As diig and tarballrat, we are two friends who met through email correspondence and conversed on the notion that noise music could be made with "tracker"-style music creation programs, such as MilkyTracker and OpenMPT. This led to tarballrat listening to diig's music, and we began a back-and-forth collaboration in a project called "dried foxglove". The name was actually a portmanteau of "Dry Eyes", the name of tarballrat at that period of time, and diig's old Internet moniker "diigitae", which was a glitch-like corruption of "digitale", the French word for the flower foxglove.
However, while under strictly controlled, medically supervised clinical situations the active, extracted component of foxglove "digoxin" has use as a heart medication, we did not want to give the impression that we suggest anyone dry foxglove and use it, as it is essentially poisonous. Therefore, we now go by the name "tar xzvf", which is the command to extract a gzipped tar archive in Linux to a folder named after the tar archive. Think of it as being similar to unzipping a file in Windows.
After releasing three "dried foxglove" releases and a compilation appearance, all of which explored the relationship between mental illness, technology, and society, we released our first mini-album as "tar xzvf", which was simply titled "mini-album no. 1". It garnered at least slightly more attention than we thought it would, so we took our time to come out with a full length called "Digital Embryo Placenta", which was conceptually an abstract exploration of computer technology from the early 2000s and the influence it would have on society.
We then finished our third, hour long album named "composte", which uses more advanced trackers such as the Polyend Tracker and Renoise. It is available as an inexpensive digital purchase or as a cassette tape. It explores, in an abstract manner, extreme sound from the perspective of a digital society. Is the mental malaise of humans a product of being numb to the extremity of their surroundings, and even more numb to nature? Art, technology, drugs, and other such things can provide experiences that border on the extreme but are not without extreme consequences. Could it not be said that the memory of extreme living in modern life interrupts even moments of relative tranquility, and follows us like a stalker wherever we go?
Send us an email commenting on our weight if you want to be eaten.
However, while under strictly controlled, medically supervised clinical situations the active, extracted component of foxglove "digoxin" has use as a heart medication, we did not want to give the impression that we suggest anyone dry foxglove and use it, as it is essentially poisonous. Therefore, we now go by the name "tar xzvf", which is the command to extract a gzipped tar archive in Linux to a folder named after the tar archive. Think of it as being similar to unzipping a file in Windows.
After releasing three "dried foxglove" releases and a compilation appearance, all of which explored the relationship between mental illness, technology, and society, we released our first mini-album as "tar xzvf", which was simply titled "mini-album no. 1". It garnered at least slightly more attention than we thought it would, so we took our time to come out with a full length called "Digital Embryo Placenta", which was conceptually an abstract exploration of computer technology from the early 2000s and the influence it would have on society.
We then finished our third, hour long album named "composte", which uses more advanced trackers such as the Polyend Tracker and Renoise. It is available as an inexpensive digital purchase or as a cassette tape. It explores, in an abstract manner, extreme sound from the perspective of a digital society. Is the mental malaise of humans a product of being numb to the extremity of their surroundings, and even more numb to nature? Art, technology, drugs, and other such things can provide experiences that border on the extreme but are not without extreme consequences. Could it not be said that the memory of extreme living in modern life interrupts even moments of relative tranquility, and follows us like a stalker wherever we go?
 | tarballrat lives in a suburb of Chicago, Illinois in the USA and likes computers, noise music, web programming, general digital madness, and chiptune music. Here's a Q&A on his views surrounding 'tar xzvf'. |
 | diig lives in Lorraine, France, he likes Linux, making noise with all sorts of hardware and software, and enjoys glitch art as well. |
Send us an email commenting on our weight if you want to be eaten.
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