More Icon than Eyekon

We pride ourselves on our tremendous nowness here at Analogue towers. Finally our credibility has been recognised; several prominent young hips associated with the magazine have been featured on Fashion Filosofy, Ireland’s first street style fashion blog. Congrats guys!

Update: More sightings of Dan – My New Muse, Bluebirds are so natural.

Dead Flags Single Launch Tonight

Dublin band ‘The Dead Flags‘, are launching their perversely rocking debut single ‘Oh my love! Oh my God!!’ tonight in Whelans. The track (video below) features the bands trademark screwed up lyrics, and rag tag rockabilly style. Tickies are 10 euro, or 8 with this concession.

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lTxlLtfgnbI]

Music at Play – Pixeljunk Eden

[youtube:http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6Uutttk4AT0]

Music and video games can be a sublime combination. Whether you’re performing humiliating karaoke versions of cock rock classics with your friends on Harmoix’s Rock Band, or fiddling through rhythm action puzzle games like the recent PSP title Patapon, or trippy two and half D hiphop kungfu classic Parapa the Rappa..

Kick Punch, it’s all in the mind, if you wanta’ test me, I’m sure you’ll find, that all the things I’ll teach ya, is sure to beat ya, nevertheless you’ll get a lesson from teacha

..there’s a special thrill to be had in a soundscape that responds (however trivially) to the interactive elements of a compelling game. The degree of such interactivity can vary hugely, from the now ubiquitous (often unnoticed) matching of musical pace to narrative peaks pioneered by Lucas Arts point and click adventure games in the mid nineties, to the sophisticated transpositional / compositional auditory components of games like Tetsuya Mizuguchi’s ‘Rez’.

Indie darling’s Q-Games, are one of a new breed of developers designing high quality experimental titles for console distribution on Microsoft and Sony’s online stores. Well known for tiny, esoteric but highly acclaimed titles released under their Pixel Junk brand, Q-Games have just released the stunning platformer Pixel Junk Eden. With an ambient electro soundtrack light years ahead of even the most critically lauded musical games, and starkly colored organic art direction, Pixel Junk Eden transforms an otherwise simple platforming dynamic into a deeply absorbing, if occasionally unsettling, experience. As a tiny insect like creature you leap from plant to plant in a surreal series of (apparently undersea) gardens, collecting pollen which fills seeds and springs plants into twisting fluxing life.

Art direction and music for the game were provided by Baiyon, a Japanese multimedia artist (Pixel Junk, although established and run by British born graphics coding genius Dylan Cuthbert, is based in Kyoto). As such, music and play elements combine preternaturally well. An aquatic soundtrack – a million miles away from the high bpm blips and beeps you might associate with chiptune / 8bit (see Paul Bond’s article in this months Analogue) – mixes with squishy sound effects, shifting tempo and urgency in response to an ever draining timer and swaying, growing plants. Oddly, most reviews in the gaming press have described the result as relaxing, when in fact the subliminally unsettling soundtrack, together with the titles tight difficulty curve, should be the only things giving the PS3 owners among you pause. Assuming you can tolerate the games oddly bleak beats and quirky physics, I’d recommend picking up Pixeljunk Eden, right the fuck now.

Analogue Presents – Gran Casino & Oh Child

To celebrate the Launch of Analogue Issue 4, we’ve teamed up with two great Dublin bands, Oh Child and Gran Casino.

Gran Casino

Analogue Presents – Gran Casino, Live in Concert from dbspin on Vimeo.

Download Gran Casino

For Windows or Mac OSX (Quicktime), PS3, or Linux (VLC)
- Large Mpeg 4 (600 * 480, 241 Megs)

For iPhone / iPod Touch
- Small Mpeg 4 (450 * 360, 199 Megs)

Oh Child

Analogue Present – Oh Child, Live in Concert from dbspin on Vimeo.

Download Oh Child

For Windows or Mac OSX (Quicktime), PS3, or Linux (VLC)
- Large Mpeg 4 (600 * 480, 141 Megs)

For iPhone / iPod Touch
- Small Mpeg 4 (450 * 360, 117 Megs)

As this is the first time we’ve done this, there’s likely to be a technical screw up somewhere along the way – bear with us (and let us know in the comments!) if things are banjaxed. Also, let us know if you’d prefer future videos to be available for download in another format.

Gran Casino, Live in Concert

Analogue Presents – Gran Casino, Live in Concert from dbspin on Vimeo.

Without further ado, let me present the second in our two videos celebrating the launch of Analogue as a nationwide magazine. Gran Casino are a Dublin band that we haven’t written about before in the magazine, at least in part because their material is so difficult to describe. If Burt Bacharach wrote songs for Ian Brown they might sound a little like the melodic, unapologetically baroque, art rock made by Gran Casino. The band have recently released their first E.P, ‘Sun Music’, which is available for the very reasonable price of €7 at Tower Records, Road Records, The Secret Book and Record Store, and City Discs.

Gran Casino are…

Caimin Gilmore – Vocals, Guitar, Glockenspiel
Jimmer Reynolds – Drums, Percussion
Shane Sugrue – Keys, Vocals, Clarinet, Sitar
James O’ Connor – Bass, Synth
Kathy Looney – Violin
Julie Clarke – Violin
Sue Neary – Harp
Joe Mylo – French Horn
Kev Foran – Trumpet
Simon Wall – Tenor Sax/Flute
Chris Rooney – Trombone
Tim Harris – Flute

Recorded, Radio City Dublin, 06/06/08.
Camera: Dave Boyle
Editing: Gareth Stack & Dave Boyle.
All songs copyright Gran Casino, 2008.

Download

For Windows or Mac OSX (Quicktime), PS3, or Linux (VLC)
- Large Mpeg 4 (600 * 480, 241 Megs)

For iPhone / iPod Touch
- Small Mpeg 4 (450 * 360, 199 Megs)

Oh Child, Live in Concert

Analogue Present – Oh Child, Live in Concert from dbspin on Vimeo.

To celebrate the Launch of Analogue Issue 4, we’ve teamed up with two great Dublin bands, Oh Child and Gran Casino. The pair recently played the launch of Gran Casino’s debut EP, ‘Sun Music’ in Dublin’s Radio City. Oh Child, previously featured on the Analablog in April, are a wonderful five piece from across this great and rugged isle. Their music veers from Appalachian folk to jazz pop. We hope you enjoy this first of our two very special episodes of Analogue Presents. Episode 2, featuring Gran Casino, will be available soon.

Oh Child are..

Cillian Murphy – Lead Vocals, Guitar, Tenor Sax
Dearbhla Minogue – Lead Vocals, Guitar
Paul Finegan – Vocals, Bass
Olwyn Murphy – Vocals, Drums
Jennifer Twyford – Vocals, Violin
Graham King – Vocals, Clarinet, Alto Sax

Recorded, Radio City Dublin, 06/06/08.
Camera: Dave Boyle
Editing: Gareth Stack & Dave Boyle

Download

For Windows or Mac OSX (Quicktime), PS3, or Linux (VLC)
- Large Mpeg 4 (600 * 480, 141 Megs)

For iPhone / iPod Touch
- Small Mpeg 4 (450 * 360, 117 Megs)

As this is the first time we’ve done this, there’s likely to be a technical screw up somewhere along the way – bear with us (and let us know in the comments!) if things are banjaxed. Also, let us know if you’d prefer future videos to be available for download in another format.

Fleet Foxes videos on Pitchfork.tv

Continuing Analogue’s love affair the the American indie elite, and proof, if proof were needed that Pitchfork.tv was the greatest thing to happen to indie music since Kurt Cobain wore a Daniel Johnston t-shirt for a year, here’s a double treat. Above, the stunning new video for the equally incomparable song from the best band I’ve heard this year – the instantly classic Fleet Foxes, with White Winter Hymnal. Below, an interview the Foxes, recorded by the pitched fork at this years South by Southwest Festival.

We have some photo’s and a teeny video from the intimate Dublin gig knocking about, which Andy really must get to posting *cough*. Almost forgot, credit to the ever excellent Pop Culture Will Eat Itself for the link.

Radiohead – House of Cards Video

RA DIOHEA_D / HOU SE OF_C ARDS – Google Code via kwout

Our lovely friends at the plex are kindly hosting Radioheads new video, for the In Rainbows track ‘House of Cards‘. Rather stunningly, the video is neither entirely CG, nor does it use any conventional cameras, but rather Geometric Informatics (‘structured light’) and Velodyne LIDAR (a sort of hyper advanced speed camera). The result is reminiscent of early experiments in computer animation, a flickering varicolour oscilloscoped DOB trip.

There’s a mini documentary on the site to show how it was done, as well as a savage viewer application to play around with the 3D visualisations in your browser. The raw data has also been made available, so the mathematically inclined among you can immediately go remix crazy.

Check out the video here.

Girl Talk’s New Album is out, and Free

Turntable Laptop legend and hero of the copyleft movement, Girl Talk’s new album ‘Feed the Animals‘ is available and, realistically, free. Pittsburgh native Gillis, has ‘done a Radiohead‘.

At first listen (literally), it seems similar enough to 2006′s Night Ripper, if a little less anarchic – complete with illegal samples and inventive rapid-fire juxtapositions – think Hot Chip over the Cardigans, expect samples of everything from Soldja Boy to Kelly Clarkson.

Girltalk says..

My fourth full-length album, Feed The Animals, is out today! You can download the digital version (320 Kpbs) for whatever price you want at: www.illegalart.net. If you are reading this prior to 7:00 AM eastern USA time, then the page may not be ready. We’re fine-tuning some last minute things. If you pay over $5, you get an added bonus of one big mp3 file with all of the tracks connected. If you pay over $10, then you are pre-ordering a physical copy of the CD, which will be out later. All of the tracks are streaming on my myspace, but the album is intended to be listened as one continuous track.
This can be easily accomplished by getting the mp3s from Illegal Art, thanks for your support!

Sincerely
Gregg

Pick it up, and if you can, pay the dear boy too.

Baby Dee – Live at Vicar St

Support for Will Oldham at Sundays gig was provided by the enigmatic and unexpectedly wonderful Baby Dee. Antony Hegarty with a sense of humour, Baby Dee begins with the delicately beautiful ‘Look at Me’, on piano with Cello accompaniment. As the set progresses, it opens into a rich and full bodied four-piece cabaret, as Dee flits from piano to harp.

As a transsexual Baby Dee is ludicrous; cracking with oafish masculinity, like John Lithgow in the World According to Garp. As an artist she excels, weaving burlesque fairy tales that leave Vicar Street breathless – literally the venue, exhibiting an appreciation of the show far greater than that of the goateed office milksop audience, who blithy gab throughout.

Bren compares Baby Dee’s arrangements to Tom Waits’ Rain Dog LP. Dee shares too with Waits a melodramatic inconstant vocal quality, a shifting, improvisational performing style that keeps her band visibly nervous. Dee’s voice fuses the melodic unpredictability and throat catching tenderness of Xiu Xiu’s Jamie Stewart with the tortured expressive sweetness of folk nymph Joanna Newsome. At the same time, her irreverent nuttiness belies a tight vaudevillian professionalism, reminiscent of oldball gypsy cabaret triumvirate ‘Tiger Lillies’.

Finishing off with the outrageous and captivating ‘Big Titty Bee Girl’, featuring the unforgettable line ‘You just can’t keep a good albino down’, Baby Dee delivers deliciously rakish musical theatricality, undercut with adorable self deprecation and gallant elegance.

Baby Dee‘s fifth LP, the biographical ‘Safe Inside the Day‘ (produced incidentally by Will Oldham, and featuring a host of musoratti from Max Moston to Matt Sweeney), is out now on Drag City.

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