Saw this last night, REALLY good, go and see it, everything you’d want in a blockbuster superhero film.
3D isn’t essential but doesn’t spoil it, just really well paced character driven action with an unexpected dose of genuinely funny humour.
Also some cracking design on the vehicles, looking forward to the follow up. 10/10 to all involved and I’ve never read an Avengers comic in my life.
Here’s something I did last month in conjunction with Carling Zest, a new drink being promoted this summer. The idea was to take three producers, myself, DJ Yoda and Jaguar Skills, and give everyone sights and sounds of summer to incorporate into a track that had the feeling of summer to it. I called mine ‘Sunspot’, after one of my favourite Vaughn Bodé strips, and used some of my home made phenakistoscopes as elements for the video in conjunction with the footage Carling supplied.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”375″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=O_8Nx1TmC1o&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
I was left to my own devices and incorporated a lot of my own melodies into the track, using their bee sounds and lots of percussive elements to form the basic beat of the piece. Making a track that evokes a ‘summer’ feeling is a lot harder than making something dark and moody, especially without stepping into cheesy territory but I’m really pleased with the outcome.
During the process I was filmed going through samples in my studio and generally talking about records I thought bought out the summer feeling in me. This quickly degenerated into what seemed like a massive advert for Boards of Canada‘s back catalogue 
with other shouts to the Orb (Little Fluffy Clouds) and The The (This Is The Day). The film crew, who were great fun to work with, shot for a whole day and then crammed it all into 2 minutes, so, if the editing seems a little fragmented here and there, you’ll know why. Big thank you to Ash for getting the shots and Tom for doing a great job on helping me with the last touches on the video edit.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”375″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qQFCJtD7S1w&feature=relmfu[/youtube]
Wish they hadn’t put that ice cream bit in Spot the ‘Rave Wars’ 7″s and 3A robots everywhere There’ll be an online competition to remix this track and win tickets to the V festival and other goodies coming up on May 23rd so I’ll post about that when it’s online.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”485″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=G9tLzLtAj6w&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
Having a serious flashback to my youth watching this
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”370″]http://vimeo.com/41214166[/vimeo]
Amazing achievement by the Agents of Change on this mega project for a hotel in London’s Kings X. What you don’t see here is that they painted inside the building too, including murals and canvases that filter inside the hotel and restuarant and flesh out the experience.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”290″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8evyE9TuYk&feature=youtu.be[/youtube]
[youtube width=”640″ height=”280″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1byZkbNB3Jw&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3WmjB3igMKo&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
The remaining unsold Secret 7″ sleeves and records are now up for sale on the Teenage Cancer Trust’s eBay page, each is one of a kind, a unique artwork with a limited edition 7″ by one of 7 artists. They start at just a penny and all the money goes to TCT once the auction is over.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QBOaT6ar3Ww[/youtube]
[youtube width=”640″ height=”385″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=N4CN9ntm8ZY&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
As seen first on Secret Oranges, I got my tickets today, got to wait until June 2nd but it’ll be IMAX for me.
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”370″]http://vimeo.com/38646066[/vimeo]
Lone – Galaxy Garden album on double LP (also includes CD inside) and limited edition art print. The art print is printed full colour on 265gsm pro photo gloss paper, and signed and numbered by Konx-om-Pax.
Out Monday on R&S Records
Theodore Ushev directed the above video for “Demoni” by Bulgarian band, Kottarashky & The Rain Dogs. I first saw this on the RokRiot blog which is always worth a visit.
It uses a Phenakistoscope, sometimes known as a zoopraxiscope, to animate a circular loop, something I’ve been experimenting with recently in video and also the planetarium show I did back in January. The method was invented by Eadweard Muybridge and also similar is the Sculpture picture discs I’ve posted about before several times on the blog. A lot of times this method is called a zoetrope, which is similar but not quite the same thing, but it’s easier to say and remember.
This method has been used as far back as the 1950’s on children’s records which played at 78 rpm, mostly on the Red Raven ‘movie records’ label which would release nursery rhymes with a mirrored device that sat on top of the record as it spun to view the animations. See below for an example from my collection, the records appeared on coloured vinyl too, which you can sometimes find although they rarely come with sleeves, the center viewing contraption or in good condition.
I’m pretty sure a fair few of these below are fan made posters, there are even more over on the LiveForFilms site where I grabbed all these from.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”380″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DOOJl5lWNfM[/youtube]
In case you missed the first one…
[youtube width=”640″ height=”280″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jb7gspHxZiI[/youtube]
I have a bit of a rep for being a Star Wars fan, yeah, I like it (‘it’ being the original trilogy), it was part of my childhood and always will be, but it doesn’t consume me. My studio isn’t littered with original SW toys preserved in boxes and I don’t own replica outfits for cosplay events. The newer films are worthless to me although I do enjoy a bit of the Clone Wars cartoons with the kids and the Star Wars Lego sets are great fun.
What I don’t need to see is things like Star Wars Kinect, themed Burlesque shows and R2 D2 leotards, Star Wars is for kids and the things that still move me about it are those steeped in nostalgia. The Retro Star Wars blog is a good example, the fantastic design and iconography of the films that seeps into fan made posters and graphics or the toy side of things. Where music and toys collide, in projects like the Rave Wars 7″s, I can appreciate this as a fun crossover and this new documentary – Plastic Galaxy – ticks both the toy and nostalgia boxes.
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”360″]http://vimeo.com/40161059[/vimeo]
Fabulous new Squarepusher track and video from his forthcoming album on Warp.
The Muppets vs Ken Nordine? This is a sketch from a pre-muppets show called Sam & Friends (1955-61), this character was called Yorick and ate everything, kind of an early Cookie Monster. They (Jim Henson & friends) decided to use a Ken Nordine Word Jazz sketch – ‘Hunger Is From’ – as the basis of the sketch.
[youtube width=”305″ height=”240″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zO2JmArTOSM&feature=related[/youtube] [youtube width=”305″ height=”240″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RUWQKwrbcvA[/youtube]
This one is even better, ‘Visual Thinking’, great stuff, so early as well.
[quicktime width=”636″ height=”380″]http://www.djfood.org/wp-content/uploads/2012/04/Creative-Review-960-pieces-of-vinyl.mp4[/quicktime]
From the Creative Review blog
Absolutely love this video, parts of the new Paul Weller album, ‘Sonik Kicks’ aren’t bad at all either, see the video for ‘Green’ below too.