(Source: klf.de)
Official video to “The Beat & The Pulse” by Austra. Directed by Claire Edmondson.
In this stylishly shot video which oozes with effortless, minimal cool, Austra find themselves surrounded by gyrating, scantily clad women who, without giving too much away, appear to be less (or maybe more?) than human. This is an edited version of the original video, but depending on how liberal your work environment is, this is probably still a NSFW. Just a heads up there.
AUSTRA is Katie Stelmanis, Maya Postepski, and Dorian Wolf. They formed in Toronto, Ontario, Canada in 2010. The debut of AUSTRA comes at the end of a long line for the band’s principal songwriter Katie Stelmanis. AUSTRA represents the musical progression of almost 10 years of performing as an artist, fleshed out by a full band. More settled and dominant than ever , the AUSTRA sound represents all of Katie’s influences tightened into a shiny metal ball - pianos give way to keyboards as songs build and pull, their urgent dark melodies arpeggiating and multiplying through an army of synthesizers, wrapping themselves around Katie’s astounding voice.
With aberrant enthusiasm, we premiere Room 205: Episode Eight with The Soft Moon.
Director Otto Arsenault captures these SF-based neo-post-punks as they’re only meant to be seen— dazed, hazed and out of phase.
Visual artist Ron Robinson’s 3D maps and rapid-fire light projections are set against designer Tamarra Younis’ abstract sculptures, while editor Sophia Rubio’s utilizes her keen eye for repetitive symbology and selective pixel degradation to visually compliment the band’s haunting atmospherics.
No official website. Just a MySpace profile.
The Good Natured consists of Berkshire schoolgirl Sarah McIntosh; the songwriter and front-woman; George on drums and her brother Hamish McIntosh on bass. In the songs featured on the Skeleton EP Sarah displays her compellingly mature command of the nuances of serious pop music, combined with the darker, and often more sensual, emotional and lyrical content of the Gothic. Both ‘Skeleton’ and ‘Wolves’ are produced by Patrik Berger, known for his work with Robyn.
Band website, official YouTube channel.
I’ve been looking through British radio stations lately, and here’s my latest find — Absolute Radio, a station with the main focus towards mainstream rock and music performed live.
So to speak: Coldplay, Kings of Leon, The Killers, Oasis, Kaiser Chiefs, R.E.M., The Police, Muse, Blur — this kind of programming certainly makes for an enjoyable listen. If that hasn’t got you covered, perhaps you can give a go to one of the sister stations: 00s, 90s, 80s, Classic Rock. I switch to any of these every time the main channel plays ”autoglass repair, autoglass replace”, or — what’s even worse — bothers with anything from Nickelback.
Here’s a quote from Clive Dickens, the station’s chief operating officer:
Most people now have their own personal radio station in their pocket: an MP3 player cleverly playlisted with some popular tracks and maybe a few surprises too. On-line you can discover new material within minutes of it being recorded or re-discover album tracks from old albums from artists who influenced today’s finest musicians. That is the world we are in.
So, we’re sticking with real music – not manufactured rubbish – and we’re building on the amount of live music we do – we’re just going to discover more of all of it.
Also, one key finding from every piece of research we did, and that includes walking into the newsagents opposite, we’ll be playing more different songs – in fact, ten times more! When we play a “Haven’t Heard It for Ages” on Absolute Radio, you really won’t have done. Once we’ve played it, it won’t be on again for a year. And the No Repeat 9-5 workday is back, by popular request.
Absolute radio seems to be having a struggle keeping a fair balance between the commercial aspect (jinggles, contests, commercials) and actual music, and l find myself in trouble getting used to the “drive time”. Broadcast in periods of 6-10am and 3-7pm suffers from bothersome advertising and quickly becomes somewhat… hard to enjoy. For example, every time I hear that “autoglass repair, autoglass replace” jingle, I’m loosing my senses, feeling like I may eventually go mad. Try watching this short comedy clip twenty times in a row — you will get the idea.
On another note: their website could serve as an example of web development craft at its finest. It’s exceptionally good; such proficiency is something extraordinary, even taking into account high standards in the UK. In addition to the fabulous website, the station also provides live studio webcams, and a top-notch quality online audio streaming service; even developer resources for third parties. It’s really impressive.
Quick glance over Absolute Radio on Wikipedia reveals that they were the first European radio station to stream 24-hours a day on the internet. Things must have been this way for quite some time.
(Source: supprosetry, via secondlifesyndrome)
