Hey Guys, I’m David. If you’ve ordered anything from the ISO50 store in the last 6 months, it’s been handled by me and my small team based out of S.F. I’ve worked with Scott in various ways over the years, beginning by carrying his prints at my design + electronics store, Dijital Fix in Brooklyn (RIP) and San Francisco since 2009. After I moved to S.F. in 2012, Scott moved his design studio into the store, and we’ve been working together making the store better since. I’ll be bringing you posts on industrial design and other gadgets, as well as other objects interest from my perspective as a design store owner.
For my inaugural post, I’m presenting a little bit of awesome I found nestled in a box filled with old prints, some very limited original pressings of the Dive Single (Black Vinyl). Enjoy!
We found a very limited amount of the already-limited-pressing of Tycho’s “Dive” single w/ remixes from Memoryhouse and Keep Shelly In Athens on Vinyl. Check out Jakub’s original post on its release here and check them out on the shop here. Wanted to let our blog readers in on this one first! This isn’t the clear vinyl version, but still rare!
It’s been over two years since I released a new full length LP and I couldn’t be more excited for today’s worldwide release of Awake once again on Ghostly International.
If you’ve seen Tycho live you’ll know that I tour with a band comprised of myself on keys / guitar, Zac Brown on bass / guitar and Rory O’Connor on drums. When I set out to record this new record my goal was the capture that live sound and take the songwriting in new directions. There is a more driven, visceral energy to the live show and a stylistic diversity that Zac and Rory bring which I believe serves the music well. So this album was very much a collaboration between the three of us, and in many ways is the first true Tycho record. By approaching this record as a band, for the first time I feel I’ve been able to directly translate the ideas and sounds that I had envisioned.
We are collectively thrilled to share this new material with you as Tycho. Thank you for your support whether you discovered us last week or have been a fan for over a decade. We couldn’t continue making music without you. Hope you enjoy Awake and our sincerest thanks for listening.
-Scott Hansen
Awake is out worldwide today! Listen to a preview of the entire album on Soundcloud and you can purchase the record direct below:
Awake Tour 2014 kicks off next Wednesday, March 19th at The Catalyst in Santa Cruz, CA. We will be touring through the United States, Europe and Canada and tickets are on sale now. Come say hello in a town near you!
$ – w/ Trails and Ways
# – w/ Sylvan Esso
% – w/ Gardens & Villa
* – w/ Gems
WED, MAR 19 | Santa Cruz, CA | The Catalyst $ BUY TICKETS
THU, MAR 20 | San Francisco, CA | The Fillmore $ SOLD OUT
WED, MAR 26 | London, UK | Oval Space # SOLD OUT
THU, MAR 27 | Paris, FR | Trabendo # BUY TICKETS
FRI, MAR 28 | Zurich, CH | M4Music Festival BUY TICKETS
SAT, MAR 29 | Milan, IT | The Tunnel BUY TICKETS
SUN, MAR 30 | Berlin, DE | Bi Nuu BUY TICKETS
FRI, APR 04 | Denver, CO | Summit Music Hall BUY TICKETS
SAT, APR 05 | Fort Collins, CO | Aggie Theatre BUY TICKETS
MON, APR 07 | Omaha, NE | Waiting Room BUY TICKETS
TUE, APR 08 | Minneapolis, MN | First Avenue * BUY TICKETS
WED, APR 09 | Milwaukee, WI | Turner Hall Ballroom * BUY TICKETS
THU, APR 10 | Chicago, IL | Concord Music Hall * BUY TICKETS
FRI, APR 11 | Pontiac, MI | Crofoot Ballroom *BUY TICKETS
SAT, APR 12 | Toronto, ON | The Hoxton * SOLD OUT
MON, APR 14 | Montreal, QB | Corona Theatre * BUY TICKETS
TUE, APR 15 | Burlington, VT | Higher Ground % BUY TICKETS
THU, APR 17 | Cambridge, MA | The Sinclair % SOLD OUT
FRI, APR 18 | New York, NY | Webster Hall % SOLD OUT
SAT, APR 19 | Philadelphia, PA | Union Transfer % BUY TICKETS
SUN, APR 20 | Washington, DC | 9:30 Club % BUY TICKETS
TUE, APR 22 | Charlottesville, VA | Jefferson Theater % BUY TICKETS
WED, APR 23 | Carrboro, NC | Cat’s Cradle % BUY TICKETS
THU, APR 24 | Charlotte, NC | Visulite Theatre % BUY TICKETS
FRI, APR 25 | Orlando, FL | Beacham % BUY TICKETS
SUN, APR 27 | Kingston Downs, GA | Counterpoint Music Festival BUY TICKETS
MON, APR 28 | New Orleans, LA | Republic % BUY TICKETS
TUE, APR 29 | Houston, TX | Fitzgerald’s % BUY TICKETS
THU, MAY 01 | Austin, TX | The Parish % BUY TICKETS
MON, MAY 05 | Albuquerque, NM | Sister % BUY TICKETS
TUE, MAY 06 | Tucson, AZ | Club Congress % BUY TICKETS
THU, MAY 08 | Los Angeles, CA | Fonda Theater % BUY TICKETS
SAT, MAY 10 | Sacramento, CA | Harlow’s w/ Dusty Brown BUY TICKETS
SAT, JULY 5 | Wanderlust Festival | Snowmass, CO BUY TICKETS
SUN, AUG 3 | Wanderlust Festival | Whistler, BC BUY TICKETS
I’m very pleased to announce that a new Tycho single was released today. It’s been a long time coming, can’t wait to share the rest of the record. You can also pre-order the new album at the shop starting today.
We’ve announced a bunch of tour dates over the coming months:
MAR 19 Santa Cruz, CA
MAR 20 San Francisco, CA
MAR 26 London, United Kingdom
MAR 27 Paris, France
MAR 28 Zurich, Switzerland
MAR 29 Milan, Italy
MAR 30 Berlin, Germany
APR 04 Denver, CO
APR 05 Fort Collins, CO
APR 07 Omaha, NE
APR 08 Minneapolis, MN
APR 09 Milwaukee, WI
APR 10 Chicago, IL
APR 11 Pontiac, MI
APR 12 Toronto, Canada
APR 14 Montreal, Canada
APR 15 South Burlington, VT
APR 17 Cambridge, MA
APR 18 New York, NY
APR 19 Philadelphia, PA
APR 20 Washington, DC
APR 22 Charlottesville, VA
APR 23 Carrboro, NC
APR 24 Charlotte, NC
APR 25 Orlando, FL
APR 27 Kingston, GA
APR 28 New Orleans, LA
APR 29 Houston, TX
MAY 01 Austin, TX
MAY 05 Albuquerque, NM
MAY 06 Tucson, AZ
MAY 08 Los Angeles, CA
MAY 10 Sacramento, CA
We’ve repressed a limited number of Tycho’s long-sold-out second LP, Dive on vinyl and they are available now at the shop. We’ve also got a free shipping deal going as part of the holiday sale.
As you may have noticed I haven’t been very active on the blog over the past year. This is because I had decided to focus solely on my music project, Tycho for a while. I spent the last 9 months or so working with the band on a new record which is now complete. Of course, Tycho is very much an audio / visual project so I’m still working consistently on design whether it be album covers, show posters, or online assets. I was working on the cover art and developing the packaging in parallel with the recording process this time around. We recently shared the final artwork for this LP, entitled Awake (listen to the title track here). I’ll go more into the reasoning behind and making of the artwork later, but for now here is a quote from this Reddit discussion of the cover art that I commented on:
This design was mean to be a flag; more of a symbol than what I would think of as traditional album art. I felt that, with physical mediums disappearing, album art didn’t necessarily have to fit a given format and I wanted something that could be readily transported.
If you look at earlier artwork you’ll see that I was pursuing a more maximalist / photographic direction for Tycho (e.g. http://imgur.com/a/kk93f ). But this album has a more stripped down, visceral thing going on and I wanted that reflected in the artwork. Really this is meant to be an inconized form of the sun / circle motif present in a lot of the Tycho cover art to date. Kind of like a unifying symbol for all the output that preceded this release. I see this, for various reasons, as the first true Tycho album and so wanted to focus everything into a simple form that encapsulated that idea. On a side note, there are eight color bands in the circle, each one representing a track.
The beauty of creating the artwork for the music over all these years is that I am free to develop a cohesive lineage with the imagery. From what I have seen of my peers over these past 13 or so years as a designer, we generally tend towards simplification as we go along and I think that is an important part of design: efficiency of communication. Whether this particular design is effective in that respect obviously isn’t something I have the objectivity to comment on, but that was the goal at least.
The album will be released on March 18th, 2014. Here is the track listing:
Tycho – Awake (2014)
1. Awake
2. Montana
3. L
4. Dye
5. See
6. Apogee
7. Spectre
8. Plains
And those who were following along on Instagram, Facebook, or Twitter know that we released the artwork first via a 9×9 grid. I printed the artwork, cut it up, and photographed it using various pieces of musical equipment as backdrops. Here’s the grid in one image:
Makeshift lighting setup. All my camera gear was stolen recently so limping along with a point and shoot setup for now.
A big heads up that we’re having a 30% off sale now through Monday on Tycho / ISO50 prints and shirts at the shop. We’re also doing free shipping on US orders of $50 or more and $5 flat shipping on International orders of $75 or more through the end of the year. We’ve restocked a lot of designs and there are some brand new items available as well so there’s a lot more to choose from now.
