buy buy buy radiation poisoning=blessing in disguise sell sell sell
exploit your dna, sell the adspace, put this on wikipedia+pictures of Rupaul+Robocop melted together.
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I'm tempted to present this like "yoyoyo, thaz jus my nerdpoemz god, Charles Schwab'n that shiit, iz kinda magikal ya know, we in shamblez.."......but I just said "I'm tempted to present this" before that, which cancels out the tone so I shouldn't have said anything in the first place, so now I think I'm gonna dork out and start picking at it instead.
I'm not a hundred percent, but because it was kinda unhinged (even for me) and I don't remember writing it at all, I'm gonna assume I scribbled this down while falling asleep. Ever since college, I've been able to get some pretty gnarly non-linear outro monologues going. It's gotten to where I can acknowledge them fairly easily, and in turn, can wriggle my way out of shutdown mode. I mostly come up on random unfiltered streams of whatever...pretend conversations, channel surfing, dream logic type stuff. I just try and do my best to cradle the interesting bits. Hopefully things start to crystallize around their original form before the ego goes to town. But yeah, I'd say I've gotten pretty damn good at straddling the nethers, y'know. So if you see me shining while panning for whirlpools of raw consciousness, then hit me on the sublow.
Anyway, I'm gonna string this into some mp3's by also admitting that I often hear weird 8-bit sound effects too as I'm dozing. It's not how it is when you remember what something sounds like, or there's a song stuck in your head, because there's that wall between the recall and the sound. It's like I actually hear it, but I know it's in my head because they don't sound directional at all (like they would if they were situated in a speaker) and they are very short and quiet and fleeting in a way that is kind of difficult to explain...like when you try and actually look at those magic eye things once you start seeing something. It used to scare the shit out of me though. Now, it doesn't bother me when my thoughts start flowing all loosy-goosy like that, mainly cause I'm used to it, but also because lets me know I am about a minute away from falling asleep, which is always nice. Sleep still gets my vote for best place ever (when it works right...)
Oh, and it's not ALWAYS as creepy as the above, by the way, if you were assuming that...
(I assumed this all had something to do with a week long meth binge and you losing the tv remote while huddled in a room full of shredded newspaper, like you "got stuck" on CNBC or something. Either way I think the secret message you were sending to yourself is "please don't breed......ever." -Ed)
Oooooh, ouch. If I ever tried speed (no way in hell ever) and was forced to watch Mad Money with Jim Cramer, I could totally see myself jamming a screwdriver through my temple. Seriously, ten minutes. tops.
But see, I would've just kept all this post-psychonaut debris to myself, but I figured it's now officially dope as fuck cause all these instances of childhood fallout are sneaking their way into cool world. Finally! I'm telling you, once time inevitably turns innocence into shrapnel wounds, you might as well scour the ruins and get some mileage out of the decay...
I've been on a kick with the electronic type posts too anyway so why not keep it going, yeah? First, the self promotionally inclined, then the less socially mandated ones.
Straight up Zelda 2: Adventures of Link. Rolling around the towns with all those purple and red shirted people cruising by. Cool breezin, not worrying about all the bad guys outside, just trying to pop by that one orange chicks house that gave you your magic power back.
Actually, shit, now that I think about it, some of the later towns had possessed people who turned into bats when you talked to them (they'd say ... and then bam they were instantly a bat.) That was kinda fucked, because the towns were supposed to be like safe zones, and then they go and flip the script like that. And remember those fuckers with the shields! How you had to juke the shit outta them to get a hit in. Plus your sword was like barely a shiv in that game. No reach whatsoever. But hey, why go on, I know you know what I'm talking about...
but seriously, my point was if dude wasn't scruffy with a hoodie and leather and chick didn't rock the dyed black angular haircut (plus she's real cute), nobody would have ever heard of em. They'd just be another nerd making chiptunes...instead they've got like 500,000 myspace hits and they've made like 4 songs, total. 7 inch vinyl releases for 8 bit music. That's some power marketing.
This guy Dan Deacon is getting some shine now that his album dropped. I've picked up random tracks of his here and there and they are mostly awesome. Snake Mistakes showcases his lyrical talent (as well as that vocoder effect he likes - cool but borders on gimmicky). Big Milk is the winner for me, beeyootiful chimetime action never fails.
Here's the video for Crystal Cat. Remember like a month or 2 ago when I posted a video that was exactly like this one and was like there's gonna be more of this in the near future. Yeah, well there it is. This doesn't piss me off too much, mostly because dude looks like he's homeless and he gyrates like he doesn't give a fuck and I like the sounds he's making.
This was a video that had Deacon's name plus this Liam Lynch guy attached to it. It made me laugh. I'm sure there's huge stockpiles of shitty 90's 3d modeling stuff to play with out there. Glad somebody's putting it to good use other than ITT tech.
Oh man, this shit gets me going. Coarse analog circuit bending set to deep bass at 150 bpms. Could've sworn this has been done before, but it rarely sounds so primitive yet so utterly danceable. My favorite thing Tigerbeat6 has put out in awhile.
Copy is dope too. More stuff in the Nintendo vein, but with big ass beats and really catchy melody lines. This is from his second album, Hair Guitar, go out and get Mobius Beard if you haven't heard it. He puts his stuff out on Audio Dregs, home to Evan Mast of Ratatat's output as E*Vax. If you haven't ever checked out his 01 album debut, Parking Lot Music you might want to give it a listen. It's nice and clean and peaceful.
Here's a remix Copy did of Bone Thugs. If you do a blend with Bone Thugs, you have to know about music and keys. You actually don't have to know a thing about Bizzy or Krayzie or Thuggin in general. Just Harmony. This is what an on key blend sounds like people; thuggish ruggish bubble bobble action.
Here's some sick ass bit-crushed remixes by some dude by the name of Mark VII. I had these mp3's for a couple of years and never ever heard anything by this guy again. Again, dope video game versions.
This sucks that I'm gonna say this but it's really exactly what I'm thinking so...Finland's starting to sound like the new Iceland.
They cut the funniest part out of the Clell Tickle Human Giant sketch when they aired it on Mtv. They had the head of Pitchfork on the telephone say something like "Yeaaaah, ok, well, Stockholm is the new London is the new Prague, sooo...". I thought that was jokes. They left in the part where's he's getting roughed up like, "owww 7.4, awwww, ok, 7.8" . Again, great, but I'm not sure how that translated and the other part didn't.
Anyway, they've got a good thing going with the tripped out melancholy in Finland.
Alright, it took me a long time to make my mind up on this debut from Puerto Rican outfit, Balun. Their album, Something Comes Our Way, was one of those ones that I knew had something from the get go, but couldn't quite accurately assess how much I liked it in one or two listens. (Yes, it happens sometimes where I'm kind of on the fence about things, especially when I know I'm not giving an album a concentrated enough listen). After a couple of months of sitting on it and listening to it again here and there, I realized it's a nice album, but I finally extracted the choice cuts. Sometimes it's a little more of a process. Like I said, nice, charming, happy, good, yay, wee. On fire with these descriptions right now, huh. Adjectives for days. Guess that probably means it's....wait for it....GAME OVER. (::CREEAAAAAMMMM:: - Ed)
PS I didn't post that on wikipedia btw. The subversive aspect was silenced by the cathartic one, I guess.
(God help me if I actually ever start editing that thing, this shit right here is bad enough...you can have the Encyclopedia Galactica, nerds. -Ed)
just made MTV play the video for Aphex Twin's Come to Daddy, in it's entirety, during primetime. It's also playing on the jumbotron in Times Square. That's the new best thing ever. Seriously.
They've also promoted a million good bands and comedians. How the fuck did this happen? What's MTV thinking? Is this because Myspace puts some decent bands on the frontpage of their shit, so MTV wants to show that they can level the playing field too? Do people that actually watch MTV, watch Human Giant? Are they trying to pull in an "indy" demographic? I'm so confused. I'm pretty sure it all revolves around the internet and strengthening the bond between that and MTV. Or, maybe, some exec is going through a midlife crises and realizes that the network he runs used to do some really creative, inspired things and that might actually be a GOOD thing to feed to impressionable young minds, every once and awhile. Regardless, even if the show gets cancelled (I'm not so sure the polls are real in terms of accuracy, btw) these guys are gonna be heroes for how much exposure they've brought to all this stuff. 24 hours straight on MTV right now.
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I really do kinda wish I was disciplined about this blog thing for whatever reason. Like everyday, I'd post the good stuff and write a quip here and there and hyperlink every reference diligently like all the other well mannered lads I see doing this. Instead you get some willy nilly shit that usually alludes to me being a moody ass motherfucker. My bad, y'allz.
That being said, this post is definitely a guilt post. To give you an idea, now that I've got a little momentum going again, I started to feel guilty not posting right around the one week mark. I guess that's indicative of how I've aligned my internal time with "blogger time," based on how many people read my shit. I probably would've caved in around then, but I've spent the past week dealing with my computer after it got chomped to fucking pieces by every virus ever imaginable. So now I just want to chill with all the clicking and typing, but it's like, oh but I'm a blogger now. I blog, y'know, it's just this thing I do, I hop on the computer and just start, like, blogging, and it's like, if you don't do it alotalotalot, you basically suck at blogging, soooo...
Sorry, I heard some newly christened haircut chick say that verbatim the other night and nobody even motioned to kick her in the face or anything. They just shook their heads in vague agreement. It was kinda disheartening.
Anyway, so yeah, there's no such thing as free porn. I thought with the rise of all these blogs and yousendit type deals, I had stumbled on these secret dirtball loopholes... but turns out, them holes were teeming with disease and pestilence, so be warned, y'know? Funny thing is, for some reason, I have never really gotten porn off of file sharing programs like I should. Maybe it's because I'm at a loss when it comes to actually typing in porn search keywords. Like, I've paid money just because I want to see "some hot chick that I haven't seen before get banged out", while everyone else has got it narrowed down to "piping hot dumpster sexxx" or "convalescent creampies".
Actually, now that I think about it, I kinda do miss all the spam I used to get. Not the avalanche of moral depravity that used to clog my inbox, but I wouldn't mind getting the occasional message from Meatball M. Pheremones, urging me to click on his barnyard free-for-all in some priceless first take on English, all bookended with cut-up phrases from 19th century literature and other bits of intellectual wreckage. I used to save some of the really next level ones, but I guess I deleted em at some point. Dang. If there's a really hilarious hall of fame of that stuff (I figure there has to be), someone let me know what's up.
(Ok, so you start off about feeling all angsty about expectations, and then you have the gall to go off about porn and spam? Dude, this is the reason why burying-your-face-in-your-hands was invented... -Ed)
Yeah, huh. Ok, well, point being, I'm kinda surprised we all don't need to watch videos of three legged dogs drinking out of toilet bowls in outerspace just to get hard in the pants these days...hopefully we'll just wipe ourselves out before it gets to that, right?
Right, wow, ok well, this turned out to be a mess today, I probably shouldn't post any mp3's huh. That'd probably be disrespectful? Instead, here's a random tribute to some of the various tangents the world has to offer. Deeper and deeper...
Superjail. It was my fave of the pilots they aired on Adultswim last Sunday...reminded me of Liquid Television. It's sped up a little to fit the 10 minute youtube criteria, the opening song doesn't sound that goofy.
And so, I forever remained...mystically gay...
I'm starting to get into all this old school Russian animation stuff. There's alot of it and it's all pretty nuts.
I'm gonna pipe back up just to caution you a little with this one above. You'd probably have to be pretty internet'd out to not get a little freaked out by his stuff. I think it's pretty intense but amazing. (I'm not really sure how some people would perceive his images...like if you were a born again or something, it might just activate that mental bypass thing that you are so good at, so you could just be staring at a blank page while your subconscious is busy imploding.) But yeah, it does pull together a lot of visceral madness, so I'm just gonna say that if you start clicking around, it'll probably leave a mark. Don't say I didn't warn you.
I've got Coachella fever and the only prescription is more BLOG ABOUT IT. (wow, definitely the worst one yet! -Ed)
For reals, i don't think i'm going to sleep anytime soon and I am getting fiery about it, even though they've got the set times all fucked up...like almost enough so to make me really discouraged.
Just a couple examples: (Soulwax v Junior Boys) (Ghostface v Coco Rosie) (Blonde Redhead v Justice) (Richie Hawtin v CSS v Konono No.1) (me v a bunch of squelchy ass electro for more than thirty minutes in the burning hot DAYTIME) (bonus!: me v paranthesis everywhere all the time, huh)
Yeah, there's always some conflicts, but this is kind of a mess for my tastes...i might have to compensate by ramping up the drug and alcohol intake...which is daunting, considering the past couple years. I'm not trying to end up, for example, super drunk at 4pm right near the front of the stage for Roots Manuva, with the sudden urge to lay down and take a nap...the last thing I remember probably being my friend looking down and saying "Um,I'm not so sure that's a good idea, dude". He later (hypothetically!) said that I got in at least one "naw dawg, it's chilllll" plus 2-3 minutes of actual passed outedness before being kicked in the head really hard and before realizing that yeah, I WAS actually completely engulfed by people and that that sleeping there was gonna kinda suck.
I (theoretically!) woke up a couple hours later over in the Sahara Tent, shivering my ass off to the constant thud of 4/4 bass hits. I'm not sure how I got over there, but in some strange turn of fate, I did manage to randomly find some other friends in like two minutes. They happened to be rolling balls. I was offered a pill. What with me being all groggy and scattered yet really happy that I wasn't gonna end up lost the whole rest of the time, I swallowed it just before the logic train kicked in. I ended up peaking during Nine Inch Nails. Jumping up and down and singing along to every word in "Hurt" in a state of utter elation made absolute perfect sense at the time...or at least I assumed it would ::aaa-wink::
Anyway, not the circus sideshow full o' drugs that I see some of you gonzo ass motherfuckers on, but I'm semi-reformed now and not trying to get too incriminating on the internet. What else...I figured I might post some Coachella related tracks but that's way too easy and I'm absolutely sure it's gonna be done by every other "empowered music fan" on the internet.
So here's a bunch of bedroom electronic type stuff then, so there.
Amazing little downtempo thumper that shimmers with all kinds of untold treasureness. It's a little bit like looking into the eyes of a new born, only it's from Atlantis. The vocal cuts also contain a certain womb-like warmth that is rarely achieved with choppy Prefuse style sequences.
This version is 128kbps low rez-ed out, though. His EP "View/Octupus" is available at Turntable Lab, or itunes iTunes
Here's more kinda idm-ish songs that remind me of being really young and new at one point. Lullatone's got a new cd out semi recently called Pajama Party Pour Vous (I think?) but I haven't heard it yet.
This is definitely my go to track if I feel like making a little scene and being a subversive dick ( usually in a crowded parking lot in my car). So far I've blasted this while pretending to be asleep on my steering wheel, as well as while smoking a blunt and doing a slow motion version of that thing you do with your hands at underground hip hop shows (y'know the point at the stage and sideways wave your hand above your head thing that shows you're all about it?). Anyway, some girls looked sorta baffled. It was mad crazy, yo.
Serious though, I do think Otto's shit is cool to listen to in a sound design kind of way. You'll probably either like or hate his stuff, but it's hard to deny that he's got the most well-honed visual component for an artist that is trying to go as balls out crazy as they can (Silver medal to The Locust and Yip-Yip in this category). Much props to AS1 for doing the artwork for a good portion of his output. Seriously, if I ever get my shit together and make an album and it's dope, I'd love for AS1 to do the cover. He's responsible for a lot of old rawkus and dnb covers too, as well as a bunch of stuff for more out there electronic producers. Recent fav was the severed cow gearwork contraption on the cover of the last Venetian Snares album.
Oh and speaking of idm and sound design and movies, this sounds like an electronic score to some haunted sewer flashback scene (like a dark ass sewer or cave with like some weird glint off in the distance that you keep running towards, cause there's a little bit of "wonder" in the track too.)
Oh, I still remember part of my dream from last night! Ooooh, I can catalogue it, like a dreamlog or something. Seriously, I always want to do this and have only actually done it like 3 or 4 times.
So the part I remember was with a bunch of huge pillar towers (like Tower of Pisa style only no lean) in this big ass lake surrounded by some grand canyon style cliffs. Anyway, there was a diving board at the top of each skyscraper like tower and I got to jump off these badboys into the water way way below. Some of them even had crags and other stuff I had to avoid as I fell and it was kinda hectic but when I did hit this one time I kinda bounced off video game style so it was all good. The kicker though was that to get to the top of these towers, there was a ring shaped elevator platform and at the center of the ring was the core of the tower, which was composed entirely of shelves with all kinds of bomb ass donuts on it, like all those rippled ones, and the twisty ones, but really Willy Wonka'd out. So while I was getting transported up to base jump with no parachute, I was grabbing huge assortments of donuts like it was no thing. I think for some reason Madonna owned all this shit too...I remember seeing plasma screens on the wall with her explaining stuff. Anyway, it's always nice to have a dream that was fun and (sorta) made sense and wasn't just some jumble of frustratingly hallucinogenic and confusing crap.
Uhhhh, and on that note, midnight funzone time is over. Looks like the randomness won this round. See you after Coachella (if I can still figure out how to work the computer!) ::bicycle horn:: DOINK! ::whatever makes that a-wooo-gaaa sound::
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So apparently my shit is on the Hype Machine now. Um, thanks guys? I guess this is supposed to mean I made it in blogworld? I'm not really sure what to make of it, but now part of me feels like I should start being super responsible free promo guy or something...which is a pretty daunting thought. If I stopped picking songs apart or denying my inner hater, I'd definitely be at a loss. So, I guess to compromise, I won't be blatantly irresponsible and do something like post an mp3 and saying it sucks point blank. I think I only did that a couple times in the past, but from here on out, everything will range from good to the best jams ever, so y'all betta get HYPE! ::insert that little keyboard build from Technotronic's "Pump the Jam" here::
Speaking of hype, I finally listened to Ed Rec. Vol 2...really not that impressive, kids. I mean, I still ride hard for Sebastian but this new showcase for the roster seems just barely above mediocre despite being the most agreed upon thing in dance music (at least for people that don't really listen to dance music). SO ME's visuals are great and this promo clip thing is really awesome and I'm stil gonna check for all their new stuff obviously...but I'm just saying shit is not the end all be all of "cool music".
Also, on a little broader scale, I think this mythical rave explosion 2.0 business no longer has me starry-eyed at the possibilities of it all...
Here's a simple way to sum up what I thought I saw coming...
BEFORE
Some nutball freakout shit where people are going animalistic while colors are erupting all over the fucking place and the everyone is on some retro burnout steez and having seizures like it's their jobs.
NOW
That, only the whole idea is blanketed and commodified by a "Oh, look at us, we're raving" hipster asshole slant, where the entertainment is about going through the motions of some "quaint" period, rather than actually experiencing and engaging something head on. Shit is already destined to not work out right because rave is "in" and "passe" at the same time, and that seems to matter more than whatever it IS that is actually happening. Also, this nu-rave stuff only engages a narrow selection of old rave really, and believe it or not OLD RAVE IS STILL AROUND, at least in the US. I still see flyers for Moonshine-era relics like Rabbit in the Moon, Ak1200, Uberzone, etc. Its not like you see those dudes blowing up the blogs or anything. So yeah, dance music, sure. Rave, not so much.
Fuck yeah, first little spike in new exposure and I start ranting my ass off IMMEDIATELY. Anyhow, here's some shit that I guess is a little more in line with what's happening on this side of the divide...or not, these are just some synthy ass jams that you need in your life.
First to counteract all that dirty bizness we just discussed, here's some clean ass, bouyant, simple yet effective "listening" electro from around 2003. Carl Finlow's done a bunch of good stuff under various alias's, the most known to me being Silicon Scally.
Such a jam, from like detroit 1981 or so. The vocals are inimitably dope. This type of stuff is kind of blowing my mind right now. Here's a video of local dance show called "The Scene"
I should say I heard this jam on the sickest mix I've heard of other electro, italodisco type stuff, I-F's Mixed Up in the Hague Vol.1 It's from 2000 or so, and I probably heard it around 03 and now that this stuff is blowing up, I've listened to a bunch more and it still is number one in my book. Pure heat. Cybernetic Broadcasting System all day. Also it features Mr. Flaggio's Take A Chance, which has gotta be one of the sickest songs of all time...Fuck it, I gotta post it.
This is from that actual mix, it's the only trace I've ever been able to locate of this song so if anybody has a 320k version of this track recorded clean from vinyl, dude, PLEEEAAAASSSEEEEE hook it up.
On the retro synth tip, I only just recently heard Black Devil Disco after Rephlex put out the EP 28 After. It's supposed to be a collection of unreleased old space disco stuff that was found at a carboot sale or something, but this shit sounds WAY too absolutely fantastic to be recorded back in the late 70's, in terms of quality of the recording (lot's of low end, etc), so I am very skeptical. Still, one of the best things I've listened to this year, every song is worth purchasing.
Here's one of the real authentic ones made way back when. The same amazing song structures and haunted disco spacechants are there, but you can tell it's recorded on OG equipment.
This is some solo stuff from the last surviving BDD member, Bernard Fevre. It's a lot more Tomita-fied then Morodor-esque. Still, way way ahead of it's time.
The I-F tip got me thinking about the good ol' days, buying all kinds of crazy European cd's and compilations back when I first started really getting excited about exploring music. I heard his "Space Invaders are smoking grass" on these Freestyle File comps that !K7 used to put out towards the end of the 90's. That reminded me of Pole, another distinctly different artist I found out about through those comps. He used a broken Waldorf 4 Pole-Filter (hence his name) to generate all the blips and crackley minimilism on his dub inflected beats. Nowadays that kinda clicks and cuts type deal has been done to death, but back then it was pretty striking. Anyway, he just put out a new album too. While not ground breaking like back 98, he still is pumping out jams like Pferd, so much respect new and old.
-------------------------- So there you go hype machine, you have been fed some no nonsense jams, don't go imploding on me now, y'hear?
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Serious though. The limitless excess that is internet world has forever altered my ability to be stimulated by conventional means...
Not to sound redundant...but seriously. That being said, I absolutely love how hard my tastes have splintered over the years and i get the feeling that the bird's eye view of the whole thing must look like some sort of hydra-fied rainbowblob...y'know, with little close quarter scrubbers sweeping the well trodden areas diligently, while the long bioluminescent probes are busy lugging in pieces from the deep, pulling them in closer to the core for a more thorough inspection...anyway, here's a small peek at some of the recent haul.
edit: Cease and Desisted y'allz..., how do you do the line through the text thing
CocoRosie-Rainbow Warriors
CocoRosie-Raphael
Kookiest dames in the game are back. Way more awesome sound effects(standard lo fi and more distinct ones too), and noticeably less of a "actually, we are trust funded out our asses but we made an album one day while we were tripping balls" vibe (which I guess is my way of saying that they sound like they are actually delving into themselves, rather than reveling in the comfort of their smokescreen of oddities?). The new album, The Adventures of Ghosthorse and Stillborn is out today on Touch & Go. It is similiar to their older stuff but at the same time, very different. Definately worth checking out if you dig their quirky/eerie brand of fractured beauty.
Here's the video for the best song on their last album, Noah's Ark. I wouldn't be surprised if the treatment was just a crumpled piece of paper with "Gwen Stefani+way more drugs" scribbled on it.
It's been awhile since I posted some rap so here it is. Goddamn, when southern tracks have those amazingly soulful old samples (Willie Hutch, baby...so necessary) strapped to that super quantized style of boom bap, my ears get pleased on so many levels. Crime Mob's Circles is another great new example with the same feel. UGK's new album, Underground Kingz, got pushed back to May. This will tide me over.
(Update: I knew I'd heard this before. Project Pat used that same beat on Choose You from his 02 album, Layin' da Smack Down. Anyway, this new one's tight. Fuck that Andre 3000 version. 3 stacks, just cause you're one of the greatest ever, doesn't mean you don't have to rhyme on beat. I know it's on purpose cause you're crazy like that, but c'mon, you know syncopation is naturally more pleasing to the ear. That's cop out innovatin')
Paul Wall's new shit is already out and it has some bangers on it too. The two singles are fiery, I'm hoping "I'm throwed" blows up because I am in need of some new heat (that people will actually appreciate if I throw on). This is the sleeper hit of the album though, that 4 bit ringtone sound is awesome. I bet whoever produced this heard about how Timbaland got caught biting that chiptune track straight up for that Nelly Furtado song (google it if you don't know the story) and realized that that type of shit sounds great with 16 note high hats cutting it up. That clean ass organ sound is ill as well.
So this dude edIT comes from an idm/drum n bass background but has been doing a crazy sliced and diced version of southern rap and crunk for a minute now as well as rocking parties as part of the Glitch Mob (I posted a link of his mix for Hefty many moons ago, it might still be up). He has an album, Certified Air Raid Material, which has been held back for what seems like forever now, but I'm assuming it'll sound like a combo of all these things. However, this song, off a comp called Morrow Choral Orchestra, is some bubbleworld goodness with no trace of southern swagger.
This sounds nothing like the original outside of a similiar chord progression and some dubbed out vocals, but it's the best remix I've heard of it yet. Side note(aren't they all?): I DID hear a Baltimore Club version out the other night and I had to bury my face in my hands for a minute (while a couple assholes were geeked on it, like it was some amazing concept at this point...). Basically, as soon as I heard it start, I knew exactly how the whole thing was gonna sound, and I found that to be pretty depressing. Stop people...just please, stop.
I love that I am still hearing jams of this caliber being unearthed from the timefog that is the 80's. Popcorn synths, retro spaceship talk, voxed out foreign male/female vocals, and then a killer little synth solo as a hook. Fuck irony, this is just good music.
Ahh, Smokey. No need to say anything except that it's not my birthday but when I throw this on it feels like it is...and I JUST realized (after trying to place it for FOREVER) that it was Nightmares on Wax that sampled the awesomely optimistic string line back on OG favorite, Smoker's Delight. A great song and one less itch to scratch for me.
So I had this idea about going all Fibonacci with the posts by having each new one combine elements of the previous two to form a semi-relevant jumping off point. Then I realized this idea would appeal to approximately nobody (including myself), and more importantly, it would require even more effort then regular effort takes. So that idea gets scrapped, along with any other semblance of structure...but I still kinda figured out how I would want to jam this together at least once, so here you go...
Thinking about Amy Winehouse's surprisingly enjoyable and respectfully updated hommage to doo wop, as well as the stark, wind weary tie between the songs in the post before that one led me here...
All I'm gonna say in regards to this is that it's from a white German artist whose work is heavily steeped in academic philosophy and theoried approach and that I tend to avoid stuff like that like the plague because it usually acts as mere justification for loads of intrinsically boring, overly pretentious "sound art installation" bullshit. However, these tracks hit home with visceral authenticity while being tastefully augmented by the modern studio trickery.
Yeah, those tracks are definately awesome, but a couple more posts like this and I'm just gonna end up hammering square pegs into round holes. Oh and uh, please pay no mind to how I too developed a bogus theory just to present this guy's stuff...or even how I start breaking out the wordage when I'm merely tryin' to drop some blogs on dat azz...cause that'll just cause more unnecessary confusion on everybody's end....unless you are straight postulatin' that the real conceptual adhesive here might be the search for an honest middle ground between sensational and cerebral enjoyment? Eh? Ehhh? Yeah, way lofty...
For now, i guess you're just gonna have to be content with a couple of mp3s from yet another self reflexive asshole (with exceptional taste).
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...while sitting here all by my lonesome, but as soon as that "Hot dog! This stuff is gold!" light came on, said train of thought must've decided to nonchalantly coast back into "not thinking about thinking" zenmaster world. Fuck dude, fuck. Now all I can come up with is "hey, well then why not post a Switch remix!".
Ok not really, but I can totally get away with posting this Junior Boys/Hot Chip collabo with out feeling like I'm from hypeland USA, cause this shit is very necessary for your ears.
This really is one of those majestic displays of combined awesomeness that works just as well in theory as it does on paper. Hell yeah. Starts off on some Audion type hypnotic bleepfest, then all the sudden the ground gives way and you are carried off in a gush of slow motion stardust and cascading wonderfalls. Only complaint would be that it is a little too drawn out, but if you are a dance dj and you can get away with playing all 10 minutes of this ballad of ballads, then damn dude, you are on some next shit. Teach me.
Hmmm, ok, so now is this the part where I post some new Ed Banger? Oh, you can find those jams everywhere else ever? Oh ok , well then here's some older electro covers from EVEN BEFORE the time that you claim you started to be "all about electro". No shhh...don't worry, it's cool...I know you actually kinda did privately like Daft Punk back in high school. That has to count for something to someone!
Not sure how hard this knocks on a huge system, probably a a little bit too idm-y to sweat it out too, but still it's got glitch in spades so if you like you some Sebastian or Mr. Oizo, and some Blondie (is it possible not to?) then this is a no brainer.
Found this on some old Simian Mobile Disco mix that was also pre-hypestorm. Again a little bit chintzy with the dynamics, but i've got a good feeling you rock everything through your stock computer speakers anyway, so it's worth a go...if only to hear that little squiggly flute-y synth do the hook for this song. Always gotta rep a well down tremelo, not to mention some catchy ass 909n'.
Dubstep rocks my face. Seriously, on a good system, my little babyface will actually physically get juiced up with intense kinetic motion (kinda like that old stereo ad with the paid-looking sunglasses guy in the chair, only a lot more goofy I assume). Anyway, this jam's got 16-bit Genesis flashback written all over it. Golden Axe-Death Adder themesong 2007, mothafuckaz! This, a trip to Ahhs!, and a throne made out of skullz and subwoofers are all I need to fulfill my destiny. (Update: So I heard this on this Belgian guy's blog, BUNZERO, and the mc started doing an atonal "Pass the Dutchie on the left hand side" and it made me go "oh yeah, huh!" Thought I'd share...plus this guy is way up on his dubstep, so check out his mixes if you like this stuff)
BTW, I guess this is as good a time as any to tell the internet that I still kinda resent the backlash against drum n bass in popular opinion. Just cause the market is completely watered down and the majority of the shit sounds super contrived and I barely listen to it anymore, DOESN'T mean that nobody is making tight shit...Counterstrike, Ewun, Spor, etc. are still making intensely heavy angerfests that are great in the proper context (for example, when you want to drive really fast or like, when you hate the world). But as a forward minded dude, I feel I gotta to prioritize with the new hybrid bass styles. Keep switching it up guys! Serious, you dubstep producers have to make a conscious effort to innovate at this point because everybody still remembers how dnb ate itself.
Oh I just remembered one little piece of the thought process that sparked me to get on the 'pute and let loose!
I am kinda stoked that Amy Winehouse is getting shine. She's waaaay waay better than weak ass Lily Allen (I'd hit it though) and even though she is riding on a lot of sell points with the "look how well I can do mo-town for a jewish girl" thing, her shit sounds damn good. However, I'm really curious if my opinion of "Rehab" is gonna swing as drastically as it did with "Crazy" last year? I guess it depends on how big it is, but since everybody and their mother is on some tabloid generation bullfuck these days, I can see myself legitimately hating the droves of drunk chicks that will spew out wobbly eyed requests for this 6 months from now...but had you mentioned this song last October and you were a semi coherent female, I probably would have instantly had a secret crush on you. Strange, huh? Right now, you'll still get a genuine smile and a "sure!", so get 'em in before the weight of it all crushes my spirit once more (or request he could only hold her..that's the real jam of jams).
K, that wasn't nearly as amazing as I thought, just kinda paints me as the overly opiniated music guy that I really am, but honestly, the real deep shit that I think about every OTHER second of every day somehow got lost on the trip from my bed to the computer...uhhh, but hey that last post was awesome by the way, even if I decided to do it in magical wispy indy dude mode. No ambivotext to muss it up, y'know? Anyway, I hope you listened, whoever you are...
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Goddamn, what a label. I found out about Aphex Twin way back in high school, right around the time I started spending every last penny of my money on weed. Needless to say the combo knocked me on my ass and it's been on ever since. At this point I've listened to probably 80-90% of the labels massive catalogue and I have always been amazed (and super pleased) by how they stay consistently relevant and ground breaking while expanding outwards in many different directions. They've opened sooo many doors in my head over the years. In short, I think they are one of the greatest creative institutions on the planet, so I got the jonsing to fawn over their awesomeness, especially since it feels like they are back on top these days).
Yeah, so here's some recent videos.
Clark-Ted. Amazingly detailed footage of insects that have been moded out with some Japanese mech style enhancements. Video by 1st Ave Machine . You should actually watch this on their website instead because the video isn't as compressed as YouTube's, plus there is an equally amazing video for an Alias song. These guys are setting the bar REAL high.
Grizzly Bear-The Knife. This one got my anxiety juices flowing even harder then those bugs. At first I was like jesus, what the fuck was that, where was the knife? But I watched again and I think I get it...it's us, right? We've got the give and take all fucked up and one-sided and she's sad (or pissed). So then it's about the resulting subconscious turmoil, and how its presence hints that it's only a matter of time before the fundamental interconnectivity of our relationship with the planet is consciously realized, at which point, we'll be consumed? Cause that's what I'm picking up on...still, I can't tell if Star Trek guy is our creator or an alien observer, and if he's pining for the Earth's essence after she leaves or if he's just starting the draining process anew...or if the video is just the result of a bunch of dudes on drugs and I'm reading into it way too hard. Either way, thought-provoking stuff courtesy of Encyclopedia Pictura. Again, way better quality on their badass website plus a bunch of other videos with amazing CG organics.
Also, this reminds me a lot of Saul of the Molemen with it's campy yet visually unsettling approach. Random, but hey, sometimes that's how associations work.
Battles-Atlas. It's taken me awhile to warm up to these guys, but the more I listen, the more I like. I have a feeling they may be the new Animal Collective if they get enough exposure...they're equally unbridled and volatile, and they're getting surprisingly catchy. Diggin' the advanced vocoder action and the Superman 2 factor.
A deeply rooted nexus of amazingly talented people that are pushing the boundaries of human experience...or just a really really solid label. You choose.
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And so I lumbered forth once more from the digital ether, dragging a virtual hobocart's worth of shiny a/v stimulants...
or something like that...
Sooo...yeahh, as soothing as it was to submerge back into obscurity and traverse the net in OG stealthmode, I've been feeling the edgeless discomfort of some amorphous internalized pressure trying to burrow it's way out of my head. Whatever it is, it's leading me to believe that, at this point, I can only silently comb our collective consciousness for so long before I am overcome by a misguided obligation to spread the things that give me mental sustenance.
SO so completely knew I shouldn't have broken the seal...now I gotta feed some newfangled tendency towards compulsory display case-ing for faceless eyes...as well as the need to garnish it all with undercooked wordmush, before (knowingly!) casting more defunct synaptic patterning into the abyss. But even if it's just so that my hesitant sputterings can be swept away in a massive tide of time sensitive commentary, I do take comfort in the fact that it motivates me to milk little driblets of life from my fingers. So even if it's all for nothing and I'm just getting my rocks off by unloading all these built up pretensions, I can still just write it off as some sort of biological mechanism to ward off embolisms. or ghosts. or ghostjism. Hmmm, GhostJism(TM)...
Ok, so I think you get it, I'm a weirdo oops sorry. Anyway, it's liquidation time, people. Hopefully you are not ridiculously on top of your shit otherwise this post could be a whole lot of yesterday's news (Actually, you probably only have to be marginally on top of shit at this point). For those of you who still consume culture at a rate that doesn't threaten your cranial integrity, there should be at least something in here that is worth your time.
You wanna know why? I'll tell you why. Cuz it's a best of 06 shakedown, bitch! only 2 1/2 full months late! (in REGULAR people time!!!), in internet time, what is that, an eon? a fucking aeon flux capacitor??? Y'know????? Can you feel it???????? Fshoooooo....the time dilation is palpable in this town...
But really, honestly, I'm fucked...I can't help but try and wrap my head around all this goddamn media...
Sooo, in accordance with the flow of information that I attempt to absorb officially shifting from "Insurmountable" to "Defcon 1 Cultureblast", I present to you my best of 06 mix, as translated through my indiedancebloggeryi-i-ibeonthatcomputershit type likings.
Tracklist: 1.Klaxons-Magick (Simian Mobile Disco Remix) 2.Soulwax-Krack 3.Dj Mehdi-Pony Rocking 4.Mustapha 3000-kongo thong 5.Outhud-Panarava(Rub n Tug Remix) 6.Riot In Belgium-The Acid Never Lies 7.Ying Yang Twins feat Pitbull-Shake 8.New Young Pony Club-Ice Cream 9.My Robot Friend-Rapture 10.Martin Bros-Stoopit 11.Bonde Do Role- Melo Do Tabaco(Jokers of the Scene Remix) 12.Sharon Phillips- Want 2 Need 2 (Trentemoller Remix) 13.DJ Delicious/Fam-Lay & Pharell - "Let It Drop" (Red Foxx Chopped & FX Edit) 14.Spank Rock-Sweet Talk(Kalbata Remix) 15.Yo Majesty-Club Action (Bagraiders Remix) 16.Chromeo-Breathe (Al Dare Remix) 17.The Presets-The Girl and The Sea 18.The Presets-THe Girl and The Sea (Cut Copy Remix) 19.Ready For The World-Oh Sheila (Trackademicks Remix) 20.Peaches-Downtown 21.Sally Shapiro-I'll be by your side 22.Sally Shapiro-I'll be by your side (Rude 66 808 Remix) 23.Whitey-Can't Go Out, Can't Stay In 24.Hot Chip-Boy From School(Hot Chip rework) 25.Bonde Do Role- Melo Do Tabaco(Radioclit Remix) 26.Lil Scrappy-Money in Da Bank (Bird Peterson Remix) 27.Tigarah-Money (Speed Dub Remix) 28.Simian Mobile Disco-Hustler 29.C.l.a.w.s.-Claws theme(Passions Remix) 30.Rick Ross-Hustlin 31.Cansei De Ser Sexy-Superafim 32.The Myrmidons-Clap(See the Stars) 33.Lotterboys-Animalia 34.Vive Le Fete- Liberte (Sweetlight Remix) 35.Dj K-What you know about Deus Ex Machina(TI VS. Paper Cranes) 36.Tom Vek-I ain't saying my goodbyes(Phones Remix) 37.Spank Rock - Bump 38.MSTRKRFT-Paris 39.Rich Boy-Throw Some D's 40.The Klaxons- Gravity's Rainbow (To My Boy Remix) 41.Drop The Lime-Wake Up Call 42.Peter,Bjorn, and John-Young Folks (Beyond the Wizard's Sleeves Remix)
What can I say? I lag. Fulltime.
But really, I'm gonna try and get better with the turnaround time on the megamixes this year(while still making sure I don't feel like I'm wasting your time). Honest. It's my Mid March Resolution...
Anyhow, so yeah, '06 rundown...there's even some late '05 stuff... again, i know...woefully out of touch, right? Guess that's why I felt obligated to toss in a little '07 too, just to soothe some of this burning hot shame. I also feel compelled to cover my ass by saying that I tried constructing this beast in a sort of holistic manner. Meaning, I was leaning more towards presenting a whole array of styles that seem to be converging on a kind of unified mindset, rather than your standard emphasis on flow and continuity (so think sampler platter, not a zoner-outer journey deal)
Hmmm, that still probably made no sense...or maybe just sounded kinda ridiculous. Alright, real quick then...
For the uninitiated: if you see a late teen/20 something walking around and they look like they are from the not too distant future and/or the past via the future and/or they are rocking a bunch of confusing shit that jams up your senses and makes you think "what the fuck is happening here?"...then this is like my abridged version of the soundtrack to that lifestyle, minus a lot of indie rock (cause I can't really mix it) and all things disco related (cause that's a whole other cd I really need to make).
For those of you as culturally obsessed as myself: Yeahhh, kinda old news, but I think I make a pretty good argument here for technorap (or whatever the term will end up as) being something that needs to be honed in this year (tastefully, though, tastefully). What else...oh that Myrmidon's joint was seriously slept on. It shoulda been feelgood haircut jam of the year, specially for the ladies, but seems it slipped through the cracks. So yeah, get up on your grrlbounce. Actually, come to think of it, this whole thing just might have been an elaborate excuse to throw together some of that pink lemonade passion that I've been cultivating as of late. So midway thru, please do not be afraid to get your dreamweave on.
PS I know I am blowing it huge with all the yip yap (y'know, like, spelling things out rather than alluding to them all coy and wink wink-like), so if you are still reading because you are bitter about my lack of restraint, just pretend I said "06:We still 'bout it 'bout it" instead of all this other stuff (but in a cooler font or something).
I should probably add at this point that it's not like I've been terribly busy or nothing either. I've been dicking around at your local fucknuttery's, quietly attending to my fergie->nelly furtado blends and sighing wistfully. So as far as goods go...I've just been hoarding for a minute, that's all. I don't think I can adapt to the post post post post post mentality of the more influential blogs, both due to quality control concerns and massive bouts of laziness. Still, rather than implementing my usual "well why try then" logic, I figure I should just do it to do it while still reserving the right to bow out politely at a moment's notice.
Cool? Cool. Ok, but before I start trying to get into some NEW shit, I figure I'd go ahead and recklessly post some GOOD shit.
As in B-B-Best of 06 videos!(that I haven't posted at some point)
DJ Mehdi feat Chromeo. Slick Lettermans, even slicker handshakes. I got away with playing this song a bunch at my normal folk gigs this year and none seemed to be the wiser. SO subversive. (nerd note: Montreal version though, fuck that atonal chorus version.)
CSS. I have this one secret type of boner that possesses an overwhelming amount of virility, but it's reserved solely for Lovefoxx.
Actually, that's bullshit, any girl in this video would get me all shy and level 5 advanced boner-y too. This Saam guy has been real good with the videos. I guess he realized it and so he did the "I'm a fucking director" video that all aspiring young upstarts secretly want to do. Hell yeah, dude! Thank you. Only complaint is thatI'm not feeling the excessive overdub effects though. Watching these girls get down is totally justified without unnecessary "art stuff", bro bra.
Next 3 videos are all by Chad VanGaalen. He does the songs and then animates the videos...
Definately give him props for the full package approach, it's inspiring...
Still, I got to say the videos are the real meatyness for my tastes. I've got a soft spot for tripped out morphy drawrings.
Softlighties. Not too keen on their particular brand of heart on your sleeveyness (I've been sticking to Voxtrot when I'm jonsing for some aww geee style wonderpop), but goddamn, this video is an amazing little labor of love. Seriously, director Kris Moyes deserves a real big hug for this.
Boards of Canada. Although I was kind of bummed out by the demistified route they went with on the new record, this video still smacks of unspoken awesomeness. Yes, that footage is real. Google Joseph Kittinger if you want to know more about skydiving in outerspace.
Subtle. Tried posting this awhile ago but it got taken down from Youtube. Now it's back. I already said my piece on Subtle some time back (I'll add that i really don't think I devote the time necessary to absorbing their work), but I can not stress how ill the visual collective SSSR is.
This is a trilogy of videos, btw.
Stop motion, cg, hand drawn animation, cut outs, it's all far game with these guys.
This is a separate deal from that little trilogy (it's another subtle song from their last full length) but still really crucial for your eyes. Creepy eastern european type puppets mixed with an old school cartoon vibe.
Klaxons. Damn, the innernet got super Klaxon'd out, huh? Good testament to the power of these little blog dealies. Anyhow, this shit looks cool...and it confirmed my suspicions...glowsticks ARE evil, it just took this long to feel the aftereffects of those terrible little "light shows" your gay raver friends use to give you.
Claude Von Stroke. Fun video from a dude who makes some fun ass music. Seriously, his style is super accessible, even if you don't like dance tunes.
Ugly Casanova. Adorably disgusting and hilariously stylish. Hah! That kid just got blasted! What a fuckin incredible mix of associations...again, a perfect testament to my fascination with Japan.
Vitalic. K, this is probably my favorite video of last year. It encapsulates so much about how I feel about right now, while saying so little. And it's done with puppies, so you are forced to like it no matter what because dogs are the shit from now till infinity. Genius.
Bonus Vid. So Adidas launched an Adicolor campaign last year to do the Nike thing by tastefully blurring marketing with legitimate artistic endeavors, in what appears to be an attempt to circumvent the 20 something demographics apparent disdain towards being marketed to (at least that's what it seems like from my angle).
By itself, this video is definitely intriguing, albeit creepy as hell, for a number of reasons (the song, Made by Greg Weeks, is awesome, huh?). But seriously, what the fuck does a metaphor for the female loss of innocence have to do with shoes?? You mean to tell me that the tie-in is seriously just a certain color of Pink that a shoe could come in? Really? O-Ok...
Now I'm not saying that this isn't interesting or that the director sold out because he obviously got the funding to do something he wanted to do, but the connection between these two worlds, even if it's a slightly noble undertaking by Adidas to foster creativity with corporate money, just seems so odd.
So is it possible to make a huge company's attempts at gaining tastemaker creed a truly charitable endeavor? Is the branding of everything inevitable?
Is this the future?
Oh wait, fuck, i was doing an 06 summary in March.... ------------------------------------------------ Best Albums of 06 (in no particular order and without commentary because it'll be healthier for me to do it this way)
Alex Smoke-Paradolia* Mr. Flash-Monsiuer Sexe* Beach House-Beach House Broadcast-The Future Crayon* Skream-Skream Caural-Mirrors For Eyes* Clark-Body Riddle Clipse-Hell Hath No Fury Truth & Soul-Fallin' off the Reel* Zilla-Grinted and Brawlsville* Felix Laband-Dark Days Exit* Ghostface-Fishscale J Dilla-The Shining/Donuts (Can't decide which was better, both are essential) Junior Boys-So This Is Goodbye Kitsune Maison Comp 2 Burial-Burial Lindstrom-Another Side of Lindstrom Nobody-Tree Colored See* Bibio-Hand Cranked* Belbury Poly- The Owl's Map* Helios-Eingya* Loscil-Plume* More Melting Pot Music Sound* Ratatat-Classics Trae-Real Talk* Tapes N Tapes-The Loon Secret Mommy-Very Rec* Chrome Children-Chrome Children Ellen Allien-Orchestra of Bubbles Trentemoller-The Last Resort Hot Chip-The Warning Claude Von Stroke-Beware the Bird CSS-Cansei De ser Sexy Daedelus-Denies the Day's Demise* Spank Rock-YoYoYoYoYo Dictaphone-Vertigo II* Drumcorps-Grist* I am a robot and proud-the electricity in your house want's to sing* mordant music-dead air* Minotaur Shock-Maritime* Karl Lagerfeld-My Favorite Songs* Voxtrot-Soft and Warm Fujiya and Miyagi-transparent things
The ones with stars next to it are more personal picks that are awesome albums that didn't get hyped to death by the powers that be. Seriously, I'm beginning to think that Pitchfork has the end all/be all opinion regarding popular consensus of alternative music. Not to say that they are completely off base, but I will never get over how they have the fucking gall to dish out numerical ratings to A TENTH OF A WHOLE NUMBER. It's called rounding you self serving fucks...a person's encapsulated being does not translate into a 7.3, no matter how much naval gazing you do. Please stop making people think it's ok to be this uselessly anal, the ripple effect is awful (as in more fucking hipster parrots that ACT like they actually THINK like how these geeksquad reviews SOUND, just because they just bought a striped sweater so they can dance real hard to "We Are Your Friends".
(Ed note:Nice, got a last minute rant in there too...don't worry, they didn't hear you)
Yeah, I know, but talking to yourself on the internet always seems to bring about surprising results, huh? Yeah... Ummm, here are a couple names to watch for this year...Duke Dumont, U-tern, Mathhead, Starkey, Kid Sister, Anders Ilar, Padded Cell, Bauchamp, Zilla.
On Friday, down near Irvine, I will be getting the party started before The Federation comes on stage and show's you what this hyphy shit is all about. I'm fucking puuumped. I know it's deep in the OC, and that's a trek for you LA people, but I'm gonna try really hard to arrange some deal were there's like um, like a flatbed truck with beds or something, so you could dumb out huge until you hit blackout mode, and then you just have to stumble upon one of these magic beds, and when you wake up, you're inside Disneyland! OHHHHHHHH!
yeah, ok, obviously this won't happen because my ideas are retarded, but still, how awesome would that be? Waking up in Tomorrowland all bleary eyed and disheveled, squinting through your stunna shades like...whoa, is this the future?? And when you realize it's not, it's like fuck it, you still get to go on space mountain!
So I've had the intention (for quite some time) to post all 3 R.A.M. discs at once. Why? I dunno. Strange internal logic? Yeah, that's probably the bulk of it...problem is, the middle one is not done yet and I kinda burnt out on it for a minute. I know, waah waah waah, right? But hey, motivation can be a tricky bitch sometimes. Why the hell is the will to do things so goddamn unwieldy and intangible? Isn't it about time we get a pill for this? What's the hold up, Pfizer?
Anyhow, these other two have been done for a minute and are steadily gathering dust on my hard drive. (Digital dust. Yeah.) It also dawned on me that you can't listen to all 3 simultaneously. Or rather you shouldn't. It would be a bit confusing, I'm sure.
So, in light of all these mini-epiphanies, I've decided to dish these things out over some indeterminate amount of time. Seems like a rock solid plan, maybe. Whatever, it's a good time for it at least, in my opinion. This is always such a strange week for me. It's not a fresh start new year yet. It's not christmas anymore, so that familial pandemonium is slowly subsiding. It ends up being this big lazy holiday week, only a week feels like too much time to not busy yourself with something...all you can do is float. It's like no man's land... ::cue a long, windy stare into the horizon at dusk::
So, yeah, here's some computer music. That'll anchor you good. ------------------------------------------------------------------- RAM 1: Sounds From The Robonursery
Shhh. Do you hear it? Come closer...closer...good. Now listen...Do you hear them? They're little baby circuits. Listen to them, cooing and calculating, gurgling and processing.
They've gathered together here because they want to tell you about what they do. You see, every moment of every day they are busy playing with electricity. They stretch it and squish it and fold it and kneed it as it travels through them. It makes them happy. They play with electricity all the time and when they are done playing with it, they make sounds. And they can make so many sounds, from the purest of sine waves to a flurry of blurts and squiggles. Only problem is, they can't hear what they make. They don't have ears, the poor little guys...
But hey. You do. I think that's why they want to share their tiny melodies with you...so you can hear them. Because, you see, these little machines, I think they are just as fascinated with us as we are with them. They find this whole "purpose" concept that we play with intriguing, despite it being a bit silly. It's the only thing in the world that causes them to voluntarily stop doing-doing-doing, if only for the briefest instant. But still, these infinitesimally small moments of introspection, they linger inside the machines. And I'm pretty sure it's because of this that they want you to hear their sounds. That way, you can carry them around in your head. Anytime you feel like humming, you can just hum the sounds they made. I'm pretty sure that that makes them happy too. It's nice, huh? Simple even, like the thoughts of a newborn. They want to affect life because life has effected them.
Or at least that's what they told me...
Tracklist: 1. Milosh-Push 2.Bochum Welt-Feelings on a Screen 3.Wilt-Life In Rain 4.Isan-RoadRunner 5.Tipper-Adrift For Days 6.Helios-Two Mark 7.T.F.O.M.S. Project-C.O.M. 8.Mum-The Ballad of the broken birdie records (Ruxpin Remix) 9.o9-terminal red 10.Arovane-A Secret 11.Euphone-Red, Blue, Yellow 12.Casino Vs. Japan-Come Along Do 13.Project E.L.F.-Newton 14.Xploding Plastix-Huncher 15.Chimerical Child-Serene 16.Aphex Twin-Alberto Balsalm 17.Animals on Wheels- Never In and Never Out 18.Piano Overlord-Spring's Arrival 19.Kelpe-Knock, Turn 20.machinedrum- Yo Half The Izey Rael (Logreybeam's 20yrledaig Mix) 21.Isan-Calf 22.E Vax-Neon and Aluminum 23.E Vax-What We Meant 24.Landau-Oustduo 25.B. Fleischmann-Sleep 26.B. Fleischmann-sidonie 27.To Rococo Rot-Das Blau Und Der Morgan 28.Ezekiel Honig-More Human Than Human 29.Solvent-A Panel Of Experts (Lowfish Remix) 30.Kelpe-Age Sculpture 31.Xploding Plastix-Dizzy Blonde 32.Minotaur Shock-Four Magpies 33.Ratatat-Cherry 34.Manitoba-Dundas,Ontario 35.Boom Bip-The Move 36.Melodium-iopak bis 37.Mum-On the Old Mountain Radio 38.Signaldrift-Strategies For Success Boxes 39.Brothomstates-Mdrmx 40.Trentemoller-Take Me Into Your Skin 41.Copy-Tailored Pants 42.Rod-All My Love --------------------------------------------------------------
Tricky Disco, one of Warp's first acts. This was a big song in the English rave scene back then. For 1990, this video is so next level that it's still next level. I can only imagine what went through some people's drug addled minds, seeing this projected on a wall at some proto-rave. "Wwweee arrrrrrennnn't rrrrreeeeaaaaddddyyy fffooorrr thhhiiissss. Ttthhhheeee iiinnnntttteeeeerrrnnneeeettttt ddooooeessnnn'tttt eeevvvvveeeennnn eeeexxxxiiiisttt yyyyyeettttt. OOOH. YEAH! OOOH. YEAH! MMMMEEEEELLLLLTTTTDDDDOOOOOWWWWWNNNN!!!!!!!!
Oh wait.....blogging.....yeahhh. Ahem, well, uh, obviously I fell off. I might start up again. But I also thought "maybe I'll make it one of my new year's resolutions to blog more". And then I thought about that thought and I was like "jesus christ, what is the world coming too?"
On the contrary, I've been sharpening up my photoshop sabotage game. Whoa now.
But fer reals...Downtown Warehouse Mania. Arts, Musics, Fashions, Acupunctures (<-yeah that's right...next level homeopathic destressification while you wait). I'll be there rocking as many tunes as possible. Sensual sounds, maybe even some dancefloor action if that pans out. Regardless, it's sounding pretty worthy of some sort of "Be there or Be square" type statement.
Also, ladies of the eve, my friend Oliver over at Solid Gold Rags is debutting his fall line of female apparel...basically some damn fine clothing to accentuate your sexy and rock people's worlds on the daily. Be sure to come by and check the catwalk for a sneak peak.
This is the last excessively large installment of The Bun so soak it up. It goes something like this: visual assaults->japanese wackiness->just plain wackiness->mp3s with reviews (they start semi-literate and quicky devolve from there so be sure to read some of the later ones. Plus superstar guest reviewer, Schertz AKA Schertzer McNasty, CEO of Spicy Preteen Records, shows you how to review some shit big league style while not coming off all ambivalent like yours truly). Then I'm topping this off with the keys to the craziest thing ever concievable and my quasi-philosophical, mostly just really stoned response to it. It was supposed to be my opening rant but it turned into a mega-rant so it's on the backside for this one. Trust me, it's for the best. So now...for openers...meh, I've got nothing...sorry...
Banksy is the dude. He's been killing it for almost two decades over in England with his graffiti and guerilla stencil art. It usually entails a subversive blend of cheeky humor infused with some sort of pertinent sociopolitical gutcheck. Nowadays he's getting major shine. His work has become so infamous over there that his exploits even recieve national media coverage and he's become a minor celebrity, a modern day Robin Hood of sorts (even though his real identity remains shrouded in secrecy). Rightfully so, though. He deserves his recognition. He's a man with a cause and a message, not just, saaay, some worthless trainwreck of a whore that gets thrust into your face because she was born with a silver spoon in her mouth. Yeah, you know who I'm talking about...Paris Hilton. The worst thing to happen to popular culture since forever. She perpetuates obscene ignorance and superficial elitism with every breath she takes, and unfortunately, people eat it up. I'd go so far as to say that she's the posterchild of the whole guilty pleasure media insurgence and at the very core of what is making our culture morally and mentally destitute. The fact that she actually gets validation is a sad indicator of our shortcomings as humans. She is fucking awful and I hate everything she stands for, which is kinda odd when I think about it because the whole thing is that she doesn't "stand" for anything.
Yet, while I've sat here and bitched about her existence for the past couple years, Banksy, a man of action, has decided to take his game to the next level.
This is courtesy of TheIndependent Online Edition: Banksy has taken aim at the cult of empty celebrity and its current poster child, Paris Hilton. The secretive artist has smuggled 500 doctored copies of Paris Hilton's debut album into music stores throughout the UK, where they have sold without the shops' knowledge.In place of Ms Hilton's bubble-gum pop songs, the CDs feature Banksy's own rudimentary compositions. On the cover of the doctored CD, Ms Hilton's dress has been digitally repositioned to reveal her bare breasts; on an inside photo, her head has been replaced with that of her dog.
Thank god for this man. I hope this gets people's attention here in the states, too. Here's the pictures of the doctored album cover, a youtube video showing his process along with some of the music he put on the cd (apparently produced by Danger Mouse?), a feature on Banksy from a British culture show, and a set of pictures of his other work.
He is having a secret show for three days here in L.A. starting on the 15th. Details will be on his website. You best believe I'll be there.
(update: so much for being secret...that shit was a zoo! Lot's of cool shit though. I almost bumped into Sasha Baron Cohen...he was rocking a Celebrate America! shirt. Good look. There was also some girl OD'ing in a corner. Not a good look. PS At a crowded ass art show?? Who does that?
Some music videos I've come across as of late that had me raise an eyebrow or three.
The Klaxons are at the head of what is being dubbed as "new rave" by the media. They are definately reminiscent of the bugged out Madchester era. Plus, this video for Gravity's Rainbow harkens even further back to the earliest of MTV video's (video killed the radio star, hey mickey), only whacked out on some high grade wacky. Original. Directed by Saam.
This video for Carpark North has inexplicably wormed it's way into my head for whatever reason. I dunno what to make of it, it fucks with my equilibrium or something. I think because it's cheesy, and then awkward, and then actually kinda cool all rolled into one. It's like a Tool video, only with little kids instead of nightmare people and other disturbing shit, which actually makes it come off even wierder for me. Eh, couldn't tell you...just thought I'd share.
Chris Cunningham's first music video in like 6 years. It's for some obscure british punk band called the Horrors. Why he chose them I dunno, but it's definately one of his videos. Not particularly impressive, but cool none the less. Oh yeah, and "Sheena" is Samantha Morton, PreCog extroadinaire.
Polysic's. Goofy Japanese group. I think that one kid is from the breakdancing video that everybody and their mother has seen. At least if their a nerds like me. Anyway, fun Stuff. Oh, and it transitions nicely into...
--- Even more Japanese antics. Their culture keeps me alive and well.
How does a whole country of people get to be so loopy? Well teaching your kid's to be friends with their shit and piss is a good start. Personally, I'd caution against it because if something happens and there's like, a falling out or something, and you are no longer on speaking terms, then you have to spend the rest of your life dealing with awkward potty time. Also, regarding the live action segment at the end, think about what that red "all done!!!" button must look (and feel) like after about a week....yeah, I bet it's pretty ill.
Please don't kill me...
I think the Japanese are immune to nightmares.
Here's the kicker: TARAKO is the ovaries of a cod fish.
You do have to admit, we have nothing on their TV shows. Fun Fact: The big black guy is a famous kickboxer from the Netherlands.
AOL Search leak. I'll update this later, suffice to say it's insanely hilarious/really scary. Look at Part 1 first, it's the best. People are shitball loco in the head out of there gourd crazy when they think no one's watching. It makes me think every bad thought possible has already been absorbed by the internet. Stop being crazy, people. It just makes things worse.
--- Aight, enough funny business. This is some real deal actual factual. Listen. Music is great right now. It's flourishing. People just get it. It's making the world a better place. Hell yeah.There's all these great new bands coming out of the woodwork and to top it off, 5 of my favorite acts just released, (or are about to release) ba-ba-ba-brilliant new material. Bonobo, Quantic, Squarepusher, J Dilla(RIP), and Junior Boys all have new albums and I am totally digging each one of them.
Bonobo (aka Simon Green), in my opinion, is the quintessential downtempo artist. His compositions are lush, beautiful, relaxing, haunting, engrossing, uplifting, reflective etc. etc. etc. Most of all, he's remarkably consistent. You can tell he doesn't half ass anything. So album 3 rolls out and I look at my crossed fingers like "what the hey now", as if this guy has ever done me wrong. But then I hear tale that almost half the album is featuring a female vocalist known as Bajka. Uh oh. Call me sexist or whatever, but downtempo and female vocals are a very tricky mix. Many a great track has been ruined by cheesy, over the top songstress types (certain songs off Nightmares on Wax's album Mind Elevation come to mind, off the top of my head). It's the whole sultry but excessive house diva thing that usually buries it. When done right, it's a beautiful thing...obviously there's Portishead... and Martina Topley-Bird, Mia Doi Todd, and Alice Russell seem to sound amazing way more often then not, but these are definately the exception. Most of the time, the tasteful balance just isn't there, and when the music is unexceptional as well, you get some of the most painfully generic shit there is. My bones literally ache everytime a coffeshop throws on Chilled Out Ibiza Vol. 14 and some douche thinks to himself, "ooh, is this Zero 7?".
But I digress. On paper, Days to Come may look like the formula for Thievery Corporation-lite (languid beats meet an exotic chauntese who suggests we all get along) but Green, always on point with the quality control, utilizes Bajka's voice with an amazing amount of restraint and class, and she ends up complimenting the album perfectly. Her voice is definately unique. She has this mysterious, almost hypnotic quality that threads its way in and out of the music, providing a seamless counterpoint to Bonobo's otherworldy majesty. The instrumental tracks are incredible, once again displaying Green's innate ability to make epic beauty sound effortless. Recurring and Ketto are on par with the best tracks off Dial M for Monkey, which is definately saying something. The album is delivered with the refined sensibility of a man who has mastered his sound while still managing to infuse it with a marked concern stemming from world politics.
Quantic is the man too. He's kind of got a kindred spirit thing going on with Bonobo (they were labelmates on Tru Thought back in the day) but his stuff seems a little more directly influenced by hip hop, deep funk and South American styles. His new album, Announcement to Answer, is great. The opener, Absence Heard Presence Felt, sounds like old school DJ Krush as realized on a bright, sunny day. Be sure to check for his faster, funkier songs too, his uptempo game is among the best of it's kind.
Tom Jenkinson=Mad Genius. That's the best way I could describe his musical offerings. To me, a very sizable portion of his back catalogue is made up of impenetrable insanity. He has tons of hyper-sequenced and thoroughly punishing tracks that, sadly, do nothing for my meager little head. But it seems at least once each album, he'll tone it down slightly, just enough to let you know that he has completely mastered music as far as mere mortals can conceive it. As a result, he's humored us over the years with masterworks like Iambic 5 Poetry, Squarepusher Theme, Come on My Selector, and Tommib, to name a few.
Yet as shocking as it may be, his new album, Hello Everything, could almost be described as downright accessible. Maybe even upbeat...well, y'know relatively that is...it's still Squarepusher.
The different styles and extremes he's unleashed over the years are all accounted for, from the Drill n Bass Atari Meltdown that was Big Loada, to the claustrophobic free jazz of Music Is Rotted One Note, but they are presented in a surprisingly approachable manner. The example provided, Bubble Life, opens up in a room full of spacious clickery and boiling chemical trickery, sounding like something you might here coming out of Willy Wonka's basement at night. Gene Wilder Version, that new shit doesn't really count. Sorry, but yeah. However, the initial wierd is quickly offset by subtle percussion and some of Squarepusher's inimitable double bass lines (the super complicated yet warm and funky ones). It ends up having this authentic 70's studio session vibe, yet it's thoroughly tripped out and unmistakably modern. The majority of the album follows suit, allowing the Squarepusher sound to be poked and proded without all the abrasiveness of it's past incarnations. Even his obligatory 303 noodlings and amen workouts sound surprisingly inviting and organic, acting mostly as the subtle framework for bells and warbles to dangle from. When viewed as a whole, I feel it's his most enjoyable album to date. Aside from one midalbum dronescape and a couple of tense moments that sound like an alternate score to Clockwork Orange, it deftly toes the line between pleasant and intricate, live and electronic, nostalgic and modern. It's really only in the last 2 or 3 songs that Jenkinson feels the need to re-inform you that he is still way crazier than you'll ever be...or perhaps just light years beyond our comprehension.
I'm a preface this whole section as SYNTHPOP MANIA. With words ( <- those words), that is, because I ain't to handy in the ways of formatting and presentation. Sorry, but I'll probably rock the arts and crafts dropout style to the day I die. Some elbow macaroni, some sparkles, and a lot of glue on a paper plate. Baam. Done.
So, the Junior Boys first album, Last Exit, was the first thing I can remember hearing that made me really dig the 80's pop revival in a truely legitimate kind of way. A few years ago, I don't think I could differentiate between what I considered enjoyable about the retro aesthetic in a kitschy kind of way versus what was actually enjoyable in a genuine way(damn you, post-ironic culture!). Hell, I don't think I ever consciously tried. Pretty much everything that is actually from the 80's is pretty much dope in it's own compartmentalized way. Even the shit that sucks is kind of like, "meh, well that's pretty shitty, but hey, it was the 80's, give it a break". It seems like it was hard to be hyper critical about anything at the time, what with people being all stoked all the time and all, so it's hard for me to judge it objectively using the current standard. Even when I hear a song I've never heard before from the 80's, I feel like I judge it using some special criteria, at least more so than any other generation of music.
Anyhow, so my first real whiff of this concentrated re-inventing of the ME generation was the whole electroclash thing, but what I heard and saw was too smarmy and fashionista'd out for my liking. But, about two years ago, I heard the Junior Boys and got this funny feeling like, wow, there's no tongues, there's no cheeks, they are just picking up where New Order and Depeche Mode left off and they're carrying that torch forward. So I feel this lends itself to a more direct kind of scrutiny from my generation, based on a certain level of awareness regarding the current cultural climate.
I dropped the homey a line to get his opinion on a few of these new school synth jams, and instead of responding with some sort of "yeah they're cool or whatever, listen I actually have a real job sooo..." deal, he hit me off with some bonafide opinionation. Here's what the magnanimous Schertz AKA $chertzer Maximillionz, had to say about FM.
"Shit is on that whispers in the pink mist synth tip. Down with the driving intro-synth, sweet harmonies, and angelic-hums. Plus when that bridge hits at 3:53, it’s like I should be jumping to and from trampoline clouds, with this jamming on my super puff, 80’s headphones... Pure Glitter World jamz"
You heard it hear first...we likes our sparklemotion raw as fuck.
The new album,So This Is Goodbye, is as good if not better than Last Exit. It's got some really undeniable instrumentation, bordering on pure synthetic bliss. Yet, it still hit's me with this John Hughes movie feeling that makes all these guilty pleasure bells go off in my head. It's definately over the top, especially when Jeremy Greenspan's voice goes so far into ooey gooey overdrive that you feel naked, but it's still real solid. Yes, when I hear Greenspan sing a tiny voice inside me want's to go "dude, this shit sounds pretty gay". But something about the music manages to override my machismo. The funny thing is, Greenspan's voice reminds me a lot of the dude from Death Cab for Cutie, and when I hear him, a BIG voice inside me goes "DUDE, THIS SHIT SOUNDS PRETTY GAY". So I think the deciding factor for the double standard is that this type of gushy crooning really just sounds right in a bed of warm, glistening synths.
Oh yeah, and there's this Morgan Geist single with Greenspan that would have fit perfectly on the album. You can tell people have finally got the 80's new wave aesthetic down pat. When you mix in that modern day sheen and, in this case, a subtle strand of that electrohouse sound, you are definately doing the damn thing.
Schertz chimes in: Yeah, definitely heard this before. Greenspan takes his supple crooner vocals to the next level with this one. But Morgan holds it down as usual. A very chill 6+ mins. of synth stylings. And like you said, super clean.
Yep. On point like digital mousse. I'd say for me, the sound is entrenched in my brain from childhood, so the questionable lyrical stuff gets the right of way for whatever reason. I'm sure some socialogy type could go all modern theorist and write a paper on the interplay of sentimentality with the current trajectory of irony and how this all ties in to the cyclical nature of trends, but it sure as hell isn't gonna be me.
Alls I know is if you keep your synths clean and your shit catchy, you can go sap factory on me anyday.
Morgan Geist,Junior Boys, and guys like Cut Copy or Chromeo are all doing big things.
Speaking of Cut Copy, they signed these guys to their Cutters label. Imagine all the stuff we just talked about combined with rock, metal, and Daft Punk,who've obviously been down with that ol real shit since day one, and whose sound is influencing just about everybody right now. I think the Daft Punk show at Coachella was so epic that it shorted some circuitry and rewired the brains of everyone in attendance...The world is definately feeling the ripple effect. Good shit, Australia, keep it up.
(PS Croc Hunter RIP, he was the realest of the real).
Ok, this isn't synthy but I'm on a roll with the softer shit now so we might as well slip this in because it's real good. Department of Eagles' first album from a few years ago, Whitey on the Moon, was all over the place. Like ALL over the place. No two songs really sounded the same, one would be instrumental moody downtempo, one would be all drum machine-y, one sounded like some shit you would sing at Ye Olde Pub. I don't know, the best I explanation I can come up with would be some bizarro Beta Band amalgamation (back when they were tight, that is). Definately hit and miss, but when it hit, it was some original shit. Sailing by Night, the standout for me, starts off with some breezy guitar and chugging muted percussion, but the vocals end up being all wistful, setting the stage for some proper introspective seagazing. Everything seems laid out properly for a good song, but just when you think it's about to end, a kazoo pops up, the drum machine starts getting rickety, these orchestral strings coming rolling through, and things build to a frenzy. Then to top it off, this gnarly ornate Nintendo melody and dogpiles the whole thing. Real dope.
This one is from their new album, untitled and unscheduled as of yet, but I'm stoked. It's dreary too, in an awesome kind of way, sounding a little like a cross between Bob Dylan and Calexico. When the choral backing comes in, all I can think about are those haunting vocals from old Disney movies. Like, say, that one part in Alice in Wonderland where she's lost in the woods, balling her eyes out and singing "soooomedayyyyyy" and then the ghostly choir responds "sooooomedaaaaayyyyy" while the little duck horns and eyeglass birds and other wierd critters are getting all choked up. That shit always got me. So does this.
OK back to synths. Just to flesh things out a little more and let you know where I stand, this is when things start getting convoluted for me. It doesn't evoke the retro override thing and the vocals are shy and subdued so we're getting into rough seas. When Jimmy Tamborello starts singing, at first I got a "hey, speak up there, ya pussy" crotchety grampa kinda feeling, but then the chorus comes in with that high pitched squigglefest, and suddenly I'm like...aw crap, who am I kidding, I like this too. And then I deciphered the lyrics and realized what the song title meant I was like, "goddamnit...that shit was pretty clever...and timely...dude just wants to snuggle or something...fuck, now what?"
Schertz seems less wary of this songs ability to turn people hugga-bear homo at a moment's notice: Texting be on that get down tip now. Werd. For some reason I’m really feeling this song. That first thirty seconds got me. First impressions are a bitch a guess. But in this case it really didn’t turn out to be such a bitch for Figurine and Schertzdog. Don’t really know why. All introverted and shit, the beat even sounds like it’s got some miniature Japanese gnomes twirling happy swizzle sticks around in the air like nobodies business. And the distorted Mario Inc. drum beat is pretty power-up shit. By far my favorite out of all four and I don’t really know why… just cuz. Sucks that text-typing’s giving this guy so many problems. Maybe he should just switch back to a pager?
Shit, shit, shit. This is troublesome. Casiotone for the Painfully Alone. Yes, thats the name of this guy's one man band. Yes, the music is even more emotronic than the name implies. Yes, this guy sounds like the biggest snivelling bitch ever (I didn't wanna play football, Dad! I DIDN'T WANNA!!!!!) And yet, this one song managed to snag me somehow.
Schertztown breaks it down to a fucking tee on this one: Suicidal-dopamine-deprived-post-three-day-coke-binge-trust-fund-closet homo from Chelsea, who's life is spiraling out of control and the ‘rents “just don‘t understand.” I have a feeling if you gave Cas, say, ten years to have a few more of those ‘significant life experiences’ adults are always talking about, this guy would be able to re-write some pretty on point, mature lyrics to match the level the rest of this song is on. That said, the killer wailing guitar ending is top of pops. And the beat on this is striking a chord with me… or shall I say beating my drum. Maybe just cause I keep listening to it over and over. This guys whining chorus just pisses me off for some reason.
Woah, how'd you do an ellipse without using periods? Fancy typin' ass Schertzer. What a guy.
Man, so yeah, the chorus, the chorus. It makes me want to sock the shit out of dude in the face really hard with my fists, and on top of that, his voice also reeks of some hardcore sulking in the corner. I start getting fidgety when you hit me too hard with that boo hoo kind of mope. But some of the other lyrics ain't half bad and I'll be damned if these synths aren't just synthing it up real fucking hard. So yeah. That's why I'm listening to this again. It's just these catchy electronics getting the best of me. Right guys? Haha. R-Right?
So...conflicted...gasp...and vulnerable...must...return back...to the safety...cough...and comfort of my... fortress of irony.
Phew. That was close. Ah, sweet irony. So secure...like emotional immunity. Nothing can affect me here...
Extending the fortress metaphor over to these guys just a little bit so as to create a nice little segue (and to be lame)...yeah, with the two tunes above, these Captain Ahab dudes have constructed some impregnable shit. I'm talking like, Tower of Babel-sized fortress, only the walls are made of titanium and it's surrounded by a moat of purest sarcasm. Which I guess would mean that the walls would be actually be fashioned from locks of tightly wound, jet black hair, culled from a whole months worth of Myspace haircuts...and then the moat would be filled with Pegasus Tears??? Yeah...anyway, these guyses album is titled After The Rain, My Heart Still Dreams. The cover art has fairies and unicorns and shit. Yeah, it's like that. Some Hollywood scenester style shit...y'know, where everyday is opposite day? Birthplace of the ironic moustache?(Hey, look at my gay ass moustache, I look creepy, remember when people used to do this?, how lame were they?, I'm cool because I obviously acknowledge how gay this shit is. That's why I took a lot of time and effort to grow it. Yeah. Why do my parents hate me?).
That's great fellas. Real good. Still, the only way I'll buy your "Life is a joke 100% of the time" shtick is if you yourself actually pull off some airtight, super scathing shit like these two songs. Then you're cleared for whatever. Headbands all day. Short shorts. Listening to the Misshapes awesome dj sets. Knock yourself out. Otherwise, fuck you. You are overdoing it and giving the 9 to 5 smartass's a bad name. Stick to the standard 80% sarcasm/20% "I mean what I say" ratio like the rest of us. It'll give you some breathing room and you won't hate yourself as much in a few years.
Anyhow...Girls Gone Wild, biggest anthem trance hit ever. So brilliant. It's basically the epitome of Eurotrash supercheese, but the kicker is the tune is so well made and really fucking jamtastic that it will fuck your shit up from here to infinity. plus a million. to juan.
I took one listen and all of the sudden I'm thinking being down in Cabo...beefcaked out...tanning saloned up......drinking since 10AM...shirt long gone...neck bursting at the seams...hair gel with a hold factor of 11...500 dollar chick sunglasses...on the stage doing that fist pump shit...my dick all rubbing up against the insides of my boardshorts after I've slathered it in cocoa butter...
yeah, that could actually be the best thing ever.
And then midway through, when they ramp the vocoder up an octave, you could probably drop a nuke on my head and I would be losing my shit so hard that the Fuck Yeah Factor would shield me from the blast. I'd be all alone, surrounded by complete and utter devastation, with only these small little clumps of resilient std-causing bacteria serving as placeholders of where people stood...hostless puddles of virulent disease speckled across the charred blackness...a solemn reminder of the meatmarket that once was...
Then I'd dance till the sun comes up, replaying the song in my head while I chew the inside of my mouth clean off.
And I Can't Wait For Summer perfectly mocks the vocal stylings of all the whiny bitch rock that has dominated MTV since Carson Daly came into power. It pretty explicitly breaks down all that waah waah teen angst shit that they peddle. The funniest part is that MTV has driven youth culture so far into the ground that this song isn't even that big of a stretch anymore. Things are looking pretty horrible over there too. I can't believe how hard they pander to the stupidest of stupid shit now. They are grooming this upcoming generation to be the most obnoxious little shitfucks. Not even just the music, Laguna Beach, Sweet 16, I Wanna Be Cool Like You or whatever that shit's called. FUCK that. Seriously. Get Adam Curry or Riki Rachtman or Martha Quinn or hell, Bill Bellamy back in there and fix this fucking mess.
Friends With You-OTTO vs Juice Ok, ok, got myself worked up there...tirade's over...time to cleanse. Friends With You are a toy company specializing in some sacchrine sweet overdrive bizness, only real bugged out and creative. I found this tune on their myspace and it kind of sums up their whole vibe. If I was trapped inside a Gameboy (original B&W one), living in Hello Kitty world, this would be the town anthem. I'd wake up, smile, walk outside, and then smile and wave at Kerokerokeropi all day while we alternate between two different poses in unison. Y'know to give the illusion of animation...I hope you follow me on that...hmmm, basically, the best post-lobotomy theme song I've ever heard. Also click on their website for a nice 4-bit Britney Spears rendition.
--- So I've been looking at other blogs and I'm realizing I'm going about this all wrong...diatribes and big posts aren't the way to go...apparently blurbs and updates, updates, updates are the name of the game... Oh well, fuck that. I'm definately too lazy to get super gung ho about this on the daily...I just don't have the drive to lay everything out all proper like. ...at least, not like this guy...
This is probably the most utterly fascinating, insanely ridiculous site I've ever seen...like actually, literally, this is it...I don't think it can be topped in terms of scope anytime soon. Hang with me a sec so I can help you get your barrings.
Fuck using myspace to quell your voyeuristic urges...this guy's site is probably bigger than that whole mess anyway...and it's strictly about him. I'm talking every single detail of this kid's existence laid out in convenient FAQ form.
Yeah, whatever right? Well, the more you read, the deeper you go, the more you'll understand. I have literally been reading this for an hour with my jaw on the ground and I've barely scratched the surface. Here's some excerpts:
"In my mind game, I sometimes, but rarely, have cases where I can choose to send the two-tailed fox from some high cliff into regular water, blue water, mud, or lava (sometimes another one is involved). I had to battle the fox to get it to go off the cliff. Sometimes it'd end up in the blue water and 30 seconds after touch it (even if it gets out), it dies."
Wait...mind game??
Yes, mind game...
"a futuristic-like video game I play in my mind often. There are many strange things featured in my mind game that I do almost daily in some way. These are as follows:
1. Supernatural abilities used in real-world type situations, like jumping off of a balloon and bouncing to a stop around supersonic speeds as shown in the animated GIF above. The abilities featured are the 90-foot jumps (officially, it's 91 2/3 after working out the distance-acceleration formula), the flash attack (one of my favorites), and the bounce**C03-001**. 2. Intense speeds which allow me to cruise anywhere in small amounts of time. No machines required. Though, making tough turns on a raceway can be difficult. 3. Fully customizable physics where I can change the force of gravity from 21.9 mph per second to 20 or 80 mph per second. I can constantly speed up forever while falling and when I land from intense speeds, a huge shockwave is emitted, or I may just bounce up at half the speed and weaken the effects of the shockwave. 4. Run without touching the ground and without using machines at speeds exceeding well past the speed of sound (for horizontal movement, I've reached about mach 2.5 or about 1800 mph). 5. Extremely large expanse of menus and controls. Though the menus are almost never used, except to check some stats and to view the big map. "
So, how does one develop a mind game? Apparently from video game addiction, of which he attributes as the source of many of the mental problems he has today...
"During the days of the Nintendo, I was playing my games for ten hours per day on weekends and 4 to 6 hours per day on school days. This caused problems with school. While in school, I was often jumping like crazy (as if jumping on one of those turtles in Mario) almost everywhere I went where walking was involved. Some well-recalled events are these (memory jogged from running events in my mind game):
* There was a "turtle" in the basement area of my elementary school. The turtle went all over the place. I had to be careful to avoid it, unless, of course, I "hopped" on it. Source: Mario. Time period: only in my elementary school (up to grade 6). * At lunch time at my elementary school, the red ketchup bottles and yellow mustard bottles were considered as "lava". Source: Metroid. Time period: 2nd (or 3rd) to 6th grade. * Colored tiles that were odd as well as lines, and even shadows (rare) were "enemies" that I had to bop (jumping on it to get rid of it) to disable it. Source: Mario. Time period: 3rd grade to about 8th grade (still present today, but no where near as bad - only used for entertainment while waiting for something). * Sunlit areas were "lava". Source: Metroid. Time period: 2nd or 3rd grades only (not sure which). * If you touched any water from a pool or outside, you'd die because the water was "blue". Source: many games in which water, being blue in them, took your player's life away. Time frame: 2nd or 3rd grade until July 21, 1997 around 10:00 AM (yes, I'm that certain on the time). * The red stage in the elementary school's basement was considered as lava. Source: Metroid. Time period: 2nd (or 3rd) to 6th grade.
These pertain to just the Nintendo alone."
Here's another snippet regarding his favorite song that should help you round out your understanding of this young man.
"Topping my list, as it has been for 11 years (since mid-1994) is Out Where the Lake Is (988.3 compatibility, twice as good than the next highest). My calculations show that I've listened to this song anywhere from 900,000 to 1,200,000 times (each loop is 63.5 seconds long at the average 76% true speed). Next up is Desert Zone (around 984 compatibility) which has anywhere from 300,000 to 600,000 plays. These are the two most listened to songs. This isn't a joke either. If you check my blog, for example, you can see that, when I get a new song, it'll often be played for several thousand times before I get bored of it and switch. See the "music" section for more details on this. Both of these songs are from "Bubsy in: Claws Encounters of the Furred Kind" (levels 10 and 7 (7 after the train)). In general, however, songs that are purely instrumental are the only types of songs I truly enjoy. The most- liked song that has lyrics is "The Lion Sleeps Tonight" - the oldies version in particular (at 932 compatibility, about 1/30 as good as my top favorite, or 56 times better than neutral, still very considerable)."
One last thing before I set you lose...A quick click over to the Section 4, Major Fears reveals even more "no fucking way" moments as 4.2.1's fear of Two six-letter p-words...
"I no longer write, speak, or read the word aloud. I can, however, only very indirectly mention it (more directly through a bunch of clues).
The two "bad" words are: 1. A single human. Has the same beginning sound of "purse", the thing females carry around often. (used in a common phrase: "meet in ______") 2. Multiple humans as a group. Has the same ending syllable (for the sound) as "apple" and the same beginning sound as "P" as said as a letter. (Fill in the blank: "A stadium holds about 50,000 ______.")"
Wow. Wow. Wow. Brains are a fucking crazy ass thing, sometimes it takes a slightly tweaked one just to reinform you how incredibly complex merely existing is. I'm gonna go out on a limb here and say that (even though he doesn't explicitly say it, I don't think) this kid has the gnarliest case of OCD ever, coupled with Asperger's Syndrome (Yay, BA in psych, you paid off!), but that's only using our current understanding of psychology and it's limited diagnosistic criteria. Regardless, his website is the most in depth self purported case study you'll ever find.
I'm not really trying to come off as exploitative here. I find this to be truly fascinating, especially when viewed in the context of how we, as a society, are basically evolving with machines. This guy is obviously very, very intelligent, but his brain seems to works in such a way that his obsessions confine his thought process to rigid sets of instructions or rules that dictate his mental activity and behavior. And it also seems like the majority of these rules are the same rules that we apply to organize, manage, create content on computers. Being as the brain is so malleable when we are young, it's basically as if his mind has grafted the rules governing video games/computers onto his own mind. In a sense, it seems as though he is part computer because he has been structured like one due to the inflexible nature of his brain and how he consciously and unconsciously has integrated the sensory input from his environment. His ridiculous math abiliies and attention to numerical details only reinforce that impression, in my mind (maybe his mind game is partly the result of his superior ability to multitask with numbers, thus generating the image he sees by actually crunching numbers in a semi-conscious manner?!?)...regardless, it seems as though it would just take a certain type of person to enable something like this at this point in time. Someone with an abnormal biological propensity towards obsessive behavior to be born into an environment rife with technology. Yet, because of the emotional component, probably the biggest and most complicated factors that differentiate how we process information vs a real computer, it's almost like he's a cyborg, albeit a completely organic one...that is, the thought processes he executes are so confined that they are like code running on organic circuitry. And a brain is a computer in the loose sense, a gigantic hub of data processing, the most complicated singular structure in the known universe actually (I think I read somewhere that one brain is still more complicated then all the connections and wiring involved with the entire telecommunication industry on the planet, but don't quote me on that). It's that unfathomable complexity that allows for our tremendous variability in action and feeling. It enables us to effortlessly percieve existence with a relatively free-flowing simplicity, such that we are only beginning to understand the millions of processes and events that are occuring in our bodies at all times. We are only privy to the end result of all these occurences withen our bodies, and that is what we utilize to structure our internal world and how we react to the environment.
Now, I am over extending the "cyborg" thing for argument sake, but it makes you think, huh? Especially given the telescoping nature of technology and evolution as well? With Myspace and YouTube and everything, it's safe to say we've reached a tipping point, at least with youth culture, as to how we percieve integrating technology into our lives. I mean, the internet is no longer just for nerds. It is being widely utilized by a much wider and more socially adept demographic,. Kids being born now will find all these things second nature because they will be exposed to it during that fertile time in their lives when their brains possess a great deal of plasticity, and because of the ease of which they use and understand technology, they will be able to perpetuate more innovation which will allow for more technology. All signs indicate that this feedback loop will just get tighter and tighter when measured against time. Even so, we are probably hundreds of years away from developing real AI with emotional components and everything, but a human adapting the logistical components of a computer through conditioning? Apparently it seems that's not that far off. It certainly seems the more feasible outcome, given that the innate ability of the brain far surpasses our current computer technology. Studies have shown nature and nurture to be basically inseperable in real world situations regarding mental health. Logic kind of dictates that to be impossible, given the amount that biology influences the environment that in turn influences our biology. But as a society, we are most definately contributing a lot more weight to the nurture side of things by coating our worlds with gadgets, enabling behavior like that of our friend at Ulillillia. We are already in the initial stages of seeing microchips and electronic devices incorporated into our bodies. We've already got massive online games like World Of Warcraft where a number of people spend the majority of their waking life. All of this in the past 20 years or so. It's not slowing down either. If nothing else, you gotta see this kid's website as truly being a testament to the power of the internet, and society's amazingly complicated and eerily inextricable relationship with machines.
When I get old, shit is gonna be absolutely nuts.
Random Access Melodies, a three disc musical exploration of electronic music, will be the next post. It will incorporate this theme.
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