Basin Street Blues (2003, 11.3 MB)
Couple of collaborations between artist & film-maker
Monkmus and turntablist Kid Koala found on the
generously-stocked-with-goodies video page of the
Ninja Tune site, these tracks are pure aural & visual delight.
Xologola (2007, 49.3MB, 1:18 min)
DeK, from no fat clips!!!, recommends this piece by Michael Robinson
with sound by Bish.
It’s undeniably skilfully made & pretty though I can’t help wishing
more happened.
There’s a moment, about 1:06, where we seem to be gearing up
for some visible variation in tempo & geometry but the moment
passes & the piece ends.
Nonetheless one can’t help but admire the process:
… made up of scans and pictures of branches,
broken and scratched glass, and digitally painted textures…
Radiohead – Just (1995, 11MB, 4:05)
Arguably one of the , and
certainly one of the formative videos of my youth.
It never gets old or feels cliched, no matter what is
made today of new weight and relevance.
Video directed James Thraves.
Konono No 1 Promotional Video (2005, 14MB, 4:20 min)
I was a bit wary of the rather glib “Congotronics” marketing
surrounding the absolutely fantastic music coming from Konono No 1
and other bands (including the Kasai All Stars) from Kinshasa,
Democratic Republic of the Congo*** – there’s so often a touch
(or more) of paternalism in these things as western rock luminaries
find some beautiful flower of music and well intentionedly but stupidly
trample and traduce it as they make it “palatable” for western consumers.
However I was completely won over by this article, which makes clear
producer Vincent Kenis’s deep knowledge of and devotion to the music
and its performers.
Furthermore it’s the kind of scholarly yet readable account of something
that one so often yearns to find on the net & so rarely does.
Watch the vid then read the article.
I bet you end up buying some of the music.
*** the much trumpeted comparison with avant-rock &c is marketing horseshit of the highest order of course – why the hell should two things that have developed in virtually completely separate social, political, economic & cultural circumstances be comparable in any meaningful sense simply because they share common surface features? Worse still, the comparison could be taken to imply that this music was somehow evolving towards the condition of western avant-rock..euurgh!
Autumn Wilde – Rilo Kiley, Silver Lining (2007, 19.8MB, 3:45)
A very lovely Rilo Kiley video from Autumn Wilde.
Pop Mantra Video Documentation #4 (2008, 51.7MB, 5:17 min)
Pop Mantra Video Documentation #7 (2008, 50.5MB, 5:41 min)
I like & admire Curt Cloninger for his steadfastness of belief in both his religion
& his artistic work.
He’s also one of the best writers about new media around at the moment.
In both theory & practice he’s curious, inventive, knowledgable, quirky and passionate.
Unlike many in this sphere he’s also not afraid to think aloud in public, to take risks.
Even, (quelle horreur!), to risk appearing uncool.
Recently he’s been making work away from the web, some of it performative
& very interestingly so.
Here (& I stress what you see here is the documentation, not the piece
itself -a fine, but important, distinction) he repeatedly sings & plays a
single phrase from a popular song, in this instance Radiohead’s Karma Police, for several hours.
For me there are number of interesting resonances – minimalism, shamanism,
the kinds of ‘test’ that occur in many religious belief systems, a losing, dissolving
of the self (In additon to the eponymous “mantra” ,there’s an echo too, I think, of Sufism);
but also there is the straightforward investigation*** of the mechanics of playing,
of performing (& there’s a fractal quality to the rather symmetric & crystalline
structure of popular song that makes this kind of extracting both possible & immediately
approachable -it’s a world familiar enough to welcome us in.)
The two extracts are from different ends of this marathon
( & selecting & typing that word just conjured another association –
the of the twenties & thirties).
I find this work fascinating.
Fascinating & affecting too.
*** It’s almost always a laughable misuse of the word to say ‘investigation’
in an art-speak context. Here it seems correct & natural.
Touch My Body (Oliver Laric version) (2008, 40.9MB, 4:18 min)
No Mariah (Caspar Stracke version) (2008, 52MB, 4:03 min)
OK, pay attention! This is complicated.
Ms Carey (or her corporate minders) release a video, which if she did have
a significant part to play in it shows such a staggering lack of self esteem
that a kind of dark despair begins to envelop me.
Artist Oliver Laric remixes it, removing all the backgrounds and replacing it with
green, for ease of a certain species of remixing.
There follows what is actually an interesting and nuanced exchange of views.
Then Caspar Stracke posts the second of our videos & MTAA make a
very funny joke.
White Winter Hymnal – Fleet Foxes (2008, 5.7MB, 2:28)
Beautifully poignant music video from Fleet Foxes,
directed by super talented Sean Pecknold.
Rent a wreck (2005, 21 MB, 3:13 min.)
Suburban Kids with Biblical Names is a swedish band formed
in December 2003 by Johan Hedberg and Peter Gunnarsson.
They make and record their music in the hallway or the storehouse
at the home of Peter’s parents. Johan makes simple drafts of the songs
and then Peter polish them and turn them into shiny pop songs.
3 of 7(2002, 74.7MB, 4:00 min)
Two (from a series of seven) heartbreakingly beautiful, lump-in-the-throat-evocative
lyric poems about being young, disguised as music video/documentaries.
Dan Canyon is a natural filmmaker. He so is.
What more to say, except nice to see Blackheef pronounced correctly?
