Tycho Live In Sacramento Saturday
Posted by Scott
Dusty Brown and I will be playing live sets at the LAUNCH Design & Music Festival in Sacramento this Saturday (July 25th, 2009) at approx. 8:30pm. See you there!
ISO50
RSSArchive for July, 2009
Navis: Mongol Rally
Posted by Scott
Photographer Tim Navis is participating in The Mongol Rally, a drive from the UK to Mongolia. You can follow along at Tim’s Rubik Crew page. Seems like an incredible adventure, I imagine he’ll be coming back with some amazing shots, can’t wait to see them. And in case you haven’t checked in on Tim since we last featured him, here are a few of his recent shots to refresh your memory:
Walkman Turns 30
Posted by Scott
Create Digital Music has a nice piece on the Walkman’s 30th Birthday. Pretty surprising actually, I don’t think I became aware of the Walkman until ’85 or so. Peter Kirn makes a good point: “Sony once had iconic design..” Link
Nakamichi 550
Posted by Scott
Always loved the Nakamichi logo.
Counter-Print Vintage Design Books
Posted by Scott
I almost didn’t want to post this link just so I could snag a few of the books, but I don’t think I really need to add any to my collection right now. The Strange Attractor turned me on to Counter-Print’s great selection of vintage design books. The real beauty here is the pricing; pretty reasonable compared to what I have seen elsewhere. The main attraction for me though are the great pictures and excellent page selections. Counter-Print: please, please keep your archive of sold books going (the grayed-out selections at the bottom) so we’ll always have a record of some of these rare finds.
Design books in general have always been a dichotomous obsession for me. On the one hand I am compulsively drawn to them; as if owning a physical copy of the images inside will allow me to understand or appreciate them better. But on the other hand, I rarely refer back to these books once I’ve owned them for any amount of time. They look nice all stacked up on the bookshelf, but whether they serve any real function beyond that I can’t really say. I suppose they are good to refer back to for inspiration or reference but for some reason I never actually take the time to crack most of them open. I suppose they aren’t really meant to be all that functional, perhaps they’re best viewed as a collection and something to be enjoyed as a whole. At any rate, you could do your own collection some serious good by checking out what Counter-Print has on offer.
Kings Of Convenience+Atlas+FaltyDL+Gui
Posted by Jakub
I couldn’t wait for the morning so here it is new Kings Of Convenience, if you haven’t noticed i’m kind of a big fan of Erlend Oye. You know there isn’t ever a disappointing note in a KoC song if you find the right moment to take it in.
Not only is there new Kings of Convenience but there is a new Atlas Sound coming out on 4AD featuring Noah(Panda Bear) from Animal Collective. The melody from the flute in the background is completely flooring, I want it to go on forever, this just song just made my year.
Planet Mu has been signing some consistent and interesting artists as of late, this new cut from FaltyDL has a unique way of doing an almost stripped down Garage track, heading over to check the record on iTunes to see how the rest of the LP sounds.
Gui Boratto might have the ugliest cover of 2009 but that didn’t stop me from checking out his album. When the vocal comes in i’m not too fond of the song but until then it reminds me of the good old days of Kompakt where you’d go to your local vinyl shop and check what this weeks Kompakt 12″ sounded like.
Alright, off to bed to watch Deadwood, I wish I could watch more than 73 mins on Megavideo before it says I have to wait an hour to use Megavideo again, ugh.
[audio:mrscold.mp3] [audio:walkabout.mp3] [audio:reallyk.mp3] [audio:turning.mp3]Daniel + Horrors + Braxton + Discovery
Posted by Jakub
Long time ISO50 blog reader, ex. Judah Johnson frontman, and adding some soul and romance to electronic music is Daniel Johnson with his debut LP Lazrus. When i’ve played the record to friends some people said the album sounded like TV on the Radio, Jamie Lidell, Thom Yorke, Deastro and even Hot Chip at times but to be honest I think of it as its own animal. The record came to me during a time that I wasn’t listening to anything like it, I don’t have much soul/R+B in my collection of music and probably never will but this LP has hints of those elements and then some that help me effortlessly engage by Daniel’s additions of detail to an almost actual true pop electronic album.
If there was a most improved band award it would go to The Horrors, I remember being drawn into their myspace by seeing that Chris Cunningham did a video for them but the music didn’t grab me like it does now. Sean Lynch (from 800beloved) and I drove around a few weeks ago when I was in Michigan and it was around 4 am and this song came on I was really enjoying it and then Sean whispered something about how insane it is to put out a 8 minute single for an album today and I remember just chuckling and asking myself if this song is really going to go on for 8 mins but soon enough I didn’t want it to end. Also, do yourself a favor if its your first listen and just watch the video.
Went to the Warp offices the other day and met with Zach who helps hold it down here in the States, he recommended this Tyondai Braxton LP who impresses me on another level when I see him live playing guitar for Battles. I can this song hitting Top 40 local rock radio at times with a radio edit, reminds me if you stripped down a good Deftones song.
I keep hearing about XL’s new signing Discovery since its 2 guys from Ra Ra Riot and Vampire Weekend, after the first listen I would of never guessed that or even came close to that it was members from either. I listened to 2 free songs which you can find if you search for them in the blog world but after going on iTunes I found that I think this Osaka Loop Line song might be a favorite.
[audio:heartdog.mp3] [audio:horror.mp3] [audio:jcity.mp3] [audio:loopline.mp3]
Daedelus vs. Powershot SD780
Posted by Scott
I just got home from Portland after playing the Emrg-n-See festival on Sunday night. Thanks to everyone who made it out, I had a great time playing and the energy was amazing. I had the honor of sharing the stage with two artists I have a lot of respect for: Flying Lotus and Daedelus. Luckily I brought my little Canon SD780 Elf and in between setting up my gear backstage, I was able to catch a little bit of Daedelus’ set on video (Sorry they’re so short, time was really tight).
The SD780 really is amazing for it’s size; it cranks out HD and takes some great still shots too. If course, it’s not the greatest in low light situations so take the above examples with a grain of salt. I will post some daylight stuff this week that show it’s real capabilities.