Autechre oldy but a goody

This video is getting on a bit now but still freggin amazing work from director Alex Rutterford for Autechre's Gantz Graf! I also found this quote on the Warp records web site which has to be said is the best way of describing modern day motion graphics:
'particularly with software, you've got a minimum of five months to get used to software, then all of a sudden they change the interface all round. What the fuck have they done that for, I've got to relearn all this. It's a fucking conspiracy.' Alex Rutterford http://www.warprecords.com/news/?ti_id=512

Wrong Way Round Punk Zine Issue 2

Sneeky peek of issue two featuring; SNFU, Jawbreaker, NFG and Groezrock08!!!

Middle Boop goes rural

Check it out.

It came from the land down-under!

Somewhere in the streets of Paris musicians are panicking (or at least the should be) it seems there could be a new nation ready to take over the throne of electro music, that nation is Australia.
From a nation that has previously given us AC/DC, The Vines, Wolfmother and Men at Work electro music wouldn’t be the immediate genre of music that would spring to mind.
Since the birth of the Modular label in 1998 Australian electro has gain in popularity and strength. The first big act to make an impression overseas from the Modular would be the sample-based band The Avalanches who scored big chart hits round the world.
In recent years, since the rise of nu-rave, it as if you can’t escape the influx of Aussie bands, indie electro band Cut Copy have managed to wow international audiences not only with their slightly bittersweet style of electro pop but also from their remixes of other Australian acts like Midnight Juggernauts and The Presets.
But if your taste is for things a bit more surreal then try PNAU whose music videos include children dressed as ghosts, vicious strawberries and lightning bolts running around all over the place. Despite some odd images they have a knack of making some catchy tunes which give no option but to dance. They are the next band from down under intent on making a name for themselves in the circuit, even working another newcomer on the circuit on their last album.
But there is more to it than this, this country is almost producing new talent by minute from the sleazy electro of The Presets and Midnight Juggernauts to the disco sounds of Sneaky Sound System this is a nation worth watching.

Check Out:

Sneaky Sound System – Pictures
Muscles – Sweaty
PNAU – Baby
Cut Copy – Fabric Live 29

Latitude Review

Latitude 2008 Review

With the heat-wave that was Glastonbury the festival season had to balance itself out by having at least one rainy festival, enter Latitude!
Despite the constant shift between sunny and monsoon weather it didn’t dampen anyone’s spirits. This festival was never going to be as wild as Reading or as surreal as Glastonbury but compensates by providing gorgeous scenery, lots of camping space and a Pimm’s island bar!
In terms of music you are not stuck for choice with a range of acts going from the established superstars like Franz Ferdinand to the up and coming, underground bands like Thomas Tantrum.
In the category of the up and coming is Errors (think Battles from Glasgow) who put on an impressive performance with boundless energy, mostly from the guitarist and the very chatty drummer. Definitely a band to watch out for in the future.
Unfortunately, The Go! Team didn’t have the same luck having played the majority of their set with singer Ninja’s microphone so quiet you could barely hear her. However, the rest of the band sounded marvellous with yet more boundless energy. Despite these technical problems they remained one of the best live bands that weekend.
The Saturday sees the turn of the bearded French electro hipster Sebastian Tellier to impress the Latitude with his sleek, and sometimes sexy, branded of guitar based electro. Tellier doesn’t say much and when he does its masked with a thick French accent which just makes him sound even cooler as he stands behind the mic stand with sunglasses permanently fixed to his face. He plays through his half hour with ease playing a varied selection of tracks from both his albums. Unfortunately his set was cut due to him losing track of time which didn’t please the crowd and there were calls for an encore but sadly he never reappeared.
For all those who think prog-rock is dead obviously haven't seen The Mars Volta whose hour and a half set consisted of just one song. Omar Rodriguez bounds about the stage, afro flying while Cedric Bixler noodles away on his guitar. You could almost compare this performance to that of a jazz band where each player gets a turn to show their skills (and they are all very skilled musicians).
Swedish youngsters Those Dancing Days managed to wow the crowd with their fun filled mix of guitar and synth based indie pop which you can’t help but dance to. Despite looking a bit nervous when the started their set once they relaxed it became a fun packed performance, complete with brightly coloured balls being thrown at the crowd for us to play with.
Grinderman puts on the best performance of the weekend thrashing their way through their set with Nick Cave striding about the stage like a bespoke menace while long time companion Warren Ellis beats the snot out of a hi-hat and wails on his mini guitar. Their set included a new song, Dreams, which sounds like My Bloody Valentine on an acid trip. Ending their set with a vicious performance of ‘No Pussy Blues’ where you can’t help but join in with all the on stage air kicking.

Midnight Juggernauts

These guys will probably get quite big. Sounding similar to Cut Copy and to a lesser extent Justice
its nothing new but it sounds great. Their live performances have an intensity which is rare in their genre with the drummer and the bassist leaping around the stage, switching instruments in the middle of songs and some pretty cool light shows. Their latest album Dystopia has a few fillers but the main tracks such as opener Ending of an Era will be filling floors in trendy Brick Lane bars before too long.
its a sound that has been done before. But Midnight Juggernauts do it well.

Filum Art

Inspired by the Wear It With Pride (brilliant web site! http://www.wearitwithpride.com) exhibtion "Now Showing" Exploring the Lost "Art" of the Film Poster. I decided to make a few, would be film posters, enjoi.si

MENTAL BAMBI

Original image Ben Frost.

You have aids!

To coincide with the German fashion week in Berlin, XOOOOX liberated two advertising billboards in Berlin



Greatest logo ever, as agreed by the whole of london, uk & the world!

Cool Aid

Cool aid! was done by Scott Van Den Plas and Joe Van Wetering.

Back when...

Remember when you were 15 and you listened to Rage Against The Machine, and when they broke up you always thought what the hell did Zach do(besides that song with roni size and apparently one with dj shadow)?
Well he made a Rage tribute band... no not Audioslave stupid!
One Day As A Lion with the guy who used to be in the mars volta, Jon Theodore, yeh him!
If you like(d) rage then your dig this:
http://www.myspace.com/onedayasalion


Remember when you were 15 and you to listened to The Distillers, and they released coral fang and then they disappeared off the face of the planet and you were like where the hell has tits maggie *cough* I mean broody gone(besides getting knocked up by QOTSA)?
Well she made a grown up version of the distillers... no not hole stupid!
Spinnerette, its like punk rock almost, but for adults supposedly but really for 15 year old girls!
If you like(d) the distillers then you'll dig this, even if its not a real song:
http://www.myspace.com/spinnerettemusic
ohh and shes blond now if you hadn't noiticed

Latitude Festival

Middle Boop goes to Latitude.


For anyone going to Latitude watch out for the Middle Boop stickers that will be floating around.
Check it.

Stop look listen!

Middle Boop artwork

Hi guys here is some more MiddleBoop artwork to feast your eyes upon, this could be winding its way to a sticker near you very soon.

Check it.

Fleet Foxes

Fleet Foxes are a recent obsession of mine. They are putting a new spin on the genre of Folk music, its as if you got Band of Horses and put them together with James Taylor. Hailing from Seattle, their self titled album has already created a lot of press stateside as well as in the U.K and have gone on to sell out shows in London, Philadephia and New York. With their huge vocal choruses oozing in and out of some simple yet effective instrumental melodies. These guys are definately ones to watch for the future, perfect summers day listening.

Playlist.com

ohh dear i found a new way of wasting my time on the internet... 'this is the punk'

bonobo - Days to come

If you haven't heard Bonobo, chances are that you probably have. His tracks have been included on car ads, footy games and not forgetting Lost! Even Gilles Peterson's had a crack giving Bonobo the title of best album 06. Yeap that’s right 06! Its been a while, and yet I don’t think its had as much success as it deserves. Easily pulling its weight against its contemporise like Quantic and the Thievery Corporation, Bonobo takes a more eastern vibe to the summer time jazz scene. Giving it a more sensual and all together calming effect. Signed to trustworthy old Tru Thoughts/Ninja Tune you know this album is essential listening for those summer time evenings (definitely not the ones in England though, it actually rained all day yesterday - july pish my arse!) BUY IT!

Highlighting Artist: Beesub

Paris based freelancer Stéphane Faure aka beesub has a wonderfull, effortless style of screen / print based graphics. Using plenty of textures and incompassing the technological vibrancy of the here now to produce a milieu of detail in his work:



"Beesub.org is my own graphic design studio created to answer problems in a wide range of areas such as print and identity, graphic design, art direction and new media. It was born and exists due to a passion for stills and Xperimental design, connected to the evolution of the international graphic scene."



Check: http://www.beesub.org or www.myspace.com/beesub

Glastonbury 2008

Glastonbury is back again but with one difference, it’s not sold out! This is the no second time in the festival’s history that this has happened (the first time in 1993). However, it still remains as the Daddy of all music festivals.
The headline act on Friday was Kings of Leon whose set consisted of all the hits from all 3 albums, including a new song! Songs like ‘Charmer’, ‘Molly’s Chamber’ and ‘The Bucket’ have the screeching, singing and dancing in that order. Despite putting on an amazing performance I’m still not entirely convinced Kings of Leon are headline material for a festival the size of Glastonbury. The reason being is I don’t they have the stage presence to command a crowd of that size. The sound was great, the songs were as tight as they are on the record but Kings of Leon just fell a little too short.
Once you survived the first nights activities at Glastonbury the next thing to do is wander round your new surroundings, admiring the views with all the other festival casualties (some of whom are still conscious).
Saturday at Glastonbury has more of a danceable feel to with acts like Black Kids, The Wombats and Hot Chip playing the Other Stage and Manu Chao on the Pyramid Stage providing the crowd with some Latin grooves to help the crowd recover from the previous nights debauchery. Crowded House gave the crowd some sunny afternoon entertainment in the form of whole crowd Mexican waves, bating the security team by calling them by their numbers and, of course, massive sing-alongs. Never has the song ‘Always take the Weather With You’ seemed so relevant in the burning sunshine.
Later on in the day it was turn of Amy Winehouse to prove to the Glastonbury crowd that the tabloids are wrong about her. She didn’t help matters by punching an audience member in the head but still managed to wail her way through all the big hits with the help of her backing singers. That being it certainly wasn’t the most painful act I’d seen that weekend, or so I say I wasn’t the one being punched.
Poor Jay-Z got blamed for the lack of ticket sales at this years festival but turned to be one the best performances of the weekend. Coming out to ‘Wonderwall’ by Oasis and miming the word into a microphone, mocking Noel Gallagher’s comments about how hip-hop has no place at Glastonbury, well Noel its got it foot in the door now. Opening his set with ’99 Problems’ and kept the crowd entertained not only by playing his own hits like ‘Girls, Girls, Girls’, ‘Big Pimpin’’, and ‘ Hard Knock Life’ but by throwing in other songs to the mix everything from The Prodigy to U2 which makes for top notch set in anyone’s book.
Its now down to the last day time for the retro 60’s sounds of 90’s band The Brian Jonestown Massacre who managed to suppress their reputation enough to not have a fight with themselves or the audience and put a perfectly pleasant set to start the final day. I would like to write more about them given they are one of my favourite bands however there is not much to write about them, they came on, played songs, Anton rambled about something and showed off his new Welsh wife (he’s really proud she’s Welsh, apparently) and they walked off.
Goldfrapp played more of a mellow set with loads of tracks from the new album featuring new song ‘Happiness’ with had the crowd having dance but the big reactions came when they played the electro-glam tracks like ‘Train’ and ‘Ooh La La’ but they can be forgiving for not playing a particularly high energy because any band that has people dressed as various pieces of wildlife from trees to animals.
Bringing the weekend to a close is this year’s comeback kids The Verve opening their set with ‘This Is Music’ from Northern Soul except in this version Richard Ashcroft has changed the lyrics from ‘Jesus never saved me/He’ll never save you too’ to ‘He’s gonna save you to’ could this be an indication of Ashcroft’s new found peaceful attitude.
Their set contained the usual hits, all from their Urban Hymns and Northern Soul, including ‘History’, ‘Sonnet’, ‘Lucky Man’ and ‘Drugs Don’t Work’. Their set also includes 2 new songs ‘Sit and Wonder’ which bares a strong similarity to the song ‘Life’s an Ocean’ (which they also played) but that’s not necessarily a bad. They ended the show which the anthemic ‘Bittersweet Symphony’ which lead straight into the new song ‘Love Is Noise’ so the crowd were treated to rock and roll extravaganza of a closing day.

Jesus would be proud!

Sunday the day of rest:

Middle Boop New Art Work ode to CRASS

Bit of Vector fun by Simon:

ode to CRASS PEACE LOVE AN.O.K.:

Highlighting Artist: Buff Monster

From this day forth middleboop are going to highlight artist they like and would like to see more of in our dull boring world. Each artist will be picked by the members of middleboop to showcase their pallet of artistic digestion:

The artist Buff Monster channels the Buff Monster spirit through high doses of heavy metal, kaiju and ice cream. His first inspired output occurred in 2001, nailing flattened spray cans to telephone poles. And since 2002 he has been inspired to post thousands of silk-screened posters in the streets. Now that many people all over the world know the Buff Monster characters, he is free to tell their story and show everyone their world. It's a happy world called Lollipop Land, full of ice cream, fun and adventure. There are mounds of ice cream piled high and an abundance of squirting breasts and clouds; "Pink is Power" is the foundation of Lollipop Land. And Buff has worked with big companies to help get the word out; Nike, Hurley, the Standard Hotel, Vans, Hustler and Vivid all enjoy Lollipop Land. The imagery has also been seen in lots of books and magazines and art galleries. The first in a series of vinyl figures were released in July 2007, and there are more on the way. When Buff Monster isn't designing new toys and merchandise, he takes on very select freelance design projects. These projects range from magazine design and creative direction to specialty cross over items.

Painting:
Happy Squirter, 2007
Acrylic, silkscreen and spray paint on wood, 16x16"


Street Art:
Los Angeles, 2005


Install:
Gallery 1988, 2007

MiddleBoop new artwork.

Here is some new artwork created by co founder Gordon Reid.
Let me know what you guys think.

Errors - Its Not Something But It Is Like Whatever

Glasgow four piece Errors are producing some of the most extrovert, interesting music at the moment. In a similar vein to that of Battles they combine guitar licks with glitchy synth style noise.
Signed to Mogwai's rock action label, which is generally a good sign, they have produced an album that you listen to and can imagine would sound amazing live.
Anyone heading to Latitude in a few weeks I would definately advise checking them out.

Another Classic Screenprinter

For anyone who enjoys a decent screen print its always worth checking out
personal friend of middle boop, Michael Motorcycle for some amazing work.