Le Taxidermiste

This bizarre, gorgeous short created at Supinfocom Arles by Paulin Cointot, Dorianne Fibleuil, Antoine Robert and Maud Sertour is packed to the gills with gobs of subtle, pleasing visual detail. Full-screen is a must. ENJOY!

P.S. Our Supinfocom feed is pretty rad, you should definitely check it out.

[ Le Taxidermiste ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 25, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animals, animation, antoine robert, bizarre, colorful, death, dorianne fibleuil, gorgeous, hd, maud sertour, paulin cointot, supinfocom, wat

Dig Your Own Hole

“When you don’t know what you want,
You just repeat yourself again;
In the end, you just repeat yourself again.
When you don’t know who you are,
You dig yourself the hole you’re in.”

Another stunner from Gotye, y’all…this time with visuals by Saiman Chow. Grab your headphones, dive-in and enjoy.

A big thanks is due to Colton for the heads-up! Cheers!

[ Gotye - Dig Your Own Hole - official video ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 21, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, bizarre, blacklist, gotye, hand drawn, hd, music video, psychedelic, saiman chow, trippy, watercolor, wormhole

Ryohei Hase

Ryohei Hase is a freelance illustrator based in Tokyo, Japan who cut his teeth as a concept artist at NAMCO Bandai. To see more of his work, visit ryoheihase.com.

[ ryoheihase.com via Axis Animation ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 17, 2012 in Pictures  |  tags: art, bizarre, colorful, dark, horror, illustration, painting, ryohei hase, trippy

The Miracle

“Where do all these melodies come from?
Where do all these melodies run from
to then find solace in sun, son?
Honestly? I’m stumped.
All I know is somehow when I’m stuck,
I’m un-stuck.
Maybe it’s dumb luck, I give up;
I’m just as dumbstruck.”

Steve first sent us this video in the spring but, truth be told, I didn’t take the time to really dive in and pay attention to what was going on until a few days ago. Don’t make the same mistake.

I never really caught on to what the song was about because I was too fixated on the visuals. For whatever dumb reason I tend to not like when shot footage and animation are combined unless they’re seamlessly mixed together. That’s certainly not a rule, just a general prejudice rooted in the sticky cellar of my psyche. When I was a child I used to separate my food into neat little piles; the stuff I liked least was eaten first and, when it was finished, the next mound in the hierarchy of flavor was tackled until my favorite was last on the plate. It sounds dumb now that I’m typing it out but, at the time, this behavior seemed perfectly logical. I was a little obsessed by the process to the point that I’d have a mini freak-out if different foods touched each other.

To enjoy something on it’s own terms is, to me at least, fundamentally satisfying. I find that both sobriety and intoxication are agreeable in their own way but to be either one or the other for too long a span of time spurs a vague discomfort as each plays an integral role in calibrating the poles of my consciousness.

Yin and yang, bruh.

So, separate and tackle in turn. If shot footage and hand-drawn animation are fused into one film, why wouldn’t you want to make the finished product look as homogeneous as possible? You know, invest the necessary time and attention to do a proper blend; apply some craft ‘n shit. This is probably why I glossed over the attached when I first saw it. But I didn’t dismiss it...how could I? Mr. Steven Smith himself made it for goddamn Stones Throw and, seeing as I’m a big fan of both, decided to tuck it away and return later. On a recent trip to the Midwest I did just that and, away from the pressures of work, had time to properly marinate in what was going on.

Anyways, the song is about the creative process and – even though Homeboy Sandman is specifically referring to his methodology for writing rhymes – the themes he covers are pretty universal to anyone who makes things. At it’s core, creating something is a frustrating mix of volition and luck. You’ve got to do what you can to get the ball rolling but ultimately, what’s going on isn’t completely within your control. It’s haphazard and messy and inexact and – for beings whose evolutionary success depended primarily on an ability to exert dominance over the surrounding environment – supremely frustrating.

“I think ‘What is this melody meaning to me?’
The answer might come in a week.
The answer might come immediately.
What is the recipe?”

Lyrically, it’s a tightly-packed, mad, stream-of-consciousness tumble and the accompanying grab-bag of colorful, whacked-out visuals heighten the sense of anticipation for what he’ll say next. It took me until the ninth or tenth viewing to finally notice that the only shot footage is of Sandman’s head, the physical case for an internal universe of grey matter that simultaneously contains both the hindering, fickle spontaneity of his creative muse and the honed mastery of language that eventually liberates and externalizes it.

At that moment everything shifted; the heterogeneous, sharp-edged contrast of the visuals morphed from the thing I didn’t like to my absolute favorite part. Maybe you’ll like it, too?

“EN-JOY.”

For more Steven Smith-created goodness just click here. If this is the first you’re hearing of Stones Throw listen to this and then go buy some albums.

[ Homeboy Sandman - The Miracle ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 12, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, bizarre, chill, colorful, hd, hip-hop, homeboy sandman, mellow, music video, steven smith, stones throw, trippy

Dissimilated Vision

Absolutely loving this two-and-a-half minute dose of delicate, hypnotic, hand-drawn, constantly-morphing line animation from Katayama Takuto. The sparse, plodding piano backing (by Kikuchi Ryouta) compliments the visuals quite nicely, too. Enjoy!

[ 異化した視覚 / Dissimilated Vision ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 11, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, delicate, eye, hand drawn, hd, hypnotic, katayama takuto, kikuchi ryouta, monochromatic, piano, trippy

The Ancestor

“Go on: bury me,
under stone or under sea;
Silent picture, keep the fishes company.
There is little else for me now…
...but I will find my way,
out of the dark some day,
into a crimson, yellow sun.”

An emotional cocktail of gorgeous visuals (by Crazy Lake Pictures) and poignant tunes (from Darlingside); this one’s a winner, folks.

[ "The Ancestor" by Darlingside – Official Music ]

posted by respondcreate on Oct. 01, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, colorful, crazy lake pictures, darlingside, death, hd, music video, space, spiritual

Ballpit

Kyle Mowat‘s thesis film, Ballpit, is a haunted toymaker’s fever-dream with its psychedelic tangle of fluid, soft-edged gizmos, trinkets, and doo-dads that spontaneously erupt into morphing, frenzied movement. The ethereal, echoing Fisher Price-instrument soundtrack by Lido Pimienta is a just-right accompaniment to the madness. ENJOY!

A big thanks to Mr. Sam Lillard, fresh back from his three-month Alaskan sojourn, for the suggestion. Welcome home Sam, we’ve missed you! Cheers!

[ BALLPIT ]

posted by respondcreate on Sep. 26, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: abstract, animation, atmospheric, bizarre, colorful, ethereal, hd, kyle mowat, lido pimienta, psychedelic, trippy

Putty Boy Strut

Been itchin’ to post this one since last Wednesday when I first saw it pop-up in Mr. Lotus’ twitter feed. He’s got a new album, Until The Quiet Comes, set to drop on October 1st and made the brilliant decision to hire Sir Cyriak to create a video to promote it’s release.

It’s a true collaboration and exactly what you’d expect when creatives of this caliber combine their unique skill sets. The tune itself fuses together two of Flying Lotus’ fortés: sterile, machine-pulsed-and-stripped-down beats and his trademark spacey, rambling, warm-and-jazzy tones. Cyriak takes that contrast and runs with it, creating a world populated with regiments of single-purpose robots that is forever changed after one of them spontaneously evolves, trading in its initial programming for a more familiar-to-us set of survival-of-the-fittest, kill-or-be-killed instincts. The video escalates in typical Cyriak fractal-fashion, progressing in complexity from the micro to the macro until everything-is-everything and then back again. Word.

It’s a treat, y’all. ENJOY!

FYI: Both our Flying Lotus and Cyriak feeds are packed with fantastic videos.

[ Flying Lotus - Putty Boy Strut (Until The Quiet Comes, new album out October 1st/2nd) ]

posted by respondcreate on Sep. 23, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, bizarre, cyriak, electronic music, evolution, flying lotus, fractals, hd, music video, robots, trippy

Giving Me A Chance

“You know I never want to let you down,
It cuts me up to see you sad.
And I wish that I could undo what I’ve done;
Give back the faith in me you had.”

Another day, another fantastic music video for a tune from Gotye’s Making Mirrors. This one’s packed with playful, surreal hand drawn visuals (directed/animated by Gina Thorstensen and Nacho Rodriguez with help from Giulia Bellunato) that do a great job fleshing out and exploring the themes of regret, longing, identity, forgiveness and hope presented in the song.

As alluded to above, we’ve posted loads of great music videos from Making Mirrors to the site that can be conveniently accessed via our Gotye feed. Happy browsing!

[ Gotye - Giving Me A Chance - official video ]

posted by respondcreate on Sep. 19, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: animation, bizarre, colorful, ethereal, gina thorstensen, giulia bellunato, gotye, hand drawn, hd, love, music video, nacho rodriguez, surreal, trippy

Evoking Spirits

“I’m-still-swimming-in-that-language,
it’s multi-versal; pages and journals.
My journey here is ended soon –
we blow eternal.

My mind expands
      with widening strands
      of indigo and purple.
This music’s not commericial,
just the-square-to-meet-that-circle.”

We’ve been watching Ori Toor make shit since first discovering the ‘unofficial’ music video he created for Animal Collective’s Lion in a Coma. Since then he’s made a few more and each exhibit his distinct ‘stream of consciousness’ style of staggered-and-repeating organic, undulating shapes. Ori’s approach has subtely shifted in each of them but they’ve all, for the most part, remained abstract studies in colorful form. The attached, his latest, veers into new territory and I’m absolutely loving how he’s mixed in some representational imagery to compliment the usual assortment of evolving, fluid structures.

It’s my favorite Ori-joint yet and easily an ‘instant classic’ of the site…it’d be a crime to watch this in anything but full-screen HD. Oh and a nice pair of bass-friendly headphones is a must, too; Kingdom Crumbs knows how to properly fatten-up the bottom end of their kicks and basslines and you’ll want to rattle-and-bathe in each one.

Speaking of which, I picked up their eponymous album this morning and have been listening to it while I cobble together this post. It’s thoughtful, positive, mellow, rambling-in-a-good-way hip-hop undergirded by some spacey, out-there synthesizers and easily worth the ten bucks in iTunes. If you’re strapped for cash, head over to Bandcamp and name-your-price; even the most frugal of budgets can accommdate a few cents, right?

ENJOY!

[ Kingdom Crumbs - Evoking Spirits ]

posted by respondcreate on Sep. 13, 2012 in Videos  |  tags: abstract, animation, chill, colorful, hd, hip-hop, kingdom crumbs, mellow, music video, organic, ori toor, psychedelic, spiritual, trippy