R.I.P. Dennis Hopper

Here's the full story from BBC News.

Happy Birthday COTD

Colors of the Dark is one year old today.

We would like to extend a huge thank you to all contributors, followers and readers.

New Book Teaser

5.5 x 8.5" book with reproductions of all 20 paintings from the "Cases & Composites" show. Signed and numbered limited edition of 50.

These will first be available for sale at my opening reception. Remaining copies will be for sale the next day online. I'm not reserving any until that time (sorry).

J. Canady Art Show Reminder

Sorry I have been posting a little less recently. Things are really crazy right now. Too much going on.

I do have some good things to share here once I have time to put them together. Stay tuned.

In the meantime, check out my art show preview over at Flickr or Facebook.

The opening reception is next Friday night in Philadelphia. Click here for the details.

Japanorama - episode Kaidan (Scary Stories)

Japanorama was a BBC TV series that ran from 2002-2007. The above video is just the opening but I ran across an entire episode on YouTube dedicated to horror-related themes. Embedding was disabled but you can watch all three parts of the show by clicking on the links below:

Japanorama - Kaidan Part 1

Japanorama - Kaidan Part 2

Japanorama - Kaidan Part 3

Cut-Throats Nine remake

My all-time favorite Spaghetti Western is being remade and it sounds very promising so far.

Click here for the article over at Variety.com

The original version of "Cut-Throats Nine" is in dire need of a proper DVD release (click here for the trailer). There was a pretty horrid bootleg version released by "Eurovista" in 2001 but I don't recommend paying for it.

Never fear, you can get a DVDr copy of the movie from Shocking Videos here. I have not seen their print of "Cut-Throats" but all the previous DVDrs I have bought from this company have been excellent quality. Shocking Videos is always the FIRST place I look for movies that do not have proper DVDs available. In fact, owner Mark Johnston quoted me on the front page of the site (ha ha).

Many thanks to Shade Rupe for giving me the heads up about this remake.

The Secret Door (full HD short feature)

The Secret Door from Edward Ballinger on Vimeo.

As I mentioned a while back, I contributed a little analog synth noise to the recent short horror movie "The Secret Door." I am happy to report it is now available for viewing online, uncut and in HD (above).

In addition to me, the soundtrack also features: Richard Hoak (Brutal Truth / Total Fucking Destruction), Kevin Hufnagel (Dysrhythmia / Byla), David Graham (Requiem), and many more.

If you like this movie, please share it with your friends.

For more on the work of Ed Ballinger go to his Vimeo page and punkmonkeypictures.com

The Human Centipede

I saw the above trailer last weekend and was incredibly amused / confused. So much so, I had to watch it twice.

There seems to be quite a bit of controversy over wether this movie is good horror or total crap. So, I asked film writer Shade Rupe (who's opinion I totally trust) and he gave it a thumbs up. That's good enough for me. I will be checking out the film as soon as I am able.

"The Human Centipede" is in select theaters now as well as on Comcast Cable OnDemand. Here's the IFC page with more info.

Here's an interview with the director and two cast members:

M. Londus Pike / The Corvidae Cabal

A while back I discovered a blog called The Corvidae Cabal because they were kind enough to list Colors of the Dark in their links.

The blog is sporadically updated but when there happen to be new posts they range from amusing to quite excellent. I highly recommend reading through all their past posts.

The reason I am mentioning this blog now is that the contributor M. Londus Pike has just posted the final installment of his series "How to Fail and Die Trying" that has been in the works for just over a year. This is some rough, yet dark and surreal prose that I think will appeal to you Colors of the Dark fans. The entire series is a quick read as well.

Here are links to each part in sequence:

"How to Fail and Die Trying" - Part 1

- Part 2

- Part 3

- Part 4

- Part 5

- Part 6

- Part 7

- Part 8

- Part 9

- Part 10

Frank Frazetta R.I.P.

As you may have learned already, one of a kind illustrator and artist Frank Frazetta has died at the age of 82. Here's an article from the New York Times website.

Without Frank Frazetta this blog may have never existed. He was the first artist that captivated my imagination as a child. His were the first art posters I ever owned. Many a fine artist might dismiss Frazetta as "just an illustrator" but not me. I am blown away by his work still to this day and I love to spend time leafing through through my copy of the above book "Icon." If you like Frazetta's work and don't own this book you are truly missing out. It's very reasonably priced over here at Amazon.

Rest in Peace Frank Frazetta - Colors of the Dark salutes you.

Click here for a nice tribute over at Monster Brains.

Click here for the official Frazetta museum website.

Click here to watch the trailer for the documentary "Painting With Fire."

Bloodyminded live at Heavy Focus III

Bloodyminded at Heavy Focus III (Night 2, 4/24/10) from Bullart. on Vimeo.

There are also several more great sets from the Heavy Focus III Fest at Bullart's Vimeo page.

For all things relating to Bloodyminded, go to Mark Solotroff's blog at bloodlust.blogspot.com

Jorden Haley

(Click images to see larger)

Jorden Haley is a very talented illustrator / designer and artist working out of Brooklyn. As you can see from this small sample of his work, he pretty much does it all.

Check out his blog at jordenhaley.blogspot.com

There's much to see over on his Flickr page as well.

New work from Gaiihin

("Grigri 2" - click image to see larger)

French artist Gaiihin was kind enough to share his latest artwork with me (and you). He said it took a LONG time and I can believe it.

Here's my previous post on Gaiihin's work.

For more recent work check out his blog at gaiihin.blogspot.com

Wretched Worst - Berzerker Video

Check out my previous post on Wretched Worst here.

Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol. 1

Ok, I am a little late in reporting this but hey... better late than never right?

My friend Pieter Schoolwerth, of Weird Records fame, took part in compiling the very special release "Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol. 1" which was recently released by Angular Records.

If the name alone says it all, you can purchase "Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol. 1" on double vinyl, CD and as a digital download here. I ordered mine today.

But for those who need some background, here's the official promo blurb:

Angular Records are proud to announce the forthcoming release of 'Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1' - a new 17 track compilation put together by New York's Wierd Records founder Pieter Schoolwerth and Angular's Joe Daniel. The album chronicles the secret underground cult genres of cold wave and minimal wave, which mostly originated from continental Europe between the years 1981-1985.

Nowadays the computer has largely replaced traditional analogue machines as the dominant generator of synthetic sounds. This has brought about a loss of scope for man/machine interaction and human fragility in the face of digital precision. This climate has inspired Wierd Records label and weekly live music party in New York (run by artist and DJ Pieter since 2003) to single-handedly revive the frosty 'cold' sounds of the minimal electronic groups of the early 1980s. Active largely in small towns and isolated, non-metropolitan areas of France, Germany, Italy, Belgium, and The Netherlands, the first wave of minimal electronic groups functioned at the time as a raw, aggressive, affirmative antidote to the superficial excesses of commercial new wave. Using analogue synthesizers, sequencers, and drum machines the 'minimal synth' artists successfully combined the sounds of the German electronic bands of the 60s and 70's (Amon Duul, Neu, Faust, Can) with the seminal early industrial bands largely active in the UK (Throbbing Gristle, SPK, Cabaret Voltaire) to produce a new form of electropop that went on to be crucially influential on European and American pop and dance music of the late 80's and early 90's (Italo, New Beat, EBM).

Wierd Records founder Pieter Schoolwerth has been fostering an archive of cold wave and minimal wave for almost thirty years. His unrivalled collection gave birth to the “radically confusing and glamorously uncomfortable” club night and now this compilation. Pieter has been waiting almost three decades for the rest of the world to be turned on to what he views as “a true movement of humanistic resistance against the vacuous contemporary excesses of modern laptop pop”.

Whilst Pieter had been immersed in this music since the early 80’s, Joe Daniel first came across the genre about two years ago when a friend played him some minimal electronic tracks. They contained analogue synths that sounded sharp and icy instead of the warm squelchy noises that a lot of people use them for, backed by the most primitive drum machines and oblique otherworldly vocals. This had an immediate and considerable effect on Joe. He loved the intrigue that most of this music came from groups who recorded a few songs, released a 7″ and then split up before anyone noticed what they were doing. “I like the impossible romance you can have with a band when all you’ve got is a tape with three songs on it all in French, and a single black and white photograph.”

Joe then made it his mission to search high and low to unearth the greatest gems of this synth sound in order to make a retrospective artefact of the lost genre of music known as cold wave.

In a fortuitous turn of events, Joe found himself in a New York club where he heard one of the tracks his friend had played to him. The DJ turned out to be Pieter, and as they began chatting it became apparent that Pieter had only given that track to one person, a friend of Joe’s friend. And so between four people, two years of solid research and love of an exceptional, underground scene, this unique collection was born.

Containing songs that have only been available up to now on ultra rare 7”s, lost radio sessions and cassette tapes , as well as never before seen photos and extensive sleeve notes about the genre. ‘Cold Waves and Minimal Electronics Vol.1’ is finally here to teach us all a thing or two about the history of electronic music the world over.

Tracklisting:
1. Absolute Body Control - Figures
2. Nine Circles - Twinkling Stars
3. Linear Movement - Night In June
4. Opera Multi Steel - Ils S'eloigent
5. Bal Paré - Palais d'Amour
6. Eleven Pond - Watching Trees
7. The Vyllies - Babylon
8. End of Data - Dans Votre Monde
9. The Actor - Lights
10. Ausgang Verboten - Consumer
11. Jeunesse d'Ivoire - A Gift Of Tears
12. OTO - Anyway
13. Ruth - Polaroïd/Roman/Photo
14. Stereo - Somewhere In The Night
15. The Neon Judgement - The Fashion Party
16. Land of Giants - Cannibal Dolls
17. Days of Sorrow - Travel

You can also read Pieter's essay for this release here. And there's a related podcast over here at The Guardian.