Jung + Wenig
Posted by Scott
Some wonderful things going on over at Jung + Wenig. Always a fan of this brand of restraint. Via The Strange Attractor
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RSSArchive for June, 2009
Daniel+Dirk Leyers+O’Rourke+The Mole
Posted by Jakub
You may know Daniel from the group Judah Johnson or you may know the original of Does Not Compute by Prince but this is the official debut of his Bulbz EP which includes 3 covers of Smokey Robinson, Kanye West and this cover of Prince. When I hear Daniel’s production it reminds of Jamie Lidell’s singing style meeting up with Radiohead’s spastic breakdowns and somehow Daniel pulls it off and makes that marriage work. Please excuse the PG-13 cover we got going on today, don’t worry they’re a couple that read the blog so its nothing scandalous.
Dirk Leyers maybe better known for his work on Kompakt as half of Closer Musik which is a very seductive minimal house project which is located in the recent playlist on our blog. The song Wellen has this nice swing to it right from the start and the long synth melody can easily be burned into your memory.
We’ve had Jim O’Rourke already on the blog before and I think the other song was actually off this same EP but I needed to post this track because it came up on shuffle last night and I think the horn parts are perfect and maybe you might agree.
Canada’s The Mole might be one of most smiley DJs i’ve ever seen play, I remember seeing his performance at MUTEK years ago and him just really enjoying himself almost to the point that I thought he might be watching something funny while playing LIVE off his laptop. Knock Twice has a strong simple groove which is almost appropriate for any dance set you can think of.
[audio:compute.mp3] [audio:wellen.mp3] [audio:martialart.mp3] [audio:knocktwice.mp3]Canon Rebel T1i Video
Posted by Scott
My brother Kirk got the new Canon Rebel T1i over the weekend and it looks like it’s working out quite well for him. He used Sigma 70-300 lens in macro for his first video tests (above, wait for the ant!) and as you can see, the detail is incredible (albeit slimy). I’d like to see some more tests in different lighting situations and with different subject matter, but so far the performance looks great. Although, after seeing what Will Calcutt did with the 5D MKII in Detroit I am not sure I could settle for the T1i, but it seems like a close second for the budget-conscious. At any rate, I am pretty close to jumping ship from Nikon. Video Link
Update: Kirk added a short clip of Forrest skimboarding in Sacramento:
Jessica Helfand / Letter to Students
Posted by Alex
Jessica Helfand wrote an open letter to design sudents everywhere this morning. It is an insightful piece, and I think everyone could benefit from giving this a read really, student or no student.
If you’re graduating in the middle of a recession, it’s likely that an arc of despair trumps the impending thrill of your newly-liberated station in life. Conversely, though, I can’t imagine a better time to get out of school. Nobody’s hiring, but why let that stop you? While the mechanics of, say, having a roof over your head suggest that a little modest income might be a good thing, the actual economics of making work no longer depend on an actual employer. The portfolio no longer means a big black suitcase schlepped around from studio to studio. Get your work online, put your videos on YouTube, and get busy.
I am about 1-2 years out from graduating myself and I already feel the jitters of the “what next…” syndrome. The world of design is changing so fast, every day, and it can be quite an intimidating place to look out upon from within the graduate school bubble. Sometimes I feel like being a student is like being a star college basketball player; floating along no problem in this league—making threes, hitting jumpers, dominating the *paint*—only to be in for a big surprise when you graduate to the Pros and get dunked on by guys double your height and ability that got recruited straight out of high school.
The cries of “nobody’s hiring!” that sound throughout the design world can be periodically distressing, but also inspiring in a backward kind of way. As Ms.Helfand alludes to above, the traditional model of graduate/interview/work for studio is not what is necessary anymore (and thankfully!). New opportunities exist, and as long as you have that hyper-awareness and ready ability to adapt, you can take advantage of them just like before. At least that’s the way it seems from inside the bubble.
It does seem like a scary time to graduate now (and probably will again in a couple years), but the optimist in me agrees with her letter and isn’t concerned. Everything is going crazy and I’ll just try to stay crazy right along with it. Read the full letter on Design Observer.
Images From Where? and By Who? Part. III
Posted by Jakub
Here is the 3rd installment of Images From Where? and By Who? So we all download and save images of items, graphics and photos from the internet daily and some of the time you have no idea where to give credit besides maybe the guy that posted it first or second randomly on a blog. I ‘d like to get some answers on a few of these but also just post some interesting pieces that we come across that might have been sitting on our drives for awhile that are go to for inspiration or just found randomly on a forum with no info attached and just look great. Either way hopefully the point that gets across here is that they are inspiring in some sort of way to you as well.
This first one with the polaroid packaging i’ve just always wanted to know if it was real, I mean the wear might just be too good to be true and the simplicity is just perfect, anyone know if this was an actual packaging for polaroid? if it is i’m going to find a few on ebay so I can just have the box.
If you know me I have a huge fear of large ships, just the sight of them freaks me out but its not the case here, this boat/plane is gorgeous, its like a fantasy vehicle and its soo perfect with the glass dome at the top.
Klopfer Holzhandel seems to be some kind of German company, who ever branded this company my hats off to them, i’m not sure if this is the logo or just a brochure/flyer, either way its eye catching every time I scroll by it.
The Beatles: Rock Band Intro
Posted by Scott
E3 is going down right now and the animated intro movie for The Beatles: Rock Band just came out. Beautiful imagery, I really like the sort of 2D-hybrid animation style. The whole thing feels sort of like a more refined Gorillaz. Video Link
Edit: Apparently it was Robert Valley who did the character animations for this piece.
PianoMagic+Digitalverein+Shuttle+BMSR
Posted by Jakub
I remember the first time hearing Piano Magic right before Greg Davis went on at the Magic Stick in Detroit, the song that was being played was called Halloween Boat, I was going to post that but its a 10USD MP3 everywhere but well worth the 18+ minute bliss. Well I dug deeper and asked a few friends on what albums I should hear and Snowfall Soon was a definite surprise, just some beautiful fuzzy guitar and strong lyrics from the post shoegaze era.
I remember there was a time when a ton of netlabels popped up and every releases was given out for free by all these labels but it also kind of hurt the industry in my opinion because full albums were going up with no one filtering them. A few stuck around and never updated their site(ugh I hate when that happens) and most of them just folded because it was a college students hobby to release friends music. One track that I remember during this time was this song by Digitalverein, I just love how the song jumps in at the beginning, so dark and angular, like some stiff and nerdy digital IDM/Dubstep without the low end and abit too much static.
Shuttle358 i’m pretty sure has a small following but the people that do follow him are always in for a treat. Its very minimal work but there are always hidden melodies and I feel like its more rewarding then most 12k releases that thrive on a sound like this.
Oh Black Moth Super Rainbow, can your crackles be more hash and lovely? can your synths be more piercing, upfront and heavy? oh god the nostalgia just oozes all over my memories of old store signs and sun splattered visions of car rides to school in the winter.
[audio:snowfall.mp3] [audio:cry.mp3] [audio:finch.mp3] [audio:seeds.mp3]New Work From Andy Gilmore
Posted by Scott
I posted on Andy Gilmore last year and I stumbled across his site again today. Looks as though Andy’s been busy, there’s a lot of great new work up at his site. This stuff would be great large format.