The Monks
If you thought dying your hair a different color was pretty rock 'n' roll or that shaving the sides of your head made you look pretty "in" you aint seen nothing. The monks used to shave a bald patch out. That's why you should check them out - They sound pretty good too.
Steina Vasulka
Born 1940 in Reykjavic, Iceland, Steina Vasulka has studied music, engineering, theater as well as film and television production. She and Woody Vasulka met in the early 1960's and later moved to New York around 1965 where Steina initially worked as a freelance musician. Steina and Woody studied the mechanics and electronic nature of video and audio, moving them on to develop custom image creating/manipulating tools.
They then went on to pioneer their video art collaborations at The Whitney Museum to document the NY's rapidly growing underground culture.
"We were interested in certain decadent aspects of America, the phenomena of the time—underground rock and roll, homosexual theater, and the rest of the illegitimate culture. In the same way, we were curious about more puritanical concepts of art inspired by Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller. It seemed a strange and unified front—against the establishment."
Later on in 1971, the Vasulka's created a project called "The Kitchen", which essentially worked as a media arts theater, displaying many pieces at once, each individually engineered, allowing many different, customized pieces of video equipment to be showcased at once.
Since 1980, they've both been based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they've carried on pushing the boundaries of film and video production.
Beneath is two of my favorite videos - many of their work uses forms of time displacement or primitive light/dark bump mapping.
Many video artists have obviously been inspired by the Vasulkas, most clearly though (I think) is Daniel Swan - his homage to slit-scanning and keying can clearly be seen in his works:
Here's my own little ripoff:
They then went on to pioneer their video art collaborations at The Whitney Museum to document the NY's rapidly growing underground culture.
"We were interested in certain decadent aspects of America, the phenomena of the time—underground rock and roll, homosexual theater, and the rest of the illegitimate culture. In the same way, we were curious about more puritanical concepts of art inspired by Marshall McLuhan and Buckminster Fuller. It seemed a strange and unified front—against the establishment."
Later on in 1971, the Vasulka's created a project called "The Kitchen", which essentially worked as a media arts theater, displaying many pieces at once, each individually engineered, allowing many different, customized pieces of video equipment to be showcased at once.
Since 1980, they've both been based in Santa Fe, New Mexico, where they've carried on pushing the boundaries of film and video production.
Beneath is two of my favorite videos - many of their work uses forms of time displacement or primitive light/dark bump mapping.
Many video artists have obviously been inspired by the Vasulkas, most clearly though (I think) is Daniel Swan - his homage to slit-scanning and keying can clearly be seen in his works:
Here's my own little ripoff:
Dirty Disco Youth & WTF Figure has done it again...
The Dirty Disco Youth have just released their bangin new ep called '?Off EP'. You can buy it from Beatport here. Its a sweet ep, full of nice fidget wobbles and bassline.
My person favourite has gotta be the Mustard Pimp on the EP, you can find this gem here. Well its a very close fight between this and the original version.
I just love how the drop changes each time..
However Tommie Sunshine & Figure have an insane remix of Minds Off, and its not even on the EP. Madness I say, this tune is available for free download. Thank you Tommie Sunshine & Figure for your kindness.
Dirty Disco Youth - Minds...Off (Tommie Sunshine & Figure Remix)
xx
My person favourite has gotta be the Mustard Pimp on the EP, you can find this gem here. Well its a very close fight between this and the original version.
I just love how the drop changes each time..
However Tommie Sunshine & Figure have an insane remix of Minds Off, and its not even on the EP. Madness I say, this tune is available for free download. Thank you Tommie Sunshine & Figure for your kindness.
Dirty Disco Youth - Minds...Off (Tommie Sunshine & Figure Remix)
xx
New Power Studio
Here’s our first look at New Power Studio’s Spring/Summer 2010 collection. This great video was made by Terry Hall, an inventive director who's also done their debut collection vid:
New Power Studio is a collective comprised by, Thom Murphy and Ebru Ercon. The aesthetic is similar to that of Christopher Shannon's, revisiting gaudy imagery of scallyism, sportswear and extreme British-ness, only found in the most deprived and bedraggled areas of the UK. It's funny how we'd all despise this look 10 years ago, disgraced by the connotations the style has - very reminiscent of Ali G's youth interpretation. Now we just look at it ironically, moving with a zeitgeist - accepting the 90's just like we were accepting the 80's only a couple of years ago.
Jet Set Radio and Wipeout. Key Listening.
Nearly 8 years ago, back in 2002, I was 11 and still withdrawing from Pokemon and Lego. Most clearly from that year however, I remember the release of Jet Set Radio on the Xbox - an unorthodox videogame focusing heavily on visual style rather than points and ranking. It follows the efforts of a rollerblading, graffiti spraying crew of mindless, mutant, future b-boys, suppressed by a new government scheme oppressing the people, taking away freedom of speech and artistic expression.
I went over to a friends house as soon as he got it - we were glued to it till sunrise. For weeks after I was there every other night. It seemed that Jet Set Radio quenched my thirst for another masterful piece of Japanese marketing. Unlike many of the games though, JSR had something I'd never noticed anywhere other than Wipeout. Music. Not produced by Sega itself, but instead sourced from real artists.
The music of JSR was, like, hyper diverse (for me at the time) and the playlist was colossal. It was played in a mix, alternating for different levels. The music wasn't interactive, although there was a jukebox option - I ended up spending most of my time on there in it in the end, switching the game on just to hear "Rockin' the Mic" by The Prunes. Click here to check out the soundtrack.
Compared to Wipeout though, JSR's main genre is "J-pop", a massively popular genre in Japan and sometimes over here with those nerdy anime goffins (goth + boffin)...
Wipeout's main genre was electronica, fitting it's 1995 release, using artists like The Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Leftfield. I had a big nostalgia trip and ended up replaying Wipeout after JSR. At this time I was probably around 14 and could truly appreciate the music, compared to when I first had a go at 6. The track I loved was "Afro Ride" by Leftfield. Leftfield were the group who's track "Phat Planet" soared the Guinness ad with the horses to mass popularity, now still heralded as the best ad ever made. I still agree.
It was Wipeout that introduced me to electronic music, from there on my dad introduced me to his vast record collection, featuring rare vinyl from The Shamen and even Altern8... Had'nt the faintest idea he liked old rave and acid.
Since then my interests and knowledge in music have developed faaar more but I've always found myself picturing Wipeout during intense tracks, it must be the feeling of velocity, or the pumping visuals. Speaking of pumping visuals, you should all check out REZ - it's another intense audio/visual treat to the senses, with a similar structure to Vib Ribbon and a visual style reminiscent of Tron.
REZ made it into an early piece of vid-art I created - mashing over 20 Youtube clips together. The vid's main clips are from Akira, Predator, Ghost in the Shell and A Scanner Darkly.
I went over to a friends house as soon as he got it - we were glued to it till sunrise. For weeks after I was there every other night. It seemed that Jet Set Radio quenched my thirst for another masterful piece of Japanese marketing. Unlike many of the games though, JSR had something I'd never noticed anywhere other than Wipeout. Music. Not produced by Sega itself, but instead sourced from real artists.
The music of JSR was, like, hyper diverse (for me at the time) and the playlist was colossal. It was played in a mix, alternating for different levels. The music wasn't interactive, although there was a jukebox option - I ended up spending most of my time on there in it in the end, switching the game on just to hear "Rockin' the Mic" by The Prunes. Click here to check out the soundtrack.
Compared to Wipeout though, JSR's main genre is "J-pop", a massively popular genre in Japan and sometimes over here with those nerdy anime goffins (goth + boffin)...
Wipeout's main genre was electronica, fitting it's 1995 release, using artists like The Chemical Brothers, Orbital and Leftfield. I had a big nostalgia trip and ended up replaying Wipeout after JSR. At this time I was probably around 14 and could truly appreciate the music, compared to when I first had a go at 6. The track I loved was "Afro Ride" by Leftfield. Leftfield were the group who's track "Phat Planet" soared the Guinness ad with the horses to mass popularity, now still heralded as the best ad ever made. I still agree.
It was Wipeout that introduced me to electronic music, from there on my dad introduced me to his vast record collection, featuring rare vinyl from The Shamen and even Altern8... Had'nt the faintest idea he liked old rave and acid.
Since then my interests and knowledge in music have developed faaar more but I've always found myself picturing Wipeout during intense tracks, it must be the feeling of velocity, or the pumping visuals. Speaking of pumping visuals, you should all check out REZ - it's another intense audio/visual treat to the senses, with a similar structure to Vib Ribbon and a visual style reminiscent of Tron.
REZ made it into an early piece of vid-art I created - mashing over 20 Youtube clips together. The vid's main clips are from Akira, Predator, Ghost in the Shell and A Scanner Darkly.
Ferry Gouw
Being a massive fan of all things Mad Decent, I can't help but love Major Lazer... And all the amazing artwork that comes with him. It's created by Ferry Gouw, an Indonesian kid who's been in London for the last ten years - he did an Art & Design BA at Central St Martins, then did a Masters in Filmmaking at London Film School.
This combination of subjects alongside his interest in comics and involvement in Celestial Bodies has probably given him his amazing film and graphic creativity. Seriously though, I'm a sucker for Space Jam and Roger Rabbit but after seeing Major Lazer's "Keep It Goin' Louder (feat. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze)" music video, I long to see a cooler cartoon/film combination.
I personally love his thick outlines and shading - reminds me of Daniele Clown's Ghost World.
This combination of subjects alongside his interest in comics and involvement in Celestial Bodies has probably given him his amazing film and graphic creativity. Seriously though, I'm a sucker for Space Jam and Roger Rabbit but after seeing Major Lazer's "Keep It Goin' Louder (feat. Nina Sky and Ricky Blaze)" music video, I long to see a cooler cartoon/film combination.
I personally love his thick outlines and shading - reminds me of Daniele Clown's Ghost World.
RGB XYZ - DAVID O'REILLY
Discovered a while back, and rediscovered just now. When you put your computer to sleep, this is what it dreams of.
How Creative Practicioners Have Exhibited their Works (rushed essay)
I wrote this recently and realised it actually covers some pretty prolific practitioners...
All famous (or underground) media practitioners have exhibited their work on way or another. Right now, most commonly it is via the internet – the infinite scale of it allows people to literally find anything they want. In other words, if you search it, chances are you’ll find it, or at least something related to it. Websites like Youtube, FlickR, Vimeo and Facebook as well as the more niche marketing sites like 4chan and Facepunch (targeted more at the internet-savvy geekier ones of us) are most definitely the leaders of the pack when it comes to spreading the word.
An artist that's come to fame this way over the years is Kate Morosse – she is a graphic designer that's worked on many productions including (most majorly) Simian Mobile Disco’s new music video “Synthesise” and her work with Nylon, Silver Cross, Super Super magazine. Her illustrative and overall aesthetic appeal is very minimal and naïve in it's blunt delivery – she uses geometric shapes and circular ones to create imagery reminiscent of cell-division and kids drawings. A lot of her work looks very similar to So Me’s Ed Banger Records artwork, publicized the same way via web 2.0 socializing capabilities.
“I run ISO & Isomorph Records. I have a fascination with three sided shapes, illegible typography, and freeform lettering.”
With a good few years of experience of churning out designs for bands, clubs, gigs, record pressing, live show co-ordination and rare boutique product design for music projects, Morosse runs a team that covers all mediums of the modern music market in order to maximize their stylistic influence on the world. Vice and NME magazine have often regarded her as the future of uprising music and design, constantly referring to her works both online and in their publications.
ISO are always creating internet based media pages and channels for upcoming artists and musicians. Filming gigs, backstage footage, featurettes, documentaries and interviews, the whole of each production is done by ISO’s team of avid young practitioners who all have a great skills in film, video and music.
Morrose's artwork is pretty much always by hand. She is renowned for not starting over again with her work and instead persisting with it until the visuals she was initially after return, like a happy accident. She finds working on the computer can be hugely satisfying but often acts as a barrier between her minds eye and the finished product by taking out the emotion that goes into her pen or brush strokes.
The information above was found on an art blog from a post written prior to her media explosion proving that to some extent, blogs, just like the one I found the post on, have a very big impact spreading the word across the world for all people on the same wavelength to pick up and look at. Art like this happens almost secretly due to it’s extreme lack of mainstream features but a weird zeitgeist begins to spread, leading to word of mouth, eventual blogging takes place documenting the underground uprising and from there on it’s projected into the thick of the mainstream, sucking up everything and labeling it for mass consumption – this can also be the death of many once highly controversial artists as when it is picked up by everybody (like the sudden craze for triangular shapes in graphic design and fashion right now) it becomes old news and then therefore becomes naff.
Some artists however remain underground constantly, surfacing now and then for fame and then sinking back down into their zone of forward thinking, constantly coming up with new styles, ideas and aesthetics – a perfect example would be a guy called John Greenwood. All I can ever find out about him is his date of birth (1959), the name of the exhibition he did at the Saatchi gallery in 1992, his album artwork for Orbital’s “In Sides” album and some other pieces of art on online auctions. He is extremely hard to track. I developed an obsession with his work after seeing his album artwork. It often has an organic yet geometric concoction of organs and machinery – the “In Sides” piece had aspects of the human ear’s anatomy and magnified bacteria alongside octogons, pentagons and triangular rockets. To find out about him I looked all over for some information on the album, from that the artist name was given and from there I rigorously sifted through Google, very occasionally coming across something related to him.
Sadly I still haven’t come across an actual website specifically on him, nor have I managed to find him on any web 2.0 sites – there are many John Greenwood’s on Facebook. Over 500 in fact. Finding him among all of them without any idea of what he looks like, where he lives or where he works would prove near impossible. Google advanced searching has proved pretty handy too though – putting in search criteria like “John Greenwood “artist” “1959” “Saatchi” has often come up with Yahoo questions where people have been looking just like me and are questioning the world for some kind of answer. It is only auctions where I’ve found more pieces by him, tempting me to get in touch with them instead as it would be likely they have his contact details (if he’s still alive that is)…
I’d say John Greenwood has managed to defy the powers of mass media communication very well. I’m pretty stunned that he just isn’t anywhere considering the fame he must have earned Orbital for HIS great piece of art. In a way it’s slightly upsetting – I know for a fact that there will be something official out there whether its just a minor interview, a biography or an autobiography even! It’s just a matter of intensive looking.
Funnily enough though, John Greenwood could well be famous, either in his circle of friends and mutual friends or just from the fact that possibly hundreds of other people have been searching for him too with a “where is he now?” motive.
All famous (or underground) media practitioners have exhibited their work on way or another. Right now, most commonly it is via the internet – the infinite scale of it allows people to literally find anything they want. In other words, if you search it, chances are you’ll find it, or at least something related to it. Websites like Youtube, FlickR, Vimeo and Facebook as well as the more niche marketing sites like 4chan and Facepunch (targeted more at the internet-savvy geekier ones of us) are most definitely the leaders of the pack when it comes to spreading the word.
An artist that's come to fame this way over the years is Kate Morosse – she is a graphic designer that's worked on many productions including (most majorly) Simian Mobile Disco’s new music video “Synthesise” and her work with Nylon, Silver Cross, Super Super magazine. Her illustrative and overall aesthetic appeal is very minimal and naïve in it's blunt delivery – she uses geometric shapes and circular ones to create imagery reminiscent of cell-division and kids drawings. A lot of her work looks very similar to So Me’s Ed Banger Records artwork, publicized the same way via web 2.0 socializing capabilities.
“I run ISO & Isomorph Records. I have a fascination with three sided shapes, illegible typography, and freeform lettering.”
With a good few years of experience of churning out designs for bands, clubs, gigs, record pressing, live show co-ordination and rare boutique product design for music projects, Morosse runs a team that covers all mediums of the modern music market in order to maximize their stylistic influence on the world. Vice and NME magazine have often regarded her as the future of uprising music and design, constantly referring to her works both online and in their publications.
ISO are always creating internet based media pages and channels for upcoming artists and musicians. Filming gigs, backstage footage, featurettes, documentaries and interviews, the whole of each production is done by ISO’s team of avid young practitioners who all have a great skills in film, video and music.
Morrose's artwork is pretty much always by hand. She is renowned for not starting over again with her work and instead persisting with it until the visuals she was initially after return, like a happy accident. She finds working on the computer can be hugely satisfying but often acts as a barrier between her minds eye and the finished product by taking out the emotion that goes into her pen or brush strokes.
The information above was found on an art blog from a post written prior to her media explosion proving that to some extent, blogs, just like the one I found the post on, have a very big impact spreading the word across the world for all people on the same wavelength to pick up and look at. Art like this happens almost secretly due to it’s extreme lack of mainstream features but a weird zeitgeist begins to spread, leading to word of mouth, eventual blogging takes place documenting the underground uprising and from there on it’s projected into the thick of the mainstream, sucking up everything and labeling it for mass consumption – this can also be the death of many once highly controversial artists as when it is picked up by everybody (like the sudden craze for triangular shapes in graphic design and fashion right now) it becomes old news and then therefore becomes naff.
Some artists however remain underground constantly, surfacing now and then for fame and then sinking back down into their zone of forward thinking, constantly coming up with new styles, ideas and aesthetics – a perfect example would be a guy called John Greenwood. All I can ever find out about him is his date of birth (1959), the name of the exhibition he did at the Saatchi gallery in 1992, his album artwork for Orbital’s “In Sides” album and some other pieces of art on online auctions. He is extremely hard to track. I developed an obsession with his work after seeing his album artwork. It often has an organic yet geometric concoction of organs and machinery – the “In Sides” piece had aspects of the human ear’s anatomy and magnified bacteria alongside octogons, pentagons and triangular rockets. To find out about him I looked all over for some information on the album, from that the artist name was given and from there I rigorously sifted through Google, very occasionally coming across something related to him.
Sadly I still haven’t come across an actual website specifically on him, nor have I managed to find him on any web 2.0 sites – there are many John Greenwood’s on Facebook. Over 500 in fact. Finding him among all of them without any idea of what he looks like, where he lives or where he works would prove near impossible. Google advanced searching has proved pretty handy too though – putting in search criteria like “John Greenwood “artist” “1959” “Saatchi” has often come up with Yahoo questions where people have been looking just like me and are questioning the world for some kind of answer. It is only auctions where I’ve found more pieces by him, tempting me to get in touch with them instead as it would be likely they have his contact details (if he’s still alive that is)…
I’d say John Greenwood has managed to defy the powers of mass media communication very well. I’m pretty stunned that he just isn’t anywhere considering the fame he must have earned Orbital for HIS great piece of art. In a way it’s slightly upsetting – I know for a fact that there will be something official out there whether its just a minor interview, a biography or an autobiography even! It’s just a matter of intensive looking.
Funnily enough though, John Greenwood could well be famous, either in his circle of friends and mutual friends or just from the fact that possibly hundreds of other people have been searching for him too with a “where is he now?” motive.
Paperrad's Eye Melting Graphics Will Blow Your Mind.
Like? That was Paperrad. An unofficial video/graphic and design collective. They're usually working in the areas of comics, VJing, netart (see Recycled Footage is the Future) and band managing. Not much else is known about them due to their extreme vagueness but after sifting through many sources it seems that they are simply a group of artistic friends, all making individual projects and gaining mass, underground recognition for their works (usually comprising of block neon colors hideously clashing together, combined with chroma-keyed cartoons). It's not for the faint of heart.
This is a shot of their studio...
This is some of their artwork. A strange pseudo-anime/cutout explosion.
The collective has splintered into several bands in the genres of electronica, techno, noise and rock. Some of these bands are: Extreme Animals, Dr. Doo, ROTFLOL, Paz and maaany mooore.
If you've ever seen Nathan Barley, I'd say it's the ultimate epitome of Paperrad and all it's followers - a happy go lucky hive mind of trend-setting, fashion conscious, trend junkies. Which I say in a jokily positive way.
Check our Paperrad here.
L-VIS 1990
L-VIS 1990, is a godsend to electronic music right now. His DnB influences definnitely show through his Mad Decent Records glow, giving him an almost tribal sound that can't be associated with anyone else... Except, maybe Douster...
Mj Cole recently remixed one of his tracks, "United Groove" into a mind bending track that you can't help but bop your head too.
While your in the mood, check these guys out:
Congorock
Sinden
Brodinski
D.I.M.
Mj Cole recently remixed one of his tracks, "United Groove" into a mind bending track that you can't help but bop your head too.
While your in the mood, check these guys out:
Congorock
Sinden
Brodinski
D.I.M.
Stuck On Repeat? I Think So
Hey this is my first post, and I'm just gonna post the shit what has got me going this week.
This is the definition of a banger, turn this shit up loud. If you like this check out anything by Mightyfools. We have even provided you with a nice mp3 for your troubles.
http://www.mediafire.com/?u2qkqzzk0im
This next tune was only realeased on Beatport earlier this week, and has been on repeat ever since Tuesday night. Its a fusion of a tech- house riff with a dirty synth, which just progresses...
http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/88225095/file.html
Enjoy x
This is the definition of a banger, turn this shit up loud. If you like this check out anything by Mightyfools. We have even provided you with a nice mp3 for your troubles.
http://www.mediafire.com/?u2qkqzzk0im
This next tune was only realeased on Beatport earlier this week, and has been on repeat ever since Tuesday night. Its a fusion of a tech- house riff with a dirty synth, which just progresses...
http://www13.zippyshare.com/v/88225095/file.html
Enjoy x
Recycled Footage is the Future
Even music videos are turning green. Recently, vids using entirely recycled footage have been floating around online, usually ripping off youtube clips or utilizing old, old archive footage. They bring a whole new sense to film, literally saying "if it aint broke, don't fix it" by taking what already visually works and mashing it into other flawless clips - sometimes creating entirely new story lines and sequences.
Proxy - 8000 (directed by Thomas Von Party)
Ratatat - Mirando (directed by E*VAX)
This concept is so versatile - as long as you have the editing software all you need do is visit www.keepvid.com to rip the footage onto your computer. It reminds me personally of "swedeing", popularised by Be Kind Rewind, in which you take a film and recreate it shot for shot yourself - it gives the project a true sense of personality.
DJ and video artist, POGO has also caught onto these methods, in my personal favorite video, Alice.
Proxy - 8000 (directed by Thomas Von Party)
Ratatat - Mirando (directed by E*VAX)
This concept is so versatile - as long as you have the editing software all you need do is visit www.keepvid.com to rip the footage onto your computer. It reminds me personally of "swedeing", popularised by Be Kind Rewind, in which you take a film and recreate it shot for shot yourself - it gives the project a true sense of personality.
DJ and video artist, POGO has also caught onto these methods, in my personal favorite video, Alice.
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