Hexstatic
Encyclopedia
Hexstatic is a UK music duo, consisting of Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson, that specializes in creating "quirky audio visual electro
." Formed in 1997 after Hill and Brunson met while producing visuals at the Channel Five launch party, they decided to take over for the original members of the Ninja Tune
multimedia
collective Hex
that had disbanded around the same time. They soon collaborated with Coldcut
for the Natural Rhythms Trilogy, including the critically acclaimed A/V
single Timber. Much of their music involves integrated visual experiences, and both of their main album releases have been CD and DVD
combinations; the latest, Master-View
, includes 3D
"anaglyph
" versions of some of their music videos and comes packaged with 3D glasses. Hexstatic has also been instrumental in designing VJ
equipment, including the Pioneer DVJ-X1
professional DVD player
. Other artists they have worked with include EBN
, Juice Aleem
and David Byrne
of Talking Heads
.
Festival. and had a visuals company called SP Visuals with Pod Bluman. Brunson had been working in computer animation and producing and DJing for Skint records offshoot Undr 5's as Rareforce. Both wanted to combine their video talents with music. They gradually took over for the original Hex
group which consisted of graphic design artists Robert Pepperell and Miles Visman and Coldcut
members Matt Black and Jonathan More.
, fused an interest in computer programming and animation with their talent for video design and knowledge of club culture to create a range of multimedia projects. In 1990, they produced music videos for artists such as The Fall and Queen Latifah
as well as graphics for television stations. Also that year they created the first pop music video created entirely on home micro computers (Apple Macintosh, Amiga
, etc.) for “Coldcut’s Christmas Break.” In 1991, they released the video game “Top Banana” along with a 12” single mix of the game’s sound track. A year later they included the game along with rave
visuals, techno
and ambient music
all on one CD-ROM
billed as a “multi dimensional future entertainment product.” The group continued to put out interactive CD-ROM
and CD-I
titles throughout the mid nineties. During this time they also performed live visuals for clubs and chillouts. Their final contribution came in 1997, when they helped create the CD-ROM
version of Coldcut’s Let Us Play!
album which featured tracks by its own offspring Hexstatic. Hex
officially disbanded in 1999 due to internal tensions.
and Greenpeace
. Stuart approached Greenpeace
asking for use of their stock footage of wildlife and logging operations and in return Greenpeace
could use the finished project in their campaigns and presentations. The first video was 1997’s Frog Jam, which created a rhythmic structure out of short clips of water dripping, frog leaping and tribal drumming and chanting. This was soon followed by Natural Rhythm and Timber. Natural Rhythm featured insects, birds and other wildlife as well as a tribesman playing a flute like instrument. Each video employed increasingly more complex mixing and splicing techniques culminating with the award winning Timber. Its tone is more plaintively political, opening with majestic images of the sunset over a forest of immensely beautiful trees then quickly shifting with a clap of thunder to a telegraph button punching out the dots and dashes of a Morse code
SOS
distress call. Images of powerful circular saw
s, chopping axes, and huge, buzzing chainsaw
s soon follow. The picture then distorts and images of the indigenous animals appear to the singing of a mournful native woman. The anti-deforestation
message is quite clear even before the industrial machinery makes its appearance towards the end of the track. Timber won the award for Best Editing Video Musique in France in 1998 and appeared on Coldcut’s 1997 release Let Us Play!.
, it was packaged with a 2nd CD-ROM disc that contained videos for each of the albums 11 tracks. The music is similar to Coldcut
and has an electro
infused sound that reviewer Bob Bannister terms a combination of “South Bronx
hip hop
[and] the avant-Eurodisco sound of Kraftwerk
.” The album was created over a two year period on two 100 MHz Macs
that were barely switched off during the production; one 30 second siren sound at the beginning of the track Machine Toy took three days to render. For the video track Deadly Media, Stuart Warren Hill recorded news broadcasts from around the world off of a satellite feed and cropped everything but the newscasters’ mouths to build a random cacophony of voices out of which the spliced-together phase “deadly media” emerges.
Solid Steel
Presents Hexstatic - Listen and Learn was their next project. Released in 2003, it was a mix album produced by Robin Brunson of many of the tracks that influenced Hexstatic’s own sound. It featured time stretching techniques made possible by the newest CD mixing technology.
In contradiction to many DJ purists who only use vinyl, Hexstatic (and Hex
before them) have consistently demonstrated a willingness and even a passion for bleeding edge technologies. In 2004, they consulted with Pioneer on the production of the first DVD turntable with tempo control, the DJV-X1
. This machine has the ability to live mix audio and video in the same way one would a simple audio disc.
For Master-View
, Hexstatic continued to innovate by creating 3D anaglyph
videos for six of the tracks on the DVD portion of the CD/DVD combo release. The single Salvador, which features footage of people dancing in the streets of Salvador, Brazil, was voted Best Music Video for 2004 at the Portobello Film Festival
.
The band's involvement with current technological development has not lessened its infatuation with older technologies. As can be seen from the Speak & Spell game on the cover of Listen & Learn, the Sinclair ZX80
home computer
on Rewind
and the View-Master
on Master-View
, Hexstatic clearly have a penchant for gadgets from the 70s and 80s. They have stated that the vector graphics
they have used in some of their videos were inspired by the arcade game
Battlezone. Of course the samples
and computerized vocals of tracks like Telemetron and Bass Invader (a play on the Space Invaders
game) as well as the use of an Atari 2600
and a Casio V-L Tone
on L-Virata are also signifers of the retro
tech aesthetic they cultivate.
A mix CD Pick'n'Mix: An Assortment To Suit All Tastes was released in April 2006. Sanctuary Records
gave Robin Brunson access to its large back catalogue of works, resulting in an eclectic mix of hip hop
, rock
and reggae
from artists as diverse as Grandmaster Flash
, The Kinks
and the Harry J Allstars.
Hexstatic also released a bootleg CD/DVD set under the alias Exactshit (an anagram of Hexstatic). Featuring samples of popular hit songs, only 200 copies were made available at the Big Chill Music Festival 2003 and from the Ninja Tune
online store. It has since been more broadly distributed through online file sharing
./>
When Robots Go Bad
was their next studio album and saw the duo pursue a more pop-electro sound that featured several vocalists including London based soul singer Sabirajade and Australian singer/rapper B+. It was released in 2007.
Hexstatic presents Videos, Remixes and Rarities, 2008, was a DVD and CD combo celebrating 10 years of the duos video and audio work. The DVD featured all of their best videos, some previously not available on DVD. The CD featured rare and unreleased tracks and remixes by Hexstatic.
Hexstatic present Trailer Trax was a solo digital release by Robin Brunson and was given away for free via Bandcamp in Dec 2010.
Holotronica is Stuart Warren-Hill's solo AV 3D project and is yet to be released.
’s and Apple laptops for live AV mixing. Since their art crosses a lot of boundaries they have performed at art galleries and cinemas as well as festivals and smaller clubs. After viewing Timber, David Byrne
asked Hexstatic to do the visuals for his performance at the 1998 Lisbon Expo. Since then they performed the first ever live AV gig at the Guggenheim
in Bilbao
as well as at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In September 2005, they projected video on a huge water screen over the River Thames
in London as part of the Thames Festival. They also have performed at the huge Electraglide rave
s in Japan for over 10,000 people.
They completed the world's first audio-visual album which was previewed at the onedotzero
festival in London at the ICA
. since then they have had a strong relationship and featured in many of the organisations events at home and abroad including Tokyo, Taipei and Stockholm.
Notably, they performed a series of unlicensed “guerrilla gigs” in the streets of London on 10 March 2006 as part of promoting their single Distorted Minds. They loaded up their equipment in a van and performed a 30 minute set projected on the wall of a local building in each of three sites that they had previously scouted out. The crowds of a couple hundred people each were generally well behaved and the brevity of the performances meant that Hexstatic were on their way to the next location before the police arrived. They escaped with only a single parking ticket.
Electro (music)
Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 drum machines, Moog keytar synthesizers and funk sampling...
." Formed in 1997 after Hill and Brunson met while producing visuals at the Channel Five launch party, they decided to take over for the original members of the Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
multimedia
Multimedia
Multimedia is media and content that uses a combination of different content forms. The term can be used as a noun or as an adjective describing a medium as having multiple content forms. The term is used in contrast to media which use only rudimentary computer display such as text-only, or...
collective Hex
Hex (VJ group)
Hex, or Hex Media, were a London-based multimedia group founded in the early 1990s by artist Robert Pepperell, coder Miles Visman and the DJs Coldcut...
that had disbanded around the same time. They soon collaborated with Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
for the Natural Rhythms Trilogy, including the critically acclaimed A/V
Audio Visuals
The Audio Visuals were an unlicensed series of Doctor Who audio dramas made by British fans in the 1980s.Featuring Nicholas Briggs as the Doctor, twenty-six audio plays were recorded and distributed on audio cassette between 1985 and 1991 .The first three seasons were produced by...
single Timber. Much of their music involves integrated visual experiences, and both of their main album releases have been CD and DVD
DVD
A DVD is an optical disc storage media format, invented and developed by Philips, Sony, Toshiba, and Panasonic in 1995. DVDs offer higher storage capacity than Compact Discs while having the same dimensions....
combinations; the latest, Master-View
Master-View
Master-View is the second studio album by Hexstatic. The CD version of the album includes 2 discs - a CD and a DVD.-Track listing:#"Extra Life"#"Chase Me"#"Telemetron"#"L-Virata"#"Perfect Bird"#"Salvador"#"Living"#"Distorted Minds"#"That Track"...
, includes 3D
Stereoscopy
Stereoscopy refers to a technique for creating or enhancing the illusion of depth in an image by presenting two offset images separately to the left and right eye of the viewer. Both of these 2-D offset images are then combined in the brain to give the perception of 3-D depth...
"anaglyph
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
" versions of some of their music videos and comes packaged with 3D glasses. Hexstatic has also been instrumental in designing VJ
VJ (video performance artist)
VJing is a broad designation for realtime visual performance. Characteristics of VJing are the creation or manipulation of imagery in realtime through technological mediation and for an audience, in synchronization to music. VJing often takes place at events such as concerts, nightclubs, music...
equipment, including the Pioneer DVJ-X1
Pioneer DVJ-X1
The DVJ-X1 is a DVD quasi-turntable that allows VJ's to scratch and mix video like a vinyl record. Released in 2004 and designed for professional use in clubs, it features real-time digital video scratching, looping and instant hot cueing. It has capability to sync video and audio streams even...
professional DVD player
DVD player
A DVD player is a device that plays discs produced under both the DVD-Video and DVD-Audio technical standards, two different and incompatible standards. These devices were invented in 1997 and continue to thrive...
. Other artists they have worked with include EBN
Emergency Broadcast Network
Emergency Broadcast Network is the name of a multimedia performance group formed in 1991 that took its name from the Emergency Broadcast System. The founders were Rhode Island School of Design graduates Joshua Pearson, Gardner Post and Brian Kane . Kane left EBN in 1992...
, Juice Aleem
Juice Aleem
-Biography:After putting years of energy into the Birmingham Hip Hop scene, Juice's "Ghetto Grammer" Freestyle rap sessions started featuring such other future stars as Ty, Skinnyman and MPHO. In 1996 Will Ashon starts up his new Ninja Tune backed label Big Dada and plans a roster of performers...
and David Byrne
David Byrne (musician)
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
of Talking Heads
Talking Heads
Talking Heads were an American New Wave and avant-garde band formed in 1975 in New York City and active until 1991. The band comprised David Byrne, Chris Frantz, Tina Weymouth and Jerry Harrison...
.
History
The current Hexstatic duo of Stuart Warren Hill and Robin Brunson have been together since 1997. Before that time Stuart Hill had been producing visuals for the Big ChillThe Big Chill (music festival)
The Big Chill is an annual festival of alternative, dance and chill-out music and comedy, held in the grounds of Eastnor Castle during early August...
Festival. and had a visuals company called SP Visuals with Pod Bluman. Brunson had been working in computer animation and producing and DJing for Skint records offshoot Undr 5's as Rareforce. Both wanted to combine their video talents with music. They gradually took over for the original Hex
Hex (VJ group)
Hex, or Hex Media, were a London-based multimedia group founded in the early 1990s by artist Robert Pepperell, coder Miles Visman and the DJs Coldcut...
group which consisted of graphic design artists Robert Pepperell and Miles Visman and Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
members Matt Black and Jonathan More.
Hex
This first version, known simply as HexHex (VJ group)
Hex, or Hex Media, were a London-based multimedia group founded in the early 1990s by artist Robert Pepperell, coder Miles Visman and the DJs Coldcut...
, fused an interest in computer programming and animation with their talent for video design and knowledge of club culture to create a range of multimedia projects. In 1990, they produced music videos for artists such as The Fall and Queen Latifah
Queen Latifah
Dana Elaine Owens , better known by her stage name Queen Latifah, is an American singer, rapper, and actress. Her work in music, film and television has earned her a Golden Globe award, two Screen Actors Guild Awards, two Image Awards, a Grammy Award, six additional Grammy nominations, an Emmy...
as well as graphics for television stations. Also that year they created the first pop music video created entirely on home micro computers (Apple Macintosh, Amiga
Amiga
The Amiga is a family of personal computers that was sold by Commodore in the 1980s and 1990s. The first model was launched in 1985 as a high-end home computer and became popular for its graphical, audio and multi-tasking abilities...
, etc.) for “Coldcut’s Christmas Break.” In 1991, they released the video game “Top Banana” along with a 12” single mix of the game’s sound track. A year later they included the game along with rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
visuals, techno
Techno
Techno is a form of electronic dance music that emerged in Detroit, Michigan in the United States during the mid to late 1980s. The first recorded use of the word techno, in reference to a genre of music, was in 1988...
and ambient music
Ambient music
Ambient music is a musical genre that focuses largely on the timbral characteristics of sounds, often organized or performed to evoke an "atmospheric", "visual" or "unobtrusive" quality.- History :...
all on one CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
billed as a “multi dimensional future entertainment product.” The group continued to put out interactive CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
and CD-I
CD-i
CD-i, or Compact Disc Interactive, is the name of an interactive multimedia CD player developed and marketed by Royal Philips Electronics N.V. CD-i also refers to the multimedia Compact Disc standard used by the CD-i console, also known as Green Book, which was developed by Philips and Sony...
titles throughout the mid nineties. During this time they also performed live visuals for clubs and chillouts. Their final contribution came in 1997, when they helped create the CD-ROM
CD-ROM
A CD-ROM is a pre-pressed compact disc that contains data accessible to, but not writable by, a computer for data storage and music playback. The 1985 “Yellow Book” standard developed by Sony and Philips adapted the format to hold any form of binary data....
version of Coldcut’s Let Us Play!
Let Us Play!
Let Us Play! is the fourth album by Coldcut, released on 8 September 1997. It was their first album to be released on their own label, Ninja Tune.-Side one:# "Return to Margin"# "Atomic Moog 2000 "# "Noah's Toilet"...
album which featured tracks by its own offspring Hexstatic. Hex
Hex (VJ group)
Hex, or Hex Media, were a London-based multimedia group founded in the early 1990s by artist Robert Pepperell, coder Miles Visman and the DJs Coldcut...
officially disbanded in 1999 due to internal tensions.
Natural rhythms trilogy
Prior to meeting Robin at the Five launch party in 1997, Stuart Warren Hill had begun working on the Natural Rhythms Trilogy, a collaborative effort with ColdcutColdcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
and Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
. Stuart approached Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
asking for use of their stock footage of wildlife and logging operations and in return Greenpeace
Greenpeace
Greenpeace is a non-governmental environmental organization with offices in over forty countries and with an international coordinating body in Amsterdam, The Netherlands...
could use the finished project in their campaigns and presentations. The first video was 1997’s Frog Jam, which created a rhythmic structure out of short clips of water dripping, frog leaping and tribal drumming and chanting. This was soon followed by Natural Rhythm and Timber. Natural Rhythm featured insects, birds and other wildlife as well as a tribesman playing a flute like instrument. Each video employed increasingly more complex mixing and splicing techniques culminating with the award winning Timber. Its tone is more plaintively political, opening with majestic images of the sunset over a forest of immensely beautiful trees then quickly shifting with a clap of thunder to a telegraph button punching out the dots and dashes of a Morse code
Morse code
Morse code is a method of transmitting textual information as a series of on-off tones, lights, or clicks that can be directly understood by a skilled listener or observer without special equipment...
SOS
SOS
SOS is the commonly used description for the international Morse code distress signal...
distress call. Images of powerful circular saw
Circular saw
The circular saw is a machine using a toothed metal cutting disc or blade. The term is also loosely used for the blade itself. The blade is a tool for cutting wood or other materials and may be hand-held or table-mounted. It can also be used to make narrow slots...
s, chopping axes, and huge, buzzing chainsaw
Chainsaw
A chainsaw is a portable mechanical saw, powered by electricity, compressed air, hydraulic power, or most commonly a two-stroke engine...
s soon follow. The picture then distorts and images of the indigenous animals appear to the singing of a mournful native woman. The anti-deforestation
Deforestation
Deforestation is the removal of a forest or stand of trees where the land is thereafter converted to a nonforest use. Examples of deforestation include conversion of forestland to farms, ranches, or urban use....
message is quite clear even before the industrial machinery makes its appearance towards the end of the track. Timber won the award for Best Editing Video Musique in France in 1998 and appeared on Coldcut’s 1997 release Let Us Play!.
Studio releases and advancement of the AV genre
Hexstatic released their first full length CD in 2000. Entitled RewindRewind (Hexstatic album)
Rewind is the first album by Hexstatic, released on Ntone in March 2000. The album cover features a 1980 home computer, the Sinclair ZX80.-Track listing:# Rewind Intro# Communication Break-Down# Deadly Media# Ninja Tune...
, it was packaged with a 2nd CD-ROM disc that contained videos for each of the albums 11 tracks. The music is similar to Coldcut
Coldcut
Coldcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
and has an electro
Electro (music)
Electro is a genre of electronic dance music directly influenced by the use of TR-808 drum machines, Moog keytar synthesizers and funk sampling...
infused sound that reviewer Bob Bannister terms a combination of “South Bronx
South Bronx
The South Bronx is an area of the New York City borough of The Bronx. The neighborhoods of Tremont, University Heights, Highbridge, Morrisania, Soundview, Hunts Point, and Castle Hill are sometimes considered part of the South Bronx....
hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
[and] the avant-Eurodisco sound of Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk
Kraftwerk is an influential electronic music band from Düsseldorf, Germany. The group was formed by Ralf Hütter and Florian Schneider in 1970, and was fronted by them until Schneider's departure in 2008...
.” The album was created over a two year period on two 100 MHz Macs
Macintosh
The Macintosh , or Mac, is a series of several lines of personal computers designed, developed, and marketed by Apple Inc. The first Macintosh was introduced by Apple's then-chairman Steve Jobs on January 24, 1984; it was the first commercially successful personal computer to feature a mouse and a...
that were barely switched off during the production; one 30 second siren sound at the beginning of the track Machine Toy took three days to render. For the video track Deadly Media, Stuart Warren Hill recorded news broadcasts from around the world off of a satellite feed and cropped everything but the newscasters’ mouths to build a random cacophony of voices out of which the spliced-together phase “deadly media” emerges.
Solid Steel
Solid Steel
Solid Steel is the name of a series of DJ mix albums issued on Ninja Tune independent record label in the UK.Solid Steel also has a radio station webcast and related live concerts which further showcase the DJing talents of such artists....
Presents Hexstatic - Listen and Learn was their next project. Released in 2003, it was a mix album produced by Robin Brunson of many of the tracks that influenced Hexstatic’s own sound. It featured time stretching techniques made possible by the newest CD mixing technology.
In contradiction to many DJ purists who only use vinyl, Hexstatic (and Hex
Hex (VJ group)
Hex, or Hex Media, were a London-based multimedia group founded in the early 1990s by artist Robert Pepperell, coder Miles Visman and the DJs Coldcut...
before them) have consistently demonstrated a willingness and even a passion for bleeding edge technologies. In 2004, they consulted with Pioneer on the production of the first DVD turntable with tempo control, the DJV-X1
Pioneer DVJ-X1
The DVJ-X1 is a DVD quasi-turntable that allows VJ's to scratch and mix video like a vinyl record. Released in 2004 and designed for professional use in clubs, it features real-time digital video scratching, looping and instant hot cueing. It has capability to sync video and audio streams even...
. This machine has the ability to live mix audio and video in the same way one would a simple audio disc.
For Master-View
Master-View
Master-View is the second studio album by Hexstatic. The CD version of the album includes 2 discs - a CD and a DVD.-Track listing:#"Extra Life"#"Chase Me"#"Telemetron"#"L-Virata"#"Perfect Bird"#"Salvador"#"Living"#"Distorted Minds"#"That Track"...
, Hexstatic continued to innovate by creating 3D anaglyph
Anaglyph image
Anaglyph images are used to provide a stereoscopic 3D effect, when viewed with glasses where the two lenses are different colors, such as red and cyan. Images are made up of two color layers, superimposed, but offset with respect to each other to produce a depth effect...
videos for six of the tracks on the DVD portion of the CD/DVD combo release. The single Salvador, which features footage of people dancing in the streets of Salvador, Brazil, was voted Best Music Video for 2004 at the Portobello Film Festival
Portobello Film Festival
The Portobello Film Festival is an independent international film festival based in London, which annually premiers over 700 new films, including features, shorts, documentaries, music films and animation. Additionally, workshops and talks with top film directors are also featured. Admission to...
.
The band's involvement with current technological development has not lessened its infatuation with older technologies. As can be seen from the Speak & Spell game on the cover of Listen & Learn, the Sinclair ZX80
Sinclair ZX80
The Sinclair ZX80 is a home computer brought to market in 1980 by Science of Cambridge Ltd. . It is notable for being the first computer available in the United Kingdom for less than a hundred pounds...
home computer
Home computer
Home computers were a class of microcomputers entering the market in 1977, and becoming increasingly common during the 1980s. They were marketed to consumers as affordable and accessible computers that, for the first time, were intended for the use of a single nontechnical user...
on Rewind
Rewind (Hexstatic album)
Rewind is the first album by Hexstatic, released on Ntone in March 2000. The album cover features a 1980 home computer, the Sinclair ZX80.-Track listing:# Rewind Intro# Communication Break-Down# Deadly Media# Ninja Tune...
and the View-Master
View-Master
View-Master is a device for viewing seven 3-D images on a paper disk. Although the View-Master is now considered a children's toy, it was originally marketed as a way for viewers to enjoy stereograms of colorful and picturesque tourist attractions.-1939–66: stereoscopic sightseeing:In 1911,...
on Master-View
Master-View
Master-View is the second studio album by Hexstatic. The CD version of the album includes 2 discs - a CD and a DVD.-Track listing:#"Extra Life"#"Chase Me"#"Telemetron"#"L-Virata"#"Perfect Bird"#"Salvador"#"Living"#"Distorted Minds"#"That Track"...
, Hexstatic clearly have a penchant for gadgets from the 70s and 80s. They have stated that the vector graphics
Vector graphics
Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygon, which are all based on mathematical expressions, to represent images in computer graphics...
they have used in some of their videos were inspired by the arcade game
Arcade game
An arcade game is a coin-operated entertainment machine, usually installed in public businesses such as restaurants, bars, and amusement arcades. Most arcade games are video games, pinball machines, electro-mechanical games, redemption games, and merchandisers...
Battlezone. Of course the samples
Sampling (music)
In music, sampling is the act of taking a portion, or sample, of one sound recording and reusing it as an instrument or a different sound recording of a song or piece. Sampling was originally developed by experimental musicians working with musique concrète and electroacoustic music, who physically...
and computerized vocals of tracks like Telemetron and Bass Invader (a play on the Space Invaders
Space Invaders
is an arcade video game designed by Tomohiro Nishikado, and released in 1978. It was originally manufactured and sold by Taito in Japan, and was later licensed for production in the United States by the Midway division of Bally. Space Invaders is one of the earliest shooting games and the aim is to...
game) as well as the use of an Atari 2600
Atari 2600
The Atari 2600 is a video game console released in October 1977 by Atari, Inc. It is credited with popularizing the use of microprocessor-based hardware and cartridges containing game code, instead of having non-microprocessor dedicated hardware with all games built in...
and a Casio V-L Tone
Casiotone
Casiotone refers to a series of home electronic keyboards released by Casio Computer Co. in the early 1980s.These first keyboards used a sound synthesis technique known as Vowel-Consonant synthesis to approximate the sounds of other instruments...
on L-Virata are also signifers of the retro
Retro
Retro is a culturally outdated or aged style, trend, mode, or fashion, from the overall postmodern past, that has since that time become functionally or superficially the norm once again. The use of "retro" style iconography and imagery interjected into post-modern art, advertising, mass media, etc...
tech aesthetic they cultivate.
A mix CD Pick'n'Mix: An Assortment To Suit All Tastes was released in April 2006. Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records
Sanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
gave Robin Brunson access to its large back catalogue of works, resulting in an eclectic mix of hip hop
Hip hop music
Hip hop music, also called hip-hop, rap music or hip-hop music, is a musical genre consisting of a stylized rhythmic music that commonly accompanies rapping, a rhythmic and rhyming speech that is chanted...
, rock
Rock music
Rock music is a genre of popular music that developed during and after the 1960s, particularly in the United Kingdom and the United States. It has its roots in 1940s and 1950s rock and roll, itself heavily influenced by rhythm and blues and country music...
and reggae
Reggae
Reggae is a music genre first developed in Jamaica in the late 1960s. While sometimes used in a broader sense to refer to most types of Jamaican music, the term reggae more properly denotes a particular music style that originated following on the development of ska and rocksteady.Reggae is based...
from artists as diverse as Grandmaster Flash
Grandmaster Flash
Joseph Saddler better known as King Grandmaster Flash, is an American hip hop musician and DJ; one of the pioneers of hip-hop DJing, cutting, and mixing....
, The Kinks
The Kinks
The Kinks were an English rock band formed in Muswell Hill, North London, by brothers Ray and Dave Davies in 1964. Categorised in the United States as a British Invasion band, The Kinks are recognised as one of the most important and influential rock acts of the era. Their music was influenced by a...
and the Harry J Allstars.
Hexstatic also released a bootleg CD/DVD set under the alias Exactshit (an anagram of Hexstatic). Featuring samples of popular hit songs, only 200 copies were made available at the Big Chill Music Festival 2003 and from the Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune
Ninja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
online store. It has since been more broadly distributed through online file sharing
File sharing
File sharing is the practice of distributing or providing access to digitally stored information, such as computer programs, multimedia , documents, or electronic books. It may be implemented through a variety of ways...
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When Robots Go Bad
When Robots Go Bad
When Robots Go Bad is the third studio album released by Hexstatic. The album features vocals from Ema J, female MC B+, London's Sabirajade and MC Profisee from Edinburgh units Scotland Yard Emcees and Great Ezcape.-Track listing:#"Red Laser Beam"...
was their next studio album and saw the duo pursue a more pop-electro sound that featured several vocalists including London based soul singer Sabirajade and Australian singer/rapper B+. It was released in 2007.
Hexstatic presents Videos, Remixes and Rarities, 2008, was a DVD and CD combo celebrating 10 years of the duos video and audio work. The DVD featured all of their best videos, some previously not available on DVD. The CD featured rare and unreleased tracks and remixes by Hexstatic.
Hexstatic present Trailer Trax was a solo digital release by Robin Brunson and was given away for free via Bandcamp in Dec 2010.
Holotronica is Stuart Warren-Hill's solo AV 3D project and is yet to be released.
Live performances
Their setup includes Pioneer DVJ-X1Pioneer DVJ-X1
The DVJ-X1 is a DVD quasi-turntable that allows VJ's to scratch and mix video like a vinyl record. Released in 2004 and designed for professional use in clubs, it features real-time digital video scratching, looping and instant hot cueing. It has capability to sync video and audio streams even...
’s and Apple laptops for live AV mixing. Since their art crosses a lot of boundaries they have performed at art galleries and cinemas as well as festivals and smaller clubs. After viewing Timber, David Byrne
David Byrne (musician)
David Byrne is a musician and artist, best known as a founding member and principal songwriter of the American new wave band Talking Heads, which was active between 1975 and 1991. Since then, Byrne has released his own solo recordings and worked with various media including film, photography,...
asked Hexstatic to do the visuals for his performance at the 1998 Lisbon Expo. Since then they performed the first ever live AV gig at the Guggenheim
Guggenheim Museum Bilbao
The Guggenheim Museum Bilbao is a museum of modern and contemporary art, designed by Canadian-American architect Frank Gehry, built by Ferrovial, and located in Bilbao, Basque Country, Spain. It is built alongside the Nervion River, which runs through the city of Bilbao to the Atlantic Coast. The...
in Bilbao
Bilbao
Bilbao ) is a Spanish municipality, capital of the province of Biscay, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country. With a population of 353,187 , it is the largest city of its autonomous community and the tenth largest in Spain...
as well as at the Pompidou Centre in Paris and the Getty Museum in Los Angeles. In September 2005, they projected video on a huge water screen over the River Thames
River Thames
The River Thames flows through southern England. It is the longest river entirely in England and the second longest in the United Kingdom. While it is best known because its lower reaches flow through central London, the river flows alongside several other towns and cities, including Oxford,...
in London as part of the Thames Festival. They also have performed at the huge Electraglide rave
Rave
Rave, rave dance, and rave party are parties that originated mostly from acid house parties, which featured fast-paced electronic music and light shows. At these parties people dance and socialize to dance music played by disc jockeys and occasionally live performers...
s in Japan for over 10,000 people.
They completed the world's first audio-visual album which was previewed at the onedotzero
Onedotzero
onedotzero is a contemporary, digital arts organisation with a remit to promote innovation across all forms of moving image and motion arts....
festival in London at the ICA
Institute of Contemporary Arts
The Institute of Contemporary Arts is an artistic and cultural centre on The Mall in London, just off Trafalgar Square. It is located within Nash House, part of Carlton House Terrace, near the Duke of York Steps and Admiralty Arch...
. since then they have had a strong relationship and featured in many of the organisations events at home and abroad including Tokyo, Taipei and Stockholm.
Notably, they performed a series of unlicensed “guerrilla gigs” in the streets of London on 10 March 2006 as part of promoting their single Distorted Minds. They loaded up their equipment in a van and performed a 30 minute set projected on the wall of a local building in each of three sites that they had previously scouted out. The crowds of a couple hundred people each were generally well behaved and the brevity of the performances meant that Hexstatic were on their way to the next location before the police arrived. They escaped with only a single parking ticket.
Awards
- Best Editing Video Musique Awards, France 1998 "Timber" (with ColdcutColdcutColdcut are an English dance music duo, comprising Matt Black and Jonathan More. Their signature style is electronic dance music, featuring cut up samples of hip hop, breaks, jazz, spoken word and various other types of music, as well as video and multimedia.-1980s:In 1986, computer programmer Matt...
) - Portabello Film Festival, Best Music Video 2004 "Salvador"
- No.1 in Top 20 VJ vote DJ Magazine, October 2005
- Focal Awards 2008 - Award for Best Use of Footage in an Advertisement - Diesel 78: "Learn Disco Dance" -
LPs
- RewindRewind (Hexstatic album)Rewind is the first album by Hexstatic, released on Ntone in March 2000. The album cover features a 1980 home computer, the Sinclair ZX80.-Track listing:# Rewind Intro# Communication Break-Down# Deadly Media# Ninja Tune...
(22 August 2000) NtoneNToneNTone is a sister imprint to the independent record label, Ninja Tune. The imprint is based in London, United Kingdom and specialises in experimental electronic music... - Solid SteelSolid SteelSolid Steel is the name of a series of DJ mix albums issued on Ninja Tune independent record label in the UK.Solid Steel also has a radio station webcast and related live concerts which further showcase the DJing talents of such artists....
Presents Hexstatic - Listen & Learn (11 February 2003) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(DJ mix album) - Master-ViewMaster-ViewMaster-View is the second studio album by Hexstatic. The CD version of the album includes 2 discs - a CD and a DVD.-Track listing:#"Extra Life"#"Chase Me"#"Telemetron"#"L-Virata"#"Perfect Bird"#"Salvador"#"Living"#"Distorted Minds"#"That Track"...
(11 October 2004) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music... - Pick'n'Mix: An Assortment To Suit All Tastes (24 April 2006) Castle/Discotheque Sanctuary RecordsSanctuary RecordsSanctuary Records Group Limited was a record label based in the United Kingdom and a subsidiary of Universal Music Group. Until June 2007, it was the largest independent record label in the UK and the largest independent music management company in the world...
(DJ mix album) - When Robots Go BadWhen Robots Go BadWhen Robots Go Bad is the third studio album released by Hexstatic. The album features vocals from Ema J, female MC B+, London's Sabirajade and MC Profisee from Edinburgh units Scotland Yard Emcees and Great Ezcape.-Track listing:#"Red Laser Beam"...
(3 July 2007) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music... - Hexstatic presents Videos, Remixes, Rarities (Dec, 2008) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
- Hexstatic present Trailer Trax (May, 2010) Lower Level
Singles and EPs
- Timber (January 1998) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(12" - 5 audio tracks) (CD-Enhanced - 7 audio tracks + 5 videos) - Vector EP (June 2000) NtoneNToneNTone is a sister imprint to the independent record label, Ninja Tune. The imprint is based in London, United Kingdom and specialises in experimental electronic music...
(12" - 4 audio tracks) - Ninja Tune EP (2000) NtoneNToneNTone is a sister imprint to the independent record label, Ninja Tune. The imprint is based in London, United Kingdom and specialises in experimental electronic music...
(12" - 5 audio tracks) - Telemetron (Solid Steel Promo) (March 2003) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(10" - 4 audio tracks) - Salvador (2004) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(DVD - 3 tracks) (12" - 4 audio tracks) - Distorted Minds (14 March 2005) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(CD-Enhanced - 5 audio tracks + 3 videos) (12" - 4 audio tracks) - Red Laser Beam (2007) Ninja TuneNinja TuneNinja Tune is a London-based independent record label started by DJs Matt Black and Jonathan More, better known as Coldcut and managed by Peter Quicke. The label has a strong leaning towards mostly Electronic Music...
(CD-4 audio tracks) (12" - 4 audio tracks)
'Exactshit' bootlegs
- Exactshit CD (2003) No Label (CDR - 16 audio tracks)
- Exactshit DVD (2003) No Label (DVD - 10 video tracks)
- Now That's What I Call Exactshit DVD 2 (2006) No Label (DVD - 16 video tracks)