Brooklyn band cops Takeshi Murata

Brooklyn based CHAIRLIFT employ the trippy digi-fail effects used by video artist TAKESHI MURATA in their new video for the song EVIDENT UTENSIL. It works.

Click the corner menu to see in HD. (Not sure why YouTube doesn't allow embeds to automatically appear as HD.)

Kids Run Wild

Among the current crop of new hipster synth bands, THE PRESETS stand out for their attention to sonic details and a serious gothic streak. This new music video for the song IF I KNOW YOU shows what happens if kids run wild on the streets of L.A. with dancing on their minds.

The results are much sweeter than what could happen in France, if you remember JUSTICE's infamous STRESS clip:

Takeshi Murata

The video work of TAKESHI MURATA is striking in its totality of vision. Starting with a wave of early animation-inspired cartoon loops, his work has lately begun focusing on a certain kind of digital abstraction that DVD-encoding affords.

The above bootleg clip is unfortunately low quality, but gives a good example of MURATA's fluid, pyschedelic output. Come see the real thing next Tuesday night, Feb. 17, at Electronic Arts Intermix, where MURATA will also be present to discuss his work. Admission is free.

METAL G-DS

Baltimore filmmaker MATTHEW PORTERFIELD is now seeking funding for his second feature film, to be titled METAL GODS. A strict independent, PORTERFIELD's muted yet passionate film style unfortunately isn't one to attract studio attention, but his methodology perhaps provides a framework for the kind of filmmaking that can only be made without studio backing (independent or otherwise).

His first film, HAMILTON, trailer above, was a triumph of minimalist poetic narrative, the kind of success rarely seen, even in the broad spectrum of American Indies.