Bjork – Biophilia

Bjork’s new LP is out today.. it’s called Biophilia. I’ve been listening to it on Spotify this morning, and it’s pretty good actually. A bit odd in places maybe, but full of her idiosyncratic sounds and vocals. I would say it’s definitely a Marmite kind of thing: either love it or hate it but I suspect there’ll be few occupying the middle “I’m not sure/ it’s alright” ground…

The intriguing cover for Biophilia continues to chart Bjork’s journey through the fringes of style and/or sanity… big red afro wigs, metal clothes and spangly lights are all in evidence…

I’ve quickly grabbed all her studio album covers and arranged them in chronological order to better assess her ongoing journey towards…. something… enlightenment possibly? From the simple black and white portrait of 1993′s Debut, through an increasingly exaggerated array of stylings and images, until for 2007′s Volta, she appeared to be wearing a big multicoloured plastic chicken suit…

On a more serious note, this album is the one of the first to be made available as an interactive IPad App… Not sure exactly what that entails yet, but it looks like you’ll be able to interact with and explore some of the various themes and sounds of the project, through videos, specially designed sequences and games. I think there’s even an opportunity to remix and/or rework some of the tunes….

If only I had an IPad, I would definitely be interested in that…..

A rather lazy post of other people’s videos…

Its good to be busy at work, but it does mean that long involved posts are proving rather challenging to research & write up… So in lieu of a proper post full of opinion and thought, here are some amazing videos that I’ve either come across or been told about over the last few months.

Reulf is a lovely idea, beautifully made and executed, simple as…

The Rough Fields video is by some friends of mine whose music I’m following with great interest. It’s a stylishly lo-fi offering that perfectly fits Jim’s beautiful tune.

The Three Trapped Tigers video is a bonkers thing, and I can’t decide if that’s in spite of, or because of the presence of the ever excellent Matt Berry. Once you’ve got over the visuals, listen to the tune… very nice

Bjork is obviously a few scoops short of the full cornet, but you could never accuse her of resting on her laurels, (painting your chin purple is not most people’s idea of style). This is an unusually low tech Michel Gondry video (Clangers anyone?) which accentuates the brilliant old school “drill and bass” section of the tune at about 3.00 mins in.. The Squarepusher revival (hopefully) starts here…

The other two are Lego based animations. The Eddie Izzard sketch has been making me laugh for many years now and this seems like a good opportunity to attach it to my blog. The other is a short homage to one of the best films ever made…  Fingers crossed that Ridley Scott’s upcoming reboot of Bladerunner (and indeed of Alien) are as excellent as the originals, adding to, rather than detracting from their legacy…