shardcore

Clubsofa was a series of musical experiments performed between 1995 and 1998 collected together as an album. It’s a ‘solo record’, if you will, since all of the pieces were composed alone, on a shitty 486dx PC running cakewalk. Some of them have been featured as background music to some of my timelapse painting films, but this is the first time I’ve released them together as mp3s since the end of the nineties (when they had their own website).

As ever, it appears my experiment in free music distribution was perhaps ahead of its time, since I think the site closed before the iPod was released…

1. Anandamide [6.6mb] mp3
2. The Pump (featuring Arnold Schwarzenegger) [3.9mb] mp3
3. Blank For Special Messages [6.4mb] mp3
4. Debriefed [3.9mb] mp3
5. Nonesuch [2.2mb] mp3
6. Sure [6.7mb] mp3
7. Urban Renewal [4.5mb] mp3
8. Land of Comf [5.9mb] mp3
9. Bedtime [6.4mb] mp3
10. Uncle Monty [7.7mb] mp3

I’ve no particular reason for re-releasing this now, beyond the generosity of my hosting provider allowing me to see what effect it has on bandwidth usage…

Enjoy.

Filed by shardcore at 7:16 pm under music
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I went up to London to partake of the opening night of the Douglas Bader Foundation show last night. The show itself is excellent, with some really good work, I particularly liked Jo Dennis’ stuff and that of fellow Brightonian Jonathan Ridley. The event was somewhat chaotic, with a rambling auction taking up the majority of the evening – there was rather more art than there were buyers which was somewhat of a disappointment – but despite them auctioning the wrong piece of shardcore work (and giving away my secret identity), I think it resulted in a good boost to the coffers of a worthy organisation.

The show is still up today, and I think possibly tomorrow, so if you’re in the area it’s well worth a visit [and not solely to enjoy the shardcore work on show...]

Filed by shardcore at 11:52 am under exhibitions
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Sigmund Freud was the founder of Pyschoanalysis, and Wilhelm Reich, once Freud’s favourite student, was much respected in his early career as a Psychiatrist, however a rift between them grew as Reich became dissatisfied with Psychoanalysis’ apparent inability to actually produce a ‘cure’ in patients.

Acrylic on canvas 914mm x 610mm

In this painting, we see Freud and Reich wrestling naked in a mountain of cocaine. Freud was himself a great advocate of the anti-depressant powers of cocaine, and an enthusiastic user of the drug himself. It is therefore somewhat unsurprising that he should be a proponent of such concepts as the ego, when under the influence of pharmaceutically pure ‘marching powder’.



Later in his career Reich became diverted by his theories of Orgone Energy, a force which he believed permeated all living things, and could in fact be harvested with giant Orgone Accumulators for therapeutic purposes. These theories, and the fact that he had once been a Communist, brought him into violent opposition with the political establishment of 1950s America who prosecuted, and eventually imprisoned him. In a rather chilling turn of events the FBI ordered that his books and papers be burnt. Reich died in prison in 1957.

The quote is Reichs, and I believe echos the sentiment of many who have been raised in a nominally Christian society, but have embraced atheism later in life.

Below is a time-lapse recording of the painting process

Filed by shardcore at 12:50 pm under painting
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I’m pleased to announce that I shall be exhibiting as part of the Affordable Art Fair in London next week. I’ll be exhibiting six canvases at The Gallery 129 St. Johns Hill, London, SW11 1TG in support of the Douglas Bader Foundation. There is a drinks reception and auction on the first night, 7pm 23rd January – feel free to come along, and I’ll happily explain why it’s essential that you have an anamorphic painting of a 17th Centry philosopher in your collection.

Filed by shardcore at 4:33 pm under exhibitions,painting
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acrylic on canvas, 812mm x 304mm

A new anamorphic painting for the new year. This time the German philosopher Immanuel Kant. Kant is considered a ‘hard’ philosopher by many students of the subject, and I myself remember being bewildered by his writing when I was younger. However his influence on the field is unmatched, and some have gone as far as to say his Critique of Pure Reason is the most significant volume of metaphysics and epistemology in modern philosophy.

Here’s a timelapse recording of the painting process – at the end you can see the anamorphic effect as the canvas is turned.

Filed by shardcore at 5:28 pm under painting,words
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