Beach House '7' Op Art Album

Okay, I'm a little odd in that I do probably most of my music listening from youtube. Call me crazy... but it works for me. There's of content thats not music, film, video, podcasts, news there as well and it just works for me to find songs and things there, along with episode of Frontline, or theory videos on Westworld.

And as I have done, I've seen the rise of the Lyric video or the Album Stream. Record labels like Matador or Subpop put up new releases, whole albums into a youtube video to play through. The 'video' is only the artwork,

This, '7' from Beach House is in that same vein but rather than just the album art, they've gone for animation, Op art that actually moves and responds to the music. Its simple, it looks great, and it must have been a whole lot of work. Thats a lot of building systems to power animation for 30-40 minutes. Very nicely done.

Walk Like You - Alex Prager

Alex Prager is a photographer and filmmaker who trades in beauty, nostalgia and surrealism.

There's a great deal of storytelling happening in these photos. Beyond just one surreal moment, or some reference to the past, she is setting up some scenes with many things happening at once. A car crash, a dead lover. Almost like a renaissance painting or comic book spread. Everything happening at once. A much bigger story implied by the specifics of this captured moment.

There's a lot of ambiguity here, but there's also implied depth.

Coming from animation or film I think this is a very interesting way to think about storytelling. Can you put enough details in the image to imply a bigger story? Can you tease them? Draw them in with a few threads but not weave the whole thing together? I think this is a powerful idea for film or photography alike.

Battles - The Yabba

Battles Yabba is a strong example of taking a simple theme and extrapolating it to build a much bigger greater idea.

Walk Like You - Esad Ribic

Esad Ribic is a painter from Croatia.

I've recently read Thor, the Unworthy (Coipel) and Thor God of Thunder, The God Butcher (Ribic) comics and I am blown away by the quality of the art on each page. A lot of this work is comprised of very strong compositions and watercolor, which in many instances show a sort of greyed down, washed out color into the shadows. A suggestion of atmosphere and depth that you seldom see. Comics tend to lean heavily on black, and fill in colors underneath. But these paintings are fading away, into the distance, and yet still remain dynamic and strong. Striking.

When You Die – MGMT

I hadn't realized MGMT had a new record from this last year, but came across this one through suggestions on youtube. And I like even from a simple storytelling perspective of repeating ones day, and weird dream logic, before all the visual effects. And the effects are great. As close as I have seen to how psychedelia actually works, applying patterns.

People have come a long way with algorithms to apply art styles to an image, or that one terrifying one which puts faces and legs all over everything and eyes and turns things into many faced frogs. eek. And this use, is one of the best I've seen in video.

And I always love when I see something where I'm not entirely sure how its made. Well done.

Directors: Mike Burakoff & Hallie Cooper-Novack

VFX Supervisor: Jamie Dutcher

Spike Jonze – Apple Home

I mean what can I say? I've been a fan of Spike Jonze since Mouse days, since Girl and Chocolate. He has made some of the most personally impacting and meaningful work that I have ever seen. And of course, he's still going.

This music video / film / ad is so simple in idea and so amazingly executed. And using props and sets and storytelling to show you, escape. Sanctuary in music. Expansive soundscapes.

It's wonderful. Truly. Bravo.

And a bonus, From Mouse 1996:

Walk Like You: Guy Bourdin

'Bourdin's photographs are often richly sensual but also rely heavily on provocation and ability to shock. Additionally integrating erotic, surreal, sinister components, Bourdin configured a whole new visual vocabulary with which to associate the goods of haute-couture. The narratives were strange and mysterious, often plainly exhibiting violence and graphic sexuality. Evident through astute reading of his compositional and thematic presentation, Bourdin profited from the influence of a diverse collection of contemporaries: first and foremost, his mentor Man Ray, but also the photographer Edward Weston, surrealist painters Magritte and Balthus, and Spanish surrealist filmmaker Luis Buñuel.'

–Wikipedia

Okay why do I like this? They are clever, they are sexy, they are deliberate and directed. They are weird. There are stories happening here, or maybe not. Maybe we just have 'art'. It becomes sort of open ended. And theres also some darkness implied, but in each instance its sort of light and whimsical.

Legs? A body? is this a murder? Oh but her shoes are beautiful.

I don't know what to say, but this work occupies a very unique space, and I really enjoy it.

Wild Nothing – Album Art Video

Wild Nothing. To Know You / TV Queen

Wild Nothing did an amazing job taking the photography from Life of Pause and creating a video actually living inside the space depicted on the album art. This one is buoyed also by the fact that I love the record and these songs particularly.

Directed by Shawn Brackbill.

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Walk Like You: Martine Johanna

Amazing surreal paintings from Martine Johanna.

Martine Johanna a painter and artist from Amsterdam.

'...delicately rendered figures convey a sense of full immersion within their own “internal psychic landscape.” The work is imbued with a mysterious narrative and sensation of knowing that each character in the work has a full and complex history that the viewer can never fully comprehend. The paintings have a signature prismatic palette, visually stimulating and playful while expressing an underlying sense of uncertainty and unrest.'

Kerala – Bonobo

Bonobo Kerala - Directed by Bison

I love this video. Its so simple in concept but so effective in its storytelling. It's simply hypnotic in a way of only revealing a few more frames at a time with each loop back. Also the subtlety in the visual effects here is impressive. Things are happening, but we are a little unclear exactly what, or how. And with each loop back we are both teased and pulled away from what we just saw and given another chance to watch it through.

Well done, Bison.

Walk Like You: Sergio Toppi

Sergio Toppi

Walk Like You: Alberto Mieglo

Alberto Mieglo. Spanish painter and concept artist. Notable works include visdev for Tron Uprsing and the Beatles Rockband Open (which is how I first found his work). Simply stunning.

Walk Like You: Michael Carson

Michael Carson has an amazing sense of color and contrast in these portraits. He's injecting heat into shadows and muted down washed out greys across heavy saturated spaces. They feel a bit like really beautifully overexposed film slides. I am fascinated by this use of color. Wonderful stuff.

Walk Like You: Megan Howland

Beautiful Lush stuff. Megan Howland.