ian's art blog: August 2009

Friday, August 28, 2009

Free Music Download: 3 Sessions in a Greenhouse

This is a free (100% legal) independent release by contemporary Brazilian genius Lucas Santtana. Santtana has become famous for using his classically trained abilities to mix samba and other traditional Brazilian music motifs with modern production values and unusual genres (electronica in particular). This particular album is 3 live sessions (of all otherwise unreleased material) recorded by Lucas and his band each in one take (however, the album is considered part of Santtana's cannon [it is his official 3rd album not a live side project]). Here Lucas is experimenting with the idea of combining dub with his older style. This is not at all a dub album (primarily in technique of production, but also in style). However, a there is a unifying theme of dubness that resonates throughout a few tracks are plain and simple imitating the dub style to great success (Awo Dub, the opening track in particular). Included with the download is a word document in English with much more information.

-To download go to:
http://www.diginois.com.br/ (Lucas's site in Brazilian)
-Under 3 sessions in a lighthouse on the left click "Clique para baixar o cd completo"

To preview the album before you download it you can click the headphones by each track.

Thursday, August 27, 2009

Allison Schulnik

Painter Allison Schulnik employs some of the best color theory I've seen recently in heavy impasto paintings:

Ship #2, 96" x 68", 2005

Don't really dig the cliche subject matter (clowns, skeletons) in some of her other works too much though.

via BOOOOOOOOM!

Monday, August 24, 2009

Henrijs Preiss

Not usually a fan of geometric based abstractions but these paintings by Latvian painter Henrijs Preiss are pretty interesting. The combination of textural and linear elements work very well, and the restrained use of color makes very bold statements when applied. I definitely dig the approximate symmetry (you can immediately tell that it isn't exactly symmetrical but it may take a few moments to pinpoint exactly how it isn't)

No 154, 88cm x 142cm

via beautiful/decay blog, which until very recently I was getting dissapointed with due to their overload of pop surrealism and hipster bullshit but lately has been putting out pretty good stuff.

Sunday, August 23, 2009

Lucy Mcrae & Mandy Smith - Chlorophyll Skin

http://www.lucymcrae.blogspot.com/
http://www.mandysmithwork.com/

Saturday, August 22, 2009

Free Music Download: Disco Sucks

This one is much less "legal" then the last free music download. This is actually a reissue of a collection of the singles. The original collection of singles were released 13 years after the band's demise (in 1967). This reissue is from 2004 (37 years after the band broke up). So you certainly aren't going to be supporting the artists here by buying the cd, only some label's efforts to provide this material in the new digital age (which is a noble effort... but still).

Anyway with that disclaimer out of the way, this is Disco Sucks a collection of singles released by short-live garage rock proto-punk outfit The Swamp Rats. Now if you're an album purist who doesn't normally listen to singles/collections as I am you need to understand how rock releases worked in the 60s. Very few bands could put together enough good material for an album (which was part of the reason The Beatles and other British invasion bands were so spectacular), they generally just released singles and covers of rock standards.

Thus this album features only 2 original tracks (which are fantastic, see the video) and 11 amazing covers including two Rolling Stones songs and one by the Beatles. But a major highlight is the opening track, Richard Berry's "Louie Louie". The song was a garage rock standard and many many bands have covers of it. But this is the heaviest most punk rock cover I have ever heard (and recorded in 1966!). The guitar is so fuzzy and loud that at first listen you might think the guitarist isn't even switching chords as he pounds out each note of that famous rhythm. This album is some of the heaviest garage rock I have found, approaching sludgy noisy proportions, and I highly recommend it to fans of the Sonics or the Stooges.

(I should also note that the rerelease here appends the album with 3 untitled never released experimental tracks recorded by the band before their break up [this stuff is really haunting and weird but very cool in it's own way, it just doesn't go well with the album])

This one is hosted by a http://garage60s.blogspot.com/, this page will provide the download link near the bottom as well as some additional information about the band:

http://garage60s.blogspot.com/2008/05/swamp-rats-1966.html

I should warn you that the file is a .rar, which if you don't know how you'll need to look up how to open online (it will be easier if you have a PC but I believe there is a way on a Mac to do so).

And here's a video to give you a taste if you're still undecided about how incredibly awesome this stuff is (this song is one of the originals, "Hey Freak", a heavy rocking song with such heavy repeating bass and yelled vox that at first it sounds like Flipper's Sex Bomb):