Ed Banger Records: That Funky Fresh "Noize"

Ed Banger (imagine someone saying "head banger" with a thick, French accent) is a label set up and run by Pedro Winter (Busy P), the longtime former Daft Punk manager and event organizer. I like the majority of these artists because they represent yet another fix when I get to jonesin' for some bomb (European) electronic jams (that aren't inundated with dub-step breaks/drops). For some reason, I like the way the think when it's translated into electronic beatz more than there American counterparts and that may or may not have something to do with lots of the production talent here in the States being lured away in the "rap game", which necessitates a background role and some toning down. Ah, well. C'est la vie, no?

Originally known for the parties it sponsored in support of its artists, Ed Rec has gained some major exposure (as well as critical success) over the last five years with the rise of it's best known act, Justice, a French electro-funk duo made up of Gaspard Augé and Xavier de Rosnay. They embody several ideas that echo within the label's greater group of artists: copious amounts of noise (glitches, scratches, beeps, blips, etc), samples that glorify funk rhythms and heavy rock guitars, fat (slapped) bass, gritty, angular, compressed and distorted synth lines, extensive layering and an undeniable and versatile sense of humor, in their choice of samples, in their videos and in their live performances. A couple of tracks are linked below:

Stress
Genesis

A couple of other Ed Banger artists to check out are SebastiAn and Mr. Oizo.   SebastiAn, the stage name of DJ and remixer extraordinaire, Sebastian Akchoté, reportedly created Daft Punk's all-time favorite remix of one of their songs with his version of "Human After All". He sounds a lot like a stylized version of Justice but is enough of his own artist to leave his own impression.

Embody (with infectious dancing)

Walkman (Re-Edit)

And finally, indie art renaissance man, Mr. Oizo, (Mr. Bird) or Quentin Dupieux, who in addition to making electronic music directs films. In addition to these artists putting out there own stuff, they also produce and create remixes of each others music, which is a cool way to experience the inbred results of Ed Banger sonic integration. After a couple listens to these guys, I think the connection to the greater Ed Banger family of artists will be pretty apparent (lots of noise). 

Nazis (remixed by Justice)

Check out the label's collected work on their Soundcloud page here.

Dedicado a D

"Let us toast to animal pleasures,to escapism, to rain on the roof and instant coffee,to unemployment insurance and library cards,to absinthe and good-hearted landlords,to music and warm bodies and to the'good life', what it is and wherever it happens to be." -Hunter S. Thompson

Just a Couple of Bad-Ass Dudes

Harrison Ford and stuntman Vic Armstrong

The Divine (Robo)Spark

http://www.photoblog.com/pulpin/2012/04/28/

INTERNET QUA PROCRASTINA-TANGENTIALIZATION

The internet/interwebz is an incredibly helpful tool, a seemingly endless source of information, a great facilitator of communication and a repository allowing access to a wealth of artistic inspiration. It also encourages hours of procrastination, sly, omniscient seductress that it is. At it's most stream of conscious, it allows for the creation of strings of ideas, inspiration and inspired ebbing and flowing as you jump through different media, from prose to string quartets to short films and pictures. The result is a "six-degrees of separation"effect with an infinite amount of connective possibilities. An example follows:

It starts with the following picture, a promotional piece for the band "Gorillaz" entitled "Tank Girl" rendered by the band's long-time visual collaborator Jamie Hewlett.

"Tank Girl" having piqued my interest, I continued exploring and eventually stumbled onto these gems...

At this point, I was torn: should I follow the illustration thread and head down the "Tank Girl" rabbit hole or listen to some Gorillaz? Quite the quandary indeed. And then I started thinking to myself, "wait, this band is legit, so is the art, why aren't I listening to one of their funky, slightly dystopic jams, while immersing myself in the world of "Tank Girl"?  So while pursuing various links related to the comic (tumblr, issue #1, wikipedia, downloadable issues), I pulled up a playlist on YouTube for a little background noise. Eventually, the background came to the forefront when the song "Dirty Harry" began playing. Eager to find out more about the track, I stumbled on this immensely strange video for it:

Sweet and funky jam. Weird and creepy video.

Feeling a little freaked out, I then felt compelled to seek out Mr. Eastwood's interpretation of said Inspector Callahan and came across the clip below: 

Feelin' lucky?

And with that, an hour had passed and it was time to start doing some actual work. The danger? This pattern could repeat itself ad nauseum. For example, you continue the Eastwood vein to Unforgiven and that powerful final scene with Little Bill, portrayed masterfully by Gene Hackman. There we follow the "Hackman Connection" to The Royal Tenenbaums and it's classic soundtrack (or Wes Anderson's empathetic and surreal body of work). 

Or, considering Eastwood's legendary western performances, we could link Unforgiven with the likes of The Good, the Bad and the Ugly, which begs mention of either director Sergio Leone or composer Enio Morricone, both of which were big influences on the style of Quentin Tarantino. 

The possibilities for distraction are endless and as such should be managed lest the situation get out of control. 

Word of the Day: Sapiosexual

A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man

This link will take you to a copy of a letter by a young Kurt Vonnegut, addressed to his family (presumably his father; his mother took her own life on Mother's Day, 1944). It encapsulates his experience during the final year of fighting in Europe during the Second World War. The suffering he both endured and witnessed infuse the missive with a gut-wrenching pathos and open-eyed sincerity. Its tone is one of shocked disbelief and the writing features many of his most estimable authorial talents, gifts that would become trademarks of his storied and prolific career: an almost elegiac sense of irony, a twinge of survivor's guilt, a glib and sardonic sense of humor and wry yet compassionate observations on human nature and suffering.

It's eerily inspiring to read something like this. Private Vonnegut, your guide, takes you to the brink of apocalypse and back, a grim survivor's tale. It's also a tale of history within history: we witness a formative experience of one of the most human and wisest satirists in the North American canon, the basis for his best known work.

He would later write: "There are plenty of good reasons for fighting, but no good reason ever to hate without reservation, to imagine that God Almighty Himself hates with you, too." It's with quotes like this one, we see that apart from his prodigious imagination, the man possessed a really big heart, too. He is missed.