The Bulletin: Arts & Culture News | 15 Nov

GOOGLE MAKE A PLAY FOR THE MUSIC BIZ
Google Play is the new streaming service for Android and Google users, which the communications giant hopes will help them seize a share of the market currently dominated by the likes of iTunes, Amazon and Spotify. A cloud-storage service which Google promises will store ‘all your entertainment in one place,’ the service was launched this week with little fanfare, allowing users to trial the streaming service on their mobile phones, tablets and laptops. It uses a 'scan-and-match' service that connects to your iTunes or other media player library to the cloud, allowing you to stream high-quality versions of songs that you own, remotely. 

Initial reports suggest that the scan-and-match interface needs some tweaking, with the current interface seeming a little clunky. Google have already come under fire from the likes of the British Phonographic Industry Chief Executive Geoff Taylor, who spoke to the BBC about his concerns that the service could make it easy for users to find illegal copies of music via unlicensed sites. A Google representative responded that the search algorithm of Play was being modified, and that eventually it was ‘going to make piracy obsolete.’ This seems like a bold and potentially foolish claim. Are you using Google Play? Tell us about it in the comments, or email the News Badger!

LOST HITCHCOCK FILM REDISCOVERED: WATCH IT ONLINE
An early silent film by legendary director Alfred Hitchcock, previously thought lost, has been unearthed by staff at the New Zealand Film Archive. The White Shadow dates back to 1924, and was written, edited and art directed by Hitchcock. Although incomplete – the last three reels are still undiscovered – it nonetheless presents a fascinating insight into the nascent talent of one of the world's most celebrated directors. The film will be available for screening via the National Film Preservation Foundation for the next two months. With one of the earliest uses of an actress playing two roles – a good and evil twin – and interesting colour-processing techniques, the film was a critical failure, despite some bravura technical flair and skill on the part of the young Hitchcock. Watch the film now at the NFPF website. Here's an extract to whet your appetite:

THE BONGO CLUB – LAST CHANCE TO DANCE
The Skinny tackled club closures in Edinburgh in a feature back in February this year, and recently it was announced that The Bongo Club, one of Edinburgh's best-loved venues, will be moving from its home at Moray House to a new space beneath the National Library. This move was made possible in no small part by the efforts of a dedicated grass-roots protest campaign, which saw the club promoters, theatre practitioners, dancers and punters of the Bongo demand that Edinburgh Council help with the relocation of the venue. Long-running Edinburgh techno night Substance host their final Bongo party on 30 November, welcoming guest DJ Surgeon, alongside resident Gav Richardson, with assistance from Taz Buckfaster and friends in the back room. This is sure to be an unmissable night, so confirm your attendance on the Substance event page. 

GLASGOW IMPROVISERS ORCHESTRA
Combining virtuosos from the fields of classical, jazz, folk, pop and experimental music, the Glasgow Improvisers Orchestra was founded in 2002, and have gained international acclaim for their performances, placing them at the forefront of a resurgence of improvised music. This year they celebrate their tenth anniversary with a series of bespoke shows at Glasgow's CCA under the banner GIOFest V, joined by musicians such as George Lewis, Maggie Nicols and Evan Parker. The event runs from 29 Nov to 1 December – see the full events listing and ticket prices at the CCA's website. Here is a clip of the GIO from 2009, playing a small gig at Street Level Photo Works, and talking about their work.

THE XX TO PLAY MANCHESTER INTERNATIONAL FESTIVAL
The Manchester International Festival announced part of its lineup for 2013 today, with a strong and diverse range of events across the arts disciplines, from a new stage production of Macbeth by Thor director Kenneth Branagh (yes, we know he's famous for more serious things than Thor, but Thor does totally rule, admit it), and a 'Biospheric Project' which will see local boffins convert a disused industrial building into an eco-friendly, sustainable Farm of the Future. Perhaps the most exciting news for music fans is the announcement of a residence by The xx, who will perform a series of intimate, 100-capacity gigs in an "enigmatic found space" in the heart of the city. You can read our recent interview with Jamie xx here. And Find out more at the MIF website – tickets go on sale in January.

GOODBYE AVALANCHE RECORDS?
It's a familiar story by now – vicious corporate monopolies, vampiric new technologies and audience indifference are killing the music industry one piece at a time. Each week that passes brings news of yet another record company, band or label shutting its doors due to a lack of cash. It seems the latest to fall victim to this trend could well be Edinburgh's Avalanche Records, a cornerstone of the local music scene for twenty years. Owner and operator Kevin Buckle posted a blog last week detailing his fears and concerns for the business, and explained that despite attempting some cunning sales strategies, and a loyal base of regular customers, he may be forced to close the shop early next year. He is currently taking suggestions to help save the business, and the Avalanche blog mentioned today the possibility or creating a cafe in the Grassmarket shop. The site is likely to continue as an online point of sale and blog, but the days of Avalanche the shop could be numbered. If you're a fan of independent record shops like Avalanche, do yourself a favour and nip down today, buy yourself that Withered Hand album you've been after.

#SEAPUNK #SCANDAL
The Seapunk Scandal kicked off on Saturday after a performance on popular US show Saturday Night Live, by arguably the world's most feted R&B/pop superstar, Rihanna. For the uninititated, Seapunk is a micro-genre created by avant-garde laptop musicians in 2011. What started as a Twitter hashtag and half-joke quickly evolved into a scene, with its own sounds, themes and, perhaps most importantly, its own visual aesthetic, often credited to video artist and producer Jerome LOL. The ever-trendy Vice Magazine site has an excellent Seapunk timeline up on its site, tracing the history of the movement from hashtag to visual style to musical genre, written for them by two of the movement's founders. All you really need to know is that Seapunk started as an independent, viral movement on the internet, and that on Saturday, Rihanna was accused of looting the Seapunk aesthetic, most notably Jerome LOL's videos, and using it to promote her gazillion-dollar music career.

Here's Rihanna's performance:

Another R&B/rap princess, Azaelia Banks then released her even more seapunk-derivative video, Atlantis:

Here's a seapunk video, for the sake of comparison:

This kicked off a storm of protest from the scene's originators and commentators on Twitter, including a series of missives from outspoken blogger Bebe Zeva of the blog Fated To be Hated, who summed up many people's opinions when she indicated that both Rihanna and Banks had completely appropriated the Seapunk aesthetic without giving credit. "Clearly you're not doing shit but consuming if you're not peeved by this," she wrote on her Twitter account. The debate raged on, with some Twitter users accusing the Seapunks of preciousness, others attempting to claim that Seapunk imagery itself is appropriated from diverse sources, and still others proclaiming that if Rihanna was using it, that meant that Seapunk was dead.

Arguably, this happens all the time – a fashion, a sound or an aesthetic is born in the underground, at street level, or as is more often the case these days, online. It is then re-appropriated wholesale by corporate commercial culture, and used to sell everything from bland, poorly-written mainstream R&B dreck, to new Toyotas, to Pampers Baby Wipes (who are no doubt at this minute sitting down with a bunch of behind-the-curve marketing executives pitching them about how "dubstep is so hot right now"). But does that make it okay? Should Seapunk start all over again, and should they have to? Should they roll over, or keep protesting? Have they been the victims of a great injustice, or are they just whiny little sods?

An anonymous insider from the deepest, darkest corners of the alt.electronic scene gave The Skinny his opinion earlier today: "It's always sad when an underground art form, made by penniless enthusiasts, gets appropriated by much larger artists in an attempt to stay relevant. The sickening thing here is that nowhere will the original ideas get appropriately attributed – and they are original, as much as people will debate that fact. The sad fact is that people don't take internet art seriously and think that everything belongs to anyone. If this happened to any artist whose works were all IRL-based/physical, there'd be throngs of critics quick to point out the roots, something that net artists apparently aren't entitled to." 

Our industry insider makes a valid point – what do you think?

We must also humbly point out that all of these are somewhat reminiscent of the work of artist Rachel MacLean, who has been making videos in this mould since at least 2008. Here's her one for Errors from earlier in the year:

That's all for today folks – join us again tomorrow for more tasty cultural morsels from The Skinny's News Badger!