Micron, which makes about a quarter of all the computer memory and flash in the world, is shutting down Crucial, its retail store. Crucial is closing in February next year — the AI hyperscalers are offering a ton of money to buy most of Micron’s output, for way more than consumers will pay. [press release, archive]

Anyone who follows computer component prices saw this coming. The average price on two 8GB sticks of DDR4-3200 RAM went up from $40–$50 in June to $110 in December. A 1TB M.2 solid-state disk went from $100 to about $125. [PCPartPicker; PCPartPicker]

Just before Micron’s announcement, Reuters published a long piece on how AI is completely warping global supply chains for electronics, and particularly memory chips — both RAM and the flash chips in solid-state drives. The AI companies have been scrambling to nail down supplies as fast as they can. [Reuters]

This is a wide-ranging disaster for consumer electronics in general.

It’s not as good news as you might think for the memory manufacturers either — it takes them a couple of years to build out to meet demand. AI is a bubble and they know it. So they’re increasing capacity a bit, but not so much.

Plus, the new capacity will be used to make very fast High Bandwidth Memory, running as close to the number-crunching chip as possible rather than being a plug-in module. So when AI crashes, there won’t be a pile of surplus memory going cheap. Like the Nvidia chips it’s attached to, this stuff is born to become e-waste.

SK Hynix, who make one-third of all the memory, says the memory shortage will last through to the last quarter of 2027 — two more years of this.

SK is also one of the big suppliers for OpenAI’s Stargate project. Chey Tae-won, chairman of SK Group, says:

We’re receiving requests for memory supplies from so many companies that we’re worried about how we’ll be able to handle all of them. If we fail to supply them, they could face a situation where they can’t do business at all.

Oh no, won’t someone think of the hyperscalers!

Older memory won’t save you either. Micron and Samsung, who make another third of all the memory, plan to stop making DDR4 modules and stick to the more expensive DDR5 — or just the high-bandwidth memory.

The memory crisis affects all of electronics, consumer and enterprise. Your laptops will cost more. Your phones will cost more. The manufacturers have some inventory backlog — but it’s running low.

Mind you, I wouldn’t be surprised if Microsoft extends Windows 10 support yet again, so not too many of those stranded customers even look at Linux rather than spend twice the price on a new PC for Windows 11.

So what can you do? My advice: assume you’re stuck with your computer and phone for a few years. If you have the cash, upgrade now. Fill your PC with all the RAM it can take. You need a new (or new-old) phone, get it straight away.

It’ll suck and cost too much, because RAM and disks are already twice the price. But it’ll only get worse for the next two years. Shops are already restricting sales. You’ll be stripping old laptops for parts.

It’s time to get frugal and practice for Great Depression 2: Depress Harder. When the AI bubble does pop, everything else will still be broken. Great times, everyone! And merry Christmas.

• Video — Podcast

audite, hier gefühlt schon ewiger Türchenbefüller und für mich seit seiner Sonntagsbeschallung in Form von fünf Dubstep-Mixen vor jetzt schon 15 Jahren: Audite – Box Of Life, legendär, bringt hier jetzt mal bisschen Schwung in die Bude. Es ist schließlich Freitag und er scheppert uns dazu passend Drumfunk Art Sounds um die Ohren, die die müden Ohren auf das Wochenende vorbereiten wollen. Das dürfte wohl ganz gut gelingen.

Dabei fällt mir, wenn ich mich durch die alten Links klicke, auf, wer von ganzen Leuten mal ein eigenes Blog hatte und es heute nicht mehr befüllt. Das bleibt hier nicht der einzige. Aber darum soll es gar nicht gehen. So lange die Leuddies dennoch ihre Musik unter uns verteilen, ist alles gut. Ganz genau wie in diesem Fall. Auf in’s Wochenende. Mit Bass unterm Kiel und Trommeln auf’m Deck.

Style: Drum & Bass
Length: 01:05:20
Quality: 320 kBit/s

Tracklist:
01: Blocks & Escher – Shot In The Dark
02: Scape – Visitors Into The Unknown
03: Sound Shifter – Loving You Forever
04: Acid Lab – King T
05: Seba – Jungle music
06: Earl Grey – Inner Conflict
07: Thing – Kalana
08: Mozey – Silenced
09: Trilogy – Zatoichi (The Outerworld Remix)
10: Fanu – Reverse Dawn (Mister Shifter Remix)
11: Blocks & Escher – Something Borrowed, Something Blue
12: Seba – Lie to Me
13: R.A.W. ft Willie Waldman – Late Nights
14: Omni Trio – Renegade Snares (High Contrast Remix)
15: Eschaton – Absolute Magnitude
16: Seba, Paradox & Robert Manos – Move On
17: Blocks & Escher – Broken (Paradox Remix)
18: Blocks & Escher – From The Ashes

Alle der diesjährigen Kalendermixe finden sich hier.

Northern California–based designer Hanneke Lourens has never shied away from embedding cultural narratives in her work – like her Leftover Bench, inspired by South Africa’s culture of fostering community through milk crates and stacked cinder blocks. With her new Barred Collection, she turns another unlikely source of inspiration – the stainless steel security bars bolted to windows and doors across her homeland – into sculptural furniture. “I certainly don’t want to make light of the need for security bars, but being South African is such a big part of my identity that I’m unable to escape it in my work,” she explains. Made by hand in California, the four-piece series reframes these utilitarian details in a neutral – even elevated – light, opening a dialogue about South Africa’s vulnerability and strength.

The idea for the collection came during her last visit to South Africa, a place Lourens continues to draw energy from. “I get so much creative energy when I visit South Africa, and the last time I went home was no different,” she shares. “In pretty much every type of neighborhood across the country, you’ll see these striking bars added as security measures to windows and doors.” While the presence of the bars signals an elevated crime rate, Lourens looks at them objectively. “They can almost be seen as the jewelry of a building. Sometimes curvy and ornate, other times linear and stark, they provide an extra layer of decoration to every facade.”

From every angle, the Barred Collection is defined by bold contrasts. Each piece feels Brutalist in character, with thick column legs that ground the forms and reveal their timber end grain at the top. The legs are joined with traditional woodworking techniques and reinforced by stainless steel bars, whose cool sheen provides a sharp counterpoint to the warmth of the wood. Echoing the rudimentary security bars Lourens saw on her trip, the steel elements are attached with simple tabs and screws. Yet each piece uses the metal differently, creating variety and rhythm across the collection.

The Barred Chair employs a cubed steel grid as an angled backrest, while the Barred Side Table, crafted from ash wood, connects its four oversized legs with linear bars.

From salvaged redwood in a previous life as the corner post of a house, the Barred Coffee Table takes form and is bound with ladder-like steel bars on two sides, giving it a chunky, grounded presence. Finally, the Barred Bench incorporates a grid below its seat, adding both structural strength and a second surface for storage.

Although the inspiration behind the collection may feel solemn, Lourens sees value in that discomfort. “When I’m inspired by something that brings up discomfort, I don’t necessarily see it as a negative. I’m always fascinated by the off-limits and the forgotten, so if this collection is making us ask questions, I see it as a win.”

To learn more about the Barred Collection by Hanneke Lourens, please visit hannekelourens.com.

Photography by Hubbard M. Jones.

 

Last December, we were fortunate to host one of our largest label nights to date at Public Records, New York, one of the most renowned venues in the world for sound system quality. One year later, we present to you one of the recordings from the evening, by Brooklyn’s own Salvatore Mercatante.

Live at Public Records captures Salvatore Mercatante at his most unguarded and instinctual, set free from the polish of post-production, delivered to a room of people who gave themselves over to the quiet pull of tension, decay, and harmonic dissonance on one of the best sound systems in the world.

Performed as part of a curated label night inside Public Records’ intimate Sound Room, Salvatore’s set was equal parts sculpture and erosion. Working with a minimalist setup that belied the richness of the result, Salvatore traced an arc through fractured rhythms, bent tones, and fogged-out signal paths, drawing on his 2024 album ‘Ø’ and a trove of unreleased and WIP material.

Following a DJ-set by Aspetuck and preceding a live set by OKRAA as part of the label’s biggest showcase to date, Salvatore’s set was the perfect middle-ground, with signature low-end blooms and crisp drum patterns, reconstituted in real time and massaged by the custom four-point sound system.

Live at Public Records was recorded on December 6th, 2024 in Brooklyn NY, mastered by Antony Ryan at RedRedPaw Mastering. Artwork and video taken from photography by Daniel Salemi.

Available as name your price on Bandcamp

Join us for the listening party at 2pm PST Friday

 

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Hovertext:
The only down side is that in the bio pic there's a 45 minute musical montage as he prepares to battle the aliens.

Today's News:

Intertapes ist eine Sammlung gefundener Musikkassetten. Einige enthalten Musik, andere Sprachnotizen. Jeder Eintrag umfasst Bilder der Kassette, eine Beschreibung/Titelliste und die eigentliche Audioaufnahme auf Soundcloud. Tolle Idee für eine Sammlung.

Dieses in Berlin gefundene Tonband wurde 1994 offenbar von einer Person namens Sven aufgenommen und enthält Tracks von Underworld und Laurent Garnier.

(via Kottke)