NMP

RAGGIN ME TUMBLR TONIGHT LID!!!!!!!

Fri, 13 May 2011 22:49:17 -0400

Sooooooooo. Figured I wasn’t just going to sell you guys a breakcore video and then shut up shop. OH NO! I’ve created a full DVD complete with CD, packaging and booklet to boot!

I’ve posted some DPS attempts on her previously, but jib them raaaaa off, because I now hate them (too easy/no particular theme/done on the cheap/shit). So some new ones:

I’m pretty pleased with them, and they got a decent response from Lee today, as well. He made a few suggestions as too how to place the type, as (like the music) I’m glitching it up and breaking some rules with it positioning (as well as miss-matching conflicting styles).

He mention that I could create new parrelel sentences or phrases depending on how I postion my words. In the first examples case the ‘breakcore often questioned’ came about as I pure fluke, yet does sooooooo much good as I’m explaining in the booklet that breakcore is indeed often questioned.

Inspiration:

You’ll notice during the video and on these that I’m wearing a suit, and there’s a very good explination for this. Breakcore messes with the mind, and put audio samples in rather strange predicaments, thus I’m attempting to turn the bourgeois nature of the suit on its head by wearing one with my dreads affray, painting in a strange enviroment. (It’s a decent visual nonetheless)

Now, I’ve used some worn textures on my work countless times before (to the extent that I might have just adopted a ‘style’, yet the style of type is slightly new to me and I want to show you where my inspiration came from.

The colouring, and regal typefaces (big carson and edwardian script) were inspired by the clothing brand ‘Luke 1977’.

Decent usage of red and white type, It sort of reminds me of the royal wedding design stuff (one of my other pages in actually a snipe at the some wedding’s design).

Onto other stuff, I forget the guy’s name who did these, but Tash linked it on her facebook wall a week or so back:

Notice the kind of ‘scrapbook’ feel to it? The dirt and the typewriter style type are awesome and I’m well keen to work more like this is in the future.

I hope you’re beginning to see the styles I’ve drawn influence from (I might post more random stuff up in the future).

Whilst I’m at it. Check All Saints out (I know they’re all the rage right now, hence why they should hire me)

http://www.allsaints.com/

It’s like Grunge came back, with deodorant.

Here’s a screen dump from Adobe Premiere (which I have been...

Fri, 13 May 2011 21:32:56 -0400

Here’s a screen dump from Adobe Premiere (which I have been using to create my video).

It’s illustrates the lengthy process I have under gone to slice up the various film samples, and align them with the beats on in the audio.

Before my NMP I’d never used any form of motion software, yet I’ve found this programme relatively easy to come to grips with. I’m putting this down to the fact that it has a similar interface to much of the music producing software I’ve used in the past.

The alignment is almost complete, then I’m going to throw in a few more samples for good measure (Lee mentioned today it might be interesting to use some of my unused film and an alternative dialogue/vision thing that could run along side my main glitches and occasionally take dominance of the edit). I’ll play around with it.

Messy with the speed and ocpacity of the samples is producing some awesome stuff, and I can’t wait for people to see it.

If I’m being honest, I wouldn’t go all out and state the I’m a directing genius. I’m sure a seasoned videographer would consider what I’m doing to be pretty basic, but the fact of the matter is, is that my film is really fucking effective.

Making The Music

Tue, 10 May 2011 18:31:03 -0400

I’ve made the soundtrack to my video myself, and as it’s been a rather lengthy process I figured it relevant to put part of the process up on here.

This is a screen-shot of the Ableton Live secession that I have been creating the ‘Breakcore Half’ of my vid. Ableton Live is one of many music producing platforms on the market that enables users to record and produce music of any variety.

What makes Ableton Live special is that it contains features that allow the musician to play their music live in a performance atmosphere. This is extremely useful to electronic musicians and DJs, as much of their music is sample based unlike other musicians who just play traditional instruments (guitars, drums, pianos, etc).

In giving users the ability to adjust and change the sound of their computer based music in real-time Ableton is used by some of the most famous acts in the world.

With this project, I’m layering audio samples taken from the destruction of my painting (video to come) with breakcore drums, whilst attempting to sync the video. This meant that render the audio separately from the video, drag the sample into ableton live and then cut up the audio file in order to create my samples. I also make sure to note down the exact positioning of the samples in the original mp3, so that I could sync it with the film in Adobe Premier.

Figured you’d actually enjoy watching this, as it’s...

Sun, 08 May 2011 20:16:05 -0400

Figured you’d actually enjoy watching this, as it’s pretty cute (no, seriously).

It show what you can do with a few audio samples, and a whole load of imagination. What’s awesome is that they’ve sync’d the video up with it as well.

I’m beginning to find out that video editing is a ball ache.

Chris Cunningham I didn’t know which video of his to put...

Sun, 08 May 2011 09:05:55 -0400

Chris Cunningham

I didn’t know which video of his to put up, so figured it best to throw a trailer for his DVD up instead.

Chris Cunningham is a British director, who specialises in the surreal. His works have taken him to the forefront of the music industry, working with the likes of Madonna and Bjork, winning award after award for his efforts.

Cunningham is also famous for his music video for the likes of Squarepusher and Aphex Twin, whose so called ‘drill and bass’ songs helped reignite the fleeting Breakcore scene in the mid-1990s by bring this style to the mainstream’s attention.

As you can see from this video, his style of editing often involves series of fragmented clips aligned one after another in order to create a large piece. This has left much of his work with astonishing ‘glitched’ effects, which work wonders with the awesome CGI that now dominates his videos.

What Cunningham does best as a director [in my eyes] is his ability to create such powerful atmospheres and moods in limited amounts of time. After all, the average music video is only 3.5-4 minutes in length.

As with every project I’ve completely re-done everything...

Fri, 06 May 2011 00:22:47 -0400

As with every project I’ve completely re-done everything with just a week to go. This includes re-writing the song for my video (did I mention you’re getting an original track). On Monday I travel down to Northwich in Cheshire to meet an old friend of mine Jason who’s insanely good on drums and agreed to record some for this project.

He sorted them out and I got some guitars record too. Vox, Synth and mixing getting done next week and it’s a wrap on the tuneage. I think when I next go down, I’ll record him doing his thing, as I reckon the more layers of film I throw into this vid, the better.

CHECK THE SIZE OF THAT DRUM KIT

It’s bin a tiring day of rendering and editing....

Thu, 05 May 2011 23:53:00 -0400

It’s bin a tiring day of rendering and editing. Here’s something I wanted to have thrown in by tomorrow’s seminar but we didn’t get time…

Having loads of fun fooling around with video cameras. I’m naff at filming, whereas my friend Antony has had quite a lot of experience in it. I showed him the some of my earlier, grimy attempts to record and explained that the careless blurred videos went down really well in seminars. I’m sure you’ll agree, the out of focus stuff really adds to the quirky feel to this snippet.

Here’s a couple more double page spreads for my DVD...

Thu, 05 May 2011 23:38:29 -0400

Here’s a couple more double page spreads for my DVD booklet.

As previously stated, my idea for this booklet is to mismatch conflicting styles of design in order to create my editorial.

The point being that my style is now an embodiment of the music, breaking rules and leaving viewers feeling somewhat disgruntling and confused (unless, they get it).

I have been careful toyed with my composition to agitate the designs. For instance that skull is ever-so-slightly off center (its doing my head in just looking at it) and the garish 8-bit pink&green (which is actually reference to the title one of my favourite Venetian Snares songs) couldn’t be of more contrast to the sepia image on its opposing page.

May Day Riot. Berlin, 1999 Here’s an example of the power...

Thu, 05 May 2011 14:50:19 -0400

May Day Riot. Berlin, 1999

Here’s an example of the power extreme electronic music can have. Atari Teenage Riot were one of the pioneers of heavy electronic music, and are extremely influencial to Breakcore. ATR have always been extremely political, fusing Anarcho-socialist themed lyrics with sped up Drum & Bass beats.

This video captures one of the most prolific moment’s in this genre’s history, as the band preformed onboard a float during the 1999 May Day parade in Berlin, Germany. Rioting broke out during the band’s performance, leading all four member to be arrest for inciting the violence.

Atari Teenage Riot and their counter parts are often likened to the Punk Rock movements in the late 1970s.

ZOOM RIGHT IN IF THESE ARE COMING UP SMALL Here’s a...

Tue, 03 May 2011 22:42:00 -0400

ZOOM RIGHT IN IF THESE ARE COMING UP SMALL

Here’s a barrage of flyers and designs that my facebook’s inbox is full of thanks to the UK’s very own Breakcore scene.

The designs tend to follow the old Punk ‘do it yourself’ ethic (thus they’re wonderfully shit). I hope these flyers give incite to the type of dark sense of humor that goes with the scene. Profanity, satire and complete and utter randomism are all common place, and these raves are not for the light hearted.

Obviously there’s not a lot of design genius here, but it is what it is.

This is a DPS of a still from the video I’ve been creating,...

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:50:32 -0400

This is a DPS of a still from the video I’ve been creating, which I am going to use in a DVD booklet yo accompany said video.

I’m very interested in combining conflicting styles and influences, in order to further illustrate the nature of Breakcore music. In this DPS I have placed a B-movie inspired image under anaglyphic type.

It would have been easy to have gone with an old fashioned serif typeface to fit in with the grainy-old photo (as I have done plenty of times before), but Breakcore [for me] is all about throwing a spanner in the works.

Notes On Breakcore (trailer) It’d be silly to not mention...

Tue, 03 May 2011 21:16:28 -0400

Notes On Breakcore (trailer)

It’d be silly to not mention this documentary. Notes on Breakcore is easily the most explicit and understandable of explanations one could give to someone who doesn’t have a clue what this type of music is.

The documentary was made in 2006, and features interviews most of the big name producers in the Breakcore scene, as well a clips of live performances. The interviewees each give their own opinions on what Breakcore is.

The producers opinions and music are often in stark contrast with one-another, which I think is testament to the diversity of the genre. For instant, whilst some artist’s chose to experiment with fast and distorted drumbeats others would resample pop songs for comedy value (this documentary actually features a remix of Britney Spears’ ‘Toxic’). Whilst many artist’s create their music to simply their full fill creative urges, it is explained that others have used their music to further their political stances.

Interestingly, some of the producers expressed their concerns that Breakcore was becoming something of a brand, and were opposed to their music being categorised or grouped into a formatted genre (these producers wouldn’t like my project, but sod them).

The documentary is half an hour in length and can be found in three separate parts on Youtube. I don’t expect you to watch it, there are several breakcore-related terms I may need to translate:

Break: Breaks is a shortened term for ‘Breakbeat’. A breakbeat is a drum rhythm that skips a beat and makes up the basis for Breakcore along with many other types of music including Hip-Hop, Drum and Bass and R’n’B.

Jungle: A style of music that originated in the early 1990’s that was strongly influenced by Regge and Dance Hall music. Jungle consisted on fast breakbeats, and (in my opinion) lead way to the modern phenomenon that is Drum and Bass. Think Ali G ’ wicked, wicked, junglist massive’

Speedcore: Stupidly fast drum beats that top 600 beats per minutes. Essentially droning together to make a “brrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrrr” effect. It’s stupid.

Gabba: Distorted sounds that just go BOOM-BOOM-BOOM-BOOM quite quickly. It’s alright when you’re wasted, but loads of Neo-Nazi’s follow it these days, which is shit.

Acid-Jungle-Speed-Techno-Metalcore: Something I made up, because I’m fully aware of how ridiculous this all sounds.

Photo

Fri, 29 Apr 2011 12:14:07 -0400

Ventian Snares. It is increasingly difficult to discuss...

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 12:44:15 -0400

Ventian Snares.

It is increasingly difficult to discuss Breakcore without mentioning Venetian Snares. A pioneer of the sound, this Canadian producer has continuously pushed the boundaries of the genre becoming an iconic figure to the scene.

Snares has an extensive discography to his name, and some really interesting artwork to boot. His record sleeves continue to be as elusive and freeform as his music, changing styles from album to album as the producer continues to evolve creatively.

Here’s a taster of what’s to come. I painted over...

Thu, 28 Apr 2011 01:03:56 -0400

Here’s a taster of what’s to come.

I painted over that eye because it was naff, now I’m painting ‘Fig.13’ which is the first part of a side-project of digital creatures I’m working on.

I’m making the video waaaaaay more theatrical, hence the suit! I hope the sheer size of the painting comes across; it’s certainly a strong visual.

Noise by Whourkr.

Here’s the first few hours worth of footage that I shot...

Mon, 04 Apr 2011 21:16:03 -0400

Here’s the first few hours worth of footage that I shot with my friend Antony last week.

We’ve been using acrylic paint on an unprimed canvas, and it’s been sucking up the paint really badly (maybe i should have primed it after all).

This was actually done using a stop motion technique, and we’ll try and get the entire painting done by Friday.

Here’s the trailer for my FMP blog, which I spent most of...

Fri, 25 Mar 2011 23:35:24 -0400

Here’s the trailer for my FMP blog, which I spent most of last week creating in Imovie. Whilst recording the music done quickly, editing the video was a lengthy process.

After showing this to a seminar group, I feel the typography really lets this down. However, using Imovie proved very limiting when it came to type styles, and I feel that should perhaps move onto a more versatile piece of software.

Issues I've faced / Problem solving:

Thu, 03 Mar 2011 04:06:40 -0500

It’s been nearly two weeks since I was given the go-ahead to produce my idea for this project and I’m uncertain weather or not to go in tomorrow as I still have no visuals to show the group.

There’s been a number of reason for this, and I really don’t want it to seem like I’ve been doing nothing, as this has been far from the case.

Over the past two week the chances of me actually being able to complete my original idea were becoming less and less likely. Finally, I’ve had a break-through, and things should finally get rolling next week.

The main issue I’ve faced was actually finding a safe place to speed paint (and destroy) can massive canvas (we’re talking 6x10ft, here). This proved really difficult, as I’ve rung up everyone from the Liverpool heritage market, to the city council’s building and planning control office (who tranferred me to what seemed like every other sector within Liverpool City council) as well as attempting call in favors from everyone I know with a garage all to no avail.

I also attempted to call the landlords from a couple of derelict buildings I walk past in the cities so called ‘wherehouse district’, but the only guy I managed to speak to just didn’t want to know.

As panic set in I managed to find my location under the most unusual of circumstances: A few day ago the washing machine in my flat decided it didn’t want to be a washing machine anymore, so when the nice maintenance bloke from the housing company I pay rent too came round to fix it, we got talking about my issues with this project. He mentioned that a flat in the adjacent building too mine had become empty and was due a refurbishment, and that he’d mention in to his boss. A couple of phone calls with and a new washer later, and I have my location!

(though I only have next week to do it in!!)

Thank God for that, hey?

Now it’s just a case of building the canvas on location, which I’ve already bought the timber/nails for (thankfully that B&Q cut the wood to measurements for free).

I’ve purchased:

2x 5ft9 (2x1inch thick) kiln blocks to run across the top and bottom of the canvas.

2x 9ft9 (2x1inch think) kiln blocks for the sides.

1x 11ft8 (2x1inch think) to run diagonally across to keep it sturdy.

I’ve also got a roll of pick up a massive roll of unprimed canvas linen from a local art-shop.

Speed Painting - Explaining My Idea: ‘Speed...

Mon, 28 Feb 2011 16:02:33 -0500

Speed Painting - Explaining My Idea:

‘Speed Painting’ is a technique which has been used by several different modern artists in order to show their audience the process of creation.

This is an example recorded by Alex Pardee (who’s a wicked illustrator, and you should check out).

In order to meterphorcally explain the process behind Breakcore, I intend to speed-paint a 6x10ft image of a human eye, and then destroy it. The idea being that Breakcore destroys audio, now we’re taking it visual (or is that too easy?).

So yer, I’m doing my NMP on Breakcore. Woop! My abition is...

Sat, 19 Feb 2011 09:42:54 -0500

So yer, I’m doing my NMP on Breakcore. Woop!

My abition is to visually communicate this obscure style of music to a wider audience, whilst maintaining it has artistic credibility. I’ve had a tough time trying to explain myself in seminars, but got some good feedback yesterday, and It’s time to put my plans into motion.

This tumblr’s going to be part of my research, and hopefully I’ll be able to use it to update you on my progress as well.

Oh yer, the video.

I showed this to the seminar group in order to further explain what I’m planning to do for this project. The video is by Tasman Richardson who is an audio-visual artist who according to his own manifesto is a “scavenger of moder myth, stealing and salvaging technology” in order to remold it for his own perposes.

Simply, the guy take samples and video clips from films and tv shows and mashes them together in order create music videos.

He describes these videos as ‘Jawa Videos’ taking influence from a race of people from the George Lucas’ Star Wars movies. The Jawa lived on the desert planet of ‘Tatooine’ who scavenged their world stealing and rewiring technology for the own uses and profits.

I think the term Jawa could be fitted to a lot of the music that falls under the Breakcore umbrella, and is something I’m going to read up on (out of personal interest, as this project is not based upon the uncanny simularities between Breakcore and Star Wars).

Anyway, Tasman Richardson’s awesome and if you have a spare half hour should check out his DVD ‘Pirates of Breakcore Island’.

Seriously, wack the sound up and switch the lights off. Let it take you places:

http://www.v-atak.com/shop/pirates-of-breakcore-island

AWESOME