Video for Mind Over Mirrors - Memorander

Easing into the morning with this.

 

LUKE WYATT SAD STONEWASH - A Video Mulch

The video Luke Wyatt made for his Torn Hawk Tarifa track has been calling me, and en route for another gawp at it on Youtube I came across another amazing video he's done with the Tarifa track. It's a promo for a full length DVD called - best name ever - Sad Stonewash. Its VHS sentimentality is totally kitsch and surprsingly poignant, and major visual disintegration FX push it as far towards pixellated meltdown as it's possible to go without completely destroying the meaningful looks, sunsets and 80s dance moves. And the harsh metallic beats in the track, balanced by the balearic sunset melody, perfectly complement the sentimental/destructive feel of the video.

Luke Wyatt explained to AAVV how he works and what inspired Sad Stonewash:

 “I select video to appropriate based on its mood resonance or compositional zing. My VCR gets beat up with a size 13 docksider until it makes errors and the VHS tape spits up on itself. While digitizing the video I induce the computer to make mistakes by not telling it the truth about the data it is ingesting. I isolate the mistakes I like best, outline them, and send them back to my VCR, resuming the docksider attack, repeating this process until things attain an anti-sheen, losing any crisp edge, as if they had always belonged together. I then arrange the images in an order that must appear equally inevitable. I term the results of this technique Video Mulch. For this work, the following was on my mind: languid linen-suit sadness via the stylish poignancy of Michael Mann sunsets. A cold weather cousin sadness to that: the dour, grey, gothic sadness of a few old bands who played chiming delay guitar. Sixth grade sword obsessions (a dream of the sky), meet adult shoe and leg love (hangups of the earth). Both crowns and castles point to the sky (or space), pinnacles and minarets announcing heaven as the place kings should shoot for. Remember how the Voltron castle became a spaceship and lifted off the earth?”

check Luke Wyatt's website

Paved with Gold - ISYS and NTS at Tate Tanks

Earlier this evening ISYS and NTS got their London thing on at the Tate's new Tanks space. There were five films screened and soundtracked live, and some poetry from host James Massiah.  The videos were really lovely, with an impeccable ISYS eye for London's beauty and style. Footage of crowds, the city streets, people and fashion were edited and soundtracked so well it made me kind of see the city again and this time catch the aliveness and the energy...



The music was varied and pretty great too - My Panda Shall Fly did an improvised sitar, electronics and vocals set and Dark Sky played a kind-of-heavy but still poignant dubstepish-bass-ish track complete with London sound recordings. Okay, so that didn't make it sound all that great but actually, it really was.

Revealing the soul and beauty in the everyday life of city without getting sentimental is a lot easier said than done, but the films and music tonight pulled it off perfectly. It was like being shown the city afresh, and it was really touching.

If you haven't already, check out ISYS and NTS, two banging websites. 

Torn Hawk - Tarifa

Torn Hawk is a Brooklyn-based producer whose new release is out soon on NY’s fine new(ish) house label L.I.E.S. Torn Hawk is also an alias of video artist Luke Wyatt, he of the PPU Party DVD series (think betamax, jheri curls, synths and spandex - see below). 

Anyway, Tarifa. The track combines cold metallic undertones with seductively dreamy Balearic guitar licks and warm, wistful synths. It’s an unusual combination but it really works, and the same compelling incongruity is found in the video, where VHS static and digital FX surround the romantic hand-holding, sunset-laden imagery. 

Both track and vid are heavy with analogue poignance and beautiful hyper-modern wistfulness; a strong contribution to the new wave of analogue, left-of-centre house-not-house coming from L.I.E.S (and Brooklyn in general) of late. 

Sheffield - City on the Move

Came across this while looking at stuff for the Park Hill post. An amazingly well done documentary, with the perfect soundtrack, voiceover and choice of images. A reassuring and comforting exercise in public relations.. Sheffield, the city that inspires confidence and makes you sleep well at night.