Last month, I got a review copy of Negativland's new CD/book set No Business, which is just about to start shipping. The set contains a long essay on copyright and music, and a CD with music and a video by the band, and a yellow whoopee cushion with a copyright symbol on it (!), all packaged in a handsome box adorned with trademarked characters from popular media.
Negativland are legendary collagists, who steal little bits and pieces of sound and graphics and mix them together in novel ways to make humorous, danceable and cool art.
There's a lot of political art that is good politics, but bad art. Negativland's strength is that they make good art that's ALSO good politics. The No Business essay is as lucid an explanation of what's broken in copyright from the point of view of music-makers as you'll find, touching on the legal, fannish, artistic, and public-interest reasons to make the kind of art that Negativland makes.
The music is utter Negativland: funny, witty, and artfully executed. They blend samples from popular and obscure songs to make stuff that is both laugh-aloud funny and pretty decent to listen to on a brisk walk on a sunny day. (You can download some of the music from Negativland's site)
Combine that with the pure, exuberant subversiveness of the packaging and the whoopee cushion (a copyright whoopee cushion!) and you've got a hell of a package.
I hope that Negativland puts a lot more of this package online soon — especially that essay. It deserves to be circulated far and wide.
