Q: What is Binary Society?
A: Binary Society is an event series featuring live synthesis founded in Silicon Valley, primarily downtown San Jose. I founded it for two reasons. First, there was a void locally as far as live instrumental electronic music shows. Second, representing electronic music with artistic integrity is very important to me. Rather than filling each lineup with DJ's and passing time, we focused on putting together lineups that would showcase performers who are trying to do something original every time they go out to play. The binary aspect of what we do applies to the zero tolerance for compromises to the music. Either it's being made and played for the right reasons or it's not.
A: Binary Society is an event series featuring live synthesis founded in Silicon Valley, primarily downtown San Jose. I founded it for two reasons. First, there was a void locally as far as live instrumental electronic music shows. Second, representing electronic music with artistic integrity is very important to me. Rather than filling each lineup with DJ's and passing time, we focused on putting together lineups that would showcase performers who are trying to do something original every time they go out to play. The binary aspect of what we do applies to the zero tolerance for compromises to the music. Either it's being made and played for the right reasons or it's not.
BINARY UPDATES |
September 7th, 2017
It's been a pretty eventful and busy summer thusfar. Hope everyone has been having a great time with their friends and folks.
I wanted to share some exciting news. The 15 Year Anniversary of Robotspeak is coming up this fall. It is very difficult to stay afloat running a boutique synth business. But Steve has managed to do it somehow. Their anniversary happens to coincide with the Annual Synth Meet in October. They had a ton of really cool synth companies on hand showing their products last year: Moog, DSI, Pittsburgh Modular, QuBit, Elektron, Noise Engineering, Rossum Electro, Make Noise and Teenage Engineering.
I was asked to come on board to curate and organize the live performances. So it's official: Binary Society will be hosting all the performances next door at Vinyl Dreams during this special Robotspeak event on October 28th, 2017.
To include more of the global community of talented performers, I've started accepting submissions for 10-30 minute sets which will be part of an online showcase for this Robotspeak event. We will also play the sets during the event intro and segues between performers and credit them on our projection screen. To be considered, please send your sets via WeTransfer to binary@distprod.com
Stay tuned by subscribing at the bottom of the page for more announcements.
-DK
Robotspeak Annual Synth Meet Facebook Event Page
June 14th, 2017
It's been about a week and and a half since the eighth Binary Society event at SubZERO. I want to thank quite a few people. First off, the performers: Robert Aiki Aubrey Lowe, Bryan Noll (Lightbath), Cory Sterling (Red Stripe Down), Eusebie Siebenberg (SunFalls), Austin Cairns (r beny), James Cigler & Tomio Ueda and visual artist Bill Wiatroski. Then I'd like to thank the crew: stage manager Bradley Jardine, audio recordist Jaewoo Lee (who flew himself down from Vancouver to be a part of the event!), live video streaming by Franck Martin, production coordinator Uy Luong and camera operator Mitchell Tong. I'd like to thank the sponsors Tony Rolando and Kelly from Make Noise Music, Jason Kramer from Control Voltage and Arius Blaze from Folktek. And a big thanks to Cherri Lakey and Brian Eder, organizers of the SubZERO Festival. They've been building the downtown San Jose art scene in an impossibly uphill climb against a culture of pragmatic realism.
Usually there is quite a bit of reflection shortly after these events. That tends to happen when you put every ounce of physical, mental and creative energy that you have into each show. That's the only repeatable formula when it comes to Binary events. With live modular synth performances, there are no shortcuts and no way to cheat an audience. This is the reason why as the shows get bigger, it takes a lot more preparation and recharging before I can pull it all together for a really memorable show.
Some really neat stuff has come to light following this event. The most exciting development is the Folktek Alter: Binary Society Special Edition silver-plated effects module. You can pre-order it from the secret IndieGoGo link on this website. A limited amount of Binary 08 t-shirts will be included with every order. This is a collaboration that has been in the works since last October when I visited Folktek designer Arius Blaze at the Impossible Box gallery and performance space in Portland. Arius is one of the most consummate artists in the modular world, or any creative circle, for that matter. In addition to designing some of the most unique modular synths around he is also finishing up Permeation, his feature film debut that I am excited to be a part of as the sound designer, recording a new album on his new Folktek label and putting on live events in his gallery performance space in downtown Portland.
Today, I just released an official product overview video for Erica Synths' new Sequential Switch V2 and CV Expander. It's a versatile switch module with 8 in/outs, 8 playback modes and an intuitive sequencer that is switchable between 1v/3v/5v per octave. I have another video on the way soon for the Erica Synths Black Modulator.
I'm optimistic about the SF Bay Area live synth performance scene. Between Steve Taormina @ Robotspeak and Dave Smith Instruments in SF, Guy Taylor @ I/O Modular in Oakland, Lance Hill's awesome Vintage Synth Museum in Emeryville, there is a silent order to the synth community that is not always apparent. But with events such as Binary Society, Church of the Super Serge and various synth meets throughout the Bay Area and beyond with Rodent and Bana Haffar's "Modular on the Spot" in LA, Jeph Nor's "Volt Divers" in Portland, we can continue developing an appreciation for live synth performance. Your support and attendance goes a long way in legitimizing the efforts of promoters like me, who put a great deal of energy and resources into putting on events for the community. So when you are considering staying in versus going out, I urge you to go out by default. Literally each person's support of these events go a long way in upholding the morale and momentum for people like us.
Until next time,
DK
Until next time,
DK
