I wanted to post a documentary called 'A pciture of London' but unfortunately youtube wont let me link to it from here. So here's a small film called 'A fugitive futurist' by Gaston Quiribet in 1924, it depicts a future ideal for London in black and white film, and I found some of their ideas hugely fascinating. Its only 11 mins, well worth a watch if you ask me.
I saw this on BBC 4 the other day and found it extremely interesting. In the 30's the Graf Zeppelin was the first machine to circumnavigate the globe by air, with one woman on board, and many many men.
Anyway, thoroughly interesting BBC documentary, narrated in the words of Grace Hay, the only female on board.
Thanks to hiccup on urban75 for sharing this, a collection of photos from some beautiful abandoned rail stations around the world. Definately woth a look if you like photography and architecture.
Squarepusher is a bit of an oddity for me, the stuff he makes and I like, I really like, and the tunes he makes that I don't like, I really don't like them
As far as I know squarepushers been on a bit of a hiatus, last stuff I heard come from his way was the shobaleader one project in which he played bass, I bought that album, liked it enough, but I haven't listened to it much since.
However I'd heard talk of an EP, and then all of a sudden his new album ufabulum was out, and I was downloading it off itunes. Now when I write these, I like to make sure I've listened to most of the album 4 or 5 times, unfortunately I haven't had so much of a chance to do this, but I have listened to it through.
Again with all squarepusher albums, there's tunes I love and tunes I haven't liked really at all. Its certainly safe to say I'm addicted to the first 2 tracks, 4001 and unreal square.
(sorry, only live available)
The next tune is stadium ice, and this is one of the ones that really I dont like, it sounds like an IDM take on an 80's porn soundtrack. Luckily the album lifts for the rest of it will provide you with some wonderfully squarepusher sounds.
I'd really recomend this album, its not too heavy, and the squarepusher sound has developed really nicely taking some influence from the shobaleader one album in my opinion.
So I've just finished watching beats of the heart, and thoroughly enjoyed it. A 1977 documentary about Reggae, which is a little date, but still a very interesting watch, Joe Higgs, Bob Marley and Inner circle are in it, and it gives an interesting insight to the history of specifically jamaican reggae and the culture.
So following from last tuesdays, I've started looking up music documentaries to watch when I'm at work, and managed to find some right gems again with the help of posters from urban75.
Fela Kuti is a name I've know of, but didn't know a huge amount about his music, I know that he did afrobeat / african style music, but that was about it. Well this documentary was a bit of an eye opener, musician, outspoken on politics and a human rights activist. Seems to have some great tunes too..... Definately one I'll be looking up
Death Grips are a bit of a wildcard as far as my choices in music go, aggy heavy rap, over the top of some real dark industrial beats, not normally something I'd probably go for (I like my slightly older laid back hip hop, the paharcye, MF Doom etc), but Death Grips really caught my attention.
I first heard about them on the Ravetalk forum for suggestions for the Bangface weekender, off the back of which I decided to give their first offering 'ex-military' a try. I like the fact that they had a real moody side, but seemed to be trying new things in a uniquely lo-fi fashion.
In their new album 'The money store', they seemed to have amped up the production values a little, but still kept that heavy duty sound in the back ground, and although I will say the lyrics I dont find amazingly inspiring (I don't think they have any intention of being in all honesty), the backing tracks and vocals together work really well. They've got some great samples in their tunes, and the album keeps me entertained from start to finish, which 'ex-military' didn't quite manage to do.
Standout tracks for me have to be 'Hustle Bones', and 'The Cage'
If you like these tracks, seriously have a listen to the album, it will probably tick some boxes for you. I'm really hoping to catch this lot on some live dates soon, I reckon their live show has the potential to be awesome!
So a couple of weeks ago I spoke about the new electronic explortions podcast by Bong Ra, which is linked here.
Over the weekend my copy of Bong Ra's new album turned up, it had taken a little while longer than I hoped as it had to come from Germany.
Bong Ra's someone who I've seen DJ a lot, but never really gone digging around into tracks he's actually made until the last 4 or 5 months. In all honesty, he's right up my street, a dark ethos, with some real industrial/metal infused sounds.
The new album is no exception, and probably goes more crossover than other stuff I've heard released under the Bong Ra name (there's some crossover side projects with other musicians he's done, i.e. wormskull).
To be completely clear about this, I fucking love this album. Its only 8 tracks and is split into 2, alpha and omega.
Alpha is 4 tracks that contain lyrics from the rapper/producer Sole (Co-founder of the record label Anticon). Sole's lyrics really suit bong ra's tunes, down beat but well written and planned out, I think over all I prefer this part of the album more (Alpha), the stand out track for me has to be Pandora's Box which is a brilliant tune.
Moving on to the second part of the album (Omega), these are more straightforward techy death jungle/tekno/dubstep speed tunes, and fuck me do the pack a punch....... Personally I feel the alpha tunes more, but I also love the omega tunes, I'd just rather listen to them mixed together. Standout tune in omega for me has to be 'Darkness | Artificial flesh'.
In all honesty, if you like this kind of music, buy this album, if your unsure, listen to the podcast, as pretty much all of the tunes are on there, then consider buying it if you like it. It comes highly recomended from th wonky donkey.
Bong-Ra's website can be found here, and the album can be bought here.
I've literally just finished watching a dub documentary called 'Dub Echoes'. Unfortunately its not great quality on youtube, but has lots of points of interest about dub music, and at 1hr 22mins will certainly kill some time.
Highly recomended for Dub fans. *Please note, im talking about dub music, not dubstep, I dont want any whinging that you've sat through it expecting a documentary about skrillex, ta.
Following up from the last post I decided to have a dig around for the festivals britannia film, which was a really interesting documentary about UK festivals over the years. Unfortunately I've only found it in parts, but if you've got a patience its well worth a watch..
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Ill keep on posting music documentaries as I watch them.......... maybe another today, I'm just watching it now.
If anyone missed it the BBC did a brilliant series of music documentaries a while back, off the top of my head I remember one about reggae, one about festivals and one about folk but I'm sure theres more.
Anyway whilst channel flicking the other day I came across reggae britannia on again, googled in and found it on youtube.
So this is a highly recomended documentary for anyone interested in reggae music. Ill try and post more music documentaries as I find them.
There's also a live show from the Barbican filmed to go with this which Ive put in too.
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