We have an exclusive gift for the ISO50 readers courtesy of André Obin, Teen Daze, and 18 Carat Affair. Download this synth drenched collection of remixes of André Obin’s new single Lemondrop for free. With both the 18 Carat Affair and Teen Daze albums coming out I thought i’d be a perfect time to ask them to remix this song that André gave us to give away on the site, let me know what you guys think and also visit their sites if you have time.
I’ve seen a lot of beautiful, moving images of the Shuttle lately but none have felt so intimate as these by Justin Ray for Spaceflight Now. Something about these photos of the now decommissioned spacecraft, engines removed, mission complete, bring the idea of it to life like none I’ve seen thus far. It’s the textures and details that highlight what an incredible machine this was and what a profound achievement for humankind it represents.
And look at that lettering! I’ve never seen it so close; it has such a handmade feel to it at this scale. The logos and typography of the Shuttle program always intrigued me, they seemed to represent the idea of the United States as a brand, an ideal to be consumed by the rest of the world. Then when Canadarm was installed on STS-2 it became apparent that even other — less crazy — countries felt the desire to push themselves as a brand in space. Of course, pushing your national space-brand became a bit more accessible with the ISS, but the US and Canada used Helvetica and were way ahead of the curve so I’d say they won whatever prize you get for most recognizable space-brand.
I wonder what we all gained growing up in a world where the Shuttle existed. I know it was a big part of my consciousness as a kid and probably had something to do with how I felt about my national identity. For me it symbolized the combined efforts of some of our greatest minds collectively reaching for a better understanding of the world we live in. For some — and perhaps rightly so — it probably represented a colossal waste of resources in the face of more earthly problems. Maybe it was both, but I I’ll personally miss it as a symbol of what we as humans can achieve when we work together.
I’m in Sacramento decompressing after the final, completely insane, few weeks putting the finishing touches on the new Tycho album (I’ll be announcing the release date here very soon). It just so happens that Launch — Sacramento’s annual art / music / fashion festival — is going down this weekend and I’ll be doing some live visuals for Little Foxes during their set.
If you’re not yet up on Little Foxes, they’re a new band consisting of Dusty Brown, Jacob Golden, and Zac Brown (live bassist and collaborator in Tycho). They’re incredible and this event is not to be missed. There are a lot of other great artists on the bill and to top it off it’s back at The Greens again. Hope to see you out there.
M83 drops the first single with an epic intro for his upcoming album Hurry Up, We’re Dreaming. I would have shared the cover art but its far from being anything ISO50. I find the single catchy especially with the sax solo, makes me feel like have the gained the skills to be able to leap from one skyscraper roof to another but I don’t recommend anyone doing that. Download the single here for free.
C-Beams comes to us from a small Hamburg label called Smallville, who in my mind are the front runners of keeping the early sounds of spaced out minimalist detroit techno alive and well.
Matthewdavid takes on an important role in the beat scene, tied in with labels like Brainfeeder, he becomes a key piece in keeping a mostly beat focused label very interesting by offering up hazy lo-fi sounds.
Alright let me explain, James Ferraro isn’t a normal sound for the ISO50 blog BUT holy shit! its like my VCR is broken, the sound damage is soo authentic its beautiful. The synth line is amazing and the sequence changes are perfected by completely just cutting tape and taping the next part together in the toughest way possible, amazed.
Just came across William Eggelston’s photography work tonight (I know, very late to this party). I’m completely blown away. A lot of these almost feel like realist oil paintings.
Does anyone do work like this anymore? I’ve never really seen tone and definition like this in anyone’s work. I have to imagine most kids starting out in photography these days are purely digital; sad to think we’ll be seeing less and less film output as the years go on.
Last week I wrote a quick post about the Nosh Promo video I made. Today I wanted to go into the production and describe all that went into its creation. Basically it was insane 25 hours from when we started, until the next morning when I exported the final video and the power went out in my apartment building (literally AS I hit export). Above you’ll see the composite I put together to show how each step of the post-process contributed to the final video. View the final video here or at the bottom of this post. I’ll describe each step in detail after the jump.
When I started working at Ghostly International in the early 2000’s I quickly feel in love with all the promo albums that came from the label Traum. Everything was lush and sugary and catchy ambients atmosphere became a must. I felt like I had really connected with musicians that were making the music that I wanted to get out of my head. I realized they were making the soundtrack to what I loved to imagine about at the time which was pod homes, heavily carpeted sculptures that you can sit on, snowy cliff minimal homes, etc.
Hengki Koentjoro is a photographer from Indonesia, where most of these shots were taken. You can see more of his jaw-dropping work on his flickr. Any idea what kind of camera was used for these?
