First off, i hope all is moving forward swimmingly in your respective worlds.
Secondly, for those who are late to class, time for a catch up on the one and only…
Below you will find several links to music and videos related to the mastermind that is RAS_G and the AFRIKAN SPACE PROGRAM.
I could write several pages about the ancient echos of Afro-Futurism and Jamaican Sound System Culture in Ras’s bass beats and their integral influence on the Los Angeles/Global Art/Beats community. However, if you are unfamiliar with this man and his works, have an explore, and see (hear) for yourself.
It’s getting close to crunch time and if you ain’t done your homework, look sharp! The exam is 9pm Friday 23rd July @ Step Inn. Exam notes…
Finally emerging from the haze of a 25 hour trip from Hoi An to London (via Danang, Saigon and Bangkok), we tripped down to the Saatchi Gallery. The highlight of the Newspeak show of new British artists was John Wynne’s Installation for 300 speakers, Pianola and vacuum cleaner,complete with pulsating vacuum tube to power the pianola. I was also feeling Pablo Bronstein’s fantastical architectural sketches. Meanwhile, over at Tate Modern, the Exposed exhibition celebrates over a hundred years of voyeuristic surveillance photography.
That night, it was off to deepest South-East London for Bussed Up, a neat little warehouse party with hazy hip hop, dubstep and breakcore vibes. Inevitably , the two acts I most wanted to check at a two-room party were playing at exactly the same time, so there was much hefting up and down stairs between Blue Daisy’s live opiated hip hop and Zan Lyons’ AV remix of Bladerunner.
Blue Daisy rocks an impressive live rig. Despite having only a handful of releases and remixes to his name, the young producer has one of lushest sounds coming out of the new beat scene. Ostensibly comparable to Flying Lotus with his loping beats and layers of warm fuzz, he’s definitely got his own vibe going on. Rumour has it he’s got multiple releases on the horizon this year, and if what we heard on Saturday night was anything to go buy, we’re in for some rugged and robust future hip hop.
Audiovisual artist Zan Lyons has remixed the visuals of Ridley Scott’s Bladerunner and augmented it with his own soundtrack, in turns ambient and industrial, played off laptop and violin. It was a condensed version of the film, with all the iconic scenes intact. There seemed to be some additional footage mixed in, and I’d be interested to know if it had been filmed specifically for this project, or cribbed from elsewhere. The parts I saw were amazing, and if Blue Daisy hadn’t been playing downstairs I would have been transfixed by this interpolation of a modern classic.
I hadn’t really been up on recent Planet Mu signing Rudi Zygadlo, (check out his Electronic Explorations mix), but he dropped heavily effected dubstep heat and plenty more to keep it interesting.
Catching the night bus brought back a flood of memories of living in London - long, uncertain waits at bus stops, woozy, surreal views out the the bus window, getting on buses going in the wrong direction (which we did) and falling asleep until we were woken by the driver at the end of the line (which we mercifully didn’t, this time).
Last night, we caught the killer free jazz combo of Mark Sanders, Shabaka Hutchings and John Edwards in the intimate surrounds of Cafe Oto in Dalston. Not bad for a rainy Monday night. Next stop: Berlin.
My good friends ATLASt (Warren Handley) and Archi Lancaster (Joe Baker) have been orchestrating finely tuned visuals for Morass parties since the very beginnings. Integral members of the Dank, these cats create a live visual manipulation of hand picked digital video samples and creations.
Using midi pads and knobs and a couple of sets of ears, they respond spontaneously to changes in the music by running the visuals through filters and mashing textures together. These dudes never fail in keeping their visuals sinister and dank like the beats themselves. This video from The Gaslamp Killer show in Brisbane perfectly illustrates Warren and Joe’s work at Dank parties.
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Both Warren and Joe are artists in their own right who work with a variety of artistic mediums and concepts.
A combination of raw illustration skills, a laptop and an open mind make for Joe Baker’s innovative work. Joe has designed a fair chunk of our flyers over the past 2 years.
These flyers are only a sample of Joe’s design skills. He is also accomplished illustrator, video and conceptual artist. These are some further examples of his work.
Warren Aka ATLASt works extensively with maps and super-imposing them onto organic three-dimensional forms. He has a keen eye for geometry, texture and space. Waz is also nice with the pen and laptop.
Check ATLASt’s blog, Ten-P-Bag, for the latest in Warren’s works, and general beats, art and life.
Happy new year! The Morass is planning big things for 2010, including a massive gig to feed your brains come early March. Stay tuned for full details, plus some 2009 favourite lists from the crew. In the meantime, enjoy the brief Walrii cameo (whose conveniently right there in the still with one Arku Rhino) in this short promo video put together during Kode 9 and Blu & Exile’s Australian tours last year.
This video is relevant to our interests for a couple of reasons which will shortly become apparent. Stay tuned for a pretty damn exciting announcement.
