Blip Pop Svengali
Dec. 22nd, 2004 11:29 am![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
imomus'Baroque in Voltage', the new album from the Super Madrigal Brothers, is officially released in 2005, but I'm told initial quantities are available now from Fever Pitch. Super Madrigal Brothers is the 8 bit supergroup featuring Adam Bruneau and John Talaga. Adam lives in Dacula, Georgia (the fabulous graphics he makes for the Super Madrigal Bros website always make me think of Dracula, though) and John is based in Bay City, Michigan. In 2002 I was the svengali who put the group together. I'd heard their demos, and thought that Adam's charmingly controlled 8-bit compositions put together with John's wild and heavy deconstructions might yield something extraordinary. It did, and I unreservedly recommend their Shakestation album to anyone. It's an incredibly adventurous exploration of madrigals played on freaky electronics, a superb balance of control and abandon, melody and texture, music and noise. If you don't believe me (I am, after all, the label boss) read the Pitchfork review.
So why is 'Baroque in Voltage' on Fever Pitch instead of American Patchwork? Well, I froze the AmPatch release schedule when I realised I was paying for launching the careers of new artists with my own record royalties. I wasn't able to afford the press officers and advertisements needed to break new artists, so in some ways the label was a kind of R&D laboratory, designed to put together new acts then let them migrate to bigger labels. AmPatch has now broken even, so there may be a chance to put out records again in 2005. Let's see. Anyway, I'm delighted the SuperMads have released another record. A copy is on its way to me at this moment. From the preview mp3 on their site it sounds as strong as the last one. I'm sure I'll love it.
I worried back in 2002 that the 8-bit movement might be a passing fad, but it seems to have a life of its own, existing, like a retro video game, in a parallel world alongside the musical world we know. The other day the BBC ran a feature about Polish Blip Pop, and if you go to the website of America's best contemporary art centre, New York's PS1, you can hear a radio show in which Malcolm McLaren, the ultimate svengali (he assembled the Sex Pistols the same way I assembled the Super Madrigal Brothers) talks about his own forays into the genre. He even uses the word 'folktronic' in the interview! I know McLaren a bit through his girlfriend, and I can only say that I'm delighted if he's been influenced in some way by my ideas. McLaren albums like 'Duck Rock' and 'Waltz Darling' were certainly an influence on me. I interviewed McLaren a couple of years ago and he spoke non-stop for ten hours without ever once getting boring. What an extraordinary man!
So why is 'Baroque in Voltage' on Fever Pitch instead of American Patchwork? Well, I froze the AmPatch release schedule when I realised I was paying for launching the careers of new artists with my own record royalties. I wasn't able to afford the press officers and advertisements needed to break new artists, so in some ways the label was a kind of R&D laboratory, designed to put together new acts then let them migrate to bigger labels. AmPatch has now broken even, so there may be a chance to put out records again in 2005. Let's see. Anyway, I'm delighted the SuperMads have released another record. A copy is on its way to me at this moment. From the preview mp3 on their site it sounds as strong as the last one. I'm sure I'll love it.
I worried back in 2002 that the 8-bit movement might be a passing fad, but it seems to have a life of its own, existing, like a retro video game, in a parallel world alongside the musical world we know. The other day the BBC ran a feature about Polish Blip Pop, and if you go to the website of America's best contemporary art centre, New York's PS1, you can hear a radio show in which Malcolm McLaren, the ultimate svengali (he assembled the Sex Pistols the same way I assembled the Super Madrigal Brothers) talks about his own forays into the genre. He even uses the word 'folktronic' in the interview! I know McLaren a bit through his girlfriend, and I can only say that I'm delighted if he's been influenced in some way by my ideas. McLaren albums like 'Duck Rock' and 'Waltz Darling' were certainly an influence on me. I interviewed McLaren a couple of years ago and he spoke non-stop for ten hours without ever once getting boring. What an extraordinary man!
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Re: rather too much lace
Date: 2004-12-23 12:09 am (UTC)No, just know the name. But didn't he write the original 'Bilitis', which became a David Hamilton film and and Francis Lai soundtrack, and then a track on my album with Laila France?
Re: rather too much lace
Date: 2004-12-23 12:10 am (UTC)louys est un autre.
Date: 2004-12-23 06:52 am (UTC)pierre loti, he was quite mad. (why can writers look like this anymore?)
erik
Re: louys est un autre.
Date: 2004-12-23 08:13 am (UTC)Re: louys est un autre.
Date: 2004-12-23 09:37 am (UTC)Re: louys est un autre.
Date: 2004-12-23 09:57 am (UTC)Re: rather too much lace
Date: 2004-12-23 11:39 am (UTC)As this piece (http://www.saudiaramcoworld.com/issue/199204/the.orient.of.pierre.loti.htm) mentions, he introduced himself to Sarah Bernhardt by being rolled up in a Persian rug and getting himself delivered to her room. Shades of Carry on Cleo. He was fond of dressing in local mufti and, for an intriguing cross-cultural look at this practice at the time in the Japanese context, there's a good piece by Christine Guth in this book (http://www.frontlist.com/detail/0822364905) on cultural cross-dressing.
This is the general academic line (http://wwwsshe.murdoch.edu.au/intersections/issue8/lyne.html) on Loti in the Japanese context.
Marxy's a huge fan, I hear...