Japanese producer-turned recording artist Keigo Oyamada, better known as Cornelius, recently dropped a video for Sometime/Someplace. In this other peek into his latest album Mellow Waves, he takes viewers into a ‘dive’ in a world of his creation, where he’s seemingly floating into space in mellow and transcendent bass tunes.
Often described as experimental with his music, Cornelius is perhaps proving it to be true with the depths taken into creating another ‘world’ with Sometime/Someplace. With the beats, the bass, all with a touch of his Shibuya flare, Cornelius is definitely prepping the audience to welcome his fresh come back after over a decade of break.
Could an artist loose the vibes of his musical distinction after a significant number of published albums or records? Are those just other words for losing inspiration? As a part of the audience, we may not have the answer. All that we may know is that we might just not be ready for Childish Gambino to leave us hanging for good.
Donald Glover, who is better known in the music industry as Childish Gambino, announced recently at the Governor’s Ball that his next album might be his last. Stating that his continuation in the music industry would no longer be ‘necessary’, he felt he wouldn’t want to compromise his ‘punk’ approach to creating music after the successful rise of Awaken My Love, which is what continuing his persona as Childish Gambino might just do. According to Glover,
Perhaps Glover is acting smart and efficient by leaving the stage for good at the peak of Childish Gambino’s fame. He said, Redbone may have gotten many hooked to Gambino’s chill, laid-back yet electrifyingly addicting takes on being “punk”. But perhaps, this way of quitting his musical persona may just allow Glover to keep with him the remains of Gambino’s golden days as what will forever be known of Childish Gambino in his audience’s memories. After all, we will never look back and point at him as “that one-time wonder that people just wasn’t interested in listening to anymore.”
Video menjadi medium yang ikut mengembangkan subkultur musik pop pada dekade 90-an hingga medio 2000-an lewat pengaruh MTV yang diadaptasi di banyak negara. Adalah The Jadugar, sebuah proyek dari duo videomaker yang banyak membuat video klip untuk beberapa unit musik dalam negeri sidestream maupun mainstream saat itu. Henry “Betmen” Foundation dan Anggun Priambodo berbagi bingkai dalam karya video musik mereka yang terkesan kitsch dengan banyak memproduksi elemen sederhana.
Tidak dapat disangsikan dua album terdahulu mereka Wolfgang Amandeus Phoenix (2009) dan Bankrupt! (2013) mempunyai afeksi luar biasa. Tur dunia yang padat, single menduduki hingga mengisi festival-festival besar di penjuru dunia. Dari band indie yang hanya bisa memuja Cassius beralih menjadi salah satu pesona di jagat permusikan.
Namun setiap kesuksesan memiliki konsekuensi tersendiri. Kebosanan dan pelbagai sikap yang sering diejawantahkan sebagai macetnya inspirasi menjangkiti kuartet asal Versailles tersebut. Suka tak suka, produksi karya harus dihentikan sementara waktu sampai akhirnya mereka memutuskan untuk melepas album terkini yang bertajuk “Ti Amo.”
Tiga nomor dikeluarkan sekaligus guna menjaga antusias lahirnya nuansa menyegarkan. Adalah “J-Boy”, “Ti Amo”, dan “Goodbye Soleil” yang didapuk Phoenix selaku senjata andalan. Secara garis besar, musikalitas mereka tak berubah banyak kecuali nada-nada mayor yang mendominasi lanskap notasi. Ketukan yang elegan, maupun permainan gitar repetitif masih menguasai papan teknis Thomas Mars, Deck d’Arcy, Laurent Brancowitz, dan Christian Mazzalai.
Munculnya album ini membawa angin sejuk tentang pertemuan yang diidam-idamkan sejak lama; musim panas, roman bahagia, atau kerinduan tak berbalas. Phoenix terlahir kembali seperti era French pop yang memenuhi seleksi lagu di Cherie FM atau Radio Nova dan sesuai judul albumnya, tiap lagu yang ada di dalamnya membuat pendengar ingin menghujani mereka dengan kata “ti amo.”
British photographer Cecilie Harris tries to evoke new thoughts from society of what it means to be masculine, and to be a boy that fits the criteria of being a man. Through her popular biannual print publication entitled “Boys By Girls,” Harris attempts to present visualization of boys in what she considers their natural ‘colors’ or identities. The aim of these visualizations is to present male figures as personal as possible, without making them look any less than a man no matter their nature. The emphasis of the publication would also be on ‘the female gaze’, on how female photographers may dismantle the already existing gender binaries through the way they choose to capture their subjects.
With the evolving recognition of women’s equal rights to men, and women’s position in the modern society becoming more considerable than they were just decades before, there may also be a shift in the general perception of women, whose socially-assigned characteristics and traits may not be considered as weak or embarrassing for men to also adopt as they used to be. Thomas Brodie-Sangster, one of the public figures photographed for this publication agrees with this thought as he stated that, “Every male has a feminine side.”
In its efforts to present more redefinitions of manhood, the publication also feature Solomon Golding, a gay, black male ballet dancer from London, along with a gay couple who’d met in an LGBT support group. It becomes more and more apparent how, the definitions of manhood, to figuratively illustrate it, doesn’t only consist of a range of certain dark, strong toned colors. It consists of the entire color spectrum.
And perhaps, in all the focus and concentration society places on how there should be a redefinition of what it means to be a woman (i.e. being a woman doesn’t necessarily mean you should be able to cook, do house chores, have babies), we have disregarded any possibility of the need to redefine what it means to be a man.
After all, man or woman, whatever our race, whomever we choose to love, whatever we decide to do with our bodies, and however we choose to celebrate ourselves, we are all a part of a grand color spectrum called life.
Menyimak jalannya film besutan Denis Villeneuve ibarat menyaksikan kondisi global hari ini yang sering muncul di kanal media berbayar ataupun warta cetak setempat - dipaksa tegang mengamati dan tak paham bagaimana akhir dari yang terjadi. Menggunakan premis sederhana untuk filmnya, publik pun menerima Villeneuve dengan tangan terbuka dan hal tersebut memang tak bisa dipungkiri karena ia bukan sekadar sutradara kemarin sore yang menonjol di layar pertama.
Villeneuve adalah hasil proses yang ditempa ribuan ide secara terus-menerus dengan durasi tak sebentar, dan lewat film pertamanya, Prisoners, ia membuka mata dunia mengenai potensinya. Film ini menuturkan misteri hilangnya sepasang anak dari dua keluarga di Pennsylvania pasca merayakan kunjungan Thanksgiving. Tanpa disadari, tanpa jejak, tanpa pertanda, keberadaan mereka lenyap dan seketika menimbulkan serangan panik bagi sang orang tua. Dari awal film, penonton diajak menyelusuri intrik yang membingungkan logika dengan apik lewat akting Hugh Jackman dan Jake Gyllenhaal berusaha membalap jalan waktu untuk menemukan anak yang hilang.
Prisoners kiranya berhasil mengawali langkah perhitungan seorang Denis Villeneuve. Walaupun kritikan perihal monotonnya film ini sejak babak mula terdengar di sekitar telinga, tapi keseluruhan berkata bahwa Prisoners hadir mengesankan. Dari sini kelak kita menyaksikan dan perlahan memahami isi otaknya yang ditumbuhi keliaran menyoal mafia narkoba di film Sicario, abstraknya konflik sci-fi di Arrival, dan menerka-nerka kerumitan humanisme pada Blade Runner 2049.
Prisoners (2013)
Sutradara: Denis Villeneuve
Sinopsis: Dari menit beralih ke jam, panik adalah satu-satunya yang ada dalam diri Dover. Sementara petunjuk hanya ada lewat RV bobrok yang tadinya di parkir di jalan mereka. Detektif Loki (Jake Gyllenhaal) telah menangkap pengendara RV itu, Alex Jones (Paul Dano). Tetapi penangkapan itu masih kurang bukti untuk menjadikan Alex seorang tersangka. Mengetahui nyawa putrinya sedang terancam, Dover memutuskan tidak ada pilihan lain kecuali menyelesaikan masalah ini dengan tangannya sendiri. (Film Bioskop)
