All I want to hear during this Powell song is for someone to say “Here’s the Beat Konducta on the Blue Note Records…” just kidding, the man has some talent and a great ear, check him out on iTunes I also picked up Dimension X and Crystalisation from his catalog.
Another strong release by Mr. Paul White, the 4 track EP called The Punch Drummer just leaves you wanting more though, still a good way to spend $4.
4AD picks up another great UK group called The Big Pink that can bring the wall of sound but also can maybe help veer the hipsters crowd away from the Franz Ferdinand.
I had to post this Weird Tapes edit partially because I love the song but the Laserblast sync music video just puts it over the top.
Powell – Reflexion
[audio:reflex.mp3]
Paul White – Synth March
[audio:synmar.mp3]
The Big Pink – Dominos
[audio:doms.mp3]
Hail Social – No Paradise (Weird Tapes Edit)
[audio:notape.mp3]
Hail Social – No Paradise (Weird Tapes Edit) Video…Kinda
The new Performance Mouse MX from Logitech didn’t make it in time for the Design Mouse Roundup post from last year but I sure wish it had. I have the MX Revolution (the original version of this new Performance MX) and I really love it, save for one fatal flaw: a defective battery. This was apparently a common issue with the old MX mice and they lose their ability to charge properly. So now it’s pulling light duty upstairs as an entertainment center controller, a purpose for which it’s surprisingly well suited.
I’ve been using the Razer Death Adder recently, and aside from it’s tacky design and even tackier name, it performs very well. I’ve been steering clear of wireless mice — I just don’t trust the accuracy and the last thing I need down in the studio are more wireless signals — but this new one is pretty intriguing. I’d really like to have hyperscroll back, I miss it on the Death Adder.
In keeping with this week’s (completely unplanned) typographic theme, I thought I’d post these excellent covers by Emil Ruder. I’d love to see someone try to get away with type layout like this on a client project.
Some additional info (apparently translated) from 80 Magazine:
“in 1953, TM held a competition to design a cover series, inside layout and advertising pages. 12 people took part, including the basel typography teachers emil ruder and robert büchler. the TM jury report on ruder’s entry:
‘the designer if his competition work chose the square as design motif, wich also resonates again in the page layout. this cover series is designed with sparkling fantasy; bold and new, far way from tested solutions, in a darling refreshing attemp. […] a really new solution which could have an interesting change from the arrangement up to now’
five covers by emil ruder were applied to break the monotony of the winning entry of robert büchler”
extracto da revista-libro ‘ruder typography ruder philosophy’. idea magazine 333. vol. 57. marzo 2009. xapon. issn 0019-1299 +
Just found a compilation from a label run by one of the guys from The Drums called Holiday Records, really promising fun material, there is a slew of genres being exposed, bits and pieces hint that The Drums have the depth and truly live thru their sound and are well deserving of the 2009 hype.
New Burial from the forthcoming Hyperdub compilation, i’m definitely feeling this.
There once was a time that the label Traum was pretty much outstanding week after week, firing from all angles with the some of the most beautiful compilations and rising stars, those were the days when deep minimal melodic had a chance to become what Space Disco is today.
Texture expert Farben still pops up regularly on my iTunes, the songs always dim the lights in my room when they come on, makes me think about the times I end up staring at flickering candles or when you crush up flint and sprinkle it on a lighter and you end up having a tiny little sparkler show for a short while.
Grain Edit has a great post on the upcoming Photo Lettering Site from House Industries. When I first saw the headline for the original post I was half hoping for some sort of digital way to achieve that awesome blurred edge style from old movie titles and magazines. Sadly, that wasn’t the case. But the reality was just about as good, a bunch of great until now defunct vintage typefaces. The Photo Lettering Site is not fully operational yet, but you can check out some posters featuring some of the fonts here.
The Spacetime Collection is a set of whimsy outer outer space-themed wall decals co-curated by Kitsune Noir and Poketo. They enlisted a talented group of artists to design the collection; Mike Perry, Cody Hudson, Damien Correll, and Andy Miller. Each set is different, but the idea is to combine them to make any kind of wall galaxy that you want.
I spent my morning pasting up the decals and my galaxy is displayed above. This was extremely fun; just pasting things every which way and creating something wacky on the spot. Compared to my normal, highly regimented routine on the computer, this was a refreshing change of pace. I find that I do less and less work “offline” so to speak, and it’s great to spend some time creating without a mouse and keyboard (or design brief and deadline for that matter). My roommates were surprised to find our whiteboard transformed into a very unusual (and exciting) combination of space diagrams and whimisical illustrations. ‘Wonderfully weird’ we determined.
This The Streets song came to me after Sam and I shared a few UK videos that we liked, the lyrics make me think about the times I use to be a silly worrywort in high school over girlfriends, ahh glad those feelings don’t come around anymore.
The Balearic sound is still ramping up into the rest of the world, slow disco seems to be creeping into the main stream even. iTunes has been in full support of Eskimo’s incredible Cosmic Balearic Beats series which volume 1 included this Homerun track that’s a full on epic bomb. I am still waiting for a song as gorgeous as this to make it to the masses, these instrumentals just have such thought out choices in synths and kicks compared all the studio club crap.
I actually found this cover art by OTT before I found the song. I can’t say i’m in full support of the song because of the vocal but that driving Telefon Tel Aviv low end synth keeps me from thinking about the bad vox, also a ton flute action for the flute fans out there.
UK’s Dub banger RSD puts out an extraordinary track called Good Energy, the beginning synth vividly remind me of ambulance’s in the EU in the 80’s and early 90’s and cold rainy days in UK/DE/PL, I can’t believe a simple dubstep track can give off such crazy exact memories.
