A short film of the Ninja festivities in Bristol last weekend
(left) The speakers either side of the stage at Motion were like rocket engines. (right) Matt Black rocks the spot. Great set of pics from Emma (Miss Kerf) Gutteridge here
Film
Nice little film from backstage of the recent Ninja Tune XX party in London, put together by Zane Lowe’s people. Meant to post is weeks back but the embed code kept messing up.
Amazing work all round by Mutate Britain, Hit + Run and Chu with contributions from myself and Doc Vek
[vimeo width=”650″ height=”485″]http://www.vimeo.com/15564959[/vimeo]
Keen listeners of DJ Food material will have picked up that the late Dudley Moore’s fantastic score to the 1967 film ‘Bedazzled’ (NOT the recent remake!) is a big favourite. I’ve sampled it a couple of times now (both licensed too) and the record has been long out of print. Several dodgy bootlegs have surfaced over the years, mainly on the Harkit label and Jonny Trunk has long been trying to reissue it with little success as the Moore estate seems zipped up tighter than a nun’s habit.
But even they seem to have cottoned on to the fact that it’s a great score that’s in demand as I stumbled across this last week – a legit reissue, from the Moore estate, remastered from the original tapes, with two alternate versions of the ‘single’ from the album too! Sadly it’s CD only and how far into the stores it’s going to make it is unknown but it’s available from the official Dudley Moore site along with several other releases.
‘Trailer’ for a new album by I, The Phoenix, the CD comes with a 3D booklet and glasses.
Love stuff like this but you’ll need red and blue glasses to view it properly
I, the phoenix // stereoscopic trailer from I, the phoenix on Vimeo.
Some more (better) images and a great little film shot by Anthony Dickenson and Dan Lowe of the Ninja Tune XX mural Chu painted outside the 333 in Shoreditch the other week. He’s painting something else special at the Ewer Street gig on October 2nd alongside She-1, can’t wait.
The Light Surgeons’ short film about luck, ‘Shimazeltov’, has been shortlisted in the documentary category for the Vimeo awards! The film focuses on the Jewish community and their ideas about luck, it’s insightful, humorous and beautifully shot and framed.
I’m pretty excited about this because not only is it an excellent short but my wife assistant produced it and my kids make a fleeting cameo in it. The Vimeo festival takes place in NYC in October, fingers crossed crossed… You can VOTE for it here and more info about the awards is here and, if you have 10 minutes, please take a look at this beautiful film.
Schlimazeltov! from THE LIGHT SURGEONS on Vimeo.
Trailer for a 15 minute CGI version of Shaun Tan’s book, ‘The Lost Thing’ – looks gorgeous.
More info at his site
Interesting image, looks familiar, seen it before somewhere, can’t place it…
I’m just kidding, go check this out if you’re in London this weekend, a couple of Light Surgeons’ things are playing:
SCHLIMAZELTOV! dir. Christopher Thomas Allen 11m
Documentary short exploring the concept of luck or “mazel” through London’s Jewish Community.
(this is excellent and beautifully shot)
and a live performance of
TRUE FICTIONS 80m
True Fictions is a live audio-visual spectacle that fuses documentary film making, music, animation and motion graphics with cutting edge digital performance tools. A stunning collage of music and live cinema which explores the themes of truth and myth through a multitude of American and Native American voices; with a original musical score created through the collaborations of 25 New York based musicians and vocal artists.
(you need to see this live, multi-layered screen collage at its best)
More info here
Incredible video for Amon’s Esther’s track – from the forthcoming Zen TV2 DVD on Ninja
This is genius, so funny
[youtube width=”650″ height=”440″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UCmeQaXuFig&feature=player_embedded#![/youtube]
[vimeo width=”640″ height=”320″]http://www.vimeo.com/13009495[/vimeo]
If you’re in London, around the Barbican, you can witness 24 hours in the life of the city in 30 minutes. The Light Surgeons have produced an installation of visuals and rolling statistics about the city around a 360 degree LED curtain installed in the Museum of London’s benugo Sackler Hall café. This short film of the installation shows it in situ but you really have to see it in the flesh so to speak, there are some simply breathtaking shots from all over, at all times of the day as the film begins and ends at midnight, speeding through an average day in half an hour.
I have to declare an interest at this point as my better half worked on this as Producer but I’d be posting this regardless as I view the Surgeons as one of the few film makers who have transcended their beginnings as club visual specialists (sorry, I can’t say VJs, they’d kill me). They have a unique sense of space and composition which can bring out beauty in the most mundane objects and situations, coupled with a great ear for the perfect soundtrack, often composing it themselves.
The Museum has just reopened it’s doors after a major refit and it’s no longer the stuffy place of old, the items they have on show are many and span centuries of London’s history right up the present day. Have look if you’re in the area and then grab a drink and relax whilst the Surgeons’ installation speeds you through a day in the life of the Big Smoke.
Hilarious NSFW take of Sesame Street’s classic Pinball Number Count sketch for this video for ‘Giddy Up’ by Tahuna Breaks
Tahuna Breaks – Giddy Up (HD) …… Leah Morgan from Morten Leirkjaer on Vimeo.
[youtube width=”640″ height=”480″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qS6E-Nu3xsg&feature=player_embedded[/youtube]
WOW!
Solid Steel homie Ruckus Roboticus us coming to town for some UK dates, check this little film and don’t miss this man in action, always rocks a party.
[youtube width=”638″ height=”485″]http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6yLkWOK-GKU[/youtube]
I was in the Ninja office today, sifting through boxes of press archive, found some amazing things, hilarious photos of old and some situations I don’t even remember. Lots of weird and wonderful people have passed through Ninja over the years and there are a lot of memories attached to it for me. I’m currently deep into the design and ongoing picture research for the Ninja Tune book which will be published this summer by Black Dog Publishing.
It’s a gargantuan project and one that we are not taking lightly – don’t expect the usual spread of press shots you’ve all seen before, we’re digging deep for lots of unseen material and it turns up in the most unlikely places. There’s no way it will all make it into the book but I promise to share some of the bits and pieces that don’t make it at a later date via this blog.
Also, these turned up today… 
Better res than Vimeo, I promise.
A current big hit in our household are the Pink Panther cartoons from the 60’s and 70’s with variations on Henry Mancini’s excellent theme to by Walter Greene to accompany them. One of my favourite episodes is this tripped out classic from 1968, the Panther goes into a weird bookshop and strange things start to happen. The background designs by Tom O’Loughlin are sublime and show a rare glimpse of the times in a children’s cartoon. See the gallery above for more shots…
DK and I just hit 10,000 views of our ‘Now, Look & Listen’ AV mix on Vimeo after only 2 months. We’re pretty pleased considering it’s 78 minutes long! Thanks everyone who took the time to view even a part of it
In case you missed it:
DJ Food & DK present – Now, Look & Listen from Solid Steel on Vimeo.
I’d never heard of this dutch group C-Mon & Kypski before until someone posted a link to their new video on the Ninja Tune forum. Besides loving the track – an mixture of ska, a sampled soul tune and synth bass more than a little reminiscent of Shadow’s ‘Mashin’ on The Motorway’ – the band are attempting to make their video online with the help of the general public.
The idea is very simple and anyone can take part as long as they have a webcam. They have already shot a basic video of the band larking about and you are invited to switch on your cam whereby one frame will be chosen at random for you to replicate. Strike a pose (they alternate your view with the chosen frame) take the picture (you have 5 seconds to get back into position) and they will add your image into the video. They already have over 6000 frames done and you can watch the video so far which is updated hourly. Try it yourself
It is with great pleasure that DK and I finally bring you months of hard work with a mix comprising parts of our Video Turntablism sets from the last 12 months. Massive thanks to DK for really pulling out all the stops to get this thing realised from all the material we have, it couldn’t have happened without him.
[vimeo width=”635″ height=”480″]http://www.vimeo.com/8073574[/vimeo]