Using Predator-like drones, private military contractors remotely defend water reserves in Mexico from drought stricken locals to a soundtrack by Nacional Records. This all-too-possible near future set to a nasty beat is the vision of Sleep Dealer, a Spanish language science fiction film written and directed by Alex Rivera.

It premiered in NYC last April, which makes it ancient in internet time, but we had to post something about it. The thoughtfulness of Rivera, who resides in New York and first filmed the Sixth Section documentary for PBS, charts the genre into unlikely territory. By addressing current political and environmental issues, he grounds it in reality. And he avoids diving into fantasy by exploring technology that seems probable in the near future and in need of serious discussion. All this brings the movie closer to social commentary than mere entertainment.

As for the soundtrack, it features a number of good songs that have since been released for free in one form or another. Bomba Estereo’s “Raza” made its psychedelic Cumbia debut here. It’s since been released as an MPFree over at NYRemezcla (hastily compiled English translation after the jump). The album also included the Latin dub stylings of Fidel Nadal’s “Puerta De Oro (Con Pablo Lescano)”. That was more recently part of the free Nacional Records Sampler 2009. Nortec Collective’s “Tijuana Sound Machine” and “Discoteca Nacional” were also on the soundtrack.

Bomba Estereo — “Raza”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Fidel Nadal — “Puerta De Oro (Con Pablo Lescano)”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

the jump » »

Eye candy. Starring a surreal sepia New York and a burning piano. By Jeff Desom. (via Caslon Projects)

This video installation by Apparati Effimeri, which is projected onto the side of a castle, manages to make the whole structure appear to move with stop-animation tendencies. For more projection mapping, augmented reality videos, peep the Real World Texture Mapping Group on Vimeo.

(Via Gradient Magazine)

The phrase, “Your language is so colorful” just took on a new meaning. A new program called Word DNA, created by Luke Loeffler, color codes your rhymes. You plug the text into the program, and it gives you back a color bar that adds certain hues to the words that rhyme. We tried it out with the below rhyme, and it showed rhymes we didn’t even realize were there.

The game should stay raisin’ the gauge we grade players with/
So equatin’ quaint creations with greatness is negated/
But the reign of a whole range of fakeness is straight gainin’/
What agent for change could erase this arrangement?

As much as we hate to say it, advertising can be ridiculously creative and important, too. Why say you? The Australian Childhood Foundation’s ad campaign to raise awareness about child abuse. They put up posters that cover a child-sized mannequin. On the sign it says, “Neglected Children are made to feel invisible.” But when the mannequin is ripped out from beneath, the text underneath is made visible, which reads, “Thank you for seeing me.” Ups to Wooster Collective for catching this first and not explaining it at all.

On Saturday, we’ll be in an art show, for those of you that’ll be in Philly this weekend. I mean, $1 beer? You might as well take a Chinatown bus down, it’d probably be a cheaper night out. In addition to dozens of artists - including the man responsible for Downbeat Treaty’s cover - there will also be a number of performers and DJs.

We got a couple tracks for you for the Seclusiasis dudes that will be there. First, Dev79 hit us off with an MPFree of his new Raffertie remix. And we got the stream of a nasty Ghost joint that we can’t wait to see a certain rapper bless.

Raffertie, “Antisocial (Dev79 RMX)”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

Ghost, “Danger”

Audio clip: Adobe Flash Player (version 9 or above) is required to play this audio clip. Download the latest version here. You also need to have JavaScript enabled in your browser.

YrWall -Interactive Digital Graffiti - Lokey from Lumacoustics on Vimeo.

YrWall is like a giant computer screen that you can paint on with spray cans that use virtual paint. Pick your color and cap size, then spray and the wall does what you tell it to. No cops, no fumes, no drip - no bombing either. It looks like you can mess with the transparency, which is cool; but what would make this really fresh would be if you could spray different textures. Seems like a good way to add the physical element that’s missing from digital art, which is only important to the artist, not the viewer.

(From Brave New Traveler, via Sasha Frere Jones.)

Electronic manipulation and sampling are not the only ways to bring new sounds into music. Case in point: Walter Kitundu and his instruments. They are Dr. Moreau-like creations, spliced turntable and string instruments. Hooked up to an amplifier, they bump all-new sounds. Dude is an instrument “builder in residence” for Kronos Quartet (them again?). Sound creation aside, the pieces are visual works of art in themselves. A number of his creations are instruments that exist as a form of functionless sculpture and spectacle, and they are much less interesting. At Kitundu’s Web site, you can listen to songs (”Emotional Infidel” is Culture System’s suggestion) made with his instruments and samples of individual instruments. Unfortunately, none are MP3s, and not all the instruments offer samples.

The above is a demo for The Rev, a music visualizer created by the Barbarian Group. It’s a sound responsive program full of depth, texture, variety and constant change. The visualizer was created for a British energy drink called Relentless. The iTunes version can be downloaded at their Web site. For more on how it was created, check this blog post by Flight 404, one of the developers. The song used for the demo is called ”Six Months Without Light” by a downtempo band called The Flashbulb.