This is ISO50 Studio Edition #009. It features an edit of the artwork I did for Casino Versus Japan’s self-titled reissue this year. Each edition is printed on 310gsm Hahnemühle German Etching paper using the Epson 9900 10-ink HDR system and is available in four signed formats, three of them being limited.
More info and images at The ISO50 Shop
I’ll be doing visuals for Casino Versus Japan when he plays with Deerhunter and Real Estate this Saturday here in San Francisco. We’ve done this once before, at LPR in NYC. Should be a great night, see you out there.
10.30 – Deerhunter, Casino Versus Japan (w/ ISO50), Real Estate
@ Slim’s
And to answer Healthcare’s question in the comments, for the visuals I’m running the following:
– Macbook Pro
– VDMX (modular live video software environment)
– OS X network MIDI protocol for tempo sync with Ableton Live
– Akai MPD18 (might start using Novation Launchpad though, if I can get it to work with VDMX)
Here’s an pretty outdated discussion of the visuals setup. A lot has changed, but the core app (VDMX) is pretty much the same.
Photo by Joshua Schnable
We are back to the regularly scheduled program everybody, 4 songs a day. So today I woke up like usual which is one eye open reaching for my iPhone and checking email, twitter, and facebook before heading to my email and deleting the emails I just read from bed but one thing I noticed was a ton of twittering about a new song by The Knife which was a nice jolt. The song is amazing, it has a great experimental build into this well composed orchestral piece which really relies on these muted beautiful steel drum melodies and outstanding vocal ranges, everyone making pop music should feel some sort of shame after hearing something that is musically moving in a creative direction but keeping their sound and taking chances.
Coworkers have been telling me about Sub Pop’s Avi Buffalo for months now, I found this song from a Daytrotter live session and I blew me away. Lately if i’ve been listening to anything like this its only been slower stuff from Kurt Vile, Bon Iver, Elm From Arm or Midlake so this was a nice change in gears.
Wow what a great remix by Nosaj Thing, so thick and warm with a nice pop but it must be easy though if you have Charlotte Gainsbourg vocals to work with, can’t really screw that up.
If I could hear one song live and it to keep growing and building it would have to be this Casino Versus Japan song, I heard it live at the Tycho NYC show and I had to roll my tongue back into my mouth and hold my jaw from hitting the floor. The sounds that you get when you’re half way thru bring back so much nostalgia for me, they’re so gentle and dreamy but in a whole different way than what shoegaze does for some people.
Casino Versus Japan - Artwork by S.Hansen
This release will be out on January 5th, 2010 on Moodgadget.
Thanks to everyone who made it out last night, I had an incredible time and the energy was great. I really appreciate you all sticking around until 2:30am on a sunday night, you’re probably hating me this morning though, wish I could buy you a coffee. It was great to be able to check out the other bands too, I’ve been meaning to see all of them live for a while now.
Shigeto turned in an amazing performance with his drums with some great backing visuals by Alex Headup, Adam Hunt, and Martin Thoburn. A Sunny Day in Glasgow came with some really dreamy stuff and they were a perfect counterpoint to the decidedly electronic vibe of the other acts on the bill. The highlight of the night for me was Casino Versus Japan’s set. He very rarely plays shows (I think the last one was like 6 years ago?) so it was a rare treat to say the least. I had the honor of doing visuals for him during his set which was really a great experience. I rarely get to just do visuals for other artists so it was nice to be able to focus on that side of things. As you might imagine, his set was super mellow and ambient. The energy ebbed and flowed perfectly and made for a very moving experience. Hopefully he starts playing more shows because I doubt you’ll see anything like that again any time soon.
All in all it was a great time, I hope to be back again soon. This was my last show for a while as I’ll be focusing on wrapping up the new album through the early part of the year but as soon as that’s ready I’ll be getting back out.
Photos by Kyle Moriwaki | Video of Casino Versus Japan by Raffi Asdourian
Update: Cesar & Moira won, thanks everyone for playing. See you tonight.
We’re giving away 2 tickets to tomorrow night’s show at Le Poisson Rouge in NYC. The first two people to answer the following question correctly will each get a free ticket:
Name the B-Side of Casino Versus Japan’s 2001 10″ release on Wobblyhead.
Enter your answer in the comments of this post along with your email in the address field (email is not publicly visible). Please enter only if you actually intend to come to the show.
Good luck, see you tomorrow night… (set time is 10:30)
A Sunny Day in Glasgow, Casino Versus Japan, Tycho, Shigeto
Live @ Le Poisson Rouge – 158 Bleecker St. NYC
I love the concept behind this release of Casino Versus Japan and Freescha, a split EP with a couple tracks from each artist on a CD. I think more artist should be open to this idea, Daedelus recently started a label that is doing this called Friends of Friends and it looks very promising, also on a side note did everyone know that Freescha did a song for Britney Spears called Heaven on Earth??
I’ve been really impressed with tracks by Nôze, their remix of Franz Ferdinand is a simple yet very effective track for the dancefloor. The combination of that flute, synth and tambourine make me actually like this Franz Ferdinand song.
I wonder who picks the remixers for Moby? Do you think he does? I know he djs a lot in New York but does he play this kind of music? Well this Holy Ghost! remix and the recent Apparat remix are some top choices, i’ll post the Apparat one next week, this one you can add to your weekend night out mix even though its a bit older.
If any of you are in town this Saturday i’ll be djing with Trus’me and Worst Friends at some Circus/Performing Art/craziness at S.L.A.M. Warehouse, i’ve posted a track of Trus’me before awhile back in October, I might like this Drilling track even more now.
[audio:comealong.mp3] [audio:noyou.mp3] [audio:holyg.mp3] [audio:drilling.mp3]
Our favorite Scandinavian pop star Erlend Oye is back with his band The Whitest Boy Alive, by the sound of it after skipping thru some of the songs on the LP I feel like we got a intimate recording of the band in the studio, each instrument is upfront in big bold letters. I’m really loving the key work on the whole LP, gonna take a walk and check out the whole thing now.
Mux Mool’s new EP dropped today exclusively on iTunes, you may know him from the Ghostly Swim compilation or the intro song for the engadget podcast called gdgt run by Peter Rojas and Ryan Block. The synth bass in this song is as warm as butter and the melody sounds like its straight from a soundtrack for an ending of a 80’s tropical action film, too good to miss.
Digged up an old Casino Versus Japan 10″ that was released on Wobblyhead years back, made me really miss Erik’s work. If your reading this Erik email me i’ll put out your album! damn you’re good at melody my friend.
MF Doom hrrrmm I mean Doom just never fails me, the instrumental here just guns down any imitators, the intro horns remind me of a fuzzy memory of watching an A-Team & Airwolf marathon on the USA Network in 1989.
[audio:1517.mp3] [audio:teal.mp3] [audio:via.mp3] [audio:kon.mp3]