Came Across the work of VINCE COLLINS recently. I couldn't find much about him other than he started animating in California during the early 70's, influenced by animators of the of the 60's and early 70's such as George Dunning and Peter Max (Yellow Submarine and many american comercials), making some of the most hallucinatory animations of the era. Through this period he made a small number of films influenced by the drug scene of the time, such as Euphoria and the bizzare and sexual Malice in Wonderland, until that era of experimental animation in the underground came to an end in the late 70's. From what I gather he is still animating, though in the dawn of computer technology in the 80's and 90's, he favoured the avenue of corporate digital animation, which in my own opnion seems a shame... Still these animations here are as mind blowing now as they were on their creation more than thirty years ago.
Here's his website and an Interview with him in hipster injection mag Vice.
So I have dabbled with the idea for a while about doing a 3D poster design. So when my freind Mark Howlette (motivesounds records) approached me to ask for a poster design for his local monthly rock night "Mark & Nicks Big F*ck Off Rock Night", I thought it was an ample time for a first attempt. As per usual I left it till the last minute, meaning it was a little hurried in it's design and concept, (one night to be precise, woops!),but despite this I am happy with the results. The final effect is seen by utilizing the old classic 3D method of Anaglyph imaging, and using traditional Cyan and Red 3D glasses. So here are both the final 3D version and the flat 2D version, and photos of the drawing process. I shall be doing the 3D concept again I hope with other work...
All parts of the poster were hand drawn. This started with the image of Mark and Nick. This was the hardest part in honesty, getting their likeness. So first off mark...
...And Nick...
Each part was then inked with drawing pens.
To get the layout I wanted, I drew and inked each part seperatley using a sheet of glass and a light upshining so I could draw round each "layer". No money calls for DIY solutions...
...here's a few of the different sheets of paper together, beggining to give a an idea for the final layout...
as usual, I then scanned each drawing into illustrator, to clean up any roughness and used photoshop to layout. The 3D effect was created using layers in photoshop and adjusting their properties. Now stick on some old school Cyan and Red 3D glasses and enjoy the finished article at the top of the post.
and of course not forgeting the regular 2D "Flat Version".
So I was clearing away some old mails and such from my inbox when I came across this little ditty that I wrote to my good chum Alan a few years ago. made me chuckle. Alan plays Guitar in the London, and Factual, based band Down I Go. Who are rather good. Like botch taking a history lesson from Mike Patton with the Locust as class mates. Check them out h e r e.
Alex Macarte May 25, 2008 at 1:07pm tried to buy your bloody new album the other day. Carlisle doesnt have it. Can you fucking beleive it. I asked the guy behind the counter and he just gave me some shit about the warriors that came before him and the power given to him from the spaceship would crush me. I didnt recognise him at first, but as I stared him in the eye, standing my ground, I noticed the warrior markings painted on his face. He continued in a rage, so animal like and visceral, telling of prophecies and that soon hulkamania would be all but a ruin. I had enough. I could take his jibes no more. So I pulled myself onto the counter and from the great hieght I was now standing from I leg dropped the ultimate warrior slamming his larynx. Stunned the warrior arose and let out a battle cry. This meant nothing to me. I warned other shop goers and music lovers to stand back. And I ran all the way to the other side of the shop. From the far end I could see the warrior was in a daze. He had now ripped his HMV unifom shirt from his torso, throwing it at me, with no regard or respect. I took his name badge from said shirt. Held it aloft and crushed it in my hand. A sign of what I would now do to him. I hurled myself, at full speed, to ward him and peformed an axe bomber, wrapping my arm around his head and slamming him to the ground. With the warrior concused, laying on the ground by the counter, I then stink faced him, rubbing my arse in his face. The Uiltimate humilation of the ultimate warrior. Alas, I left HMV, bruised,tired, sweaty and no CD. Worst of all is I'm now banned from the shop.
I figure you now owe me. ---------------------------------------------------- Johnny Hoof May 25, 2008 at 1:12pm Report I can't believe you bothered to write all that out, but i'm glad you did because it has made me laugh and when I have a hangover as bad as this one, a laugh is a rare thing.
Just heard the next instalment of Chris Ware's EXCELLENT Novelty Acme Library, # 20 to be exact is to be released on 1 November 2010 and is now up for pre-order on Amazon.
Best known for his ground breaking graphic novel Jimmy Corrigan, The Smartest Kid On Earth, Ware perfectly blends Cartoonist art and Graphic design with his creative use of mind boggling geometrical panel layouts, faux advertisements and even cut out supplements of toys and dioramas whilst telling touching tales of loneliness, alienation, neurosis and depression with an aching sense of longing wrapped in beauty.
Something should also be said of each publications covers, which are a work of art in themselves, from leatherbound embossed designs to the unconventional shapes and sizes, they really do stand out on anyone's bookshelf.
If the last two instalments, #18 and #19 are anything to go by, this next edition should be nothing short of stunning. Pre Order here.
Pictures: top - close up of Acme Novelty Library #17, right - Panel from Acme Novelty Library #18, Bottom left - unknown private collection.
My love and further discoveries of late 60's /early 70's, Psych/prog continues with this little ditty. Released in Italy and Europe in 1971 a certain mystery surrounds this release of this instrumental Psych with an early prog feel. Compromised of still unknown and un named Italian session musicians, Blue Phantom's Distortions is a very rare LP and is popular amongst collectors, only having a re release on CD and Vinyl in 2008 I believe. Enjoy! Steal this HERE
Finally I've been ploughing through and scanning litterally hundreds of "recent" photos, from the last 6 months. So expect a shit load of photo posts to come.
The First of these are of Oxbow in Manchester Nov 2009.
Taken with true B&W 35mm on LCA. and of course el Phil Donk.
Outisde of manatees i have started messing around with some of my own stuff. Semi improvised Acoustic noise meanderings. Untitled, and only a small amount of lo-fi cassette recording at present but will work towards somekind of recording document and live peformance in the near future....a more substantial post soon.
Sneakily got hold of this album in the new year, having really loved the 2006 album "Silent Shout", which saw the Knife, move to darker more brooding sounds whilst still retaining the catchiness and melody of their earlier two releases. Similaly I completley fell for Karin's solo album under the Fever Ray moniker, which for me, provided both one of the best albums and live shows of 2009.
So the Knife return with their most strange and bizzare release yet. "Tomorrow, in a Year" see's the Swedish siblings Olaf and Karin Driejer collaborate with Mt Sims and Planningtorock to produce this two disc 16 track Electro Opera. Yep. OPERA. And if the premise of it being an Opera wasn't bizzare enough, it had to be one based on Charles Darwin's "On the Origin of Species". Of course. it HAD to be.
I always love it when artist's take a massive creative turn, and this is one big turn. I can't imagine this will be every ones cup of coco, especially people more fond of their ealier output. Although you can tell it's still the Knife, it's like nothing they've done before, taking away much of the standard structure, rythm and pop elements of past and adding more elements of Drone, Noise and ambient aswell as Operatic mezzo-soprano vocals. Although the record gets more "normal" in the later half, with more of Karin's voice being present (albiet still fucked up with vocoders and octave effects) The overall result is a darker, experimental, and slighly scary in places...
I recently came across the amazing poster work of 1960's graphic artist, Tandanori Yokoo, who's use of collage, bright colours, intresting layout and slight psychedelic feel caught my eye.
taken from wikipedia, the lazy mans source of all knowledge...
"Tadanori Yokoo (横尾忠則, Yokoo Tadanori) (born 1936, 27 June in Hyogo Prefecture) is a Japanese graphic designer, illustrator, printmaker and painter.
Tadanori Yokoo (pronounced "yoko-o"), born in Hyōgo Prefecture, Japan, in 1936, is one of Japan's most successful and internationally recognized graphic designers and artists. He began his career as a stage designer for avant garde theatre in Tokyo. His early work shows the influence of the New York based Push Pin Studio (Milton Glaser and Seymour Chwast in particular) but Yokoo himself cites filmmaker Akira Kurosawa and writer Yukio Mishima as two of his most formative influences.
In the late 1960s he became interested in mysticism and psychedelia, deepened by travels in India. Because his work was so attuned to 1960s pop culture, he has often been (unfairly) described as the "Japanese Andy Warhol" or likened to psychedelic poster artist Peter Max, but Yokoo's complex and multi-layered imagery is intensely autobiographical and entirely original. By the late 60s he had already achieved international recognition for his work and was included in the 1968 "Word & Image" exhibition at the Museum of Modern Art in New York. Four years later MoMA mounted a solo exhibition of his graphic work organized by Mildred Constantine.[1] Yokoo collaborated extensively with Shuji Terayama and his theater Tenjo Sajiki. He has also starred as a protagonist in Nagisa Oshima's film Diary of a Shinjuku Thief.
In 1981 he unexpectedly "retired" from commercial work and took up painting. His career as a fine artist continues to this day with numerous exhibitions of his paintings every year, but alongside this he remains fully engaged and prolific as a graphic designer."
In December 2009 we three mana men entered Dub:Rek Studios in Derby to record our third full length. working title Helvellyn. Under the engineering splendor of Jay Dean (Lords, Lovvers, Pilgrim Fathers), who described it as "Part Chimp on Heroin", the record is currently in mixing stages and is due for release later 2010. Rocksound In Studio feature has more... (although photo included is not of said session, (L.Johnson 2007) I have included some snaps of the recording from my LCA)
