Ramadanman

So recently I have been drawn back into dance music. The cold weather has been reminding me of warehouse raves and I have been updating my collection with some new tracks. I was seriously into dubstep for a while there and had a long infatuation with jungle, techno, trance and deep house before that so you might say my taste is a bit broad. :P

Anyway I recently came across the artist above Ramadanman, and am totally loving his output. His sound, and it is constantly developing, falls somewhere between tech house and dubstep and right now that is exactly the right place to be. His most recent release is on Aus Music with Appleblim (one half of renowned dubstep duo Skull Disco). The track is called Void 23 and although I have long been a fan of Appleblim this collaboration is what drew me into Ramadanman's catalog. Be sure to investigate because there are other treats to be found there.

01 Void 23 (Original) by Una

Be sure to be on the lookout for the new Fabriclive 56 which will be mixed by him and sounds incredible.

William Hundley

Well, I missed out blogging last week due to extreme business and a desire to check into a few local resources. But I am back (in case anyone is reading) due to a local show that I have been anticipating. Domy Books just opened a show this past Saturday for William Hundley and it looks great. He is a photographer based in the local area who has a playful, almost mystical air about his work. Certain aspects of his photographs seem on the very edge of psychedelic and then he uses collage elements to jump over that edge into the realm of the surreal.

Yet somehow the photographs still seem to capture the local spirit of Austin in their light and open feeling.

Recently, as I was driving back and forth between Austin and Corpus Christi, I was reminded of how different the spirit of Texas is from that the vast urban areas on the coasts. Miles of scrub and open land with beautiful light call for a different art (even urban art) than that developed in LA, NY, or London. Hundley's particular use of the available Texas light while still drawing inspiration from a variety of sources is very refreshing.

There is a good recent article on the artist here.

Emeralds, Mike McGuire and drifting inwards against the cold

The recent cold snap here in Austin has led to a bit more than usual indoor activity for me and my family. This has of course led to evenings spent huddled around the stereo, and although the Misfits do fit a lot of occasions. They certainly do not fit every one. Emeralds, the band featured above play an interesting refit of Kosmische Musik that I have been enjoying quite a bit recently. This is not to say that I am not the kind of dork that doesn't have AshRa Temple or Cluster albums, because I certainly am that kind of dork. Emeralds just seems to take it to a new and refreshing place.

Additionally, their guitarist Mike McGuire makes some amazingly transcendent music all on his own.

http://www.mediafire.com/?my5itarh2rfeu9l

Art books, men's clothes and contemporary connections

This story actually begins several years ago. Since I used to live on the West Side of LA and not too far from Santa Monica when I had some spare time I would go to an art book shop on the Third Street Promenade called Arcana. It was a magnificent little shop with a well schooled staff that were able to answer many of my obsessive questions. They not only stocked the most current art books but had a formidable collection of out of print books that could cost what I would be willing to pay for an original work of art. It is at this store quite by chance that I ran into a Japanese edition of the diaries of Peter Beard for the first time and was overwhelmed. He was a fashion photographer and diarist but was born to an extremely wealthy family. This wealth allowed his to live and travel between Kenya and Montauk, NY. His photography focused heavily on the animals of Africa and the women that magazines such as Vogue paid him to photograph. I believe however his best work was in his diaries where he would juxtapose these images and others along with his notes and occasionally his own blood to create stunning visual tapestries. What makes this relevant to Austin is the odd fact that although Arcana had priced Beard out of my range, in shopping for Christmas gifts I ran across the fact that STAG on South Congress claimed to have a new edition of his available for sale!

I guess you will take your art where you will find it. Beard to me is a precursor for many different types of art. Particularly in the way he layers darker imagery and then writes quotes or thoughts over it. Some of his work has an almost industrial feel to it as it is so caught up in the imagery of death and power. There also seems to be a connection to the contemporary artist from Southern California Ed Templeton.

If anyone finds this post and is interested, I eventually found the collected hardbound Peter Beard edition through Amazon at half the price quoted at Stag who had actually sold out! It appears there are more than a couple of people in town that know who he is and are willing to pay a pretty penny to enjoy his images.

Ryan McGinley

One of my favorite artists/photographers of the moment is Mr. Ryan McGinley. He is represented out of New York by Team Gallery and apparently shows quite a bit in San Francisco with Ratio 3. McGinley has developed quite a unique style of work that has become quiet recognizable in a very short period of time. His subjects are almost inevitably nude young adults some shot in studio but the more powerful shots seem to take place in the countryside. Mood and lighting assist in transforming his often all too ordinary subjects into young gods and goddesses of the forest or range.

Starting days

Well how weird is it to be back in Austin after 20 years, with my Masters degree just earned, and still be unemployed? Damn near perfect really.

My main gig here at this blog though will be trying to find out more about visual art in and close to Austin and pushing it. Just recently relocating from LA has left me spoiled in that one small area. That place did not have much going for it, but in the realm of visual arts it was world class. Austin has it matched in almost every area and I believe the artists are here lurking in the night. In fact I occasionally run into them at parties, the weirdos.

Additionally I will probably be pushing music on you since that is just something that I do