New audio & video by People Like Us

There are new free audio items available for download at the People Like Us (PLU) universe. One of them is the work Vicky Bennett’s project developed based on the archives of electronic music pioneer Daphne Oram, having, under commission, reworked them into new compositions, to be presented as part of a day-long symposium at London's South Bank Centre.

Another fine commissioned work is the one PLU produced for the AV Festival "Now Hear This", entitled “Breaking Waves", which consisted in a series of short audio works to be broadcast via Bluetooth in Middlesbrough Town Centre. These brief musical compositions explore the humorous side to communication breakdowns in all their varied and surprising forms, in a series of misfiring musical arrangements, exploring the entertaining aspects of miscommunication, disharmony, bad connections and missed calls.

Finally, PLU have also issued two works that were originally mail-order only: “On The Rooftops Of London”, a session for the final edition of BBC Radio 3's "Mixing It" (broadcasted on February 9th 2007), and 2006’s “All Together Now”, that presents 27 minutes of new songs following visits to several music libraries, and appropriating favorites from the western world into a musical pantomime.

All this sound material can also be found at WFMU's Beware of the Blog.

On the video field, UbuWeb has made available PLU’s “Film Works (2002-2007)”, five full-length films and one incarnation of the project live set, which employ recycled materials from a variety of sources.

“We Edit Life” (2002) explores the theme of technology, using documentary, industrial and educational film footage from the Prelinger Archive and The Internet Archive. “The Remote Controller” (2003) uses found footage sourced from educational films to explore the way human body and machine interface in the 20th century. “Resemblage” (2004) was created using film from the LUX archive by artists Alan Berliner, Lawrence Jordan, PLU, Semiconductor and the Estate of Stan Vanderbeek. “Story Without End's” (2005) narrative is from a public domain film of the same name made in 1950 about the development of microwave radio transmission and the transistor. “Work, Rest & Play” (2007) is a video triptych exploring the themes of labour, leisure and industriousness. Finally, we have “Live at the WFMU Record Fair” (2003), a work that has been carefully constructed using industrial and documentary film footage from 1940-1975, By Corey Smith.

Photos: People Like Us