Lightrhythm Visuals: Ryuke Archive - The Tokyo Remix Sessions
Catalog No. MC-812
Shorts Compilation,
Ambient
2008, 64 minutes
DVD,
Region: 0 (All)
TV System: NTSC
UPC: 880198081292
Label: Lightrhythm Visuals/Ben Sheppee
|
 |
|
|
|
The two Japanese creators VJ REEL and K-Mixx formed a partnership in 2004 where they first conceived the album. Performing together extensively in Tokyo's vibrant electronic music scene and working closely with audio artists from the Insector Labo they matured a collection of modern works which fluctuate between 3D concepts of virtual reality, films influenced by the surroundings or the Asian metropolis and expressive and playful graphic studies of data. The audiovisual works were discovered by VJ group Lightrhythm Visuals who expanded the project into a six way collaboration project commissioning further remixes and authoring the record. The disc reveals an array of creative video techniques from the dynamic beat driven pulsating “in-sect” to the industrial structural qualities of “beautiful destruction”.
A key element of “Ryuke” is its collaborative concept: with each track being visually remixed by top visual producers from around the world. Featuring adaptations from the scene's top influence VJ Anyone, and Funkshun.01, alongside the graphic inventions of Kevlar, and finished off by two memorable interpretations by the labels founder Ben Sheppee. It's truly a cultural melting pot with artists from four continents taking their place on the disc and involving in the original Japanese works.
The audio selection for the album falls strongly into the arms of Tokyo's underground with recognized “Broken Haze” and laptop producer “Chaos” collectively contributing a cohesive selection of timeless sounds. Both artists have released multiple albums and have matured both instinctive and individual styles of music which equally balance the quality of the visual works.
Ryuke : The Tokyo Remix Sessions includes 64 mins of sharply rendered and dynamically animated entertainment suitable for both Live house and Lounge. With interactive DVD content, and packed with iPod Data and bonus remixes on the ROM part of the disc.
All films in a printable format
 |
In-sect
directed by Ben Sheppee, and
USA,
Visuals / VJ,
2008,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
visual VJ REEL / audio Chaos... more info
|
 |
Stained Slash
directed by Ben Sheppee, and
USA,
Visuals / VJ,
2008,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
visual K-Mixx / audio Broken Haze remix funkshun.01
... more info
|
 |
Illmatic Chopper
directed by Ben Sheppee, and
USA,
Visuals / VJ,
2008,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
visual VJ REEL / audio Chaos remix Kevlar
... more info
|
 |
Beautiful Destruction
directed by Ben Sheppee, and
USA,
Visuals / VJ,
2008,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:00:00
visual K-Mixx / audio Broken Haze remix Ben Sheppee
... more info
|
 |
Gravith
directed by VJ Reel , and
Japan,
Animation,
2007,
Color,
Magnetic Stereo,
00:03:44
|
This DVD has never been screened
Reviews and Other Info:
2008-05-22 Sky Noise
Also from Tokyo, and the latest release from VJ label Light Rhythm Visuals, Ryuke provides a collection of works by native Tokyo pixelists VJ Reel and K-Mixx, a whirlwind of ‘experimental 3D animation and explorations of virtual space’ - a description which admittedly makes me feel queasy straight away - possibly limiting the disc to being another collection of motion graphics for some information technology current affairs program, with a little science fiction thrown in for good measure. As it turns out - only some of the disc is like that, the rest is densely packed with visual ideas and it’s nice to see Light Rhythm Visuals continue their tradition of including visual remixes on each disc, as well as keeping the discs region free and including quicktime clips ready for use within VJ software. The disc also loops without returning to the menu screen, savvily positioning the disc as a possibility for various venue owners or acknowledging that it can run continuously in the background database/occasionally provoking interest rather than needing to be watched all in one sitting. The stand out piece on the disc for me was the angle 2 remix by Kevlar of VJ Reel’s “illmatic chopper” - it playfully extended VJ Reel’s obsessive look at horizontal movements, adding plenty of innovative variations over time, used masks and black space fantastically, shifted to a tasteful 3D section ( ie - it wasn’t doing some generic object deconstruction / reconstruction, or moving camera around some mechanical 3D object ) and managed to be both beautiful and visually surprising. It helped I guess that VJ Reel’s original piece was quite strong, especially the nice overlayed silhouettes against the fast panning and chopped up horizontal movements.
Also worth a mention - the Ben Sheppee remix of K-mixx’s “Beautiful destruction”, taking the stock 3D disintegration to new places by nicely overlaying glitched masks and stripping back the palette to a less garish black, white and pink - simultaneously enhancing the effectiveness of various silhouettes blacking out portions of the screen. VJ Anyone’s remix of VJ Reel’s ‘gravith’ also has merit, with a wealth of fine edits and sophisticated compositing techniques on show - even exquisite in places, but the overall piece suffering by lapses into information age visual cliches and the addition of some unfortunate text that reeks of a transhuman bent that surely even sci-fi readers find hard to swallow today ( Advocating uploading of the human psyche to machines as a solution to global warming? C’mon … ). It’s an accomplished piece despite these shortcomings, but could’ve been that much stronger. |
|
Exhibition:
Program MC-812 may be licensed for exhibition |
Purchasing for Home Use
This DVD is available from the Microcinema DVD Store |
Institutional Purchasing
This DVD is available from the Microcinema DVD Store |
|
Tracks Include: In-sect, Stained Slash, Illmatic Chopper, Beautiful Destruction, Gravith1_2, In-Sect |
|
Visual Artists:VJ Reel, K-Mixx.
Remix Artists: Ben Sheppee, Kevlar, Funkshun.01, VJ Anyone.
Audio |
|
Wholesale Purchasing:
Program MC-812 is available for wholesale from Microcinema DVD. Contact info@microcinema.com or call at +1-415-447-9750 |
|
|
|
|
