Archive for ‘Art’

April 21, 2012

Noisia

noisia

Noisia, stylized as NOISIΛ (‘VISION’ rotated 180°), is a Dutch electronic music trio consisting of Nik Roos, Martijn van Sonderen, and Thijs de Vlieger from The Netherlands. They produce drum and bass, dubstep, breakbeat, and house music.

For a time between 2005 and 2009, NOISIΛ also released tracks under the name ‘Drifter,’ encompassing the lighter side of Drum and Bass known as ‘Liquid Funk,’ as well as releasing a EP under the name ‘Hustle Athletics.’ They later decided to go back to releasing all their music under the name ‘NOISIΛ’ so as to not confuse the audience and to avoid being pigeonholed into different genres with different names.

April 20, 2012

Demo

second reality

razor1911

A demo (demonstration) is a non-interactive multimedia presentation made within the computer subculture known as the demoscene. Demogroups create demos to demonstrate their abilities in programming, music, drawing, and 3D modeling.

The key difference between a classical animation and a demo is that the display of a demo is computed in real time, making computing power considerations the biggest challenge. Demos are mostly composed of 3D animations mixed with 2D effects and full screen effects.

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April 19, 2012

Beatnik Bandit

beatnik bandit

The Beatnik Bandit is a custom car created in 1961 by ‘Big Daddy’ Ed Roth, originally as a project for ‘Rod & Custom magazine’; instead of a steering wheel, it was controlled by a joystick.

A Hot Wheels car was made based on the Beatnik Bandit. The car is a representation of ‘Kustom Kulture,’ a neologism used to describe the oeuvre of those who drove and built custom cars and motorcycles in the US from the 1950s through today.

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April 19, 2012

Beatmatching

tempo

serato

Beatmatching is a disc jockey technique of pitch shifting or timestretching a track to match its tempo to that of the currently playing track e.g. the kicks and snares in two house records hit at the same time when both records are played simultaneously. Beatmatching is a component of mixing which employs beatmatching combined with equalization, attention to phrasing, and track selection in an attempt to make a single mix that flows together and has a good structure.

The technique was developed to keep people from leaving the dancefloor at the end of a song. Currently, it is considered basic among DJs in electronic dance music genres, and it is standard practice in clubs to keep the constant beat through the night, even if DJs change in the middle. Beatmatching is no longer considered a novelty, and new digital mixers have made the technique much easier to master.

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April 18, 2012

Quentin Tarantino

brutally cool by joshua brudich

Quentin Tarantino (b. 1963) is an American film director, screenwriter, producer, cinematographer, and actor. In the early 1990s, he began his career as an independent filmmaker with films employing nonlinear storylines and the aestheticization of violence.

His films include ‘Reservoir Dogs’ (1992), ‘Pulp Fiction’ (1994), ‘Jackie Brown’ (1997), ‘Kill Bill’ (2003, 2004), ‘Death Proof’ (2007), and ‘Inglourious Basterds’ (2009). His movies are generally characterized by stylistic influences from grindhouse, kung fu, and spaghetti western films. Tarantino also frequently collaborates with his friend and fellow filmmaker Robert Rodriguez.

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April 17, 2012

Bassnectar

Bassnectar

Lorin Ashton, better known by the stage name Bassnectar, is a freeform electronic music and dubstep artist, DJ, and producer based in San Francisco. He is best known for his live performances, light shows, and community engagement. Bassnectar was originally influenced by heavy metal and grunge groups such as Metallica, Megadeth, and Nirvana, bringing these influences with him into his own musical career. He’s also mentioned that early IDM and Ambient artists like Orbital also played a major influence.

He has been creating genre-bending music since the 1990s, using a variety of programs such as Vision/OpCode, Reason, and Ableton Live. Bassnectar describes his music as amorphous and ever-changing, which is reflected in the distinct sounds and personalities of his numerous albums, EPs, and podcasts. He has collaborated with and remixed a host of artists and producers, including Lupe Fiasco, Ellie Goulding, Gogol Bordello, Sound Tribe Sector 9, Datsik, ill.Gates, and Jantsen, among others.

April 17, 2012

Electric Daisy Carnival

edc

Electric Daisy Carnival is an annual electronic dance music festival held in the South West United States on the last weekend of June. The first Electric Daisy Carnival was held in 1997 at the Shrine Expo Hall in Southern California. The name usage was acquired by Insomniac’s partner Philip Blaine. This refers to the name borrowed from Steve Kool-Aid’s original creation from several years prior whom Philip knew through his colleague Gary (Steve’s partner) at 1500 Records.

In 2010, the event drew criticism from local authorities and promoters alike after minors gained entrance and numerous people were taken to the hospital by paramedics, and as well after an underage (15 year old female) attendee who died of an overdose of ecstasy. The city of Los Angeles began to consider banning all raves from being held in the city. The Coliseum Commission put a  moratorium on booking any future events, pending the outcome of the use of new security and safety provisions. Those new provisions include a minimum age of 18 on all future events and the presence of on-site doctors.

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April 17, 2012

Narcocorrido

narcoscorridos by matt taylor

A Narcocorrido [nahr-koh-koh-ree-doh] is a type of Mexican music and song tradition which evolved out of the norteño folk corrido tradition. This type of music is heard on both sides of the US–Mexican border. It uses a danceable, accordion-based polka as a rhythmic base. The first corridos that focus on drug smugglers dated to the 1930s. Early corridos (non-narco) go back as far to the Mexican Revolution of 1910, telling the stories of revolutionary fighters. Music critics have compared narcocorrido music to gangster rap. Narcocorrido lyrics refer to particular events and include real dates and places. The lyrics tend to speak approvingly of illegal criminal activities such as murder, torture, racketeering, extortion, drug smuggling, illegal immigration, and sometimes political protest due to government corruption.

Among the earliest exponents of narcocorrido music were Los Alegres de Teran, who recorded many. In the 1980s, Rosalino ‘Chalino’ Sánchez contributed to narcocorridos. Known throughout Mexico as ‘l Pelavacas’ (‘Cow Skin Peeler’), El Indio (The Indian, from his corrido ‘El Indio Sánchez’), and ‘Mi Compa’ (‘My Friend’), Sánchez was a Mexican immigrant living in Los Angeles. He then began distributing his music. His lyrics composed of heartbreak, revolution, and socioeconomic issues. Soon he was selling mass copies. Chalino Sánchez was murdered in 1992 after a concert in Culiacán. In death, he became a legend and one of the most influential musicians to emerge from California, he was known throughout Mexico and United States as El Rey del Corrido (‘The King of the Corrido’).

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April 17, 2012

Madchester

Madchester was a music scene that developed in Manchester, England, towards the end of the 1980s and into the early 1990s. The music that emerged from the scene mixed alternative rock, psychedelic rock, and dance music. Artists associated with the scene included New Order, The Stone Roses, Happy Mondays, Inspiral Carpets, Northside, 808 State, James, The Charlatans, The Fall, and A Guy Called Gerald.

At that time, the Haçienda nightclub was a major catalyst for the distinctive musical ethos in the city that was called the ‘Second Summer of Love.’ The music scene in Manchester immediately before the Madchester era had been dominated by bands such as The Smiths, New Order, The Fall and James. These bands were to become a significant influence on the Madchester scene.

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April 17, 2012

Paisley Underground

the three oclock

the bangles

Paisley Underground is an early genre of alternative rock, based primarily in Los Angeles, which was at its most popular in the mid-1980s. The term refers to a comment made by Michael Quercio of the band The Three O’Clock during a radio interview. Paisley Underground bands incorporated psychedelia, rich vocal harmonies, and guitar interplay in a folk rock style that owed a particular debt to The Byrds, but more generally referenced the whole range of 1960s West Coast pop and garage rock, from the Seeds to the Beach Boys.

The Dream Syndicate channeled Crazy Horse and Creedence Clearwater Revival via The Velvet Underground, while The Bangles recalled The Mamas & the Papas, Green on Red came on as a cousin to The Doors, The Long Ryders honored Gram Parsons and Buffalo Springfield, The Three O’Clock owed debt to the Bee Gees and The Monkees, and so on. The 1970s Memphis cult band Big Star, whose ‘eptember Gurls’ was covered by The Bangles, was also influential, as were Britain’s Soft Boys. Although there were accomplished musicians among them, it was also rooted—as was the punk rock that preceded it—in an inspired amateurism.

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April 17, 2012

Neo-psychedelia

animal collective by nathan anderson

Neo-psychedelia is music that emulates or is heavily influenced by the psychedelic music of the 1960s. It began to be revived among British post-punk bands of the later 1970s and early 1980s and was taken up by groups including bands of the Paisley Underground and Madchester scenes, as well as occasional interest from mainstream artists and bands into the new millennium.

Neo-psychedelic acts borrowed a variety of elements from 1960s psychedelic music. Some emulated the psychedelic pop of bands like The Beatles and early Pink Floyd, others adopted the jangly guitars of folk rock bands like the Byrds-influenced guitar rock, or distorted free-form jams and sonic experimentalism of late 1960s acid rock. Some neo-psychedelia has been explicitly focused on drug use and experiences, while other bands have used it to accompany surreal or political lyrics.

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April 16, 2012

The Residents

the residents

The Residents are an American art collective best known for avant-garde music and multimedia works. The first official release under the name of The Residents was in 1972, and the group has since released over sixty albums, numerous music videos and short films, three CD-ROM projects and ten DVDs. They have undertaken seven major world tours and scored multiple films. Throughout the group’s existence, the individual members have ostensibly attempted to operate under anonymity, preferring instead to have attention focused on their art output.

Much outside speculation and rumor has focused on this aspect of the group. In public, the group appears silent and costumed, often wearing eyeball helmets, top hats and tuxedos – a long-lasting costume now recognized as their signature iconography. Their albums generally fall into two categories: deconstructions of Western popular music, or complex conceptual pieces, composed around a theme, theory or plot. They are noted for surrealistic lyrics and sound, disregard for conventional music composition, and the over the top, theatrical spectacle of their live performances.

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