When I was a kid, I spent summers at my Dad’s loft in Soho (NYC).   You didn’t have to have much money to live there at the time; most people snatched up these huge places in the 70’s for the equivalent of a new car.  They were so big in fact, I remember roller-skating at high speeds around the furniture.

It wasn’t a destination neighborhood and other than the art galleries, there weren’t many restaurants or shops.  You could still see someone break into a car in the middle of the day, just like in the movies!

There was the racket-ball court on Spring and Thompson (made famous in the movie Big) I’d hang out there a lot, or spend hours playing Pacman at Ben’s pizzeria across the street, pouring over buttons at the Pop Shop, or longing for transformers at Forbidden Planet.

One particular place that I begged to be taken to every week was the Museum of Holography.  I can’t remember what street it was on anymore, its long gone, but they had great little gadgets to buy.  I was doing a gallery crawl this week and was reminded of how great Holographs are when I caught the James Turrell Show (see photos).

This same week, I also happened upon a shop that opened up in the basement of my old building.  It was an 80’s retro clothing store (photo at side), Keith Haring style graffiti and re-purposed t-shirts.  I hadn’t been in the space for 17 years. 

It used to be a recording studio called Greene Street Recordings where SO many great albums were recorded, Public Enemy’s Fear of a Black Planet, New Order’s Substance, Sonic Youth’s Daydream Nation. But like most NY studios it was dark and sketchy, I interned there as a teenager and encountered cockroaches as big as my fist in the tape locker. I remember being up on a ladder pulling a session for Nick Sansano and when I looked down, the floor seemed to be moving.

I was hopeless as an Engineer’s assistant, but had fun working on sessions (aka getting coffee) and just being around some legends of Rock and Hip Hop; it was an atmosphere that made me think anything was possible.

D

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 In the spirit of NYC, here is some great forward thinking R&B of the time.

 Nona Hendrix – Transformation

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ua1bjD81n5k

I have to include the video to Riot’s song Bloodstreets., they were the house metal band.  They shot this down the block in what was then an empty lot.  I stood transfixed way past my bedtime, eating Chinese food catering and blown away by the awesomeness of pyrotechnics and artifice.

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WuuPjZ6qz4Q&feature=fvw

Embryoroom

It’s not often that you see work with true originality, not just the hyperbole of the modern Pop machine, or Indie blog of the moment announcing the next messiah;  Sometimes it’s much quieter, under the radar, and a lot more menacing.

A post about Embryoroom may seem incestuous, they have done video work for my music;  But this blog is my forum, and I am impressed by what I’ve seen. 

I don’t presume the music I’m making is groundbreaking or revolutionary, I simply enjoy too much of what’s come before me to leave it all behind.  But when you see something that is seemingly void of reference, as if it was created in the vacuum of an active imagination…well that is something else entirely.

I’m familiar now with the visuals, since many of the aesthetics were incorporated into my own work, but it took time to wrap my head around it all.  Having seen a performance in a superb space, surrounded by 4 enormous video screens, it all fell into place. 

Maybe I need to stop looking back so much, and imagine the future of music ?

SHORT Q & A with Embryoroom

DM:  Do you think your work is commercial ?  Why or why not ?

Let’s define our terms. If we mean commercial in the sense of having profit as a chief aim, then no. This is not to say it cannot be profitable, but the work is not an endeavor to make money for sake of making money. Aesthetic decisions must have priority over marketing.

DM: What is the potential future of Pop media ? (you can be as pessimistic or optimistic as you like)  and what would you like to see as the future of Media (music/Video/Art) ?

What constitutes POP in the post-broadcast paradigm is constantly changing.

We might see increasingly personalized content that is more immersive; 3D technology is really just beginning. Static cinema will give way to a dynamic theater going experience where the director acts as a conductor and actors are immersed in imaginary worlds in real time with increasingly abstract subject matter and imagery.

There you have it !

Embryoroom – Hazmazk

(Clip from forthcoming feature length Digital Video)

http://embryoroom.com/hazmax

Clips I took from a live performance/Installation

http://embryoroom.com/delvid2

http://embryoroom.com/delvid

I’m so proud of this release.  The title track is a great single; I can say that, as I doubt it will chart anywhere but in my perfect universe.

Runaround encapsulates so many things I have loved about music; rhythm, sass, melody.  I can remember being a kid in NYC and hearing the ghetto blasters and boutiques blaring songs like I.O.U., Holiday and Rock the Casbah.  Infectious melody and a sense you were downtown.

Lies By the Bed – A good album track that I finally got to use my Omnichord on .

Each Time I Reach the Sun – A mantra, one of my favorite songs. Big drums, and my only real guitar solo. 

The Remixes are all great.  The Bullycau mix of Character Assassination turns an otherwise dark song into something that sounds like it could have been on Erasure’s Chorus.  The Lifelike remix cleans up a dense track and gives me a major sense of Nitzer Ebb.  The Runaround mixes are all so different, love love love.

Its all finally out there in the ether… Finis !

Working on new demos and they are starting to form the next album.  In the meantime, finishing up the next Scissors record, its so good;  A game changer.

Del

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MUSIC

Something Old:

P.M. Dawn – Paper Doll

Genre defying. Can we have an honest re-appraisal for this largely forgotten group ? Love the psychedelic album art too.  I wish there was this much celebration and risk-taking in R&B nowadays.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1zzxCrO_oPI

Something New (ish):

Escort – All Through the Night

A friend just turned me onto this, so it’s new to me.  Don’t deny this video, its too cute.  Sick song too. 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qqRDct1IDI8

(Warning! Video post of me dancing in my studio, wired at 4am)

I had coffee and cake for dinner, why ? because I can’t deal with the summer disappearing and caffeine is the only remedy.

I’m fortunate/unfortunate to have an amazing coffee place round by my house.  A group of very kind Ozzies run the joint and keep it stocked with high quality blends and amazing cakes (see photo of morning ritual on the right)

For dinner, not so good, but it did kick start a demo I began working on yesterday.  I still don’t know what will become of it, but at least it’s at the point where I can pull a few moves (yes, dancing in my home studio, late at night, I’d hope we all admit to doing that)

Forgive the low light and stubble, its late…I haven’t shaved in a week.

X

Del

Something Old – LAST – Nine Inch Nails

I’m not saying what he’s doing now isn’t good. Someone is certainly enjoying it, somewhere.  This is my favorite track off of Broken, that wall of guitars is like a tsunami.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aXc6cdK-9Sw

Something New : Nothin’ But Love – W.H.

Honestly, I’m just in a mood to hear Pop songs lately.  The 2cnd song off of Whitney Houston’s new album (yes, Whitney Houston) a fine specimen of R&B.  Don’t judge, in fact, that’s what the song is about.  Just get through the chorus for me (and those backing vocals!).

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LLtWVgtOwMA

My closest friends in life share one thing in common, besides myself, the Pet Shop Boys. One friend favours Kylie and Madonna, and the other, Suicide and Kraftwerk; Yet they both meet in the middle regarding PSB.

I was fortunate enough to catch their show in NYC last week and afterwards had a nice chat with both Chris and Neil.  They are fans of the Sisters (and as it turns out, discuss my solo project with Peter Robinson of Popjustice…nice !)

As people they are gracious and open, as artists they remain relevant by caring deeply about production, songwriting, aesthetics and the fan connection.  In fact fans talk about them as a subject on par with Russian lit and macro-biology; worthy of analysis and dissection.

I asked two friends to help elaborate on their long and fascinating career. My contribution beyond this is a grainy photo of myself, aged 19, with Neil autographing a few items of mine at a record signing.

Del

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Domino Dancing by David Russell

(Manager of recording artist Sia)

A “latin” Pet Shop Boys track sounds a bit like an oxymoron, but in reality DOMINO DANCING is, for me, their finest pop moment.  It’s been said by Neil and Chris that they were inspired by the late 80’s freestyle explosion that was popular in the US at the time, particularly in New York City and Miami.  It was after hearing the various hit singles by the girl band Exposé that they decided to look up their producer, Lewis Matrineé, to produce the track.  Pairing DOMINO DANCING next to Exposé’s own LET ME BE THE ONE is a perfect pop match.

Even in its demo form, before Martinez added the synth-tinged orchestra stabs and calypso drum beats, DOMINO DANCING had a bit of an island sway to it.  It was the first time Pet Shop Boys had ever released a track so mournful, longing for love instead of commenting on it.

The latin moments continued in the homoerotic video for the track, which Neil

himself has said is singlehandedly responsible for ending their chart success in the states.  No matter; the song reached number 7 in the UK and remains and enduring pop classic.

…But Pet Shop Boys have always been less about chart success (as considerable as theirs has been: 38 top 20 singles in the UK) and more about the marriage of pop and art.  The idea that a song featuring a modern day Noel Coward rapping over beats inspired by Kurtis Blow could reach number 1 worldwide seems as preposterous now as it did then, and yet that is exactly what WEST END GIRLS managed.  It’s not easy to incorporate the ethos of punk, the beat of disco, the swell of orchestra, the sweat of after-hours, the horns of the island and chart success…but somehow PSB manage to do it over and over again.

VIDEOGRAPHY by Edward Quist

(Founder of Embryoroom and director of  best selling DVD Kuvaputki)

The Pet Shop Boys were first seen by my own eyes in mid April of 1985 for the video West End Girls. Clad in a black trench coat stood Neil Tennant and the other (who was transparent !), looking rather bemused, would be Chris Lowe. From that moment, I was captivated by something that I was too young to put my finger on. Over the years, the myriad of videos and subsequent images materialized, headed by various famed directors and intelligent art design.

These videos are a genre unto themselves, an alternate reality. Whether it be love, life, sex, religion, human rights or a sinister relationship with technology; the Videography of the PSB stands in the corridors where pop culture and high art meet. It’s a Sin, Before, Rent, Can You Forgive Her, Being Boring, and West End Girls are all landmarks in modern music videos and emerging music films. My own work through Embryoroom (The Third Rail & Litter to Society) were in part inspired by “the boys” work with Howard Greenhalgh.

I wonder where they will take image and videos next ? As of late, they have been cartoons and immersed in motion graphics in an excellent Douglas Hart / fan-made hybrid and spectacular multimedia tour. I suspect, in the not too distant future, there might be a Pet Shop Boys video compilation titled Holography. Where I imagine the PSB in 3D and 360 degrees.