Tetris – Official Trailer
Coming soon to cinemas near you!
Also coming soon: Rock Paper Scissors.
Archive for May, 2012
A Brief History Of John Baldessari
A nice short video narrated by Tom Waits about the career of John Baldessari -- one of America’s most influential postwar modern artists (best known for his photographs and movie stills with brightly coloured dots on them).
Ferienne
‘Ferienne‘ by Afiq Omar is a study on ‘fluid dynamics, magnetism and cymatics’. Makes for an impressive short video.
Ferienne is the third installment of an ongoing experimental study on fluid dynamics, magnetism and cymatics. These invisible forces of nature are then made visible through various liquids and mixtures, and they form patterns that are otherwise invisible to the naked eye.
I then manipulated these patterns to compose analog visual effects & using simple editing techniques, create motion graphics that are natural and organic. The basis of it remains simple; to create visually engaging images that are unique and can never be repeated.
I focused more on achieving clean and precise images this time around using a massive amount of material collected over the past 8 weeks. The colour palette was kept similar to that of the human skin, and the textures were manipulated using different backgrounds, further pushing the limits of trypophobia; the fear of holes.
Dispar Vulgo @ Compound Stage, Secret Garden Festival 27.5.2012
A brutal, wicked, pure techno set by Dispar Vulgo (Jerry Teunissen), which was the closing set at the Compound stage of the absolutely wonderful first edition of the Secret Garden Festival in Amsterdam’s Noorderpark.
Judging by the comments on the event page, this guy made an impression on more people than just me. This was epic.
Earth
A very simple yet effective idea. Earth by Peter Callesen is a helium filled huge balloon suspended over a building in Copenhagen, giving the impression of looking at the Earth from another planet.
Friday Night Special #9
It’s number 9 of the Friday Night Special! Since this is probably the last FNS (at least for a long while) we’re going out with a bang. An 80+ minute long summer mix with lots of funky fresh tracks. This means some of the latest sunny techhouse and minimal, classic Chicago and acid, smooth disco, plenty of vocals, slow stretched-out mixes and spacey tropical vibes. Perfect for a nice day in the park or at the beach (and it’s downloadable!). So long, and thanks for all the fish:
Phil Kieran – Never Ending Mountain (Egbert Remix)
A great remix by Egbert of a somewhat older track by Phil Kieran.
Epic stuff! An ambient Sigur Rós-esque choir singing along to a typical driving Egbert beat. I love big-gesture, romantic techno like this.
Dieselpunk Concept Art
It’s not cyberpunk, it’s not steampunk… It’s dieselpunk! Great retrofuturistic concept art. Click to enlarge. More here.
Luke Abbott – Modern Driveway
A lovely, dreamy minimal techno track with a beautiful, subtle chord progression by British electronic producer Luke Abbott from his upcoming EP.
RIP Donna Summer
A disco queen has passed away. She will be remembered for innovating dance music. Her 1977 cooperation with the innovative producer Giorgio Moroder, which resulted in the single I Feel Love, has given her a legendary status. This was one of the first dance tracks produced entirely with synthesizers. It has served as an inspiration for countless of producers and dj’s through the decades and it still sounds fresh today. An amazing song:
People Of Burning Man
A carnivalesque promotion video of a book containing photographs by photographer Julian Cash of Burning Man visitors over many years. Looks pretty cool.
Egokind – Wintermix 2012
A great mix by young and upcoming German dj/producer Egokind, featuring all kinds of dreamy, epic and spacey techno, house and tech house tracks. Especially recommended are the tracks that start at 3:00, and particularly the track that reaches its zenith from the 25:00 mark on.* Definitely listen to that one!
* Edit: that’s Phil Kieran – Never Ending Mountain (Egbert remix)
Egokind will turn the tables tomorrow night in the Beatrixpark in Amsterdam, together with label colleague Alle Farben – of whom another great set can be heard here (an earlier set on this blog here).
I Am The Walrus Time-Stretched
‘I Am The Walrus’ is one of The Beatles’ crappier songs. But time-stretched and slowed-down by 800%, it becomes something eerie, ambient and very much Sigur Rós-esque.
Set to the 1960s cult short film Vertige by Jean Beaudin. Described by Dangerous Minds as “a mix of LSD imagery, candy-colored sets, go go dancing, Vietnam war and horror movie stills and clips”.
Obama Endorses Same-Sex Marriage
Even though Obama is rather late on this; and even though he maybe hasn’t done as much as possible to advance the same-sex civil rights and equality agenda (ending ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell’ and ordering federal lawyers to no longer defend the Defence of Marriage Act were important, but a little late); I still think this is worthy of recognition.
The President of the United States endorses same-sex marriage. That is symbolically, historically, politically and culturally, a pretty big thing. Congratulations.
In terms of analysis: support for same-sex marriage has been steadily growing among the US population, and has for some years seen majority support. The Republican Party is putting up a rearguard fight, with their most recent success just yesterday in North Carolina where people voted for an amendment to declare same-sex marriage unconstitutional. In the longer term, they can’t possibly win this (among younger voters support is overwhelming), so this move by Obama is a good one. It will serve as a rallying-point in the coming elections.
The contrast with a candidate who wants to abolish all rights for gay couples by amending the federal constitution, and who has donated to organizations that seek to “cure” gays, who bowed to pressure from bigots who demanded the head of a spokesman on foreign policy solely because he was gay: how much starker can it get?
My view politically is that this will help Obama. He will be looking to the future generations as his opponent panders to the past. The clearer the choice this year the likelier his victory. And after the darkness of last night, this feels like a widening dawn.
[Now], for the first time, the office of the American President is officially supporting a policy that a mere decade ago was deemed truly radical: same-sex marriage. Those are real achievements. And, as virtually all polls reflect – underscored by last night’s landslide defeat for marriage equality in North Carolina — they carry genuine political risk. He deserves credit for his actions in this civil rights realm.
(…)
It should go without saying that none of this mitigates the many horrendous things Obama has done in other areas, nor does it mean he deserves re-election. But just as it’s intellectually corrupted to refuse to criticize him when he deserves it, the same is true of refusing to credit him when he deserves it. Today, he deserves credit. LGBT equality is one area — and it’s an important area for millions of Americans — where he has conducted himself commendably and deserves praise. That was true before today, but even more so now.
David Frum (a former Bush speechwriter):
The statement changes everything because it powerfully symbolizes an awakening that so many people have had, myself included: here is a social change whose time has come, and more than come. Denying marriage rights to same-sex couples inflicts real harm on real people, while doing nothing to prevent the deterioration of marriage among non-affluent Americans.
The statement changes everything because it puts marriage rights on the 2012 ballot as a voting issue. Mitt Romney has declared—not only his opposition to same-sex marriage—but his intention to use the power of the presidency to stop and reverse it. One may doubt how intensely Romney feels about that commitment, really. My own guess: about 1/1000 as intensely as he feels about Sarbanes-Oxley. But the issue is joined even so.
The statement changes everything because it locks in place for another generation the Brand ID of Democrats as the party of cultural modernity.
Beaumont – Rendez-Vous
One of the best new electronic tracks I heard in a while. A UK bass-style beat, spacey synthesizers, tech-housy elements and even a nice lo-fi vocal element, Rendez-Vous by Beaumont on Scuba’s Hotflush label (one of the most innovative labels around these days) makes me press ‘repeat’ time and again.
17 Years Of Secret Life Of Machines
Steve Rachmad is one of the true Dutch techno legends. His breakthrough album Secret Life Of Machines was released 17 years ago. For that occasion, a remix album is going to be released in June.
As promotion for that album and to honor Steve Rachmad, who is one of the best Dutch producers of the last two decades and maybe also the coolest, most laidback dj, this mini-documentary was made. Almost the entire techno nobility (Ricardo Villalobos, Dave Clarke, DJ Rush, Richie Hawtin, Chris Liebing, and local heroes like Dimitri, 2000 and One and Joris Voorn) pays respect to him:
Listen to snippets from the new Secret Life Of Machines:
And here’s a couple of classics from the original album. Check out Astronotes and Satyricon, pure industrial, spacey techno with a classic 808 sound:
