the opiates project
THE OPIATES is the latest project from the "queen of electronic soul" Billie Ray Martin, together with Norwegian musician Robert Solheim. Already dubbed by the press as "The Carpenters of Electro", their album HOLLYWOOD UNDER THE KNIFE explores paths pioneered by the Chicago house and Detroit techno heroes, (not least Electribe 101), with the aim of taking things forward a step or two. Although Kraftwerk and Yazoo have been mentioned as influences, The Opiates’ unique brand of electronic music is not readily categorised. Theirs is a pursuit without compromise; a rare match of songwriting and cutting-edge beats and bleeps.
The album is available through Disco Activisto Records and distributed through Cargo UK and can be bought directly from Billie Ray Martin's website: billieraymartin.com
In September 2011 Ceven Knowles was invited to take up residency with the Opiates as visual artist in collaboration with Billie Ray Martin to reinterpret songs for videos as pieces of a theatrical installation in their stage performances. Due to the success of the results it was decided to open the videos online. Over the next few months we will showcase reworked versions of the videos and get into the stories behind them and how they were made. In part one we explore four pieces to this giant work of art.
HOLLYWOOD UNDER THE KNIFE is an album of real substance, both musically and visually. Artist Wolfgang Tillmans supplies nine previously unseen and unpublished images for the album cover and booklet, Jörn Hartmann made three music videos (Anatomy of a Plastic Girl, Rainy Days and Saturdays and an unpublished one). Ceven Knowles has taken both sources and merged them in with his own work for the live shows. Each song on the album portrays another social 'misfit'. Characters who, trying to change their outer appearance or tweak their behaviour, believe they might just fit and ultimately face the consequences:
MARCH 2012: This project is now finished. Ceven has written about the experience here: Now available double CD set HOLLYWOOD UNDER THE KNIFE & The HOLLYWOOD CUTS with photography by Wolfgang Tillmans and Ceven Knowles!
Also available SYV / O PORTINO EP by Robert Solheim with mixes by John Tejada and DJ Puk - Official music video for SYV by Ceven Knowles.
Oprah's Book of the Month Club (Part 2)
The aging formerly rich daughter of a formerly famous actress who reminisces about her mother
feeding her tranquilizers as a kid to keep her out of the way
and who later goes through a path of plastic surgery, health foods, porn movie making... all to find out who she is.
A collage of memories in form of film leaders, old footage, pills composited onto clouds in a tranquilizer trip as experienced by a child. READ MORE
Candy Coated Crime (Disco Bloodbath Mix)
The woman who employs strange sexual fantasies involving the TV series CSI, to keep the boredom of life at bay.
Crime and lust melting into one another through slowed down television impressions.
Anatomy of a Plastic Girl
The young wannabe actress in L.A. who reflects on her facial surgery that has left her scarred
and punctured with holes inside and out.
This work came about after a conversation over Derek Jarman and postmodernist music video making and was the first completed piece. READ MORE
Silent Comes the Nighttime (Again)
The same woman who suffers from insomnia and tells the story how the demons of her soul
and the demons of the night keep her awake.
About lying in bed with the eyes closed waiting for the dream state. READ MORE
Rainy Days and Saturdays
The transvestite - Candy Darling - who, although leading the wild life and preparing for a sex change,
dreams of married life and a house in the suburbs.
Fragments taken from the original music video reduced it down to video "stamps" inspired by printmaking techniques and a homage to Andy Warhol, for whom Candy Darling acted for.
Jalousies and Jealousie
Using a photograph by Wolfgang Tillmans as a basis for a video about movement representing time while eyes watch the world through the filter of the lyrics.
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