This was done by Jesus Contreras and Hannah Manfredi as a music and video collaboration. The story is about a little girl that wakes up to find herself in Mexico. She meets a young boy named Salvador who is on his way to sell mangos at the market. She doesn’t know whether she is still sleeping or awake. The animation and artwork was done by Hannah Manfredi, who also supplies the voice in the narration. Interesting enough, the music and vocals were completed before the animation was shot. All of the music was realized in Live You may need to go directly to the video on Youtube if you have trouble reading the subtitles. This is the direct link to it: http://youtube.com/watch?v=uVREtfM1AL4

The author of this amazing piece James Houston claims “It doesn’t sound great, as it’s not supposed to. “, I respectfully disagree…it’s beautiful and I enjoy it more that the original! It’s a little slow to get going but hang in there…it’s pretty damn cool.

The band performing Radiohead’s Nude…

Sinclair ZX Spectrum - Guitars (rhythm & lead)
Epson LX-81 Dot Matrix Printer - Drums
HP Scanjet 3c - Bass Guitar
Hard Drive array - Act as a collection of bad speakers - Vocals & FX

Big Ideas (don’t get any) from James Houston on Vimeo.

Thanks to one Vance Fink I am feeling a bit like a I grabbed the wrong vitamins while running disheveled out the house this morning. Check out this well edited trippy video…and enjoy some media induced visual hallucinogenics. It’s gonna be hot yo…but fear not, you won’t need a jacket.

This probably sounds funnier in description than it really is, but in case you need to do a Vocal Beatbox performance for a crowd of little people…or more specifically oompa loompas?…try adding some helium to your game plan!

Someone forgot to tell this guy Matthias Loibner that the Hurdy Gurdy is an instrument for nerds. He’s obviously spent hours learning his scales and he could give any of the master shredders of our day a run for their money, just watch as he loops sections and tears it up. Thanks to Ben for this great video of this amazing musician and this great sounding instrument, which seems to bridge a gap between strings and wind. All hats off to the real Hurdy Gurdy man, I’ll bet the groupies are lining up outside his tour bus!

I sort of lost touch with some of the extreme Japanese post punk stuff after the early 90’s. I had all the early Shimmy Disk releases of Boredoms, Ruins etc., and continue to love Melt Banana of course. It was great to discover this later project of Yoshida Tatsuya who was the drums half of probably one of the most bad ass duos of all time (Ruins). Koenji Hyakkei is a larger scale band project which incorporates singers and many other instruments, but continues to mine a lot of the same veins as Tatsuya’s other projects. This song was set nicely to an old experimental short “Ghosts Before Breakfast” from Hans Richter, and it really works nicely.

Audio Sample- Doi Doi
Koenji Hyakkei- Skin Graft Website

With a name like Cop Shoot Cop it’s no surprise you are most associated with being an addict (band members claimed it was a hatred of cops)…The band which formed in 1987 however was quite a monster when it was firing on all cylinders. I saw them play live only once in Tucson AZ, but it was a hell of a show that left an impression. At the time there were two bass players and the drummer stood inside a cage of drums and pieces of metal, which he turned into an industrial barrage. I think this song Interference from their Interscope release was about as close as they ever came to a real mainstream breakthrough (or maybe 10 dollar bill, but i think this song’s better). It has a pretty badass bass line, and you can certainly hear stuff that would have influence on perhaps Trent Reznor or other people who borrowed from “industrial” music! See also Lubricated Goat which was a later splinter group.

With clients like Mike Patton on your list you must be doing something pretty interesting in the realm of experimental music gear, and Adachi Tomomi certainly is. Tomomi creates a range of synthesizers and theremins and other wonderful boxes housed in plastic tupperware containers which actually give them a pretty cool appearance. I particularly like the description for the Tomomin so I’ll post that for you to enjoy.

Tomomin is most famous instrument ADACHI have made because ADACHI had manufactured and sold it for many musicians. Mike Patton, Omoide-hatoba and some other musicians have used it. Tomomin is simple monophonic oscillator has strong sound. It is possible to cover all hearable range by 1 knob operation. Of course the name of the instrument refers the historical great electronic instruments “Theremin”. Now, ADACHI stops making it, maybe it will start again.

Tomomin Synthesizer II
Demonstration of self-made sound generator with 2 of C-MOS IC 40106. With external wires for touch. Originally it is stereo sound.

Adachi Tomomi- Instrument Page
Adachi Tomomi- More Great Videos

Sound, repetition, minimalism…Take a deep breath and stop for a minute or two to watch and listen to this brief piece by Alva Noto (a.k.a. Carsten Nicolai) and Ryuichi Sakamoto. It’s similar to the work of Ryoji Ikeda who masterminded the wonderful +.- album years ago, and the two have collaborated under the moniker Cyclo. The equally minimal video accompaniment created by Karl Kliem is perfect.

Sometimes something comes along that makes me believe in the perfect harmony of the universe. If your name is Kenneth Goldsmith and you do a radio show using the name Kenny G, chances are good you will end up getting some letters intended for someone else…Let’s face it the REAL John Zorn has been less than reliable in the last 10 years…maybe it’s time to try something by Jonathan Zorn. Thanks to Ketogah for this great link.

John Zorn Meets Kenny G- Listen to the music!