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I always find it interesting to find out what inspiration lies behind graphics. It usually surprises you when you think you had the ‘gist’ of a logo or some artwork and then you find that really it was a fusion of some things that were totally different to what you get from it. It’s almost like that episode of the Simpsons where Homer sees the logo that looks suspiciously like him, but it just turns out to be a fish and a lightbulb put together, or ‘Fishbulb’.

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“Best of the Decade” lists are starting to pop up everywhere around the ‘net getting a jump start on the top tracks and albums that define the noughties. I started thinking about what I thought the best albums of the last ten years were and started to come to the conclusion that I was still in high school at the start of the decade and therefore there is a bit of a lull in the taste of music I had. From most of the lists I have seen, half the blogosphere are in the same kind of boat.
So I thought about the cover art, because I have always loved looking at covers and even bought albums that had rad covers on a whim. So here is my list of favourite covers for the noughties! Feel free to add more…

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Flying Lotus
“Parisian Goldfish”

Friday is for boogaloo.
Major Lazer released a film clip for their song Pon de Floor which made it’s way around the net taking the form of a ridiculously sexual hypercolour funhouse. The guy who directed it – Eric Wareheim – also made these equally retarded and awkward dance-themed clips for Flying Lotus and the Bird and the Bee. So in a Friday homage to awesomeness here they are (click “more”) in all their glory…

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Bomb the Bass feat. Fujiya & Miyagi: Butterfingers.

This film clip was so simple and effective that it didn’t really bother me that I hadn’t properly heard the music before I decided that I liked it (for about a week). The Perish Factory created this synth puppet that no one with a heart couldn’t help but love.

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Phoenix at the Enmore last Wednesday was my favourite moment in live music from the past year. Not even a hard call, they absolutely nailed the whole experience, but I couldn’t find much in the way of an inspiring film clip to put up here as a testament to their awesomeness.

What I did find was an interesting link between the French artists Phoenix, Kavinsky and Sebastien Tellier – they all have clips that remind me in a more colourful and abstract way of the movie ‘Tron’.

To illustrate the point here is Sebastien Tellier’s amazing clip for ‘Sexual Sportswear’ and a link to Phoenix’s ‘Run, Run, Run’ (they disabled embedding)

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Wu-Tang Clan – Gravel Pit
Directed by Joseph Khan
Remember this one? This is what Wu-tang was doing on the weekend while Fred Flinstone was mowing the law – complete with a casino, prehistoric booty dancers and a minute-and-a-half long fight scene at the end that culminates in a ninja getting snatched by a T-rex.

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Is the old optical illusion making it’s way back into our lives? I have been looking into the workings of optical illusions lately and I have noticed that just as I did this they started to pop up everywhere. I find the application of these techniques in a commercial context to be amazing.

Most recently I came across the latest issue of Dazed & Confused that features a cover and fashion shoot that uses anaglyph technique. Anaglyphs are 3D images that use cyan and red separations and a pair of glasses with corresponding lenses to create the illusion of depth. It is more complicated that that, but if you really want to you can read about it here.

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Youthless from Auditory Stimulation on Vimeo.

Beck represents a bit of a renaissance man when it comes to mutating his musical style across different genres. I think this film clip captures his eclectic transformations in a very effective way.

After my last post about datamoshing, I decided to check out the other clips mentioned that use the technique. This vid uses datamoshing mostly towards the end to make transitions between the clapping hands, pretty clever. That night we met with Michael from Revolver and he showed this very clip that Kris Moyes directed. Plus I love this song – talk about an appropriate segue to post a clip!

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KANYE WEST “Welcome to Heartbreak” Directed by: NABIL from nabil elderkin on Vimeo.

I have noticed in a few music videos I have seen lately (okay it was two, and one of the was Linkin Park, but don’t judge yet) that there is this dodgy looking pixel-mess effect coming into vogue that reminds me of watching downloaded porn on the old crappy family computer. I thought my new mac was shitting it, but nay, it was on purpose.

Anyone who has watched a compressed video file on their computer should know what I’m talking about. When you skip forward through a fair chunk of the movie you get artifacts of the last part stuck on the screen and you can see the pixels moving being pushed around by the bastard ghost of the position you wanted to be watching.

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Friendly Fires – ‘Skeleton Boy’.
Directed by Clemens Habicht.

I’m always interested in things that look amazing but probably didn’t cost that much money. There is always a higher power of creativity happening there. Then again, I love things that look like they cost unnecessary amounts of money too because I like ridiculous things.

This one falls in the first category. Looks to me like some industrial fans, strategically applied glue and buttloads of styrofoam balls. Such a simple and cheap idea, smoothed over with some slick production qualities. Happy Friday.

Friendly Fires ‘Skeleton Boy’ by Clemens Habicht from Nexus Productions on Vimeo.

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remixes http://bit.ly/8JtU6 2009-11-17

RT @modularpeople: Circa 1979: Signal to Noise just got Facebooked - http://bit.ly/L42VT - check it! 2009-11-04

RT @modularpeople: Modular presents Circa 1979: Signal to Noise as part of the @Sydney_Festival: http://is.gd/4NvnF 2009-11-04

Can you hear the whispers? http://bit.ly/11ZlNe 2009-10-21

The groop whisper http://bit.ly/45IgRg 2009-10-20

a short film http://bit.ly/39px6Q 2009-10-18

Australian Edge interview with great photographer Carine Thevenau http://bit.ly/DBAd8 2009-10-05

The Groop's own @littlegonzales in the Mona Vale Attic http://bit.ly/9Q3xH 2009-09-30

A sneak peek at what we are up to http://bit.ly/1MKlTS 2009-09-25

What were you doing on Saturday night? http://bit.ly/l566r 2009-09-23

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