THE SOMETHIN' ELSE: October 2010

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Neil Landstrumm-£20 To Get Home

Neil Landstrumm - £20 To Get Home (Planet Mu) from Konx-om-Pax on Vimeo.

Continuing in the vein of light-up headsets, fantasy worlds and tight beats, here's Konx-om-Pax's video for Neil Landstrumm's £20 To Get Home, a song from of his 2008 Planet-Mu release, Lord for £39. In this video, a grimey black rider in camo roves the countryside with his 909 as Pac-Man does some extradimensional off-roading in someone's laptop. A cameo from Boba Fett perfects the maelstrom of eighties bric-a-brac. The rhythmic journey home is accompanied by a macabre air overlapping a steady bassline. A smooth ride for £20.

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Micheal Larsen (November 9, 1981 – October 17, 2010)

I was deeply shocked and saddened Sunday to hear that a friend, personal hero and artistic contributor to The Somethin' Else was dead at the age of 28. If anyone's very essence defies death, it is that of Micheal Larsen, a.k.a. Eyedea, whose spirit lives forever in his work and the wealth of warmth and humanity he bestowed upon fans and those close to him. His honesty, vulnerability and tenacity as an artist and a human being are unparalleled. Beyond being head and shoulders above any lyricist to ever wrestle with rhythm and rhyme, Micheal was also peerless in his humility. When I asked him how he wanted to be billed for his performance at the Book House in Dinkytown, he said, "I just want to be Micheal Larsen." The day of the show, he arrived with a smile on his face and performed to a crowd consisting almost entirely of philosophy books. Despite a scant turnout, he obviously relished another opportunity to put his wit to word and make music with friends. Mikey, I love you. Rest in peace.

Your contribution for Micheal Larsen's funeral services are gratefully welcomed here.

Squarepusher/Shobaleader One-Megazine

Squarepusher presents Shobaleader One - Megazine (taken from d'Demonstrator) from Warp Records on Vimeo.

Why Squarepusher decided to make a Daft Punk record escapes me. Since I love both Squarepusher and Daft Punk, however, this musical husbandry, a pairing of catchy with catalitic, is a welcomed development. Megazine, the first single from Tom Jenkinson and his band Shobaleader One's release d'Demonstrator (2010, Warp), is aglow with electropunk chic and futurist flash. Helmed with Lite-Brite NASDAQ readout visors and wizardwear from Stonehenge's space station semblable, the band (possibly made up of Jenkinson clones) might as well be doing a photo shoot for Vogue de L'Avenir. The groove is tight, even though the lyrics (in an alien dialect?) are incomprehensible to my ears. Before things get too clubby, the Ultravisitor shows us his pimp hand, indicating that Stu Hamm instructional vids are au courant in the Delta-V galaxy.

Venetian Snares-My So-Called Life

My So-Called Life, the title track off of Aaron Funk's first release on his own label Timesig, and his bazillionth release overall, has him further tempering his wont to push the edge of the breakbeat envelope with a deep appreciation of beautiful harmony. This track takes the best elements of My Downfall(Original Soundtrack) (2007, Planet Mu) and Hospitality (2006, Planet Mu) and ups the ante with his most seamless synthesis of brutal and beautiful to date. With his own label off to a great start and his limitless rhythmic chromaticism firing on all cylinders, we should hope that Funk's life, so-called as it may be, continues to pulse with boundless creativity.

Flying Lotus-Kill Your Co-workers

Flying Lotus - Kill Your Co-Workers from Warp Records on Vimeo.

Whilst taking a break from Slavoj Žižek's essay, The Interpassive Subject, I stumbled across a delightful specimen of sanguine cybertransferece: Flying Lotus' "Kill Your Co-Workers," from his Cosmogramma follow-up Pattern + Grid World EP (2010, Warp). As the Beeple-produced video begins, a kalliopic fanfare brings color and life to Pattern + Grid World, a place where pony dreams rule, rainbows are yummy and fun is sweet. One casual jeer from a friend, however, and Robo-Steve's cubist automata go into kill mode, eliminating all non-human targets in a tour de force of annihilation. As I observed this spectacle, I realized I was taking part in a sequence of transference where FlyLo's bloodlust as enjoyed through his robotic semblance (who himself enjoys his destructive urges via his robot guard) was my own sadistic enjoyment displaced. As beats bumped along to a gleeful, arcade-inspired melody and the streets ran red in this Patternson gone wrong, I noted that, whether you were sadist or masochist, true enjoyment could be easily hyperdisplaced. Dialectically speaking, the suffering not being suffered by the robot Other as he was being destroyed was actually the enjoyment that wasn't being enjoyed by the objectively subjective robot killer as he was destroying. I, for my part, enjoyed the spectacle immensely, as it afforded me an opportunity to further not enjoy the execution of any immediate primal imperative, which, in the Cyberpsychotic Age, is the ultimate jouissant volcano ride. Thanks, Flying Lotus. I'll meet you at Jazzelton's later for some yummy rainbows and a couple of sets from Coltron!

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The Somethin' Else #5 Recap

Replete with spacious performance areas, projectors and a wonderful staff, Franklin Art Works proved to be the perfect venue for The Somethin' Else! Great space, great artists, great turnout. The Somethin' Else #5 was a real work of art!