This weeks 405 Radar is pointed at a band all the way from California. Enjoy.
Lucky Dragons - Band
Rather than focusing on a band that I may have spoken about before on The 405, I thought I might talk about a band that are relatively unknown to most people and when i say “most people” I include myself due to only getting into them a few weeks ago. The band are called Lucky Dragons and they hail from Los Angeles, California. Trying to find a way to describe what they do is damn near impossible so i’ll let their bio do the talking.
“Lucky Dragons” means any recorded or performed or installed or packaged or shared pieces made by Luke Fischbeck, Sarah Rara, and any sometimes collaborators. They try to do as many different kinds of things as they can, high and low,fast and slow. They would say they are “artists who use music” and if they make performance art it is to alter and append it, but they give respect to history and the people who live there.
If that’s not clear I’ll elaborate. Luke Fischbeck and Sarah Rara are two artistic/visual/musicians that create electronic life affirming music. This might not sound like much but read the following excerpt from Artforum and then watch the videos to get some sort of idea as to how they create music.
“Lucky Dragons… create ecstatic music that completely transcends genres. My attempts to describe what their music actually sounds like always fall short of the magic they are making. I guess you could say it sounds like—ecstatic magic. Challenging stereotypes that electronic music is cold and sterile, Lucky Dragons’ live show, though conducted via computers, is a truly great celebration of the human spirit, giving real hope for the techno-future our society is racing toward.” -artforum (March 2006)
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lJj20oQLqE4]
[youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cDhYd5gbWNc]
The first video is pretty clear. Two musicians creating mad scientist-electro-laptop-folktronica but the second one might need a bit more explaining. Basically they make all sorts of instruments and electronics to form less standard ways of creating music. This results in the second video which shows all sorts of people touching each other to form the backbone of their music. I think you’ll agree that this is pretty amazing.
The device they made produces a series of tonal progressions based on different levels of electrical resistance. The progressions are created by the number of people who touch each other and the way they touch each other. They like to call the project “Make A Baby” I guess the next thing i should talk about is the music. It’s just splendid. There we go, short and sweet! But seriously, it really is. They have 19 albums but their latest ‘Dream Island Laughing Language’ is definitely one to check out.
Dream Island Laughing Language
Click here to download ‘Givers’ Also check out these two videos which really showcase their musical talent as well as their artistic talent. [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K_CPwW0uih4] [youtube=http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s6BfDCpgyKE] They also keep a busy schedule of performances and visits and festivals and workshops. In the past: NY’s PS1, the Centre Georges Pompidou in Paris, the Philadelphia Institute for Contemporary Art, the Portland Institute for Contemporary Art, the Museum of Contemporary Art San Diego, Frankfurt’s Schirn Kunsthalle, Los Angeles’ The Smell, NY’s The Kitchen, and the 2008 Whitney Biennial, and The Smithsonian Institute’s Hirshorn Museum,Tokion’s “Creativity Now” conference, etc. Lucky Dragons’ sister projects include “sumi ink club“–a weekly collaborative drawing society, and “glaciers of nice“–a small press and internet community. As you can tell, they get around a bit!!! Here’s some of the aforementioned work they’ve done.
Show Them To Me In The Sunlight
Sumi Ink Club
So that’s it really. Sorry if i’ve rambled on or if you feel i haven’t rambled enough. Either way, download the songs below and make sure you click on the links!
Click here to download ‘Jeans Theme’
Click here to download ‘Mercy’
Click here to download ‘Morning Ritual’
Click here to download ‘Hello New Friend’
Links
www.hawksandsparrows.org
www.myspace.com/luckydragons
www.sumiinkclub.com
www.glaciersofnice.com
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1 Lucky Dragons - Dream Island Laughing Language « // Sep 24, 2008 at 3:37 pm
[...] week (which can be found here) and we also covered them in our Radar piece (which can be found here!). So if you need more info on these guys head over to the last link and get [...]
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