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