Last time we checked in with topless DJ Portia Surreal, the self-billed “Erotic Fetish DJ Extraordinaire” was an “up and coming” topless DJ, described at her site as a “glowing disco ball vixen”.

Here’s a little background on this glowing disco ball vixen:

Portia Surreal’s sexy showcase of artistic musical expression has teased and allured the world with controversy. Often being the first female DJ to perform in global venues, it has been her delicious pleasure to reinvent the ordinary conception of the traditional electronic DJ.

Due to the sexual nature of Portia Surreal’s shows, certain countries have required government approval prior to specific performances.

The shine may have worn off Surreal’s disco balls, though, because her website has been wiped off the face of the Internet.

Warning: It only gets more NSFW from here.

Bakis Sirros, above in his studio, is a synthesis and composer and DIN recording artist, as Parallel Worlds. 

Sirros’ work is in the tradition of classic synth music artists like Klaus Schulze, Robert Rich, Steve Roach and Tangerine Dream. 

He talked about his love of modular synthesizers, especially Eurorack modules, in a recent interview with Analogue Haven:

The Eurorack format modular, at this point, has the biggest and most interesting variety of modules available.

You can have ’standard’ analogue subtracitve synthesis modules, countless different filters and oscillators, plus wierd and extreme modules to really ‘warp’ your patch! Also, you have a greaty variety of hybrid modules (like the Analogue Systems additive and wavetable module, the Harvestman modules, the latest vc bit crusher from Doepfer, vc sampler modules, etc.). All these give me so many soundshaping tools that i cannot find in big jack format modulars. Also I need as much space as possible, to fit the dozens of modules i use in my patches and this would require a huge space to accomplish with big jack format modulars.

I like the smaller format modulars because they allow you to have many modules in a small space. I would not want to go back and forth in the studio to patch a gigantic modular having big jacks. So the Euro format, the Frac Rack format and the Banana modulars (Serge) are my choice.

Btw, I also have a Technosaurus Selector System D that is a big jack modular and use it very often. but i only have one of these. All my other modulars are more compact to allow for complexity within a manageable space. apart from the euro rack format, i also really like my lately aqccuired serge modular. banana jacks give me so much patching freedom, being able to mult a signal countless times within a patch! especially useful for trigger and gate signals.

For the gear porn freaks – here’s another look at Sirros’ studio:

Sirros also moderates the Yahoo Doepfer group.

You can find out more about Sirros and his music at his MySpace page and at the Parallel Worlds site. 

via Bakis Sirros; images by antonis chaniotis

Uploaded to the Roland Synthesizer Contest MySpace site, the top six tracks will be open to public vote for two weeks from Tuesday, October 21 to Friday, October 31.

The poll ratings, combined with the judges’ previous scores, will determine the top three finalists who will compete at the Roland Synthesizer Contest Finals event in Montreal on November 13, 2008.

The top six semi-finalists were chosen by an esteemed group of judges that included:

• Lawrence Gowan: celebrated Canadian musician and lead singer and keyboardist for the rock band STYX.
• Anthony Cooperwood: Montreal keyboardist with acts such as Cirque du Soleil and Freddie James.
• Tony Padalino: Toronto keyboardist with CTV’s Canadian Idol.

The Roland Synthesizer Contest was last run as an international competition by Roland Corporation in Japan over 20 years ago and was staged this year as a national, Canadian, contest for the first time. The rules were very simple: entrants were invited to submit an original synthesizer composition created on a keyboard or computer synthesizer of any make until October 15. The submissions were then critiqued by a panel of judges and streamlined to six entries to be voted on by the public.

Out of the box, it does 90% of the stuff you’ll need to build a music site. Here are some free add-ons, though, that can handle the rest.

Five Free WordPress Plugins For Musicians

• Gigs Calendar – This plugin is geared toward bands and musicians to manage and display a calendar of their gigs within WordPress. It’s meant to be as easy as possible for both the musician and the fan. It even manages venue data complete with mapping and ticket links.
• Discography – Musicians need a way to easily organize information about their music. This plugin exists to do just that. It lets you publish a list of albums and auto-generates a WordPress page for each song, so that fans can comment, save links to your songs and share them with friends.
• Audio Player – Audio Player provides you with a simple way of inserting a stylish Flash mp3 player on your WordPress posts and pages.
• PodPress – if you want to release MP3s and have them not only downloadable from your site, but also as a podcast, PodPress can make it easy to manage within WordPress.
• MySpace Crossposter – a WordPress plugin that cross-publishes all of your WordPress blog entries to your MySpace blog. This lets you keep a current MySpace profile without any extra work. Users of the plugin have the option of publishing a notification or a whole story to MySpace.

Are you using WordPress for a music site? Let me know if you’ve got other suggestions for WordPress plugins for musicians.

Fehrenbach is probably best known for his work as Dream Traveller. A Dream Traveller trance track, Time, was part of the massive dance mix hit, Tranceport, by Paul Oakenfold. The best tracks on Mellowdrama, though, go beyond his previous work, exploring an atmospheric downtempo vibe and maintaining it throughout the CD.

Highlights of the CD include: Being Around You, which takes you from Eno-esque soundscapes to downtempo grooves; Beltenebros, which starts ambient and builds dramatically throughout the track; and I Remember, which combines a bit of the feel of Eno’s Music for Films with a more modern downtempo sensibility.

All in all, Mellowdrama is one of the best downtempo releases of 2006. Check out Fehrenbach’s MySpace page for a taste of some of his music.

Tracks:

• Being Around You
• Runaway Child
• Behold
• Particles
• Beltenebros
• Rain
• I Remember
• The House of Lost Hope
• The Beginning

On this album, White Willow moves from a more traditional prog-rock sound to a more modern sound, with a bit of a goth metal edge. The group, made up of, Trude Eidtang (vocals), Lars Fredrik Frøislie (keyboards, electronics), Jacob Holm-Lupo (guitars), Ketil Vestrum Einarsen (woodwinds), Marthe Berger Walthinsen (bass guitar) and Aage Moltke Schou (drums, percussion), has more of a mainstream sound as a result, but should still appeal to classic prog fans.

Eidtang sounds a bit like a cross between Kate Bush and Elizabeth Fraser of the Cocteau Twins. Her vocals are put front and center throughout, and the emphasis on guitars helps give the CD more immediate appeal than some prog. Whether or not the vocals appeal to you may depend a lot on what you think of the lyrics, which have a strong goth bent to them. All the tracks on the CD are about darkness. Night Surf starts with the phrase “Black rain falls heavy on the ground; dark water shadows crowd out the sky,” and even Joyride has lyrics like Turn the brights up, it’s too dark to see the curves that lie ahead….”

Though the emphasis is on vocals and guitar, that doesn’t mean that there isn’t a lot of interesting keyboard work. Froislie does the business on Mellotron, Hammond, Minimoog and Fender Rhodes.

White Willow is taking prog in a new direction that may challenge a lot of prog fans; whether it appeals to you will depend a lot on what you think of the goth influence.

You can check out some tracks from Signal to Noise at the band’s MySpace site.

Track Listing

• Night Surf
• Splinters
• Ghosts
• Joyride
• Lingering
• Dark Road
• Chrome Dawn
• Dusk City
• Ararat