Magical Metal Playground

Yura Yura Teikoku - Dekinai

2010-12-28T09:35:00.001-08:00

"Dekinai"

"Dekinai (Extended Remix)"

LFO - "Nevertheless"

2010-12-02T09:30:00.000-08:00

I'd long forgotten about this Warp band until watching Gaspar Noe's latest Enter the Void last night. This one's from Sheath.

Jib Kidder “Lossy Angeles”

2010-12-01T07:02:00.000-08:00

Jib Kidder - Lossy Angeles [full] from Jib Kidder on Vimeo.

The Magnetic Fields - "The Saddest Story Ever Told"

2010-11-23T09:06:00.001-08:00

OLDschool Magnetic Fields.

Loose Joints - "Tell You (Today)"

2010-11-19T09:36:00.000-08:00

One of my favorites from Arthur Russell's seemingly endless disco production pseudonyms.

Roberto Cacciapaglia/Ann Steel - "My Time"

2010-11-19T09:30:00.001-08:00

"My VCR collection VHS recorder"

2010-10-19T18:58:00.000-07:00

Wendy Carlos - A Clockwork Orange

2010-09-28T17:09:00.001-07:00

One of my favorite soundtracks. This music gets me pumped, but I can't listen to it while running, writing, reading, or anything else really. It's just a bit too captivating. Wendy Carlos' Moog-reinterpretations of classics. There's something still futuristic about this, even though it's already more than 40 years old.

William Tell Overture (Abridged)

March from A Clockwork Orange

Jun Togawa - Formless Station Ends

2010-09-10T08:13:00.000-07:00

Here's a song from one of my favorite singers, Jun Togawa. There's certainly a broken quality to her pop ascetics, which follows through a lot of her work, but really hits the mark here. Even though the lyrics are a bit of a mystery to me, her childish vocals and the time-warped carnival atmosphere always leave me feeling a little stunned at how effectively she can express a mood that might stick with you throughout the day.

P.S. please ignore video!

Dig this CAN

2010-09-05T17:05:00.000-07:00

Haven

2010-09-05T16:57:00.001-07:00

Haven

Michael Andrews - Boy Moves the Sun

2010-09-03T20:24:00.000-07:00

Here's a song from a mix posted on one of my favorite music blogs,

bruitage et mon cri dans l"escalier

the title of the mix is ΣLCTRNC MX 2, and this particular song I fell in love with right away.

Come on, dig that title. Boy moves the sun.

here's the link to the mix.....
http://die-fremde.blogspot.com/2009/05/lctrnc-mx-2_16.html

Hitoshi Matsumato - 'Visual Album'

2010-09-01T21:46:00.000-07:00

動画検索エンジンFooooo[フー]で無料の動画を探す

Grasslung - Sincere Void

2010-08-31T08:57:00.001-07:00

Mmmmmmmm...

Scarred Hands They Drifted

My Little Airport - 悲傷的採購

2010-08-29T15:55:00.000-07:00

Don't know too much about this band except they're based out of Hong Kong and, as another blog has already laid claim, they sound a bit like early magnetic fields. Any thoughts on this, Mr. Bobby?

Digging the synth solo at 1:45, - swear I've heard this sampled somewhere before....

Michael Anthony Drunk Bass Solo

2010-08-27T09:25:00.000-07:00

There is just too much to love about this video. Every second is priceless. Not sure if he's actually drunk here since I've heard that the Jack Daniels could have been iced tea, but who cares?

Factrix

2010-08-24T06:39:00.000-07:00

I don't know much about this band other than the fact that they're one of the many post-punk/industrial bands out of San Francisco. I listened to quite a bit of Tuxedomoon yesterday and figured I should find something else in the same vane. Factrix taps into the uneasy curiosity of Tuxedomoon for me, and makes me bob my head and keeps me checking behind me in a constant state of paranoia.

Ballad of the Grim Rider

Phantom Pain

Comfort Fit - Bit by Bit (Polyshufflez LP)

2010-08-18T23:22:00.000-07:00

NZ Book Council - Going West

2010-08-18T23:17:00.000-07:00

Polmo Polpo - Like Hearts Swelling

2010-08-17T07:21:00.000-07:00

Back when everything coming out of Montreal and on Constellation was the most interesting, epic, and listenable sound I wanted to hear... I dug this one up this morning and probably hadn't listened to it in five years. The song starts off as a massively growing rhythmic drone, and ends as a semi-dance rock song.

electric stimulus to face -test4 ( Daito Manabe 's friends )

2010-08-13T09:59:00.000-07:00

Mathematiques Modernes - Disco Rough (12'' Version)

2010-08-12T07:29:00.000-07:00

Get up and dance.

Ike Yard - "Cherish"

2010-08-11T13:31:00.000-07:00

I stumbled across Ike Yard when I noticed a compilation Acute put out when I worked at the radio station. It instantly grabbed me. Josh definitely turned me onto a million post punk bands I still listen to today, so I figured I'd post a track I enjoy from a band we'd never talked about.

(from discogs.com)
Ike Yard was founded in 1979 in New York. Members are Stuart Argabright, Kenny Compton (bass/vocals), Fred Szymanski (synthesizers/ programming) & Michael Diekmann (guitar). Together they recorded for labels like Disques du Crépuscule and Factory. Ike Yard dissolved at the beginning of 1983. Their only album, 'A Fact A Second' (on Factory in 1982) is still a classic in the minimal genre and stood the test of time very easily.

Lasos (?)

2010-08-08T12:08:00.000-07:00

Rene Hell - Rogue Camera

2010-08-06T10:05:00.000-07:00

Another track from Rene Hell. This track is from Rogue Camera, the bonus cd to Porcelain Opera. Propulsive ambient music.

Alec Eiffel

2010-08-05T09:58:00.000-07:00

Fiona and Neve's newest love is the Pixies. I used to get weird high-schooly feelings when I would listen to them in adulthood, but now... as I watch them hang onto Kim Deal's every word and pretend to be her while screaming "GIGANTIC, GIGANTIC!", I'm brought back to that fledgling appreciation I had decades ago.

This is their favorite song. And it's this song that inspired Fiona to ask for a guitar and lessons for her birthday. Ahem, Uncle Josh???

Slowdive - "Country Rain"

2010-08-04T14:08:00.000-07:00

Slowdive's brand of a certain "country space rock" perfectly channeling the Apollo: Atmospheres and Soundtracks.

WTF? Brian Eno Signs to Warp

2010-08-02T11:01:00.001-07:00

Not sure what's up with this yet. Just got this email since I subscribe to Warp's newsletter.

Deutsche Wertarbeit - Deutsche Wertarbeit (1981)

2010-08-02T07:59:00.001-07:00

(from Crack In The The Cosmic Egg)

The name Deutsche Wertarbeit was the working pseudonym for a one-off project by Dorothea Raukes, the lady synth/keyboardist from Streetmark. The LP she made was mostly of a melodic and sequential type of synth music (performed entirely on Korg equipment) with the accent on rhythm and catchy tunes on most tracks, typical of the early-80's.

Taps right into the playful synth experimentation that makes krautrock so inspiring to me. The most mindblowing part is that I've NEVER heard this woman's name referenced with the genre. The song "Auf Engelsflugeln" resonates with me particularly since it seemingly serves as the model for a ton of current synth-dance stuff I'm listening to today.

Guten Abend Leute

Auf Engelsflugeln

The 6ths - Wasps' Nests

2010-07-29T11:04:00.000-07:00

Stephin Merritt is by far my favorite living pop song writer. I can almost honestly say that not a day goes by that one of his songs (-hundreds of songs released under almost as many band names) doesn't get stuck in my head. Heartbreaking melodies with words that make fun of heartbreaking melodies. His lyrics are hilarious, depressing, haunting, and joyful all at the same time.

The 6ths' first album was created by Merritt as a tribute to himself. Apparently he felt the need to create one since no one else had by 1996. As with many of his recordings up to this point, Merritt wrote and plays each instrument on these songs. Each track (other than one) has a guest artist to fill in the vocal duties: everyone from Mark Robinson (Unrest, Flin Flon), Chris Knox (Tall Dwarfs), Mac McCaughan (Merge Recs, Portastatic, Superchunk), Anna Domino, Ayako Akashiba, Mitch Easter, and Lou Barlow.

Here's a couple songs from the debut album, "Wasps' Nests," which furthers the tongue-twister of the project name. Georgia Hubley (a love of my life second only to Ro Nay Nay) from Yo La Tengo guests on the first one, followed by Dean Wareham from Galaxie 500 and Dean & Britta. Perfect summer pop. I absolutely adore the production of both of these songs, but the Arthur Russell-esque drum sound on Georgia's song.

Movies in My Head (feat. Georgia Hubley)

Falling Out of Love (With You) (feat. Dean Wareham)

Rene Hell - Porcelain Opera

2010-07-28T12:31:00.000-07:00

Rene Hell's Porcelain Opera has been in my head(phones) constantly for the past couple weeks. It's dark but enjoyable, inspiring and invigorating. Works well in many settings and moods.

ROEDELIUS - CAFE CENTRAL - JARDIN AU FOU

2010-07-23T10:43:00.000-07:00

I walked into Other music yesterday and they had Roedelius's album Lustwandel playing (Bobby have you heard this yet? Bobby, you should hear it....) and that sound, this sound from Jardin Au Fou, immediately brings back the blissed out feeling of youth. Maybe you'll understand when you hear, but the associations I have with Cluster will never grow far from those late nights spent aimlessly driving to nowhere in particular, just enjoying the ride, enjoying my time.

Boyd Rice/NON - "Terra Incognita: Ambient Works 1975 - Present"

2010-07-20T14:13:00.000-07:00

I feel like I've posted this track already, but hey...

Chet Atkins - Mr. Sandman (TV 1954)

2010-07-18T14:58:00.000-07:00

Øystein Sunde - Nattoget

2010-07-17T10:28:00.000-07:00

My life just got a little brighter

Masayoshi Fujita & Jan Jelinek - Bird, Lake, Objects

2010-07-16T07:31:00.000-07:00

Absolute beauty. This one takes its time to develop and the outcome couldn't be nicer. The higher the volume, the better.

R.I.P. Harvey Pekar

2010-07-13T05:16:00.000-07:00

"Alex Meets Autotune"

2010-07-08T07:46:00.000-07:00

Stereolab - "(Varoom!)"

2010-07-07T10:21:00.000-07:00

One of the earlier Stereolab releases that I'd never heard before. I absolutely love this one. A perfect throwback to the hey day of Too Pure. This makes me want to hear nothing other than old Electrelane's drone pop and Th' Faith Healers/Quickspace's noise pop.

Just make sure you wait for the Suicide/Cluster-homage at roughly 3.5-minutes.

Tommy Lee Jones - Japanese Alien

2010-07-06T14:54:00.000-07:00

Watching Tommy Lee Jones scowl and grimace in his films is one thing. Watching him use the same effect as he plays an alien visitor attempting to decipher Japanese culture.....

My Bloody Moratorium

2010-06-30T17:24:00.000-07:00

Firstly, I'm sorry for the blog delay. I am the father, who has abandoned his child. Now, can we play catch again?

thank you, so very much, all ye faithful children - Bobby and Dera, you have my love.

As Bobby has been posting the most fresh and recent music, I shall now go for, a finely aged youtube song - mind the mold.

This song isn't on Loveless, so maybe you haven't heard it yet... Apparently this song is about oral sex, but the kids running around my store don't seem to notice.

I have no idea who's reading this, and it's kind of like typing into a void

Arp - "White Light"

2010-06-28T06:31:00.001-07:00

Here's a fantastic little jam for you. Warm Velvet Underground guitar loop coupled with Faust-ian dicking around. There's something absolutely perfect and endlessly listenable to this gem. Solo project from a member of Tussle. The album "The Soft Wave" (pictured above) comes out 9/7 on Smalltown Supersound.

The Books - "A Cold Freezin' Night"

2010-06-24T06:39:00.001-07:00

Musique concrète at its absolute-poppiest. The new Books album , The Way Out, is due out July 10th and will be the band's first album on Temporary Residence. Let's hope it's a return to form for the band.

"Why do you always get away with these things? I'm gonna kill you; so you'll stay alive as long as I want you to, so I can kill you.... Probably by cutting your toes off, and working my way up to your brain."

Ulf Lohmann - "Because Before"

2010-06-23T06:35:00.000-07:00

There will always be a special place in my heart for Kompakt's trademarked Pop Ambient compilations. Known more for European minimal techno/house music, the Pop Ambient series allows a handful of the less prolific artists on the Kompakt roster a chance to showcase their brand of "poppy" ambient music.

I just stumbled across this full length by one of the usual names tapped for the series. Never heard an album by Ulf before, but I'm really enjoying this one... The cover art equally blows and rules at the same time...

Warm Ghost Tracks

2010-06-22T06:38:00.000-07:00

I'm not sure why I didn't post links to the new Geographic North material on here sooner. We just released the debut EP by Paul Duncan's new electronic/atmospheric pop project, also known as Warm Ghost. The Claws Overhead EP is almost a completely new direction for Paul, as his previous releases were rooted more in the folk world. The new sound is somewhere between Solid Space, OMD, AFX, and Fennesz. I know those "sounds like" descriptions are either entirely misleading or downright false, but I figured I'd give it a shot.

Paul's new songs are the result of recent collaborations with drone/"sound" artists such as Oren Ambarchi and David Daniell. The Claws Overhead EP is limited to 500-copies on white vinyl, with artwork designed by Geographic North, and includes a download code for the album's songs and exclusive remixes by Ekkehard Ehlers, David Daniell, Ateleia and Oren Ambarchi.

Song from the EP - "Open the Wormhole in Your Heart"
Open the Wormhole in Your Heart by GeoNorth

Warm Ghost remix of Bear in Heaven's "Ultimate Satisfaction"
Bear in Heaven - Ultimate Satisfaction (Warm Ghost mix) by GeoNorth

Emeralds - "Now You See Me"

2010-06-21T06:49:00.000-07:00

It's taken me several weeks of passing the new Emeralds off to finally give it a serious listen. "Drone" albums that come out of nowhere and somehow top EVERY single current list of online music magazines, record store lists, etc... just don't rub me the right way. It's nothing like "It's popular, so I won't like it" or anything like that.

Anyway, I gave the new one, "Does it Look Like I'm Here?" a listen and absolutely love it. There's some serious channeling of the analog Cluster/Eno collaboration-vibes going on here.

Felt - Primitive Painters

2010-06-21T06:21:00.000-07:00

Summertime bliss in this one. Robin Guthrie, of Cocteau Twins, producing. Elizabeth Fraser, of Cocteau Twins, on back-up vocals.

(disregard boring video; the audio is key)

Hello?

2010-05-22T16:19:00.000-07:00

Did I miss MMP's funeral? Please someone post something quick so that it doesn't look as if I'm the one who finished it off?

Guilty (of LOVING this song)

2010-03-23T17:01:00.000-07:00

Werking Out*

2010-02-21T19:08:00.000-08:00

Terry- husband, music benefactor, driver, and incurable straggler.
Dera- wife, music heiress, passenger, and (all too often) stranded.

Yesterday, Terry offered to go to the Farmer's Mkt. with our children, while I spend some always-welcomed alone time at the YMCA. Being the one-car-family that we are, I was dropped off out front, while he unknowingly drove away with my phone and wallet.

(insert sweatbands, purple leotards, Jane Fonda, high-top Reeboks, and the Rocky theme song here for an entire hour.)

Once clean, dressed in clothing that isn't made of cotton spandex, and ready to go home and eat a bowl of mashed potatoes, I realize that I have no means of communication on me. I'm stranded at the Y... of all places. It's a mild nightmare.

But how long could a person grocery shop, right? I took the rare opportunity to go outside, enjoy the unseasonably beautiful 70º weather we were having, and listen to Terry's ipod in the meantime.

I pulled up a lounge chair alongside the closed pool. I was alone, and I had nothing to do. No children, no games on any iphone, no magazines, not even a writing utensil. I was stranded on an island with only a pair of headphones. (A huge first-world problem.)

So, I began to scroll through the names of artists on his ipod, looking for anything recognizably good. Some, like, Kool and the Gang or somethin.

But, in the spirit of pushing myself to do something that is slightly outside of my comfort zone (like exercising), I made myself skip over New Order, Kool and the Gang, and Stereolab.

I went to work- Kraftwerk, that is.

The warmth of the sun (after a long cold spell in the south, I might add), the satisfying ache of a post-calisthenics, and the absence of small people begging for flavored milk, I fell into a trance of sorts... a meditative state that was better than anything I thought could come of my first true Krautrock experience. I haven't listened to this band since college. And for good reason. There are few times in my day that I'm eager for a noisy accompaniment to the glamorous job of making up beds and scrubbing toilets.

But placed under these already wonderful conditions and forced to listen over an hour of whatever, I closed my eyes and let my mind go everywhere (other than making up beds and scrubbing toilets). It was like I took a hit of acid. Better than any massage, yoga class, facial, or bowl of mashed potatoes I've ever had.

The first song, Ruckzuck, was so familiar. But truthfully I'm more aware of their (very different) later werks, like Autobahn and Radio-Activity. It finally came to me, with a little help from Google. It was the theme song from the old PBS show, Newton's Apple, that my parents used to watch waaaay back when cable television was reserved for fancy folk.

(disregard the long intro)

Even more interestingly, Ruckzuck translates to "very quickly" with a slight connotation of "push-pull", or so says Wiki. All I kept thinking as I listened was how beautifully orchestrated the ebb and flow of these 2 albums were, and how amazed I was that they could keep my interest for over an hour of uninterrupted listening.

Magically, Terry picked me up at the end of Kraftwerk 2. If you are familiar with these albums and their lengthiness, please take a moment to add up how long I waited for him.

But it was a nice hour and a half.

The moral of the story: pleasure comes in unusual forms, usually discovered with a little self-coercion. Also, forgo Kool and the Gang for a little Krautrock. Also also, use the term Krautrock more than once in a paragraph and you are a bonafide pain in the asshole.

*I've already told my brother this story, only to have him say, "Wow. That's really cool. I'm in need of getting excited over something that's not very exciting. Kinda like this." Yup.

Nostalgia

2010-02-20T14:28:00.001-08:00

Growing used to be the only thing I cared about. This is a very important video document of that very important time in my life:

Growing live in Saint Louis. Spooky Action from joseph raglani on Vimeo.

-p.s.- their new album is coming out on Vice Records (wtf?) next month. From what I've sampled, it'll be better than I was afraid it was going to be.

Takashi Ito

2010-02-19T21:15:00.001-08:00

Moondog - German Years 1977-1999

2010-01-29T14:57:00.000-08:00

I've never really given Moondog a chance. Vaguely eccentric recording pseudonym. Legendary life of esoteric mystery. Possibly homeless?

I know Josh has been a fan of this guy for a while (even adding a post to this blog back in the day), so I downloaded this one for its comical (to me) cover. It's been on endless repeat in my headphones lately. The opening track, "Bird's Lament," just served as an epic soundtrack to forming hamburger patties and mandolin-ing potatoes into french fries.

John Cale - Seducing Down the Door

2010-01-28T07:22:00.000-08:00

Now, aside from some of Lou Reed's more notorious solo material, it's taken me a good long time to branch out from the Velvet Underground's discography. But, finally, i've come across a collection of John Cale's solo output which is fantastic in it's variety of style and more than enough to whet the pallet of even the swiftest Ipod song cyclers.
I've had this song on repeat....

Here's the link to the collection:

http://www.amazon.com/Seducing-Down-Door-Collection-1970-1990/dp/B0000033AE

OOP? Might just post the whole thing if so....

The Roches - "Hammond Song"

2010-01-26T17:07:00.001-08:00

Something about this track really kills me. I must have listened to it ten-times today. Maybe it's the fact that I was expecting a mere 30-seconds of displeasure before skipping to the next curious band I stumbled across at work, but this one's a sweet, sweet killer.

The Roches are a trio of sisters from 1960's New Jersey and create some pretty resonant harmonies. The song might be a bit longer than necessary (5:46), but reels me back in every time the chorus cycles by with a touch of the Frippertronics. Honestly, how did this group get involved with Robert Fripp in the first place?

Building Projection

2009-12-22T16:38:00.000-08:00

Nigel Nolan

2009-12-22T16:25:00.003-08:00

Wall Parade

2009-12-22T09:25:00.000-08:00

(via Haoshi Design Studio)

Super Mario Bros assault cabbie

2009-11-12T09:17:00.000-08:00

R.I.P. Jerry Fuchs

2009-11-08T21:13:00.000-08:00

Beloved friend, brother, son, and inspired drummer, you are missed for so many reasons. You were a gift.

Immortalized Book Covers

2009-11-04T16:06:00.000-08:00

Found on Spike Jonze's Wild Things' influence blog, we love you so, which is cool in and of itself.

For more about Olympia Le-Tan and her book-bags, click here.

Jim O'Rourke - The Visitor

2009-10-24T19:21:00.000-07:00

Red Krayola - War Sucks

2009-10-18T18:53:00.001-07:00

Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Paralyzed

2009-10-17T22:51:00.000-07:00

Legendary Stardust Cowboy - Paralyzed
by DwightFrye

Headsplode

2009-10-15T20:44:00.001-07:00

VIDEOGIOCO by Donato Sansone from Enrico Ascoli - Sound Design on Vimeo.

Canal+ short movie

2009-10-12T13:52:00.000-07:00

WHERE THE HELL IS MATT?

2009-10-07T22:37:00.001-07:00

http://www.wherethehellismatt.com/

Lou Reed & John Cale - Waiting for the Man - Bataclan '72

2009-10-07T08:39:00.001-07:00

William Faulkner: Nobel Prize Speech

2009-10-07T08:38:00.001-07:00

I feel that this award was not made to me as a man, but to my work--a life's work in the agony and sweat of the human spirit, not for glory and least of all for profit, but to create out of the materials of the human spirit something which did not exist before. So this award is only mine in trust. It will not be difficult to find a dedication for the money part of it commensurate with the purpose and significance of its origin. But I would like to do the same with the acclaim too, by using this moment as a pinnacle from which I might be listened to by the young men and women already dedicated to the same anguish and travail, among whom is already that one who will some day stand where I am standing.

Our tragedy today is a general and universal physical fear so long sustained by now that we can even bear it. There are no longer problems of the spirit. There is only one question: When will I be blown up? Because of this, the young man or woman writing today has forgotten the problems of the human heart in conflict with itself which alone can make good writing because only that is worth writing about, worth the agony and the sweat. He must learn them again. He must teach himself that the basest of all things is to be afraid: and, teaching himself that, forget it forever, leaving no room in his workshop for anything but the old verities and truths of the heart, the universal truths lacking which any story is ephemeral and doomed--love and honor and pity and pride and compassion and sacrifice. Until he does so, he labors under a curse. He writes not of love but of lust, of defeats in which nobody loses anything of value, and victories without hope and worst of all, without pity or compassion. His griefs grieve on no universal bones, leaving no scars. He writes not of the heart but of the glands.

Until he learns these things, he will write as though he stood among and watched the end of man. I decline to accept the end of man. It is easy enough to say that man is immortal because he will endure: that when the last ding-dong of doom has clanged and faded from the last worthless rock hanging tideless in the last red and dying evening, that even then there will still be one more sound: that of his puny inexhaustible voice, still talking. I refuse to accept this. I believe that man will not merely endure: he will prevail. He is immortal, not because he alone among creatures has an inexhaustible voice, but because he has a soul, a spirit capable of compassion and sacrifice and endurance. The poet's, the writer's, duty is to write about these things. It is his privilege to help man endure by lifting his heart, by reminding him of the courage and honor and hope and pride and compassion and pity and sacrifice which have been the glory of his past. The poet's voice need not merely be the record of man, it can be one of the props, the pillars to help him endure and prevail.

Masaaki Yuasa

2009-10-02T07:33:00.000-07:00

Masaaki Yuasa
by early21

Mind Game - Masaaki Yuasa - Trailer
by k-chan

Father Guido Sarducci on art school

2009-09-25T12:55:00.001-07:00

Hitoshi Matsumoto

2009-09-19T10:17:00.000-07:00

Anyone get to see Big Man Japan yet?

Lego Wu Tang

2009-09-18T15:08:00.001-07:00

Wu-Tang Lego: Da Mystery of Chessboxin' from davo on Vimeo.

Uh ty - Govorjashaja Ryba

2009-09-11T12:39:00.000-07:00

This is an incredible Armenian aniamtion I saw recently

Ice People

2009-09-05T17:59:00.000-07:00

World Wildlife Federation commisions artist Nele Azevedo to make 1000 ice people sculptures to illustrate climate change.

Obama Action Figures

2009-09-03T08:07:00.000-07:00

Diskjockey-Jiří Barta

2009-09-03T08:03:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=oBgJhNW3jEI

Humming Bird Song

2009-08-31T20:26:00.000-07:00

Things and stuff from Maya

2009-08-13T16:53:00.000-07:00

Why aren't you posting on here?

david lynch

2009-08-10T16:41:00.000-07:00

http://interviewproject.davidlynch.com

Banksy Vs Bristol Museum

2009-08-06T06:41:00.001-07:00

Lasciatemi Cantare - Toto Cutugno

2009-08-04T07:43:00.000-07:00

The Conet Project

2009-08-03T12:34:00.000-07:00

For fans of--Boards of Canada, William Basinski, field recording, etcetcetc

From http://www.irdial.com -

For more than 30 years the Shortwave radio spectrum has been used by the worlds intelligence agencies to transmit secret messages. These messages are transmitted by hundreds of “Numbers Stations”.

Shortwave Numbers Stations are a perfect method of anonymous, one way communication. Spies located anywhere in the world can be communicated to by their masters via small, locally available, and unmodified Shortwave receivers. The encryption system used by Numbers Stations, known as a “one time pad” is unbreakable. Combine this with the fact that it is almost impossible to track down the message recipients once they are inserted into the enemy country, it becomes clear just how powerful the Numbers Station system is.

These stations use very rigid schedules, and transmit in many different languages, employing male and female voices repeating strings of numbers or phonetic letters day and night, all year round.
The voices are of varying pitches and intonation; there is even a German station (The Swedish Rhapsody) that transmits a female child's voice!

One might think that these espionage activities should have wound down considerably since the official “end of the cold war”, but nothing could be further from the truth. Numbers Stations (and by inference, spies) are as busy as ever, with many new and bizarre stations appearing since the fall of the Berlin wall.

Why is it that in over 30 years, the phenomenon of Numbers Stations has gone almost totally unreported? What are the agencies behind the Numbers Stations, and why are the eastern European stations still on the air? Why does the Czech republic operate a Numbers Station 24 hours a day? How is it that Numbers Stations are allowed to interfere with essential radio services like air traffic control and shipping without having to answer to anybody? Why does the “Swedish Rhapsody” Numbers Station use a small girls voice?
These are just some of the questions that remain unanswered.

Now you will be able to hear this unique and extraordinary phenomenon for yourself, as Irdial-Discs releases THE CONET PROJECT: the first comprehensive collection of Numbers Stations recordings released to the public.

And Wiki -
Recordings of numbers stations sometimes find their way onto records by other musicians via sampling, such as Stereolab's song "Pause", Porcupine Tree's "Even Less", Chroma Key's "Even the Waves", or various songs by Wilco, whose album Yankee Hotel Foxtrot is named after a message sampled on it. Pere Ubu's drummer Scott Krauss is an avid fan of numbers stations, and has featured recordings in several of the group's songs. The track "On the Lamb" by 310, from the album Aug 56 lasts almost half an hour, and features samples from a numbers station throughout.

The Kraftwerk song "Numbers" is influenced by number station transmissions.

The reclusive Scottish duo Boards of Canada were influenced by numbers stations at an early age. The track "Gyroscope" on the Geogaddi album is thought to contain a sample of a child counting provided by the Conet Project.

The UK based group 65daysofstatic sample "The Lincolnshire Poacher" along with several other stations on the song "No Station."

The UK group Cinerama released a cover of The Smiths song "London" as a b-side to their single "Manhattan", in 2000. The track contains a couple of numbers station samples.

Project Natal: Meet Milo

2009-08-03T12:19:00.001-07:00

ultra thing digital booth

2009-07-24T12:32:00.000-07:00

Child robot

2009-07-24T12:26:00.000-07:00

Martha Graham Night Journey Clip

2009-07-21T18:42:00.000-07:00

I just heard about the kade? where the hell have I been!?

2009-07-17T09:39:00.000-07:00

http://arthurkade.com/

"my journey to stardom." the winning excerpt from aurthurs personal diary:

With the amazing connects I have made in Hollywood, it is now getting to a point where I get to hang out with the important people in “The Biz”, and I may be bigger than most of them already, and will end up in tabloids like Us Weekly and People soon, and some feel that I am single handedly transforming the face of this area into a new celebrity mecca. I was talking to a friend tonight who said, “It’s crazy what’s happening here, you’re what everyone talks about all the time. It’s like an obsession, you must bring work productivity down in this city so much.” I laughed, and said, “Everyone wants a piece of me, and the funny thing is that I am only getting started. I am taking this thing to a level that’s never been seen at warp speed”. Even celebrities are in awe of what I have accomplished, and are constantly trying to meet me and take pics as I saw in KA, and I realize it’s only getting worse.

Doo Dooettes - Live At The Brand, Live at Century City

2009-07-14T10:36:00.000-07:00

"The unearthing of the LAFMS recordings is experimental rock history at it's most historical and hysterical - a completely bizarro and further-out counterpart to the L.A. punk scene." -- THURSTON MOORE

Gets its point across more than words could ever hope for...

Download here

About LAFMS

Los Angeles Free Music Society - The Lowest Form of Music 10-CD Box Set reviewed by Edwin Pouncey, The WIRE

The early 70s were lean years for American music, which was still suffering from the aftershock of Altamont, Manson and the death of the Love Generation. In California the airwaves were spewing forth commercial rock and disco, while punk was only in its infancy on the East Coast, and the Midwest and had yet to make its mark across the nation. Any avant garde activity around this time was limited, although the first tentative stabs at FM rock's soft white underbelly were being plotted. In San Francisco, The Residents pressed up their debut album Meet The Residents on their own Ralph Records label, which had a cover that scurrilously defaced Meet The Beatles in a shameless attempt to gain some underground notoriety. Years later it worked.

Further along, brothers Jad and David Fair would unleash their own, equally outrageous debut EP as Half Japanese, a noise classic that many would blindly ignore, but later pay serious money to own a copy.

In the middle of all this rose the awe-inspiring spectre of The Los Angeles Free Music Society, a happy band of musical oddballs who had grown up on the collected works of The Mothers Of Invention, Captain Beefheart, Sun Ra and composer Harry Partch (to name a few) and were eager to let their own creative demons loose on the world. This Californian collective were well versed in the room-clearing power of free jazz and improvised music in general, but they were also aware that something new and revolutionary was required if music on a challenging level was to progress and survive.

Listening to this astonishing, lovingly packaged ten-CD set (which contains all the important LAFMS records plus a batch of unreleased material) it is the versatility of the groups concerned that causes the jaw to drop. Pluck any CD from the concertina styled plastic folder that contains them, and prepare to be astonished as Le Forte Four reinvent musique concrete American style and come up with a tribute to "Japanese Super Heros" that predates The Boredoms by a couple of decades. Elsewhere The Doo-Dooettes (featuring drummer Dennis Duck, who much later would join Steve Wynn's The Dream Syndicate) twist the pop song's neck with devastating results, while Smegma lock on to the greasy Dada teenage outrage element of Freak Out-era Mothers and mutate it still further. As well as producing records, LAFMS held Fluxus-style concerts and happenings, published a magazine called Light Bulb, and under the direction of Ace Farren Ford, released three volumes of a compilation entitled Blorp Essette, original copies of which are today highly desired because of a rare Residents track on the first volume and for the cover art which was drawn by Ford's hero Captain Beefheart.

As all of the LAFMS catalogue was originally available only in limited quantities and mostly by mail order this brave venture is to be applauded and admired. By dragging together the original team of Tom Recchion, Dennis Duck, Fredrik Nilsen, Kevin Laffey, Jerry Bishop, and Joe and Rick Potts, compilers Ron Lessard and Gary Todd have returned to the planet a slab of 70's American musical history which was in danger of being trampled underfoot and forgotten. That would have been a tragedy, as everything squeezed into this box is, once heard, an unforgettable experience.

Edwin Pouncy

"A bunch of hoodlums"
-Artistic Director for the Pilot Theater, LA, 1977, upon cancelling a show by Airway and the Doo-Dooettes

"LAFMS people have hybridized avant-garde, experimental, improvisational, punk, pop and even humorous stuffs. For Japanese fans, LAFMS has become a legend"
-Takuya Sakaguchi, Osaka

"Free ears and minds are one thing, but what about aesthetics?"
-Hal Clark, 1974, Electronic Music Festival Hovikkoden Norway, with regard to an L-44 piece

"I knew Varese personally and I know that you can control your dynamics, therefore you will play acoustically or not at all"
-Theater Owner

"Twenty some odd years later this music has a pre-technological poignance that accidentally imbeds it in history"
-Dennis Cooper

"It could be argued that some examples within this brown card box are the lowest forms of music. Personally I would make the counter claim"
-David Toop THE WIRE, UK

Get the LAFMS box at - http://www.cortical.org/spores/LAFMS10CD.html

The Collected Works of Billy The Kid by Michael Ondaatje

2009-07-12T11:17:00.000-07:00

After shooting Gregory
this is what happened

I'd shot him well and careful
made it explode under his heart
so it wouldnt last long and
was about to walk away
when this chicken paddles out to him
and as he was falling hops on his neck
digs the beak into his throat
straightens legs and heaves
a red and blue vein out

Meanwhile he fell
and the chicken walked away

still tugging at the vein
till it was 12 yards long
as if it held that body like a kite
Gregory's last words being

get away from me yer stupid chicken

Syd Barrett, You make me want to Raise Kids

2009-07-11T11:10:00.000-07:00

The most obvious asset of this track is how pleasant it is to listen to. Like many of Barrett's songs, the awkward structuring and phrasing just serve to enhance the childlike appeal - its beautiful to listen to, and pretty soon you'll find yourself humming a chorus about....a gigolo aunt

Grooving around in a trench coat
with the satin entrail
Seems to be all around in tin and lead pail, we pale
Jiving on down to the beach
to see the blue and the gray
seems to be all and it's rosy-it's a beautiful day!

Will you please keep on the track
'cause I almost want you back
'cause I know what you are
you are a gigolo aunt, you're a gigolo aunt!
Yes I know what you are
you are a gigolo aunt, you're a gigolo aunt!

Heading down with the light, the dust in your way
she was angrier than, than her watershell male
life to this love to me - heading me down to me
thunderbird shale
seems to be all and it's rosy - it's a beautiful day!
will you please keep on the track
'cause I almost want you back
'cause I know what you are
you are a gigolo aunt

Grooving on down in a knapsack superlative day
some wish she move and just as she can move jiving away
she made the scene should have been-superlative day
everything's all and it's rosy, it's a beautiful day
will you please keep on the track
'cause I almost want you back
'cause I know what you are
you are a gigolo aunt...

In the Mood for Love

2009-07-05T11:38:00.000-07:00

This came on the radio this morning, as we were playing Transformers on Wii with the television muted. Amazing. The entire score is beautiful, but this song really got me.

from the Chinese film, In the mood for Love.

How cool can you get?

2009-07-05T11:08:00.000-07:00

From the film Jammin' the Blues

I wept and wept, from start to finish by Nick Cave

2009-06-30T10:41:00.000-07:00

A review of the film Mother and Son
by Aleksandr Sokurov.

A FRIEND of mine invited me to attend an advance screen of a Russian film in Soho. I asked him what it was like and he said, "Well, nothing really happens and then someone dies. Come along. You'll love it." My friend was releasing the film in this country, so I felt obliged. Sitting through a Russian film is the kind of thing friends do for each other.

I arrived late and made my way to the front row just as the opening credits were ending. Ten minutes in, I started quietly crying and continued to do so for the 73-minute duration of the film. Now, I've cried in films before but I can't remember crying quite so hard, without pause, all the way through. When the film ended and the lights came on, a red-eyed woman sitting behind me pushed a Kleenex in my direction and asked me if I would write something about it for one of the newspapers.

The film is called Mother and Son, and is directed by Aleksandr Sokurov. It explores the final day in the life of a dying mother (Gudrun Geyer) and her adult son (Alexei Anaishnov). It is morning. The mother wants the son to take her for a "walk", which involves carrying her through a series of dreamlike landscapes, whereupon he returns to their bare, isolated home, feeds her, and puts her to bed. The son then leaves the house to walk on his own and returns to find that she has died. All this takes 76 minutes. But what we witness in that time is a thing of such beauty, such sadness, that to cry, for me, was the only adequate response.

Mother and Son is a film about Death and about Love and about Grace. the love, between a mother and her son, transcends ordinary love in that it is purified by the imminence of death. Death awaits them both with absolute certainty: the mother who will die, the son who will be left alone. Time seems respectfully to have slowed to a pace at which the careful motion of love has room to play itself through: no action is rushed, for that would simply hurry death on. The characters have achieved a state of emotional and spiritual grace. They seem cut adrift from their histories, alien to their environment, and unaffected by the world beyond their own. all that exists are gestures of comfort, of care, of tenderness. The son brushes the mother's hair, wraps her blanket more tightly around her, feeds her with a teated bottle. The mother responds with strokes and caresses: all that her failing strength will allow.

It is a relationship, in a sense, that is not meant to be seen. It is sacred, religious, uncomplicated by any prurient intrusions of 20th-century analysis. It is a view of humanity that has truly become transcendent; yet Sokurov makes no bones about the tragic nature of death. Death hangs heavy over everything, saddening each gesture, weighing down each action. Even the landscape appears to be in mourning for the mother's imminent demise. here we see the Passion, shown in tableaux, occasionally reflecting the Christ story: the Passion not of the ailing mother but of the son, not of the dying but of the one who is left behind.

The dialogue, too, seems strangely ineffectual, as if the protagonists' love and understanding has rendered language unnecessary. When they do converse, their words seem to lack any true purpose. They neither comfort or clarify, for all is said in the knowledge that exists within each gesture. There is psychology in words, there is complication and pain. This is no better evinced than in their final conversation, in which they discuss reasons to die and reasons to live. The dialogue is futile and cruel, and serves only to reopen the feelings of grief.

Says the mother: "It's so sad. Anyway, you will still have to go through all that I have suffered."
"Have a little nap, mother," says the son. "Have a sleep, I will be back soon."
The son leaves the house and moves into the exquisite landscape that surrounds it. It is in these long, lingering, nearly motionless scenes that the film rises to heights of the most breathtaking beauty. Sokurov's landscapes are not burdened by any desire for realism. His scenes are transformed into cinematic canvases, far closer to painting than to film, awash with artificial, opalescent light. These dream-born vistas recall the work of the German Romantic painters of the early 19th century: in particular those of Caspar David Friedrich, in which everything is softened by a milky lustre. The vastness and mystery of this heightened nature creates a spirituality not dependent on any formula of traditional Christianity. And the care Sokurov applies to these fastidiously crafted scenes echoes the care with which his characters treat each other - the devotion to detail, the unhurried tenderness, the love.

All of this beauty is given a pace, a timescale dictated by the encroachment of death. Each piec of action, each gesture - slow, plangent, important, sacred - allows the viewer the time to fall under its spell and to be seduced by its powerful and very serious impulses. Watching this film, we are forced to confront the inevitability of our own mortality, and the mortality of others. Emotiona are awakened within us of a sort that cinema hasn't dealt with for a long time.

My inital response to this film was to shed tears for the sadness of things. And its unique pulse has reverberated through me ever since.

Power of Katsu

2009-06-30T10:38:00.000-07:00

Jimmy - Hope to have you and your urban sensibilities posting here soon

Marco Brambilla

2009-06-28T09:56:00.000-07:00

Civilization, a video mural created for the new Standard hotel in New York City, depicts a journey from hell to heaven interpreted through modern film language using computer-enhanced found footage. This epic video mural contains over 300 individual channels of looped video blended into a multi-layered seamless tableau of interconnecting images that illustrate a contemporary, satirical take on the concepts of Heaven and Hell. - youtube

FULL SCREEN HQ, AMAZING, AGAIN, THANKS JOE

The Beatles: Rock Band intro (Cinematic Trailer - Animated Promo)

2009-06-26T21:10:00.000-07:00

Literally brought tears to my girlfriends eyes.
THANKS JOE

WONDERLAND Love's a Murder

2009-06-25T11:38:00.001-07:00

ZOMBY - MERCURY'S RAINBOW

2009-06-23T22:40:00.000-07:00

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=eagkV6aU3II

授業中の電話にぶちギレて生徒の携帯を破壊する先生

2009-06-21T21:36:00.000-07:00