(IN NO PARTICULAR ORDER)
I
Kervin Brisseaux
Kervin Brisseaux’s 2010 works are some of my personal favorites of the year. The best work speaks for itself and the Valkyria piece’s (pictured above) visual impact harkens Pink Floyd’s Dark Side of the Moon type psychedelic visions without me saying a word.
Website:
www.brisseaux.com
II
Azureus Rising: Proof of Concept
This impressive 5 minute mini-movie grabbed my attention last year and I’m still waiting to see how far this mysterious much hyped project will be pushed. The website for Azureus Rising hints at a full on video game and movie saga. Oh the possibilities…
Website:
azureusrising.com/
III
Tron:Legacy
(Above) Trailer
Beautiful Hype
Tron:Legacy was a visual work of art and a special effects masterpiece, which is exactly what I expected it to be and what I signed up for when I bought my ticket. The hype machine rarely convinces me to set my expectations very high, but for this film I did and I was not disappointed.
I came into the theater with sentiments of the glimpses into a luminous onyx world that I’d seen on the internet through various trailers and sneak peeks and as the film progressed I was taken on a ride through that gorgeous world. Black crystalline towers, vibrant glowing rooms filled with white light, and a celestial view of an electric city levitating over a dark liquid horizon within an eternally vast yet equally miniscule computer space were some of the stand out moments of visual poetry that I was shown on that ride.
(Above) “Derezzed” Music Video
Sonic Accoutrements
I’m not going to gripe about the forgettable plot because I wasn’t expecting it to be anything more than it was. Daft Punk appropriately provided the electronically infused symphonic musical accompaniment to the film. Fans of the legendary French duo are understandably divided on the quality of the soundtrack; sonically it scarcely resembles their previous work. They are professionals however. They’ve been lauded as geniuses and they uphold that reputation by delivering a soundscape as stimulating as the visuals that they accompany. Key tracks include “The Son of Flynn”, “Solar Sailer”, “Derezzed”, and “Castor”, however much disappointment lies in the fact that the standard edition of the soundtrack does not include several of the incredible songs included in the film and are exclusive to the deluxe edition.
Despite mixed reviews (per usual, I rarely give them much thought) I’ve been made a believer in the magic of the Tron universe. Tron:Legacy has the makings of a classic and a substantial amount of perenniality that will keep it in mainstream consciousness for a long time.
Website:
disney.go.com/tron/
IV
FEZ
New Footage: FEZ Begins
The development of FEZ is a bittersweet story. On one hand it’s been held back for whatever reason, and has not been made available for everyone to play and enjoy what appears to be an ode to those nostalgic days playing retro games. On the other hand it’s underground and cool for that same reason, and when it does actually come out there will be tons of people who will have already heard of it and could quite possible have a shot at being a sleeper hit. Regardless of commercial success, it’s already achieved excellence in art direction in my book. Warm and fuzzy colors with soothing and buzzing warbling clinks and bleeps are mixed together to create a gorgeous blend of manufactured nostalgia for a game I’ve never played but I feel like I have. Please get it right, Polytron. So far so good.
Website:
polytroncorporation.com/
V
Mux Mool
Mux Mool is a beast. I first started paying real attention when I heard his music from the Ghostly Swim mixtape and I’ve been following his work since. He put out his first album in 2010 called Skulltaste but he’s been putting in work for years. Get familiar with him and do your homework if you like what you hear.
GhostlyCast #33: Mux Mool – Hot Helmet Touch by ghostly
(Mindblowing remix set)
website:
http://ghostly.com/artists/mux-mool
VI
Microbot 2010: Works of David Fuhrer
Microbot as a whole is a unique and creative work. It’s one of the cooler websites I’ve been too and the art work is impressive. David Fuhrer’s art is technically solid and unmistakably beautiful, especially if a large part of your idea of beauty stems from bright worlds, deep space planetary horizons, and other epic space scenes.
Website:
www.microbot.ch
VII
My Beautiful Dark Twisted Fantasy
(Focus) Kanye West: POWER
Kanye West and Marco Brambilla teamed up to bring the world not a typical music video, but a work of art. It’s been called a portrait of Power, which is a fitting name because it literally is a video portrait of a fictitious power figure falling amongst his riches and overt decadence. It really is a beautiful work of art when taken at face value, and is a great example of high art and mainstream culture clashing and causing a socio-chemical reaction that never fails to catch people’s attention as this video has been seen over 15 million times on youtube alone.
One of the things I appreciate about the video is the use of an Italian Michelangelo renaissance aesthetic infused with Afro-Egyptian imagery, and its concise nature. Admittedly I was disappointed when I first saw the video, but that’s purely because I was expecting something different and more traditional but if there’s anything I’ve learned it’s that Kanye West likes to experiment and reach so it all made sense when I learned to love it. When coupled, power and brevity can evidently produce magnificent results.
VIII
Lupe Fiasco “I’m Beamin’”
Prod. By The Neptunes
LASERS
Lupe Fiasco’s 3rd album is long overdue as all his fans already know. This song refreshed the world as viewed through the eyes of a fan of intelligent modern hip hop and served as a signal that LASERS were about to heat up speakers everywhere March 8th 2011.
www.lupefiasco.com/
IX
Flying Lotus “Cosmogramma”
FlyLo and VJ Fader
(The song in the video is computer face/pure being)
Flying Lotus delivered a blessing from the heavens with Cosmogramma. I’m convinced he has some kind of connection with the supernatural because every time I listen to Cosmogramma I feel like I’m dreaming about intergalactic/interdimensional travel. His music is pretty much inexplicably dope and any attempt to capture the magnanimous nature of what this man can do with sound waves gets drowned out by the music’s voice speaking loudly into your brain and making you hallucinate.
Zodiac Shit
website:
flying-lotus.com/
X
Honorable Mentions
This is me cheating. It’s extremely hard to narrow things down to 10 so this honorable mentions post will serve as a compromise, because even after these three gems there are sure to be some that I will face palm over and say “how did I not include that?” So this post will be open edit and I may include more 2010 gems as time goes by. In the meantime I’ll be looking ahead as 2011 unfolds.
lightxspace.wordpress.com 