Last night I was working on a poster for the upcoming Terrabyte 3 show (L.A. Sept. 14). I had the MP3s on shuffle and Ladytron’s Mu-Tron came up. It prompted me to go back and play the rest of their 2001 release 604 in it’s entirety. It’s not that I really forgot about Ladytron, I guess I just forgot how good they are. Maybe I played them out back when Light and Magic was in full swing. They have a new album out entitled Velocifero which is in the vein of their previous record Witching Hour. Both albums are a departure from the 80’s inspired electro sound of 604 and Light And Magic. It’s good that they evolved (the two latest albums are superb in their own rights), it’s just sad that we won’t be getting any more gems along these lines:
A small collection of Network Identifications from the 60’s-80’s. I always loved the synthesizer work on these and the mechanical video effects are something you just can’t fake. The second one down is the OEPBS (Oregon PBS) sign off from the 80’s. The beginning is just the standard PBS ident, but watch until 0:35 and you’ll seen their own amazing logo animation complete with warbling analog synth melody.
This has me feeling a bit dated, I remember vividly each of these (with the exception of the Oregon PBS Ident).
I’m at Continental Colorcraft in LA for the Obama printing. The proofing is complete and the presses are running at full tilt. As the title suggests, they aren’t playing around at this place, the press is the size of a small house. Some really cool 80’s era industrial design going on, great knobs and dials (the first shot looks like a Moog Modular, can’t go wrong with that). Not trying to be a tease (as some of you commented on the last post) but you can catch a couple small glimpses of the print up above.
70’s prog-rock band Yes are really hit and miss for me. I enjoy a lot of their earlier work but they shifted gears later on and started making the sort of music we now mock when lamenting the cultural shortcomings of that polarizing age known as The 80’s. That aside, they have contributed some amazing work over the years; their eponymous first album is largely considered to be the first Progressive Rock album and it’s certainly a classic. One of my all time favorite songs is the track Survival from that very same album. The production and musicianship on these earlier songs is, to me, perfection. It’s these sort of songs that really make me miss the hot summers of my home. It’s funny how the context of your first experience with a song colors your perception of it from that point forward. Although it is an incredibly beautiful song, hearing Survival usually gets me a little down, I start missing home and getting all nostalgic. The first minute is something altogether transcendent. Being an electronic musician who doesn’t use traditional vocals, the instrumental parts of songs like this are great reference points for building emotion into a song without the need for vocals.
Yes – Survival
[audio:survival.mp3]
Yes was also a visually interesting band. The top five images are paintings by Roger Dean, some of which were used as Yes album covers. The second image is some random shot I found on Flickr while searching for Yes covers. This guy came prepared for whatever he’s about to get into: Portable tape recorder, box of tapes, joint, football, paper towels and of course, a Yes T-Shirt. The final image is from a series of Yes logos also by Dean.
I love the idea of abandoned buildings. It’s always so intriguing to think about how something that took so much time and effort to create ended up left behind and in disrepair. I once found a house on a Sea Cliff in Northern California that was just empty, no one there doors open, furniture gone. It had this beautiful view and was probably sitting on a very valuable piece of land but from the looks of things no one had been there in about 20 years. Sort of creepy but amazing at the same time. When I lived in Sacramento I was able to find my way into the old locomotive works where they designed trains. I brought my Lomo, when I get around to scanning those slides in I will post them.
For the time being here are some interesting shots from an abandoned Paper Mill in the UK via maraid complete with awesome 80’s-era industrial computers and corporate art. Click any of the pics above to see more. There’s also a Flickr Pool dedicated to abandoned places.
We also have a lot of similar stuff going on here in San Francisco. The Hunters Point Naval Yard yields some of the most interesting results: here and here.
UPDATE: I didn’t know but there’s a video for the song too. And so continues the French obsession with late 80’s American youth culture. Via Jon.
I’ve always enjoyed the French House scene and Alan Braxe is a master of his style. something about his production always sounds so authentic; this could either be an alternate version theme for a Miami-based 80’s detective drama or the greatest song ever. Gotta love the Testarossa-esque guitar-car too.
This single was also included on Upper Cuts, a great compilation of essential Braxe tracks.
Alan Braxe & Fred Falke – Rubicon (Original Version)
I know this isn’t exactly the subject matter that’s normally discussed here, but I saw this today and just had to post it. Really cool 80’s video vibe here, complete with old school video effects and VHS "PLAY" text overlay at the beginning. Really cool how the VHS tracking is off at the beginning like it’s an old tape, they really did a great job making this feel authentic. The whole thing is an interesting departure for this guy and shows that along with a whole lot of style he has a great sense of humor. The video was directed by someone called "Melina", not sure who that is, but good work. Snoop Dogg – Sensual Seduction Video >
