[Atompunk] Music... and Forward

Sun Dec 21 14:22:16 CET 2008

Since outside the confines of this pretty creative discussion, there really isn't any "canonical" atom-punk, it seems like it can be pretty much anything that anyone wants, without it having to justify itself to anything other than itself.

I like where this is going. Suddenly mashing up industro/ebm/psy/atompunk seems more in step than I thought.

An atompunk show should cross genres.
  ----- Original Message ----- 
  From: Adam Rothstein 
  To: atompunk at antenna.nl 
  Sent: Sunday, December 21, 2008 4:13 AM
  Subject: [Atompunk] Music... and Forward

  I had been thinking about what atom-punk music would be like and was a little stuck--music from the time period is really not as evocative as other imagery of the "right" sort of feelings, in my opinion.  Also, music seems very related to its time period to me.  In other words, 80s music is just so characteristic of the 80s to me, etc.  
  But I like these: maybe the music video aspect helps, taking the focus on the actual music and getting more towards a feeling or an aesthetic that the artist (or at least the video artist) is trying to represent.  Now metal can be atom-punk, or trip-hop, or crazy circuit-bent computer parts, or anything maybe.

  To add the the mix, I was re-watching some Portishead videos the other day, in particular:
  "Glory Box" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yF-GvT8Clnk
  and "Sour Times" http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=niIcxMuORco

  I guess put to lo-fi film that introduces atom-punk themes, any music in that sort of "contemplating-apocalyptica" vein can be atom-punk too.

  ----

  I wanted to respond a bit to Mike's post, who was interested pushing things forward a bit, at least to planning stages in addition to discussion.  Obviously, discussion should continue forever, but I would like to start thinking about some actual projects too. I also know only a little (from the website) about GOGBOT, and I probably won't be making it, as I am a bit anchored to my locale right now, unfortunately (Portland, OR USA). But I like writing things and making things.

  On maybe my first post a couple weeks ago, I wrote down a long list of various ideas that were bubbling out of my brain in my excitement over the possibilities of atom-punk.  I won't re-hash the whole list, but will just say that at least for me, there seems to be almost limitless potential, at least from the start, for art, writing, information, electronics, and other media projects.  Since outside the confines of this pretty creative discussion, there really isn't any "canonical" atom-punk, it seems like it can be pretty much anything that anyone wants, without it having to justify itself to anything other than itself.

  I definitely veer towards the more "confrontational" concepts like Mike's tour group idea, if you could call that confrontational.  I mean that in that it is reaching out to others, rather than just showing off to the club.  Things to perform, to hand out, to distribute, to deliver without request, etc.  Propaganda culture, but very much on the up and up, always official, always legitimate.  Would you like a free sample?  Why not take some of these pamphlets too, pass them on to friends.  Kind of an art-scientology, maybe.  Free film screenings, and aesthetic indoctrination.  What is the atom-punk "free stress test"?

  Personally, my bent is towards writing, building concepts, and design.  I have some basic electronic and carpentry skills, though I don't really feel creative enough in that area to really push things the way that I would want to.

  One thing I've been researching is logos of the post-war era.  As a kid I was always captivated by the NASA logo http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NASA_logo and other mission patches http://www.thespacestore.com/patches1.html.  I'd love to design an atom-punk logo, or logos for other officially non-existent organizations and branches.

  And as one might notice that I tend to be long-winded in emails, I would also like to be involved in a manifesto, if there is one.  Not that it is necessary, clearly anything goes.  But not enough manifestos are written anymore... maybe we should write several, conflicting manifestos, that are all followed to the letter and hotly debated.  Press releases sound like fun too, or other authoritative documentation.  Users manuals?  Diagrams and diagnostic flow charts?  Count me in for any of these.

  What about everyone else?  What are you interested in, or already working on?

  Adam

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