My old buddy Nick Felton spends a lot of time tracking his every move. After years of hanging with him knowing at the end of the year my stats would also in some way be immortalized in that years annual report, I decided to make use of one of the tools he created to track all that data: Daytum. It might be old news now, considering he’s moved on from Daytum, but it’s taken a while for the type of data I’ve been tracking to reveal something, hence the late-to-the party post.
I started obsessively keeping track of all of my music purchases via Daytum mostly just to keep tabs on myself – to make sure I was in fact supporting artists like I claimed I was.
But most telling to me is how the formats break down. Having moved a few times recently with a pretty hefty record collection – and a slow shift to “digital djing” (cue the purists), my buying habits have have clearly shifted towards downloads.
It may be a hold over from the vinyl and cd days, but no matter how hard I try, I can’t commit to the Rdio’s and the Spotify’s out there. I need to have the thing, be it physical or digital. I need to know it’s with me here, preferably in lossless format, taking up space somewhere – even if it’s just bits on an external hard drive. Loads of them.
I’m excited to see the label roster over at Drip.fm grow – it’s the perfect subscription based, lossless downloads model in my opinion.
Stunning images from various Google data centers around the world. I’m always amazed when I see how intricate and complex all this network routing can get, but the images I’m most drawn to in these galleries are the photos that show the routing of something else: water.
The cooing tech seems just as complex as the rest of it all, and they make great use of color to help identify different water types and their functions. For example, in Hamina Finland, one color designates highly pressurized clean and filtered water for use in the event of a fire, while another designates seawater pulled from the Gulf of Finland, used solely for cooling purposes.
Edit: Cover image replaced due to “appropriation issues” (see comments for info)
I found Datahowler when his album cover above caught my eye, pretty and simple and not too emotional, just the way I like my vocals. Download his 2 song EP here for FREE.
Orchid Tapes is run by the musician Foxes In Fiction, he shares a ton of free EPs by friends and musicians alike and also keeps the cassette community having something to listen to by doing limited runs of albums on cassettes. The most recent release is by 16 year old Trans-Bedroom Sound which includes some real nice airy tones and a perfect soundtrack for an afternoon nap. Pick up the FREE EP here.
Half of Sweden’s slow disco duo Studio comes to us as D. Lissvik is back with a serious world music guitar solo that’s supported by some dark hypnotic sounds, a nice lengthy piece, pretty interested in hearing the rest of this LP.
Disco done unlike anything else these days brought to you by The Swiss.
“The Ocean’s Salt” is the latest track from Ventura based duo Sleepercub. The two spent the past year exploring and discovering their new focused sound. The track takes their melodic and dreamy stylings (as seen from their debut “EP1”) and combines them with the left-field percussive and structural influences of producer ALEK FIN. The pairing results in a song that’s equally appropriate for a moment of reflection or a much needed distraction after a long day.
Sleepercub will be celebrating the single’s release alongside ALEK FIN at the Ojai Deer Lodge Friday August 18th (Event Info)
I was first introduced to Whitestone via my involvement with Italian electronic musician and producer Indian Wells’ sophomore release, Pause, for whom I did the album art for. Whitestone had contacted his label, Bad Panda Records, expressing interest about collaborating in creating an “interactive experience” for the release as part of a new platform they were developing. Naturally, as a designer (and musician myself) I was intrigued, specially after watching the video above, so I asked Roey Tsemah, founder and creative director of Whitestone, if I could pick his brain for a bit:
ISO50: What is Whitestone exactly, and who is behind it?
Roey: Good question, Whitestone is a platform for interactive music. It is a place for artists and fans who want more than just pressing play.
I am a musician, and as most musicians I’m also one of those die-hard music fans who still buy vinyl. About 4 years ago I set myself a goal to take album artwork to the next level, help artists make use of the browser as means of expression and create music for the internet.
I’m always comparing it to MTV. MTV created a place for artists to release music for TV and by doing that they inspired a different kind of creation. Conceptual artists like Peter Gabriel used the medium creatively and made history with videoclips like Sledge Hammer. We would like to do the same with interactive music.
At the moment we are a team of 4 people and we want to keep the platform independent so artists like us can gain the most off of it. We are raising funds on Kickstarter to help us build the platform and community. We hope that artists and fans who read this will help us bring Whitestone to life.
When MTV actually played music videos
Roey Tsemah’s Sketchbook
ISO50: What inspired you start a platform like this?
Roey: Artists like Bjork, Radiohead and Arcade Fire, who have made interactive apps and videos before. I just want to see more artists make stuff like this. Also, I think interactive experiences are a great way to add value to music online. Fans want to support artists but at the moment the only reward artists give them are MP3 downloads… Personally I don’t have anything to do with MP3s, they just take up space on my drive. I think there are better ways to reward supporting fans.
ISO50: How will people collect this new form of “interactive album art”?
Roey: Members accounts (both fans and artists) are built out of two main components – The Timeline and the Library. The Timeline (pictured above) is similar to other social networks, while the Library (pictured below) works similarly to Pinterest. Both fans and artist can add albums, mixtape, interactive experiences etc to their library, regardless of where they are online. Other fans can then follow them based on their curation. The whole idea is inspired by the way we used to discover music before streaming – we used to check our friends music collections, go through their CDs, bootlegs and mixtapes – our music collection says a lot about us and I believe it’s the best way to discover music.
Whitestone doesn’t distinct artists from fans in that sense, all artists I know are first of all music fans. At the moment there is no place we can explore, for instance, The Gaslamp Killer’s music collection, imagine how cool that would be…
Music fans (me included) spend hours, days and nights learning everything about albums we love, many of us contribute our knowledge on music forums and Facebook groups. Whitestone has a ranking system to reward such fans, encouraging them to participate and share their knowledge. The higher fans are ranked among the community they become influential and the platform rewards them with badges and coins to buy content on the platform. Also,they get the attention of their favourite artists who can then reward them with merch, gig tickets etc.
ISO50: What artists, both musicians and visual, would you like to see adopt your platform?
Roey: The general rule is everyone who gets inspired by the medium, the internet, the screen, code and data. Artists who see the possibilities in creative code, generative art etc. I love what Random Studio are doing and also Resn. They create rad interactive experiences. Musicians like Flying Lotus of course, Cold Cut and any Ninja Tune artists. Warp also, but that’s just because I’m into this kind of music at the moment. I also think it may benefit many ambient and minimal techno artists like Claudio PRC, for example
ISO50: So you’re a designer as well, what would you say is your favorite album cover and why?
Roey: Ow… there are so many… I love Ghostpoet’sSome Say I So I Say Light, the newFKA Twigs and Currents by Tame Impala (which I think would make for a sick interactive experience). Everything Bjork makes. Same with Radiohead (I love the process they go through with their longtime collaborator Stanley Donwood) Flying Lotus, Moderat, there are many, many more. I guess I can’t really name a favorite because I love different kinds of stuff. I think what attracts me most is the process and how the result reflects on the music.
Tame Impala – Currents (Design by Robert Beatty)
ISO50: Where do you see Whitestone in the future?
Roey: Basically I want Whitestone to be a hub for true music fans and artists online. A place where they can connect and support each other. A place not owned by a huge corporation but a small independent group of artists. I truly believe that together we can pull this off, I hope the readers will join us and help make it happen. We made a special website to honor all our backers, it’s an interactive credits page where every backer becomes part of a “Stone” -The bigger the stone is, the stronger we become as a community, the closer we get to our goal.
If you wish to support Whitestone, visit their Kickstarter campaign and pledge to get one of these amazing art/research books designed by Roey himself, among other rewards:
Jam City pushes away from the Night Slugs club usuals and embarks on a more experimental emotion, I definitely have it on repeat.
Expecting a slow disco Woolfy single and stumbled on this happy accident from Canadian producer Wolfey. He has that deep melodic house groove that captures that live take from a session, raw and smooth heat.
TEIFII & IZELIKA collab for a compilation by SOMICO, SOMICO is an electronic music collective for artists age 18 and under. Laying the foundations for young artists futures. This is the stuff that makes me feel like kids under 18 should be allowed to sample music just to sort give them a deadline to get comfortable with production then give them a reason to switch up out of sampling to then recording.
Earlier this year, Rafael Anton Irisarri (aka The Sight Below) and his wife had all of their possessions stolen while moving across the country. This theft included Rafael’s gear and entire library of music and data.
Here’s a chance to help Rafael help rebuild and as a bonus, receive awesome music and art in the process.
In a time where the devaluation of music seems to be at it’s peak, fans and audiences expect every release to be either for free or donation based, which forces musicians to tour extensively or resort to day jobs in order to support themselves. Deru, an electronic artist who questions this establishment, explores an innovative release of his latest album, 1979. His approach influences listeners to place themselves in an appropriate listening environment, delivering an entirely new experience.
To help him with his vision, Deru enlisted a team of people including the visual artist, Effixx, who collaborated previously on the Outliers, Iceland: Vol. 1 project.
I sat with Deru & Effixx to discuss the themes and concept behind 1979:
