We've met Etienne De Crécy before in the Motorbass posts (*,*). Here's his last solo project, an album of great craftsmanship and undeniable beauty; I'll only say that it's kept me company for all these years without losing even a drop of its appeal.
Where 'Pansoul' was a nocturnal urban affair, this one is full of sunlight and melodies - expect slo-mo filter disco, electronic funk and breaks, plus lots of twisted synths and sensual voices. Its commercial success was rather easy to predict; it rightly deserved all the attention it got. I also posted the remix compilation released a couple of years later, mostly top notch french house at its weirdest, along with three included videos.
Although Zdar continues releasing stuff as Cassius, I've lost de Crecy's tracks. An early retirement, possibly?
Etienne de Crécy - 2000 Tempovision
Info here.
Etienne de Crécy - 2002 Tempovision Remixes
Info here.
Etienne de Crécy - 2002 Tempovision Videos
More from him later on.
Tempovision
Ocean Club
I've mentioned Gudrun Gut and the Ocean Club before here and here, so I won't go into all that again. Just remember: Malaria! and Monika Enterprise. Anyway, this is the 2CD version of the Ocean Club album I was looking for back then (took me a year and a half... nice...).
The first CD is a reprint of the original 1996 album, with some video clips added (posted separately). Honestly, sometimes it sounds like trance made by non-dancers and it did so back when it was first released; but a couple of tracks are good and guests include Blixa, Anita Lane, etc (see pic above).
The second CD is a compilation of remixes from the several 12"s they released, by artists like (...deep breath...) Klaus Schulze, The Orb, Thomas Fehlmann, Ian Pooley, Paul Van Dyk, Ellen Allien, Effective Force and more; definitely the one to check first, some dreamy moments inside here, plus a lot of trancey tracks for those who can take it.
Gudrun Gut - 1996 Members Of The Ocean Club
Gudrun Gut - 1996 the Ocean Club videos
Gudrun Gut - 2004 Mixes For The Ocean Club
Info here and here.
Welcome to Lucky People Center
I first watched the outstanding 'Lucky People Center International' film in a VHS copy, at about the same time I watched 'Modulations' (*) and 'Synthetic Pleasures'; at about 1999, I think.
I knew nothing of LPC, save that they were a Swedish collective. Took me 5 or 6 years to find out bits about them, and only thanks to sites like imdb, discogs, etc. The film was actually made by Erik Pauser and Johan Söderberg (definitely check his adorable site for more); some info here. Bringing in mind Coldcut's audio/video sampledelic cut-ups and musically focusing on fast acidic beats, the film is a trip around the globe, people-focused and compassionate. Using fast-paced editing followed by gentle breaks of stillness and heart-aching beauty, the film touches on trivia such as alternate states of consciousness, the importance of dancing and singing, the clash between free will and society's restrictions; and of course death. Human stuff, you know. I was actually planning on posting the film itself, when I found out that it's reprinted on DVD and it's available for sale through one of the the directors' shop. It's so good it'd be a shame of you to pass it by.
So, I choose to post their breaks influenced debut CD instead. But I still think that the 'just music' CD version lacks a bit when compared to the original video cut-ups; just check this one, then go to soderberg.tv, press 'Musicvideo', then 'LPC' and click on 'Rodney King' or 'Live In The World' and you'll know what I mean.
LPC - 1993 Welcome to Lucky People Center
Info here.
3MCs&1DJ
And since we're into video, here's a lesson in DIY promotion by the Beastie Boys.
And here's Mix Master Mike's angle.
Atari Teenage Riot
I had the honor (not exactly pleasure...) of witnessing Atari Teenage Riot live back in 1998. Yet this video shows more accurately their true colors. Respect.
And pigs will always be pigs.
Metoroporisu
And since we're on a Metropolis trip, here's a post I did some time ago for Surreal Moviez.
2001 Metoroporisu
aka Osamu Tezuka's Metropolis
Director: Rintaro
Runtime: 113'
Language: Japanese (w/ soft English subtitles)
IMDb Link: http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0293416/
Links here.
Description:
"Metropolis is both a collaboration and an homage to four disparate auteurs. The movie harks back to Fritz Lang’s classic expressionist film Metropolis (1927) but is also directly inspired by the Metropolis manga created by the 'god of manga', Tezuka Osamu in 1949. The movie itself is an interface between the director Rintaro, known for such previous manga adaptations as Galaxy 1999 and screenwriter/ director Otomo Katsuhiro of Akira fame.
The result is a visually stunning and sometimes haunting work, set in a near future urbanized world in which robots and humans interact - always warily and sometimes tragically. The beautiful robot Tima echoes the 'two Marias' of Lang’s film, invoking the specter / hope of the oppressed rising against elite exploitation, but Tima is ultimately a far more complex figure than any of Lang’s creations. The gorgeous quasi-apocalyptic ending also sends us to a darker place than Lang’s vision of hand and heart combining, but that place resonates painfully well with millennium society, whether Japanese or Western."
(from http://austinfilm.org/node/194)
Top aesthetics, top story, top anime. Neither just a simple adaptation of Lang's classic nor a typical techno-fetischistic epic. In its way unique. Just get it.
Stranger Than Kindness
Aufgang live
So, it's not a post about a lost Voigt project.
I've come to like InFiné more and more recently, a french label I had noticed but overlooked, until I came upon Donso's magical 'Somono Foly' EP. After a little research I found out it's Agoria's label, a guy that I totally respect and adore his music since the first time I heard it - so here I am now trying to hunt down those (elusive in Greece) 12''s whenever I can.
Releases are mostly produced/mixed by Agoria, while music comes from icons like The Hacker and Apparat, new rising stars like Danton Eeprom, Rone, Cubenx, Douglas Greed, Clara Moto and Fraction, plus the pianist Fransesco Tristano.
Every 12" is virtually different from the next one, most of them drawing from the generic techno background, yet common ground ends here. You might hear influences from IDM, italo disco, deep house, electro, neo-classical and trance - mostly combined in weird forms, in varying proportions so that each track is more or less unique. (Even more) exceptional releases are the aforementioned Donso one, combining Malinese vocals, deep beats and quirky percussions and the piano-based landscapes of the Fransesco Tristano ones, together with Rami Khalifé and Aymeric Westrich as Aufgang.
So, a live recording of a recent Aufgang concert is found at the Grandcrew site, here.
Also check earlier posted Carl Craig vs Fransesco Tristano concert here, and a collection of Infine videos here.
It's so good to feel that a label owner really cares for delivering something special and different than the rest of the current music production, breaking down commercially oriented style rules and trying weird combinations. By the way, Agoria's last album (the OST for Luc Besson's film 'Go Fast') is just incredible.
Long live InFiné, you have my total respect.
Berlin Outsiders Inside
Berlin Outsiders Inside from Liam Turner on Vimeo.
P.S. A Londoner visitor's view of Berlin; while the creators spend much of their time drawing comparisons between the local and their hometown's scene (typical), they visit a few places trying to grasp that special Berlin mood - ex-squat Tacheles, punk/HC store Core Tex and Tresor Club. The filming succeeds at least to portrait a part of the city's downtown, the architecture and the graffiti and all. The sound is a bit crap, though; and the Thomas Morr interview is indeed short.P.S.2 Oops, the video is off. If I find it somewhere around it'll be posted again.
UR band live @DEAF 2005
person 2 person
city 2 city
state 2 state
nation 2 nation
planet 2 planet
galaxy 2 galaxy
part 1 - part 2
part 3 - part 4
part 5 - part 6
part 7 - part 8
This is a video from the live performance of the UR's Galaxy 2 Galaxy band for the Dublin Electronic Arts Festival, possibly 2005, about 75' long. The camera jerks a bit, still quality's good, considering it's practically a bootleg recording.
If you don't have it already, don't even think to pass it by.
P.S. Turns out it was not a D.E.M.F., but instead a D.E.A.F. concert (never been to either, real pity). My bad, yet it was misnamed from the start. Thanx to Fan we now know, so rename the file at will. The concert is also stored in the D.E.A.F. archive (www.thearchiver.net) as audio and video in various direct download forms here.
Autobahn animation
An 13' animation from 1979, inspired by the famous Kraftwerk track.
Where I picked it up (?...) , it mentioned that it was a back-projection for the group's live shows, which I considered to be a misunderstanding - the track hails from 1974 and by 1979 they had already fallen apart. It turned out it's actually a very early work of Roger Mainwood (better known for more commercial children animations, also check here) intended for printing on those huge video laser-disks, as mentioned here. Remember those, anyone? Anyway, it's a real '70s treat, all hand-drawn psychedelic art and stuff. Not much to do with the group's futuristic aesthetics actually, but in the end it works as a whole.
Kraftwerk - 1979 Autobahn animation
by Roger Mainwood
Check their cute Flash site here.
Most of us non-German-speaking people have probably missed the original versions of their songs, especially from the later era, which is a shame as they sound even more authentic than the international ones. Voices are more expressive and fluid, even sounding sarcastic at times (in the 'Model', for example) - far from the clinical, robotic profile they projected especially in the US. A (rather pumped up) german guy I met after the one Kraftwerk concert I've attended seemed seriously bumped due to their english singing, a reaction I then interpreted as exaggerations due to habit, or even downright chauvinism. It seemed appropriate to comment now on this, since it's my first post on them, I'm not german and since then I've realized how right the guy was.
A lot of documentaries on this seminal group can be streamed from YouTube, give it a try.
Trans Metro Express
To tell you the truth, I don't quite remember how I got there.
Still, this is the site and this is the video:
Trans Metro Express - Mikkel Metal in the Copenhagen Metro from Metro on Vimeo.
Imaginary Landscapes
A 1989 documentary on Brian Eno, in swf stream.
Big thanx to Those City Nights blog for letting us know.
Imaginary Landscapes
And while you're over there, check all documentaries in general and this one in particular.
Versus
Check this video stream:
October 18, 2008
VERSUS: Carl Craig
At Cité de la Musique, Paris, France
Carl Craig teams up with Francesco Tristano (and Moritz von Oswald) in Paris to combine his music, beats and a full orchestra (see Jeff Mills' earlier attempt 'Blue Potential').
I won't judge. My love for these artists is granted.
Mills' DVD I've watched once, not in full if I remember correctly. This one kept me for more, still it got awkward at times. The 'ReComposed' excerpt was really good, 'At Les' likewise; but over all it sounded... just interesting. That is, nice to listen to once, possibly a few times more - but that's it. And I'm a big fan of orchestral sounds; yet I felt that both these attempts had something missing there...
Anyway. What you ought to do is watch the 'Credits' section, where at the end of the show Carl Craig shakes the hand of each and every one of the orchestra musicians on stage. All of them. Then draws the Man out of the curtains, gathers everyone in front for the people to give them credit for the concert, then quietly leaves. Watch it.
P.S. (2009-09-15) Another Craig attempt, this time combining his electronic sounds with jazz improvs by Marcus Belgrave, Doug Hammond and Harold McKinney. Here.
