Amazingness
Fukkireta is a quite pointless but amazing Japanese meme. Here’s a compilation video of about 50 videos made of it. I shall have to work on my hip-wiggling myself.
Add a comment September 1, 2010
Purple Splazsh
The almost-title track from dubstep-notdubstep kingpin Actress’s recent Splazsh album. It’s hard to really even situate it anywhere generically. The clangy guitar reminds me of 80s cop shows, as do the overblown snares (tweaked 909s perhaps?), while the intermittent vocal snippets seem drawn from an untraceable rnb song that could have been recorded any time in the last 20 or 30 years. The overall effect reminds me of BBC series Ashes to Ashes, period nostalgia overwhelmed by what Freud called the unheimlich, the unhomely. The link between the two is, after all, strong– “nostalgia” etymologically refers to the ache of remembering one’s home. “Purple Splazsh,” like much of Actress’s album, hits that feeling without ever really giving a specific referent to its nostalgia–a tough trick indeed in a musical culture where obvious pastiche is very much the rule.
Add a comment July 13, 2010
I’m fracking magical!
Amazing cylon unicorn t-shirt (available here). It’s roboty, it’s magical, it’s probably a bit evil. Quite amazing stuff.
2 comments June 12, 2010
Baby Love
Because Sunday is for girl groups. Grab a few friends and do some synchronised dance moves.
Add a comment May 31, 2010
Beautiful Complication
One of my favourite songs of last year was Insta:mental’s “Watching You,” an irresistible dubstep-drum-n-bass-rnb hybrid that sounded like nothing else. On a similar future-rnb vibe is this song by Bristol dubstep artist Guido, called “Beautiful Complication” which blends heavily effected Autotuned vocals with a sparse Timbaland style beat and dubstep bass and bleeps. Amazing stuff.
Add a comment May 22, 2010
Saturn Strobe
Liking this video of Pantha Du Prince’s “Saturn Strobe” a lot. Most minimal techno tends to make me think of modernity–highways (the Autobahn in techno’s DNA), airports (Eno’s ambient influence, probably), futuristic urban landscapes. But oddly enough as this video proves, this kind of minimal really suits nature documentary images, with the time-lapse photography mirroring the unfolding, ever-evolving loops.
Pantha apparently made a lot of field recordings of the Swiss alps for his most recent album Black Noise, which takes the term “glacial” so often applied to techno to a new level. Perhaps National Geographic should take note, and throw techno producers some work.
Add a comment April 28, 2010
Upular
Loving this cut-up by Australian producer Pogo, which splices together sounds and vocals from the Pixar movie Up into an Akufen-esque haze. Interestingly Pixar endorsed this one (or solicited?), which is fairly rare, really. I also highly recommend Pogo’s “Alice” if you haven’t heard it.
Add a comment April 1, 2010
may all your days be gold, my child
Mark Linkous, better known as Sparklehorse, committed suicide over the weekend. My favourite songs of his have always been quiet, like “Gold Day” and “It’s a Wonderful Life,” tiny happy-sad chamber pop pieces. “Gold Day” features Nina Persson from the Cardigans, and is as beautiful a benediction as a pop song can be in four minutes.
Add a comment March 9, 2010
Emily In Love 