video #70: Wagon Christ - Receiver

Luke Vibert's music has inspired a lot of great animated videos. Here's another one, directed by Tom Perrett.

Turn On - Electrocation Of Fire Ants

Turn On - "Electrocation Of Fire Ants"

I had no idea that this band even existed until a week ago. Turn On included Tim Gane, Sean O'Hagan and Andy Ramsay, with Laetitia Sadier contributing vocals to a track. Essentially, this line-up was Stereolab without Mary Hansen or Morgane Lhote, and releasing an EP at the height of the Groop's prime in 1997. I've done my best to follow the Switched On collections and other related projects over the years (Monade, UiLab) but this one slipped past me.

I was really into this track for about a week, but went a little overboard and don't know if I'll want to hear this again for a while. Don't get me wrong, this is mellow and pleasant, though not as inspired as the Lab's best instrumental work from the time. Oh well. Trying to track down as much abstract pop from this time period as I can, still searching in vain for something else like it.

video #69: Fol Chen - No Wedding Cake

Animated video for the latest Asthmatic Kitty band. Pretty tired of this kind of indie pop to say the least, but the video reminds me of Delphine games from the 90's and their somewhat-related imitators. Don't expect anyone else to conjure up those for a reference, though.

Directed by Nancy Jean Tucker.

Telefon Tel Aviv - I Lied

TELEFON-TEL-AVIV-BOTH
Originally uploaded by kirstiecat

Telefon Tel Aviv - "I Lied"

News of the passing of Charles Cooper hit the Internet last week, first in a post by bandmate Joshua Eustis on Telefon Tel Aviv's Myspace page. News was quickly picked up by local sites like The Reader, Chicagoist, and Gaper's Block, not to mention Pitchfork and a bunch of other music websites (most of which had been gleefully happy to shit on the band's faces for most of the past 5 years, if only for making pleasant electropop that wasn't 100% groundbreaking or part of some trendy and easy to write about revival). Even at this point, details about Cooper's death have not been released to the public, though that hasn't stopped some from not only speculating on what they might be, but also on the appropriate response of his family and friends.

Checking the band's last.fm page, I'm kind of shocked that they have as many listeners as they do. They were never very hyped or given an overwhelming push by either Hefty Records or Bpitch Control. I'm glad to see that it looks like they had, in fact, found their audience, one that had surely been eagerly anticipating their new album, out mere days before Cooper's disappearance had been reported.

Here's a song from their second album, Map of What is Effortless, which helped get me through many long nights at my last job (and still could at my current position if only music were allowed).