Young Galaxy‘s “Shapeshifting” is inflective wide expansive dance music. The sounds whirl with romantic cascading guitars, bells and synths.  They’ve recently re-released their album “Shapeshifting” along with a remix album, “Versus”, with artists including Austra, Handsome Furs, Junior Boys and more.  I got a chance to chat to Stephen Ramsay from Young Galaxy about nomadic travels, genre-less music and Fauvist art. →

With her first two films a decade ago (Ratcatcher and Morvern Callar, two masterpieces of poetic realism and arresting cinematic beauty), Lynne Ramsay established herself as one of the most promising and pure directorial talents in the world, but it seemed for many years we would be left in constant anticipation of seeing that promise fulfilled. Now, cineastes can finally rejoice over Ramsay’s return to the screen, and in the tradition of Von Trier’s Antichrist or Nic Refn’s Drive, we also get the bonus pleasure of seeing a favorite arthouse director bending a “genre” subject — in this case the “bad seed” evil-child thriller. →

Representing Emerging and Under-represented Artists in LA
Barnsdall Art Park – Los Angeles, CA
6/3 thru 11/2/12

The Hammer Museum presents Made in L.A., the first in an ongoing series of exhibitions focused on artwork created in the Los Angeles region. Made in L.A. 2012, organized by the Hammer Museum in collaboration with LA><ART, will be presented at the Hammer Museum, LA><ART and the L.A. Municipal Art Gallery at Barnsdall Art Park from June 3 – September 2, 2012. Building upon the tradition of Hammer Invitational exhibitions, Made in L.A. 2012 will feature roughly 60 artists with an emphasis on emerging and under-recognized artists. The Hammer is also pleased to announce that Wells Fargo has come on board as Made in L.A 2012’s Presenting Sponsor, an important and substantial commitment to this inaugural citywide event.  →

MELANCHOLIA, Lars Von Trier’s new film, is a complex work from a controversial director with a lot on his mind. It’s a genre-bending, allegorical narrative about the end of the world rooted in melodrama and shrouded in mystery at every turn.

If you are familiar with Von Trier’s past work and especially his major works like Dogville, Antichrist and Breaking the Waves you already know that with each successive film he intends to provoke some sort of extreme reaction from the viewer and Melancholia is no exception. If you are new to Von Trier this film may be one of his most accessible. It’s certainly is one of the most visually ravishing and multi-layered of his career. →