This video for Lighter Click, courtesy of the band DEDSA, evokes a visual style akin to Fantastic Planet mixed with plenty of D&D style fantasy elements and maybe even a nod to Metroid if you're paying attention. It's a visually captivating piece of work done by band member Robbie Ward.
What's even more interesting about the undertaking is that the song is not a thrashing epic of metal, it's a dance-y number that boils over through its duration. A pleasant surprise to be sure.
The Bomb Cyclone of winter weather just hit the Northeast, so take a moment to enjoy these beautiful photos from French photographer Christophe Jacrot depicting New York in White, taken from previous snow storms.
Also of interest, NY in Blackout during the Hurricane Sandy aftermath and various snowstorms and Blizzards captured from all over the world.
The 99th installment of the We Own This Town podcast is now available. I had this one ready to go at the tail end of 2017 but wanted to let the Christmas music mania roll through before releasing it. It's a great smattering of musical styles; from the retro-y vibes of Lionlimb to the blazing psych-rock of Mouth Reader and shoegaze of Tape Deck Mountain, there's plenty to enjoy here.
It's kind of funny to read articles like this that lament algorithmic music discovery and its lack of personality. Personally, I think if you're looking for new music recommendations, a destination like WOTT is a great resource. I'm biased but I still think that.
There's not much to see yet but I'm intrigued by these early offerings from Cameron S. Campbell, a landscape architect and artist from Austin, TX. With less than ten posts it's hard to make too much of a judgement call on what it will become but, from the artist standpoint, I'm enjoying the forms and implementation so far.
Live Broadcast Video is a tricky undertaking - so much data being pushed at once is surely going to result in some bad packets, dropped frames and assorted glitches. When that happens, Glitch TV Bot is there to capture the mayhem. It's a feed of imagery ranging from the extremely datamoshed to the pleasantly deranged.
My only complaint is that there's a lot of content being pumped out, enough to clog your feed. Aside from that, it's a fascinating journey into digital entropy.
Simon Stalenhag recently launched, funded and shipped an art book called The Electric State. The narrative behind these dystopian images is established well but with enough vagueness to add your own flavoring:
In late 1997, a runaway teenager and her yellow toy robot travel west through a strange USA, where the ruins of gigantic battle drones litter the countryside heaped together with the discarded trash of a high tech consumerist society in decline. As their car approaches the edge of the continent, the world outside the window seems to be unraveling ever faster as if somewhere beyond the horizon, the hollow core of civilization has finally caved in.
On the whole, it's a beautiful collection of images featuring a not so beautiful future. It's no wonder that the Russo brothers optioned it for a film.
I recently discovered the BBC show First Dates, a decidedly sweet show and not at all what you'd expect if you grew up with the likes of Singled Out or Next!. The show's concept is simple, put two people on a blind date and see how they interact and possibly get along. It's not a hidden camera show, not filled with Date Challenges or anything subversive - it's just people on a date trying to find a connection. Each episode features three to four couples but the entire season is filmed inside the same restaurant and features the restaurant staff checking in with the couples along the way.
Maybe that doesn't sound entirely enticing but it's both pleasant and entirely engaging. It's also a nice reminder that even when people don't connect romantically, they can be civil, funny and have a nice time together; despite those differences.
Watch a bunch of clips on YouTube and get convinced.
