[interview] Pictureplane

Fortunately, I could interview Pictureplane. Fusing house with psychedelic themes, transcending cliché acid house, this artist could easily make a tune that would be a hit in many discos, if people nowadays cared more about music when they go to a disco. He also makes magic with a Microkorg [how I envy him, I wish I could be that good with my synth].

Serotonin Sounds: What do you think of Witch House? I asked you this one because I see you use lots of "occult" related images, like the triangles and ourobouros, etc.

Pictureplane: dont think a lot of people know this, but i invented the term "witch house" ! the first time it was used was on my blog. my friend shams and i were joking around about a new style of occultish house music that we were making. and we called it witch house. it actually is supposed to be house music, not the slow stuff that is being called witch house. i dont know how it took off on the internet like it did, but it is really interesting.

SS: What are your influences?

PP:contemporary art, fashion, the future, mysticism, the occult, aliens, the "other", the hidden, mysteries, touch, sex, magic. oh , and other music.

SS: You seem to have a wide musical taste. You like Siouxsie and the Banshees and at the same time make your own music: with this I mean, why do you feel related with these more dark trends and at simultaneously make your music, which seems to be happier?

PP:there has always been a darker element to my music. a lot of my old lyrics were really violent and stuff. i always liked that juxtaposition. i love pop music. and my music is meant to be positive and optimistic. so that is why it sounds happy i think. music and art can look or sound a certain way but still carry different meanings. of course. i like to hide things within my songs. but at the same time, i have always been influenced by "dark" music.

SS:Are you the author of your artwork?

PP:of course. i went to school for painting actually. visual art is a huge part of my life.

SS:When playing live, you use a Microkorg, right? When producing, you still use the Microkorg? And do you use any other synths too while producing?

PP:i love my mikrokorg! i have had it for 6 years. it is covered in dirt and some keyes are missing. i am trying to get a new synth, but i am pretty poor and i am also a wizard with the korg. it is the only thing i use really.

SS:Would you like your music to be played at discos?

PP:more pictureplane at discos!

SS:Are you planning to sell some of your t-shirts online? [I want one, hehe]

PP:yes! HOPEFULLY THAT WEBSITE WILL BE UP SOON.

SS:Do you like Throbbing Gristle? If so, how have they affected your music?

PP:i am an extremely huge fan of throbbing gristle. more so for their concepts and theories about culture, the world, freedom and magik. i honestly never really "listen" to them, but i am constantly reading about them and studying them. i collect writings by genesis p. orridge, who is probably one of my biggest life inspirations. genesis forever.

SS:Choose one band / musical group you're enjoying lately and tell us why.

PP:future islands. i have loved this band for a while, but they have a new album and just performed at where i live in denver, rhinoceropolis. and they blew me away. they are one of the best live bands and their music is so emotional and beautiful. they are truly a special and rare band. not enough people know about them.


Thank you once again, Pictureplane.

Wave Machines "Wave if you're really there"

Wave Machines started around 2007, in Liverpool. They've released this album since then, entitled "Wave if you're really there". Receiving good reviews, this work has got lots of great tracks to choose from, each of them, peculiar, but with Wave Machines' characteristics within it. They use synthesizers, samplers, drums, guitars, basses, vocals, blending them in their own way: the product is surely marvelous.
The tracks are:

1. You say the Stupidest Things
2.I go I go I go
3. Keep the Lights on
4. Punk Spirit
5. The Greatest Escape We Ever Made
6. Wave If You're Really There
7. The Line
8. I Joined a Union
9. Carry me Back to My Home
10. Dead Houses

The album's lenght is around 40 minutes, I believe. My favourite tracks are: "Punk Spirit", "You Say the Stupidest Things", "Dead Houses" and "Carry me Back to My Home".
To get this album, click here.

Below is "Punk Spirit"'s official videoclip:

[Interview] Floating Colors

Yesterday I made an interview through myspace with Floating Colors. Their music seems to me intense and chaotic but still really appealing. I won't speak much about them, because all of this interview has got enough info to satisfy most of you:
Most of the interview, it was the band member Stephen Palke answering the questions.
The interview went like this:

1. How and when did the band form?
Floating Colors came out of the ashes of a now defunct band whose name I choose not to mention. This defunct band started out as a two-piece with me and a guy whose name I choose not to mention, we improvised ambient soundscapes with keyboards and guitar. Eventually, Chase, joined this defunct band as a drummer. We had a couple of good shows and good moments together. We played with some really cool acts like The Crypts, Head Molt, Religious Girls, and Leo Heinzel, who now goes by Flesh Control nowadays. Unforunately, general fuckery transpired, and my musical partner in this defunct band, and I went our seperate ways, and so the band broke up in early July of 09. Shortly after, Chase invited me to spend time with him and his wonderful family, at his late grandfather's farm not too far from Ocean City, Maryland. Chase and I spent two weeks there, watching good films, helping out at the farm, shooting targets, drinking shots of whiskey at night, going to the beach. We talked alot. We walked alot. We found that we really respected and trusted one another, and related to one another in a special way. Our friendship became really strong. This was the musical partnership that was suppose to happen. We were both excited about starting something new, with no baggage from the past. Eventually, we both settled on the name Floating Colors. We liked Floating Colors, because it didn't pin us to any genre, and that it would be more or less true to whatever evolution we undergo as a band in the future. Chris Vincent and Alex Forck joined our band soon after. It's been really good.

2. What are your influences and favourite genres?
Stephen Palke: Broken Social Scene, John Frusciante and Jim O'Rourke have always been favorites of mine. Lately, I've been listening to Grouper, Broadcast and Beach House alot lately.
Chase Gilbert: Influences- Frank Zappa, Bill Bruford, Les Claypool
Genres- Trip Hop, Progressive genres, and Jazz.
Chris Vincent: You already covered Claypool for me....definitely Tom Morello as far as guitar goes and Crimson...Radiohead, Portishead obviously...and genres are also trip hop, progressive, stoner rock, and electronica.

3. Do you prefer to produce music or to play live?
Playing live is the headspace we're more into. We improvise every show, so playing live is the focus rather than making recordings.

4. In the future, will your music change or will you keep an uniform direction in your evolution?
In a year or in a month, I could never say. Who knows how things could change.

5. What instruments do you use to create your music?
I play on a microkorg, some guitar, and found sounds. Chase plays on a Premier drum set. Chris plays on guitar. and Alex plays on bass guitar.

6. If your music could have an environment, what would it be like?
A really rough dive bar or a cathedral.

I have here some live recordings, courtesy of the band. Click here, to obtain them (it has around 70 megabytes - but is sure worth it!).
If you're more curious about Floating Colors, visit their myspace.
If you're more interest now in this band, send 6 dollars North America or 10 dollars via paypal to stephen_palke@yahoo.com to purchase albums, or for digital copies, go to floatingcolors.bandcamp.com.

Big Black "Atomizer"

Big Black's career started around 1982. They didn't found much mainstream success, however they've influenced the early industrial rock scene and have been remarked as a "must" for any person who's into noise. Their use of provocative lyrics garnered much attention.
This album entitled "Atomizer" (which is their debut album), as received good reviews .Take this into consideration: All Music gave it 4.5 out of 5 stars. Their brutal slashing guitars and great use of drum machines were widely influencial. This album is included in the book 1001 Albums You Must Hear Before You Die. I know this sounds awkward, but the singer's [Steve Albini] voice of Gray Matter's vocals.
The track list for this album is:

1. "Jordan, Minnesota"
2. "Passing Complexion"
3. "Big Money"
4. "Kerosene"
5. "Bad Houses"
6. "Fists of Love"
7. "Stinking Drunk"
8. "Bazooka Joe"
9. "Strange Things"
10. "Cables" (live)

My favourite ones are: "Passing Complexion", "Stinking Drunk", "Big Money" and also "Kerosene". The album's lenght is 37 minutes and 37 seconds. The whole album is really dense and has a lot of cohesion along the song's transitions. Some people who aren't into "noise" should think about this fact: this work has more thoughts behind than it seems.
You can get the album here too.

Below is "Passing Complexion":

Kap Bambino "Zero Life, Night Vision"

Kap Bambino formed around 2001 and nowadays they even have their own independent label. Kap Bambino are Caroline Martial and Orion Bouvier. Released in 2006, this album features awesome synth-ish tunes from a great electro group that hails from Bordeaux, France. Their music is characterised by wild distorted female vocals and mind-twisting electronic mixes. This album is no exception and has received positives reviews.
The track list is the following:

1.		Zero Life	1:53
2.		New Breath	2:09
3.		Save	3:11
4.		Took Life	2:10
5.		Hunger Texas	2:29
6.		Seed	3:15
7.		Mess In The Ruins	2:03
8.		Hey !	2:07
9.		Night Vision Ocean	2:31
10.		Kaos Killer	2:46
11.		Warriors	2:10
12.		More Machine	4:09

My favourite tracks are: "Hey!", "Mess In The Ruins", "New Breath" and "Seed". But, as kind of usual, I advise you to hear the entire album.
You can get this album here or promote the artist by buying it on some eBay vultures or on their label's official website here.

Below I'll leave an youtube video of the song "Seed":

My Bloody Valentine "Loveless"

My Bloody Valentine, my bloody valentine... What can we say about how paradoxal sometimes love gets? This album is like a potion of all the antagonic feelings there are in a romantic relationship. All of its atonality and a cacophonic indeterminancy caracterize romance. There's a reason for My Bloody Valentine's debut album to be named "Loveless".
The track list is the following:

1. "Only Shallow" (Bilinda Butcher, Shields) – 4:17
2. "Loomer" (Butcher, Shields) – 2:38
3. "Touched" (Colm Ó Cíosóig) – 0:56
4. "To Here Knows When" (Butcher, Shields) – 5:31
5. "When You Sleep" – 4:11
6. "I Only Said" – 5:34
7. "Come in Alone" – 3:58
8. "Sometimes" – 5:19
9. "Blown a Wish" (Butcher, Shields) – 3:36
10. "What You Want" – 5:33
11. "Soon" – 6:58

The songs "Only Shallow" and "Sometimes" are the ones I advise you to hear. "Sometimes" has an ambiguous sense of a shallow happiness, if that's possible at all: the person who hears it doesn't know if it is proposed to make you cry or to make you feel good, kind of in a nostalgic way.
When this album came out, there were many music critics and melomaniacs that immediately recognized the importance of this work in contemporary music, particularly in the developing of the "shoegaze" genre and as inspiration for many bands. All music, Rolling Stone, Robert Christgau, NME, Popmatters, The Quietus and many other entities said marvelous things about this album.

-The band.

You can hear below the song "Sometimes":

[upcoming bands] CFCF

CFCF is a great promise within genres like electro. He has done awesome remixes and has some of them on his myspace. He introduces himself by modestly saying: "Hi, I am CFCF and I make music". Some of his influences are: Boredoms, Goblin, The Durutti Column, Madonna, Fleetwood Mac & Vangelis.
He released his first EP on January of 2009, being a great start, I say.
Next month he'll release his first album entitled "Continent" (don't miss this one!).
Check out his myspace.

Below you can hear one great song of his, named "Panesian Nights":

CFCF 'Crystal Mines' from the EP 'Panesian Nights' from Paper Bag Records on Vimeo.

Oh, and please hear this awesome remix of HEALTH's "Before tigers" (it's brilliantly smooth and relaxing):

Crystal Antlers "Tentacles"

Formed in 2006, this American indie rock band from Long Beach [in California], have been releasing awesome inventive songs on rad EP's. This debut album called "Tentacles", released in early 2009 was relatively well evaluated by many music critics (like NME, Rolling Stone and Pitchfork) and some hype-bloggers.
However, according to what I've heard in this work, I can assure that it isn't that bad as Pitchfork evaluates it [6.7 out of 10...]. As a matter of fact, it's catchy, a cheerful psych-punk band doing their own music, being [as many bands of nowadays are trying] difficult to be inserted in a particular music genre.
The track list is the following:

1. "Painless Sleep" - 2:16
2. "Dust" - 2:27
3. "Time Erased" - 3:37
4. "Andrew" - 3:34
5. "Vapour Trail" - 2:18
6. "Tentacles" - 1:54
7. "Until the Sun Dies (Part 1)" - 2:50
8. "Memorized" - 3:53
9. "Glacier" - 3:01
10. "Foot of the Mountain" - 0:25
11. "Your Spears" - 2:24
12. "Swollen Sky" - 4:12
13. "Several Tongues" - 7:11
    

The whole album is worth hearing, however I advise you to hear the song "Andrew".
You can view their myspace and current tour on their myspace.
You can get the album right here too.

Below you can hear and view "Andrew", one of their best songs:

Throbbing Gristle "The Taste of TG"

Giving reason to the subtitle ("A Beginners Guide to the Music of Throbbing Gristle"), this compilation features songs from TG's more audible times to the more noise and gore phases (it's obvious that their sound is always dark, no matter if it has a more "pop" approach or not). In case you didn't know, this band, Throbbing Gristle are quoted as the authors of industrial music.This album was released on [the now dead] Mute (on May 14 of 2004).
The track list is the following:

1. "Industrial Introduction" - 1:05
2. "Distant Dreams (Part Two)" - 5:30
3. "Persuasion USA" - 7:29
4. "Something Came Over Me" - 3:43
5. "Dead on Arrival" - 6:08
6. "Hot on the Heels of Love" - 4:24
7. "We Hate You (Little Girls)" - 2:07
8. "United" - 4:04
9. "Cabaret Voltaire" - 3:58
10. "Exotic Functions" - 4:18
11. "Zyclon B Zombie" - 3:52
12. "Walkabout" - 3:04
13. "Hamburger Lady" - 4:15
14. "His Arm Was Her Leg" - 5:40

• Tracks 1, 8, 11 from TGCD2 (The Second Annual Report)
• Tracks 2, 3, & 4 from TGCD6 (Mission of Dead Souls)
• Tracks 5, 7, & 13 from TGCD3 (D.o.A: The Third and Final Report)
• Tracks 6 & 12 from TGCD4 (20 Jazz Funk Greats)
• Track 9 from TGCD11 (Throbbing Gristle Live, Volume 2: 1977-1978)
• Track 10 from TGCD8 (Journey Through a Body)
• Track 14 from TGCD12 (Throbbing Gristle Live, Volume 3: 1978-1979)

My favourite tracks are: "Distant Dreams (parte two)", "United", "Zyclon B Zombie" and "Hamburguer Lady". The intro song "Industrial introduction" is also very appealing, a mesmerizing drone.
You can get the album here.
By the way, I also advise you to see some live videos of early TG: "Something came over Me" and "Discipline".
Here are also some links to some songs on this album: "Distant Dreams (part two)", "Industrial Introduction", "United", "Hot on the Heels of Love" and "Hamburguer Lady".

-A picture of the band, more recently.

Below is another Throbbing Gristle video, of a relatively recent live performance of "Persuasion" which I enjoyed watching and hearing:

Jóhan Jóhannsson "IBM 1401, a user's manual" part 1 videoclip

I made a videoclip for one of the songs featured in Jóhann's "IBM 1401, a user's manual". You can check it out on youtube, if you want to. I'll post the video down here, to ease things up:


I hope you enjoyed it... and yeah, it sucks.