We’re big fans of multimedia artist Takagi Masakatsu here at Red Ruin. He recently performed at the Kennedy Center in Washington D.C. as part of the Japan! Culture + Hyperculture festival. For those of us who couldn’t make it, the entire performance can be seen online here.

And for those of you in D.C. *wink* I sure hope you went out to see this.

Artist: Grammatics
Song: Shadow Committee
From album: Shadow Committee 7″
Genre: Indie Dramapop
[Buy Mp3s][Myspace]

I heard about the band Grammatics from a music recommendation thread on some Japanese site; and this song sort of makes me wonder why I hadn’t heard of them elsewhere first, and how long they will remain unsigned.

This group from Leeds, UK make songs with music more like plot lines than tunes, and both of the specimens on this 2-song album have more than enough creativity and polish to stand out in a crowd.

This aptly titled song is a wondrous power ballad by Toronto based rock band, Ivory Tree Observatory. Such is the song’s power to capture the mind, I find myself overwhelmed with the sense of flight within the first few notes. As these delightful melodies continue, I imagine myself gazing downwards at vast majestic landscapes, where miniature people are waving at me. One of them is pointing and frantically jumping up and down. It appears to be some kind of warning.

Sure enough, the song takes a violent shift in mood and a torrent of chaos interrupts my flight. As the guitars thrash their way through a metal riff, I am now whirling around in a thunderstorm, desperately clinging onto my hot air balloon. Lucky for me, the unexpected storm is very brief, the sky clears, the guitars calm down and the song returns to its whimsical melodies. I loosen my grip, turn off the burner, and peer over the wicker basket. The miniature people have grown in size. A few of them begin to chase me as I begin to make my final descent. At that moment, the vocalist finishes the final note of the chorus and the song’s satisfying conclusion carries me to a safe landing.

Balloon Ride is one of the five songs from the band’s free demo which can be downloaded via their Myspace. Ivory Tree Observatory can be seen playing at Clinton’s Tavern (Toronto) this Thursday Feb. 7, 2008.

Artist: Bacon
Song: Bye-Bye Little School Girl
From album: Bacon (Self-titled)
[Buy CD][Bacon’s Website]

Why not make a resolution to help expand the musical horizons of those around you this year? For those of us with friends who are drawn to some of the extremely successful pop punk of recent times, bands like Bacon may be the perfect foot in the door.

These guys in particular have a dynamic delivery and virtually every song bristles with synth-hoisted melodic hooks that will expertly harpoon the involuntary-humming-centers of your brain. This is my favorite song off of their self-titled album of several years ago. Their more recent album “Butterfly” has double its length and number of songs, and a lot more of the same catchy accessible sound and savory name that fans of the genre are almost guaranteed to find appetizing…

I see I haven’t been doing much of the “Exploring the world through sight…” part of our title. So here is some very interesting slice-of-life photography of daily situations in various parts of China complete with captions.

I don’t know about you, but I often get the feeling that we humans experience the world too much through simple recognition and not enough through conscious reflection. Which is to say that every time we see or hear about something that is far enough removed from our daily experience, for example foreign countries or cultures that happen to be thousands of miles away, the information gets cross-referenced against a subconscious database of shallow tidbits –possibly simply a few cliché mental images– which is just enough to provide a basic frame of reference that is suitable for understanding the conversation and moving on.

The problem seems to me to be that without some kind of external impetus or revelation many of us may always see these people and their situations as hazy unrealistic caricatures of reality; and remain unable to sympathize with them or identify with their hardships. When we hear about Asia’s struggle for energy and industrial growth we may simply think of the whole continent as an Asia-shaped piece in an economics board game and forget the human element entirely.

In other words, I think images like these can help inspire us to reflect upon what it means that there are real people out there living these lives today.

The world is an interesting and dynamic place. It’s just hard sometimes to see it past the daily grind, to mentally disembark from our domestic slumber.

[Part 1: Survival][Part 2: Relationships][Part 3: Desires]

Well, happy holidays and new year to everyone. I’ve been using some of my spare time to work on making a new video player that will have a lot of good functionality built in. For example it has a playlist to support multiple videos, and you will be able to copy link code and embed code very easily in order to paste it onto your blog/myspace/website/email/im/whatever in order to share our videos with a wider audience. It even has full-screen mode!

I expect it will be completed in the next month or so, but in case there is anyone reading this who is proficient in Actionscript 2, I would love to get some advice regarding problems I’m having that seem to have no good solution that I can find.

Anyway, here’s looking forward to new developments!

Artist: World’s End Boyfriend
Song: Planetarium Ghost Train
From album: Christmas Song (Xmas Song)[?????????]
[Buy CD][Discography]

Here’s a slightly tardy and amorphously seasonal sounding song for the holidays from a record of decidedly seasonal title. It is the work of Katsuhiko Maeda, whose World’s End Girlfriend project we featured a year ago this month.

Most of the songs on this record seem quite lighthearted in comparison to WEG, though in a characteristically twisted way. It’s something like Christmas-Meets-Halloween the musical, as interpreted by glitchy haunted computer children.

I had the good fortune last year to catch a show featuring both World’s End Girlfriend and Mono on extremely late notice and to find a nice spot next to the speaker stack in the front for the whole thing. While Mono has a well-deserved reputation for their intense live show, I hadn’t heard anything at all about WEG’s. And though I must say that I was hoping to find him with the full band that he had in one of the videos from our previous post, I was pleasantly surprised to discover that his solo performance was comparably powerful at the very least.

An overwhelming amount of sound can come out of this guy and his guitar and the machines that surround him in a nest of wires.

I remember coming home one night from a tough day at work, exhausted, hungry and wet from the rain. Murphy’s law seemed adamant in proving itself to me. “Anything that can go wrong, will go wrong,” the law states. And so when I arrived at my doorstep and reached for my keys, I realized that I had left them at my workplace. Nine times out of ten, this would not be a problem, as someone would always be home to let me in. But of course that was not the case on this particular night.

I had no choice but to sit in the cold and wait for someone to return. As the rain clouds continued to mock me with their spitting, I took out my iPod to sooth my pain with music. That’s when I heard the song “Where’s My Love” for the first time.

Upon hearing the song, I was instantly struck with an euphoric sense of weightlessness. My mood went from seething-and-ready-to-explode to calm as a feather. Just moments earlier, I was cursing the rain. After the song, I couldn’t help but remark how incredibly beautiful the raindrops looked as they splashed down onto the wet pavement ahead of me. I began to think that my luck wasn’t so bad, to have been able to experience this kind of transformation, to see absolute beauty in an otherwise gloomy setting, is something I’ll always be thankful for.

The person who wrote that song is Caroline Lufkin. I should say thanks. Thanks Caroline for taking time out of your busy life to do this interview. And Thanks Caroline for sharing your beautiful music with the rest of the world.

You recently finished the European leg of the Mice Parade tour, how did it go?

Mice Parade tour was punk rock….at least for me…traveling with 9 party animals!! haha. Really now…every show with Mice Parade was so special to me! Goodness, sometimes I’ll get so caught up in watching the rest of the band play that I’ll forget to come in with vocals!

Can you tell us about how you came to be involved with Mice Parade and whether or not we can expect you on some of Adam’s future recordings?

Adam was on a mission to find a new vocalist and a friend introduced my music to him. Next thing you know, I was flying to New York for rehearsal, preparing for tour! I think I’m an official member of Mice Parade! Big smile here! In other words, there’s a good chance I’ll be on the next record!

Many electronic musicians like to incorporate projections and other visuals into their live shows. I saw a Youtube clip where you used a smoke machine once. Do you have any intentions of adding more visual elements to your show?

Oh no! The smoke machine was hilarious! That piece of device was not my choosing! I recall having a hard time breathing on stage…then, laughing at its loud entrance. It sounded like a car engine struggling to get going!

Adding visuals has always been my intention! I’ve been gathering clips for a long time! Finally, I’ve found the perfect software program! And finally, bought a computer that can handle visuals!

In that same performance, you managed to force your live partner JJ to sing along to “Where’s My Love” which was hilarious!

I was sick, -fever and all. And at that point, I thought I was going to completely lose my voice. So I looked around and found my solution – JJ.

The crowd loved it. When can we expect you to take to the stage again? Any mini or not-so-mini tours in the pipeline?

My 3rd tour with Mice Parade in January. Australia! As for solo performances, nothing planned. Hoping to at least set-up some local shows! Hoping to tour with my new songs sooooooon!

Before going to music school, had you any idea of the type of musician that you wanted to be? Did learning about the craft change or alter that course?

Before music college, I decided I wanted to study composition. Perhaps, secretly, I prayed that my voice would miraculously become ok enough to do a little singin =) planned nothing further!

Being exposed to a whole world of music styles, instruments, musicians, electronic toys etc., allowed me to play with this and that. Eventually, I found myself gravitating to certain elements… which is what you hear now.

Do you find it surprising then, that so many reviews, be they positive or negative, see your voice as being a special highlight in your songs? I’ve read references to angels (apparently they sound a lot like you, and you tend to make them weep) an innumerable amount of times while reading about Murmurs. I agree with them wholeheartedly, to think that at one point you thought your voice wasn’t okay enough…

Surprising reviewers tend to focus on vocals. I read reviews for entertainment, for a good laugh. Reviews are hilarious. Music is not for judging…or rating how good or bad, technically. At some point, I realized it’s really just an expression. Recently, I heard the most out-of-tune singer/songwriter! But, she meant every note. I understood it, loved it. …when sometimes prodigies don’t get to me. Of course, I feel happy when someone likes my voice. But I could care less if someone dislikes it. It’s not the point. If you don’t like song, then it wasn’t meant for you. Know what I mean?

(Absolutely)

It’s been two years since the release of “Where’s My Love” on Temporary Residence, how has the ride been so far? Everything you expected?

Sincerely, this has been more than I expected. How lucky am I to have a nice cozy home with Temporary Residence? I get tons of love from my label and this has led to wonderful times, with wonderful people.

Do you find that you have to be inspired in order to compose music? Do you tend to draw your inspiration from sources outside of music?

Music has always come from the NEED to write… as an outlet. Maybe the answer is yes. All my music comes from outside sources.

You mentioned on your Blog that you’ll be coming out with remixes soon. Are they remixes of your songs by other artists?

Yes! Friends of mine!

(The Murmurs Remix album will be available January 8, 2008 on iTunes.)

Speaking of which, how you liking the Lullatone remix of Bicycle?

Magical- in typical Lullatone-fashion! Shawn (of Lullatone) remixed this on a plane ride from Tokyo to the U.S.!

Did you get to see them while they were on their North American tour? I’m quite convinced that Shawn and Yoshimi are the cutest things to have ever graced this soil. 99% convinced.

I didn’t get to see them! I remember being bummed they weren’t stopping in LA, and being so close (making their first stop SF).

Oh man, are they cute! Me = 150% convinced. Maybe you haven’t seen their cute music videos? =)

(As one wise man once said about Lullatone, “Music so cute it’ll make you puke cotton candy.”)

Since we try to expose our readers here at RedRuin to foreign art, do you have any favorite non-American artists that you could share with us?

Oh yes indeed! Off the top of my head…check these out:

Yoko Furusho
K-Maki
Oculart
Yoshitomo Nara

This stuff is fantastic. I’m especially liking the digital surrealism from the Oculart page. Any foreign musicians off the top of your head you can introduce us to?

Foreign music? Japanese? My sister is pretty insane! Every now and then, her personality comes through, despite her struggles with major label people. –

Olivia Lufkin
Ryuichi Sakamoto
DJ Krush
Envy
World’s end girlfriend

How is the second album coming along? Will you be working with Andreas Bjorck again?

Second album is shaping up! So far, it’s been just me writing and arranging. As for other programmers and producers…I may or may not include them. At this point, I’m keeping all these little ones (songs) under my wings until I feel they need something else.

Lastly, do you have any words for your fans?

Of course. It makes me happy to share my music with you. Thanks for allowing me to do so. Love to all!