New Reflection Eternal? With Estelle? Doooooooooope.

In case there was ever a fleeting moment of doubt about who holds the crown, M.I.A. is back with a very badass reminder. Directed by the same evil genius responsible for Justice’s “Stress” video. Damn.

A tiny bit lewd perhaps (the gems were a bit much for me), but also really nicely done, with simple and stylish animation by Mrzyk & Moriceau.

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Personally, music from a tree is my favorite piece of his online works, but you can check out some of his other experiments like Music from Sand and Cold Cornflakes on his Bandcamp page or see photos of his process on his Behance post. This is the kind of remixing I want to see more of!

Nyle “Let The Beat Build” from Nyle on Vimeo.

This cat Nyle is homies with UTK and Vamoose, so I guess that makes him my second cousin. I’ve now watched this video like 10 times and it’s not getting old at all. Much propers to everyone involved and to the genius with a fresh concept. ONE TAKE! AUDIO RECORDED LIVE! This is really real. Hopefully he’s gonna be performing at one of our upcoming events. More on that soon…

So this video is far from new – Paul Dateh posted this little performance with Inka One almost two years ago. But a quick visit to his site makes it clear he’s still pushing things. If you just watch this one video, I can see how you might be tempted to call it ‘gimmicky’, but if you check out some of his other work, you can see he’s clearly a very talented musician making his way by sometimes taking a slightly different approach with his music. His hip hop covers might make for better ‘viral’ videos, but does this say more about the artist or what appeals more to a wider audience? Makes good food for thought in terms of how indie artists market themselves and reach audiences to gain wider appeal…

Paul Dateh – Celtic Blues

Just a quick post with the first single from Moby’s forthcoming album in a video directed by David Lynch. I can’t say I’m a huge fan of Lynch’s work, but the guy definitely has a unique style, and the eerie subject matter for the video seems to work just right with the melancholy tone of this song. On top of that, I wouldn’t say that I’ve been so into Moby’s recent stuff that much either, but this track now makes me curious to hear what the direction of the rest of the album goes in.

Soulico Crew (yes, the same cats who are making a mix for us…soon!) extended family member Kutiman (Tel Aviv STAND UP!) has just released his new mindboggling remix project. I’m gonna let these video/audio montage masterpieces speak for themselves, but do yerself a favor and WATCH THEM ALL. At first I didn’t believe it was legit, but when you see the vocalists getting involved, there’s really no doubting the realness. In a moment of near utter chaos for me (lost computer, hard drive, DJ equipment etc.) I’m relying on the most crazy of inspiration to pull me out of my own head trip. Thanks KUTI! And check the man’s funky ass album if you haven’t yet. 

On a totally unrelated tip, if you like keeping up with the best new underground/up-n-coming shows and artists, check out the super fresh Bloom Blog run by two entirely baddass sisters who are lifelong members of the Mixtape Riot! fam- Fiona B & Miz Metro.  You gotta check back on a regular basis to even try to keep up with them!

I’m sorry this is late. If I had a time machine, well, I probably wouldn’t even be here sharing this. But seriously, even if I am a bit late to the game, El DeBarge, Fat Boys, Full Force, Grandmaster Melle Mel, Whitney Houston, Kurtis Blow, Stacy Lattisaw, Lisa Lisa, Teena Marie, Menudo (with Ricky Martin), Stephanie Mills, New Edition, Run-D.M.C., James “J.T.” Taylor, and Whodini?! I don’t know what the equivalent would be these days, except probably that there’s just no equivalent. Originally organized by Kurtis Blow and others in collaboration with Dexter Scott King (MLK Jr.’s son).

The King Dream Chorus and Holiday Crew – King Holiday

So you might start noticing I’m mostly posting videos. Being one of the graphics guys, it seems to make sense my stuff would lean towards music mixing with visuals. Or maybe: meh, it is what it is. This is not even the type of music I would normally find myself listening to, but I was captivated enough by the visuals that I got a little into it. Not even sure what to call it, but who’s able to keep track of all the sub-genres these days anyway…

The video is not even paired with the music for reasons much beside the fact that the audio works well as a test for the render. But hey, it works. Imagine if your iTunes visualizer eventually looked like this… Created by  Robert Hogdin.

Update: So apparently Hogdin actually is one of the creative geniuses behind the current iTunes visualizer. I never really use it, but now that I’ve taken another look, I guess I can’t say I’m that surprised.