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Music

[Premiere] Two Experimental Music Videos Inspired by 70s Graphic Design

It's true: balls, stripes, and simple geometric shapes are still the best.
All screencaps courtesy of the artist

"Always There" — Cachopou from Yoshihide Sodeoka on Vimeo.

New-York based experimental video artist and Undervolt video label's co-funder Yoshi Sodeoka, who previously delighted us with a technicolored maelstrom and a psychedelic video journey celebrating the 10 years of Psychic TV, is back today to premiere a pair of brand new eye-catching visual journeys on The Creators Project.

Combining first Exponential Functions 154—the very first release of an Undervolt's series that will be unveiled throughout the summer—with his own brand of abstract and noise-based electronic pop, Sodeoka's result was "Always There." It's a visual voyage that syncs perfectly in time with the first single from Cachopou—a new music project by Juanma Lodo & David Quiles Guilló—off upcoming album, Creating Standards, which is defined by Guilló himself as “experimental jazz with improvisation and classic touches.”

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Sharing the same sonic and graphic inspirations, the two avant-garde and mesmerizing music videos provide the viewers with a powerful audiovisual experience that merges Sodeoka's colorful and dynamic retro-futuristic aesthetic with graphic elements straight from 70s design—think balls, stripes and simple shapes.

"I've been re-listening to early Wire albums a lot lately and the album artwork of '154' has been stuck in my head for awhile. It's such a great cover. I always loved abstract graphic arts with odd geometric shapes and colors,” Sodeoka tells the Creators Project. “Anyhow, as someone who works mainly with videos like myself, I wanted to try making animated videos that are inspired by old-school graphic arts and see how expressive those can be with simple ball shapes and stripes."

This creative direction expresses his strong interest for artists like Bridget RileyJosef Albers, and Frank Stella, and also Barney Bubbles—the graphic designer behind some iconic album covers with geometric shapes for Ian Dury & The Blockheads and The Damned—and Peter Saville, the creator of many mythic album covers including timeless eye-candies like Joy Division's Unknown Pleasures and New Order's Blue Monday.

Enjoy both of the trippy videos and few screencaps above and below:

Exponential Functions 154: Yoshihide Sodeoka from Undervolt & Co. on Vimeo.

Cachopou are Juanma Lodo & David Quiles Guilló. "Always there” is the first single of Cachopou's upcoming album “Creating Standards,” to be released Sept 2015 by NOSORDO. Special collaboration by Cristian Rodriguez Pereira. Recorded in June 2015 at Drax Studios (Madrid) by J.M.Rosillo Mixed and mastered in Maitino, Basel and Barcelona by David Quiles Guilló.

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Download Always There EP here: https://cachopou.bandcamp.com/album/always-there-ep

Related:

10 Years of Psychic TV Become Looping Video Art

Yoshi Sodeoka's Newest Video Is a Technicolored Maelstrom

Experimental Label Undervolt & Co. Creates an Online Video Art Party