I just ordered my new mp4 player! It will arrive in five days, jes! An this time I'll have enough space, 8 gigabytes! I think this will be like my fourth mp3 player, all others I have crashed while training or well washing in the washing machine! Headphones I have also crashed at least 4 times, should still get good headphones, if somebody knows good ones that are light please tell me. I had Koss Portapro, and maybe will buy the same again.
I first came across with calypso when I bought a calypso LP full of names like Lord Melody, King Rudolph, The Lion and Lord Kitchener. Calypso comes from Trinidad and Tobago. And as the dear wikipedia tells us the first official calypso song was recorded 1912 by Lovey's String Band. Calypso came from the earlier kaiso -music.
The calypso lyrics were very often very political and talking about the corruption. There were people also dumping the censored calypso plates to the sea. Some of the most known calypso singers were: Attila the Hun, Roaring Lion, Lord Invader and Lord Kitchener. A song "Rum and coca-cola" from Lord Invader came well known because it's cover by The Andrew Sisters in 1944.
And a remix version of the Andrew Sisters version with a great video:
Later on Harry Belafonte made calypso more known, but with more commercial style.
80's was the time for stadion rock, long strange hair, colorful clothes and hair, weird sunglasses, spandex, just google picture Cyndi Lauper or The Scorpions and you get the picture!
When I was small, my father always played lps in the weekend, this is how I got to know lot of classics like; Bruce Springsteen: "Streets of Philadelphia", Michael Jackson, Tina Turner, Bryan Adams: "Heaven", Cher, Eric Clapton: "Tears in heaven", "Layla". I listened a lot one Clapton collection cd when I was a kid. Cyndi Lauper, Eurythmics: "Sweet dreams", Maxi Priest: "Wild World". Almost all the music videos from the 80's full of synths and some quite strange music videos as also Men at work:
"Down under".
Stevie Wonder, Jackson Five, Pink Floyd, Led Zeppelin, The Doors, Santana, The Rolling Stones, Jimi Hendrix, has some cool songs, one is "Voodoo child" and "All along the watchtower", The Police, Queen, Roxette, Simple Minds: "Dont you (forget about me)" Phil Collins: "Another day in paradise" that's very beautiful song. Most of the songs I only know by the tune, they are these songs that you have heard million times, but don't remember the names.
"Don't you (forget about me)"
One very great musician was John Lennon. I listened a lot the "The very best of John Lennon" when I was around 14 something. "Power to the people", "Stand by me", "Happy Xmas (War is over)", "BeautifulBoy", "Nobody told me" are some of the songs that struck to me, but up to this day the next song is some of the most beautiful songs ever written.
"Imagine"
Kool and the Gang, Foreigner,Toto: "Africa", Madonna: "Like a prayer", U2: "With or without you", "One", "Sweetest thing" that has a quite great music video worth of checking, "Where the streets have no name" also worth checking the music video. But here:
"Pride"
And I heard also lot of classical. I got to listen lot of music when I was small and I'm grateful to have had all that music in the breakfast, Saturdays and when vacuum hoovering. Lately I have also started to buy some old lp's and have found some great ones like Kraftwerk, Stevie Wonder, Ennie Morricone and an awesome Calypso song collection! Check Lord Kitchener.
How all this comes to Massive Attack and Burial? They have made collaboration "Four Walls/Paradise circus" and it will be released on LP on 17th October with a great lp-cover that is designed by Robert Del Naja from Massive attack.
There are some big talks over which one is better in music quality, cd's or lp's, but what I think LP:s are cool to play at home, but cds are just simply handier to have around, or then in mp3's. What I find great with LPs is the artwork that comes with it, and also that you can just buy something because it looks interesting, what you wouldn't do with cds. The LP of Burial and Massive attack will be done at Vinyl Factory in England. Here you can also see how they manufacture the LPs:
Sometimes there's a moment to stop. There are lot of different kind of stops, stopping before the traffic, bus stop, stop by somebody, stopping the school, stopping the climate change, stopping the video, police stopping you, stopped by a stranger and stopping the time. List is endless, you stop because of something that is coming from the outside. You stop to wait for something. You stop to feel something. There are small and big stops, stops that you have to make yourself or being stopped by others. I think people should stop more often. This video and song stopped me today.
Austra is great Canadian band, the front woman of the band is Katie Stelmanis and the other bandmates Maya Postepski and Dorian Wolf . Austra released it's debut album "Feel it break" May 2011 on Domino Records. Feel it break is great album. Check it out! Some songs that caught my attention are: "Lose it", "Beat and the pulse", "The noise" and "The Beast". They have also made a beautiful cover of Roy Orbison's "Crying". You can read a nice interview of Stelmanis here http://www.dominorecordco.com/artists/austra/
In a city there's light everywhere. Sometimes it's dim, in a dark street corner, yellow light from the light pole. A broken fluorescent light that flickers before it goes totally dark. The way too bright light in the city trains, that shows how tired all the people are in the evening when coming from work. The light in the stores, that leaves no shadow behind.
For this post I want to talk about sound and light. Because the artists that I'm going to talk about use light or sound in an exceptional way. But before that we have to go down to the very basics of sound and what it is.
This is taken from Wikipedia: ( ^The American Heritage Dictionary of the English Language, Fourth Edition, Houghton Mifflin Company, 2000, archived from the original on June 25, 2008, retrieved May 20, 2010 ) Shortly, but clear;
"Sound is a mechanical wave that is an oscillation of pressure transmitted through a solid, liquid, or gas, composed of frequencies within the range of hearing and of a level sufficiently strong to be heard, or the sensation stimulated in organs of hearing by such vibrations."
"Light or visible light is electromagnetic radiation that is visible to the human eye, and is responsible for the sense of sight. Visible light has wavelength in a range from about 380 nanometres to about 740 nm, with a frequency range of about 405 THz to 790 THz. Inphysics, the term light sometimes refers to electromagnetic radiation of any wavelength, whether visible or not.
Primary properties of light are intensity, propagation direction, frequency or wavelength spectrum, and polarisation, while its speed in a vacuum, 299,792,458 meters per second (about 300,000 kilometers per second), is one of the fundamental constants of nature.
Light, which is emitted and absorbed in tiny "packets" called photons, exhibits properties of both waves and particles. This property is referred to as the wave–particle duality. The study of light, known as optics, is an important research area in modern physics."
Copyright: Roosa Hämäläinen
So light can move in a vacuum, so not needing any substance to move in.
Sound needs something to move in.
So now, when we know bit more I want to present you Finnbogi Petursson, he's Icelandic sound/installation artist. He has created many pieces with interesting search what kind of patterns different sound wavelengths give and how the sound can feel in space. Listen these with headphones on.
Finnbogi Petursson will be performing in Rewire festival in Den Haag 4-5.11
Optical Machines creates soundscapes with amazing visuals. They are a Dutch duo: Rikkert Brok and Maarten Halmans. They create the sound and the visuals on the spot so you can actually see how it all works. They have amazing video online that you have to listen with headphones on and from a big screen!
Optical Machines will be performing in Rewire festival in Den Haag 4-5.11
And still something very awesome. I have never seen it live but this video tells a lot. Watch also headphones on and from a big screen. It is a 3D projection, put that in youtube search or "3D projection on building" and you'll find out more.
Seeper is an arts and technology collective. Check also the Vimeo channel of Seeper to find out more cool stuff http://vimeo.com/seeper
And some think work for everybody. Both links from Wikipedia:
Fibonacci number. Which explains everything in the nature:
"They also appear in biological settings, such as branching in trees, arrangement of leaves on a stem, the fruit spouts of a pineapple, the flowering of artichoke, an uncurling fern and the arrangement of a pine cone."
New song and the music video from Florence's new album "Ceremonials". When I see this video I get flashbacks from X-files and Dana Scully. Watched all the seasons when I was at primary school and secondary school and I am still X-files fan. It's quite a look a like or maybe it's just the red hair. Well if Gillian Anderson would be a a great musician then maybe! If you don't yet know which is which make a guess and watch the video!
I did a lot research this morning. Got loads of new names, interesting projects and one awesome festival.
Later more about it and more names. Now some great artist from Iceland. Listen his music with headphones or if you have good speakers in the middle of the speakers and really loud. You will feel it.
