Igorrr - Very Noise

 #Igorr #Gautier Serre #extreme metal #breakcore #experimental #industrial #baroque metal #trip-hop #death metal #electronic #Meat Dept #animated music video

We have a challenge for you: Watch Meat Dept’s latest video and try and keep a straight face. Chances are you probably can’t. A weird and wacky music video created to accompany French musician Igorrr's track,Very Noise, it may surprise you to hear that there is a quite a serious meaning behind it – amidst all the madness. “Very Noise is an attempt to transcribe on video the synthesis of numerous testimonies of stroke victims that we have collected over the past few years,” explains David Nicolas of Meat Dept. “About 3/4 of the stroke victims are heterosexual white males over 50 years old, and the visions that arise from these experiences are in common with the neuroses of this category of the population. Identity disorder, existential anxieties linked to erection problems, transfer phenomenon to a more sporty image of the father, a burning desire for extreme but playful activities such as motocross or solo rock climbing…”
What on the face of it seems to be impossible to link together, was actually created with a lot of consideration and much thought. “The notion of figurative abstraction is also very significant in the stories, it is a form of link between two ideas that challenge each other, one could speak of a remedy for cognitive dissonance generated by overlapping fantasies,” explains David.
Bearing in mind the serious subject matter underpinning the project, Meat Dept have approached it in a typically humorous and open manner. “We just opened our psychic channel and went fishing for ideas,” recalls Laurent Nicolas. “We basically took the ideas as they came and translated them instantly into images, without any filter or thinking, like the “cadavre exquis.” Then we connected the dots to create some kind of story and everything made sense.” The team behind Meat Dept are David Nicolas, Laurent Nicolas and Kevin Van Der Meiren, who's varied backgrounds across animation, design, art and film have proved quite a prolific combination. As a collective they have previously had a short film premiere at Sundance and produced idents for Adult Swim, alongside their own personal film and music video projects. They are currently working on their first series, entitled Black Holes, which has been signed by a US television network.
Looking through their portfolio, it is clear that the team has a unique way of looking at things, that manifests itself in such intriguing work. Their process that facilitates this seems to be one which snowballs from one idea: “The deal with Igorrr was total freedom. We started from a motion capture bug in a loop David was working on: the chewing gum character on the boxing ring. Then we improvised and built around it, with a lot of experiments,” explains Kevin. “Then what’s important in our approach is the attitude we have towards the variety of tools and techniques we’re using. Technology plays a very important part in our process. We are as excited about the technology as the art itself. We love to play around with new tools and push them to their limits. As we said, the starting point of the video was some weird bugs and distortions in motion capture movements. From this technical problems can sometimes arise interesting forms. You have to be open to that kind of discovery.”
When they were approached by Igorrr, the team were experimenting for an exhibition that focussed on loops. David explains that this was where the collaboration began: “At the time we were preparing an exhibition of living paintings, made of loops, basically an animation sequence that loops perfectly and can be watched endlessly,” he says. “Gautier loved the concept, but listening to the track, we were really disconcerted. It’s very violent and unpredictable.” The fast and varied nature of the track itself is obviously something that drives the visuals, and many of the scenes are directly synced to the beat - something that Meat Dept considered important. “Of course, especially for a track like Very Noise, it’s all about rhythm. Towards the end of the process, we adjusted the cuts together with Gautier and he tweaked the music a little bit and added some sound design to make it perfectly fit with the images,” says Laurent. “Some say he’s a genius but he’s just a maniac really! Jokes aside, it was great working with him. Great guy!”
The video has had an amazing reception so far, with millions of views on Youtube and the inevitable reaction videos alongside them. Famous fans of the piece also include Mike Judge, someone that Meat Dept hugely admires. Based on the success of Very Noise, attention turns to where they go next. We ask them if any of the characters may make an appearance again in the future, to which Kevin responds: “Haha! The Grandpa biker is definitely coming back…”  From: https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/meat-dept-digital-film-310120

Beth Orton - Shopping Trolley

 #Beth Orton #folktronica #folk rock #trip-hop #contemporary folk rock #electronica #singer-songwriter #music video

Has Beth Orton ever sounded as angry as she does on "Worms", the caustic kiss-off that opens her fourth album? "I'm your apple-eatin' heathen, any ol' rib-stealin' Eve," she sings on the chorus, turning talk of original sin into empowering invective against some unnamed target. It's an odd song with an odd little shuffle to it, and even though it sounds uncannily like Fiona Apple (right down to her rushed cadence at the end of the second verse), the track reminds you how singular Orton seemed on her first two albums and how much she buffed away the rough edges on her third album, Daybreaker, an AOR makeover that aimed for but missed the same listeners who one year later made Norah Jones a sensation.
So it's nice to have the old Beth Orton back. It's also nice to have Jim O'Rourke at the helm, particularly because he puts some rhythm back into her songs. Orton needs it, too: Her voice hits your ears at an angle, as if refracted prismatically, and O'Rourke's sturdy beats don't reset that angle to perpendicular so much as make sure it hits its target with a little more force. Comfort of Strangers is strongest when O'Rourke and percussionist Tim Barnes translate Trailer Park's spacey effects into earthier rhythms, especially with the oscillating bass line and tight drum beat on "Conceived". They let loose on "Countenance" and are joined by what sounds like a full band on "Shopping Trolley". The intro to the title track sounds like "Walk on the Wild Side", but to their credit, Orton and O'Rourke undercut that seedy strut with handclaps, sparkling piano, and perhaps her most straightforward performance.
Orton's vocals - so arced and mellifluous - reign over all other sounds on Comfort of Strangers. On Daybreaker, her voice sounded like an empty vessel, beautiful but conveying very little; here it has a very real personality behind it, one that allows itself to be angry, cynical, hopeful, and snide - a complex and compelling emotional mess. This attitude fits her songwriting well, giving her words added resonance. On "Heartland Truckstop" she sings, "I wanted to love, but I turned 'round and hated it," and her strong, glaring delivery of that second line - as if she's making eye contact through her voice - reinforces not just the wordplay, but the cheated disappointment of the sentiment.  From: https://pitchfork.com/reviews/albums/6050-comfort-of-strangers/

Garbage - Thirteen

 #Garbage #alternative rock #electronic rock #industrial rock #trip-hop #industrial power pop #Alex Chilton cover

The name of the album was #1 Record, which was bitterly ironic, as it ended up selling under 10,000 copies upon its initial release in 1972. The name of the band, Big Star, also proved to be an unfortunate misnomer, because outside of critics and other musicians, they remained virtually anonymous during their brief time together. Despite all these negatives and contradictions, Big Star included on #1 Record one of the best ballads of the rock-and-roll era, the hauntingly yearning “Thirteen.” The title comes from the age of the narrator, and the song is one of the most accurate depictions of an era in life when the first pangs of romance arrive to simultaneously enthrall and torture.
On #1 Record, their debut album, Big Star wielded an impressive duo of singer-songwriters in the Memphis-raised pair Alex Chilton and Chris Bell. Chilton had already achieved chart success as a teenager with The Box Tops, displaying gritty vocals that were soulful beyond his years on a string of rhythm and blues-influenced singles. But when he joined up with Bell, a proponent of a combination of Byrdsy jangle and Beatles-y catchiness that would come to be known as power pop, Chilton changed his game. Bell and Chilton wanted to emulate the Lennon/McCartney formula as much as they could, so they shared credit on many of the songs on #1 Record even though there was in fact little writing collaboration between the two. “Thirteen,” for example, was entirely Chilton’s creation, and he also delivers the aching vocal that vacillates between hope and heartache and that many cover versions have tried to emulate but never quite matched.
“Thirteen” focuses on an age that is somewhat underrepresented in pop and rock music. Many have written songs about childhood, and, since rock and roll was born out of teenage rebellion, high school ages and upward are of course the focus of many a ditty. But Chilton finds that bittersweet spot in between when innocence still lingers but more complicated emotions start to work their way into the picture. Over tender acoustic guitars, Chilton begins with a question that thirteen-year-old boys have been asking thirteen-year-old girls for generations: “Won’t you let me walk you home from school?” “Won’ t you let me meet you at the pool?” he follows, again treading lightly so as not to scare her away. He eventually suggests a date at the dance on Friday; “And I’ll take you,” Chilton delicately sings, as if anything more forceful than a gentle plea will destroy his chances.
In the second verse, the narrator for the first time reveals an obstacle blocking the path to this girl for whom he is clearly falling hard, his modest queries notwithstanding. “Won’ t you tell your Dad get off my back?” he asks her. His response to the doubting father is brilliant: “Tell him what we said about ‘Paint It Black.’” By drawing a parallel between his own musical tastes and that of the father, he’s hoping to show that he’ s not just some punk kid with bad intentions, although doing that by name-dropping a song by The Rolling Stones, one of the most lascivious bands, might be defeating the purpose. And his next exhortation (“Come inside now, it’s okay/ And I’ll shake you”) shows that his intentions aren’t all that pure after all, the sexual hinting a gutty and honest move by Chilton.
The final verse finds him struggling as she remains both rigidly unknowable (“Won’t you tell me what you’re thinking of?”) and frustratingly proper (“Would you bean outlaw for my love?”) His concluding lines redeem him in terms of his integrity and honor, even as they suggest that he’s losing his opportunity with her in the process: “If it’s no then I can go / I won’t make you.” The final “Ooo-hoo” that Chilton utters is a real killer, tinged as it is with the sting of implied refusal.
From: https://americansongwriter.com/behind-the-song-thirteen-by-big-star/

Unveiling the new model of a machine that made its debut three years prior, alternative rock outfit Garbage polished the raw grind of their hazy first album with the sparkling digital sheen of 1998 sophomore effort Version 2.0. Emerging from the eerie trip-hop and bleak grunge of the critically acclaimed, multi-platinum Garbage, the quartet expanded their vision, going into overdrive with a futuristic sound that blended their inspirations both classic (the Beach Boys, the Beatles, and the Pretenders) and contemporary (Björk, Portishead, and the Prodigy). While Garbage retained the sleaze and effortless cool of their debut -- hinted on early tracks "As Heaven Is Wide" and "A Stroke of Luck" -- they infused Version 2.0 with deeper electronic layering, improved hooks, and an intimate lyrical focus courtesy of iconic vocalist Shirley Manson, who seized her place as the face and voice of the band with authority and confidence. On the propulsive "When I Grow Up" and the bittersweet "Special," Garbage took cues from '60s girl groups with "sha-la-la"s and stacked vocal harmonies, grounding them with a delivery inspired by Chrissie Hynde. Elsewhere, the hard techno edges of Curve and Björk cut through the frustrated "Dumb" and the lusty "Sleep Together," while Depeche Mode's Wild West years received tribute on the stomping "Wicked Ways." Beyond the blistering hit singles "I Think I'm Paranoid" and "Push It," Version 2.0 is also home to Garbage's most tender and heartbreaking moments, from the pensive "Medication" to the trip-hop-indebted "The Trick Is to Keep Breathing" and "You Look So Fine." Balanced and taut, Version 2.0 is a greatest-hits collection packaged as a regular album, not only a peak in Garbage's catalog, but one of the definitive releases of the late '90s.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/album/version-20-mw0000032128

KidneyThieves - In Love With a Machine

 #KidneyThieves #industrial rock #trip-hop #industrial metal #alternative/indie rock

KidneyThieves started in 1997, the union of two talented musicians: Free Dominguez (vocalist and occasional guitar) and Bruce Somers (multi-instrumentalist, programmer and sound engineer). Somers with his background of programming/engineering and collaborating with several notable bands such as Nine Inch Nails, Orgy, The Misfits and Marilyn Manson; Dominiguez bringing a trip-hop/hip-hop affinity, along with a sensual, melodious voice – a marriage of Nine Inch Nails-inspired industrial rock and trip-hop along the lines of Massive Attack. In Somer's words, the band is a combination of heavy and light to form a sound that is not quite one genre altogether and yet it stands on its own. Confused? Most are when they first listen to any of their music; one moment you will be listening to a decent noisy guitar riff with industrial layers, the next you will be listening to a whispered trip-hop track concerning forlorn thoughts — the muscles of grinding rock formed around the soul of downtempo.
Their latest album, ‘The Mend', is the conclusive result of their Kickstarter campaign launched in December 2015; by April 2016 they had reached their goal (it reached nearly double the initial goal) and the album was released in September of the same year. This approach is typical of KidneyThieves' ethics of DIY and being progressively eco-friendly (the album was recorded in a “green studio” and independently released). ‘The Mend' is a concept album revolving around the contemporary issues that were most prominent during 2015 and 2016 – the division and disconnection, the corrosion, the escalation of hate and general distrust – topics most directly reflected in track titles such as “Fist Up”, “In Love With A Machine” and “Let Freedom Ring”. The album also focuses on the notion of catharsis through healing and becoming whole again after a major upheaval, the systems we find ourselves locked into and finding a grand mending through each other via compassion and realising the worth of our struggles.
KidneyThieves are unique in that they prove that whilst industrial rock tends to be synonymous with nihilistic tendencies and self-destruction, KidneyThieves show more depth with a philosophical edge by focusing on abstract thoughts and psychological subjects, borrowing from Jung. They also demonstrate a range of skill by not getting too comfortable playing to one genre. The whole of ‘The Mend‘ presents itself as the next step in the band’s continuing journey with a message of hope. The noticeable absence of certain elements (such as the heavier guitars and more polish given to tracks) might make long-time fans reluctant but this is an album that remains a worthwhile listen. In the end this is what music ultimately means for us all: a form of sublime, unconditional catharsis.  From: https://nevermore-horror.com/kidneythieves-the-mend-2016-review/

Cibo Matto - MFN

 #Cibo Matto #alternative rock #art rock #trip-hop #alternative pop rock #electronic #music video

From the start, it’s clear that Yuka Honda, one half of the New York City band Cibo Matto, doesn’t like to stay within the lines. When asked to name five albums that everyone should hear, she rattled off all of Stevie Wonder’s records, everything by Earth, Wind, and Fire, Sly Stone, all of the Beatles’ albums, John and Yoko, Talking Heads, all of Brian Eno’s stuff, and Antonio Carlos Jobin. When asked to offer up a simple description of Cibo Matto’s music, she shyly responded Oh. I don’t think I could do that.
Her unwillingness to accept boundaries is an excellent metaphor for Cibo Matto. When it comes to the group’s music, the keyword is fusion. From heavy metal to bossanova to hip-hop, Cibo Matto mixes everything to produce an eccentric recipe for sound.
Honda was born in Japan and came to the United States in 1987. She says her experience gives her a different perspective on making music. I am not only from Japan, but I lived in Europe for some time, Honda said during a phone interview. I have learned that although people have very different mind sets, they also have a lot in common. I don’t know why people like to categorize things between country and genre and like to put a border between things.
It was open-mindedness that eventually led her to form a musical union with another Japanese-born New Yorker, Miho Hatori. At first, Cibo Matto came together to play only one gig for fun. We were just really having fun, a lot of fun, and thinking we can just do whatever we want, Honda said. There was a lot more freedom to try out and be experimental for one gig.
A fan base started to form from Cibo Matto’s random performances and then led to a recording contract with Warner Brothers. Cibo Matto’s first album was released in early 1996. Entitled Viva! La Woman, the debut album conveyed what was on Honda’s and Hatori’s minds – food. Of the 11 songs on the album, 10 were about food. In fact, cibo matto is Italian for food madness. Viva! La Woman was highly innovative, built on the hip-hop loops produced by Honda’s extraordinary keyboard skills and Hatori’s vocal power.I started getting into hip-hop in 1986, Honda said. It was always very exciting, especially since I did computer music. I always try to build the song as much as I can. I look at it from different angles, but I don’t want to lose the live feel. I try to think about aspects of the music and realize as much as possible in every song.
Her openness to musical exploration paid off. Cibo Matto went on tour opening up for Beck, Luscious Jackson and other headliners. Viva! La Woman was named in Time magazine as one of the top 10 hip-hop albums of all time. As Cibo Matto grew more successful, new band mates joined to support the duo on the road. Sean Lennon was added on guitar and bass, and Timo Ellis and Duma Love on percussion. The group played at the Tibetan Freedom Concerts and opened the one in Chicago in June. Yuka thinks that the Tibetan Freedom concerts have brought together the most diverse of today’s artists. Cibo Matto is especially close with two groups that also call New York City home – the Beastie Boys and Luscious Jackson. We don’t help each other out in writing stuff, but we’re good friends, Honda said. We definitely have a sense of family in the music industry.
This past June marked the release of Cibo Matto’s second album, Stereotype A, which Honda produced. A more pop-oriented album, it shows that Cibo Matto is growing in leaps and bounds. Honda said a pop album should have something that sounds familiar, but also has to show you something new about it. Like most things, Honda had something to say about the title of the group’s latest release. People have a lot of stereotypes, she said. They are not used to women handling machines. If we have problems with the equipment, and we call a friend, they always want to talk to Sean first. Even if a producer walks in, they will always look to the man. People aren’t used to women pushing buttons and pulling strings.  From: https://www.gwhatchet.com/1999/11/18/cibo-matto-blends-variety-of-genres-to-produce-its-own-sound/

Portishead - Mourning Air

 #Portishead #trip-hop #alternative rock #electronica #downtempo #acid house #1990s

Portishead may not have invented trip-hop, but they were among the first to popularize it, particularly in America. Taking their cue from the slow, elastic beats that dominated Massive Attack's Blue Lines and adding elements of cool jazz, acid house, and soundtrack music, Portishead created an atmospheric, alluringly dark sound. The group wasn't as avant-garde as Tricky, nor as tied to dance traditions as Massive Attack; instead, it wrote evocative pseudo-cabaret pop songs that subverted their conventional structures with experimental productions and rhythms of trip-hop. As a result, Portishead appealed to a broad audience - not just electronic dance and alternative rock fans, but thirtysomethings who found techno, trip-hop, and dance as exotic as worldbeat. Before Portishead released their debut album, Dummy, in 1994, trip-hop's broad appeal wasn't apparent, but the record became an unexpected success in Britain, topping most year-end critics polls and earning the prestigious Mercury Music Prize; in America, it also became an underground hit. Following the success of Dummy, legions of imitators appeared over the next two years.  From: https://www.allmusic.com/artist/portishead-mn0000301619/biography

Twenty-five years ago, during the summer of Blur’s Parklife and Oasis’s Definitely Maybe, a darker, stranger record was released that would soon become huge. Its title and mood was inspired by a 1970s TV drama of the same name, about a young deaf woman in Yorkshire who becomes a prostitute. The lyrics spoke of emotional extremes, sung in an extraordinary, rural-tinged, English blues by the Devon-born Beth Gibbons, of “the blackness, the darkness, forever” in Wandering Star, or of the feeling that “nobody loves me, it’s true, not like you do” in Sour Times. It’s sound, woven together by Geoff Barrow and Adrian Utley, helped define what is known today in music as hauntology, the sampling of older, spectral sounds to evoke deeper cultural memories (Boards of Canada’s TV-sampling electronica, Burial’s dubstep, and the Ghost Box label’s folk horror soundworlds would follow their lead). But despite its starkness, Dummy became a triple-platinum seller and a Mercury prizewinner, perhaps because it struck a nerve in what Barrow calls our “sonic unconscious - when sounds can merge with other sounds from somewhere else, and ultimately create emotion”.  From: https://www.theguardian.com/music/2019/aug/24/portishead-dummy-wasnt-a-chillout-album-25th-anniversary-geoff-barrow-adrian-utley-beth-gibbons

Reggie Watts - Fuck Shit Stack

 #Reggie Watts #comedy #comedic music #electronic music #trip-hop #soul #alternative comedy #music video

Reginald Lucien Frank Roger Watts is an American comedian, actor, beatboxer, and musician. His improvised musical sets are created using only his voice, a keyboard, and a looping machine. Watts refers to himself as a "disinformationist" who aims to disorient his audience in a comedic fashion. He appeared on the IFC series Comedy Bang! Bang! and leads the house band for The Late Late Show with James Corden.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reggie_Watts

The dude is hilarious. I’ve been on this Reggie Watts kick for almost four months now, ever since my friend sent me a link to his music/comedy video, “Fuck, Shit, Stack,” parody of his view of hip-hop. Aside from the crazy hair that he said, “adds to his look,” Reggie was wearing a fitted Montana t-shirt, suspenders, and blinged out triple rings when he met me at the Ace Hotel in Manhattan last week. Watts is currently the opening act for Conan O’Brien on The Legally Prohibited from Being Funny on Television Tour and recently recorded material for his Comedy Central special Why Shit So Crazy? He’s most noted for his improv comedy, but has dipped and dabbled into music, theatre, and performing arts. Not only that, he’s Alice Walker’s second cousin (although he admits to never reading any of her work). Reggie’s currently in New York for a string of performances over the next several weeks, and we were lucky to catch up with him for a brief moment. Check out our exclusive interview with the man who makes profanity totally okay.

I heard you’re a fan of our site.

Yea, someone told me about the site and I like the idea of it highlighting an under represented phenomenon.

Phenomenon?

I mean, it’s just that it quantifies alternative black culture in a way where its in a place. It’s nice to pull it all together.

How do you fall into the odd mix of things?

I guess I do because I don’t carry on in my comedy and when I perform, like here is a black person. I never really think of it that way. It’s just me and I’m kind of just doing stuff. Often times, people remind me and then I’ll be like, oh yea. But I’m going to do the same thing. A Latino guy with a bandanna gets up on stage, I’m going to immediately go, okay, and then when he starts talking about particle physics, then I’m like, wow. That’s really cool. I like that getting what you don’t expect. So in essence, I like the celebration of getting things that you don’t expect when you think you know what’s about to happen.

Let’s talk comedy. What’s funny to you?

Anything absurd. That’s my favorite form of comedy. Making it irrelevant by making it silly.

Is that what your song, “Fuck Shit Stack” is all about? I know all of the dance moves.

The song developed organically because I haven’t really written anything. Sometimes things stick and I start repeating them in my routines. So I think that was over two years of development and growth. I was just fucking around with it, not really taking it seriously. Then Comedy Central wanted to put out my record so I decided to do “Fuck Shit Stack” as my single. So I had some points I wanted to hit in the video. It was awesome.

What was the meaning behind the video?

The song was me playing on the cliche of hip hop. I love the beats, but sometimes it’s just so stupid. They’re just repacking the same shit over and over again.

Is that what the fuck shit is stacking?

I’ve never really given the title a definition because everyone kind of gives it it’s own thing and I kind of like that. The tangible lyrics are pretty basic and it’s fun to use swear words.

Are there any hip-hop artists you want to share this song with?

I call it pop hop. Like Jay Z, it didn’t come from that but that’s where it is. Not saying that it’s not heart filled, but its Hollywood, its glossy, it’s lifestyle music but no one lives that lifestyle. So its catchy but its irrelevant because it’s someones ideal of what life is like which is unattainable to the masses. Its not adding to the good to life.

From: https://afropunk.com/2010/09/fuck-shit-stack-up-with-reggie-watts/

Bjork - Wanderlust

 #Bjork #art rock #avant-garde #experimental #electronica #alternative rock #glitch pop #psychedelia #trip-hop #neo-classical #singer-songwriter #ex-Sugarcubes #Icelandic #animated music video

Video production team Encyclopedia Pictura created the mind-boggling 3D video for Bjork's new single "Wanderlust".

Dazed Digital: What is Encyclopedia Pictura?
Isaiah Saxon: Right now Encyclopedia Pictura is Sean Hellfritsch and me, working together to make movies, often in collaboration with artists Daren Rabinovitch and Vanessa Waring. Soon it will be more people, working not just on movies, but on augmented reality applications and practical magic.

DD: How was it working with Bjork?
IS: Bjork is very tapped in. She assumed a position of support and generosity with us rather than a position of creative oversight. Her energy and focus were so strong that it pushed us to take this project on with a tremendous amount of mythological weight and tunnel vision enthusiasm.

DD: What's the basic concept of the video?
IS: Bjork is an archetypal nomad, shepherding giant yaks through the Mountains. She does hydromancy to decide whether to take them down a river or not. A second self, the Painbody Backpack, sprouts from her like a growth and then engages her in an action play which displays their relationship. The force which compelled Bjork to go down river begins to manifest itself in Bjork's head and in the physical world. This character, the Rivergod, is a transcendental attractor which pulls her into the future.

DD: How long did the video take to create? What was the hardest aspect?
IS: The video took nine months from concept art to us being pulled - kicking and screaming - from our computers. Sean had to become a 3D expert and build a 3D camera system and playback box and pioneer lots of DIY processes. For me the hardest aspect was trying to achieve an immersive, complete, and very specific aesthetic - because the only thing in the video that isn't hand crafted is bjork's face, hands, and feet. I used my own hands everyday but also worked with over 50 key artists to achieve the forms and textures of this world. We tried to lodge ideas into the forms and use the patterns and textures of these forms to transmit meaning to the viewer.

DD: What made you want to work with 3D in the age of YouTube?
IS: Well, firstly let me get out the news that 3D doesn't work on YouTube because of heavy color compression, which is what anaglyph 3D glasses rely on for decoding the 3D properly. A lot of people watch 3D on YouTube without knowing that they are actually looking at something that is way screwed up, or 'ghosted' in stereoscopic jargon. Secondly, why 3D? Because we see the ultimate transcendental function of art as "expanding the realms of direct experience." 3D allows a film to be more like direct experience and less detached and seperate from how we organically percieve. Right now technology is still trying to create better home viewing solutions (anaglyph sucks), but theatrically it’s already there. Because we are trying to touch people the best we can, we don't take into consideration the unfortunate current quality standards set by PooTube (or more accurately, the bandwidth limitations of today), but this will all be changing very soon.

From: https://www.dazeddigital.com/music/article/296/1/creating-bjorks-wanderlust-video

Emiliana Torrini - White Rabbit

 #Emiliana Torrini #alternative rock #trip-hop #electronica #dream pop #singer-songwriter #Icelandic #Jefferson Airplane cover

An Icelandic singer/songwriter whose music embraces elements of folk, electronica, pop/rock, and trip-hop, Emilíana Torrini has earned favorable comparisons to such vocally gifted artists as Beth Hirsch, Kirsty Hawkshaw, and Bjork. Torrini was raised in Kópavogur, where she worked at her father's Italian restaurant and attended opera school as a teenager. After releasing three albums in her native Iceland (Spoon, Crouçie D'où Là, and Merman), she joined forces with Tears For Fears’ Roland Orzabal to produce her first widely released effort, 1999's Love in the Time of Science. The famed Lord of the Rings director Peter Jackson heard her cool, otherworldly croon and approved Torrini to voice the finale music for 2002's The Two Towers, a job that Bjork had previously accepted before backing out due to pregnancy.  From: https://open.spotify.com/artist/08j69Ndyx1P7RLO3Janb5P

Beth Orton - She Cries Your Name

 #Beth Orton #folktronica #folk rock #trip-hop #contemporary folk rock #electronica #singer-songwriter

Beth Orton is the rare vocalist who exists between disparate worlds; she is a singer with a folkie soul who is as comfortable accompanied by an acoustic guitar as by electronic rhythms. Indeed, most people first heard her on William Orbit's Hinterland album and on the Chemical Brothers' Exit Planet Dust. Likewise, her slightly askance vocal style seems to betray naiveté, while lyrically there is a world-weary depth that the latest spate of tough-talking Lolitas cannot muster. Each song's closely observed details create small ripples that grow to substantial emotional waves by album's end; this very promising debut (Trailer Park) should be the harbinger of great things to come from Orton, with or without the help of a Lilith Fair or anything beyond the integrity of her songs and the wise lilt of her voice.  From: https://www.amazon.com/Trailer-Park-Beth-Orton/dp/B000003RSF

As if being the poster girl for a convoluted sub-genre like folktronica weren’t bad enough, Beth Orton of Norfolk, England has also tried to live down (so far unsuccessfully) a phenomenal debut that was evidently a case of sheer timing — and quite possibly a baldfaced fluke. Her world-weary yet somehow still ingenuous voice — a seamless patchwork of the best Carole King and Rickie Lee Jones have to offer — has continued to be a pleasure.
Orton entered the scene through the agency of artist-producer William Orbit, a man able to make even Madonna sound cool. Calling themselves Spill, the duo put out a single in ’92 (a cover of cult guitarist John Martyn’s “Don’t Wanna Know ‘Bout Evil”), with plans for a full-length album that evolved into Beth’s SuperPinkyMandy. A limited release for the Japanese market, the album collects ten Orbit-influenced soundscapes, including the Spill single and the first version of Orton’s signature tune, “She Cries Your Name” (which would resurface in different form on Orbit’s Strange Cargo series). After Spill was spent, she continued working with Orbit, and added memorably to tracks by the Chemical Brothers and Red Snapper, undertakings that made her something of a traveling big beat/acid jazz diva.
In ’96 she slowed down her guest-spot rotations to put out the introductory She Cries Your Name EP (re-released the following year with different songs) and the remarkable Trailer Park. Despite the sun-drenched cover shot, this is music for cloudy days. A unifying tone — as strong as any concept album around — makes even pretty ear candy like “Don’t Need a Reason” and “Sugar Boy” sound as perfectly sad as the mandolin-trimmed “Whenever” and the simple retelling of the Ronettes’ “I Wish I Never Saw the Sunshine.” For those in line for the trip-hop Beth’s known for, you’ll have some time to kill: producer/DJ Andrew Weatherall (Primal Scream, the Orb) steps in for three tracks of lingering beats (“Galaxy of Emptiness” being the best), but it’s delicate pop like “Someone’s Daughter” that fills the gaps. A new take on “She Cries Your Name” is the album’s apex, a faultless blend of acoustic picking, lush strings and Red Snapper’s Ali Friend on double bass.
From: https://trouserpress.com/reviews/beth-orton/

Bjork - I Miss You

 #Bjork #art rock #avant-garde #experimental #electronica #alternative rock #glitch pop #psychedelia #trip-hop #neo-classical #singer-songwriter #ex-Sugarcubes #Icelandic #1990s #animated music video #Spumco #John K

Ren & Stimpy creator John Kricfalusi has made his first music video for Icelandic beauty Björk, who is an equally outrageous and innovative artist. Illustrating the song "I Miss You," the video features John K's stupid yet loveable character Jimmy the Idiot Boy cavorting with a bubbly animated version of the singer. A variety of techniques are used, including traditional 2-D cel animation by Kricfalusi's own Spumco Productions and Colorkey Productions, 3-D computer animation supervised by Charlie Gibson at Rhythm & Hues, real-time motion-capture animation by House of Moves, plus blue screen mattes bringing in live-action into the mix. (The live-action sequences with Björk were shot in a Los Angeles studio in just one day.) Björk, a long-time fan of Kricfalusi's work, insisted that he do a video for her when they met at one of her concerts. She was so pleased when she first saw John's storyboard that she apparently proclaimed, "It's just like Christmas!" and did not ask for any changes. The video is becoming something of a novelty, since MTV edited the director's cut to remove an end sequence featuring the animated Jimmy and Björk dancing underneath what look like a cross between rubber nipples and condoms on top of her actual (live-action) chest. It is ironic that the network cut that sequence while keeping shots of Björk violently ripping up a chicken, and even Jimmy himself. But fret not, devoted fans; the director's cut can be seen in rotation on that other music channel, The Box, as well as on MTV's new alternative sister network M2. The video is also included in promotions of the new RealVideo technology, which enables full-motion video to be displayed over the Internet.  From: https://www.awn.com/mag/issue1.12/articles/jacksoncapsule1.12.html

Björk Guðmundsdóttir was born in Reykjavík, Iceland, in 1965. Technically she recorded her first album as an 11-year-old; she sings the Beatles’ “The Fool on the Hill” in Icelandic. A decade or so later, she joined the Sugarcubes, Iceland’s premiere art-rock band. They sounded like Twilight Zone Roxette. The first and best Sugarcubes record, Life’s Too Good - it’s got “Motorcrash” on it - came out in 1988, the year they played Saturday Night Live. The Sugarcubes put out two more records and had a beguiling junk-drawer chemistry to them, but anytime Björk’s voice pulled into anything past second gear, it was obvious where she was headed - or, let’s say it was obvious that only she knew where she was headed. And thus, in 1993, did her real first solo album arrive. She called it Debut. In her first music video as a solo artist, for her first single, “Human Behavior,” she is eaten by a bear. Debut’s genre, if you gotta assign a genre to it, is Björk. Björk makes Björk music. There’s a needle to thread here though, as her star ascends in 1993, and as we gird ourselves for the decades of Björk excellence and flamboyance to come. A quick summary of the last 25, 30 years of Björk. The truly extraordinary run of mind-bending music videos. “Bachelorette” especially, shout-out Michel Gondry. The increasingly avant-garde album covers. Utopia especially. The titanic avant-pop influence of the albums themselves, Post and 1997’s Homeogenic especially. The Timbaland album. The beatboxing album. The phone-app album. The starring role in Dancer in the Dark. The Oscars swan dress. The coffee-table book. The other book. The other other book. Like 400 box sets and compilations and so forth. Lotta box sets. The MOMA exhibit nobody liked. The multimedia magical-realist universe that revolves around her. The needle to thread here, the challenge to accept here, is to marvel at the inimitable Björk-ness of Björk without infantilizing her or merely caricaturing her. There’s a tendency to reduce her to a woodland-fairy-type late-night-comedy routine. Remember when Winona Ryder did a Björk impression on Saturday Night Live, in a Celebrity Jeopardy! skit, in 2002? That’s the exact moment the ’90s truly ended, just FYI.  From: https://www.theringer.com/2021/4/21/22395193/bjork-hyperballad-post-history

Whale - Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe

 #Whale #alternative rock #experimental rock #indie rock #grunge #noise rock #electronic #trip-hop #1990s #Swedish #music video 

Whale was a Swedish alternative rock group active from 1992 to 1999. Musician, record producer, and sound engineer Gordon Cyrus and comedian, actor, musician and radio and television personality Henrik Schyffert met while working on a commercial and decided to collaborate on a music track. Schyffert recruited his then-girlfriend, Cia Berg, to perform vocals. The band enjoyed some success, particularly in the European market. Their first single, 1993's "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe", was positively received by critics and received heavy spins in the Euro dance club scene and saturation airplay on MTV. The music video for "Hobo Humpin' Slobo Babe", directed by Mark Pellington, won the first MTV Europe Music Award for Best Video in 1994.  From: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Whale_(band)