| Rockerilla
(Italy, 2005)
Rif
Raf (Belgium, 2005)
Chaindlk on-line magazine
(Germany, 2005)
Neural (Italy, 2005)
Vital
Weekly (Netherlands, 2005)
Rockerilla
(Italy, 2005)
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Rif
Raf (Belgium, 2005)
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Chaindlk
on-line magazine (Germany, 2005)
Battery Operated are a group who
consist of musicians, video producers and web designers.
They have been working together since 2000 when they
met in Melbourne, Australia. Made up of Tomkz (sound),
Wade Walker (sound) and Beewoo (video) the group reached
their fourth studio album and with this they also
made an ambitious project. RE: CORD is a multimedia
project which consist of a CD and a video DVD. For
the whole project Battery Operated used different
collaborators (BCD, Richard H. Kirk, Mathias Delplanque,
Freiband, Kurt Ralske, Identification, Digital Cutup
Lounge, Kim Ki-Chul, Sachico. M, Gate and Pretty Boy
Crossover). They sent to each of them (forming a chain
mail) a black box of an aircraft and asked them to
use it and to send back their favourite conspiracy
theory in form of sounds, visuals or writings. When
the group received back the various pieces they used
them to do their own remix album based on those sounds.
On the DVD you can find the ten original tracks along
with visual works by Emma Mcrae, Beewoo and the collaborators
themselves (videos or images). Musically the CD sounds
like an ambient / electronic glitch album made of
different sounds/moods. Interesting and creative but,
in my opinion, enriched by the whole creative steps
and by the DVD which take back the recordings to their
basic form (more experimental than the final result).
On the DVD you can also find the whole reference material
(visuals, writings, etc) that made all this possible.
Really interesting: it's like having an installation
at home!
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Neural
(Italy, 2005)
I
progetti seriali, in cui un'informazione passa di
mano in mano modificandosi nel tragitto, fino a raggiungere
uno stadio finale e definitivo, o una documentazione
del suo progetto di trasformazione, sono una prerogativa
degli artisti che credono nelle possibilità
di un modello cooperativo e collaborativo e che lo
applicano con strategie personali. I Battery Operated
ne offrono un brillante esempio con questo progetto
che, per far transitare le informazioni fra gli artisti
coinvolti, ha scelto la forma di una verosimile classica
scatola nera (black box) usata negli aerei per registrare
tutte le operazioni compiute dal veivolo. Colorata
di rosso e denominata 'Parabox' ha ospitato le scelte
di dieci artisti, che hanno veicolato la loro teoria
cospirazionista preferita in forma di contributi musicali,
visivi e scritti. L'ultima spedizione (dopo transiti
che hanno coinvolto fra gli altri Richard Kirk, storico
fondatore dei Cabaret Voltaire e Frans De Waard, parte
del team di Staalplaat) è stata destinata ai
titolari dell'operazione che hanno remixato il tutto
in un summa operata su un piano musicale da un lato
e visivo dall'altro. Lo spazio percorso dai diversi
contributi e il fatto che siano fisicamente passati
di mano in mano ne rende ancora più apprezzabile
l'eterogeneo risultato finale, visibilmente generato
da menti diverse, ma ben compendiato in un unico stile.
Il transito che ha consentito la raccolta fisica dei
materiali ne ha probabilmente segnato anche, di volta
in volta, la realizzazione, realizzando un processo
unificato nella forma, ma collettivo nella sostanza.
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Vital
Weekly (Netherlands, 2005)
To fully understand
what this is all about, the best thing is to
start with the DVD part of it. It has ten tracks from
ten artists
around the world, who received a black box, in which
they had to put their favorite conspiracy theory in
sonic, visual and written form. Once that was completed,
it was send back to Battery Operated, who initiated
the project, who in return made an audio and visual
remix of the material. The ten tracks, spanning most
continents and each dealing with their favorite conspiracy
theory, is a well-varied bunch. From the surprisingly
rocky opening by BCD, one of Richard H. Kirk's nicknames
to the ambient pieces of Kurt Ralske and Mathias Delplanque,
tribal rhythms from Kim Ki-Chul and trip-hop breakbeats
from Digital Cutup Lounge, to the more experimental
outings of Gate and Freiband and the peeps Sachiko
M, this is goes all over the musical place and should
offer more than excellent reworkings for Battery Operated.
The audio remix of the material by Battery Operated
brings the material back to quite experimental techno
beats and crackling static hiss. It's hard to recognize
any of the original material in there, but that makes
it altogether much more exciting. The remix as a tool
is a real expansive one, as once again is proven by
Battery Operated. On the DVD part there is also the
entire film they made for this work, which is a likewise
hallucinatory work of camera's, both in and out of
control.
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