I don’t post many really upbeat poppy songs on here but its Friday and Phoenix have a new LP coming out and i’m super geeked to find out if its going to be great. It’s been almost 9 years since they released United which I first heard in the Ghostly International office as a intern and fell in love. I feel this track 1901 is going to be played really loud at every bar by June as a LAST CALL song which is good and also really really bad at the same time.
Mux Mool has a new EP coming out in March and has leaked a new song (that will stay unreleased) with the info on the “Just Saying Is All EP”. Nausican has this morning strut feel to it, you know that feeling when your having a good morning and saying hi to all the neighbors kind of like that Blackalicious track Make You Feel That Way.
Alright i’m not sold on this new Royksopp, its not what I like about the earlier material and it’s way too poppy for my taste. What do you guys think?
I’ve always been a huge fan of books on modernism, but unless you’re Dave from Grain Edit, it’s pretty hard to get your hands on the good stuff. And so it was with great pleasure that I stumbled onto Modernism 101 booksellers. the site, featuring a vast collection of rare and out of print books on modern design and architecture, serves up cover images and very detailed information on a wide array of classic design texts. Many of the books featured are have sold, but they archive the pages so it’s a great resource for images and information on many books that you’ll probably not find elsewhere. I’ll be running a (hopefully) weekly feature aptly titled “Modernism 101″ highlighting the best examples from their collection.
Today’s selection is a collection of Dutch printmaker H.N. Werkman’s work edited by Fridolin Müller. Enjoy!
H. N. WERKMAN
Fridolin Müller
Fridolin Müller (editor), Peter Althaus (introduction): H. N. WERKMAN. NYC: Hastings House, 1967. First edition. Tri-lingual edition in English, German and French. A near-fine hardcover book in decorated glazed paper boards issued without a Dust Jacket: trace of wear overall. Interior textblock in fine condition. Volume Two in a projected four-volume set called Documents in the Visual Arts. A nice copy of a scarce book.
8.5 x 9.75 hardcover book with 104 pages with 79 plates (14 in color) of Werkman’s avant-garde Dutch typography. H. N. WERKMAN presents the most extensive published collection of Werkman’s typography to date. My highest recommendation.
Beautifully designed and printed by Verlag Arthur Niggli in Switzerland with the plate engraving and printing setting a new standard for the reproduction of the presented artwork. Spot colors are used throughout for maximum color fidelity.
Dutch designer and printmaker Hendrik Werkman (1882 1945) is best known for his innovative printing techniques and avant-garde typography. As publisher of De Blauwe Schuitt, a series of underground booklets produced by Jewish dissident poets and writers during the Nazi occupation of Holland, Werkman was imprisoned by German secret police in 1945 and executed without trial just three days before the country¹s liberation.
Just got turned onto Dutch studio Almost Modern this morning. I’m definitely a fan of their poster work; there are some misses here and there, but most of it is simple, minimal, and very effective design.
I’ve been in love with some of the songs on the new Odd Nosdam LP that just came out this month on the hard working Anticon label. I haven’t really heard anything like this song Ethereal Slap since Marumari’s Supermogadon which definitely isn’t as heavy hitting. Root Bark by Odd Nosdam is more soundtrack-ish but really is unhateable, perfect for a skateboarding soundtrack which I think is what this LP is suppose to be for.
Fans of Samiyam and Flying Lotus need to check out Charles Trees, he has an upbeat crunchy authentic sound that might be able to find in Daedelus’ but also hits as hard as Dabrye.
I’m always happy to hear and support Max Tundra, he is needed in music because he breaks down pop barriers and weeds out and finds the real music lovers that care for avant pop, the video below is shot in such a simple yet attractive way in my mind, reminds me of some Electric Company promo.
We all know Polish design is amazing, but every now and then you need a good reminder. Karl forwarded me a Wanken post on the Tonpress sleeves you see above. Tonpress was a government-controlled Polish record label in the 80’s and from the looks of it, they had some quality design staff hanging around. If you want to sift through all the links, lots more cover art is here.
I remember seeing Lego a few years back having simple Lego pieces as business cards and thinking that was amazing but they took it a couples steps further by matching hair, gender and glasses for their employees new business cards, pretty creative, read more here.
These 3 songs by Bernhard Fleischmann, Wisp, and Departure Lounge are good examples of 3 completely different genres that I really wouldn’t know how to tag with a specific genre. Wisp on one hand sounds like he should be making all the fantasy video game music for any World of Warcraft game in 2010 specifically any epic winter levels. Bernhard Fleischmann sounds like a sped up Mum song that put the guitar and drums priority in the mixdown while Departure Lounge has more of a northern Midwest feel with layered finger picking and some gently placed feedback that’d probably drive a mastering guy nuts.
I’m not sure where I remember first seeing this La Serenissima video but it hit my nostalgia button right away, seems like the studio that drew the original G.I. Joe animated series must of done it, i’m not exactly sure though. I wish more cartoons we’re drawn like this, i’d probably watch them religiously.
I’ve always loved the artist series over at Hillman Curtis. Very well produced and put together films; my only complaint is that they are so few and far between. Scott’s recent post reminded me to go back and watch this one on Milton Glaser. I love hearing design heavyweights like him talk about the big issues in design. As far as I know, he still teaches at SVA occasionally—how fascinating it must be to have him as a teacher!
While they’re not quite as good as their big screen counterparts, some TV title sequences are starting to look a lot like what you’d expect from a feature film. Smashing Magazine has an article entitled “20 Brilliant TV Show Titles” featuring some of the better examples out there. My personal favorite has to be TrueBlood; the colors are incredible. Although none of them come close to beating Catch Me If you Can (although Mad Men tries valiantly), there certainly are some nice ones in the list. Link
Just found a nice size collection of 1960’s Advertising from around the world on Flickr, plenty more photos of exhibitions, typefaces, tv ad’s, and print.
Ghostly, Xlr8r, Red Stripe and Jimmy’s Lounge Present: Attn: This is a Daytime show, starts @ 2PM
The Ghostly 10 yr Anniversary – 2nd Installment – Los Angeles
Featuring:
Michna w/ Raw Paw LIVE
Tycho LIVE
The Sight Below LIVE
Lusine LIVE
Kate Simko LIVE
Deru LIVE
Eliot Lipp LIVE
…and more TBA
Sunday March 8th
@ Jimmy’s Lounge
6202 Santa Monica Blvd., LA
A friend showed me a place called Meet, seems like a nice spot for meetings but the idea is a bit too forced/corporate feeling for my taste. This is from their About Us page: “Marc and Sara Schiller, who realized that there was a need for a dedicated space in New York where creative and business executives could gather to re-imagine a business, re-invent a product or pitch potential clients. Advertising agencies, top consumer brands and television networks are among their enthusiastic clientele.”
Berlin-based Alan Abrahams has earned a lot of attention lately. His albums as Portable for the Background and ~scape imprints have garnered near-universal acclaim for their deft fusion of tribal rhythms and a modern micro-house sensibility. For his first LP as Bodycode, The Conservation of Electric Charge, Abrahams focuses on the more dancefloor-oriented aspects of his style, yielding a gorgeous album born from the belief that the psyche can be unlocked via the body. Bodycode also came from necessity ? while on tour playing club dates, Abrahams was compelled to seek the most engaging sound for that environment. Remarkably adept at its task, Bodycode?s mesmerizing percussive arrangements and subtle melodic flourishes create an immediately engaging sound that lingers in the mind long after the club has closed.
I just saw Alan aka Portable/Bodycode play last night on a freezing rooftop outdoors right around Union Square in New York and he blew my mind. Alan makes pure body music that’s straight from his roots of South Africa, if anyone is doing any tribal house music properly its him. He also slowly falls into some beautiful droned out breakdowns that aren’t like anything else, so there is something here for the world music(sadly this genre has such a bad rep) and ambient fans as well.
I’ve been considering a workspace overhaul for a couple months now. For inspiration, I’ve been browsing the photographs at The Selby, a blog dedicated to the workspaces of creatives. Each post includes photographs of artists in their homes and studios, and usually a little handwritten interview at the end. A majority of their subjects are from New York or LA, but I’m hoping they’ll make it out to San Francisco one of these days.
With my space, it’s amazing I’m able to get anything done; clothes are everywhere, bookshelves overflow onto the floor, and wires tangle their way into everything. It takes me at least five minutes to find just about anything. In all likelihood, it will stay this way forever, but I figure if I spend enough time looking at other people’s workspaces, I might actually get motivated to make mine picture worthy. Then again, as most of the pictures indicate (and Scott has suggested before), a pristine workspace isn’t a prerequisite for productivity.
Pop Up Storefront Los Angeles showcased some great photos from Frederic Chaubin, the Cambodian born French-Spanish editor of Citizen K magazine. The show, entitled “CCCP: Cosmic Communist Constructions Photographed”, focused on Chaubin’s fascination with the sort of futurist architecture that came out of Soviet Russia’s Cold-War era. I’ve always been quite impressed by Soviet architecture like this; they somehow built real versions of all those artist’s renderings of future societies that people were cranking out in the 50’s and 60’s. I’ve never seen it represented quite so faithfully; Chaubin’s photos really capture that whole utopian society vibe.
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04/26/10 - 
