Curtains Closed: A Eulogy for Finbarr Donnelly

Brian: "We have recorded this song about our dear old friend, the never to be forgotten Finbarr Donnelly of Nun Attax/Five Go Down to the Sea/Beethoven fame. 

Most of the band knew Finbarr Donnelly from when he and his band Five Go Down To The Sea? were living in Rotherhithe and then Shepherd's Bush, right up to when they morphed into Beethoven and up until that terrible day when he left this world a poorer place. 

I became particularly good friends with Donnelly and since his untimely passing on June 18th 1989 rarely does a day go by without my thinking about him. He was a real one- off, with a unique way of engaging with people, a unique way of looking at the world and his bands sounded like no other"

credits

released June 18, 2019
Vocals - Brian O'Brien
Bass - Jemma Freeman
Guitar - David Dodd
Drums - Andi Panayi
Keyboards - Simon Birch
Violin - Maris Peterlevics
Recorded and produced by Andy Ramsay (Stereolab)at Press Play Studios
www.pressplaystudio.co.uk

Leave Your Mansions

"Leave Your Mansions" is a compilation of live performances by Salisbury duo Carpet. Recorded over two and a half years, in and around Salisbury, this is a collection of experimental, part-improvised gigs that feature drum machines, guitar, synthesisers and oscillators, presented in a continuous mix, much like the events themselves. Mostly downtempo in nature, this free download is a trip worthy of your attention.

Inbetween Things - A 38 track free download from Carpet

From Carpet: “Inbetween Things is a 38 track collection of short pieces that we have been using as segues in our live sets. We thought that they sound good in their own right, so here they all are, collected, creating a new listening experience". May you enjoy this free download.

New free EP from Carpet.. free download

Dreams Divide: X-Amount remix: free download

The new single by Dreams Divide has an X-Amount remix. It's a free download too..

Disgrace

New 4 track EP: "Vapid"

A new 4 track EP is available now as a FREE download. These four tracks have been around for a little while, we have played them live a few times, but for this EP, they have been tweaked a little.

There are some familiar sounds in there.. supermarket tills, shortwave radio, plastic bags, jam pot lids, bottles being recycled, train doors beeping, sonar, warped acoustic guitars and, as usual, a smattering of dub effects.

It's difficult and dark in places, almost serene in others. Well, we never have been attempting to get in the charts or anything.

The photograph for the artwork was taken in Folkestone harbour.

We hope you enjoy the EP, and if you do, please spread the word.

Many thanks for your support.

Tracks from the GPC Re-Union gig (free downloads)

On the 15th of December 2013 members of the Greenwich Performance Collective re-united for an all-day gig at The Amersham Arms in New Cross, South London. Most of these bands had not played together since the early 1980s. It turned out to be a very special day.

All complete sets can be downloaded for free by following the links here:

Malvinas Riot

Dispossessed

Precious Slightly Damaged (Vags)

Bulbous Skunk Cabbages

Your Heterosexual Violence

Unknown Colours

New compilation from Jehm Records - free download

Jehm Records have a new compilation out, and its a free download. Our track "PVC" is on it. Here is a preview of the album:


This is what Jehm say about it:

"The second of our compilation albums on Jehm Records features an array of fresh musical talent from around the world, courtesy of Jehm regulars radltzx, Headcleaner, Goldguru,Tekeoh and X-Amount, newcomers Corbie, 5am, Missqulater, Martroo, Rab Achin and Hebeho, plus established artists such as Andy Clark and techno legend Dave Clarke favourite - w1b0. Expect the usual varied, quality electronic music from some exceptionally talented producers. Enjoy!" 


(JR015) Various Artists - ‘Jehm Sounds Pt. 2'

1. Corbie - Roundabout 
2. 5am - Current Events 
3. Missqulater - Head Up Big Brother 
4. radltzx feat. Dvickers - Prappala 
5. Martroo - In A Pool Of 
6. Goldguru - Sweden With You 
7. Rab Achin - How I Feel (Original Mix) 
8. X-Amount - PVC 
9. Tekeoh - Dream Chief 
10. Hebeho - Gael 
11. w1b0 - Stormfront 
12. Headcleaner - Bam Staka 
13. Andy Clark - Riffs 
14. BONUS TRACK - Rab Achin - How I Feel (Alternative Mix)

Get the whole album for free here:

http://www.jehmrecords.com/releases/jr015/

Greenwich Performance Collective: The "Dennis" Tape

Greenwich Performance Collective existed in South London in the 1980s and was a hotbed of innovative creative activity. Embracing the punk D.I.Y ethic the collective brought together musicians, artists and performers of all types for gigs and events in London (and later for exchange gigs in the North of England). Many interesting and talented performers found a platform here and sometimes more established acts joined the gigs, such as Nico, ATV and others.

The collective produced several compilation cassettes during its existence and after a recent meeting with some of the core and founder members (Andi being one of them), we have began a digital archive of materials and recordings, mostly thanks to the collections of Dave Skull and Brian Moulton.

The first compilation tape to be digitised is the one called "Dennis". It contains tracks by over 21 acts, and although it is now nearly 30 years old, it has aged well and is a very entertaining listen. Check out the tracks below, and you can also download the entire tape, plus artwork and scans free.




GPC has a Facebook page where you can keep up to date with the additions to the archive and get the latest news relating not just to the GPC, but the other linked collectives of the time:

GPC on Facebook

Download "Dennis" free by clicking this link:

The Dennis Tape

Chamber

 

This new track featured in the recent Mixlr broadcast we did. It has the processed voice of Kurt Schwitters and a nice metal pipe. It's a free download for a while, so grab it while you can!

The picture is a recent one of Battersea Power Station in London.

X-Amount DJ set on Mixlr & Mixcloud

X-Amount: Mixlr DJ Mix by X-Amt on Mixcloud

The recent DJ set that we broadcast on Mixlr is now available on MixCloud.

You can also download the whole thing free here:

X-Amount Mixlr DJ set Download

The set covered pretty much our whole album output so far, and was a bit of a celebration of having got a couple of labels to release some of our stuff (at long last!)as well as the beginning of an attempt to re-master most of our back catalogue. It contains a new track, a new mix and some unheard material and edits.

It was recorded on a MacBook Pro using Algoriddim's DJay software and a Korg Padkntrol.

Here is a more detailed breakdown of the mix, track by track:

1: Glue Gun: this is an edit of a recent live jam. Glue Gun will appear in it's fully finished form soon (somewhere).

2: Chamber: A brand new track. Remix possible...

3: untitled: this is a clip from our very first laptop jam in 2011.

4: Sine (version): An unheard alternative mix from the recently re-mastered "Fat Bankers" album (1996), more dub in this one than the album version.

5: Out & Out: from "Early Work" (1993-1994)

6: Planj (in & out): An edit from the original jam that created a track called "Stammerung", which appeared in one of the Nakedbeatz live performances last year (incidentally the "numbers station" recordings we have used are our own, not from the Conet Project).

7: Sonbahar (part two): from the "01 02 03 04" EP on Jehm Records.(2013)

8: Him: from "Early Work" (1993-1994)

9: Blistering: A track that should have been on the "Some Previous" album (1994-1997). It was recorded back in the early 1990s, some fierce drum samples. It will be added as a bonus track when the album eventually appears on BandCamp.

10: Flight (edit): An edit from the original jam that produced "Flight" from the "Degraded" album (2011).

11: Jump Starter (Flat Battery mix): A brand new mix of "Jump Starter" from the "Degraded" album.

12: I Told You Not To Eat That: from "Six Months Of Community Service" (2012)

13: Wire Frame Ghost: from "Six Months Of Community Service" (2012)

14: Nitpicker: a remastered version of the track from "Gits Encroaching" (2011)

15: Scraper: from the "01 02 03 04" EP (2013)

16: Chunk (in & out): an edit of an unfinished forthcoming track

17: Wax (featuring E333): recent release on Experimentalist Recordings (2013)

18: Beepatron: an edit from the original jam that produced "The Wheel Fell Off" from "Gits Encroaching" (2011)

19: Feelers: Remastered version of the track from "You Need Glasses"(2011)

20: Big (outro): edit of a jam from 2011

21: Tokyo: from the recent remaster of "Fat Bankers" (1999)

22: untitled: another edit from our first laptop jam in 2011

23: PVC: forthcoming on a Jehm Records compilation

24: Wilting intro: edit from an unfinished track (2012)

25: Tyfoon: Remastered track from the "Leakage" album (mid 1990s/2003).

26: Sleepy (outro): edit from an unfinished track (2011).

New tracks: Wax / PVC

Hello! We have two new tracks out today. They are called "Wax" and "PVC". "Wax" is the first of a series of collaborations we have been working on with May Mujagic, a Turkish singer and performer from France. She approached us after hearing "Tang", and we are pleased to be working with her.

Both tracks feature recordings made at the Anonymous group's "Operation Vendetta" protest (the London part).

"PVC" also has recordings of TFL trams, made in Croydon as well as an effected recording of a speech by Marxist Anatoli Lunacharsky and a snippet of the amazing "Donbass Symphony" by Dziga Vertov.

We hope you enjoy them.. for a VERY short time they are available for free download on our SoundCloud page: (note: no longer available! you missed it!) 

"Wax" will be released by Experimental Recordings on June 17th 2013

New track, free download - Hobo

You may have already spotted it.. we are playing a gig this Friday (26th October) in Salisbury. I was trying to work out the last time that we played in front of an audience as X-Amount.. the last time the full band played was in Camden in the 1990's. We did have a gig arranged at Glastonbury in about 1997, but it didn't happen because our MMT8s went on the blink. Before that we played as a duo in the Lewisham Labour Club for the South East London Musicians Collective. That must have been in the first half of the 90's, so it could be as long as 20 years ago! Unless any of you know any different..

Of course we have done recent live performances on Simple's radio show online, but this is our first gig on stage, in front of an audience for a very long time.

We are just about ready now. We have put together a vague visual accompaniment, using some colour manipulated photos (one of them is used for the artwork above) that I have put together and a computer program that reacts to sound. We will play about 8 tunes in a continuous mix that features our new "shortwave instrument" that is basically a sampler full of shortwave and backwards noises that get filtered and dubbed up using a Korg PadKontrol. We have added a load of voices too - Felix Baumgartner, Bob Cobbing, Charles Bukowski, and others.

It should be fun.

And to celebrate, we have a tune to give away for you.

"Hobo", is an edit of a laptop jam we did this year. It did feature in the last gig on Simple's Show, but this version has had a minor tweak. We may do a remix, or a new version at some point..there are plans coming together for the next audio onslaught.

Hopefully, we will see some of you in Salisbury on Friday.

Hope so. Hope you like the freebie

Simon & Andi xx

PS: Click here for The Facebook Event Link for Friday's gig

No more freebies!

OK, we decided that it's time for a change. Since we re-started X-Amount last year we have been giving all of our stuff away free. The thinking behind this was that we were unlikely to make much out of our efforts anyway, our music can be difficult, and also we thought that giving it away free would widen our audience.

Well, it does not seem to have worked out that way. Maybe because neither of us are very good at promotion and publicity. Plus, when we do e-mail people about what we do, record labels and others, we just get ignored. We have had hardly any responses to all of our efforts. We do not know people in useful places.

Most of the work we have been doing has been in the hope that things will grow and also that some of our friends and family will appreciate and maybe enjoy what we do (which they often do, despite what we put them through!). 

There have been one or two people that really do enjoy it, and there has been some positive feedback, and for that we are extremely grateful. So, thank you if you are one of those rare people. We really do appreciate it.

However..Our latest album, although free, has been downloaded just twice (according to the stats on BandCamp).

So, it seems giving it away free doesn't even work anymore. It is very difficult to work out where, or if, we have gone wrong because we don't get any feedback, but something somewhere isn't working.

We actually need to raise some money now, for essential software in order to keep going. Plus it would be nice to put some money into future projects if at all possible. So far all CDs pressed and publicity has come out of our own pockets. This is why there were no CD copies of "Six Months.." made this time. I did mention that we could make some up to order but there was no interest. The thing is, we believe our music to be good and worthy of interest.

I have recently been accepted onto an MA course, and for this the University in question want to see me develop the ideas that we have been using for X-Amount. This could potentially widen our tiny audience, and will definitely expand our art.

With all this in mind we have decided to start charging small amounts for our music. I see it as the equivalent of buying the two of us a beer in return for an album of music (that probably contains months of work). Seems reasonable to me.

If you look closely, there will still be the odd freebie, but they won't last forever. Prices will appear on BandCamp in a week's time, so if you want to grab "Six Months Of Community Service" or "Degraded" for free, now is the time!

http://x-amount.bandcamp.com

We have plenty of material to come in the near future. I plan on re-mastering the "Leakage" and "Fat Bankers" albums from the 1990s, with extra tracks and expanded artwork. I also discovered a whole load of unreleased stuff from years back that still sounds fresh and dangerous, so that will appear at some point, but best of all is that we have an entire album's worth of new material to come out that just needs mixing and mastering.

We will of course keep you informed, and we will stay busy.

Love and peace

Simon and Andi.

"6 Months Of Community Service" - new album out now

Our new album is out and you can download the whole thing for free (or donate)..

There are some extras when you download the whole album: 3 extra mixes (including the "Skint Mix" of "Lost A Grand"), plus 2 videos, full album artwork, album notes and a digital booklet. Play/share/download below.. hope you like x

New album out soon! "Six Months Of Community Service"

We have a new album out on July 21st on BandCamp. It is called "Six Months Of Community Service" and collects together eight tracks that were put out during the first six months of 2012 (plus an extra one).

The track listing is as follows:

1: Box (Dub Torpor): (7:41)
2: Tang (Pungent Mix): (8:02)
3: He Was A Chef He Was (Bubble & Squeak Mix): (5:29)
4: Wire Frame Ghost: (7:20)
5: Fat Deluge (Refried Mix): (6:53)
6: I Told You Not To Eat That: (6:17)
7: Transparency: (6:55)
8: Lost A Grand: (7:12)
9: Flap Flops: (6:45)

In total it's an hour long. Once again, it will be a "name your price" scenario, so you can download it for nothing, or donate..

We are aware that the keenest of you will already have downloaded some or most of these tracks over the last few months, but it is still worth downloading the album as a whole, because you get 3 extra tracks, full album artwork, a digital booklet and 2 videos thrown in.

You can download in pretty much any format too, from lossless FLAC to mp3 and so on..

We hope you enjoy it..

Here is the link: http://x-amount.bandcamp.com/

"Degraded" is still available too!

New track: Lost A Grand

The main voice in this says "since I started work, I must have lost a grand". This man was recorded on the 208 bus in South London and had plenty to say.

He had been going on about his life in the area. Clearly, he had been in trouble before, sleeping rough and taking drugs. I don't normally earwig in on people's conversations, but (and you can hear it in the track) he had a very penetrating voice and was sat right behind us upstairs. He pointed things out to his mate "I had a shag down there", and "I used to sleep in there, but they've tidied it up now. I woke up on fire once". He wasn't sure if it was falling asleep after doing a crack pipe that had caused the fire or whether his mates had set light to him.  For the bit put into the track, he was going on about being ripped off by credit card companies. "Since I started work, I must have lost a grand".

The crowd voices were recorded at a protest march by the Congolese people in Whitehall, London. They were marching in protest of thier leader, I must admit I do not know much about Congo. The signs people held seemed to say that rape and murder were going on on a massive scale at the hands of their government. My son Dillon and I wandered into this march by chance. I recorded sound whilst Dillon took photographs. We got a lot of useful material. The march wasn't on the news that day.

Both of these samples seem to reflect our current troubled times. the man on the bus is one of the people that our idiot leader really wants to go away. But he won't will he? Boris (the mayor of London) promised to rid the streets of London of people sleeping rough by the end of this year. It transpires that the figures are rising instead. Cameron wants to take their benefits away. They juggle the figures. Putting graduates into Poundland stacking shelves for no extra money except for the benefits they recieve. Cuts to education and the health services. Times of austerity they say. Yet if you taxed the mega-rich 20% of their income for a year (don't worry, it won't hurt them) it could generate something like 80 billion pounds. So, no need for cuts then. It drives you round the bend..

Other sounds: There are shortwave clips and some synth loops built by Andi using Figure on the iPhone and some built by myself using Logic, and some synthetics made using a clip of white noise that has been sent through filtering and modulation effects. There is also a treated recording of a digger on a building site.

This track might be the last in the series of free ones we have dished out this year (it is the 8th). What we plan to do next is add one more to the collection and put it out on BandCamp as an album with some extra stuff (artwork and bonus tracks).

There is plenty more to come too.. This will be followed by a second album of new material and some tracks from the archives... we also still hope to perform some some live work. This time in front of an audience and with some visual things as well..

We will keep you informed right here.

thanks for your support

Simon (& Andi).

Our second live gig on NakedBeatz

X-Amount live on NakedBeatz: June 2012- set 1 by X-Amt on Mixcloud

So, another live X-Amount show on NakedBeatz..

We had this rather ambitious idea of playing as much new stuff as possible. From an aesthetic point of view, this made a lot of sense; we had been so busy putting new jams together we had built up quite a backlog of material that was waiting to be edited and mixed. From a practical viewpoint however, it was not so good. We had decided to perform in a similar way to the last show (back in January) and do two forty minute sets using our laptops hooked up via Airport, running Ableton with a bit of DJ'ing inbetween. That meant editing and mixing an hour and twenty minutes of music beforehand to prepare the gig. A tall order given the amount of time we had before the performance.

We decided to go for it! It was up to me, really. I do the post-production side of things (with Andi's guidance/advice/complaining/swearing), and after a long period of contemplation I decided that it would be worth a go. We would do some recent tunes and twelve new ones. If I ran out of time we could always fall back on the previous gig's work.

It was incredibly complicated and hard work, but we got there. We also added in a re-work of a favourite track of ours from last year - "Oppressor" (from "You Need Glasses"). This was a good result as it originated from our earliest (maybe first?) jams using Ableton. Back then we decided to throw away everything after we had improvised with it. A kind of art-punk attitude which we later realised was a bit daft..

So, I got this huge project in place eventually and we jammed through a rehearsal session at Andi's the night beforehand. It was all looking good.

Two screen shots of the pre-gig arrangements in Ableton (click to see larger)

But! On the night we were all ready to go and things went pear-shaped. We had set up at Mr. Bloor's house in Deptford, South London. He DJs for NakedBeatz every other week (as DJ Simple). The NakedBeatz studio is somewhere else entirely, what happens is that the set is broadcast via a PC in Mr. Bloor's house, you switch over from the previous DJ (who could be anywhere in the world) when you go live.

When it came to the time for us to go live, Mr. Bloor pressed the button and the computer went "error". Bugger. Mr. Bloor frantically tried to sort the problem, but to no avail. Andi and I were sat there poised and ready to go for nearly an hour and a half before we finally went on the air. Even then it still wasn't working properly, so we have no idea what the poor listeners suffered (apologies if you were one of them).

All the technical hitches threw us somewhat and it was quite difficult to get into the right vibe, so we were not at our best. Still, the recording of it is not so bad..check it out and let us know what you think..

Rather than explain the tech bit this time, I thought I could run through where the sounds came from on each track.. you might find it interesting..

Set 1:

1: Steam

The set opens with a recording of a carrier bag. The bag features throughout the two sets. The bag was scrunched up, a microphone placed inside and the bag was recorded as it un-scrunched itself. The next sound to enter is a treated recording of me hitting jam pot lids with a butter knife. Other samples are of shortwave radio. Andi made the synth sound using Propellerheads "Figure" on his iPhone.

Figure by Propellerheads

2: Box

Box has been explained in a previous blog (see: here), so I won't go on about it here. This is a "re-dubbed" version. I like the acoustic sounding kit. Listen out for a recording of Andi tapping his feet at work and cutting strips of wire (reversed).

3: Oppressor

This was rebuilt from the original samples used for the version on "You Need Glasses". I added a synth bass to enhance the bassline that originally was generated by filtering one of the drum loops. The voices and other sounds and voices are all treated shortwave recordings.

4: Fat Deluge

Again, this one has been explained in a separate blog. The squeak was recorded in the local kids playground (the swings). The crowd sounds are a combination of a recording in a cafe and Andi walking around a building site, recording. The low pitched voices were recorded on the 208 bus in South London. The hiss noise is a waterfall and one of the synth sounds was generated from tape hiss. The main bass is a filtered section of the cafe recording.

5: Hobo

The bag and the jam pot lids return. Three bags this time, one heavily time-stretched. The bassline is a pitch-bending long 909 bass drum. Glitchy treated acoustic guitar. The synth sounds and one drum loop are again made by Andi using Figure on the iPhone. Plenty of easy to spot shortwave samples too, which is also where the chattering voices come from.

6: Crush Your Pride

This track is named after the shortwave sample present here, where there seems to be a translation going on of some Christian principles regarding "pride". There is a filtered Rhodes riff, sub bass and another synth and drum loop generated using Figure. A pad synth riff and drum parts were made in Logic. A sample of the Roland R8 drum machine and shortwave recordings.

7: Disgrace

The rather disturbing bassline for this was made by Andi using the Korg iMS20 on the iPad, as were the beeping sounds in the front half of the track. The voices are all recordings of shortwave radio.

The second beeping sample is overlapped from the next track (Flap Flops) and is a recording of the pelican crossing outside Waterloo Station.

8: Flap Flops

The recoding of the pelican crossing is melded with some shortwave radio beeping sounds. The snare-like sound here is actually a recording of someone throwing something large and metallic into a skip. There is a treated recording of the swimming pool at Bromley Leisure Centre and sounds from Wrotham Steam Fair last year. There are some treated Gamelan Gong sounds. The track ends with the sound of someone running to catch a train wearing flip-flops.

X-Amount live on NakedBeatz: June 2012-set 2 by X-Amt on Mixcloud

Set 2:

1: Matter

A pitch bend acoustic guitar and a familiar sonar sample begin this track. Then you have some shortwave mutterings with drum parts made using Ultrabeat in Logic. Another acoustic guitar completes this snippet.

2: Tang

A dirty feedback guitar that Andi calls "Simon May on the roof" begins this track. Most of the other parts of this track were built in Logic then trashed in Ableton. There is, as usual, shortwave lurking.

3: Transparency

An accidental sample that I recorded on shortwave comes from Nicki Minaj's "Beez In The Trap" has been chopped and twisted. The other vaguely musical sound is some sort of eastern Zurna-like instrument I also picked up on the radio. I never found out what it was properly as I preferred not to tune it in correctly, keeping the barmy distortions. The low voice I call "the beast" comes from another snippet of shortwave, and there are other shortwave voices present too. All the drum parts were built by Andi using the Korg iMS20 on the iPad. The bass is made from a recording of the pier being deconstructed in Herne Bay, I think it is actually a motor boat engine in the distance.

4: Lost A Grand

The main voice in this says "since I started work, I must have lost a grand". This man was recorded on the 208 bus in South London and had plenty to say. At this time he was going on about being ripped off by credit card companies. The crowd voices were recorded at a protest march by the Congolese people in Whitehall, London. I recorded sound whilst my son Dillon took photographs. More shortwave and synth loops built by Andi using Figure and myself using Logic, and some synthetics made using white noise. There is also a treated recording of a digger on a building site.

Photo by Dillon Skyring-Birch

5: Bottle Banker

This was originally called "Dennis' Tune" because Andi's daughter's Guinea pig Dennis seemed to like it (hello Mr. Bloor, that info was for you). It begins with a recording made at the bottle bank in New Ash Green. The carrier bag and jam pot lids return again. There is the sound of a train door's 'closing' beep sound. Voices come from shortwave recordings and there is some reversed acoustic guitar. The disgusting bassline was made on the Korg iMS20 by Andi.

6: Auk

Most of the parts of this were built in Logic, synths with a real electric bass. The main synth is treated live in Ableton using the Saturator effect along with a filter that exaggerated and created harmonic vibrations. Shortwave effects and trashed drum parts complete the picture.

7: Stammerung

So named after mis-spelling "stammering" when identifying one of the shortwave voices here, it also seemed to fit with the German 'counting' voice. There are drum and synth loops made on the iMS20 alongside samples of the Roland R8 drum machine, synth loops made in Logic and a real bass guitar. Some sounds are made from a recording of strings on a piano being plucked that I made at Nicky's house in Salisbury, which have then been effected by Andi.

8: Gannett

Synthetic double bass and piano parts recorded in Logic and then trashed in Ableton, with some random acoustic guitar harmonics shimmering. Shortwave lurks as usual, this time heavily gated and chopped up.

Simon.

Note: to see more of Dillon's photography go to:

http://dsbptgy.tumblr.com/

Note 2: The tracks listed here that have clickable links as their titles: clicking the link will take you to the SoundCloud page that has a free downloadable version of the track

On the tech side, this was all put together using pretty much the same methods as the previous gig back in January (see: Our live gig, tech details & stuff), only without so many mistakes. I have since learnt to always use WAV (or AIFF) files with Ableton as the program reads and understands them better. If you use mp3s the program simply converts them and stores WAV versions it creates in its "Decoding Cache" folder. This folder can get pretty massive quite quickly if you are not careful. Use WAVs and there is nothing in it at all (besides the ever present "cache content" file).