Five music makers. One graphic designer. One challenge: to create a new & unique piece of artwork each week, for three months.
This is the High Noon Artist Pact; if you don’t know that name by now, you need to get acquainted. They’ve taken ‘practice makes perfect’ to a whole new level and the differences in their skill levels at the end of this challenge compared to when they began will be like night and day. Each week, a word of inspiration will be chosen to give the artists a loose idea of what to base their creation on. The rest is up to them.
We’ll be covering the entirety of the challenge, so you can watch (and listen to) its full development here. To get you started, check out the music from last week’s leg of the challenge below; read on to meet the artists themselves and get an earful of this week’s tunes!
HIGH NOON ARTIST PACT 
Week 5’s inspirational word was none other than ‘Drugs’. There’s a lot of different energy and vibes in a word like that: excitement, controversy, mind expansion, fear, you name it. Drugs elicit different reactions from everyone, and so this batch of tunes is highly diverse. We have to imagine that each of the High Noon artists channeled their own separate experiences with drugs into their music for this week’s edition; if so, it definitely shines through. The air of psychedelia is heavy, with what can only be described as hallucinogenic sound-design meshed with off-kilter, wonky baselines and stuttering drum patterns. To top it all off, Molly Brooks toned down the blacks and dialed in the neon to create a stunning portrait of staring into another dimension; her artwork accompanies the music perfectly, adding an extra level of visual stimulation.
Check out the tunes below and see what the artists had to say about their creative processes!
LIPSRVC
Drugs. Experimental. I wanted to capture the shifts in human feeling & emotion…exhilaration, euphoria, depression, fear, desire, sad as fuck, happy as fuck, what the fuck …but in a constantly spinning, 3 minute warping, rhythmic and melodic journey. All the while thinking, “Experience trumps doubt, so don’t be sgurd!” Thanx for listening.
WERK
Facebook || Soundcloud || Twitter
I heard this week’s word was “Drugs” and I got an immediate jolt of excitement for whatever sick reason. I had automatic ideas flowing through my brain of how I could twist vocals into some drugged out time bent black hole and I basically just went from that idea…
VNDMG
Facebook || Soundcloud || Twitter
This week’s theme was especially appropriate. After a weekend of gigs and raging in Portland and Eugene, turning my track in on time was a major challenge. In the end, my mental state gave a unique influence on the song and it’s one of my more experimental and interesting tunes.
SOSAY
Facebook || Soundcloud || Twitter
In past weeks I’ve tried to dive into the word and the concept behind it . With this one, I did none of that. I just decided to let past experience shape the track into this because the beat drops like a domeshot! Enjoi
CHASE MANHATTAN
Facebook || Soundcloud || Twitter
This week was really hard for me, the hardest. I think that might have been due to the sheer amount of possibilities within this topic… Finally got the right sample and brought it together in the middle of the week. It was really down to the wire and I got it in last minute, but I got it in. If you don’t know Spark Master Tape, look him up.
Our favorite tune from Week 5 was LIPSRVC‘s ‘Don’t Be Sgurd’. The sheer psychedelic weirdness of this track makes it a must listen for lovers of experimental music. Let us know what your favorite was!
[Main & Individual Cover Art by Molly Brooks: Facebook || Instagram || Tumblr]
