I had to resist some deeply weird temptations before settling on this playlist: I considered a monograph on one-man-bands, I flirted with the modern sport of sharing video discoveries with less than 100 views and I came close to offering you some of my favourite leisure activities, such as the contemplative life of open IP webcams and my profound admiration at the way Juan López signs autographs.
Affinities are strange things, hey.
But in the end, I decided to talk about a true, genuine influence; a rap influence. About things that me feel good as I prepare the record Follaje y Maleza, which at the rate I?m going will be born vintage and in need of restoration as soon as it?s released.
Technology and landscape. The city, moving, but not just any old way. The in-between zone where elite engineering meets trash gametronics.
Aloha hello. I?m here to tell you about flesh and metal. Yeah.
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Unit Training Film 1: Warm Moving Bodies
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Patelo, pasión por la mecánica
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A History of Drugs
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Big Ideas (don't get any)
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The Space Lady
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The Jules Verne Spaceship
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Escape from '85
Unit Training Film 1: Warm Moving Bodies
A clash of titans. On one hand, one-of-a-kind band The Units with a song about cell wars, genetic machines, and skyscraper-cells. It?s literally about turning on the senses.
On the other hand, the video. The footage is probably familiar to many of you; it comes from the
Prelinger archives, that colossal work fruit of Rick Prelinger's determination to conserve what he calls ephemeral films and donate them to the commons. I used them a few times, years ago. What may come as a surprise is that Prelinger himself was the projectionist for The Units from 1979 to 1981. Thirty years before the emergence of the found footage phenomenon, this guy already had the vision to construct narrative based on salvaged old fragments. Remix as a search for pearls in the trash. You know, the zeitgeist.
Patelo, pasión por la mecánica
This video by Adriano Morán and Antonio Martínez Ron is tops. A retiree from Noia has handcrafted the smallest world?s smallest V-12 motor. He also made a 16 cylinder one that he calls half-star heart. He says things like vibrations are the life of motors and each motor is like another child. And so forth. And he has continued to outdo himself. Good sense, curiosity, patience, perseverance: the virtues of a saint. Patelo is good personified.
A History of Drugs
I was so intrigued by this video that I wrote to Suur Toll at I Hate This Film to find out more. The 16 mm film does not have credits, so we don?t know who made it, but we can deduce that it dates from the mid-seventies, and that it was produced by either the Computer Image Corporation or by Dolphin Productions. What we do know is that it was made with a Scanimate, the sexiest and smoothest video synth ever, except perhaps Larry Cuba.
If you want to know more you can visit the website of Dave Sieg, owner of the last Scanimate on the face of the earth. Sometimes I fantasise about turning up in Asheville and swiping it.
Big Ideas (don't get any)
We don?t do ballads, but we have feelings. Although usually it?s the other way around. The band:
Spectrum ?gomas? 48k - guitars
Epson Printer LX-81 ? drums
Scanner HP-3c ? bass
Hard drives ? voice and effects
This piece perfectly encapsulate two ideas that I like: the antagonistic use of technology, where it is forced to carry out tasks that it wasn?t designed for, and the fact that translating something can take it into a totally different place. It doesn't sound good, because it's not supposed to.
The Space Lady
If Patelo embodies good, Susan Dietrich embodies best. Everything she touches turns into electronic jelly, and even the crustiest songs digi-evolve when they come into contact with her.
When she watched this other video, my friend Usue said ?same helmet, same Casio: that?s a real eco-warrior, forget the Kyoto protocol?. So there you have it.
The Jules Verne Spaceship
The Jules Verne automated transfer vehicle, launched by the European Space Agency, was the first spaceship to carry out the sacred mission of doing the household chores for the ISS. Its contract expired on 29 September 2008. The disintegration of a space vehicle as it re-enters the earth?s atmosphere, recorded with the shaky grip of funniest home videos. What more could you want.
Escape from '85
And to finish up, a hip hop record divided into eleven playable video clips, one per song. A three-headed Grace Jones is the ruler of the last stage. Need I say more?
