart from a few bits. most of it's generated by the patches, and there's a degree of input from us that shapes what they do
Onokio: Sean, was there a fractal creator on Warp’s website that made variants of the EP7 album cover? Read that on wiki. EP7 changed my little 9 year old brain at the time, forever grateful.
XH HX: yeah there was, basically the same algo but made in flash iirc. pretty cool you heard it at at 9, must have sounded well strange
Anuel: woah, you're still going? i don't think id have the energy to haha how do you feel about people who rearrange yall records into whatever they feel like? this bootleg itself is interpretation, as i know the discord server is developing multiple tracklist ideas and covers but that makes sense considering you seemed unphased that people are doing it , but im curious what your stance on the malleability of studio records for listeners to make it their own is? also side question, thoughts on Ilkae - Pistachio Island?
XH HX: yeah doesn't bother us at all. i grew up editing other people's tracks and for us remixing is a totally normal thing to do, led directly to us making tracks.
Rob Themes: Sean, do you have any favorite drummers (or, sure, drum programmers)? And are you familiar with the drummer Han Bennink at all? The way he craftily changes a beat up outta nowhere has reminded me of your stuff at times. There's a great video set of him playing on wheels of cheese that everyone should check out. And a big thank you for these AMAs, totally love when they happen, even though it may be a pain in the keister, it is really appreciated. Cheers!
XH HX: favs include john french, steve shelton, sly dunbar, stewart copeland, lincoln scott, chris cutler, clyde stubblefield, keith leblanc and charles hayward. if i was to include programmers it would be a long list but would defo include kurtis mantronik, karl bartos, hashim, todd terry, ced gee, marley marl and hank shocklee. idk if i've heard han bennink but i'll check him out, cheers
Hidden Techno: Hi Sean, I noticed you have a couple of live dates lined up, any plans for a gig in Scotland? Really enjoyed your last show in Glasgow. Oh and whats your stance on people doing edits or remixes of your tracks (not for release obviously) for DJ sets?
XH HX: it's never a good idea to discuss bookings before everything's signed
Zir Teq: Yo, can you confirm or deny the Exai cover release date fuckup theory? Basically the sum of all the lines on the Exai cover, when read like a binary clock, verifiably add up to 13034. But the physical release of Exai was on the 5th of March 2013 (13035), so the cover is off by just one bit. Was this intended and did TDR mess it up?
XH HX: you'd have to ask tDR about that
Tamás Károlyi: Hi Sean, thanks for the many answers! If you still happen to be around: in Zeiss Contarex there is a sample and we just can't figure out what it's saying: "We don't care about....?"Hi Sean, thanks for the many answers! If you still happen to be around: in Zeiss Contarex there is a sample and we just can't figure out what it's saying: "We don't care about....?" We jokingly say it's "whootle" but what's a "whootle", Sean??? We don't know the answers! :'(
XH HX: it's a secret
Eden GT: Regarding old releases (pre-2002-ish): Is there a reason why some of the published album artworks shown on Bandcamp appear to be physical scans (e.g. Gantz Graf and Garbage EP having a textured look to it) rather than digital?
XH HX: could be that the artwork files are missing. we/tDR/warp had to rebuild all the art for the reissued vinyls so far because of that
Александр Астахов: Hi, Sean! Why has your music become less dark in the last 12 years? I very like your releases 1994 - 2008 years.
XH HX: i don't have any idea about what's going on
ALF CO.: hi sean, could you recommend me good headphones? can't use my studio space atm…
XH HX: Sony MDR-7510 are a good all-round closed pair. i used AKG K712 PRO for a while. lately been using Austrian Audio Hi-X60 a lot, current fav.
Yasir Ansari: I love you Sean. Chiastic Slide was my fav era. What's your new fav sequencer toy in 2022?
XH HX: either cho12otLL or dragg2w
dtprg: some time ago i stumbled upon symbolic sound's claim that you used kyma circa peel sessions 2 (because of that 'cephlaphage' sample in Blifil) and then i started to spot some kyma moments in ep7. how do you find their ecosystem in general? i saw rdj's take that everyone should throw their kymas through the window
XH HX: hilarious. there is a vocal sample in there but that's not it. i never much liked kyma (horrible nested structuring, but it did sound pretty nice). we used it on a few things (second half of left blank, the nightmares on wax remix and the bic remix), and i eventually gave it to daz fitton
аптека: Sean are you or Rob left handed? Have been thinking about how neurodivergance manifests in music and I've noticed some traits among left handed musicians (e.g aphex), so just been wondering if there's any neurological link to it
XH HX: no, but i'm dysgraphic. i can only write in caps and can only write characters i practiced a lot (being a tagger helped with that), and if i write without paying attention i get the letters mixed up
Anuel: thoughts on Franz Reuleaux?
XH HX: that was rob's reference so i guess ask him
Anuel: ah fair enough, if rob ever uses his twitch I'll ask. you know, this could be a funny question but like we're just asking you stuff, but are there any questions you have for us?
XH HX: yeah i really need to know if the ship of theseus is fungible or not. asking for a friend.
Tebbisimo: is Stop Look Listen all spray paint cans??? how many of yr bloody tracks are samples of spray cans haha
XH HX: 4
Tebbisimo: damn, Draun Quarter as well?? damn, i think I know 1 more....the hunt continues. Also, can I pop round and have a jam/fiddle with yr max patch. I wont press save promise
No
Tebbisimo: fair. KRIB is the 3rd???
XH HX: the snares on krib were shot glasses and the kicks were fingertips on a loose painting canvas. afaik there was no spraycans involved
Tebbisimo: btw pro radii, what vocal samples that? The crowd like? Such a banggggggrrrrrrrr.
That's a track once I was really fucked and the rhythm clicked in a way that I've forgotten and now can't replicate :(
XH HX: every few years someone guesses that right and then it gets lost again in the sea of internet
Tebbisimo: did you ever make a Warhammer?
XH HX: no, it looks too much like a time hole
Tebbisimo: which crowd in '22 smelt the best so far?
XH HX: the italians obviously
Tebbisimo: Shit sorry mate actual question here. What audio interface you using on the live sets ATM? I couldn't care less tbh but my mate is desperate
XH HX: i'm using apogee symphony desktop lately which i really rate but before that was using apogee element 24 (also good but harder to get now) and before that was using RME ADI2 converter (had to stop since apple borked the optical port but i loved that thing). i also got a MOTU M2 which is mad value for ESS sabre converters if u want something cheapish
Tebbisimo: if you was stuck on a deserted island like, how many pairs of socks and pants would you want to have available? Or would you just not care
XH HX: ok u might as well stop asking cos i gotta dash again. yt comments = maybe the worst possible place for an ama eh
Phoenix: can you tell us one track that was yours from elseq?
XH HX: we try not to do that so i'm not gonna. just pick one at random and there's about a 50% chance
Owen Z.: it’s been fun exploring your live sets, especially the sheer quantity of 14-15. anything you could share about memories of that tour that stick out to you? places you loved/hated? shows that went well/awful?
XH HX: that tour was pure laughs. i rem the driver making phil go on the bus roof to check the ac unit at one point, idk why phil. usa bus tours are always a bit mad. i rly enjoyed orlando and montreal. nyc was terrible (the gig not the city).
DerGrosseKrieger: Whose Synthi was on stage for the Gescom set at ATP03?
XH HX: not sure but my guess is paul aka nachtsmeer
liliana: hi sean. gear u used in draft and why there wasnt any live stuff from it? love that album
XH HX: idk, a long list of stuff. can't rem now why we didn't tour that year, probably busy with organising atp
cnk: hey sean, thank you for your time! what do you think about the new era synthesizers/gears, such as ciat-lonbarde stuff (those beautiful wooden devices), soma pulsar-23, erica synths syntrx and their new drum machine, waldorf quantum for sure...etc? it seems that the computer is still the most powerful instrument but how do you find the latest technological developments on electronic music instruments? do you find any of them innovative?
XH HX: haven't used any of them so no idea really, but at a glance they all look pretty straightforward so i'm sure you could make good tracks with them
Finn: yo sean, this "answering follow up q's" thing has already escalated quite a bit and I think it's safe to say that nobody wants you to feel the obligation to keep answering fan questions here (or anywhere) - but have you maybe considered opening up a more manageable ama somewhere else, somewhere where you'd be more in charge of the thing and able to reply to stuff whenever you feel like it? cuz it seems to me like you enjoy this a fair bit (do you?) but it's definitely gotten bit out of hand here (has it?) let us know
XH HX: yeah i'll prob just dive on twitch again at some point, lot of these q's are hard to answer properly with text anyway. i wouldn't call this out of hand, just a terrible interface. whether i enjoy or not depends a lot on the question but i feel like if i can answer i will, and it's not a lot of work really, i don't sit on socials every night shitposting like a lot of people. that said i am kinda busy patching so, yeah
Nixtrove: hey, so i got myself some books on Max and im learning bits and pieces, kind of back to basics stuff for me but its really nice to learn a programming language. is there any particular piece of advice you would give to a novice like me getting into Max?
XH HX: idk it's quite diff now to when i first got it. i just went thru the objects one by one trying them all out, but there are more objects now so probably just good to do the tutorials, and then go thru the objects maybe? hard to say what would work for you, i'm really into trial and error so that's always been my way into stuff
liliana: any guilty pleasure in music?
XH HX: why would i feel guilty for liking something?
Move Often: Thanks for the answer, Sean. I have another question: Who are "Bic?" from the Splitrmx12 EP?
XH HX: not allowed to say
Move Often: Understandable. One last question: In the Twitch stream you said that a remix compilation was not possible, but what about an album that includes all those tracks that were released only on compilations and other "obscure" releases? There's some are only available on cassette or promos.
XH HX: ugh idk, would mean tracking masters down and all that, would prob be a fair bit of work. idk how many of the dats survived or even have a clear picture of how many tracks there are, what the deals with the labels were, how many would require licensing back, or how many of the labels still exist even. plus idk how many of the tracks are actually good (subjective obviously but we have to be still into them to care enough). rather be getting on with new stuff tbh (comment is deleted)
(comment is deleted)
XH HX: i don't think so off the top of my head
cnk: patching on 13", 14" or 16"?
XH HX: 16"
Fleaship: when Exai was released Pitchfork gave it a shoddy review, even saying that the LP shows that ye are 'bad editors'. With some tracks needing to be shorter. What do you think about this?
XH HX: it's not their fault really. music reviewers have a lot of stuff to listen to these days and have to turn reviews around really fast, so i can see how a 2 hour album as dense as exai is would probably piss them off.
ALF CO.: what's the story with gregory taylor's book? its really good for beginner/intermediate users imo. do you use step sequencers in your max work these days? ah, and thank you for the headphone recs
XH HX: gregory is a great teacher imo, very clear in all his tutorials and articles. i hardly ever do any step sequencing but i'd recommend any book he writes purely on that basis.
cnk: i've been working with analog devices for a while and like creating feedback loops that might crash a computer but act weird in interesting ways in analog circuits. but building my own virtual system sounds always attractive. what do you think about feedback patching and audio-range modulation on computer?
XH HX: i'm usually ok with a single sample delay (comment is deleted)
(comment is deleted)
XH HX: how much are you offering?
dtprg: did you ever tried pelle's mode on your nord lead?
XH HX: no i only found out about that after i lent it out which was ages ago. i should ask mike to try it out (guy i lent it to). iirc from what i heard at the time it sounds really nasty
Owen Z.: how much do you keep up w novel developments in electronic music? i might be crazy but i hear a lot of Chief Keef/trap influence in 14/15 live… Patricia Taxxon was a great tip… anything else that has turned your ear this summer?
XH HX: i don't keep up with stuff much, at all really, am usually just making stuff but now and then i go on a spree checking, not done it for ages though. last thing i heard and really liked was lasse marhaug's context, but i always check his stuff. i never checked trap much but been messing with fast hats and slow snares for a long time, no surprise if some of it sounds like us, prob we got similar influences
threedividers: Between the live setup and the studio, is there a trade-off between flexibility and stability in terms of how much variation the system can produce from your input? How far can you push it off the pre-planned rails of the set? Do you restrain yourselves to what you know the system can handle, or is it robust enough that you can go wild?
XH HX: a lot of it depends on which patches are loaded, some are more stable than others, and some more flexible than others, but there isn't much of a relationship between stability and flexibility at that level. at the global level there is insofar as it's harder to load 68 patches at once than to load 5 of them at once.
ALF CO.: did you read mark fell's book btw? what did you think?
XH HX: i haven't read it but i know him pretty well so i could probably guess at what it says. he never sent me a link to it or even mentioned it so i guess he doesn't require my comments
icari: do u have any more soundboards leftover from AE_LIVE 2016/2018? if so, do you plan on releasing the next batch of them somewhere down the line like with AE_LIVE 14/15? would love to listen more of the 2018 stuff (tokyo, tasmania etc.)
XH HX: we do have a few left over but we decided to keep it short because there's a lot more similarity there than between the 14/15 sets
Matei: what's your personal favorite autechre album/the autechre release you hold dearest? also cheers
XH HX: depends on mood, always something different