Tag: fantastic
it breaks my heart that it’s statisically likely that I will outlive Brian Eno
Brian Eno on framing improvisations:
And some of the other structuring ideas are completely conceptual in the sense that I might say, “Imagine it’s the year 2064 and all digital music has been destroyed in a huge digital accident, an electromagnetic pulse or something like that. So, all we know about the music between 2010 or 2030 is hearsay. There don’t exist any recordings. We’ve read about a kind of music that existed in the suburbs of Shanghai in 2015 to 2018, and this music was played on–” then you specify a group of instruments– “was played on, say, industrial tools, such as steel hammers, and augmented with samplers and various electronic versions of some Chinese instruments. And it was intensely repetitive and played at ear-splitting volume,” for example. So, we then, taking that brief, try to imagine what that music would be like, and we try to make it.
Found via Warren.
instant platonic anything friends
Been addicted to Omegle all day, the chat program which connects you to a completely random stranger. I just wished a gay Brazilian teenager good luck on his exams, after spending a quite significant chunk of my day in a rather gratifying discussion with a Swedish student named Phillip about med school, music, Italian earthquakes, and, finally, the current global economic downturn and what it’s been going to Iceland. It’s also freaking fantastic for surreal fun, so much so I’m going to start a file of my favourite saved conversations. Have you got any?
socalled music
I have a new musical obsession.
Brainchild of musician, photographer, magician and writer, Josh Dolgin, they’re a Jewish-culture Montreal Jazz-Klezmer Hip-Hop group with shimmering 1920’s piano and Romanian/Latin-American percussion.
Seriously.
Their latest single, You are Never Alone, begins with a soft clip, reminiscent of The Avalanches, and drops down into a catchy riff which positively throbs with promise, clearing the way for a theatrical bout of MC story-telling. It all works exceptionally well with the video, a fantastical transformation of Mr. Dolgin into a complicated, high-tech re-imagining of an antique theatre. (You might remember their rough video with (these are the) good old days too).
“Truly these are the good old days where man, woman, and child can all log on the internet and text message each other across their own house, where there is any form of contraceptive from solid, liquid, to gas, we have reached the point of civilization like the Incans reached when they had gold roads and the Egyptians reached when they had, like, magical buildings and secret things, so what you do is you kiss whoever you kiss, grab whoever you grab, because these are truly the good old days and it does not get any better than this. When it does you wake up and then you’re dead.”
I’ve had their latest album, Ghettoblaster, on infinite repeat since I found a copy. I can’t not. From the clever intro, the sound of someone slotting a cassette into a car tape-deck, to the bonus hidden remix track, it’s eclectic, relevant, wickedly smart, funny, and perishingly sexy. It groans and grins, powerfully melodic, full of cultural anthropology, swinging horn solos, splashes of Yiddish rap, layers of juicy, highly literate rhythms, and a willowy, elegantly stretched sense of timing. Even unexpected clips of musicians talking in the studio are beautiful, adding a charming depth of personality and character to moments that might have been weak without them. As a hint, their wikipedia entry states some of their almost inexplicable, modern style as “…drums & bass and other types of folk music.”
It’s only when you start to really listen do you realize how gracefully strange their punchy melding of cultures really is, how tightly they wove what should have been a vocal sprawl. Every song is really its own mysterious and wonderfully imaginative mood, an entire exploration into genre. Each time I pay attention, another thread of creativity manifests. Banjo, for example, it has banjo? I missed that it’s practically glittering with banjo? Yes, apparently, I think, rewinding and playing again. How rare.
BUY THE ALBUM: it’s not even $10.
(find them on MySpace)
(the socalled video blog)
Where the Hell is Matt? in Vancouver!
Matt from WhereTheHellisMatt will be in Vancouver on September 5th!
I’m deliciously excited. As far as I’m concerned, he’s Living The Dream.
Hi folks
If you’re getting this email, you’ve either signed-up on my site to be notified or you’ve written to me and mentioned where you live. I’m finally coming to Canada to shoot clips for my new dancing video. This is an invitation to come out and join me.
The last video was about places. This one is about people. LOTS of people. So I’m not too concerned about the background; I just want a place where we can gather peaceably and dance badly without getting arrested.
No country in the world has sent as many emails about being included in the next video. I usually just go to one major city, but for Canada I’ll be visiting three. Here are the details:
Vancouver, BC – Wednesday, September 5th, dancing at 6pm at the Inukshuk
Sculpture near English Bay Park
Map: http://tinyurl.com/2l3skcToronto, ON – Sunday, September 9th, dancing at 3pm at HTO Park on the water
near the CN Tower
Map: http://tinyurl.com/2rregxMontreal, QC – Tuesday, September 11th, dancing at 6pm at Place des Arts
Map: http://tinyurl.com/36p6c2The images attached to this email show where to meet at each location.
I know a lot of you are nowhere near any of those places, but based on where most people are signing up from, those three make the most sense. Your country is enormous.
For folks willing to travel long distances, Craigslist.com has a ride share page for all three cities. Those offering rides and those in need of rides can go there. We recommend including “Where the Hell is Matt” in the title of your post so people can search more easily. Here are the ride share
pages:Vancouver: http://vancouver.craigslist.org/rid/
Toronto: http://toronto.craigslist.org/rid/
Montreal: http://montreal.craigslist.org/rid/Please reply to this email if you plan to attend and let us know how many people you think you’ll be bringing. It’ll help to give us an idea of how many to expect.
If you can’t make any of these locations, but you can reach US locations like Chicago, Boston, or New York, let us know and we’ll send you the appropriate invite.
Boring details below. Read no further if you can’t make it: if you can make it, here are your instructions
