thickeye

8.bit.funk.@.the.whit.whit

UPDATE:I probably could have found this out myself, if I were not so lazy, but here is an update of the people i (sort if unfairly) refer to as "the other BEIGE kids". From a keen observer "The BEIGE programming crew members, whose names you did not remember were:
1) Paul B. Davis, (London & St. Louis)- Composer, DJ Club performer, and FM radio music host in London; and
2) Joe Bonn; (Los Angeles)- Feature Film Sound editor; Most recent being 'Hidalgo' and 'Terminator 3' "

Went to go see Cory Archangel with 8-bit construction set and some other members of the beige programming crew (I think, it's hard to keep all these heads and overlapping affiliations straight in my overheated mind).

They were pretty fucking sick despite having to work against the fact that the space (the downstairs of the whit whit) was set-up all night club style with lots of tables with candles on them and a decidedly un-dancey middle-age crowd.

I got there a bit late (after standing in a massive line that wrapped around from the entrance all the way down 74th(?) to Park Ave., full of cute and cheap art boys and art girls taking advantage of "pay what you want" night- totally some love connections about to get made in dark rooms of video art).

Um yea anyway as i rolled down CA and his kids were explaining how they use commodore computers to make their sounds, and the basic idea of hacking them. All of them were super cute at explaining things in a very self-effacing but obviously knowledgeable way. super funny exchange:

audience member Q: "What about using emulators?"
CA responding: "emulators (gives thumbs down) if your gonna roll then ROLL!"
one of the other beige guys: "of course if our stuff is 'rolling' then you might not want to roll"

They then went on to show off some new beats, do a 2X2 with all four tables playing the same track (off 8-bit), including some nice white-boy scratching by one of the doods who's name I don't remember.

The best part (for me) however was CA's new Nintendo cartridge hack where-in he has created a fake iPod type format where you can select from pop-songs that he has recreated it dope-assed 8-bit sonic love. He introduced this bit of tekno mastery by going, "so have you probably all know that iPod DJ'ing is all the rage in new york and I wanted to get into it but I can't fucking afford an iPod"
He has it set up so you can drop out the bass, drums or melody so that when he hooked up two Nintendo’s with hacked cartridges to a mixer he could create "mash-ups". Totally funny and totally rockin'.

I could go on about how this dood and his hooligan friends shit is totally amazing in that it takes closed systems and then opens them up (the "how-to" knowledge of which they totally share), or the interesting parallels in their neo-rave psycadelic color and musical aesthetic mirrors lots of other young artists that i see (as opposed to the victorian line-drawing/metal imagery i see from other kids my age) and how valuable and wonderful this is but it's late and i need to start drinking so I will say that these kids fucking rock. I would love to see them throw a fun party in this city asap.

Posted by thickeye at March 19, 2004 10:46 PM | TrackBack