20syl – Kodama (official music video) from 20syl on Vimeo.
In a love affair with musical instruments, French producer 20syl teams up with director Mathieu le Dude for a gorgeous music video. As the bass-heavy track shuffles along amiably, hands on musical instruments and other objects reveal the instrumentation – a young hipster’s guide to the electronic orchestra, if you will.
20syl is the producer name of turnablist and sometimes-rapper and graphic artist and music maker Sylvain Richard of Nantes, well-known in his France but getting greater international exposure with this video. He co-directs the film here, applying his graphical sensibilities as well as musical aesthetic.
It’s all charming, and a clever and elegant introduction to the music, which is available as a free-to-stream EP on YouTube. (That is, as long as Google decides to allow such things.)
And, um, yes, for anyone complaining (inexplicably) about seeing a neat and tidy arrangement of musical instruments and grids on wooden surfaces, I’m proud to reward all that bad karma you created in comments last week with – your worst nightmare. (Cue the evil laugh of a blogger, deep inside his cave, lit only by the chilling icy light of his MacBook Pro. CDM presents: the new Things on Wood Video Series! Um… seriously, musical instruments being played by hands on wood apparently sets people off, why?)
Gear spotting time:
Sequential Circuits Six-Trak Synth (hmm, ripe for another Dave Smith remake?)
Akai MPC2000XL
Novation Launchpad
Korg microKORG
Moog Moogerfooger MF-101 Filter
Teenage Engineering OP-1
A Record Runner, an unusual portable VW Bus-shaped turntable playback system
and, of course, various odds and ends
But have a listen to the EP, as it’s rather lovely without the visuals, too:
Indie label On and Records has a lot of great turntable-heavy, hip-hop-flavored eclectic electronic music, and they seem to favour videos as a way to show off process. For some live turntablism, KORG-ism, and serious digital scratch (hello Serato) sampled finger drumming, which the virtuoso C2C live remixing from last year:
C2C – Down The Road – HIFANA Live REMIX from On And On Records on Vimeo.
Via booooooom!, hat tip to The Verge.