skip to main |
skip to sidebar
Swedish Architect, music producer, programmer and part-time college Erik Levander enthusiastically tipped me off about 'The Tone Generation' podcast. Levander synopsises:
If your knowledge about the origins of electronic music is limited to Kraftwerk, perhaps with a vague connotation of the names Stockhausen, Cage or Varese, this podcast will both make you an expert on early electronic music and give you hours of fascinating listening for free!
Artist Ian Helliwell serves you well chosen bits of music along with dry, but precise information. If there is something like an objective charm, Ian Helliwell's excellent podcast sure has it.'
True that.
Stream or download here
I will briefly excuse myself for the puerility of this post, and I'll agree its old - nearly 250,000 people have seen it. But people are still commenting on it, and ignorance craves provision. Its MSTRKFT's Oh snap!! bootleg, and it deserves a special mention for being an excellent example of VJing, using extremely limited material. And it has kept me both visually and aurally amused. Big Willie and Jazzy smash it. One distraught viewer remarked:
'Try doing this for 4 minutes...I dare you'. I think everyone should.
Breifly: a man (Ickarus / Kalkbrenner) tours clubs around the globe with his manager and girlfriend. On the eve of their largest album release he is admitted to a psychiatric clinic after overdosing at a gig. And various tribulations pre/post. But the story almost seems like a Trojan Horse for what interests me more: a patchwork portrait of hard-to-get shots of the camera-shy Berlin night-scene.
Usually these types of films are post-posthumous accounts of inherently self-destructive artists of UK or US origin. Using a living artist and riding on the phenomenon of Berlin has facilitated a unique promotional campaign. Running the film's releases alongside a tirade of Kalkbrenner’s club fixtures has mutually generated interest in both the film and Kalkbrenner's music.
Paul Kalkbrenner was/is a real-life dj, the film’s protagonist and sountrack artist, thereby creating a surreal unification of realities. And he delivers the perfect music for the movie: the soundtrack contains ten exclusively produced tracks, including the movie´s hymn “Sky and Sand” [with vocals by his brother, artist Fritz Kalkbrenner]. In addition there are five previously released tracks, all exclusive Berlin Calling edits. Alone or in the context of the movie, they are good.
Check the official website for release dates and give the trailer and tracks a look.
PS I had drinks with the Director and female lead a few weeks ago.
Futurecop! is a heavy dj/production duo formed in Manchester a couple of years ago. Consisting of 1 brown man and 1 white man, the are the salt and pepp...gurumasala of tasty music. Though don't be misled by culinary analogy, as that's really beside the point.
Founding member Manzur Iqbal started with no knowledge about music production and wanted to create a sound inspired by 80s teen flicks, especially the movies of John Hughes and Sci-fi cartoons like Transformers or Thundercats, not caring about being different or trying to be commercial, even though the music might as well be called pop music. Peter Carrol from London teamed up with him and together they are now recreating the atmosphere and vibe of the soundtracks to the best 80s movies that never existed. Crystal Castles and Van She Tech have already shown Futurecop! some love.
Importantly, the duo have also reignited music's long affair with imagability [as above]: the supporting artwork is impressive and uplifting, and certainly evocative of their sound. Check out their Myspace or do an image search.
However, despite their promise, it seems that they're being let down by poor promotional enterprise and a sparsity of foreign fixtures and foresight. Gigs in Sheffield are gonna get noone nowhere. Although they have got some festival dates this summer, notably at The Big Chill. Their techy sounds would go down a treat in France, as a lot of the stuff competes strongly with that of comparable kitsune or EdBanger Records' outputs.
[Above: Daft Punk’s Pyramid set: crowd shot merged with pyramid interior detail, revealing analog synths, light boards, Ableton, moogs and laser consoles; Video stills from De Crecy's live 'Beats and Cubes' performance]
Everyone will be familiar with Daft Punk 's Pyramid (above), which set a precedent for performance architecture. Reevaluating the genre and straying from surface-mounted installations, Etienne de Crecy 's 'Cube' uses 3d camera mapping and 3 high-powered projectors that project onto a 2oft., 3x3x3 frame, covered in a fine net, creating ethereal, beat-matched light volumes in the dark. The lightweight construction is a refreshing innovation and is moreover cheaper and more transportable. De Crecy plays perched smugly in the midddle cube.
Cube Video
