Tron Legacy Light Show.

From the good folk at io9: 


This is some crazy, awesome shit. For most of late November and early December, the Queen Elizabeth Hospital in London, England was used as the canvas for a projected Tron: Legacy light show featuring the soundtrack from Daft Punk and sound effects from the film. Behold! Here's the 9 1/2-minute video of the proceedings! Man oh man, this kicks some serious ass. I remember seeing the original Tron in theatres when I was a young lad; in fact, that was one of those movies (E.T., Empire Strikes Back, and Predator are others that come to mind) that I went and saw, over and over and over again. I, for one, am frothing at the mouth to see this bugger -- I really hope it's as awe-inspiring to me as an adult as the original was when I was a child. Go, Tron Legacy! And go, Daft Punk! You guys were born to provide this soundtrack.


I recommend putting in headphones, or turning up your volume to full-blast. This is epic.

HP ePrint & TRON: Legacy projection mapping - complete animation from Guided Collective on Vimeo.

Electro Classic Jukebox: Soft Cell.

Two years after the triumphant debut of their first album Non-stop Erotic Cabaret and its immediate followup Non-stop Ecstatic Dancing, Soft Cell (Marc Almond & Dave Ball) came back in dark form with their third release, The Art of Falling Apart. While NSEC had more of a playful mentality, singing praises and curses of the sleaziness of late '70s and early '80s Soho, London (think "Sex Dwarf", "Seedy Films", and the lonely doldrums of "Bedsitter"), The Art of Falling Apart found Mssrs. Almond and Ball in much darker territory. From the sadly dysfunctional family at each others' throats in "Where the Heart Is" to the excruciatingly savage and harrowing examination of a stripper's life in "Baby Doll", TAOFA was more interested in telling the stories of people who otherwise wouldn't be noticed by the average Londoner. Maybe that's why it didn't sell as well as its predecessor, but it could also have been the drugs that were beginning to plague the duo. But when I look at the work of Soft Cell during those first three years (their fourth album, This Last Night In Sodom was, to me at least, a mixed bag at best), I find TAOFA to be their most assured and seamless adventure. Almond's voice really reached a level of seedy cabaret brilliance, Ball's synths and drum programming were precise and warm, and their trumpeter John Gatchell delivered some pretty freaking incredible and soulful blasts of jazz into the proceedings. 

All that being said, my favourite track off this album is actually a B-side from the 12" release of "Where The Heart Is". It's a fantastic and really quite weird number called "It's A Mug's Game," and here we find Almond, Ball, and Gatchell delivering what is probably the funniest synth-pop song ever released, ever. This paean to practically the worst day ever has such a silly and incredibly vibrant energy to it, that it nearly explodes out of your speakers. Featuring horrible hangovers, food poisoning, venereal disease, unintended pregnancy, emergency visits to the chemist, money problems, and strict fathers, you've just got to listen to it to believe it. Best lyric: "Oh God, it's another disease / And you just got rid of the last / You were beginning to feel OK / And the friends you gave it to were speaking to you again."

Here's "It's A Mug's Game." Enjoy!

soft cell

"it's a mug's game"

the art of falling apart

The Next 60:58 Belong To Cicada.

And for good reason. Aaron Gilbert and Alex Payne have been busy, busy bees -- er, I mean Cicadas; spending some fruitful time in the studio recording their third album. Due sometime in early 2011, the yet-to-be-titled record has officially piqued Second Drawer Up's curiosity - after all, we're all in love with Cicada's ultra-fucking-cool new-disco electronic sounds. 2007's Cicada drove us absolutely wild, what with its smoother-than-smooth beats, breathy vocals, and those synths that flowed like florid honey from our speakers. 2009's sophomore release, Roulette, continued in the same vein, but in our humble opinion, rocked a bit harder - this baby was designed for the dance floor.


So it is with much pleasure that we here at Second Drawer Up HQ deliver unto you, dear readers, some highly anticipated music from our Londoner pals. First up, here is Cicada's "Autumn 2010 DJ Mix," though I am now in upside-down land and we're magically in Spring, for geographical reasons. Instructions: 1. Press "play." 2. Enjoy wherever and however you wish to!

Cicada Autumn 2010 DJ Mix by cicadamusic

... And, here's the first single from the album, a lovely danceable number called "Your Love." Damn, this shit's smoking! Mind you, this is an "unofficial" video; but I've got to admit that the production values are pretty high, and the storyboard progression is quite involving. I found myself immersed in the story presented. Enjoy!

cicada

"your love"

tba