Industries

Janie Geiser

Julian kindly sent this one, a kind of sur-reel dream diorama about algebra by filmmaker Janie Geiser. Lovely sounds as well.

Trafic: L'art conceptuel au Canada

Reading this great book falling asleep holding baby. So many inspiring images... similar to this.

Top to bottom...
Vera Frenkel, String Games (1974)
Parachute magazine, from Montreal in mid-70s
Marcella Bienvenue, I Believe in Myself (1979)
Roy Kiyooka, Long Beach to Peggy's Cove (1971)
N.E. Thing Co., N.E. Thing Co. Hockey Team (1972)
Mediart magazine (1972)
Gordon Kidd et Martin Bartlett, image extraite de Light-On (1971)
Ian Carr-Harris, Wendy Sage Being Compared (1973)

Belbury Poly / Spacedog

The always inspiring Belbury Poly teams up with Brighton sound artists Spacedog for the latest Ghost Box 7". I've been listening to it a lot and keep finding new swirls and eddies to get caught up in. I love how Jim Jupp throws the avant garde switch on and off here, like Franco Battiato doing interlude music for ITV schools programmes (He will think I'm crazy but I'm also hearing a little Neneh Cherry in some of these tracks, which I love). And it looks like he has done it again in the form of a new radio mix over at The Belbury Parish Magazine.

Sarah and Jenny Angliss of Spacedog fit right into the house that Ghost Box built -- it would be cool to see all these people in one room performing live. Or only partly 'live'; in addition to theremin and electronics, Sarah Angliss also commands an array of vaudevillian robots and Bruce Lacey-style automata. Read and see more here... Creepy! Perfect!

Oy Anam Oy

I think Arda Kardes was a widely known performer in Turkey in the 70s -- possibly the son of a famous musician, similar to Astrud Gilberto's child. I like how he just free associates over this Finders Keepers style spooky jam...

This is Tomorrow

In these sleepless first few weeks I've had time to catch up on late night TV with my new, very awake viewing buddy. One thing we cued up recently was A London Trilogy, a new DVD compiling Saint Etienne and Paul Kelly's recent documentaries. I really liked This is Tomorrow, a film about the Festival of Britain and the rebuilding of the Royal Festival Hall. Great sequences of designer Robin Day and the gigantic looms used to fabricate the replica seat textiles and carpets. Plus some amazing BBC test card-ish neo-library music by Saint Etienne.

Thanks for all the good wishes everybody. We're all doing great here and getting to know one another. Sinjin's a very sweet boy and has made things pretty easy on us so far. He was a couple weeks early so is a bit on the small side, but he's feisty and has taken to feeding really well. I like the side eye he's giving me in the last photo.

Pyramid Sounds

WOW. This is the best mix I have heard in a long, long time. Reposting from perennial favorite I•HATE•THIS•FILM, one of the best blogs out there. Next-dimension celluloid squiggles and classroom percussion exercises, all culled from 16mm films that you have never heard of. This is absolutely stunning.

it's a boy!

my wife and i welcomed a beautiful baby boy early yesterday morning, our first. mother and child are both happy and healthy. we love him so much.

Clementine Hunter

LAFMS

I've been listening to a lot of Los Angeles Free Music Society lately. Can anyone school me on these folks please? I only know this ten-CD retrospective, but that's probably more than enough to chew on for now. Beautiful art-damaged noise skronk. I like how they wear signature hats, like a pyramid version of Devo's tiered energy domes. Since the ten CDs are a little overwhelming, here's a somewhat random mix of twenty tunes I like (best listened to on shuffle).

I Remember

WOWOWOWOWOW! Matt Wolf's I Remember: A Film About Joe Brainard. Here.

Films Division

A few things I am feeling, mostly out of the psych/modernist ferment of 80s (yes, 80s) India. One place I keep returning to is the Films Division youtube page. The Films Division is an organ of the Indian state, part of the Ministry of Info, charged with making public service announcements, documentary shorts, TV specials, etc. Around August or so they put out a really amazing batch of archival films. They are all good, but I really like the following. Crazy music all around, and there's this atemporal thing going on where styles and sounds from the 80s, 70s, and 60s all cross-pollinate.







And then there's this film from 1984 called Khandhar. This has been my main musical inspiration lately. Check out the opening theme at 1:30.

The net magazine east of borneo, which is pretty much the best thing I've seen lately, also has an interesting article by Alexander Keefe about composer David Tudor, cooking, architecture, and the first moogs in Ahmedabad (pic below)



...and lastly, check out these amazing images from India's first design magazine, Inside Outside, designed by Deepankar Bhattacharyya (images via his blog).