08 From 08

Most new and interesting records which were heard at StellaVista Towers during 2008 have their own blog-post here. So, in no particular order, a recap of the tracks and albums that entertained me this year. The links lead to an earlier blog entry which either contains one or two streams or a Youtube-link.


Club 8: With "The Boy who couldn´t stop dreaming", Karolina Komstedt and Johan Angergård made one of their most restrained and breezy albums. Sun-drenched, fragile, Swedish summer-pop that is almost disappearing into thin air. I actually preferred the earlier "Strangely Beautiful" which was also re-released this year.


Morgan Geist: "Double Night Time" is Geist´s first album after his debut "The Driving Memoirs" from 1997. The whole album is great, but it´s the opener "Detroit" which really stands out for me.









Cut Copy: The first half of "In Ghost Colours" is a superb succession of hit after hit. Especially the album track "Out there on thin ice" with it´s crowd noise and euphoric lines "If that´s what it takes - don´t let it tear us apart - even if it breaks our hearts" is amazing.
The fact that I can still enjoy listening to "Hearts on fire" - after all the hype and the inevitable re-release of Guru Josh´s "Infinity" (which was definitely spawned by the success of Cut Copy) shows that CC really know how to assemble their citation-pop.


Private In fact "My Secret Lover" was already released in 2007, but this stand-out single "We got some breaking up to do" came out this year along with a remix/dub album. Private are from Denmark and have produced the most shamelessly 80s rip-off album in a genre that has many similar artists. If you are not entertained by Private you should leave this site now!


Rex The Dog "The Rex The Dog Show" is part debut album, part compilation of own and commissioned remixes. It is surprisingly nice, despite featuring a mix of the drab The Knife.
The single "Bubblicious" features the best Yazoo/Alison Moyet sample ever. It is certainly no surprise that this appeared along with the Yazoo re-union concerts.


DJ Cole Medina vs Bee Gees "Love you inside out (Pinches Mix)". This blissed out re-edit of the Bee Gees track (from "Spirits Having Flown) was listened to endlessly on my car-trip to Vancouver. Pure magic!




AxUs "Love your Brother (Abacus Rethink Dub)" marked the return of Austin Bascom. With this deep as shit production he proved that he was and is one of the most prolific deep-house producers around.






Ladytron "Velocifero" did still not bring them the desired mass appeal they so crave for.
Still, on the borderline of electro-rock Ladytron are still the best thing around. I always fall for their airport-announcer-vocals. Someone recently said they sound like Nico fronting the Marc Bolan Band. Spot on!

To the Happy Few

"To the Happy Few" by Thomas Draschan, 2003

Description from Thomas Draschan´s Website
The film is structured around the mystical idea of the mandala, in this case pictures of(fake)suns, galaxies and planets. These images are in sync with an Indian Bollywood song to enhance the pseudo-psychedelic effects. The film material covers a very wide range of found footage from various sources and decades starting in the 1930s (invisible woman) until the end of the 1980s.

Hypnotic and amazing! (includes some NSFW bits)

Movie Posters 2008

A collection of this years best movie posters, according to Get The Big Picture. Of course there are several hundred "Batman"-posters picked out of the gargantuan amount of promotional material for this block-buster.


There are at least three to four homages/rip-offs of the work of Saul Bass and -as always- some real cinematic clunkers have really good posters and campaigns.


"Goliath" is clearly the winner of the "Jürgen Teller Red Eye Award", while the "Funny Games"-artwork reminds me of a possible Roisin Murphy/Moloko cover.


That "Rambo" poster is of course funny and bad at once.
I also like "The Wackness" which completes the recent pop-art fascination with musiCassette-imagery.


See them all at Get The Big Picture

The Holy Virgin Punishes the Christ Child in the Presence of Three Witnesses: Andre Breton, Paul Eluard, and the Painter

Max Ernst, 1926

I was born on Christmas Day

Did you know they pulled the town hall down - I don´t think you´d recognize this town.

I´m so glad that I got just my pay - I was born on christmas day.

St. Etienne and Tim Burgess, "I was born on christmas day", 1993 live on "The Word".

Spot Checker

click pics to enlarge (very large)

When I was a kid my parents used to have one of those triptych bathroom mirrors with which you could create your private endless hall of mirrors. I think it was my first encounter with optical illusions and I must have spent hours losing my three-year old mind inside this green shimmering imaginary corridor.

Japanese superheroine artist Yayoi Kusama is obsessed with dots, spots, and reflections to infinity since she was ten years old. In 1939 she began to paint and cover everything around her with dots.


During the 1960s she stayed in New York were she created her most famous paintings, objects and happenings. Yayoi was pop-art personified but somehow she was even too far ahead for her own good. In the early 1970s she started her own fashion company and a semi-pornographic magazine. Without financial backing she soon had to close shop.

Broke and depressed she returned to Japan where she decided to go on living in a mental hospital. She kept on working and exhibiting and only a few weeks ago, one of her paintings was sold for over $ 5 million, which makes her the highest rated living female artist.


Some of her fascinating installations - like the above pictured - "The gleaming lights of souls" are completely mirrored rooms that are filled with constantly changing lights. Totally amazing!

Christmas with Claudine Longet

Get your insulin ready for this: StellaVista Ultramodel Claudine Longet and her husband at the time Andy Williams (who would survive his marriage to Claudine. His successor would not be so lucky.

Here they are pimping their kids for a performance of "Silent Night" and "Mary´s Boy Child". Creepy in it´s sugary broth.




I am still looking for her version of "Bang Bang, my baby shot me down", which was allegedly banned for obvious reasons.

UPDATE: A commenter informed me that the "Bang Bang"-story is a fantasy rumour and that she never recorded a version of this particular song. Too bad: It would have been a great rendition even without the bleak story behind it.

De-troit

According to the blog Motor(less)City Detroit could be 50% vacant within the next five to ten years, if the current decline should continue.

The amount of abandoned buildings and giant, unused spaces gives way to nature claiming back the territory. In a way, Detroit could become the prototype for the city of the real future: A giant fossil ruin turned into rural farmland.


It is shocking to see that suddenly the young USA, which never had to bother with the remnants of century old history, seems to abandon the future along with the past.

Here is an ode to the recent musical legacy of Mo-Town:
Detroit by Morgan Geist. It´s taken from his recent album "Double Night Time" which is one of the finest records of 2008.



All photos taken from The Motor(less)City.
If you like the song, get the album at iTunes, Beatport or a real record store (as long as they still exist).

Little Artists

Hirst’s Shark Tank (Renovated)

Warhol´s Money

Quinn’s Blood Head

There´s more Lego and other work by John Cake and David Neave (aka The Little Artists) here.

Holy Explosions of Ecstasy

This is some of the most amazing shit I have seen recently! I was shocked and awed!

Expertly mashing drum ´n bass with footage of holy rollers freaking out in church aisles is a marriage made in heaven (or hell).

The editing in these "Baptazia"-videos is brilliant and more unsettling than the Cunningham/Aphex Twin video "Come To Daddy".

After about 23 seconds you will start speaking in tongues:


File under Speedgospel and Jesuscore:


This one is amazing for the great editing of the two "MCs". Just make sure to watch the moment at around 1:40. Absolutely insane!


POSSESSED! This is probably the sickest of the bunch:

Now: REWIND!

There are many more clips and I must admit that the vids get quite addictive. I must also admit that I am just a little bit envious that the church experience in my part of the world is...well, different. At least it was twenty years ago, the last time when I was dragged into a service.

Deathbed Tracks

Get Physical Records have asked several well known DJs to think about the last song to be played on their deathbed or at their funeral. The tracklist of "Final Song #1" is certainly more interesting to read than to listen to.

There is everything from Eric Satie to the Beach Boys, Radiohead, Eno, the Stranglers to Drum n´Bass and someone even wants to hear a self penned piece (royalties!).

Here is the full tracklist:
01. Erik Satie - 1. Gymnopédie (Selected by DJ T.)
02. Rob Gallagher - Little One (Selected by Gilles Peterson)
03. Photek - Modus Operandi (Selected by Storm)
04. The Stranglers - Golden Brown (Selected by DJ Hell)
05. Cerrone - Supernature (Selected by Kevin Saunderson)
06. Radiohead - Sit Down Stand Up (Selected by Laurent Garnier)
07. Chloé - Paradise (Selected by Chloé)
08. The Beach Boys - 'Til I Die (Selected by David Holmes)
09. Peggy Lee - Is That All There Is? (Selected by Ewan Pearson)
10. Inti Illimani - Caramba, Yo Soy Dueno del Baron (Selected by Ricardo Villalobos)
11. Link - Amenity (Selected by Richie Hawtin)
12. Pharoah Sanders - Astral Travelling (Selected by Francois K)
13. Brian Eno - An Ending (Ascent) (Selected by Coldcut)

Read the full article at Resident Advisor and check the Comments for some more ideas (It doesn´t take long until someone brings up Burial but apparently nobody wants to listen to "Bela Lugosi is dead").

My choice is not included. After some brief consideration I´d go with Chic´s "Good Times". I think this song is a good answer for everything!

Web of Love (Trapped in 14 Frames)

This unbelievable Scopitone-clip of Joi Lansing performing "Web of Love" is in any way the definition of C.A.M.P.
Don´t blink or you´ll miss a millisecond of scenes like these:

Androgyn

I found these photos which were obviously snapped from some fashion magazine. I like the timeless, androgynous look. The unwanted reflection of the flash-light just adds to the atmosphere.