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architectureandfilmblog · 4 years

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20 GREAT FILMS FOR A CINEMATIC CITY-BREAK

Given that in-person trips are not an option for most of us right now, these are our chance to take a cinematic urban holiday.

1. HONG KONG: IN THE MOOD FOR LOVE (2000) Widely considered to be one of the most beautiful films ever made, this is as much a lyrical portrait of ‘1960′s Hong Kong as it is a tale of doomed romance. It’s counterpoint is CHUNGKING EXPRESS (1994), in which Wong Kar Wai explores the city more whimsically, circa 1990′s.

2. TOKYO: LOST IN TRANSLATION (2003) The loneliness, cultural disorientation, and general sense of freedom and discovery that come with being in an utterly foreign city provide the catalyst for an unexpected romance.

3. BERLIN: WINGS OF DESIRE (1987) One of the most beloved of city films, this is Wim Wenders’ meditation on Berlin’s past, present, and future. Even as it depicts an architecturally iconic metropolis, the movie understands that the true soul of any city lies not in its streets or buildings or barricades, but in its people.

4. ‘FUTURE’ LOS ANGELES: HER (2013) Spike Jonze’s near-future LA is a cleaned up, greened-up amalgam of the actual present-day city and the Pudong business district of Shanghai, infused with the palette of a Jamba Juice store.

5. VIENNA and PARIS: BEFORE SUNRISE (1995) / BEFORE SUNSET (2004) The pleasures of wandering around an unfamiliar city reinforces the romantic theme of a journey of accidental discovery.

6. BARCELONA: VICKY CRISTINA BARCELONA (2008) From a series of films in which Woody Allen turned his ‘rose coloured’ lens from Manhattan to various European cities, this features many of Barcelona’s iconic structures, including Gaudí’s Church of La Sagrada Familia, and Casa Milà, and Josep Lluis Sert’s Miro Foundation

7. VENICE: DON’T LOOK NOW (1973) One of the most unsettling but beautiful of all ‘city’ films. After their daughter drowns, Laura and John Baxter travel to a wintry Venice to work on an architectural restoration, where the water which embodies that initial tragedy winds endlessly around them, creeping ever higher.

8. COLUMBUS, INDIANA: COLUMBUS (2017) This movie beautifully showcases the “Midwestern Modernist Mecca’ which includes buildings by Eero Saarinen, Eliot Noyes, Richard Meier, I.M. Pei, and many others.

9. LOS ANGELES: MULHOLLAND DRIVE (2000). David Lynch’s surreal noir is one of a only handful of the many films set in LA in which the town itself becomes an integral, tangible, character.

10. ‘FUTURE’ LOS ANGELES: BLADERUNNER (1982) Ridley Scott has said of Blade Runner that it “is a film set forty years hence, made in the style of forty years ago”. His objective was to create a futuristic world which would not date, but which would also evoke the necessary noirish atmosphere.

11. PARIS: MIDNIGHT IN PARIS (2011) An unapologetically fanciful rendering of the French capital, this is a familiar and idealised Paris, celebrated for its starring role in 19th and early 20th Century artistic, musical and literary culture.

12. TORONTO: ENEMY (2013) . Its wilfully cryptic plot won’t be for everyone, but Denis Villeneuve has created an ethereal and obliquely sinister incarnation of Toronto, full of deserted doppelganger apartment complexes and inhospitable brutalism: a hazy, empty, dream city presided over by a giant wraith-like spider.

13. NEW YORK: MANHATTAN (1979) The central love story in this film actually takes place not between the characters of Isaac and Tracy, but between Woody Allen and New York, with the city portrayed in lustrous black and white.

14. PARIS: AMELIE (2001) Jean Pierre Jeunet intended this not as a realistic portrait of a city, but rather a carousel-ride of a tribute to that very particular sense of wonder that Paris alone is capable of inspiring.

15. DUBLIN: ONCE (2006) Yet again the city streets are the catalyst for romance, here between a Big Issue seller and a busker.

16. TEHRAN: A SEPARATION (2011) / CIRCUMSTANCE (2011). Both films involve middle class families living in the Iranian capital, and both explore the challenges of relying on religious or legal frameworks to deal with complex human problems.

17. ROME: THE GREAT BEAUTY (2013) Kubrick once said that a film should be more like music than fiction, consisting of “a progression of moods and feelings”. Sometimes when a filmmaker achieves this- as Paolo Sorrentino does here- the movie can remain compelling in spite of its flaws, because of the richness of the sensory experience it offers, or, as Sorrentino’s own protagonist puts it: its “haggard, inconstant splashes of beauty”.

18. BRASILIA: L’HOMME DE RIO (1964) . Jean-Paul Belmondo stars in this globetrotting farce-thriller, which utilises Brazilia’s combination of iconic architecture and inhospitably over-scaled urbanism.

19. HIROSHIMA: HIROSHIMA MON AMOUR (1959) The Japanese city stars in Alain Resnais’ beautiful black and white portrait of a physical and spiritual landscape marred by war.

20. SAN FRANCISCO: VERTIGO (1958) Hitchcock’s iconic thriller takes the viewer on a journey through an eerie 1950’s San Fransisco. (Photograph: Venice, by Maciej Hermann)

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whatwillyoudodifferently · 6 years

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Cold Sweats Were Made To Be Broken - How Emily Carroll Creates Effective Horror By Bending The Rules

I believe that, with enough time and resources, someone with a good eye for horror would be able to create a good horror story with just about any medium. With prose, you have the advantage of vivid description and getting to intimately know the character’s inner thoughts and fears, like in the works of Stephen King. With film, you get the advantage of visuals and audio along with the dread that comes with being a helpless audience member, such as the in the works of John Carpenter. And while the poor video game is often given a bad rep among other, older art forms, video games actually are one of the most ideal ways to experience horror stories, since the audience must become an active participant in the story to move it forward, not even allowed the escape of being a passive viewer.

It’s actually for very similar reasons that I find comics to be one of the ideal mediums for the horror genre. You get some of the benefits of prose, some of the visuals of movies, and even a bit of the forced participation of video games, in the fact that readers must choose to advance to each next page- a happy medium, if you will. There’s also one of my favorite features of sequential art as a whole- the fact that the artist has a tight amount of control over the pacing of the story. You can enhance the drop a world-shaking reveal on the reader by devoting a splash page to it, or pull out a scene with agonizing slowness with multiple, decompressed panels- storytelling devices that become lethal weapons in the hands of a good horror writer.

Keeping this in mind, it’s no surprise that horror comics have always been a huge part of comic history. In modern times, American comics are almost always associated with superhero stories, but there’s actually a rich history of horror comics- the rise of gruesome true crime stories and horror anthologies like Tales from the Crypt are why we have the infamous Comics Code, after all. Today we have titles like 30 Days of Night and The Walking Dead (though their more cinematic adaptations are typically more well-known). The huge world of European comics have given birth to a huge number of horror titles, like Italy’s Dylan Dog or Britain’s semi-tongue-in-cheek Scream! And of course, Japan has been the birthplace of great horror comics from the days of Mizuki Shigeru to the advent of modern horror with figures like Junji Ito and Masaaki Nakayama.

But of course, those figures and titles only exist in the world of print comics. In the age of the Internet, it would be remiss to ignore the staggeringly massive world of webcomics in any discussion of comics, let alone horror comics. This is due to any one of the many, many, many webcomics that exist online, but for this essay, I want to focus on an artist who doesn’t just happen to focus on horror comics while publishing them on the internet, but uses and utilizes both the medium of sequential art and the Internet to bring out the best in her comics.

Originally an animation student, Emily Carroll had only just begun to venture into the field of comics when she went hurdling to the attention of the webcomic community in 2010. His Face All Red was only her third comic, and its runaway success (helped by the recommendation of another name in horror comics, Neil Gaiman) was something she admits to be caught off-guard by. But she clearly has seemed to have taken it in stride, considering that her website now hosts almost 20 webcomics, many of them some sort of horror story. She’s also done print comics, including the original anthology Through the Woods and the upcoming graphic novel adaption of Laurie Halse Anderson’s powerful YA story Speak. As grandiose as it may be to say this, I believe Carroll’s style and approach to storytelling was made for the medium of comics, and I believe she deserves a spot up there along with Gaiman and Ito when it comes to naming masters of the horror comic.

But how does she do horror comics so well? It’s not just good writing, or good art, though she’s certainly talented on both those fronts. After spending an amount of time looking through her comics, I think I’ve come up with a solid answer, an answer that can be used to teach anyone interested in comics and in storytelling in general.

Emily Carroll is a master of breaking rules.

When I say rules, I don’t mean that there’s actual rules some God Of Comics has written down somewhere. Rather, the “rule-breaking” Carroll does refers to how she subverts expectations and goes against the conventions of storytelling that have become familiar over time. In doing this, Carroll’s comics have an air of unpredictability to them, and the reader must not only advance through the comic at their own pace, they must do it with the knowledge that the comic will surprise them in some way. In short, when a story breaks “the rules,” it creates the illusion of the audience’s safety being lost.

But how does Carroll break the rules? This is a bit of a nebulous thing to analyze- I mean, I don’t even think “breaking rules” is something Carroll consciously sets out to do. But over time, I’ve noticed recurring themes and storytelling methods in Carroll’s comics, and I think it’s worth analyzing them to gain a better understanding of sequential art and how sequential art can continue to evolve.

Breaking “The Rules” of Each Comic

One thing I like about Carroll’s webcomics is that, since they’re all self-contained short stories, they each have their own unique visual “language.” This can apply to comic’s palette (like how The Hole The Fox Did Make is all grayscale), the format of panels (like how When The Darkness Presses is told through several 4-panel pages), or even the format of the writing (like how The Prince & The Sea is told as a poem). This gives all of Carroll’s comics a sense of cohesion, similar how to repetition is used in visual design to create a sense of rhythm and reason.

But, of course, what’s even more important than the “rules” Carroll establishes for each individual comic, is when Carroll chooses to break these rules.

The Hole The Fox Did Make is all grayscale- so when the colorless 4-panel strips are replaced with a mass of panels mostly rendered in an angry red, it comes as a shock. When The Darkness Presses is told through several 4 panel pages- so the reader knows that the long vertical segments that accompany each scene about the door are meant to be considered different than other scenes. And once the reader sees what is behind the door…

Suddenly changing the established visual language of a comic is easy shorthand to let the reader know that the scene is important in some way, but in a horror comic, it can also be a subtle way to catch the reader off-guard. Rebecca’s ghost story in All Along The Wall is told in a simple style and over-saturated colors to distinguish it from the “real” scenes, but the contrast in the story’s bright, colorful palette to the sketchy grayscale of the rest of the comic almost makes it feel more menacing in contrast. The fact that it’s explicitly a ghost story rendered in these almost cheerful hues make it even more uneasy- and ends up saying a lot about the kind of person Rebecca is. In short, it’s good, creative storytelling that also serves to scare.

These breaks in the established format work best when combined with one another. The Prince & The Sea takes part mostly on land- specifically, in single-panel illustrations that show only the meeting place of the prince and the mermaid- with a colorful palette that’s equal parts earthy and warm. When the story shifts under the sea, the palette shifts to eerie, cool colors that reflect both the dark atmosphere and the horrifying turn of the plot. But in addition to this, the story finally breaks the single-illustration format, going vertical to simulate the feeling of diving, and adding in “floaty” panels surrounded by black, giving a true feeling of being underwater. Carroll uses not only tone and format shifts but shifts in space- which, incidentally, brings us to one of the most notable and important features of Carroll’s work.

Breaking “The Rules” of Comics As A Whole

In 2000, the comic book artist Scott McCloud published the book Reinventing Comics: How Imagination and Technology Are Revolutionizing an Art Form, in which he made several predictions about the necessary changes that would need to occur in the field of comics in order for the medium to survive, with a major focus on the Internet and webcomics. One interesting idea McCloud proposed was the concept of “the infinite canvas,” the idea that a comic could have limitless storytelling potential thanks to the almost limitless size and space offered by a webpage.

In the year of 2000, the art of the webcomic was in its infancy, consisting mainly of typical comic strips like you’d see in newspapers, leading to a lot of skeptical response to these ideas-- but as it turns out, McCloud was basically completely correct. We’ve seen this from the long vertical formats typical of many Korean webtoons like The Sensual M and Chinese manhua like Tamen de Gushi to the textlogs, flash games, and fully animated segments of the ambitious multimedia-mishmash Homestuck.

Of these examples, however, I think Carroll’s techniques are closest to what McCloud had in mind when he proposed the infinite canvas. His Face All Red famously had the wonderful, wordless sequence of the protagonist descending deep into a hole, depicted by the downward scroll of the reader. When The Darkness Presses switched deftly between standard “real world” pages, long vertical dream sequences, and the dramatic horizontal reveal of what lay behind the door.

To this day, I think Carroll’s most impressive use of the infinite canvas is still Margot’s Room. Initially presented as a month-long event during October 2011, Margot’s Room starts with a grim poem over a grim image, with every important word in the poem relating to a part of the picture, which the reader would click to go to a new part of the story. Each week, a new line of the poem would be revealed alongside a new link, with the last part being released, of course, on Halloween. This creative use of hyperlinks is interesting enough, but the final, shocking scene is almost breathtaking- the events are violent, chaotic, and wild, heightened only by the wide spread of panels over a massive, empty blackness, linked only by words and furious splashes of blood. It’s something that couldn’t really exist in print comics (unless on a much smaller scale) and seeing how effective it is here, it almost make one wonder why it’s not more widespread among webcomic artists.

Without the limits of the printed page, Carroll has a better opportunity to break the typical conventions of sequential art. But she actually goes beyond that, using the medium of the Internet in even more creative ways than McCloud imagined. Besides her use of hyperlinks in Margot’s Room, links are also used to tell the non-linear “story” of Grave of The Lizard Queen, or show two sides to a tragic tale in The Three Snake Leaves. Carroll even employs animation in her work, to an extent. An animated GIF in Out Of Skin conveys the horror of seeing something terrible just out of the corner of your eye, and a certain “trick” panel in All Along The Wall may make you jump out of your skin if you don’t know what exactly it’s going to do. And that’s how it’s brilliant- comic panels aren’t supposed to change, after all. Carroll knows that, and knows just how to use the reader’s unconscious knowledge of the rule of well of course comic panels are always static against them. You don’t think twice about it... until the rule is broken.

Breaking “The Rules” of Storytelling

One of my favorite examples of Carroll’s unique take on the infinite canvas is in When The Darkness Presses. Despite being a short comic released all in one go, it’s presented as a recently completed longform webcomic, complete with animated ad banners. I don’t want to spoil what becomes of these ads later, but it’s very interesting to point out that one of them is for “Alo-Glo,” the skin product that features heavily in Some Other Animal’s Meat. This is especially interesting once you realize that Some Other Animal’s Meat is technically a sequel to When The Darkness Presses.

I say “technically,” because it’s actually entirely possible to read both comics and not know this, the way I first did. They’re two different self-contained stories that just happen to involve two characters at two points at their life.

There’s no real meaning to it- and in a way, this is perhaps Carroll’s favorite rule to break: the all-encompassing question of what does it all mean?

Ever since His Face All Red, Carroll has faced this question, or at least variants of it. How did the man’s brother come back? What was that thing in the hole? In a 2014 interview with Hazlitt, Carroll admits to feeling self-doubt when readers began clamoring for concrete answers:

“People were saying, ‘What’s the meaning of this? What’s the meaning of this?’ and … I felt very much like, I need to justify this somehow, otherwise they will see that I am a faker that has faked my way into some kind of Internet buzz, so there has to be a one-to-one meaning for everything.”

Thankfully, Carroll has been able to move past this initial doubt- I believe, very much for the better. Leaving unanswered questions is almost a trademark of Carroll’s now- from the tree in Out of Skin to the “mystery man” in The Groom to the door in When The Darkness Presses. The thing that plagues the main character of Some Other Animal’s Meat. The voice that calls Regan to the river in The Hole The Fox Did Make. The list goes on.

And it’s not just monsters. From early on in my love of Carroll’s works, I began to notice connecting threads through many of her comics. What did it mean that His Face All Red draws attention to “a tree with leaves that looked like ladies’ hands” (similar to the tree in Out Of Skin) and “a stream that sounded like dogs growling” (a sentence almost identical to how the stream in Margot’s Room is described)? What did it mean that The Hole The Fox Did Make and The Groom featured Regan, or that All Along The Wall is technically a prequel to a comic from Through The Woods? What did it mean that events of When The Darkness Presses are brought up by the main characters years later in Some Other Animal’s Meat?

The answer, of course, is that there is no answer- other than the answers and ideas that begin to form in our heads when we’re presented with an unsolved mystery. Ever since early humans looked up at the stars and put together shapes in the gaps, the nature instinct of human beings drives us to pick patterns out of randomness. Our brains try to find meanings or answers where there is none, whether we want to or not, or even if we are aware of our minds doing so or not. And of course, this almost whimsical trait of ours is also one of our most massive burdens- the horror of imagination. The infinite possibility of the conclusions each person reaches on their own will always be far, far more frightening than any single answer a writer can give.

In a way, Carroll’s most mundane “broken rule” may be her most powerful tool. In the age of endless theories and fiction analysis, in the light of humanity’s eternal, inescapable desire for the solutions for every puzzle, Carroll’s works are unanswerable. And because of this, I think the unexplained monsters of Carroll’s works are some of the scariest in fiction.

Funnily enough, despite basing this essay around the concept of breaking rules, I stated early on that I don’t think Carroll herself sees her approaches to sequential art like that. While researching for this essay, I came across an interview by The Comics Journal with Carroll from 2011, not too far after the runaway success of His Face All Red. It’s a great interview, but what probably stuck with me most is Carroll’s description of how she approaches comics:

“It stems more from just what I think will be most fun, really. And since—when I started doing comics—I’d never done comics for print, I wasn’t in the mindset of doing pages anyway, which maybe led to me not really adhering to that standard when I started in on my own attempts. I like the idea of scrolling just because it’s fun to play around with revealing images that way, but you can play around with the same thing using page turns too really.”

I wanted this essay to be a tribute to one of my favorite artists, but I also initially intended it to be a way to encourage artists to shake up typical comic conventions and try to create unique art. Upon reading this quote, however, I realized that I had one more thing to learn from Carroll, one thing I want artists to know as well. Carroll has carved out her own, unique approach to sequential art, and in the process has happened to buck several storytelling conventions. You too can learn from this and know that you have the freedom to break these same rules- but perhaps the most important thing to take away from this is that Carroll does this because she has fun doing this. Carroll’s comics work not just because they break the rules, but also because she enjoys creating them.

Your own unique style should be what is most enjoyable for you. Creating new and unique artwork is all well and good, but what will make or break your art are the feelings you have while creating it.

And if you have fun in breaking rules, then more power to you.

All of Emily Carroll’s online works can be found on her personal site (general NSFW warning for nudity and disturbing content). You can buy Carroll’s anthology Through The Woods here.

#emily carroll #wwydd #wwydd?#through the woods #his face all red

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aion-rsa · 4 years

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Best Horror Movies on Hulu

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Editor’s Note: This post is updated regularly. Bookmark this page and come back often to see the additions to the best horror movies on Hulu.

Updated for September 2020

Horror can come from anywhere: an unfamiliar European hostel, a remote sleepaway camp in the woods or even just in the comfy confines of the human brain. Every now and then it can be fun to reconnect with that child-like portion of our minds that is truly susceptible to irrational fear. The best way is to merely just hear a good scary story.

But perhaps the best place to find horror is on your friendly neighborhood Hulu. Hulu is best known for its TV comedy offerings but that doesn’t mean it’s lacking in pure terror.

Here is your list of the best horror movies on Hulu.

The Lodge

Directed by Austrian filmmakers Veronika Franz and Severin Fiala (the harrowing Goodnight Mommy), The Lodge stars an excellent Riley Keough as Grace, a troubled young woman in love with Richard (Richard Madden) a journalist who wrote a book about the suicide cult she once belonged to and is the only survivor of. Their relationship triggers Richard’s estranged wife (Alicia Silverstone) to commit suicide, leaving the former couple’s two children devastated.

Six months later, Richard, Grace and the children head up to Richard’s remote winter lodge in an effort for all of them to heal. But a series of unexplained events occur that may be tied to Grace’s past or the death of the children’s mother — or both. The Lodge may stumble occasionally through some shaky plot turns, but the movie positively reeks with dread and leads to a thoroughly unsettling finish.

Wounds

Based on a novella called The Visible Filth by acclaimed horror writer Nathan Ballingrud, this Hulu original stars Armie Hammer as Will, a New Orleans bartender whose discovery of an abandoned mobile phone in his place of business portends the arrival of an unspeakable evil.

British-Iranian director Babek Anvari, who made 2016’s supremely eerie Under the Shadow, creates an atmosphere of extreme dread and rot here, from the cockroaches Will is constantly killing behind the bar to the frightening images and sounds that keep appearing on the phone he finds. Much is left unexplained but that’s kind of the point: horror is often most effective when it can’t be rationalized.

Black Rock

Directed by Katie Aselton from a screenplay written by her husband, The Morning Show Emmy nominee Mark Duplass, Black Rock is a tense tale of three childhood friends whose attempts to reconnect as adults on a remote weekend retreat are thwarted by two men seeking vengeance over an accident.

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It’s a somewhat generic story elevated by the performances of Aselton herself, Kate Bosworth, and especially Lake Bell who goes full feral in the often brutal fight for survival. The movie benefits from the presence of all three women even if the scenario itself is one we’ve seen countless times before.

Ghost Stories

It’s rare for a horror film to be adapted from a play, but that’s the case for this anthology-style film written and directed by Jeremy Dyson and Andy Nyman, who also penned the stage show. Nyman stars as well as Philip Goodman, a professor who devotes his career to debunking the paranormal.

His mission is put to the test in the three stories presented within the film’s framework, which feature Martin Freeman (Black Panther), Paul Whitehouse and Alex Lawther as two men and a boy who come up against various spirits and even supposedly the Devil. Can Goodman prove them wrong even as reality itself seemingly begins to crumble around him? Find the answer by watching this acclaimed pic.

Friday the 13th Part 3

Not only was this 1982 slasher classic the first (and, to date, only) in the Friday the 13th series to be shown in 3D, it was also the movie in which unstoppable killer Jason Voorhees (Richard Brooker) donned his trademark hockey mask for the first time — creating one of horror’s most iconic images.

The plot finds another group of hapless teens venturing too close to the grounds of Camp Crystal Lake and falling prey to the hulking killing machine, who dispatches them in increasingly inventive and gruesome ways. That’s really all you get — and if you were lucky enough to see the movie in theaters, you got it in 3D. But you could do far worse (like, say, most of the succeeding entries in the franchise) if you’re looking to waste some time with a slasher flick.

Anna and the Apocalypse

The term “zombie musical” isn’t one you see thrown around very much, so this 2017 British feature might well have the genre all to itself. The cast of mostly unknown young actors, led by Ella Hunt in a star turn as Anna, sing, dance and fight their way through the title event — at Christmastime, no less.

Based on a short film by the late Ryan McHenry, the heartfelt Anna and the Apocalypse cites its influences as horror staples like The Evil Dead and Night of the Living Dead as well as classic musicals such as West Side Story, The Rocky Horror Picture Show and the “Once More, with Feeling” episode of Buffy the Vampire Slayer.

Midnighters

Midnighters is an excellent, tension-packed debut for screenwriter Alston Ramsay (who is also a former speechwriter for the Pentagon, weirdly).

Directed by Ramsay’s brother, Julius, Midnighters tells the story of a cover-up that becomes far more stressful than the crime. On New Year’s Eve, a struggling married couple strikes a pedestrian with their car. They opt to do the right thing and call the police. Lol/jk they opt to cover the crime and in the process begin a cycle of deceit, distrust, and madness.

Midnighters owes a lot of its success to Hitchcock, but then again – doesn’t virtually every thriller?

Mom and Dad

2017’s Mom and Dad has about the simplest and most terrifying premise one can imagine. You know your mom and dad – those two people who are supposed to support you through thick and thin? What if they…weren’t like that? What if they would stop and nothing to kill you?

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That’s what young Carly and Josh Ryan experience one day when one day some unexplained static starts transmitting through they television and suddenly their loving parents desperately want to kill them. Mom and Dad would be unsettling enough with any cast, but having Nicolas Cage and Selma Blair portray the unhinged parents is just icing on the cake.

Overlord

War is terrifying enough as is. It doesn’t need the addition of Nazi super soldier zombies. Thankfully the J.J. Abrams-produced Overlord decided to include them anyway.

Overlord picks up on the eve of D-Day when a paratrooper quad is sent in behind enemy lines to destroy a German radio tower located in an old church. Their plane is shot down and only a handful survivors land. Those who do will soon discover that the horror has just begun.

Children of the Corn

Fun fact: Children of the Corn has eight sequels. Eight! That’s one big drawback of the horror genre. It’s so difficult to come up with an equally original and scary idea that once something sticks, it’s financially prudent to run it into the ground.

Upcoming Stephen King Movies and TV Shows in Development

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Don’t let that keep you from watching the 1984 original Children of the Corn, however. The movie is based off of a Stephen King short story and follows a group of creepy kids and their adventures in ritualistic sacrifice. It’s a good time.

The Cabin in the Woods

A remote cabin in the woods is one of the most frequently occurring settings in all of horror. What better location for teenagers to be tormented by monsters, demons, or murderous hillbillies? Writer/Director Joss Whedon takes that tried and true setting and uses it as a jumping off points for one of the most successful metatextual horror movies in recent memory.

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Like you would expect, The Cabin in the Woods features five college friends (all representing certain youthful archetypes, of course) renting a….well, a cabin in the woods. Soon things begin to go awry in a very traditional horror movie way. But then The Cabin in the Woods begins doling out some of the many tricks it has up its sleeve. This is a fascinating, very funny, and yet still creepy breakdown of horror tropes that any horror fan can enjoy.

cnx.cmd.push(function() { cnx({ playerId: "106e33c0-3911-473c-b599-b1426db57530", }).render("0270c398a82f44f49c23c16122516796"); });

Pet Sematary (2019)

After the classic Stephen King novel of the same name and Mary Lambert’s 1989 movie, what could there possibly be left to say about Pet Sematary? Quite a lot actually! Directors Kevin Kölsch and Dennis Widmyer breathe new life into this old tale…not unlike a certain “sematary” itself.

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Jason Clarke stars as Louis Creed, an ER doctor from Boston who moves his family to rural Ludlow, Maine to live a quieter life. Shortly into their stay, Louis and his wife Rachel (Amy Semeitz) experience an unthinkable tragedy. That’s ok though as neighbor Jud Crandall (John Lithgow) knows a very peculiar place that can help.

The post Best Horror Movies on Hulu appeared first on Den of Geek.

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the-muse-of-animation · 7 years

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The Magic of Animation

Animation is like a dream come true, if magic exists, it’s in animation. As a child you may have been enchanted by the tree growing scene in Totoro or by how lively and comical a object such as the carpet in Aladdin could become. Have you ever wondered how this magic comes to be ? How all the mechanisms are set in motion to deliver the final product on your screen ? You have come to the right place, O Reader, this blog is solely devoted to the magic of animation, may it be to showcase its wonders or to uncover all its tricks.

This post will be a very small and incomplete talk about animation to serve as an introduction to this blog.

Why animation would be magical one may ask ?

Animation is magic because anything can take life on screen. Animation is the part of art that can not only give movements to a drawing but can also give it all the dimensions and complexity of a soul. Even a landscape has a new life when animated. All arts have their own way to convey life to their objects and animation is too often seen as simple entertainment compared to “higher arts” when it should be on the same level as all the other arts. Animation is magic because unlike a live action movie, anything can be done : sumptuous sceneries, impressive fights, surreal landscapes, you name it. This is why live action adaptations are often considered a loss compared to their original material. The magic of animation also lies in the possibilities it offers, which are far more important than for a movie.The world of animation is built by all the styles the animators use. Animation is perhaps where the directors pour their own identities and visions in a more spectacular and intimate manner. This might be because in animation distortion is the key. For example the animated human figure is rarely similar to the real human figure. This distortion is impossible in live action movies. The same thing goes for the laws of physics : for example, in the animated world, a fabric will not fall the same way it would in real life. Hence the animated world has a wide range of aesthetics to play with. When you watch animation you see a specific style and thus you see through the eyes of a creative mind. This is why the same scene animated by different animators will not render the same. The @gemanimate project in the Steven Universe fandom is a very good example of this, here is a comparison with the original material. Style goes hand in hand with technique : the technique influences the style and the style closer to the animator’s vision will be best express with a certain technique. Technique is the one of the reasons why animation is going through a golden age at the moment. Computers and 3D technology allow a whole new area for animators to experiment with more styles and more challenges too. The rising figure of this tendency is Makoto Shinkai : he said himself that without technology he probably wouldn’t have started animating. Nonetheless, traditional animation is not dead and choosing between the two is actually already an artistic choice like the one made by former Disney animators when they started the Hullabaloo project. You wish to see the magic of technique ? Follow me ! Style and technique go hand in hand to create the most magical aspect of animation : an atmosphere. Animation goes even further than live action movies when it comes to creating an ambiance.

Puella Magi Madoka Magica, Akiyuki Shinbo and Gen Urobuchi

Your Name, Makoto Shinkai

Le Tableau, Jean-François Laguionie

The Adventures of Prince Achmed, Lotte Reiniger When animation appears in a movie, it not only adds novelty but is also very linked to the special role of this particular scene. In Harry Potter and the Deathly Hollows, The Tale of the Three Brothers is told through an animated scene : animation manages to render the eerieness of this story as well as the fact that it is not on the same level as the main story line. It is a tale and animation helps emphasize on the difference with the real world.

Like all magic tricks, the magician needs time to master it, to hide all the tricks and to give the impression of an effortless demonstration. You may admire an animator with all your might and may want him to make a new movie every year but behind every animated piece there are a lot of hard workers and hours of work. Even up to these days, animation is not something you can make in a blink of an eye. For example, stop motion is one of the technique to require a huge amount of work to shoot only a few seconds. It took 30 years for Le Roi et l’Oiseau, one of the masterpieces of French animation and also the first French full-length animated film, to achieve its final form. On a side note, the first incomplete release of the movie ended up inspiring a young generation of animators which happened to create the Studio Ghibli afterwards. Even nowadays animation requires time. Take the latest Disney movie Moana, it took around 5 years to make it, from the first scouting in the Pacific Islands to the final release in theaters. All this time is needed because animation goes far more than just characters moving, it’s about giving life, it’s about making the characters deep and complex as any good characters should be. It’s less a question of realism than a question of how touching and believable the story and the characters are. Animation is magic because it has so many different formats and each has their own specificities, may it be a movie, an animated series, an anime... Different formats mean different ways of using animation especially when it comes to animated series. A series of 10-minute long episodes will not tell a story the same way as a series of 20-minute long episodes. Nor would a movie or an anime, the latter having very specific “rules” of its own. Some may think that nowadays animated series have way too simplistic drawing styles. As creator Alex Hirsh pointed out, style is not the only decisive element in animation, scenario and character development are keys to a good series. A story needs to follow a coherent scenario with a coherent ending. Gravity Falls is the best example when it comes to animated series, its ending crowning the series at the paroxysm of its excellence. Moreover, even in these “simplistic drawn” shows, there is a clear distinction and work on the style, Steven Universe is not Gravity Falls, each has its own aesthetics and ambiances.

Steven Universe

Gravity Falls

Over the Garden Wall Animation is magic because it is a important part of another side of art : video games. Video games nowadays can expand and keep innovating partly because of their use of animation. Here again style is a very important aspect : the story travels through it to bring you a very specific ambiance and grab your attention. And there again, the scenario influences the style chosen.

Child of Light

Limbo Animation is magic because it has a very special place compared to the other media when it comes to audience. An immense majority of people still thinks that animation is either for kids or a weird hobby for adults to have. They fail to see that animation is a huge part of education for kids : animation helps develop imagination, it sparkles creativity, and helps them understand themselves better. Rebecca Sugar said that she created Steven Universe because she wanted to help young people in search of themselves and she would have loved to have a show like this when she was young and struggling. Likewise Gravity Falls is an ode to the imagination and creativity of childhood and the transition to adolescence. Hence saying that a show is “for kids” doesn’t mean anything else than an ignorant contempt. As an adult, you can appreciate animation as the art it is and reflect on things differently. The animation industry targets more and more adults with some heavy-themed productions. Psichonautas is a very good example of this. The movie addresses multiple issues such as depression, PTSD, drugs and global warming through a very dark ambiance. Likewise, Night in the Woods explores mental illness, animation and striking imagery conveying Mae’s dissociative disorder.

Night in the Woods Animation is magic because it comes to life with music. As I said, animation is not only movements, backgrounds, styles and everything in between. To bring the characters and the world to life, animation needs voices and music. A Miyazaki movie will not be the same without Joe Hisaishi to paint the sound of his universe. The same thing goes for the voice actors. Their part in the process is as important as any other. The Joker in the Batman Series would not have been the Joker without Mark Hamill and even up to these days, he is the most iconic performer. The voice actors themselves are like chameleons, you are sometimes surprised to discover it was a very familiar actor/actress who was dubbing a specific character. Tara Strong is a very famous voice actress precisely for that reason. Animation is magic because it is linked with everything else. Animation sparkles creativity from the watchers : fanart is the mark of this creativity. Besides, animation is connected with culture too. Animation and video games are also other ways and maybe less conventionnal ways of learning about history, literature etc. The anime Puella Magi Magica Madoka plays on the Faustian myth whereas the Fate series are very good ways to learn who Semiramis or Hassan ibn al-Sabbah were in history. These series often use historical fact in very clever manners to serve the scenarios. Like everything, animation has a bad side, still they are the reason we should appreciate all the more the good stuff. The Muse answers all your questions here, O Reader !

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thebandcampdiaries · 4 years

Video

youtube

Cactus Erectus introducing brand new studio release: The Void Tapes

August 2020 - Cactus Erectus is an innovative artist currently based in Bulgaria, Eastern Europe. He has a focus on blending various creative influences, in order to come up with a distinctive, personal sound, with some distinctive characteristics. His most recent studio release, The Void Tapes, is actually a great combination of lo-fi, experimental music, alternative, and other styles, highlighting the artist’s ability to set the bar higher with new ideas, and more importantly, with a healthy dose of personality! Cactus Erectus immediately stands out due to the quality of the production on The Void Tapes. As a result, the track is crisp, exciting and easy to relate to, combining great musicianship with quality engineering. I would definitely recommend The Void Tapes and Cactus Erectus’s music to any fan of artists as diverse as Death Grips, Angelo Badalamenti, and the aesthetics of David Lynch, only to mention but a few. This release will hit you in the guts with a melodic punch, but it also features so much energy, which makes the music all the more authentic and easy to relate to for listeners from all walks of life. You don’t need to be just an experimental music fan to dig this, because it is a fresh and appealing sound that will connect with any genuine connoisseur of great songwriter!

What I love about this project is definitely the fact that the music of Cactus Erectus is not just about audio. The Void Tapes is very aesthetically driven, creating a consistent mood and atmosphere through the use of eerie soundscapes, as well as unique artworks that let the listener experience the music in a more personal way. I am always a big fan of artists who approach their work in a more full-rounded perspective, and this definitely seems to be the case here. The Void Tapes is a great introduction to Cactus Erectus, and the project’s kaleidoscopic vision.

Find out more about Cactus Erectus, and do not miss out on The Void Tapes. This release is currently available on the web’s best digital music streaming platforms through Bluff Corps, an independent record label.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=pqBywCcpMtw

https://twitter.com/dolores_candle

https://www.instagram.com/cactuserectustypeabeat/

https://www.facebook.com/CactusErectus

Record Label Accounts

https://www.instagram.com/bluff.corps/

https://www.facebook.com/bluff.corps

We also had the chance to catch up with the artist for an interview: keep reading to learn more!

I love how you manage to render your tracks so personal and organic. Does the melody come first, or do you focus on the beat the most?

Answer: Thank you for the kind words. Usually the melody comes first. I have been playing drums for over 13 years now and the drums kinda come finished as an idea, I don’t experiment much with the drum compositions, as much as everything else.

Do you perform live? If so, do you feel more comfortable on a stage or within the walls of the recording studio?

Answer: I have been performing live for the last few years, my last concert outside Bulgaria, was Chisinao, Moldova in 2018 for the release of the POP CORPS ep which was released under bluff.corps records and suck puck recordz. But I have stopped performing live, at this point, I don’t see reason to do it anymore. I don’t like the fact that the events have become more and more a social gathering rather than cultural development. So I have decided to be a little more healthy-selfish and do what I feel like doing right now, so I would say my home-studio is where I feel most comfortable, as I don’t go outside much , either.

If you could only pick one song to make a “first impression” on a new listener, which song would you pick and why?

Answer: From my catalog , I would pick “Everything is Love” from the Strange Stories album. If I have to choose from TVT it would be “Don't Forget to Turn Off the Lights When You Leave” cause it feels more positive as a general direction, which is the idea of the project. To help myself integrate my own shadow self through music instead of reacting to the frustration, but to experience it fully which is the most liberating sensation in the end.

What does it take to be “innovative” in music?

Answer: I would say courage, as well as developed aesthetic preferences. Also understanding the music construction of elements and their place and function would help, of course, but for me it’s an natural interest to fragment, observe and study the music and life in all it’s forms. But above all it takes to be more interested in the music that in yourself, cause the other way around is a dead end for dead people trying to impress someone because they haven’t permit themselves to be happy with who they are.

Any upcoming release or tour your way?

Answer: I just finished my next release. It’s going to be an EP, four songs, but right now I’m trying to feel the right name for it and as well for the songs. I’m planning to release it somewhere In September 2020, of course by bluff.corps.

Anywhere online where curious fans can listen to your music and find out more about you?

Answer: My soundcloud has some pretty rare tracks (meaning my first tracks which aren’t available anywhere else.) Also I am uploading a unique set each Saturday in our mixcloud account: - https://www.mixcloud.com/BLUFFCORPS/ Also bluff.corps channel and the cactus erectus channel in youtube. Or simply hit me up and say hi, I would love to connect with anyone. God bless, stay safe and thank you <3

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enterinit · 4 years

Text

New Xbox One Games for April 28 to May 1

New Xbox One Games for April 28 to May 1.

Daymare: 1998 – April 28

DAYMARE: 1998 is a third-person survival horror with hardcore survival mechanics and hard to kill enemies. It requires a strategical approach to combat and puzzles and offers a multi-character point of view on the story, revealing a deep and obscure lore. The scene is set with a secret research facility, a deadly chemical weapon and a special security team to investigate this incident with the potential to become much more than just a security breach. Follow the steps of an elite soldier, a helicopter pilot and a forest ranger, as they play out their roles in an event that transforms one peaceful small town into a deadly zone and its citizens into bloodthirsty monsters. Take the creatures down first, before looking for any clues and evidence to bring more sense to the mess. Keep track of your itinerary, as resources are scarce in a situation like this! Anything can happen when your daymares become real… Fans of the iconic cinematographic brands and classical gloomy survival horror games of the '90s will be thrilled, seeing how DAYMARE: 1998 recreates the atmosphere of the most beloved works from the end of the millennium and places a typical yet fresh story in the middle of it. The plot unfolds through the eyes of various characters, putting players in the shoes of different personalities that will guide them through their theories and doubts about the situation. Backtracking, managing ammo, collecting lore items, solving environmental puzzles and the overall difficulty will help players jump a couple decades back and get chilled to the bone in their first real daymare. Features: Multi-character POV – see the story from different angles and discover the truthDreadful enemies – rendered in detail with lifelike animations and dismembermentRealistic HUD – check inventory, health and position on a special piece of gearEnvironmental puzzles – finding your way is not always easy, look for cluesClassic mechanics - limited ammo and save points, backtracking, collectibles, tough enemies and moreModern graphics and effects – not all is classic thanks to Unreal Engine 4Experience 90s – homage to the era with tons of references https://youtu.be/-Bv1MFhbo5c

Ghost Sweeper – April 28

After many centuries, the dark lord is resurrected from his ashes and coming back to his castle… and… cursing the lands all around!! Now, many ghosts and undead wander freely haunting every place. Giving to the people, only one option. Escape! But, when the hopes seem to fade away… the heroes usually appear! The "Ghost Sweepers" are here! Ready to kick out ghosts and some clumsy monsters! Prepare yourself to face the most fun army of darkness ever seen! Rounded ghosts, laughing pumpkins, creaking skeletons and many other weird creatures are waiting for you! You will explore 8 different zones. From the Dark forest to The Evil Lord Lair passing through the haunted villages and graveyards. Each zone has many levels and many secret levels to be revealed! If you manage to find all the secrets, the gates to an hidden zone will be opened as your reward! Many items, cartoon graphics with many fun details, a game-play that mixes action and puzzle. You can count on your agility and quickness or maybe plan a perfect strategy and avoid any risk, is all up to you! Choose the "Ghost Sweeper" that fits more with your style or maybe more appropriate for a specific stage. Look everywhere in search of treasures and use those treasures to buy useful items In the shop! Are you skilled enough to defeat the dark lord? (And maybe take back all his treasures!!?? ) Ghost Sweeper: 8 Different Worlds 2 Hidden Worlds 8 Levels for each world Hidden levels 2 Different Heroes

Moving Out – April 28

Moving Out is a ridiculous physics-based moving simulator that brings new meaning to "couch co-op"! Are you ready for an exciting career in furniture? As a newly certified Furniture Arrangement & Relocation Technician, you’ll take on moving jobs all across the town of Packmore. Smooth Moves may not be the biggest moving company, but there’s no task too dangerous or strange for this busy team of go-getters. Grow your business to brave new heights, recruit colorful customizable characters, and save your town from furniture peril! What does Smooth Moves have to offer, you ask? Co-op! Enjoy the story mode solo as an independent contractor or team up with some friends. Up to four players can cozy up on the couch to argue over the best way to move a couch. Test your skills AND your friendship! Physics! Are pesky doors and windows standing in your furniture’s way? Just blast through them with physics! Lift, toss and smash your way to the fastest times! Action! Learn the ropes in a series of increasingly precarious and fantastical moving jobs. How a bed gets from point A to point B is never a straight line, so throw out the training manual and get creative! Adventure! Every moving company starts small, but as your reputation ranks up, so do your destinations. Move through sleepy suburbs, frenzied farms, haunted houses, virtual reality and lands beyond! Characters! Recruit a unique cast of colorful characters, each packed with a passion for manual labor! Assist Mode! Are you a rookie? No problem! Adjust the game’s difficulty so anyone can play! Don’t wait! Grab your friends and become a certified moving master in Moving Out today!

SnowRunner – April 28

Get ready for the next-generation off-road experience! SnowRunner puts you in the driver’s seat of powerful vehicles as you conquer extreme open environments with the most advanced terrain simulation ever. Drive 40 vehicles from brands such as Ford, Chevrolet, and Freightliner as you leave your mark on an untamed open world. Overcome mud, torrential waters, snow, and frozen lakes while taking on perilous contracts and missions. Expand and customize your fleet with many upgrades and accessories including an exhaust snorkel for heavy waters or chain tires to battle the snow. Ride solo or with other players in 4-player co-operative! • Face extreme environments in a highly advanced physics engine • 40 unique vehicles to unlock, upgrade, and customize • Complete dozens of challenging missions across an interconnected world • Go solo or play with other players in 4-player co-op https://youtu.be/y2jzQuUPSgo

Telling Lies – April 28

A Video Game About Private Conversations An investigative thriller game with non-linear storytelling, Telling Lies revolves around a cache of secretly recorded video conversations. Starring Logan Marshall-Green, Alexandra Shipp, Kerry Bishé, Angela Sarafyan and directed by Sam Barlow, creator of Her Story and Silent Hill: Shattered Memories. How does it work? Telling Lies sits you in front of an anonymous laptop loaded with a stolen NSA database full of footage. The footage covers two years in the intimate lives of four people whose stories are linked by a shocking incident. Explore the database by typing search terms, watch the clips where those words are spoken and piece together your story. Unlike anything you've played before, Telling Lies is an intimate and intense experience. A game where you decide the truth. https://youtu.be/a0x9OaHDjig

The Inner Friend – April 28

Dive in and remember… Led by a mysterious Shadow, face fears and nightmares inhabiting its materialized subconscious universe. Dive into a unique and eerie world to relive the Shadow’s childhood memories and overcome them to restore what was once a safe haven. You’ll journey ever deeper through the subconscious to unravel a rich but wordless story and encounter gruesome beings that you must evade. Ultimately, however, you will have to face them. The Inner Friend features a rich visual environment, supported by an immersive soundscape and a cinematic soundtrack enhancing immersion and emotional moments. Movement, imagery, and music are the main ways for the player to interact with the Shadow, their guide throughout the descent. Dark and scary, mysterious at times, the world of The Inner Friend is a surrealist representation of memories and fears." Features: IMMERSIVE STORYTELLING : Immerse yourself in a visually-driven narrative with a minimalist interface.AN EERIE ADVENTURE : Journey through a surreal world inspired by childhood nightmares and psychology.DIVERSE GAMEPLAY MECHANICS : Overcome obstacles, solve puzzles and defeat nightmarish foes.RECONNECT WITH YOUR INNER CHILD : Earn the Shadow’s trust to unlock new challenges and pieces of the story.COLLECT ALL ARTIFACTS : Rebuild the Shadow’s safe haven to save him from his darkest fears.

Active Neurons – Puzzle Game – April 29

Active Neurons is a game that trains the player in spatial logical thinking. By controlling the power of thought, you must charge the neurons. The more the neurons are charged, the healthier the brain becomes. The healthier the brain becomes, the more of a fully-fledged life the person will live. It may seem simple, but it won't be as simple as it seems. To choose the direction of movement, the power of thought should be at rest, so it is important for you to correctly use the obstacles presented on every level. Think, make a decision, and look for the right path to the neurons in order to charge them. Our brain works much like a computer without the chips. Neurons are the primary components of the nervous system. They send and receive information in the form of electrical signals from the sensory organs, facilitating communication with the brain. Do not forget to charge your brain! This is exactly what you need to do in the game, while simultaneously charging the neurons in real life! Features: 120 logical tasksMore than 15 types of unique mechanicsMeditative music that creates an additional atmosphere in the gameSupport for color blindness mode

Crawlers and Brawlers – April 29

Lord Wellington was a great adventurer. You've traveled to the town near his castle to listen to his stories and learn how to be a great one too. But everything isn't as it seems and your education might unfold differently than you expected. Play how you want. Adventure through the entertaining story. Crawl through the dungeons in any order by yourself, with 4 friends online, or in 4 player split-screen co-op. Challenge other players to brawl in versus or team battles on 12 different maps. Fight waves of enemies in the Arena for extra loot. Procedurally generated dungeons so replays are always exciting. It has all the classic RPG elements you love. Unlock abilities as you level up. Powerful items to make your character better. Artifacts that give you special abilities. A skill tree to customize your character.

Dread Nautical – April 29

Your cruise was so relaxing until the monsters from another dimension showed up to kill everyone. A tactical turn-based RPG with roguelike elements, Dread Nautical combines immersive gameplay with a cartoonish—yet captivatingly eerie—tone. Supernatural forces have overwhelmed a cruise liner called Hope with mysterious malevolent monstrosities. Fight them off as one of four unlikely heroes. Manage your scarce resources effectively, and convince scattered survivors to fight alongside you. You’ll need them for any hope of escaping this “vacation” alive. Traverse all 20 decks of the to unlock the mysteries of the Hope. Think several steps ahead during each battle, plotting the optimal use of each character’s action points. Your weapons, bandages, and other items deteriorate, and your resources are very limited. Make sure your companions rest, or panic may overtake them. Oh… And expect to die. A lot.

Gun Crazy – April 29

Gun Crazy is a fast paced and hectic arcade style action shoot em’ up in this homage to classic old school classics! Become the fiercest lady on the police force! Take out the bad guys through 4 unique levels filled with challenging bosses and powerful special guns. Features: Survive 4 uniquely designed levelsFight bosses, each with their own challengesPick up special guns that will lead you to victoryTight controls allow for easy use to take down your enemies

Shred! 2 – ft Sam Pilgrim – April 29

Ride as Mountain Bike legend Sam Pilgrim, and use the advanced trick system to bust out insane combos in over 40 hand crafted levels. Created out of passion by a solo developer, Shred! 2 is the most authentic MTB gaming experience available!

Star Crossed – April 29

StarCrossed is an action arcade game with a magical girl aesthetic and a cooperative twist! Join our cast of 5 space-faring heroes as they travel across the stars, working together to strengthen their bond and defeat a looming evil that threatens the Nova galaxy! It’s time to team up, get sparkly, and take out the bad guys! Features: Cast of 5 playable characters to choose from, each with their own unique ultimate ability!Designed from the ground up for 2 player local co-op! Split controller offers the option for solo play or an even cozier two player experience.Get competitive with Arcade Mode, featuring a global high score leaderboard!Explore the galaxy in Story Mode, with visual novel style dialogue scenes and an epic quest!Original soundtrack of magical and spacey tunes, composed by PearlPixel!

Call of Duty: Modern Warfare 2 Campaign Remastered – April 30

INCLUDES the Underwater Demo Team Classic Ghost Bundle, available for use in Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare®, including Warzone*. Pre-order now to get the bundle instantly. Gear up with one of the most iconic Ghost looks with this Ghost Operator bundle. Bring the intense look and feel of UDT Ghost from the heart-pounding Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 campaign mission 'The Only Easy Day… Was Yesterday' into Modern Warfare® including the free to play version, Call of Duty®: Warzone. Relive the epic single-player Campaign from the 2009 blockbuster Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2, remastered for a new generation in true high-definition. The Campaign picks up immediately following the dramatic events of Call of Duty® 4: Modern Warfare®, the ground-breaking title that earned worldwide critical acclaim. Modern Warfare® 2 is the epitome of gripping and heart-racing action, as players face off against a new threat hellbent on bringing the world to the brink of collapse. The Call of Duty®: Modern Warfare® 2 Campaign has been fully remastered with improved textures, animations, physically based rendering, high-dynamic range lighting, and much more. Experience classic missions including Cliffhanger, The Gulag, and Whiskey Hotel as you join Soap, Price, 'Ghost' and the rest of Task Force 141 in the globe-spanning fight to restore order to the world. https://youtu.be/x993FRC4rXA

Levelhead – April 30

EMPLOYEEEEEE! The Bureau of Shipping is the galaxy's premiere package delivery corporation. For hundreds of years our customers have trusted us to deliver their goods, real good. And now you get to be part of that delivery magic. As a new Employee to the Levelhead Division, you are responsible for training your very own GR-18 delivery robot for every possible delivery scenario. Create L.E.V.E.L.s, or "Limited Exercises for eValuating employEe Limitations", with the intuitive Level editor in the Workshop, then publish them for the whole world to experience. Build incredible contraptions and machines, craft adventurous expeditions that require brain and brawn to complete, or just create a relaxing music scene for other Levelheads to chill with. Once you've completed your Level, share it with the rest of the world… and gain a following! The Levelhead Division comes equipped with powerful curation and Following systems, so you'll always be able to find the best new Levels created by your colleagues. And don't forget about the Training course! More than 90 hand-crafted Levels offer a wealth of challenges and surprises to jumpstart your creativity. What are you waiting for, Employee? Get out there and do good for our goods! Features: Build your own levels. Create your own levels with hundreds of elements including enemies, hazards, paths, programmable switches, secrets, weather fx, music, and power-ups.Master the challenging campaign. Take control of GR-18, a delivery robot in-training, as you run, jump, and blast your way across 90+ challenging, hand-designed campaign levels.Gain a following. Publish your levels for the world to enjoy. See your Play Time, Attempts, and Followers stack up!Compete for Speed and Score. Every level comes with a leaderboard. Take the top spot and you'll hold the trophy!Laugh in couch co-op with friends! Play with all three of your friends on the same couch for downright hilarious entertainment. https://youtu.be/A0WrHrDnNwE

Streets of Rage 4 – April 30

Featuring hand-drawn visuals from the team behind 2017’s gorgeous Wonder Boy: The Dragon’s Trap remake, Streets of Rage 4 builds upon the classic trilogy’s gameplay with new mechanics, a fresh story and a gauntlet of dangerous stages with a serious crime problem. Whether players gang up with a friend or clean up the city solo, Streets of Rage 4 is a skull-bashing, chicken-chomping delight all set to a thumping soundtrack sure to get your blood pumping.

Antigraviator – May 1

In the year 2210, racing has evolved far beyond its expected limits. New terraforming capabilities paired with scientific breakthroughs in the field of antigravity have given birth to a new spectacle: the Antigraviator tournament. Race perpetually on exquisitely detailed stages, full of light-speed danger, chaos and mayhem. Guide your Grav in five gameplay modes across six different worlds with three tracks each. These dynamic courses come to life, while pushing the power of Unity to the limit. Challenge your friends in the fiercely competitive multiplayer modes, either online or in split-screen mode. Sabotage your fellow racers by activating hover mines, creating a rockslide to cause tunnels to collapse, firing missiles from rocket launchers along the track, and many more malicious tricks. Customize your Grav to your heart’s content, but choose wisely: deciding on one upgrade may mean compromising on another. Unlockable skins will be available free of charge. Features: No speed limit!Play the single player campaign to unlock new parts, ships and skinsRace your friends with local split-screen multiplayer for 2 playersRace anybody in online multiplayer modeUse environmental traps to overtake your opponentsPower-ups and boosts allow you to become top of the trackShip customization gives you an edge over the oppositionSix beautifully created sci-fi worlds with three dynamic courses eachStunning realistic 3D graphics powered by UnitySoundtrack featuring 15 intense tracks that will enhance your racing experience

Arcade Spirits – May 1

What if the 1983 video game marketing crash never happened? Set in 20XX, Arcade Spirits is a visual novel romantic comedy with a different history, where arcades still reign supreme as the ultimate place to play. After a period of turbulent employment, your character starts an exciting new job at the Funplex: a popular local arcade with a team of staff that are as eccentric as the customers. Features: Play as yourself – In Arcade Spirits everything is customizable. All choices are reflected throughout both cutscenes and artwork - pick your pronoun, hair style, skin tone, hair/eye colour, and more.Develop your personality – and interact with characters however you like: whether it’s friendship, platonic or something more intimate. Work hard and build the relationship you desire!Track game progress – The Identity Identifier System, or “IRIS”, can track your relationship status with all characters throughout the game, as well as your personality traits.Protect your Arcade – Your decisions will affect the future fate of the Funplex. Whether it’s the relationships you choose to develop, or the way you handle key moments of crisis management.

Chop is Dish – May 1

The game includes exclusive prologue chapter "Stolen Pork Story" never released on any other platforms! «Chop is Dish» tells the story of one cook who was robbed by some mystical creatures. Some strange monsters had suddenly appeared in his forest and stole his master chef's chunk of beef. Our cook needed this meat for his ultimate dish, and now it's gone — he has to act quickly and dangerously by pursuing the thieves and recovering his grand ingredient. The main feature is the protagonist — grumpy cook who would love to beat the sauce outta his enemies. Fans of oldschool pixelart games would be pleasantly surprised by this one, instantly feeling like home.

Fight the Horror – May 1

"Fight the Horror" is a whole new survival experience. A group of young people abducted and forced to participate in a game by a mysterious organization. They are 7 days to solve the mystery and defeat the boss to escape, otherwise … 7 days may seem enough at first, but soon they know they are trapped in a small room at day time, and can only get out to explore during night time. Intelligence and supplies gathered through many struggles, will be no more if one does not get back to the safehouse by dawn. A game that brings you the excitement of a lunatic human experiment situation, now let you experience even more with a friend through split-screen. Can you overcome fear and fight the horror? Features: Survival horror: gather, synthesize, level-up, fight or flightSplit-screen couch co-opChallenging time-limited gameplay7 Mysterious stories based on local urban myths14 ways of burials or sacrifices for your teammateMaze-like fictional city world

Miden Tower – May 1

Miden Tower is a fantasy RPG with a compelling and dramatic story. After Miden Tower is invaded by the Alroval Empire, the mages who call it home find themselves cornered on its upper floors. This sets in motion a series of tragic events that lead to a counteroffensive being launched to take back the tower and to get revenge for the wrongs committed against them. The heroine is an actual wall that provides support to the main characters by merging with walls or acting as a wind breaker if needed. Turn-based battles can be engaged with 3x3 grid battles by using skills with different effects or by summoning golems to take down your foes. Alchemize items, learn passive skills and enjoy the tons of quests and extra enjoyment that await in this magical adventure! Features: RPG of a soul-stirring story of tragedy and revenge, and a wall maiden!?The heroine is an actual wall that provides support to the main characters by merging with walls or acting as a wind breaker if neededTurn-based battles can be engaged with 3x3 grid battles by using skills with different effects or by summoning golems to take down your foesAlchemize items, learn passive skills and enjoy the tons of quests and extra enjoyment that await in this magical adventure!

Robot Squad Simulator X – May 1

Deal with the hardest missions which can't be performed directly by people due to the conditions. Human life and safety is in your hands! Game features: 4 different robots: 2 terrestrial, aerial and underwater6 training missions16 story missions which take place all over the world, in different settings10 different accessories mounted on robotsplenty of gameplay elements like: guards, explosives, mechanismsupgrading parameters of robots and accessoriesdifferent types of missions: rescue, spy, exploration, military

Sin Slayers: Enhanced Edition – May 1

Sin Slayers is an RPG with roguelike elements set in a dark fantasy world, where your choices determine how challenging the fights and enemies will be. Create, equip and lead a team of heroes. Each unit will have its own abilities and weaknesses, so plan your combat strategy accordingly. You’ll journey through stinking primeval forests, boneyards riddled with crypts and the graves of fallen warriors, and other places even the bravest adventurer would fear to tread. Battles, traps, and bizarre enemies… Everything and everyone wishes to take your life, but don't succumb to despair. Between fights your party can take their rest at a fountain, or while on the road in an old church which leaves its doors open to the weary and wounded. Travel every path and byway of the Valley, obtain new weapons on the field of battle or by fulfilling quests, gather ingredients for magical elixirs and resources to craft armor and amulets. If a certain item is beyond your crafting ability, ask the blacksmith in the Old Church for help. The best gear will allow you to challenge the deadliest monsters. Features: Randomly generated locationsRoguelite with Dungeon Crawler elementsTurn-based JRPG combat systemSinfulness system changes the difficulty of the gameDark fantasy world

Super Toy Cars 2 – May 1

Super Toy Cars 2 is a fast-paced arcade racing game where you control miniature cars that speed through amazing tracks made of supersized everyday objects. In Super Toy Cars 2 you will race cool toy cars, alone or with friends, across crazy tabletop tracks made of everyday objects that take on a new dimension. In this world a sausage is the size of a bus, a burger is the size of a small swimming pool and you may encounter dangerous toy scissors cutting their way through the middle of the track. Outrace your opponents… or crush them to scrap! You can fight them up close or use one of the many power-ups scattered throughout the race. Unlock and collect the 20 toy cars, each with their own statistics, by playing through career mode and then improve them by installing upgrades or changing their paintjobs. In the end, this game is sure to do one thing for you: revive that crazy larger than life feeling of playing with toy cars when you were a kid. Features: 16 different tracks20 different vehiclesFully fledged Career Mode to unlock tons of liveries for your carsOnline and local split screen multiplayer https://youtu.be/oxwWP5XooQM Read the full article

#Games #XboxOne

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reeses-picks · 5 years

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Billie Eilish is pop’s newest wunderkind: WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO? review

Billie Eilish is shaping up to be pop’s newest wunderkind, signed off on by the former titleholder herself. On a surprisingly well-crafted album, she makes a convincing case for herself as the voice of her generation. At its best, the album fine-tunes Eilish’s aesthetic and dismantles pop tropes, but the throughline of the LP is the often melodramatic teenage mind, which she approaches with consummate care.

★★★★★★★★☆☆

In a way, teen pop stars reflect the state of pop music of their time. The (largely female) teen music sensations of the aughts came from the likes of Disney Channel and Nickelodeon, and so they (or rather, their image) reflected the whims of corporations and industry big-leagues at the time: clean, unproblematic, uncomplicated role models. It explains why the narratives of these artists now, who have come to dominate the cultural zeitgeist, seem so incongruent with those from their past. Recent career-defining projects from Ariana Grande (Sweetener, thank u, next) and Demi Lovato (Tell Me You Love Me) render them unrecognizable from their earlier spotless identities; sexual liberation is a common theme, of course, but more interesting is their acknowledgement of cracks underneath the surface. The Jonas Brothers’ smashing comeback earlier this year is only made possible by the braggadocio that only sex can bring.

The pop machine remains entrenched to this day, but there are signs of a new force taking hold. Today’s rising stars come from YouTube and SoundCloud, predicated on actualizing the idea of freedom of expression, and altogether they reflect the democratization of pop music, if not of society as a whole, and the liberation that follows; without the presence of gatekeepers, they are forming their own image, completely unfazed by notions of commercial viability. Thus, Billie Eilish, the most recent SoundCloud find, mercifully relatively untouched by the machine, is nothing like the teen sensations of yore. For the past three years, she has carved out her own peculiar space, a space only those at the fringe would dare come close, and on her debut full-length LP, WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP, WHERE DO WE GO?, she fine-tunes that aesthetic with almost surgeon-like accuracy, but not by way of repackaging it more tastefully for the mainstream. It certainly sounds so at the beginning: most of “bad guy” sounds like a complete about-face, riffing on a melody that smacks of commercialized Halloween, almost like caricaturing her own aesthetic. But the album only properly begins in the song’s third act: a heavily slowed-down, bass-heavy, spoken-word section that is closer to her modus operandi. But it also works like a full-throated cackle -- “bitch, you thought” -- in the face of detractors, as if she can sense their sigh of relief (maybe she actually can). That stubborn self-assuredness and humorous self-awareness are just some of the things that make this album so enjoyable.

And so we enter the Billie Eilish Experience. The third act of “bad guy” acts as a lead-in but also a predictor of the album’s overarching style -- bass-heavy, largely guided by rhythm, otherwise sparse instrumentation -- and many of the album’s highlights follow this formula. The formula finds its most undiluted expression in “xanny”: the song never achieves anything close to a melody except the bridge, and its drop entails the most aggressive use of bass in recent pop history, probably blowing out most earphones in the mass-market range and rendering Eilish’s vocals totally unintelligible. But parts of the formula are scattered everywhere: bouts of very pronounced bass pop up in the middle of songs; sometimes there is a sole piano or guitar or ukulele, whatever seems to be her preference at the time; other times she hums out her own backing melody. There are also occasions where the tempo slows down way into ballad territory, especially towards the end of the album, and those moments are relatively less successful, particularly the closer “i love you,” which comes dangerously close to becoming a sobfest.

It has become pretty clear that most pop artists who claim to be anti-pop are bullshit, but judging by the way Eilish pushes back against pop tropes here, she may be one of the first true anti-pop pop figures (which is totally a category that exists), even if the musical structures she employs here are purely pop. On “xanny,” she refuses to succumb to the appeal of recreational drug use, while “bad guy” is a wholehearted embrace of villainy à la Taylor Swift, though Eilish’s attempt definitely carries more bite. Elsewhere, “wish you were gay” begins with an acoustic guitar, the epitome of pop authenticity, but subverts that with sounds of an audience -- the pitiful aww’s, the slight chuckles, and of course, the applause; she knows all of this is fake, and the broken fourth wall is a delightful sight (the subject matter is quite a misstep, however). But she is not always so proficient. The “good girl vs. bad girl” trope makes an appearance on “all the good girls go to hell” -- needless to say, she’s an advocate for the latter -- but it keeps the false dichotomy in place, instead of doing away with it entirely. Perhaps the biggest misfire here is “my strange addiction,” a mindless perpetuation of the equation between intense romantic attraction and a drug-induced high, entirely antithetical to Eilish's adamant rejection of the latter. (It is rather telling that the album’s biggest misfire is one of only two tracks Eilish did not take part in writing, but it is also surprising that she did not scrap it the moment she saw it.)

The common thread throughout the LP is the often melodramatic teenage mind, which Eilish approaches with consummate care. There is the inflated ego in “you should see me in a crown,” the quiet fury in “xanny,” the hopeless romantic in “wish you were gay,” the emotional confusion of “i love you,” or even the paranoia in “ilomilo.” But what Eilish arguably captures the best is teens’ often misguided self-loathing, particularly in the aftermath of a romantic break-up: “8” is Eilish’s “Liability,” a masterful treatise on low self-esteem, written by the perpetrator in the perspective of the sufferer. There are countless other brilliant songwriting moments like this on the album; thus, it is quite a feat that the entirety of the record’s writing is done by a grand total of two people. But “8” may count as some of Eilish’s and FINNEAS’s (brother and co-writer) career-best writing: melodramatic, yes, but tentative enough that the drama flies just under the radar (though that is also partly the credit of Eilish’s vocal performance). Most of the experiences on WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP might be universal, but some moments feel specifically informed by this day and age. “all the good girls go to hell” reflects generational anxieties about climate change, while “listen before i go” prompts hard questions about how we talk about suicide and depression (my own contribution: is there an acceptable way to talk about it in a public domain?); on a lighter note, “my strange addiction” faintly projects the millennial obsession with The Office.

It all culminates in “bury a friend,” the crown jewel of WHEN WE ALL FALL ASLEEP and the musical apex of Eilish’s young career, where the best attributes of the album all converge. Its music video looks like a miniature horror movie, but the song itself sounds like it, too. The track’s staccato beat evokes horror’s signature flickering lights. Eilish’s hushed tone, whether alone or accompanied with backing vocals, makes the eerie atmosphere of the song, the background voice sounding like it is lurking directly behind her, waiting for a jump scare when she least expects it; her distorted screams would also make for a great jump scare. The errant sounds on the track -- the dental drill, the staple gun, the broken glass, the Easy-Bake Oven -- resemble things that go bump in the night. The song is written in the perspective of the monster under your bed, but not so much in the sense of the bogeymen of childhood as in the sense of one’s personal “monsters” and how we can all become paralyzed by them. The line between the person and the “monster” is never made clear, and by the end of the song, there really is no telling between the two; we are our own worst enemy, Eilish seems to point out.

What does this all mean, in the context of this new era of pop music? There are certainly many sweeping observations to be made: that Eilish signals a major shift in how pop stars are made, that she is reinventing teen-pop stardom, that her success represents an era where adolescents are finally taken seriously. But perhaps the most apparent conclusion is that Billie Eilish is shaping up to be pop's newest wunderkind, signed off on by the former titleholder herself, evidenced by a body of work uncompromising in its premise and surprisingly well-crafted in its substance. Perhaps our first taste of the album, the audacious yet clairvoyant “you should see me in a crown,” put it best: watch her make us bow, one by one by one.

#billie eilish #when we all fall asleep where do we go #bad guy #wish you were gay #you should see me in a crown #bury a friend #when the party's over #music review #music reccs #album review

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joelinstead-blog · 7 years

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13/06/17 Production Diary - The process of the cut scene.

Back in early May of 2017 I had started what was the first cut scene for the game. This is my first cut scene and I was expected to hit tons of mistakes in production, and the final didn’t come out as nice as I’d expected but I had taught myself loads of strategies and ways to do things better next time I plan on making a cut scene. Being that I had to learn Maya back to front to effectively work completely on my own when rigging, modelling, animating, lighting, using particles and finally rendering I had a lot to learn and get used to. So here is how I did it:

I first started off by looking at the storyboard I was given by Kelton and Ryan on the art team and I started looking at what models I’d need, once I figured out what models I needed I forwarded that list to people on the design team to help me with. I was given trees and bushes in the end, which helped.

My job was to replicate this to the best of my ability in 3D form. Of course many changes were made to some of the shot types because of the lack of resources and time. I am very rusty at cut scene work because I haven’t done anything like it before, so it was brand new to me. I first started to complete the animations that I’m going to use inside the cut scene (i.e. Marbles walk, Eliza and Shadowman looking at each other and around). These animations were unique for the cut scene and were constructed first and later put into the scene.

These are all the animations meant for the cut scene and most of them were used in the final render. I had developed the Marbles walk a while ago and made a separate blog post on creating that. As for the other animations, they were simple to create, just posing and adding a breathe effect.

Next stage was setting the environment up. I had to redo this several times. I was given a selection of trees, about 6 normal trees with green on and 5 dead trees. I had to debate which was better for the cut scene. So I experimented, filling in the scene with a load of dead trees and then doing it again with green. I preferred the green trees a lot nicer even though they aren’t as eerie looking as the dead ones. I had to create a realistic grass texture for the flooring next so I had succeeded in doing that with a royalty free texture on the internet.

I added the bushes that were provided and created a unique grass texture with a gravel path that was meant to lead to the gate (which was ultimately scratched due to complications). I had to add to the environment as it was feeling bland to me, and I know that my lighting and camera angles will need to be covered, I don’t want mistakes in any frames. So what I had done was filled the whole scene floor with grass and being that my lighting was planned on illuminating a certain area, most of the grainy stretched out texture won’t seem as bad to look at as the lighting wouldn’t have covered it, same goes for the amount of trees I have. I originally planned to have many more trees going way back to create a forest aesthetic, however I then remember that lighting will sort that out and to reduce loading times this idea was thrown out.

After I had nailed the environment and figured out where everything is going to be I then created a path for Marbles. This is something I later regret doing at this stage and its because I had to create the orphanage and assets around the path I had set to Marbles and it was difficult but I did my best. When I set up a path I had imported my animation and it looked good, Marbles walked along the path, she halts at where the gate was planned to be and waits a little bit (which is where I had the camera planned in first person view). Marbles path was then set to make her jump up onto the window of the orphanage, however I made a mistake pathing this before actually creating the orphanage first because it was way too far forward to where to orphanage actually went. So I later added a broken piece of column either side for Marbles to sit on instead.

After the path has been created for Marbles and it functions the way it should and after I was happy with it I worked around the path by creating the orphanage. I worked on the top first from a picture of concept art I was provided. I think if I did this project again that I would have switch the textures up a bit because I didn't quite like the look of the texture on the bottom part of the house, I wanted a grimier look but I am no artist so I settled with what I had which was a free texture on the internet. After the creation of the house in a different Maya window I had edited in a sewer area for where Eliza and the Shadowman resides instead of a window as it fit the style a lot better.

When the exterior was complete I went to the interior of the sewer. It had to be dark, grimy and dismal to fit the style and portray poverty. So I started off with an old generic wooden door and then added to it, with some cobble ground and some slimy stone walls to create a cold and dreary atmosphere. after the room was complete I then fixed up the camera a little more so it’s smoother at some parts and then furthered its path to inside the sewer where the Shadowman and Eliza notice Marbles at the sewer gate. The animations I had planned for the bedroom (which is now the sewer) were placed in the cut scene and works well with the camera. I had added a blink and a smirk for Eliza as she walks towards Marbles as if she’s going to wreck havoc.

After all of this, I had then implemented the lighting which also helps with the environment, I really wanted a dim lighting as if it were nighttime, and first off I had a spotlight following Eliza which at first I thought was alright. But then when I previewed the render I noticed that it didn’t look as good as I imagined it to be, as the light was only highlighting Eliza. So after much debate I used an area light, toned down the luminosity and colour of the light and created the perfect nighttime lighting.

I took the Eliza logo from the website and game it some limelight in my cut scene and the cut scene was complete! I rendered it in .avi format and put it on my memory stick as well as uploaded it to YouTube! Us as a course held an exhibition at Firstsite, Colchester and I put on my cut scene there for all to see! YouTube link: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=GkQ83PPcE30

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micaramel · 4 years

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Artist: Josh Smith

Venue: David Zwirner, offsite at Josh Smith studio, Brooklyn

Exhibition Title: High As Fuck

Date: May 21 – June 21, 2020

Click here to view slideshow

Full gallery of images, press release and link available after the jump. Images:

Images courtesy of David Zwirner, New York

Press Release:

David Zwirner is pleased to present High As Fuck, an exhibition of new work by the American artist Josh Smith made in response to the current COVID-19 pandemic and New York City’s mandatory quarantine. This Offsite exhibition, which will be presented on David Zwirner’s website, is the first of its kind.

As Smith states, ”This is a gallery show for a gallery that’s not physically accessible because of our collective isolation.”

Staged by the artist on the rooftop of his studio in Brooklyn, High As Fuck is an open-air exhibition that is, by default, only accessible online by a homebound audience. The show features a new series of paintings of empty streetscapes. Depicted is Smith’s neighborhood environs as he has experienced them during early morning and nighttime walks around a locked down city. The airplane-less, pollution-free clarity of the open sky, the lack of cars, noise, and people, revealed the nuances of absolutely everything. A whole new world of varied and unique local architecture was instantly revealed to the artist. To Smith, everything suddenly appeared clean and fresh.

The loosely rendered, expressionistic, paintings display an accidental history of both industrial and residential building styles. Smith rendered all this as it felt to him. The city’s clearness revealed unusual angles, which are depicted in lush, deeply layered, atmospheric areas and ribbons of color. The resultant canvases speak to the eerie beauty and serenity of the closed and wounded city.

Smith notes, “These are memory paintings but the memory I am painting is now.”

The self-contained nature of life under quarantine lends itself to Smith’s exploration of infinite variation within a determined formal structure. The sense of openness and possibility conveyed in these canvases represents an artistic response to the constraints of the present moment that is at once immediate and hopeful.

Along the front edge of the roof, Smith has installed a sequence of ceramic sculptures. These sculptures depict single figures confined within small, barred prisons. Set roughly six feet between one another, the sculptures playfully reference the mandated distancing allowed between people when out in public. Ceramics have been a part of the artist’s practice throughout his career. For Smith, clay allows for a closer, more tactile engagement, which serves as a counterpart to the projected dimensionality of painting. The caged enclosures, while made in 2013–2014, take on new meaning in the context of the present moment. The ceramic works also stand in as a foil to the expansiveness suggested by the painted streetscapes, and further engage with the dualities of interior and exterior, constraint and possibility, at play in the overall exhibition.

“It seems now is a good time to share the ceramic prisons,” Smith notes. ”These sculptures allude to the sadness in the air, while the paintings, at least for myself, present a contemplative depiction of New York as it currently exists. This time won’t last forever. Abandoned, the feel of this place is strangely hopeful. It is inspiring.”

The exhibition follows in a lineage of artist-initiated projects while displaying a unique and deeply personal approach—a kind of creative gesture that embraces the spirit of the present moment. Precursors of artists experimenting with alternative ways to show their work include Lucio Fontana’s spatialist paintings presented on and around a tree trunk in the garden outside his Milan studio (1955); Manfred Kuttner, Konrad Lueg (later Fisher), Sigmar Polke, and Gerhard Richter’s self-staged Vorgartenaustellung, which they presented on the grounds of Galerie Parnass, Villa Jährling, Wuppertal (1964); and Trisha Brown’s Roof Piece (1971), among other examples.

Josh Smith was born in 1976 in Okinawa, Japan. Smith’s father was in the US Army, and his family moved frequently, eventually settling in East Tennessee, where the artist mostly grew up. His work has been presented in numerous solo exhibitions at museums and arts institutions in the United States and abroad, including the Bonner Kunstverein, Bonn, Germany (2016); Museo d’Arte Contemporanea di Roma, Rome (2015); Zabludowicz Collection, London (2013); The Brant Foundation Art Study Center, Greenwich, Connecticut (2011); Centre d’Art Contemporain Genève, Geneva (2009); De Hallen Haarlem, The Netherlands (2009–2010); Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok), Vienna (2008); and SculptureCenter, Long Island City, New York (2004).

Smith’s work has also been included in important group exhibitions, such as Forever Young –10 Years Museum Brandhorst, Museum Brandhorst , Munich (2019 – 2020) ; Trouble in Paradise: Collection Rattan Chadha, Kunsthal Rotterdam (2019); Artistic Toolbox: 1989–2017, Kunsthalle Wien, Vienna (2017); Painting 2.0: Expression in the Information Age, which opened at the Museum Brandhorst, Munich, and subsequently traveled to the Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok), Vienna (2015–2016); The Forever Now: Contemporary Painting in an Atemporal World, The Museum of Modern Art, New York (2014 – 2015) ; The Painting Factory: Abstraction after Warhol, The Museum of Contemporary Art, Los Angeles (2012); ILLUMInations, the central exhibition at the 54th Venice Biennale (2011); and The Generational Triennial: Younger Than Jesus, New Museum, New York (2009).

Smith’s work is held in numerous international public collections including The Broad, Los Angeles; Carnegie Museum of Art, Pittsburgh; Centre Georges Pompidou, Paris; Moderna Museet, Stockholm; Musée d’art contemporain de Montréal; The Museum of Modern Art, New York; Museum Moderner Kunst Stiftung Ludwig Wien (mumok), Vienna; and the Whitney Museum of American Art, New York. Smith has lived and worked in New York since 1998. The artist has been represented by David Zwirner since 2017, and his first exhibition, Emo Jungle, took place at the gallery’s 519, 525, and 533 West 19th Street locations in New York in 2019. High As Fuck is the artist’s second solo show with David Zwirner.

Link: Josh Smith at David Zwirner

from Contemporary Art Daily https://bit.ly/3epKA2y

#micaramel

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angrycollectordaze-me-blog · 6 years

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Essay代写：American Independent movie

下面为大家整理一篇优秀的essay代写范文- American Independent movie，供大家参考学习，这篇论文讨论了美国独立电影。哈莫尼・科林是美国独立电影界的一位怪才导演，他的作品始终坚持着自己独特的影像风格和电影制作上的独立性。他的电影作品开辟了一条十分复杂并否定轻易评论的途径，颠覆了传统上逻辑直白草率的思路，模糊了普通的非黑即白的对立思想，同时也为美国核心文化与理想付诸了十分有趣的摸索。

Harmony Colin is a maverick character of American independent film, from the beginning of the medium teenager, to the later, the "spring break" over the years, he always adhere to their own unique style of video and film production on independence. His works have opened up a very complicated and negative way of easy comment, subverted the traditional straightforward and careless logic, blurred the common opposition of black and white, and put into practice a very interesting exploration of the core American culture and ideals. This article will try to interpret the theme presentation, narrative technique, audio-visual style, characters and other aspects of his work.

For Harmony Colin and his film and television works, people often use "provocative" and "exploitation" to describe. In 1981, the 18-year-old filmmaker wrote the script for "the half-grown boy," which described a group of Manhattan teenagers who grew up in an environment rife with social dark elements. Famous director in the future will work to make into a movie, the film in 48th annual cannes film festival has attracted intense review divisions, with critics view on the film should be understood as the documentary shows the life style of contemporary youth and a wake-up call for people, or to understand for teenagers about sex and makes people uncomfortable, exploitation films. Harmony will be colin works, explore the characteristics of his work.

Adapted to movie director in memories of the beginning work of reason, the thought of another film and television work, the work directed by the director's guide, the film describes a gnome workhouse for a penalty event trigger public brawl, continues the style of the talented director, preferences: prefer obsession and madness beyond ordinary film system of the role of. Its highly personal characteristics vividly reveal the thick barriers between special groups and normal society and their inevitable loneliness. Everywhere in the film, the eerie and weird atmosphere, let colin have a good feeling, hear, see image at the cinema, let him know in an instant by oneself want to what kind of movie, so his order of those outside the characters in the film could explain now, colin is not balance the public's curiosity, but in a narrative and the past the opposite.

In the original work, the director created a group of characters immersed in the complex and changeable cultural environment, who wandered away from the system, and the director used his imaginative and creative heart to make their emptiness and loneliness poetic. The director then developed a similar personal style. Therefore, we see the intoxication of crime and sexual disorder, development to cannot extricate themselves from the youth; The dumb bunny, the retarded whore, the black dwarf, the transvestite, and the cat abused teen in "kiwi"; The broken arm in "Julian the donkey", the black man with albinism, and the hero with neurological disease. The cranky impersonators of celebrities in Mr. Lonely, the slow twisters in nursing homes: the rebellious, defiant teenagers and tattooed mobsters in "holiday"; There are also some very destructive old people who are completely out of touch with normal values, hiding in dark corners of the city. The above characters, who straddle the system, stubbornly attempt to give private opinions and establish their own way of thinking, which naturally leads to a unique theatrical expressiveness. This particular dramatic expression falls in the eyes of the director, constituting a unique world of physically handicapped special people, and the more ordinary role of pure kindness makes people feel more sincere and brave.

Mr Lonely, there is a group of isolated utopia life imitators, Marilyn Monroe, Charlie Chaplin, Michael Jackson... They lived together and presented a stage show of song and dance, acrobatics and skits, but the audience was pitifully small. This section in addition to using a similar light colors and lines arrangement to John card savi, the murder of underground boss said the respect, but also embodies the colin to similar to a variety show, stage artistes and touring troupe has a special liking type things.

One of the director's works has been attacked fiercely and also because of the director's drama complex. The director is obsessed with the ancient skills and firmly supports the ancient traditional performance forms. The acrobat stood bravely on the lonely stage, and tried to show all his skills to the few audiences, so as to get a small payment. Such a form of performance was very impressive. Director was very yearning to become a tap dancer, his each work is not hard to see his love of tap: in days of paradise actress Linda menzies had skipped a few minutes in the strange boy, tap dance, the lonely Mr An impersonation of lovers to imitate the famous classic performances of tap dancer, high respect and miss to the artist. A similar carnival atmosphere can be found in "junk insurance poles" and "spring break". These two films show the metaphor generated by the contrast between blurry picture and high-definition picture. The first is an eerie, pale face filled with the hormones of youth. But actually the two films are like an indivisible whole, with some similarities. In the film's larger plot lines, unbridled debauchery and appalling terror are turned into a seemingly endless feast. The characters celebrate in various ways at this feast that they have worked hard to fulfill their long-cherished wishes, freed themselves from bondage and gained a certain social status and rich material wealth, and become more free in spirit. This is exactly the carnival feature of these two films which are rendered with masks, makeup and other rituals. The characters in the film are deeply immersed in the Bohemian environment, free from the traditional repression, breaking the constraints of order and discourse, destroying the inherent separation of classes, and finding the way to express the emotions gathered for a long time.

There is no conventional narrative structure of the causes, processes, and outcomes of ordinary stories in this director's work. "Kiwi boy", for example, has two main lines: one is a young boy who spends his days in the city streets killing stray cats for pleasure, indulging in drugs, loafing, having sex with insane sex workers, and killing an unconscious old man out of good intentions. The other is the girls, led by dott, who care only about grooming, playing, discussing boys, and caring for and looking after lost domestic cats. The two main lines combine special elements similar to documentaries, including the questioning of real characters and the plots derived from real life. There is also a special character, who is born disabled and unable to speak and wears extravagant and eccentric decorations, who separates boys from girls. The author's other two works still use this way of narration. Their seemingly scattered and unrelated plots also have certain rules and die out at a random time.

The collage of fragments also has a completely random, disintegrating order, and disappears at a natural moment of disillusionment. Thematically, they address a problem: the nomads and dreamers who create their own reality and live within it, pure souls and persistence are not stable. The director makes these two completely separate, keeping them unattached to other things. Another "holiday" has several different works, works seem only contains one day story lines, the protagonists on his journey, with the continuous development of the plot, the same dialogue be repeatedly mentioned, with a background music is played repeatedly, images of playback with special skills also repeated shots a little slower, these all make the story becomes complicated. The opening and closing styles of the film are similar, and all have the sound of shooting. This environment is full of fantastic fantasy and misty fog, and the movie's eternal vacation is sealed into a flowing endless story, like an endless dream. The director tries his best to depict a special system, that the stories are random and do not affect each other. "I think of it as an old family photo album," he once said of his work. "there are strawberries planted by the mother next to the child's pet, next to you, staggering as you walk for the first time, and next to you, when you travel in Africa." Each photo tells its own story and is unconnected, and when viewed as a whole, they are the best vehicle for the family story. He doesn't think that people's real life will be the same as in the movies. Deep in his heart, he thinks that the things happening around people are independent, hard to connect them with straightforward logic, and his works have inherited this idea.

During his days in northern Europe, the director met the Muse who wrote Mr. Lonely. While he was wandering aimlessly through the local village, he came across a very sad lady who led him to their stables, where the bodies of many horses had been piling up and had been dead for a long time, their stiff legs pointing with despair and anger at the still blue skies of northern Europe. On the way home, he conceived of Mr. Lonely. The long-dead body of evidence of life has long since disappeared, desperately pointing towards the firmament on which this classic work has taken root. The director took visual effects very seriously and practiced a lot, trying to create an unprecedented visual experience.

As a radical attempt "amazing kid", the photographer makes yves apotheker fe brought film is deeply rooted in the hearts of the people's main body color. "Donkey boy Julian" also tries out the feasibility of DV filming, with colin loving DV intimacy and immediacy, maximising the cast's framing sense and facilitating improvisation. The film expresses this special journey with unrelated stories, unconventional editing and dim and out-of-focus colors, making the film infinitely close to the mental state of its hero Julian. A similar out-of-focus, sordid visual effect was created with the garbage bumper, also tried out on a home video camera. With special shooting equipment, "holiday" builds up the mysterious film picture. Repeatedly slowing down the lens speed and detailed expression brings the audience into it, making the audience immersive. Most importantly, it is a metaphor for the American dream that is no longer prosperous and empty.

Colin expressed in most of the film in Europe director Alan clark's salute, especially in such aspects as shots and lens model, they weaken the boundary between the existence and unreal. The film makes the audience feel as if they are in outer space. The exotic beauty, weightlessness and lost charm are integrated into the film. For colin, "the truth that a film is 24 squares per second" is a lie that cannot be believed. He believes that everything in the work must conform to the reality, even if there is no complete sense of reality, even the documentary film will have some artificial or even fabricated plot. What the director can do is a trade-off between external reality and internal nothingness. But the director also feel that kind of artistic conception from the sky, can't find any artificial manipulation or idea, the best example of this is Charles fatigue "night of the hunter. Fuzzy truth and non-truth are not only a design out of style, but also an aesthetic strategy that cannot be interpreted.

Colin does not agree that the world tries to analyze his work with the subtleties or connotations of the written word. There is no doubt that his work opens up a very complicated way of denying easy criticism. When "strange boy" was first screened at the festival, a large number of film and television fans left because they could not tolerate animal cruelty. "Even if the content of the film is entirely divorced from reality, the aspects of moral issues, poverty and sexual norms are very prominent and unquestionably relentless." There may be doubt about whether the director still has the goodness of "the beginning of man", but it is undeniable that some of the plots in the work still touch and even hurt the audience. The more fussy "junk safety" is perhaps the director's most mortifying film, in which the insane and elderly show all the ugliness, while the film occasionally showcases waltzing, piano, temporary pain and creative beauty. Many times in his works are descriptions of the "American landscape" and contemporary representation of the American dream.

This landscape is present in the garbage in the bumper, silent no one night and traditional community architecture, hiding in the shadows of the rows of trash can been lit by the dim lights, wearing strange masks "destroyer" vent to their dissatisfaction with impulse and relentlessly, celebrating in this planet is forgotten; The little village of kiwi, where the citizens of numbness and poverty have nothing to do because of a devastating tornado, is a canceled American dream. Spring break, on the other hand, is more like a dream that is about to be shattered. It shows people immersed in violence, pleasure and decadence in the camera, and they tend to go to the edge of chaos and dangerous fanaticism before they can wake up.

Haney Colin opened a very complex and the negative comments, easily destroyed by rough distinguish between culture and useless thoughts, forgotten about the existence or nothing, ethics, and the darkness of the dualist position, as well as into the American core culture and ideal felt very interesting. The violence in colin's works is often accompanied by the existence of humor, and the blurring of truth and non-truth is not only a design out of style, but also an aesthetic strategy that cannot be interpreted. He made an extraordinary exploration of the theme of American core culture and dream, presenting the American dream in an anatomical way.

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tshtest-blog · 6 years

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New Interview

Seth Sher & Heather Gabel

Photo by Kristin Cofer

Starting in 2014 as a collaboration between visual artist Heather Gabel and percussionist Seth Sher, the Chicago based industrial duo known simply as HIDE was formed. The following four years have seen HIDE crash through with a number of aggressively rendered singles and EP’s while quietly collecting the shattered pieces that would form their debut full length album, ‘Castration Anxiety’. An eerie tone permeates ‘Castration Anxiety’ until the end. Throbbing pulses swirling around Gabel’s death laden mantras succumb to themes harvesting power from desperation and hopelessness. Each song ripping apart the ideas of empowerment and autonomy, throwing them back out to the audience in the form of Sher’s addictive rhythms, shattered EBM-styled samples whipped at the end of a leash, held in check by Gabel’s cathartic delivery… We talk to Heather Gabel about covering stark topics, field recordings and live shows…

TSH: As ‘Castration Anxiety’ was coming together, did you feel compelled to cover certain viewpoints?

Heather: When we were writing the songs it wasn't with the intention of having them all be on an album necessarily. We had six songs when we went into the studio and ended up writing two whilst recording. Everything on 'Castration Anxiety' is 2-4 years old. These are my personal viewpoints and my reaction to the world, but not a pointed decision to write about certain topics.

TSH: From an instrumentation standpoint, how would you assess the contrast in sound for this full-length?

Heather: There isn't a real contrast in sound between this and the EPs we released previously except maybe the overall quality of our self-released tape singles don't sound as good as the stuff we've recorded in a proper recording studio.

TSH: Over the years, what’s impacted you most as a songwriter?

Heather: I've only been doing this band, or any band as this is my first, for four years. Nothing has changed what I want to sing about, the things that make me angry, sad, frustrated (patriarchy, racism, misogyny, homo/transphobia, humans trashing the planet, basically any situation where someone is being marginalised, being treated badly for who they are) have been and are still what is informing my lyrics.

TSH: What would you say are the primary challenges and obstacles that you and Seth have had to encounter in the lead-up to finally releasing this debut album?

Heather: We ended up remixing/remastering the album like a year and a half after we thought it was finished because we ultimately felt like it could be heavier, that it could come closer sonically to our live sound. It wasn't necessarily an obstacle or challenge but a decision to go back in once we thought it was finished.

TSH: What sort of sentiment does a track like ‘Fall Down’ carry?

Heather: 'Fall Down' is about feeling everything, about not ignoring the things that make you upset, about allowing yourself to react.

TSH: Moreover, what was the dynamic and level of focus like as you both fleshed out ‘Wildfire’?

Heather: I don't particularly remember the timeline but I think we wrote those songs very close to each other. We didn't approach them differently per se. 'Wildfire' is about the earth rejecting its inhabitants.

TSH: What’s given you most satisfaction with regards to HIDE’s development to date?

Heather: I don't generally feel satisfied. I'm glad we are creating what we want to create, that there is an audience connecting to the work, that Dais is putting out the record. Song to song I am satisfied with the finished works but the fact that the things that inform my lyrics are going on sort of ensure a level of overall dissatisfaction that does not exclude the band.

TSH: Do you and Seth both opt to work outside of your comfort zones to allow for distinctive results?

Heather: That was definitely true for me when I started singing in HIDE. I really thrive in situations where I don't necessarily know or think I know how to do something and just fucking do it. But it's been four years and I'm very comfortable now, and that leads itself naturally to experimentation I think.

TSH: What sort of field recordings id you and Seth tamper with for this body of work?

Heather: We both select samples from a wide variety of sources. Sounds from movies, songs, the news, doors slamming, ambient drones, literally anything we hear that we think sounds interesting.

TSH: Also, what sort of energy do you look to generate with HIDE’s live offerings?

Heather: We are interested in taking people out of their world and sharing ours with the live show. We use fog and strobe lights to create a disorienting atmosphere where hopefully the audience can let distractions fall away and connect with the energy we are exorcising.

TSH: Being an avid visual person, which movies in recent times have you been moved by?

Heather: The last time I think we BOTH really connected with a new film was Johnathan Glazer's 'Under the Skin' from 2013. The score by Mica Levi is fucking killer.

TSH: What keeps you most content and happy with your daily lifestyle?

Heather: I am not happy or content. I'm glad to have HIDE as a way to combat that, though.

TSH: For HIDE’s future musical vision, what are the key traits and attributes that you want to maintain?

Heather: We will keep creating what we want to create and I'm sure that the sound will evolve but, organically, not as a response to our own sound.

[ARTIST NAME] - “[SONG NAME]”

Castration Anxiety

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angelicafmp · 7 years

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Initial Concepts, Reasoning and analysis:

‘Out of This World’ Umbrella Concept: For this project I have chosen to interpret ‘Out of This world’ by means of mental illness. I would like to visually express my exploration of my personal experience with Mental illness, as well as the stories and experiences of those around me.

My previous diagnosis of Body Dysmorphic Disorder, caused me to distort my perception of self-recognition, resulting in me viewing myself as deformed, repugnant and that I needed to isolate myself to save others from the pain of looking at me.

As a coping mechanism, I generally dissociated from the present and lived in a fantasised, ‘better’ version of reality, in which I’d undertaken cosmetic surgery procedures on every feature of my face and body.

The Mask:

Looking back at my experiences, I want to express my perceived self-image, which inspired the idea of creating a Prosthetic mask, resembling a pig/human hybrid and photographing myself wearing it. I intend for the mask to look fake, obviously a mask to indicate artificial information. I want the image to appear as if it were my choice to have a portrait, I want to preserve the image of my prior perceived self-image. As I now look back at this period in my life, reminders of my previous mental state reinforce motivation in myself, so in that sense, creating this distorted self-portrait is highly therapeutic and comforting to me personally.

CGI: Although, I am completely new to CGI software, I feel that using 3D animated videos and rendered images as a medium connects well with my umbrella concept for this project. The ability to create sculpted characters, surreal environments and having a large amount of control over the textures, lighting, materials etc will enable me to create specific environments describing a tone and atmosphere of synthetic, eery and fantasy imagery which are all elements of my umbrella topic of mental health, delusions, fantasy and perception.

The ideas for the final video pieces are currently vague, but I will aim to make 2 CGI animated videos, with an adult woman/hybrid/creature in an antique, classical style living area for the first video. And a child in overalls, watching television in an empty, contemporary, cell-like room for the second. I will be choosing free sound effects off of youtube of calming, yet out of place noises to create an unsettling combination with the videos.

Audio Pieces: I would like to write and then record written passages using a computer generated voice. I would like the passages to be written with basic sentence structure, conveying disjointed yet primary emotive vocabulary to appear child-like and instinctive. I want the pieces to be based around vague, undefined scenarios that will allow the listener to apply the passage to them personally. The voice narrating the passage will be computer generated, to again reiterate the synthetic, ethereal tone to link with the umbrella concept and the cgi videos. The aim of using the computer generated voice is to take away the familiarity of a human voice, over the simplified, emotive, humanly written passage. I hope that the computer generated voice will also create the sense of a god-like being pouring out unlikely human emotion directly to the listener.

Illustrative Pieces: I would like to explore with watercolour, pen and pencil sketches and paintings to study various forms of life; realistic, distorted, imagined, deformed, ugly and beautiful. I would like these styles to overlap. I will be imitating some of the previous stated artists to gain insight into artistic styles that I feel relate to my theme. I would also like to study drawings animals and medical illustrations from archaic encyclopedia pages. These studies will aid my creating and understand of figures, colours, textures and materials to create on Blender (The CGI software I’m learning. And I also intend to scan the images to add into the scenes created for the final piece to add a ‘realness’ to the scene, display the varying array of images I created transforming them into a combined piece and setting an atmosphere in the CGI environments.

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stormyrecords-blog · 7 years

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new arrivals 3-30-17

in TODAY!! (thursday) NARDINI, NINOMusique Pour Le Futur LP $29.99We Release Whatever The Fuck We Want Records present a reissue of Nino Nardini's e Musique Pour Le Futur, originally released in 1970. An experimental, musique concrete, sci-fi masterpiece, available for the first time since 1970. Originally recorded for Crea Sound Ltd., a sub-label of Louis Delacour's Neuilly imprint, Musique Pour Le Futur finds the French composer, arranger, producer, possible time-traveler, and all around music library legend Nino Nardini experimenting with synthesizers, percussions, prepared piano, echo, and special effects. Fans of electronic oddities, eerie cinematic audio-landscapes, Piero Umiliani, or Bernard Parmegiani, will rejoice at this full-length musical adventure that could very well be the soundtrack for a film in which characters from a '70s Italian horror movie visit a distant (forbidden) planet from a '50s sci-movie. It's bizarre, hypnotizing, slightly spooky, always out-of-this-world, and goddamn brilliant. Nino Nardini, also known as Georges Teperino, had a very fruitful career in library music, much like longtime collaborator Roger Roger. He composed a very large amount of works for French and British libraries which continues to be featured in numerous programs (radio, TV, films) all around the world. His passion for electronic music experimentations began in the late '60s and kept going until the '80s. Housed in a phosphorescent glow-in-the-dark, heavy cardboard sleeve. ALBERICH/LUSSURIABorgia LP $19.99Following on from that hugely sought-after Green Graves issue by Rainforest Spiritual Enslavement (2016), Hospital Productions re-examine a longstanding tradition of industrial ambient music on this exceptional collaboration between two of the label's most consistently innovative, highly absorbing producers. Originally released in a private press run of handmade tapes in 2016, the collaboration was made in person with both Alberich and Lussuria making use of digital synths in homage to that distinctly European scene of the mid '90s that combined hardcore industrial textures with ambient pulses. It's a sound you'll be familiar with if you've immersed yourself in the most unnervingly quiet sections of the last few Prurient albums, building a kind of futuristic soundscape situated somewhere between David Lynch, Kevin Drumm, and a more dystopian variant of Brad Fiedel's distinctive soundtrack to The Terminator (1984). Alberich's instinct for harsh propulsive rhythms is tempered here by Lussuria's weird topography, the digital rendering adding a kind of artificial foundation quite removed from the throbbing earthiness you'd find on a hardware session. Instead, the more linear trajectory of so many dark ambient excursions is replaced with a constantly shifting landscape, veering from an oddly displaced vocal narrative into pounded, crumbling rhythms at some points, while those sinking sub bass sands keep things resolutely atmospheric for the duration. There are no concessions to that blackened aesthetic here, if you were into Green Graves or want to immerse yourself in one of the most brutally atmospheric albums you'll hear this year, check this out. Edition of 500. AFRO SUPER-FEELINGS LED BY SEGUN OKEJII Like Woman LP $25.99Soul Patrol Records present a reissue of I Like Woman. This is an album comprised of two super-rare Afro-beat disco/funk tracks from Lagos by the band Afro Super-Feelings, led the by artist/musician Segun Okeji. Segun Okeji was the tenor sax player in Fela Kuti's Koola Lobitos band in Nigeria in the late 1960s before changing their name to Africa 70, and this record, originally released in the late 1970s, uses that first-hand experience and influence to maximum effect with a pair of devastating sidelong saxophone-led jams. Up-tempo, chugging drums and a crack horn section, bass, guitar, organ, and backing vocals coordinate to achieve the hypnotic call/refrain/chant crescendo that was Fela's hallmark in his peak years. Players include Tunde Daudu on drums (The Benders), E. Ngomalloh on organ (Fela Kuti), Tutu Shoronmu on guitar (Fela Kuti), and others that played on releases by the C.S. Crew, Sonny Okosun, Orlando Julius, and Tony Allen. Edition of 500. ORPHXArchive 93-94 2LP $25.99Mannequin Records present an archival collection from the genesis of Orphx's sound. Inspired by early industrial music and new waves of noise from Japan and Europe, the compilation is gathering together some of the best material from their first two cassette releases, released in 1993 and 1994, along with previously unreleased tracks recovered from the original four-track tapes. Mastered by Rude 66; Graphic design by Alessandro Adriani. Edition of 500. DIAFRAMMASiberia LP $23.99Mannequin Records celebrate their nine year anniversary with a reissue of Diaframma's Siberia, originally released in 1984. A masterpiece of '80s Italian new wave, and a cornerstone of Italian rock. At the end of the '70s Federico Fiumani, together with two classmates, gave life to CFS. The acronym is formed by the initials of the members: Gianni Cicchi (drummer), Fiumani (guitar and voice), and Salvatore Susini (bass). Later, Susini was replaced by Cicchi's brother, Leandro. The new incarnation of Diaframma was born, with the singer now replaced with Nicola Vannini. From their earliest moments, they shared the same stages as Neon, Pankow, and Litfiba, who all contributed transforming the Tuscan capital into the epicenter of post-punk in Italy. After their first single Pioggia / Illusione Ottica (1982), a split with Pankow (1982), and the mini-album Altrove (1983), the beautiful lyrics of the guitar player and leader Federico Fiumani exposed the band as one of the most popular in the Italian scene. In 1984, Diaframma signed onto IRA Records and Nicola Vannini was replaced by the painter and sculpturist Miro Sassolini. With Miro on board, Diaframma recorded Siberia, 3 Volte Lacrime (1986), and Boxe (1988), unwittingly laying the blueprint for the future generation of Italian alternative music scene. Siberia is one of the most successful attempts to combine derivative Anglo-Saxon musical styles and songs written in Italian. Siberia's title track is a masterpiece that highlights Fiumani's skills, drawing trajectories with his guitar in line with the metaphorical descriptions of a "big chill", reflecting the mood and social climate of Italy in the early '80s. Epoch-making is actually an adjective suitable for the album, filtered through the sensibility of memorable songs like "Neongrigio", "Amsterdam", "De Lorenzo", and "Specchi D'Acqua". An Italian breath, where the lyrics of Fiumani are totally lost in the symbolist poetry, represents a perfect model of harmony between the Italian metrics and the sound and rhythm of English post-punk. Siberia pictures Italy's first attempt to emerge from the exciting comfort zone of the "underground" to deal finally with the real market (IRA sold approximately 50,000 copies at the time), where the tradition of the Italian song-writing was merging with the musical forefather, such as Joy Division, Echo & the Bunnymen, and Television. In February 2012, Rolling Stone placed Siberia as #7 on their poll of the 100 most beautiful Italian records of all time. Edition of 600. BYRON & GERALDUnity LP $34.99Eremite present Byron And Gerald's Unity, a private press free jazz album recorded in 1969 at Howard University and the first release on Byron Morris's EPI label. It is the only hardcore free jazz record out of 1960s DC, and a viscerally powerful cultural dispatch on the sociopolitical upheavals of its time. From Byron's 2017 liner notes: "In the early spring of 1969, several months before moving to Poughkeepsie, NY, Gerald Wise and I, along with the recording engineer Len Jones, conceived of the idea to gather a group of musicians who were like-minded concerning 'The New Thing' (Sun Ra, John Coltrane, Ornette Coleman, Eric Dolphy, Booker Little). Most of the musicians we asked to be part of this experiment we knew from jam sessions or were already part of Unit Five. Eric Gravatt suggested we invite two of his musician friends from Philadelphia, Byard Lancaster and Keno Speller. I wrote a musical composition for the date dedicated to my father, 'JWM+53.' My friend Earl Snead wrote the other composition, 'Black Awareness.' Earl passed shortly after the session. The recording session took place at the studio of an experimental TV channel that leased space on the campus of Howard University. Gerry and I welcomed all the musicians and thanked them for being part of the session. The scene immediately took on a magical atmosphere, with everyone going about their tasks as if they had cue sheets. In the center of the room we laid out our instruments on two 4x8 tables. That way we could just pick up any instrument and play when the spirit hit us. I had two altos (one plastic) and a curved soprano. Jerry Wise had his trumpet and some hand rhythm instruments. Byard Lancaster had an alto sax, flute, trumpet, and some hand rhythm instruments. Vins Johnson had a tenor and a baritone sax. Keno Speller had a bell tree, tambourines, claves, drum sticks, felt-headed mallets, and a set of amplified conga drums. Inside the tables our two drummers, Eric Gravatt and Abu Sharrieff, sat face to face with two full drum kits and microphones all around them. Next to them were our two bassists, Fred Williams and a young man named Chris (whose last name, sadly, I cannot remember). To this day, I wish the proceedings had been filmed. The energy level was so high that Byard Lancaster did push-ups when not playing (I believe I remember Vins Johnson and Keno Speller also doing some). In spite of all of the excitement, everyone wanted to make a serious musical statement and cooperated in taking directions from Len Jones, Gerry, and me. It was orderly excitement, the collective 'We' caught-up in the moment. Ornette's Free Jazz (1961) and Trane's Ascension (1965) address much of what we were attempting in the studio that day in 1969. . . . In point of fact, most if not all of us had witnessed firsthand the physical excitement and, in some moments, pure terror of the urban riots set off in the spring of 1968 by the murder of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.. Washington, DC, exploded with anger and the looting and burning of businesses throughout the city. U.S. Army troops, along with Air Force and Navy/Marine elements, were sent in to quell these massive urban disturbances. During the recording of Unity our collective emotions were still raw, to say the least. Here and now, nearly a half of a century later, I can still smell the tear gas and the burning tires. I get chills just thinking about it. But the music got us through that time... and the music gets us through now!" NACE/CHRIS CORSANO/PAUL FLAHERTY, BILLThese LP $25.99" 'Wherein we come upon three visceralists who have been collaborating for years - innumerable instances in a roulette wheel of settings -- finally shacking up in a studio and fashioning a proper trio record. Glory be. Let's listen in-- 'These.' It's a phrase that never gets started, and an apt title for this record, which right off bolts from the barn and burns so brightly it nearly gets away from you by the time you're done twisting your head around looking for whoever it was that left the door open. 'He asked me when I planned to come back. Always, I said.' Nace's guitar mines savage depths, egging on the propulsive swing of Flaherty and Corsano. The results are as beastly as the heart itself. Swing. Bounce. Joust. Jab. Uppercut. Flutter. Wink. Sneer. They all play with anguish and ecstatic rupture -- the frustrating joy of pushing an instrument to its limits, fashioning a necessary and brutal needlepoint. They move with all the otherworldly elegance and mania of moths at a lamp show. The music asks no specific questions, but wrenches open a space for all manner of questions -- this is one of art's most vital functions! It deals in shades, no matter how sharp the apparent angle. Check out the second track on the first side: the solemn bells of Bill's guitar signal not so much a funeral, but a new dawn after a tragedy. Flaherty's saxophone sounds innocent, almost tentative at first, but as Chris' drums chime in, Paul starts to wrench the fabric loose. The track builds into a fierce and alien vista, charting a territory all its own -- a simmering judgement. It becomes hard to talk about. Didn't you ever try to eat your own tail in the midday sun? No? These three, whose veins are coursing straight through with a nuanced emotional lexicon and the smarts to harness it, have given us a record that expands potential with each listen." --Matt Krefting, Holyoke, MA 2017 WEISS, KLAUSTime Signals LP $29.99Trunk Records present a reissue of Klaus Weiss's Time Signals, originally released on Selected Sound in 1978. This hectic mix of dark drums with plugged-in, way-out, funked-up studio gear has been high on library geeks' want-lists for years. Made by Niagara drummer/library overlord Klaus Weiss, and including the monster that is "Survivor", originals are super rare, going for up to $300 if you can ever get near one. Standard black vinyl comes in a varnished bronze sleeve - a replica of the original LP. Jonny Trunk on Time Signals: "It was way back in the mid-1990s when fellow record collector and library music head Gareth Godard (AKA Cherrystones) first played me Selected Sound library LP 67, Time Signals. At the time -- and I think it's still the case -- Gareth was into Klaus Weiss. Weiss was the drummer for Munich supergroup Niagara, he could be found on library LPs we were digging up on the Conroy and Golden Ring labels, and his name would appear across early 1960s jazz LPs from Germany. His drumming sound was mechanical, peculiar, unpredictable and distinctive. But nothing he'd done that I'd heard sounded quite like Time Signals. It was more manic and experimental, and the sounds and slightly offensive rhythms burrowed into my brain almost instantly. It probably took about another three years to recover and find myself a copy, and even then I'd found the sounds completely at odds to anything else I knew about. A few years later Gareth also pointed out to me that this LP was all over Rockin' With Seka, a jet set hardcore movie from 1980 starring Swedish sensation Seka and Big John Holmes. Obviously the sound department on the film got busy with Selected Sound as another cue from the LP Nymphe (1979) is also on the soundtrack. But that is exactly what library music is for; Selected Sound produced these amazing library LPs, all beautifully recorded, sent them out in their shiny bronze sleeves around the world with rough guides to what they might be good for and waited for the royalties to roll in. Time Signals is probably the most desirable LP in the 9000 series catalogue. It sounds like nothing else and there are many high points, certainly something for everyone. And as musical tastes change and develop, Time Signals just seems to move along and fit. What seemed like otherworldly music to me two decades ago now seems like the norm. So here is Time Signals in all its odd glory, offering you a futuristic musical trip like no other." BROTHER AH Divine Music 3 cd set $34.99"Following the reissues of Brother Ah's three studio albums in 2016, Manufactured Recordings is proud to present Divine Music, a collection of three unreleased albums from this jazz visionary: The Sea (1978), Mediation (1981), and Searching (1985). Moving from rich spiritual jazz to more meditative ambience, Divine Music further explores Brother Ah's unique sound and musical vision. Released a 3xCD package, Divine Music includes an extensive interview with Brother Ah by Pitchfork and Resident Advisor contributor Andy Beta. Recommended for fans of Laraaji, Alice Coltrane, Terry Riley, Brian Eno, Popul Vuh, and the recent new age renaissance. The renowned French horn player known as Brother Ah (aka Robert Northern) is one of the most prolific and respected musicians in the history of jazz music, with a recorded output spanning more than 40 years. Born in 1934 and raised in the south Bronx, Brother Ah was playing jazz trumpet as early as fifteen years of age. Following a classical French horn education at Austria's Vienna State Academy, he emerged in the late '50s and established himself as a skilled and consistent session musician, playing with the Metropolitan Opera Orchestra, the Radio City Music Hall Orchestra, and numerous Broadway theater orchestras. Brother Ah recorded well into the '60s with some of the most illustrious names in the genre, including Donald Byrd, Dizzy Gillespie, John Coltrane, Thelonious Monk, Miles Davis, Gil Evans and, perhaps most influentially, Sun Ra. In 1969, Ah formed his own group, The Musical Sound Awareness Ensemble, and released several works under his own name from 1974 onward. In the late '60s, his interest in non-western music developed, and his '70s and '80s recordings, incorporated elements of Eastern and 'Third World' music, fusing them with jazz structures." HOSONO, SHIGERU SUZUKI & TATSURO YAMASHITA, HARUOMIPacific LP $25.99Victory present a reissue of Pacific, originally released in 1978. Reuniting the best session musicians Japan had to offer to make an album that would evoke the atmospheres of the South Pacific islands, the kind of places Japanese people spend their vacations. Pacific is a treat to the ears; its theme of the southern Pacific ocean and its warm cerulean waters relax its listeners with a fusion of city pop, soft jazz, and that good old 1970s funk while remaining surprisingly fully instrumental throughout all contributions from artists Haruomi Hosono, Shigeru Suzuki, and Tatsuro Yamashita. A true cult LP and an inspiration for a lot of so called "vaporware" music. LP includes insert. GREENBERGER/GLENN JONES/CHRIS CORSANO, DAVIDAn Idea In Everything $15.99CDWhen David Greenberger first embarked on what has become a life-long journey, drummer Chris Corsano was not yet five years old! In 1979, after graduating from art school in Boston, Greenberger took the job of activities director at the Duplex Nursing Home, an all-male elder care facility in Jamaica Plain, Massachusetts, and began collecting the stories, poems and music reviews of its aged patients for what became his Duplex Planet project, an undertaking that would eventually encompass nearly 200 issues of a digest-sized magazine, a series of CDs, books, comics, and performance art. Eventually the nursing home closed, but David has remained engaged in what has become the central art form of his life: the "art of conversation." Three decades later, Chris Corsano set in motion the project present here. With guitarist and banjo player Glenn Jones, a longtime friend of both Greenberger and Corsano, the three began recording in Greenberger's living room in upstate New York. In just three days, with no advance preparation, they recorded the 28 tracks that make up An Idea In Everything. Corsano improvised, Jones invented new tunings for his banjo and guitar on the fly, and Greenberger selected and read stories in direct response to the music. Everything was spontaneous and live. Despite the dark and sad feeling of some of the texts (dealing with aging, memory loss, etc.), there is also humor, joy and grit. The resulting is a rollercoaster of emotions, a glittering patchwork of sonic atmospheres and an oral encyclopedia on dozens of subjects. David Greenberger on the release: "When newcomers hear that I have regular conversations and interviews with elderly people, they assume I collect oral history. What that assumption implies is that when one grows old we become solely a repository of our past. From the start, my mission has been to offer a range of characters who are already old, so that we can get to know them as they are in the present, without celebrating or mourning the loss of who they were before." Recorded by Chris Corsano in Greenwich, NY, February 2013; Mixed by Matthew Azevedo and Glenn Jones in Jamaica Plain, MA; Mastered by Matthew Azevedo at Endless Audio, Providence, RI. Illustration by Gwénola Carrère. Co-released with David Greenberger's Pel Pel label. PARRISH, THEOParallel Dimensions2LP on SOUND SIGNATURE $29.992017 reissue with new artwork. Originally released in 2000. "If you're keen to track down some truly creative house music that sounds like it indeed could be the soundtrack for a parallel dimension, look no further. This is it. That said, Parrish's style of house isn't just abstract for the sake of being abstract. It's actually quite musical and brilliantly crafted." --Jason Birchmeier, AllMusic

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