New Weird Australia
Thursday, January 14th, 2010 | aural, personal work | No Comments
New Weird Australia is a new net label that has existed since July 2009. It is run by Stuart Buchanan (Discontent) and Danny Jumpertz (Feral Media). Here is what they have to say about themselves…
New Weird Australia is a not-for-profit initiative designed to promote and support new eclectic and experimental Australian music. Our current projects include a free compilation series, a weekly radio show on Sydney’s FBi 94.5FM (stream online at fbiradio.com) and an irregular program of live events.
They are up to their fourth release now and are starting to be a regular name on blogs and music websites in Australia and abroad! There is a great interview with Stuart over at Mess and Noise here. Oh and I have a track on the latest volume (4) too…
New Weird Australia Volume Four, January 2009, NWA004
1. TEXTILE AUDIO, Some Kind Of Mininova (5:32)
2. PAINT YOUR GOLDEN FACE, Television Is About Picture (4:12)
3. REUNION SACRED IBIS, Sing It To The Mountains (2:11)
4. TANTRUMS, Beat The Happy Pavement (4:08)
5. SCATTERED ORDER MK 1, Ruined By Me (5:44)
6. ALISTER SPENCE TRIO, Two Halves Of The Moon (3:26)
7. SCISSOR LOCK, Codify (2:05)
8. GUTTER PARTIES, Sashi (2:15)
9. NO ZU, Lay Of The Land (4:25)
10. THE TOWNHOUSES, Jigsaws Under The Clouds (4:08)
11. SEAWORTHY, They’re Cicadas You Know? (3:55)
12. GENTLEFORCE, Our Last Day Together (4:30)
13. GOLD TANGO, Telescope (3:26)
14. ALPEN, A Meditation On Flight (3:16)
15. RED_ROBIN, The Surveyor (4:36)
16. AUTOMATING, When Use Becomes Abuse (9:19)
17. SILVER BULLETIN, Minding Time (4:13)
Compiled by Stuart Buchanan & Danny Jumpertz.
Artwork by Anna Vo, annavo.wordpress.com.
Download music and artwork over here.
hello… im still here.
Tuesday, January 12th, 2010 | general | No Comments
I have had quite alot on my plate for the last 6 months. I finished a album towards the end of last year, something that I had been working on for… well.. my entire life! It has been a long time coming. For years now I have wanted to actually take creating music more seriously and at the beginning of 2009 I (and thanks to my wife, Lauren) decided to take mondays off work and dedicate a entire day to being creative! So to cut a long story short I completed a demo and sent it out to various labels and producers… and the result was my album being signed to Feral Media. It will be released on their wonderful Pow Wow series in late Feb/early March. I will post up more info on the release shortly but until then you can listen to some of my tracks on my myspace page here.
“Light Being” a Robyn Wilson and Gentleforce collaboration, ‘08
Monday, July 20th, 2009 | aural, personal work, visual | No Comments
I first met Robyn last year when I was occasionally dj’ing down at ‘Exquisite Corpse’ at the Oxford Arts Factory, a night that Robyn was helping co-run. It was a really fun night that fused live music, performance art, installation, poetry reading and all matter of crazy antics. I soon learned that Robyn was also running a really innovative creative company called View Of Courage. Towards the end of last year Robyn asked if I could collaborate with her for a live performance she was going to do in a abandoned shop front on oxford st! It was part of the City of Sydney Art & About Festival. Here is a edited down version of her performance to my track “new ground”…
Catch Robyn performing live this Sunday night at the Bohemian Grove alongside Cleptoclectics, Scissor Lock and myself. Starts at 7pm, 10 dollar donation at the door. Hear her latest music/performances under her ‘Flutter Lyon’ guise here.
the masters speak
Sunday, July 5th, 2009 | aural, general, visual | No Comments
I recently was looking up more info on Moritz von Oswald, one half of Basic Channel/Rhythm & Sound aka Dub Techno Master!… and found, to my delight, he had spoken at last years Red Bull Music Academy in Barcelona! The video gives you a real good insight into the history and happenings of such a influential sound…
after that move on to one of the masters of the dubstep sound, Mala from DMZ!…
tragic moments bring people together
Friday, July 3rd, 2009 | general | No Comments
Lauren and I went out to Newtown last Sunday night to eat some dinner and as we approached “the hub” we could hear the sounds of Michael Jackson’s music blasting through the cool night air. As we walked closer we could see quite a large group of people gathered outside, dancing and singing along to his music. I don’t know who exactly put it together but their was a decent sound system and a large screen with images of Michael doing what he did best… making people feel good! Lauren and I just stood their for a minute or two, observing and just smiled at what we were witnessing. It was just really nice to see people celebrating his life in such a way!
So today when I woke up I thought someone would of posted that on You Tube already, he he, i was right…
“Road Trip Nation” excerpt
Monday, June 22nd, 2009 | aural, general, personal work, visual | No Comments
Last year I was asked to submit some music to Iris Pictures for their 4-part tv series documentary titled “Road Trip Nation”. The doco was about 3 young adults from different backgrounds travelling around Australia and meeting various well known artists, dancers, politicians etc… and then basically asking them how and why they made the choices they did to get to where they are today. The results were interesting and powerful. So, yeah, Iris Pictures liked one of my songs titled “The Desert Song” and chose to use it in the final interview of the show with a Aboriginal elder called Bob Randall who was from the stolen generation. I felt quite honoured that they chose the piece for such a emotional/powerful part in the doco. I finally edited the piece and put it up! Here it is…
Inspiration today = David Ellis
Tuesday, June 9th, 2009 | visual | No Comments
Ellis’s paintings are often recorded in a form of digital time-lapse animation Ellis calls motion painting. Like jazz, these works provide Ellis with an opportunity to combine ideas within a form that promotes improvisation and spontaneity. Immersed in music from birth, rhythm and sound are key elements to the visual quality of the flow that is played out in his work. Paintings move like memories drifting through the mind. Ellis refers to his signature painting form as “flow” representing motion in air and water. There is an unconscious, visual catalog below the surface of the final work-an archaeological, archival underpinning inside the painting, submerged below grade.
Check out his “daily” work here. Or his “truck” work here for a better idea of his “flow” work.
More over on this brilliant artist here!
Jimmy and the Magical Rainbow!
Monday, May 25th, 2009 | personal work, visual | 1 Comment
Here is a pic i took outside my work one afternoon with my friend Jimmy!
Underlapper’s “Red Spring” remix CD
Monday, April 27th, 2009 | aural, personal work | 1 Comment
cover art
1. Little Tapioca (Part Timer remix)
2. Left Wing Guardian (Broken Chip remix)
3. Meanderthal (Cleptoclectics remix)
4. Haunted Cornice (Aheadphonehome remix)
5. Fallen Face Moon (Part Timer’s rat permit remix)
6. Meanderthal (Pretty Boy Crossover remix)
7. Lawn Bowls and Linda Ronstadt (Chris Perren’s lawn bowls with Philip Glass remix)
8. Renfield (Faux Pas remix)
9. Left Wing Guardian (Karoshi remix)
10. Fallen Face Moon (Shoeb Ahmad’s nightlight remix)
11. Little Tapioca (Anoymeye’s big trouble in little tapioca remix)
12. Lawn Bowls and Linda Ronstadt (Ghost and Tape remix)
13. Painting Red Things Grey (Gentleforce’s new dawn remix)
Last year I was going through a whole bunch of burnt cds i had been given from various friends over the years. I discovered an old demo I had been given by my friends Underlapper. On the cd there was one song called “Painting Red Things Grey”, it was a early/rough version of the song the band had recorded live around one microphone! I instantly loved the song and was haunted by its cyclic and dreamlike qualities. The song was eventually recorded properly and released on a limited cd release but to be honest I always loved that early lo-fi version. So, when I found the song again I decided to remix it just so I could listen to the notes being played over and over again.. for my own enjoyment! Once I had finished it, and I was quite happy with the outcome, i rang Greg from Underlapper just to let him know what I had been up to and he informed me that they were actually getting artists to remix their songs for a new release! I love how things just fall into place sometimes! So, if you like Underlapper’s sounds or any of the other artists on the cd *ahem* buy a copy over at Feral Media before they disappear here. If you would like to hear my ‘new dawn’ remix of ‘painting red things grey’ just go to my myspace page over here.
new books…
Saturday, April 25th, 2009 | general, visual | 1 Comment
I bought a few books whilst in Melbourne for some inspiration and food for thought…
I have been looking for a book like this for some time and was very excited when I stumbled across this! I wont try and explain, so read a excerpt from Oliver himself….
“Music can move us to the heights or depths of emotion. It can persuade us to buy something, or remind us of our first date. It can lift us out of depression when nothing else can. It can get us dancing to its beat. But the power of music goes much, much further. Indeed, music occupies more areas of our brain than language does–humans are a musical species.”
More over at Sack’s site here.
Also I bought two great visual art books:
1. A comic novel called CAPACITY by Theo Ellsworth! Wow! After the first few pages I was hooked! Incredible surreal/dreamlike storyline and beautiful ink/line work art!
“Theo Ellsworth is a self-taught artist living in Portland, Oregon.
He writes and draws comics, makes art zines, draws constantly, and on occasion, teaches workshops.
He does invisible performance art that no one will ever see.
He has a miniature city inside of his head that is overrun with funny monsters, yet he still manages to come across as a semi-normal guy.
He is abnormally fond of clouds, and wants to build things out of them.
He is prone to fits of whimsy, and tends to have weird dreams.
He is a co-founder of the Pony Club Gallery and Store.”
2. A small hard cover book on the works of Herbert Baglione, titled “VOSSIA”.
“Influenced by his older brother, Herbert began drawing at the age of three and never looked back, going on to create evocative works rich in emotion and attaining a level of sophistication and diversity in his work that distinguishes him from many artists working today. The heart of his work is formed by his relationship to emotional matters such as death, human coldness, family, the world and the work of other artists and his strong desire to retain his sense of wonderment as it pertains to the world around him.”