utah saints - something good '08 remix
angelspit blipverts: classic cyberpunk meme reinstated!
Sydney-based cyberpunk duo ANGELSPIT has a new take on blipverts. If blipverts mean anything to you, you probably are old and weary, as they were first introduced to science fiction fans back in 1987 in the series Max Headroom. Max Headroom was the first British (and as far as I know, also world-first) cyberpunk TV series about a reporter named Edison Carter. Carter works for a network called Channel 23 and he gets into trouble while uncovering things his bosses would like to keep in the private. One of these scandals is about the blipvert, a hi-speed visual medium that condenses advertisements into a few seconds, thus effectively killing people with the overload.
In the past 20 years anything in the ad scene that got related to or was called a blipvert was basically a brief advertisement, sometimes laced with subliminal effects. Wikipedia has more to say about that, check out Richi Jennings and the image-based spams with subliminal BUY BUY BUY messages.
As for what Angelspit sez: the cult movie Max Headroom used the term 'Blipvert' to describe a short and intense information-packed video that would make people explode. We are hoping ours will do the same. Angelspit Blipverts are designed to inform and inspire people to get active and be creative!
(not so) new headscan track, tomorrow square
If Syd Mead in the last post was a visual futurist, Toronto's very own Headscan is his musical counterpart. Planetdamage is still a few steps away from starting its own dossiers on cyberpunk musicians (and their related kin) but until we hit it off, here's today's big news: Headscan is out with a new track, Tomorrow Square (full streaming version on MySpace). Impressive, inspiring and immersive, as always, quite on the Haujobb - Clock DVA axis with a twist of neon-lit Chiba on a sad dose of vasopressin. According to what MySpace hints, the new album is TBA 2008. (via razzor)
UPDATE 1: VividFluxury rightly warns all of us that Tomorrow Square has been released two years ago (omfg) on the Re:Connected compilation on Alfa Matrix, which sort of makes me feel uneasy. Arigatou, nevertheless.
UPDATE 2: You can download the full-length track from last.fm.
dj krush: japan's leading sensei of hiphopry spins like a zen spider god, says nothing
I am sitting in the bowels of A38, one of Budapest's leading venues, the very one situated on the river Danube, the living proof of how near-paramilitary Russian vessels have a posthumous life of their own. I am also locked on to one of the greatest names in contemporary hip-hop, DJ Krush. He has a wonderful habit of not saying anything specific, carefully not going into any details about fellow DJs, up-and-coming artists or technicalities. The one and only name that comes up from the J-hiphop scene is Kentaro and Krush is very firm in stating that Kentaro will never become as strong an export product of the cultural scene as he is. This is probably, casting a glance on download figures and the probability of finding these two names on p2p networks, very true.
In all honesty - making an interview with a lobotomized and gangraped alien with no tongue and mouth is much-much easier than getting two full sentences out of Krush on what he thinks about the DJ scene nowadays. He obviously thinks that the technical possibilities are endless (yes, I also read digitaldj.jp) and being a DJ takes a whole person so no serious human relationships can go hand in hand with being a DJ (I also know that, seen that, been there). How he himself does what, when and where - remains a mystery. We get to know he has a family, he's got two kids and there's only one person in the world he'd really teach how to DJ - and it's his grandson.
We spend 45 minutes with him, up close and personal. Almost nothing remains. He's distant, however much you think the years of dealing with Oriental culture can make you understand this kind of mentality more - it doesn't. The party itself is as strange and ambiguous as the meeting itself - you seriously can't enjoy hiphop/lounge in a crowd of 800 people. The secret Shaolin shadow technique of DJ Krush are amazing, 15 points on a scale of ten. I leave after an hour of lingering at the back of the event hall, buying the 3DVD pack and cherishing something I took from Krush with a grin on my face, two interview questions that he thought are real hard to answer, I usually take this as a compliment.
This is something like Zen, leaving empty-handed.
UPD1> O. claims that all the rocking party hardcore shit happened in the second part. Damn that.
shanadoo: globalization hits rock bottom
There's a slim chance that if you're reading this, you're aware of eurobeat. If not, think italodisco with high-pitch sawtooth synth leads and lyrics based on the word inventory of a lowrider fansite link deposit. Eurobeat's practically produced for Japan by European (mostly Italian) labels, so whenever my quasi-musician acquaintances need instant gratification (or divine assistance), I tell them to go to Napoli with a laptop and a new copy of Reason to establish a flourishing but equally shallow career (gnyah!).
Now, apparently, life has just reverse-engineered the concept. Shanadoo is a Japanese girl group who're produced in Germany and what's worse, the great majority of their tracks is based on E-Rotic, an otherwise terribly bad eurodance group back in the nineties (if you remember max don't have sex with your ex and sex on the phone, that's them). Thankfully, most of the lyrics are rewritten into nihongo but even that and the gothier/kinkier outfit for the 2007 album The Symbol cannot really save these girls from utter failure (teens love them, though. PD doesn't). They have shitloads of videos on YouTube and honestly, there's not even one I would have the stomach to embed. Gomen ne.
To keep you interested in the unholy but otherwise sweet sin of eurobeat, check the youtube below, that's the Italian interview with Nuage, ex-bellissima and vocalist of Dawe Rodgers (mega producer of the genre) with some live footage from the Rodgers HQ, sweet!
psykosonik - welcome to my mind
Psykosonik was an American techno music group. Their first album, Psykosonik, was a hard-hitting techno album with cyberpunk-esque lyrics. (link)
audiosurf: ten dollars to leave you orgasm-eyed
Broken and abused has never been this much fun. Audiosurf, the new indie epic find met Destroid's classic floorfiller stompa (watermarked by none other than Haujobb god Daniel Myer) - see proof above. (That was where it really hit me.) One third speeder, one third blockcombiner, one third hallucinogenic cyber trip inducer, Audiosurf will leave avid gamers who desperately want their personalities uploaded all over the 'Net for freeplay orgasm-eyed and bleeding for more. Addictive. Very. All I can want is more gametypes and more mods. Easily the most entertaining game of the year.
stephen hobley's laser harp
Although it might take more than a decent week of fiddling around to make Jean-Michel Jarre jack off with unholy glee, Stephen Hobley's laser harp prototype is a working one. Had been for some time, that is, checking out the release dates on his YouTube and all. Still, drop me a few lines if you could prepare a laser harp for our live shows. July's the date, most probably. (link)
new project - coma video out now!
Australian-cum-Londonese cyberpunk metal band (and sages of rock) NEW PROJECT are out with their PV "Coma" that's from their new album Ultraviolent Light. I'll review the album a bit later, I just have to add that all the CG stuff you see comes from Chaos Theory, the legendary 64k demo by Hungarian demoscene group Conspiracy. The results rock and that's good (also because I tend to whimp away at how Chaos Theory ended up on the Ghost in the Shell DVD), CNS really, really needs to make a few more promotional videos for CP bands.
New priority.
Connect the dots.
daily kawaii: jakalope
JAKALOPE - Feel It
JAKALOPE - Pretty Life
Jakalope is a Canadian industrial/pop group. They are named for the fictional animal of the same name, although the animal's name is more commonly spelled jackalope. The band was formed in 2003 by noted Canadian industrial musician and producer Dave "Rave" Ogilvie most famous for his studio work with such acts as Marilyn Manson, Skinny Puppy, David Bowie, and Nine Inch Nails. (off wikipedia, official page, myspace)
UI: Pink/blue sweetness Katie Biever has gone solo. Proceed with caution to her myspace that pretty much mixes half-assed gospel imagery with acoustic guitars. We are getting aggravated, yes.
modem: space for contemporary music and arts
Huszonháromezer négyzetméternyi hidegháborús erőműterepen alakították ki Berlin új kortárs parti- és művészeti központját, a MODEMet. Ha jól olvasom a német sajtóanyagot, a Mittében elfekvő erőmű korábban a komplett kelet-berlini hőellátásért volt felelős, mostantól pedig divattól építészeti projektekig ezernyi mindent mutatnak be - egy az ilyen projektek közül a MEGASTRUCTURE-UPLOADED (2008. április 6. és május 25. között), ahol többek között hasonló dolgokat állítanak ki (lentebb az Archigram munkája). Megint megéri visszamenni phot enni az Alexanderplatz mellé. (via)
edIT - certified air raid material
眠らない街[ALERT]~ Ilyen lehet a jövő Kabukichōban, ha unod magad, az elmúlt pár óra történéseit szaggatott, feszes, olajtól fényesen remegő ritmusra tördeli át a plug és adagolja vissza a hallójárataidba, ami pedig a képeket illeti, KC nem az a hely, ahol valaha is unatkozna a szem. A szemtelen kísérletezés, a fülledt, seggrázó r'n'b, a széttördelt ritmusokkal updatelt hiphop keveréke a glitch-hop, amiből rövid úton kihalt az afroamerikai funky-kultúra összes érzelme, az utcai hiphop megannyi sodrása, ami megmaradt, az a mechanikus, hideg, tucatnyi réteggel megfejelt törtütem - képzelj el egy ingerkisüléssel fenyegető r'n'b-klipet kétszáz évre előre a jövőben, implantokkal teleszorított testű kívánatos ázsiai fiatalokkal, felettük egy remegő állkapcsú DJ-vel, aki a turntable akasztásai közben néha előhúz egy idegi megszakítót és bele-belelő vele a tömegbe.
Ilyen a The Glitch Mob szindikátus egyik örökbecsű tagjának új lemeze, a Certified Air Raid Material. Az albumot jegyző los angelesi edIT (középen) könnyedén veti oda profiljában, hogy "tömegeket pusztítok", igaza van, tehetséggel és változatosan építi bele magát a hipotalamuszba. Glitchmobos társai enyhén eltérő stílusban nyomulnak, a bandafőnök Ooah (balra) jobban érzi a hagyományos struktúrák és a dallamok szerepét, Boreta és Kraddy pedig inkább az önmaguk körül forgó dervis-zenét bírják, első ismerkedésnél csak nagyon óvatosan szabad velük bánni.
A mindent elsöprő japánamerikaitengelyes inger Fu-Rakk és Audrey nélkül nem jöhetett volna létre, all da pimped up kyoukei, hoi!
traci lords - fallen angel
Nem mintha a pornó elművésziesítéséért küzdenék, de az a percnyi részlet, amit az IO9 talált Traci Lordsról, az volt annyira mundánul rossz, hogy csontig fűrésznyelvvel csapja ki a biztosítékot. Úgyhogy a lihegős softcore sci-fik helyett inkább az ex-pornódíva és a Juno Reactor közös goa-rock-crossover tengelyét adom csak, az 1995-ös 1000 Fires album második klipnótáját, a Fallen Angelt, amit idősebb hallgatóink a Mortal Kombat soundtrackről is ismerhetnek már. Az első verzió elméletileg csak promo, a második látványosabb. A reggeli adást kávékatéterezés miatt bizonytalan ideig beszüntetjük, telefonszámunk és egyéb elérhetőségeink nem változtak, a zene után hírek.
Kora-kétezres, skizofrén.
Jócskán kilencvenes, hangulatos.
雅, ニューロマンサー [~postal service alert~]
A fenti videó volt az, ami után gondolkodás nélkül azonnal megrendeltem az amazon.jp-ről a teljes beatboxos-stepdanceres, session jambe forgatott Miyavi DVD-t, majd a biztonság kedvéért hozzácsaptam a Neurománcot is, nyelvgyakorlásnak csak jó lesz, minden oldallal legalább napokat fogok szenvedni, ha nem többet. (Ennél jobb már csak a japánszinkronizált Mátrix lenne, de az sem várat magára sokat, I know.) Ezek után már csak arra vagyok kíváncsi, hogy a csomagot hol fogja megakasztani a nagybecsű magyar postai szolgálat, főleg hogy a postázás és szállítás díja egy hetes kiküldési határidőre is olcsóbb, mint amit Amerikából játszanék meg a szokásos csomagokkal. Wish me good luck.
ILL MACHINE (x ULTRA BRAiN) PV
The promo video for “ILL MACHINE (x ULTRA BRAiN),” a track off the recently released Nu Riot CD by Wagdug Futuristic Unity (a project involving Kyono of the Mad Capsule Markets), is set in a world 50 years hence (according to Kyono’s blog), where heavily armed gas-masked clones battle giant machines that assemble themselves from trash and set out to cleanse the planet by blasting everything to smithereens. Directed by CG artist Satoshi Kuroda. (via, link sent by dH, thx!)
baby head theremin
The Baby Head of Doom! This genuinely weird piece of XLPC theremin (that's just been sold via ebay) gathers light coming from all available sources via photoelectric cells. Moving your hand in front of the cells change pitch and volume of all sound sources that are connected to the Baby Head of Doom. Perfect for industrial bands that are not quite sure of their own visual prowess and want to include a few clichés, just in case. Don't let this scare you off, Polish synth-goth-rock Fading Colours managed to make do with a mannequin they put on stage behind the backup keyboards. Regardless, I'm sort of sad to see this sold. (auction link, via)
2008. 返還.
Négy óra. Jó ideig gondolkodtam, hogy mi legyen az első szám, ami végiggördül a HQ-n, ma engedélyezek magamnak egy ekkora rituálét, adja meg ez az alaphangulatot mára és indítsa el ez az új évet. Így jött a Kick The Can Crew-től a sayonara sayonara, búcsút mondok a múlt évnek, pontosabban a múlt év összes szar pillanatának meg fájdalmának, kellemetlen helyzeteinek és mindennek, amire nem gondolok vissza feltétlenül szívesen, 2007 úgyis elmegy, ezektől meg jobban meg kellene válnom, nem hiányoznak a görcsök. Ha most dohányoznék, rágyújtanék és merengenék egy darabig azon a mondaton, ami ma hangzott el, ha csak hagyod, hogy rángassanak, ne csodálkozz azokon a helyzeteken, amikbe kerülsz, mondta ezt a valaki úgy, hogy nem is tudta, mennyire a fején találja a szöget. Így született meg két újévi fogadalom, ami csak azért újévi fogadalom, mert pont január elseje szülte őket. Az egyiket a rendszeres olvasók sejthetik, a másikat meg olvashatták is egy eldobott fél mondatban. Elég, ha én tudom.