MiMO

Even if you don't fancy yourself a DJ, there's no way to get through No Exit without manipulating your turntable. Toronto, ON sound design conceptualists MiMo (Matt Miller and Samuel Morgenstern) have created a musical object that lends itself to individual interpretation: a locked groove LP. The most famous locked groove in popular culture is the endless two-second loop at the close of Sgt. Pepper, but MiMo utilize the vinyl loop as DJ food. Raw sonic materials came from sessions with a number of the members of the Association of Improvising Musicians Toronto, including some personnel found on Caribou's recent recordings. Each track constitutes one rotation of the twelve-inch vinyl. The resulting mechanically generated loops are free to enjoy as you please, thanks to Creative Commons. The sounds themselves are far from wispy jazz abstractions ― these brief performances are mic-ed in such a way that even the most offhand instrumental remarks, like a violin string scrape or a brushed drum head, hit hard. That's what you want when you're sampling. MiMo use this disc as the basis for extrapolation in their live performances. Nothing would please them more than to have you dig into their bag of tricks for your own purposes.