The brainchild of two Lafayette, IN residents looking for morsels upon which you culture vultures may gorge on. Be it music, art, literature or anything else we have a hankering for.
Monday, December 11, 2006
Cibelle, Ma Belle
This beautiful chanteur released her album earlier this year and I'm smitten. She blends dreamy pop with bossa nova rhythms and subtle electronica. Seu Gorge, of "Life Aquatic" adds his croon to "Arrête là, Menina", she also performs a duet with the beautiful and androgynous Devendra Barnhart on "London, London".
Despite the manner in which aural sex was depicted on last night's Family Guy, there's a less painful way to get the same sort of fulfillment...
Buy the The Knife's new dvd, it drops November 21st. It has live footage from their sold-out tour series as well as a brickload of their videos. If you're familiar with The Knife, you'll know they are a very visual band, from the various masks/outfits that hide their identities, to their highly conceptual videos. If you're not, pick up 'Deep Cuts', their breakthrough album from 2004, then after they destroy yall our prejudices against techno, go pick up 'Silent Shout'.
Their live show was designed by the same director who did the video for 'Heartbeats', Andreas Nilssen. So expect vivid color, crazy sequences etc. So go out, steal it, buy it, do whatever you want, just get your hands on it!
Here's a (roughly chronological) selevtion of hot Knife videos, starting with their most recent video for the delicious 'Like a Pen' (My favorite video off 'Silent Shout' so far, it's got one hell of a chorus and trippy animation!)
p.s. I hate youtube video quality, if you ever upload videos to the web, please use vimeo. It's much higher quality, the flash player's much more attractive and the dude who started it is an Indiana native!
'Like a Pen'
'We Share Our Mother's Health'
'Pass this On' If only there was a grammy for best use of a Drag Queen in a video...
I saw Fog in Bloomington about 3 weeks ago and I haven't been able to get their infectious tunes and sick beats out of my head.
The first track, "Us Beneath" is sweet, simple and clean. It doesn't reflect any of the lead singer's electronic flashes or his background as a dj.
"Inflatable Ape Pt. 1", has more of a frantic beat-driven feel, powered by drum machines and angular riffs. I love the way it falls about at the end into a disturbing crescendo. The track right after it is a 4 minute noise track that continues where Inflatable Ape left off.
"10th Avenue Freakout", is cryptic and dream-like and has an interesting bridge.
I read about a series of collaborative concerts that happened Winter 2003 between the London Sinfonietta, one of the forefront performers of contemporary classical music, and Warp Records, the Sheffield techno label home to Squarepusher, Aphex Twin, Boards of Canada and other experimental electronica artists.
I don't know much about classical music but I know this collection of Aphex Twin/Squarepusher arrangements and John Cage/Steve Reich pieces would make Mozart soil his fine silk breeches. This is a far cry from the more conservative, yet brilliant efforts of composers like Mozart, Bethoven etc. Still, it's amazing how Squarepusher et al mix in so well with "avant-garde 20th Century pioneers". (Then again I'm just a dilettant when it comes to classical music)
Admittedly, I'm still getting into it because I'm not familiar with this sort of music but here are some tracks that stuck out to me.
(John Cage was the innovator of the Prepared Piano (to your right) and used nails, rubber etc. to modify the sound)
Steve Reich - Violin Phase (Reich invented the technique of phasing, where a repeated phase is played slightly out of synch with itself, creating complex patterns) I remember this piece from music class in high school.
Why should you go out and buy this exquisite double cd book set? Because life, my dears, is too short not to be avant-garde!
Given Borat's much acclaimed number one weekend opening, I think it's only fair to do some research into Mr Cohen (the Jew)'s adopted home country. Who is this Kazakhstan?
She's a gem of the East, "A bewitching, dream-like landscape for those with a taste for the esoteric." according to LonelyPlanet.com. One could describe Kazakhstan as the meat in a triple decker sandwich of Russia, Uzbekistan and China. It is the ninth-largest country in the world by area which is about the same size as Western Europe (or four times the area of Texas). Its official languages are Russian and Kazakh.
Major cities include Astana (capital since December 1997), Almaty (the former capital and uber-cosmopolitan playground), Karaganda, Shymkent (Chimkent), Semey (Semipalatinsk) and Turkestan.
The country has a rich cultural history, and a diverse economical and physical landscape.
To learn more either:
Go there on a Sayat Tour, they just created two tours, "Kazakhstan vs. Boratistan" and "Jagshemash!!! See the Real Kazakhstan" to counter/capitalize on Borat's antics.
Read the Wikipedia article I plagiarised in this post!
Find someone on facebook who's from Kazakhstan and ask them about the movie
Rent or buy "Nomad", an ambitious take on a Kazakh epic. (See Trailer)
LCD soundsystem released a mix with iTunes and Nike. It's pretty tight and I've read about the release in everything from Rolling Stone to the NY times. ie. Someone's PR agent's working extra hard with placement in the media...and I want them to hire me.
(Why? Because if you're "hip", you've probably seen their work. They are another of those "taste-maker" centred marketing companies that aggresively pursue pretentious bloggers (ahem), American Apparel-sporting, Indie-loving, VICE magazine-reading hipsters etc.)
Anyway, you can get it from iTunes and listen to it at the Hype Machine.
The track's called "45:33", just like that John Cage piece, except there's music...
I came across this at a random time of the night and it really stuck out to me. Perhaps it was the music, the cuts, (the fact that Murakami made a "cameo"). It's by a chap called Remy from france and you can see more of his short films here (cliquez-moi). Enjoy.
I was born in Nigeria and lived there until I was eight. I've also lived in Zimbabwe and England, where I went to school. I am currently studying Public relations and Rhetorical Advocacy at Purdue University.
