I’ve always thought these two pieces should be in conversation. The piece of the left is Marcel Duchamp’s Nude Descending a Staircase, No. 2 . I’ve always loved the piece. It has influenced me in so much of the music that I make. The visual ’stuttering’ of the painting was so future-oriented – to visualize what time might look like if it stopped or stuttered. it was created almost a hundred years ago! So much electronic music nowadays has that glitchy, stuttering effect in there (Autechre, Squarepusher, Aphex Twin – not to mention visual artists who break video apart like that painting does). Next to it, is a video by Alex Rutterford for Autechre’s ‘Gantz Graf’. They have also been great influencers for me (and many of my peers). Their broken syncopations and swaggering, mechanical rhythms opened up new sounds for me.
If you like, read the interview with Alex about the making of the video on the Warp Records website.
