James Ferraro is releasing a record called 'Far Side Virtual'
James Ferraro is a true artist that has released some of the most fascinating, wrought, high-camp examples of 21st century pop music, combining a sincere adoration of American pop culture’s glammiest, hammiest moments, from soap opera punks to AM radio and a impressionistic, all-encompassing imagination.
STEEL ESCAPE by James Ferraro from Zahid Jiwa on Vimeo.
Ariel Pink comparisons are worthy, especially seen as James is rumoured to be produced Ariel’s next album, but James’s music stands somehow further in – it’s almost as though he’s not remembering flicking through the music TV channels, but inside the remote control itself. James has released some 30+ albums, and for those without the mild Aspbergers soaking up every last track would require, but a curious mind and a hunger for the now, grab last year’s ‘Last American Hero’ and ‘Nightdolls With Hairspray’ as a matter of urgency, and read the interview Karen did a few months back. Also worth grabbing is ‘On Air’, by his Jim Ferraro project, re-released through Underwater Peoples later this summer.
And now he’s joining Hippos In Tanks, a label that, with a roster that includes Hype Williams, Games, Laurel Halo, Sleep ∞ Over and Gatekeeper, have earned the title “The Napolean Bonapartes of Interesting Music”. ‘Far Side Virtual’ is the name of the album, the release date is TBC, we’re breathlessly excited.
Below is James Ferraro’s biography from Hippos In Tanks, worth pasting in all its glory.
To pursue an acting career as a soap opera Star as James Ferraro ® Simulacra Company was the ultimate 21st century dream for James Ferraro, a dream that was forged on a note pad under the cyber skies of Manhattan’s slick midtown metropolis to become a world-famous hyperized living puppet of our Post modern civilization, acquiring the world’s media stage as a canvas, in the form of a glossy pure entertainment POP machine.
The approach to assembling his acting style was to be a theoretical expedition through the virtual landscape of Tabloid Cultoure, The Linguistic Consequence of Modern Decadence and Digital/Mega Entertainment Age Sexuality Persona … to name just a few sources of inspiration, and of course for it all to be captured on the flawless $1,000,000 TV cameras of the entertainment industries’ major studio Networks. But where to assimilate to the aforementioned theories? HOLLYWOOD HERE WE COME BABY!!
“My ideas from New York had flowered in the most violently magical way, as I entered what we Hollywoodologists call ‘The Floor’ (HOLLYWOOD GROUND ZERO) . . . and this led to outlets beyond my wildest imagination, seeing beyond the institutional buildings of the worlds Entertainment Center,” says Ferraro.
“Whilst wine tasting in Napa valley with my Mother, on a tour through Simulacra’s wine country . . . in the red convertible PT Cruiser and watching a giant Hollywood Blockbuster intermittently on the on-board DVD screen between wineries, I was so excited and inspired by the leading actors performance that I decided to leave the world of acting to FOCUS more dramatically on a venture to be a recording artist.
“I became completely obsessed with Bach’s Concerto for Oboe and Violin in C minor. As it blasted from the speakers of the PT Cruiser, spilling out into the open air, I indulged in an ecstatic delirium that was colored by a sweet subtle victorious madness, ideas flooded my mind, blood coursed through my veins, Smart Water™ oxidized my brain . . . thoughts of Napoleon at the Olive Garden, Julius Cesar reading poetry to me . . . I started to fully investigate these two artistic individuals almost exclusively at this moment, scanning what historic memory I had available in my brain. When I arrived home I ran into my humble chamber and got to work.”
Ferraro has since released countless MUSICAL RECORDINGS on various record labels hailing from The U.S.A., The United Kingdom, Japan, Europe and beyond. A critically acclaimed artist of the 21st Century POP ART wave, the man with the moon-lit pompadour now teams up with Hippos in Tanks to create the next chapter in his on-going sonic adventure, in which, Ferraro explains, “The results of this relationship will see a new era in Art History.”
