Synesthesia: MULTIMEDIA

The definition:
Sysnesthesia- n. a sensation produced in one modality when a stimulus is applied to another modality, as when the hearing of a certain sound induces the visualization of a certain color.

The intention:
To make you see it, hear it, even taste it. You’ve gotta have it. From the latest in video or software technology or even a kit to electrocute your furry little furby, we’ll review the latest toys for your mind, body, and soul. So sit back, relax, release, and absorb.

Ever wonder how those club projection guys work their incredible video wizardry? This edition of Synesthesia looks at the virtual sound/video mellee taking place in a new CD-Rom project by Notting Hill titled DancerDNA. Finally, you can play video sage.

Also on this go-round, we peep into the voyeuristic video, Suck It And See from Palm Pictures. Directed by Portland’s Jacob Pander, Suck It is infused with sounds of Howie B and his Pussyfoot label posse.

So keep your eyes tuned and your ears focused on Synesthesia!

Send Video, DVD, Software and CD-Roms for review consideration to:
    RADIO-V
    Attn: Reviews
    285 9th Street
    San Francisco, CA 94103

DancerDNA
Notting Hill Press
Platform: Windows 95/98
“Imagine creating a world where life evolves to music.”

DancerDNA, a software creation of Notting Hill Publishing, attacks the issue of evolutionary theory and biological design with finesse. Under the premise of using evolving computer- generated code, the creations in DancerDNA mutate and adapt to one very important facet of the human experience: music. The 3D models react to various sound inputs (audio CD, DJ deck, or live act) by a process called “music recognition technology”. Their movements to subtle changes in tempo and volume are mind-blowing. The creators have designed a great interface for live performance use, but you will need a fast computer processor to run this bad boy. Not only do these cybergenetic creations love music input, but they also love computer speed and power. If you ever thought of organizing a party and dreamed of transmitting mind-warping projections, buy this package. And if the the organisms that come with the software are not enough, you can find a “genebank” of other tweaked organisms on their website  Scott

Minimum Requirements:

Pentium 133
32MB RAM and 10MB free hard disc space
Windows '95
CD-ROM drive
Screen resolution with 16-bit color
8-bit MPC compatible soundcard

Recommended Requirements:

Pentium 200+ MMX
64Mb RAM
Windows '98
Direct 3D graphic card

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Title - “Suck It And See”
Produced by - Radius Pictures
Directed by - Jacob Pander
Format - VHS
Length - 32 Minutes
Starring - Roxy Hearts, Caleb O. Long, Leonard Burns III, Belle and Coco Cobra
Music by - Fantastic Plastic Machine, Howie B, Spacer, Hyper Crad, Chari Chari, Inevidence and DJ Miku
Manufactured and Distributed - Palm Pictures
DVD - To be released in June
CD - Various Artists on Palm Pictures/Pussyfoot Records

Add soft-porn composer/discographer to Howie B’s swelling list of credits. On the x-rated video, “Suck It And See”, from Radius Pictures, the B-man has pieced together eighteen soon-to-be-sexed up classics (on his Pussyfoot label). Seven hot tracks accompany Jacob Pander’s breathy romp of stunning, albeit un-even visuals; steamy sauna rituals, mile-high clubbing, motel-menage identity switches, sad-voyeurs seeking fleshy release and x-tremely clever strip teasing showcases. A gutsy move by Blackwell and company at Palm (no pun intended) to release “Suck It And See” (named after a slogan for a British throat lozenge).

The Pander Brothers (Jacob and Arnold) image making is a mix and match pastiche of Roger Vadim and cheesy seventies euro-sex flicks, with medium core S&M American style thrown in. “Suck It” is broken down into seven vignettes with Roxy Hearts and Caleb O. Long as the beautiful young things touching, fucking, sucking and teasing their way through 32 minutes of hard bodies and tight edits. It was shot in the Pander Bros. hometown of Portland and stars some of the same people that were a part of the Panders now classic “The Operation”, a surreal combination of sex and surgery shot in infra-red. In fact they use the same technique to convey a stark and edgy, Goddard-like feel to the final x-ray(t)ed “Departure”.

There’s a playfulness in “Suck It” that echoes back to the days of the sexual revolution and yet as condoms are placed on stiff cocks, there’s a reminder of not-so-subtle-plagues in the carefree air. It’s a celebration with latex borders and perhaps a sign that mores may be matching both a literal and metaphorically healthy sense of pleasurable, if cautious hedonism.

None of the players really stand out save one; the frustrated voyeur (Leonard Burns III) with the sad face out of a Bergman film. I could have sworn that I’ve seen him in the latest Nike commercial.

The best vignettes out of the bunch are the opening “Arrival” where the breathy coos and peppered breakbeats of Japan’s Fantastic Plastic Machine match a randy romp from airport gate to libido driven limo. It’s replete with phallic fuselages engorging each other in mid-flight montage and flash forwarding fantasies of doing it--stand-up-style at 30,000 feet. Howie B’s gurgling and blurping beats percolate through, “Steam Room”, where getting wet includes stunning underwater nude ballets and steamy same-sex-sex-scenes. The Pander’s editing, costuming and photography get two thumbs up on the outrageously burlesque “Arcade”, as iconic fifties sex kittens do a prick and pop stripease to Chari Chari’s “Strictly Porn”.

The only problem with “Suck It” is that the quality of the video doesn’t seem to match in shots. At one moment we’re looking at what might be High Eight or Low Rez film--the next--we’re seeing through flat video portraiture. If I had one complaint it would be that through the patchy video styles, the euro-fantasy feel of “Suck It” dissolves and am reminded that I’m watching two very talented videographers from Portland piece together their version of “Eurotica”. The breezy spell cast in the “Arrival” fades to dissimilar looks that peel away the pretty illusion. But I suppose that with film-making and sex at the end of the millennium, the days of pretty illusions are over and like the Pander Brothers, you just make it any way you can. Robert Phoenix