Finnish group I Was A Teenage Satan Worshipper dropped me a couple of their eerie tracks last week, and I gave them a listen. One of the tracks was titled ‘Martin’ and it was eerier for that fact the day they sent me that track, I’d gotten into a long conversation with someone about ‘Martin,’ a 1977 film by George Romero. Watch it just for the when teenaged-Martin moves in with his uncle who greets him by saying “Nosferatu. Vampire! First I will save your soul, then I will destroy you. I will show you to your room.”
Unfortunately, the song doesn’t seem to be about that movie. Its still pretty creepy, and so is their other track, Strange Lights.
I have no idea what to think about Die Antwoord - they’ve got samurai swords and ninjas (I mean, the front man’s name is Ninja!), breathy female vocals and amazing electro beats. But there’s something about them that just doesn’t seem right, and I think that’s part of the appeal - you just don’t know what is really going on. Even their website makes it hard to find out more.
Ninja reminds me of a skinny white guy I used to work construction with who had tattooed the words “Thug Life” and a dragon ripping through his flesh on his chest all by himself. The style was exactly like Ninja’s - a little shaky, and you’re glad he didn’t go for anything more complicated.
But listening to the Die Antwoord’s music and watching their videos, you should be glad he did go for Yo-Landi Vi$$er. Wikipedia says they’re married, but Wikipedia could say anything and who cares as long as she keeps balancing Ninja’s hard raps.
Rounding out the trio is DJ HI-Tek, his hat is awesome.
I don’t really know what role Leon Botha plays in the band beyond artistic support, but he’s one of the elements of Die Antwoord that you leave you with more questions than answers, and affirms the fact that their style is “UFO.”
Maybe its the cold weather (or maybe its because I’ve been using those Bose noise-canceling headphones instead of iPod ear buds) but I’ve really been digging that spacey electro sound these days.
Also - did you know that 2009 was the International Year of Astronomy? I only found that out the other day via post about Simon Page’s Astronomy posters on Sci-Fi-O-Rama. I guess that makes Twenty-Ten the Year After The Year of Astronomy.
Anyways, The Diogenes Club dropped me some of their tracks via email a week about, and while I don’t like all of them “Tie Ourselves Around” has sound I like. You can listen to a few of their other tracks here.
And Kenji Kawai? That’s some good scene-stealing background music.
Remember The Infinity Gauntlet? What a seriously epic comic series. I mean, you’ve got Thanos so in love with the personification of Death that he wipes out half the universe with using the Infinity Gauntlet, a huge glove with with gems that give him power over the different aspects of the universe: Time, Space, Mind, Soul, Reality and Power. Looking at the picture above, I probably couldn’t tell you which gem gave which power.
I feel like one of the big yellows ones is probably “Power” though, and they’re all way better than the Captain Planet power rings.
If Thanos gave Death a USB key with his favorite songs on it, I feel like these would be included:
Gotta Dance Dirty is one of my favorite blogs these days. That’s partly because they post some great tracks, and partly because they’ve got such a great header image on their site. I mean just look at it: King Tut rockin’ some sweet shades with a disco-ball background. Some over there has some serious design skillz.
Here are a couple of my faves that I’ve picked up from them over the past few months
At first glance, Dr Hollywood and The Girls Can Hear Us come across as pretty similar -they both produce totally danceable, electro-rap and they pretty much look like the same guys in their promo shots.
I guess the major difference is that while Dr. Hollywood is from the sunshine state, The Girls Can Hear Us rep London, Ontario.
Although I’ve been listening to that We Run LA track on my iPod almost non-stop this week, I think The Girls Can Hear Us edge them out for having also done a remix of Wouldn’t It Be Nice
It turns out that one of their members used to be in another band called Europe in Color and he sent me a couple of their tracks as well, equally good:
You gotta hand it to Adult Swim. First they brought us the Mouse & The Mask, an album by MF Doom and Dangermouse that was heavily influenced by Aqua Teen Hunger Force and other adult swim shows. And now they’ve dropped ATL RMX on us, a free album featuring southern hip-hop tracks remixed by electro artists. Young Jeezy? Check. Young Dro? Check. Two (count ‘em) Li’l Jon tracks on the mix? Check.
Part of the reason I like it is because some of the main characters, the “Edenists” are similar to the post-human Culture of Iain Banks’ books. One of the key differences is that instead of having their main technologies be based on computers, the Edenists grow their sentient starships and habitats out of a substance called “bitek” (that I can only assume is short for “bio-technology”). This gives both their habitats and ships personality and sentience, with the Edenists connected to them via a telepathic affinity bond.
Like a lot of the sci-fi I’ve been reading lately, its full of huge ideas and takes place on an epic scale. Reading it, I feel the same way that I do when I look at that picture of the astronaut floating above the earth.
I added the tracks from the XX below because they definitely have a spacey-feel. If you listen closely to the lyrics of “Shelter,” it almost sounds like they were written about the Edenists and their living technology. The original version of this track is pretty good, but I really like the the rework that Death to the Throne gives it.
