riginality.co.uk
Seeking out originality in the arts
The very original queen of disco funk and a pioneer in the use of repetitive sound loops in dance music and sexually iconic singer Donna Summer has died aged 63.
The site got a bit difficult to update due to my ISP having a DNS fault for two months – and I had client sites to look after. The videos so far are worth watching so before we post more frequently have a look again at Das Fluff 100% and Jordan Reyne and Marina Cwleste – filming these artists came about due to a single night at a venue which used to be called The Bowery. Unfortunately it appears to have changed its name but we hope its interest in the original arts is not diminished. So much of our world relies upon the acceptance of sameness. Mass agreement does not make something better than it is. A lot of modern culture is good, but is it original? Is the works of the Chapman Brothers more original than Damien Hurst? We attempt to clarify a view of oRiginality in the arts. Follow.
Das Fluff did a series of gigs in Japan – here is their video of the experience
Jordon Reyne’s website reflects the sheer complexity of achievement as a solo artist. It is ecstatic and aware. But her life performance is a rare chance to capture something so elegantly and precisely this singer can use her voice, it is an experience in rhythm and the authentic.
Tickets for tour – London 22 February 2012
Bugbear has a detailed review.
Catch Jordan Reyne at her regular Second Life performance – see details on her website.
UPDATE: Supported by Bad Woolf
A video with recorded sound for this song can be found here
Perhaps qualifies as a rare find Bjork CD or perhaps just an uncommon selection – not a release I had encountered before – first track is a gentle introduction with a male voice as as you listen to the song, as though her voice were exploring it, it made more sense, what follows you are not quite prepared for, it is extreme and relentless in layered beauty. It is Bjork at her adventurous best composing outseide the realm of political or even emotional meaning. It is a heated abstract of electric warmth produced through Bjork’s designed to spec intruments and more conventional orchestral arrangements this modern Mozart paints in a multi dimensional tapestry of sound and dance and colourful brilliance in Bjork’s unique style of composition rich and sometimes dischodant – the slicing deprecation the album ends with is every bit as weird as the rest of it. Bjork’s art significant work is indeed a dignified and serious work of art in itself.
With extraordinary production she presents her exclusive ability to be wonderfully weird and somehow in another place. Disconcerting and odd certainly but will it mature like wine or be consumed and disregarded remains to be bolted down. One certainly hopes so, she brings a patently unique stamp to her genre, which itself may indeed be its very own little subcategory I think that Rickie Lee Jones once occupied but maybe not as cutting as Julie Cruise.
[update] since first impressions and ignoring the media hype her management has achieved granting her a stamp of indy sufferin’ credibility and stories of her millionaire father behind the scenes inferring her talent was thus suspect – but listening to her myspace page is reassuring that this is media games. Her music holds up in produced circumstances, her recent performances I think were directed as part of her image. One she does not really need but it is an entertaining one. She styles herself as through she was a brand of expensive cigarettes invented in a David Lynch movie. Her music is a strange mix of Jim Morrison, Bjork and Johnny Cash. She has a pleasing voice with a fake fairy whisper and edges to it.
Originality rating: ****
If you have not listened to this wonderfully bizarre crossover act, from one of the worlds acknowledged best film makers, David Lynch make a CD, and hearing something almost expected however unearthing, our expectations for as a musician are dashed by an adroit flexing of rhythm and wonderful distantly lurid lyrics – “we all ran around the back yard – this crazy clown time – it was real fun” each stanza stamped in three times. It is dangerous and freaky but rather excellent to listen to. ****+
One that improves with listening. Contemporary, surprising and often sounding like it should, in particular the title track.