Sxip, you rock socks all over the world!

Sxip (pronounced 'skip') is a multi-instrumentalist genius who makes his own instruments out of stuff. He appeared in the goddarn weird but funny Insane Yeti Squirrel comic strip a while back.

At first it seemed like another crazy guy who does experimental stuff, but he's one of the few to do so compellingly, methinks.

Beatboxing, guitar playing, and weird sound effects, heck, I wonder, he does them all live yet I wonder how he gets all those sounds. Watching some of his stuff I initially thought he was playing along a backing track of sorts or using special effects!

So, without further ado, I present the one and only Sxip Shirey:

Moon In Her Belly (featuring the amazizing Adam Matta)



Pandora


In a song with Jason Webley (must check him out one day) - Days With You



Few people are able to do all these wildly different things with all kinds of people, have a blast and make awesome stuff... you heard me, Britney Spears- take note.

Now, you might not remember him by his music in that case (maybe by his mad scientist hairdo), but it's kickass music. I loved his new CD, Sonic New York. It sounds as if all the different grooves and melodies of the city that never sleeps had slept together and had a million babies. Truly some kind of thing that's not heard often. A bit Bowie-ish, Zappa-ish with everything in between! Will buy sometime :D

Ishkur's Guide to Electronic Music

Trance? Techno? House? Jungle? Hardcore? What's the difference between them anyway? They all sound like un-tss un-tss because all electronic dance music does so. I found this neat little (massive) guide to electronic music made by some mysterious person by the alias 'Ishkur'. Pretty cool, years are like the rings inside a tree trunk and different music styles that split and form nodes and crazy lumps and things and you can hear examples of each style of music and learn how sounds change through the ages and travel different cultures. Although in the last 10 years there has been an explosion of new styles of music (dubstep, reggaeton that has actually been around for a while, this new trancey DnB sound and a resurgence of electro), the guide still kicks ass an is not that out of date. How much work was put into it!

http://techno.org/electronic-music-guide/

Polyrhytms in pop music

I tend to avoid the music in the radio; it's derivative ballads and reggaeton, overproduced and uninspired music of all sorts, dance-rock-rap, all the things under the 'pop' umbrella term. Sure, there are amazing songs now and then which are pop and not all pop is inherently bad, but most is inherently... stupid.

It's probably just the fault of the people who listen to things and vote. ANYWAY, sometimes interesting things do get through.

I'm not a J-Pop fan at all. But this to me seemed awesome. You know why? No, it's not because prettygirlsstupidcostumeseverythingprettyprettycutekawaiiblargh, but because of that genius bridge in the song that sounds like NOTHING ANYWHERE ON ANY POP CHART AROUND THE WORLD.

Note: it starts at around 1:37.



I guess that the 'Poririzumu' (Polyrhythm) bridge is appropriate, something about love being like two different rhythms playing at the same time. Moving on from that, Marty Friedman approves this song. Therefore, he made a cover with the awesomeness only he can give:



I think I would have liked it more if that crazy part had been used more than just in the bridge of the song and in the end. Or make the end as beat-heavy as the first bridge. Oh well, it's a start. I didn't like how lifeless the voices sounded. But hey, most pop music tends to be lifeless!

Alexa Meade: Realism turned upside down!

Recently I posted an entry on an upcoming Chilean artist Nicolás Radic who is awesome because his hyperrealistic paintings are at the same time, abstractions of the things portrayed in real life. This time, I found Alexa Meade, who challenges the definition of what a canvass is. I'd say her approach is maybe the inverse to Nicolás'; she paints on her subjects and turns the real thing into wonderful paintings:

Mediation 2

alexameade.com
24x15 Chromira Print. Limited Edition of 7. For pricing information, please contact lauren@irvinecontemporary.com

Amazing, eh? From afar you could actually believe it's an oil-on-canvass, only the hair seems to give away the true reality of the piece of art.

Blake

24x18" Chromira print. Limited Edition of 7. For pricing information, please contact lauren@irvinecontemporary.com.

Seems like tons of fun, and probably a lot easier than it really is. Now, I wonder how would it feel to be there in person and walk around the 'painting' (as a photograph we no longer perceive depth, hence our illusion of it being flat), and if it would be equally convincing.

Probably not but that's maybe not the point. If only, then we'd be able to one day achieve amazing effects... remember that Robin Williams movie 'What dreams may come'?

Alexa Meade's official Page

Another person who blogged about her art (more pictures! And stuff she says about her own work)

Scene from What Dreams May Come

Hyperrealism and Abstract Art

Artist Nicolás Radic (who I met on one occasion, pleasant dude) broke my brain with several of his crazy hyperrealist paintings. Particularly that series of paintings I saw printed in a booklet my dad gave me called ''La Trampa De Luz'' (The Light Trap). I'm still impressed at the level of observation and precision required to replicate on oil and canvass the things he does, for example, the reflections a crumpled sheet of tinfoil creates. And that's why they're like abstract art but coming from realistic styles of painting, because what is reflected on his subjects is far removed from what it originally was. Wowee.

Óleo Sobre Tela

Then again, thinking about the process that went into making each of his works is really interesting. It seems that in this one, funnily enough, he's painting another painter, and his painting! And the reflections on a camera and every little detail. Really interesting, art within art:

espacios confinados

More of his paintings can be seen on these sites:

ArtSlant
Kunst.com- Chilean artists site