Last week was the Memorial Van Damme 2010 over here in Brussels. And it could well have been the day when Usain Bolt would had crushed competition fingers pointing to the moon in his trademark pose, photographers around the world portraying the man… possibly in a shirt designed by yours truly.
Faith decided differently, Bolt quit this years competition with health problems. So the shirt was never made. Continue Reading »
Poetry. Slam. Honestly, I’m not to big about it. But after watching Kate Tempest her ‘Line In The Sand’ I caugth myself staring at the screen, all goosebumped.
That’s enough to share this video. A rugged boost of energy and passion. Real proper UK styling:
“See I’m all city, except I got the hair of a hippie.”
Line in the Sand is out now on ‘Patterns’ – Kate Tempest’s new book/CD release available from Kate at gigs or from soundofrum.com. Video by theindependentcontentcompany.co.uk.
One of the most interesting producers out there at the moment, Martyn, is starring in his first shortfilm, which goes by the same name as his album debut: Great Lenghts, shot by Ramón Gieling.
Great Lengths is a tribute to Martyn’s parents, his father, former PSV team-leading scorer Gerrie Deijkers, who died of heart falure in 2003. Martyn plays his father, Halina Reijn the widow. After the ball is taken away from him, we see Martyn at his own farewell gathering. Beautiful:
If you’re not familiar with Martyn yet, we made a must-see video about the man a couple of months ago: Continue Reading »
Donny Hathaway, unsung hero of soul, with classics like Little Ghetto Boy, The Ghetto and Roberta Flack’s debut album and work with Curtis Mayfield under his belt, to name just a few (download this tribute mix if you want a nice overview of his career). A lifetime overshadowed by the darkside it seems:
“During the best part of his career, Hathaway began to suffer from severe bouts of depression. It was found that he was suffering from paranoid schizophrenia and was known to take strong medication daily to try and control the illness. However, Eulaulah Hathaway has said that her husband was frequently less than diligent about following his prescription regimen.”
Full documentary on the life and times of the extraordinary talent that was Donny Hathaway:
Staff Benda Bilili is a group of street musicians who are paraplegic polio victims living in and around the grounds of Kinshasa Zoo, in the Democratic Republic of Congo. They call their disability a state of mind.
Leader Ricky has dreams of his group becoming the best band in Congo Kinshasa. A documentary crew followed the band for five years, resulting in what looks like a must-see documentary, which was selected at the Quinzaines des Réalisateurs at Cannes Film Festival this year:
In 2009 the band released their debut album ‘Très Très Fort’, which I’m now very curious to hear…
(thx Gust for the tip!)
Blend’ was the track that put them on the map as Uphigh Collective (you’ve seen the live video, you’ve got the 7″ vinyl, or the mp3 – out on On-Point Records), gaining them international acclaim from Athens to Los Angeles over London and Amsterdam.
Currently preparing their live show and with new tracks to surface soon, now seemed the appropriate time to share more sounds from two of the Uphigh producers: Oddlaner and Ducap.
The two ep’s are now up for free downloads: EP1: Oddlaner and EP2: Ducap. The download is free for all, but as always in these hard times, any donation is heavily appreciated, all profit going directly to the artists and their future output. And you know that’ll sound mighty fine!
On-Point Records is a small independent label, so if you’re digging the sounds… please share this with your friends, followers and fans. Continue Reading »
Downtown Calling was just brought hom to day, only to premiere to a sold-out venue. This sure looks like a must-see documentary for anybody interested in what is most likely the most amazing outburst of creativity in one period of time, in one specific place: downtown New York, 1977 – 1985.
(To know the background of what led to this era and creative state-of-mind, make sure you watch ‘Nightmare In The City That Never Sleeps‘ once again, the docu about NYC’s black-out, put entirely online for free.)
In the late 1970s, the greatest city in the world was teetering on the edge of total chaos. A failed economy, crime and en masse housing corruption gave way to a city in crisis.
Yet out of the economic and social strife that held the Big Apple hostage, a family of homegrown cultures that would forever change the world began to emerge.
Downtown Calling not only documents, in detail, the evolution of New York Citys fertile music and art subculture during this period, but how its collective output continues to play a prominent, driving role in the international fashion, art and music industries today.
Wondering if a rambling movement like the one in the following documentary teaser exists in Europe… Surely it can’t be an American-only thing, right? It sure looks like a beautiful occupation, some sort of mini-graffiti, a lot less screaming for attention, a lot less ego-driven, yet at the same time…very, very much alike. Watch it:
Ramblin’ is the documentary of a nationwide search for the anonymous and unknown artists of freight train monikers. This art form has been prevalent on the rails since the Great Depression but is often overshadowed by larger, aerosol train graffiti.
The film features artists such as the Colossus of Roads, The Rambler, Smokin’ Joe, The Kodak Kidd, KHaze, The Ghouls, Texican Gothic, The Solo Artist, Faves and Conrail Twitty.
Ramblin’ is still in production and we are actively seeking all moniker artists. Please contact 7demonbag@gmail.com
“We had no idea what that song was about, we just needed a b-side.”
Well, if only more b-sides like this were made, creating a trademark sound for other genres to grow out off. Melvin Bliss’s Synthetic Substitution is one of those classic breakbeats you’ve heard over a gazillion times, sampled by your favourite hiphop producer, and their mamas.
Melvin Bliss passed away July 26th 2010. A documentary is in the making, to tell the full story of Melvin Bliss.
“Watch as director Earl Holder and Peripheral Enterprises present a documentary about Melvin Bliss and his famous recording, Synthetic Substitution. As one of the most sampled drum breaks ever, Synthetic Substitution featured drumming by none other than the master Bernard Purdie.” (via cratekings)
Like two years ago, I went to Dour Festival (and Werchter too, but that’s less relevant for this blog) to shoot some interviews for the sites of Humo and TéléMoustique.
Not all went well, not all were deep, but that’s all part of the festivalgame, isn’t it? The hectic schedules, the freestyled questions, the artists unknown, the back hurting from the sauna-tent you spent the night in, the showers you’ve skipped, etc. etc. You know how that goes..
Anyway, these are the interviews I succeeded in shooting, big hug to Gunter – Eckelwood – Blokken for assisting with some of these:
For more videos… Continue Reading »
Fela. One of the artists we should all own as much albums off as possible. For the music, for the message, for the artwork, for the energy. A while ago, you’ve seen this documentary ft. the man himself and all of his wives.
Now, with ‘Fela!’, the musical playing on Broadway, more videos are put online, my favourite being the interview with Ghariokwu Lemi, the mastermind behind Fela’s trademark album cover art:
Adding to that, a beautiful fragment of the Broadway musical, a favourite of many: Water No Get Enemy:
And there’s more, Fela’s son Seun Kuti talking about Broadway going crazy for Fela: Continue Reading »
One of the finer things in life, is arguably meeting New People. And so it happened that during our stay at OFFF in Paris, I saw a man with a t-shirt reading ‘New Shirt’. Black and Blue lettering in the same style as the logo of one of my favourite blogs…? Opportunity sometimes only strikes once, so I ran after the man, to congratulate him with his t-shirt (yeah, I’m that type of fool), asking him out about New Work.
Long story short, your favourite blogger is now a contributor over at NewWork. Sharing both my personal portfolio as well as my online inspirations. Not sure how this will overlap with this here on-point.be, but as with the twitter and the facebook, it’ll all be complimentary, none covers it all, but they’re all equally on-point.
Put it in your bookmarks, or your feed reader, ILoveNewWork, because it’s nice like that!
Always big enthusiasts of ‘making-ofs’ over here at the headquarters, I happened to stumble upon this impressive series of photographs. Of what seems to be like a real doll factory. Fascinating to say the least, for all you DIY cats out there, get inspired, or cough up a solid $6000.
Her lips are full and pink. Her teal green eyes are intense and inviting. Her black eyeliner accentuates her high cheekbones and her strawberry hair complements her light African skin. Her metallic halter dress holds her supple thighs and pushes on her round breast.
She is the result of careful attention and workmanship. When you see her up close, you can’t help but stare. At $6000, she’s certainly not a cheap date. For creator, Matt McMullen, she’s a work of art. For everyone else, she’s a Real Doll.
For a four-day frenzy of quality music and warm Southern French vibes, it’s going down as of today : Gilles Peterson’s Worldwide Festival. With acts such as Gil Scott-Heron, Dorian Concept, Martyn, Flying Lotus and many others, this is a music fan’s walhalla.
The festival is happening twice a year, in Sète ànd in Singapore later this year. And guess what: it comes with a magazine! Our man Lefto was asked to write up an overview of what’s going on musically in Belgium, and he compiled a nice three page article, ft. our very own JtotheC, alongside Baloji, Brazzaville and OndaSonora. Thank you very much for that! And maybe next year, we’ll all be on stage in Sète!
Read the magazine right here, it’s entirely for free!
Almost a year ago, when we were vi-si-ting New-York City, Matthew at turntablelab tipped us there was a guy in town, which we really should go check out and maybe even meet:
Turns out the guy was a boy, and so the day after, we connected with 17-year old Kyle Hall, who was in NYC for the first time in his life, just like us. Little did we know, this young man would become the hype of the year, as he’s been constantly releasing records, on his own Wild Oats imprint, on Hyperdub, Third Ear and Clone Records.
So we sat down with mr. Kyle Hall, in the Sunday Best sun one fine Sunday. Continue Reading »
At OFFF’10, genius came into play during the Art+Com lecture, when a professor of the institute not only showed how they had made a huge BMW installation and how the first tests dramatically failed, with metal balls crashing into the ceiling, but when after that he presented ‘The Image Fulgurator’, a brilliantly executed piece of DIY craftmanship by Art+Com student Julius von Bismark. Check it out, this is brilliant!
Or how to make “the Magritte dove” appear on tourist photos of the Mao Zedong portrait at Tiananmen Square in Beijing without security noticing anything! Or a cross on Obama’s speech stand! Continue Reading »
Now here’s a fine OFFF’10 discovery which would have looked nice in the goodiebag: Lemon magazine. Unfortunately we had to settle with the presentation by Crady & Metcalf:
Sure would have loved to blog some ‘open-magazine-on-the-desk’ type of pictures, but none were for sale at the event, oddly enough. Still have a look at their website – which is a brilliant piece of design by Multitouch Barcelona. One of the best magazine sites I’ve seen in a while.
These guys succeed in making a magazine, that’s actually an art statement in itself, issue after issue. Working around a theme, they manage to have Daft Punk in the studio for a David Bowie special photoshoot, to name just one example. All without one single advertisement in the magazine. They didn’t really talk about the business model behind the mag, so that still has me wondering… how is it possible?
No idea, but… Continue Reading »
Knife Party is an animation collective, that’s been boiling up a little buzz lately, most notably for their ‘Coalition of the Willing‘ film.
In this 15-minute animation, their aim is to explore the ways in which online activism can help in the combat against climat change in a post-Copenhagen world. With the main premise being: People can do so much more than just turning of the lights.
The film is a beautiful example of current animation styles and shows how it’s possible to motivate different collectives and studios to collaborate on a joint effort. To see who animated what and when, here’s more info.
If you’re in London or Berlin, check out the screenings in your city in the coming days, follow the Coalition on facebook and twitter. Also, a coalition iphone application will be launched June 30th, in two days that is, check the site.
Like last year, I headed to OFFF over the weekend. This time the location wasn’t Portugal, but Paris, France. Three days of post-media culture together with my man Gunter – Eckelwood – Blokken.
To be perfectly honest, compared to last year, this edition had a bit too much of agencies showing their campaigns and commercial work. Now that’s only interesting when you work for an agency and believe you’re the next generation of marketing yourself. However, there were a couple of inspirational presentations, which I’ll run you through in the next posts.
As always, the organisation had set out a nice slogan as a theme, last year was ‘Fail Gracefully’ and this year they opted for “Nostalgia for a Past Future”. And with that, they released the 10 year anniversary book of the festival: “Aim High, Keep Moving”, which is in stores now:
If you don’t know what OFFF is all about, this is the intro to the festival. Continue Reading »
Last Sunday On-Point Records was invited on national radio, as a part of Lefto’s season closing on Studio Brussel. JtotheC & the Bad Mothas were in the building, Nouk was in the building, Title was in the building, LuiGi was in the building, and most notably Delv!s was in the building, alongside the entire Uphigh Collective.
Next to a 10-minute set of exclusive tracks by Ducap, Oddlaner and iSa, the show’s climax was Delv!s performing Uphigh Collective’s Blend live in the studio, luckily Eckelwood was there to capture this magical moment:
If you’re feeling the vibe of ‘Blend’, buy it now on iTunes, or get your 7″ vinyl via Rushhour or Juno, or at your local record store, of course.
You can listen to the entire radioshow right here on mixcloud.
Thanks to Lefto and Gus for having us, and to Studio Brussel of course!
Next saturday, it seems like Belgium will be burning by beats. Ghent, Antwerp and Brussels, they all seem to have a hard-hitting line-up ready for the night. Personally, I’ll be in Paris for OFFF, but still I feel the need to keep you posted about this, because it is simply to big. Some of you might need to be cut in parts to do all of these events.
Check it out, because we’re giving away some free tickets:
As an answer to Beck’s Record Club, the Belgian Internet Recording Klub was recently put together. Assembling artists of all genres and flavours, to make covers of classic albums in the same spirit as Beck’s very own club.
JtotheC was asked to participate in this, choosing one artist from a genre far away from his comfort zone and choosing one track of Beck’s very own Odelay album. Not afraid of a little musical challenge every now and then, J asked Kortrijk-based Nouk if she’d feel like joining him in an uptempo soul version of the country-folk flavoured ‘Lord Only Knows’.
Download the track for free and check birklub.be, as there will be new covers online in the coming days and weeks!
Here’s something that wasn’t discussed the last time I met mr. Flying Lotus (watch the video) : the art of his Cosmogramma album. All is explained by visual philosopher Leigh J. McCloskey in this beautiful video. I don’t think I fully understand all of his words, but the art is beautiful nonetheless, especially the vibe that radiate the sketchbooks seems extraordinary:
This Thursday ‘Soul Boy’ is premiering in Bozar, Brussels. Send me a mail with a little motivation on why you’d absolutely need to see this movie, and maybe you’ll win one of the 5 tickets!
Soul Boy? What’s that all about then? Well, it’s a modern fairy tale, which looks brilliantly well told:
Distraught at his father’s drink-fuelled decline, a young boy invents an odyssey that takes him into the heart of Nairobi in order to save his father’s soul.
For more info… Continue Reading »
Kid Sublime is back! And back with a masterplan, which on-point fully endorses, of course! Download The Alicia Beattape, 1h10min of pure soul, produced by the Kid, on the keys, drums, bass and vocals. I’m feeling this passionate magnus opus of Amsterdam’s finest producer/composer:
Download ‘Kid Sublime presents The Alicia Beattape’ (and don’t forget the cover)
This man deserves to be in the studio with Alicia Keys. Watch him explain the idea of this beattape in the video below, and please spread this as wide as you can, eventually, this will reach Alicia, and she’s got to love it:
This one’s for nostalgia, haha. On-Point back in… the days when websites didn’t even have birthdays yet.
Found this flicking through the old archives. Took me all the way back. Beautiful.
Gil Scott-Heron’s concert in Brussels last month is arguably the best concert I’ve seen in a long time, and with that, I’ve grown even a bigger fan of the man than I already was.
His latest album ‘I’m New Here’ has slowly but surely grown under my skin, regardless what the critics say, the album is brilliant. I didn’t know however, that the titletrack is a cover, so all credit to the text of that song, go straight to a band called Smog, which I for one am only discovering now.
See Gil do his version, and hear the original right after that:
Documentary photographer Jocelyn Bain Hogg had the privilege to embed himself with a group of gangsters in London’s East End called “The Firm.” This is only a snippet of the series, watch the full series on his portfolio site.
The Firm is a searing photographic document of the British organized crime world, which received instant recognition.
Over a four-year period Bain Hogg documented different aspects of the underworld, from exile in Tenerife to the broad spectrum of activity in the United Kingdom. Since Brighton Rock in the 1940s, photographers and film directors have been trying to capture the personalities and characteristics of the British urban gangster on film.
These are not the faces of criminals who hide behind the facade of respectability or the corruption of political influence. They are, in fact, the real thing, men who hold their head up when challenged, and who seek no false redemption in the face of public vilification. Bain Hogg has captured for the first time in The Firm the weft and warp of these faces to whom violence is common currency and to whom loyalty is above all.
The project is currently being revisited, ten years later now that the old capos have passed away and in the wake of escalating gang crime in the estates of the UK.
Rough Trade, the name is a myth and a landmark in music’s history. That’s what you’ll probably know already, just because it’s that big a name. But it takes a 1h30 documentary to fully come to comprehend the importance of what the founders of Rough Trade have done. True pioneers. An inspiration and a must-see for anybody out there that’s running his or her independent business. Check it out:
The Rough Trade story begins more than thirty years ago on 20th February 1976. Britain was in the grip of an IRA bombing campaign; a future prime minister was beginning to make her mark on middle England, where punk was yet to run amok; and a young Cambridge graduate called Geoff Travis opened a new shop at 202 Kensington Park Road, just off Ladbroke Grove in West London. The Rough Trade shop sold obscure and challenging records by bands like American art-rockers Pere Ubu, offering an alternative to the middle-of-the-road rock music that dominated the music business.
In January 1977… Continue Reading »
The Scraper Bike phenomenon has been going on for a while now, but it wasn’t until I got to see this mini-documentary about it, that I realized the beauty of it. A bit like the speaker bikes in Queens, NYC a while ago. But then again, very different. Watch it:
“In order to become a member of the Original Scraper Bike Team, you must: Be a resident of Oakland, CA. Be at least 7y/o or older. Retain A 3.0 Grade Point Average (GPA), Create your own Scraper Bike…(It Has To Be Amazing, Or Else You Can’t Ride.) A single-file line when riding. After 10 rides The Scraper Bike King and his Captains will decide if your bike is up to standards and if you can follow simple guidelines. After your evaluation we will consider you a member and honor you with an Original Scraper Bike Team Shirt. Only worn when Mobbin’ Stay posted to our website for all upcoming Scraper Bike Rides…” — The Scraper Bike King
(via)
Roy Ayers is coming to town! Next week that is. With that, it seemed like the time was right to dig up this three year old recording of a talk I had with the man when he was in Ghent.
“It’s Digital! Euhm, I mean, it’s Analog! It’s analog!”
Dj SNS – also known as one of The Bad Mothas who’s live on stage with JtotheC these days – put the mix together, for you and yours. A 30-minute walk through Roy’s discography, and through the man’s mind. Talking about his moves in the music business, the rise and shine of Silvia Striplin, his own label Uno Melodic, his view on sneaker culture, his wife, etc. etc. Right click to download, and enjoy:
An On-Point Roy Ayers Tribute + Interview
(also download and print the cd-cover)
Tracklist:
Roy Ayers – Fire Weaver
Roy Ayers – Rhythms Of Your Mind
Roy Ayers – The Boogie Back
Roy Ayers – Feel Like Making Love
Roy Ayers – Searching
RAMP – Come Into Knowledge
Silvia Striplin – You Can’t Turn Me Away
Silvia Striplin – Give Me Your Love
Roy Ayers – Love Will Bring Us Back Together
Roy Ayers – Brother Green (The Disco King)
Roy Ayers & Wayne Henderson – Ooh Baby
RAMP – Everybody Loves The Sunshine
Ethel Beatty – I Know You Care
Ladies Of The Eighties – Ladies Of The Eighties
Roy Ayers – Hey Uh – What You Say Come on
Roy Ayers – We Live In Brooklyn Baby
Roy Ayers – Sensitize
Roy Ayers – The Third Eye
Justo Almario – InterludeMix: dj SNS
Artwork: Jazz Neversleeps
Interview: Alex Deforce
Ow, and the early doo-wop record Roy mentions in the interview, find it right here:
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