LZM

visual and sonic art in a tupperware with a (trans)feminist, queer, & anti-colonial twist

[leilzahra]

sound:

A new videoclip/track from Gazelle Twin, a music/performance project by Elizabeth Bernholz (née Walling), a composer, producer and musician from Brighton, England.

Anti Body is a post-industrial, noise-pop tune from Gazelle Twin's recently released album Unflesh (2014). The darkness of the sonar ambient is further twisted with the visual interpretation. After two sneak previews from Unflesh, it is definitely an album to crave. It seems like Gazelle Twin played with her own flesh taking techno, pop, and hip-hop into an industrial realm of experimentation; remaining faithful to her dark shades and interest in nature and the human body. Possibly why Unflesh penetrates the skin leaving frozen goosebumps on the surface.

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video:

Here is M.I.A. bursting another bubble in a new videoclip directed by... yes.. M.I.A. herself. The video is for the "Double Bubble Trouble" track featuring The Partysquad, and is a visual piece that totally lives up to the artists fiery spirit.

Though M.I.A. called the video her "debut", it is not since she had worked on the video for "Mad Dog God Dam" for the band Elastica.  M.I.A. doesn't fail her fan base, and those who do not like her, by causing a riot against a long list of issues, from drones to social marginalization, from violence to resistance to self-image and self-starvation.. It is M.I.A. to the max. The video was released by M.I.A. herself after she said that her record label had it for days without publishing it, so she uploaded it to her own YouTube channel. The label blocked the video briefly before lifting the ban and making it available, only after M.I.A. and her fans raised social media hell.

M.I.A. also released a remix of Beyonce's "Flawless" under the title "Baddygirl 2", which also features samples of Beyonce's "Diva". M.I.A. gave so much spirit and fire to this mash over taking Beyonce by miles. She released the song with a tweet saying: "Beyonce camp has not replied for months > SO HERE >"

On another note, and in full rebellious humor, the dissident artist who is facing a $16million fine by the NFL for giving the middle finger during her performance with Madonna, tweeted the latter asking her for help. The tweet read "@madonna ummm ...  can i borrow 16 million ?"

[leilzahra]

sound:

Lila Downs, a Mexican-US singer, songwriter, and actress. Lila sings her own songs in addition to traditional Mexican and indigenous music. Lila is known for her political activism touching upon the plight of indigenous people(s) especially concerning her home in Oaxaca, Mexico. She is also an empowering woman-figure. Her songs, her voice, and her strength are a driving force for many.

In the above video she sings "La Dignificada", a song in tribute to Digna Ochoa, a human rights activist and lawyer.  In attempts to silence her, she was kidnapped and raped, a crime she accused state police of committing. Digna continued her unstoppable fight and was assassinated on October 19, 2001 while fighting in defense of peasant ecologists.  The authorities first considered her death a homicide, only to change their story later and label it as suicide. Something activists completely oppose. Digna was assassinated due to her political activism. She will not be forgotten. 

English translation:

"A human rights defender is, firstly, interested in the rights of others" (said in the voice of Digna)

At night, there’s a scream It can be heard far away In the south it is said that it is the voice of silence. In this closet there’s an enclosed cat, ("enclosed cat" in South American Spanish means fishy business) because a woman, because a woman, fought for her rights

The voice of a thunderbolt can be heard from the mountain It is the clear lightening bolt of truth In this blessed life nobody forgives anything, but a woman does, but a woman does. She fights for her dignity!

Ay! Dark-skinned one, My little dark-skinned one, I won’t forget you!

I give myself the respect I deserve because I am a woman I can’t believe all what happens to me So you, falsehood, and "cholo" look at me (cholo: is pejorative term for indigenous individuals who adopt "White" or "Occidental" values) If I love him, or if I don’t, ultimately it is up to me to love From your skin to my skin, give me a beef taco I prefer them, and hence, I love he who feeds me I tasted already the one that belongs to someone else, that’s the bread I don’t want May the heavens send me the first one He who loves me the way I am, is the one I do love That one I do love That one I do not

I followed your steps, girl, till we arrived at the mountain and I followed God’s trail the one that the souls walk

At night, there’s a scream It can be heard far away In the south it is said that it is the voice of silence. In this closet there’s an enclosed cat, Because a woman, Because a woman, Fought for her rights

The voice of a thunderbolt can be heard from the mountain It is the clear lightening bolt of truth In this blessed life nobody forgives anything, but a woman does, but a woman does. She fights for her dignity!

Ay! Dark-skinned one, My little dark-skinned one, I won’t forget you!

"My Name is Digna Ochoa y Plácido" (said in the voice of Digna herself)

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sound:

Mica Levi, known as Micachu, is one of the most promising names on the experimental electronic music scene. Resonating women pioneers in the field, Micachu is someone to keep full attention on. Recently joining the newly revived BBC Radiophonic Workshop (a name held dear by those who take electronic music to serious hearts and minds), now lead by Composer Matthew Herbert. The Radiophonic Workshop is a milestone in the history (and herstory) of electronica. 

Singer, songwriter, composer, producer, and videoartist, Micachu is known for her work in Micachu & the Shapes (duh), her experimentations on a variety of genres, and her frequent usage of unorthodox instruments, many of which are homemade.

Here is Smash,  which could be Micachu's first upload after joining the Radiophonic Workshop. A short but potent piece leaving a salivating ear asking for more. We want more Mica.

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sound:

Julie Ruin, if you still haven't heard of it, is Kathleen Hanna's independent record produced under the name Julie Ruin in 1997, while taking a break from Bikini Kill. It touches upon feminism, crocheting, and resisting police abuse among a long list of themes and hints. The track "I Wanna Know What Love Is" is a feminist anti-repressive anthem in every sense of the word. It is a call for fighting back, a call for resistance.. and claiming space. It is about pointing the finger and the knife. Here it goes:

"Do you remember when we were young and impressionable, and taught to believe everything the great white father told us?

How many girls stay awake all night? Too scared to sleep and too scared to fight back I know you know what i'm talking about, another woman killed and hardly a pout about it. Green river killer my fucking ass, the cops have gotta be deaf, dumb, and spastic to not catch the killer(s) of one hundred women. I guess it'd be different if they thought we were human. I wanna know what love is What the fuck if we all got guns to off the fucking pigs and all the other motherfuckers raping the children they paint like dolls JonBenét didn't scream because she never fucking was. Come on now the police aren't gonna save you they're part of the problem that society gave you locking up black men for whistling in the wind you see a mirage when you call the cop your friend. I wanna know what love is The killers and the cops give us special advice  like cross your legs and act fucking nice while they kill us off old and fucking young for breathing, relieving, and having fun. They'll keep you scared so you have to have a boyfriend and take your kids away if you're a la la lesbian arrest you for whoring then rape you in the car it's time we point the finger at who the real criminals are. I wanna know what love is I want you to show me So i'll stay awake almost every night a pen in my hand and in the other a knife because I'd rather be scared and fight back than be some dick's maid, babe or wife. I don't care how we get it but we'll get it someday.

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video:

 "All girls to the front. I'm not kidding. All girls to the front! All boys be cool, for once in your lives. All boys go back... back, back". A clear example of Kathleen Hanna's massive and uncompromising contributions to Music and the world as a whole. Bikini Kill, Le Tigre, a musician, a singer, a rebel, a feminist activist, a zine writer...  a long list that makes up this riot girl who made Herstory with her music and statements. Kathleen, and the projects she was part of, didn't only reclaim space for themselves, they reclaimed space for all the women in the public. Not only occupying the dace floor, but stressing that an attack on one is an attack on everyone. Bikini Kill took Punk/ Dance-Punk concerts from a male dominated space into an experience of feminist rebellion, and collective empowerment put into practice.

This is an excerpt of "The Punk Singer" (2013), a documentary by Sini Anderson, a total must-watch for music and feminism(s) lovers. A fun, thought-provoking, and very rich exploration of the intersection between music and feminism, taking us few steps closer to Kathleen and the early days of outright feminist reclamation of the music scene and the dance floor.

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sound:

Else Marie Pade (1924) is not only Denmark’s first concrete and electronic music composer to produce an album, but her herstory extends to the resistance during the Second World War in which she was active. In 1944 Else received training in the use of weapons and explosives. She joined an all-female explosives group.

"On 13 September 1944, Else Marie Pade was arrested by the Gestapo. Out of a prison window she saw a star flash and heard music coming from inside herself. Next morning she scratched tune into the cell wall with a buckle from her girdle. It was the song "You and I and the Stars" . She was sent to Frøslevlejren, where she began composing, and decided to train in music. In Frøslevlejren the prisoners held song evenings to keep their spirits up. The songs included Pade's songs and other songs arranged by Karin Brieg. These works were released on CD on the occasion of the 60th anniversary of the liberation: Songs in the Darkness: Music Frøslevlejren 1944–45." *Wikipedia

From as early as the 1950s, she, in close co-operation with technicians and assistants on Radio Denmark, produced a substantial amount of concrete and electronic music, partly in the shape of independent works for radio broadcasts, partly in the shape of accompaniments to various radio dramas. In 1952 Pade discovered the means by which she could bring into being her universe of sound. The impulse came from a broadcast on Radio Denmark about Pierre Schaeffer, the originator of the new movement within the French field of electronic music: musique concrète. After visiting Schaeffer in 1952, Pade began to study the concrete aesthetics of music and the technique behind it. In the latter half of the 1950s, Pade, together with Lauridsen, organised an interimistic electronic sound studio at Radio Denmark, where one could work with both concrete and synthetically produced sound material - a synthesis which was also a prominent issue in the new Italian sound studio, Studio de Fonologia Musicale, where people like Luciano Berio, Henri Posseur and John Cage were working. From 1957 until the middle of 1960s, Pade experienced a productive period in which she created a long series of electronic works and thereby made a name for herself, both in Denmark and to a certain extent in international electronic circles.

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sound:

Ninja Tune artist, English electronic musician of Czech origin currently residing in Berlin, Emika, brings out her usual basslines and melodies, that have garnered her sonar attention, in this track from her second album DVA. Emika has been dazzling the music scene with her mixing style and sound design talent. She has been hard to pin down to a conventional music genre, from dub techno and underground pop, to re-interpreted trip-hop, techno, and dubstep, Emika draws her own circles around all of this, and many of us are waiting to hear and see more of her. 

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sound:

Xiu Xiu, an experimental post-punk group from the US, has been cultivating attention with their experimental works: music, video and lyrics; gaining territory lead by the everything-but-conventional artist, singer/song-writer Jamie Stewart.

Xiu Xiu, pronounced Shoe Shoe, is a dark playground taking the listener (and the viewer through their videos) into a thrilling theme park of sounds and lyrics mostly (de)constructed by Jamie Stewart. The band's rendition to Nina Simone, in the album "Nina", is one hell of a creative mind-fuck.

This song, Stupid in the Dark, is from the album "Angel Guts: Red Classroom" (2014) titled after a 1979 Japanese erotic film. A press release says "Angel Guts: Red Classroom is the beginning of Xiu Xiu's descent from grayness into the deepest blackness endurable. It is the sound of Xiu Xiu's death." It adds, "The subject matter—racialized sex, double suicide, double penetration, criminality, fear of physical harm—is unsuitable for the faint of heart. But when the heart has stopped beating, only the soul remains to carry on." A trip completely worth the agony and the distress, absolute beauty of darkness. 

The opening lines of the album are: "Your face is down alone / On your desk / At the end of the city / You were squashed into / There is no one you love."

Enter at your own risk

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What's there to say?!! Björk and PJ Harvey performing The Rolling Stones should be enough to make one wet their pants. Pure satisfaction. I still remember when this first aired and the shivers it sent

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Calico Mingling is a masterpiece in every sense of the word, a result of the match made in artistic heaven between postmodern choreographer/dancer Lucinda Childs and experimental filmmaker Babette Mangoite. Produced in 1973, the piece remains a powerful collaboration out living time. The choreography of Lucinda Childs, that seems simple at a first glance but slowly unfolds as a complex, intricate and well-thought structure. Babette Mangoite has her own equal share of the brilliance in this piece of work, wether it was the way she chose to film this, or the sound she decided to use. 

Invoking a deja-vu from daily life, as if watching an ordinary scene rewind and forward in front of the viewers eyes, over and over, in an exhilarating and perfected repetition. Not knowing where the dancers were going before life stopped in this loop, savoring the daily dance of people in the public space. Creating the feeling of a video in loop through this masterpiece of continuously flowing choreography. 

"Structurally dissecting their movements, these artists replaced emotional expression with simple actions that people perform every day -- walking, sitting and running in ordinary clothes. Almost 40 years later, some of the performance sites have disappeared, and the people seen dancing are now on the verge of growing old. They strived to make dance quotidian, but time makes everything unique. The past can never be ordinary"

Watch Here

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sound:

Lebanese singer and actress Nour Al-Houda (1924 - 1988) chants "Today He Was Hung on Wood" ... He who hung the earth on water. A Christian Good Friday hymn sang in Nour's heavenly voice and divine classical performance of Arabic chanting. A timeless track of vocal perfection showing Nour's mastery of Arabic singing. 

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sound:

The Canadian electronic music group A Tribe Called Red, self-described as "pow wow-step" band, are totally rocking the electronic First Nations music, and are totally worth keeping an ear on. In 2014, they were nominated for two Juno Awards, one for Breakthrough Group of the Year and another for Electronic Album of the Year, winning the Breakthrough Group Award. The band have been vocal supporters of Idle No More. In 2013, they issued a public statement asking non-aboriginal fans to refrain from cultural appropriation by wearing headdresses and war paint to their shows. Quoting their record label: "A Tribe Called Red is a group of three aboriginal DJ-producers from Canada, DJ Shub (Cayuga, Six Nations), Dj NDN (Ojibway, Nipissing First Nation) and Bear Witness (Cayuga, Six Nations). ATRC emerged from "Electric Pow Wow", their monthly party which brings the tradition of Pow Wow into the club, showcases Aboriginal talents and offers a comfortable space for urban Aboriginals. Their music mixes electronic dance music, hip-hop, dancehall and traditional Native American singing and drumming. The video and visual aspects of their show aim to challenge stereotypes while still having a good time. "After what happened in the last hundred years, the simple fact that we are here today is a political statement. As First Nations peoples everything we do is political .""

In the above track, Sisters, they team up with Northern Voice, a contemporary Northern Style Powwow Drum group. They sing in their Atikamekw language. Quoting their record label Tribal Spirit Music, they are "a new generation of singers from the Atikamekw territory of Wemotaci. The Wemotachi Singers helped organize the first Powwow of the Atikamekw Nation 20 years ago. They were influential in Quebec as they were one of the first strong powwow drum groups and lead the way for many great singers from the Atikamekw People. Those original Singers are still sitting at the drum but the young voices are leading the way for Northern Voice."

A Tribe Called Red are offering a free album here. Please donate whatever you can in return.

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Sound:

"Gender is just a lie" is the mantra on the new queer hymn "Human Drama" by electronica gender-dissident Planningtorock. The track is a full-on queer anthem with statements like"We break a box to find a hundred more", and "there is lots to learn but so much more to unlearn", "our sexuality is not the same"...  and "trying to find the words to explain my sexuality. It’s liquid, it’s living, a moving love defined by itself. There’s no rules, no convention. This love can go wherever it wants"

"Human Drama" is on the recently released album "All Love's Legal" (2014) with Planningtorock genderless voice on the usual backdrop of beats, synths, and claps. "All Love's Legal" feels like a gender-dissidence pamphlet to dance to, a cry against binary and restraints, a much needed one in the male and heteronormative dominance of electronica... let alone the whole world. A cause Planningtorock is taking very seriously... and personally. Thank you!  Check out Planningtorock on soundcloud and on her official page

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Sound:

Egyptian underground star Maryam Saleh in one of her many collaboration with Lebanese electronic musician and producer Zeid Hamdan (previously from the top-notch duo SoapKills). An electronica socio-political criticism from the heart of Egyptian popular culture. Maryam is a notable name in the independent music scene in the Arabic speaking world. She is known for her remakes of Sheikh Imam's political anthems that focus on the poor and the working class in brilliant satire of authority and government.   Maryam's debut album "Mesh Baghanny" (TR: I am Not Singing or I don't Sing) can be heard on her Soundcloud and can be bought here. The album is in collaboration with Palestinian singer, multi-instrumentalist, composer and producer Tamer Abu Ghazaleh 

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Sound:

From Girls in Uniform, an experimental pop project, or as they put it on their Facebook page, "accessible industrial designer pop", comes "Like A Star" - Side A of "The Fortune Tapes" cassingle released in 2013. A playful experimentation and brilliant usage of audio delay. Bleeps and glitches flirt on top of an intriguing vocal edit. Quite promising, fresh and exciting... a project to keep an ear on. Here is their tumblr. http://alltheuniforms.tumblr.com/

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Sound:

From Myra Davies and Gudrun Gut intense and powerful albums under the title Miasma. The series of albums include Miasma 1: Control, Miasma 2: Dinner (from which this track is taken), and Miasma 3: Lilac.

Project Miasma is not just about the three albums, according to the record label Moabit Musik (founded by Gut), Miasma is "a creative collaboration between Canadian writer, performer, and media artist, Myra Davies, and Berlin Electronica composer and broadcaster, Gudrun Gut. Since 1991, MIASMA has been the umbrella for the duo's multi-faceted creative process that begins with spoken word and music and encompasses film and video, live concert shows, theatrical productions, dance, internet media, writing in print, and gallery installation."

Miasma(s) are emotionally charged with their violent satire, humorous meanness, and intense lyricism, all layered to Gut's electronic sounds played to Myra's storytelling. They go to intimate places while reflecting on such universal topics and plagues like patriarchy, the alienation between humans and Nature, love, sensuality, and much more.