The fine folks at QOOB have commissioned 10 folks to create original short films on the topics of speed and freedom promoting Alfa Romeo's new Mi.To car, kicking off a serious promotion spree that involves a film-making contest. So far, films by Trey Hock and myself have been released on the QOOB site, with more to hit soon...

 

One of my favorite labels these days is Creation Centre, an experimental electronic label run by Trevor Sias of Music Related. About the label in his own words:

 "Creation Centre was created as a platform to get music to people faster than traditional record pressing and distribution. Creation Centre believes that artists' creativity can be held back by slow release schedules, distribution delays and other hassles. Plus, Creation Centre is an exploration of a new distribution idea, already in use by software manufacturers. All releases on creation centre are free. Though if you like, you can give the artist a donation, as much or as little as you choose. If anything at all. Creation Centre keeps none of the money. All of the donation goes completely to the artist. Please tell your friends, post links, and enjoy Creation Centre."

There is some really amazing music available. In particular, the Marxy EP, Mesomeso EP, and Sias' alter-ego Pandatone's EP. All are worth checking out. 

Sias moonlights as a motion graphics designer and animator. To he and those who create content outside of the workplace, I salute you!

The seventh annual Portland Documentary and eXperimental Film Festival (PDX Fest, for short!) is just two short weeks away! This year the festival will be taking place at the historic Hollywood Theatre from April 30 – May 4, 2008.  We will also be hosting an exciting sidebar program of video installation work and multi-media performances at galleryHomeland. This year's festival is easily our biggest yet featuring five jam-packed days of provocative, artistic and firmly uncompromising films and videos from around the globe.  The full schedule is now up for your eager eyes at www.peripheralproduce.com. Check it out!

Click to read more ...

It's been a vaguely exciting month over at Néojaponisme. We've debuted the first English review of Kawakami Mieko's 138th Akutagawa Prize-winning text Chichi to Ran (『乳と卵』, “Breasts and Eggs”), a questionable graphic novella I did years ago in Japanese, a retro review of an even more questionable Japanese submarine action thriller, talked about the northern islands ceded to Russia by Japan following World War II, dropped bootleg Cornelius radio broadcasts galore, some crappy type design, and an enquiry into Japan's attempt to reform its visual language.

There is much, much in store in the next year: limited edition clothing with a certain clothing giant and more...

If you are in LA and are vaguely interested in things Nihonesque, make sure to check out Néojaponisme Editor-in-chief W.  David Marx speaking at J-Wave at UCLA TOMORROW. A more crucial, engaging, and enlightening presentation on global fashion is going to be difficult to find.

Above: the non-LP b-side image that didn't accompany the Murakami review.

Death by Audio is a small effect pedal company / venue based out of Brooklyn, NY. We specialize in making one of a kind custom fuzz, overdrive, distortion, noise makers, oscillators, filters, white/pink noise generators, vocal delay, octavia, ring modulation, feedback inducers, sub bass boosters, interference, wah, anti-wah, modulation, light control, splitters, couplers, true bypass loops, loops with boosters, simple samplers, drum modules, tremelo, rotary sound simulator pedals, and will try to make anything you need to make your music sound the way you want it to. We also have a line of effect pedals that offer a unique approach to sound sculpting and manipulation. Go to the site and check it out. deathbyaudio.net (discription taken from DBAMYSPACE) DBA also has shows!!

 

Teenage Engineering, a multi-disciplinary studio from Sweden, recently invented Absolut Choir, an interactive music machine. The choir responds to your musical input with it’s own creative output. Physically the machine is located in Stockholm, but can be interacted with by anyone over the internet. The website will email you a video of your performance when the time is up. I really appreciate the Little People-ish forms and Wendy Carlos inspired sounds. Photos by Erik Sjödin

A group art show celebrating one year of The Family Bookstore. Opening Feb 28, 8pm - March 31The show includes a range of mediums: from oil paintings by Dave Eggers, music videos by Mike Mills for Barr, etchings by Ashley Macomber, photography by Will Oldham, water-colours by Kyle Field, drawings by Geoff Mcfetridge, sign art by Aaron Rose, and embroideries by Vanessa Davis. Original works by: Geoff Mcfetridge, Aaron Rose, Will Oldham, Joanne Oldham, Dave Eggers, Paper Rad, Ian Svenonius, Mike Mills, Cheryl Dunn, Shary Boyle, Phil Elverum, Ashley Macomber, Sammy Harkham, Andrew Jeffrey Wright, Simon Evans / Sarah Lannan, Matt Brinkman, Lori D, Ron Rege Jr, Kyle Field, Will Sweeney, Trinie Dalton, Sumi Ink Club, Cayce Cole, Mudboy, CF, Vanessa Davis. (description taken from here) - Come out support Family tonight, one of the most amazing bookstores on the planet.

 There was nothing inevitable about the development of the Shibuya-kei music movement in Japan. This revolutionary cultural explosion and rambunctious insertion of new influences into the stale domestic industry came from the fingertips of a few individuals — most importantly, Oyamada Keigo and Ozawa Kenji of the band Flipper’s Guitar.
Even though Flipper’s broke up suddenly in October 1991, they managed to establish the sonic palette that would guide both Japanese indie and popular music until the end of the century. Apart from their actual albums and singles, Oyamada and Ozawa influenced tastes through a monthly column in Takarajima as well as a weekly half-hour radio show on FM Yokohama entitled “Martians Go Home” (マーシャンズ・ゴー・ホーム). Handing two bratty 22 year-olds (with no proper management company affiliation) keys to the airwaves could have been a disaster (or more likely, boring), but being the country’s premier foreign music nerds, they introduced listeners to an incredibly wide range of obscure music, including UK Neo-Acoustic, 60s Groove Jazz, Psychedelic Pop, “Funk-a-Latina”, Madchester, and fellow Japanese indie bands. The United States enjoyed “college rock radio” as the medium for diffusing musical innovation in the ’80s, and although the scale was much smaller, “Martians Go Home” played a similar role in “educating” an entire generation in Japan.
Oyamada Keigo now plays music under the name Cornelius, one of the most interesting musicians/sound designers in Japan. Now on Néojaponisme: 17 year old long lost tapes of what came to shape Japanese indie music. Come see for yourself what's so interesting.

A ton of new (and/or recontextualized) content up on Néojaponisme from Mumbleboy, E*Rock, Jean Snow, Eiko Nagase (AQ/Tokyo Art Beat), Audrey Fodecave Tsujimura (OK Fred Magazine), Nobuo Ikeda, Matt Treyvaud, and David Marx. Includes an article about a weird 80s skiing movie from Japan (with video); the removal of rum, sodomy and the lash from Japan's production of the musical Hair; intense illustrations; Japan's infatuation with raw concrete architecture; and inspired collages.

Mark Owens will be discussing graphic design, synthpop, & béton brut
Sunday 18 November 2007, 9pm

MANDRAKE 2692 S La Cienega Blvd
Los Angeles, CA 90034
(Between Venice Blvd & Washington Blvd)

Swerve is a new annual festival that celebrates west coast creative culture. It's happening in LA at the end of this month and features art curated by Aaron Rose, musical performaces including Bonde Do Role, the new Ian Curtis (Joy Division) biopic Control, a documentary about Steve Rocco and more. Image: Thomas Campbell

Long overdue, Neojaponisme launches with an initial manifesto, outlining the magazine's strategy for broadcasting cutural criticism, design writing, historical essays, music, and original artwork from Japan to the world.

 

Existing to encourage the heroic experiments of the gracefully over-ambitious, Machine Project presents workshops, events, installations and performances on a semi-regular basis. For more information check out the mission statement. (taken from http://www.machineproject.com) Call in sick for work and take some workshops.

The highly influential Gary Wilson, born in New York, October 1953 and made his way west only to be lost and then rediscovered in 2004 by the Los Angeles' Stones Throw Records. GW-wiki article GW-Videos

Great podcastic music. Lovefingers

If Lust and Bob Moog ever had kids he or she would be Reactable. Bjork has been using RT live.

E*Rock and cohorts multiple aliases as Audio Dregs, Fryk Beat, and/or WyldFile definitely keep the visuals really strange and D.I.Y., the beats tight, and the art damaged. The new Panther CD + DVD on FrykBeat is no different, and contains some of the top hits of the season.
The Light
&
Sound
of
Weirdness

Mold Recordings is a new record label based in Yokohama, Japan run by
award-winning graphic designer and writer Ian Lynam. The goal behind Mold
is to focus on a favored medium: the 7” record. Each record features deluxe
packaging with care and attention paid to materials (thick Czech vinyl,
Japanese papers, B-side etching) and processes (detailed mastering, elegant
typography, multi-pass screen-printing). Mold Recordings

Im very intrigued. Ghost Box is an independent music label for artists that find inspiration in library music albums, folklore, vintage electronics, and the school music room.

Initiated as a home for Simon Pyke’s Freeform music project, the Freefarm has evolved to house the complete spectrum of sound design and music.

Freefarm Website