I’m a big fan of Alan Braxe when he does something right, he took this Pacifc! remix and set the pace perfectly in an epic way.
An OLD Kruder & Dorfmeister edit of Depeche Mode, classic downtempo.
Found this compilation that Mokira was on, I think the whole idea behind it was songs sampling birds, super lush and gentle, I recommend the track by Tape too.
If you work in music then should always peek in and see what Rastor Noton is doing right, they have been classy since the beginning, makes you feel like you running everything in your life like a lemonade stand, check out this sleek piece by Alva Noto + Ryuichi Sakamoto.
Australian artist Ashley Wood does some incredible work. He blends traditional painting technique with digital imagery to create some truly imaginative scenes. His world may be dark and ominous, but for some reason I want to find myself inside. I want to fight alongside the World War Robot. I want to trudge through the snow with a giant metallic companion. I’m sure my sentiment is just the result of seeing such unbelievably creative work.
Be sure to check out Tom Muller’s excellent book design for Wood’s Popbot. Dedicating the rest of my night to tracking down an actual copy. (Muller also designed Wood’s website.)
I found this series by Rob from The Queen City Studio pretty impressive, its an ode to his hometown of Buffalo, NY, I think a project like this is perfect for a graphic designer that needs a subject to show off his ideas and skills.
Architectural photographer (sounds like a pretty good gig right?) Benny Chan’s Traffic! series depicts aerial views of rush hour traffic around Los Angeles, a place that’s no stranger to the phenomenon. Beautifully shot, I’d love to have one of these huge on a wall somewhere to remind me of how we — sort of — have it better here in SF. Click the images for (very) large versions.
I believe it’s pretty safe to say that a lot of folks including myself, are very affectionate about Vignelli’s subway map. Both he and Harry Beck established the design direction that came to be used for most of the current day subway maps including this version by the Triboro team.
This map provides a radical take on how the Triboro team believe the New York subway system map could be treated. The poster is large format and printed in neon red. If you like the poster it is available for purchase here.
Well I finally downloaded Instagram, after much ado. Prior to actually downloading the app, my understanding of Instagram was that it infested my Twitter stream with photos affected with filters I spent most of my first year at design school trying to apply to everything (posters, shirts, CDs, food etc). It was really annoying. “What is with all these forced vintage iPhone PHOTOS!” was the common refrain while clicking through my Twitter folk. (Kind of like the vintage film effect in Jersey Shore. WHY. Or so I’ve heard…)
I downloaded it over the break as part of some research I am doing for a new app I am working on (completely unrelated; I was basically downloading the entire app store and Instagram happened to come with it). Anyway after playing with it for the last few days I must say I am a convert, a fan. I get it now: it’s fun to see completely mundane photos suddenly become awesome with the tap of a finger. Cruddy picture of airline seats with poor light and an iPhone lens? No problem! Apollo filter and it looks like Hunter S Thompson just got up to go to the bathroom.
Of course I’m kidding around, but I actually am a fan of the app. Filters and mega-vintage filtering aside, the real power of the app is the social component. This doesn’t seem surprising now, but remember that there were tons and tons of other camera apps before it that played a similar card (vintage-izing) but left out this crucial bit of Twitter-esque following. The app now sits squarely between Facebook and Twitter on my iPhone and I find myself clicking it just as often to see if any of my friends have posted new pictures or ‘liked’ any of mine.
Definitely consider myself addicted, at least for the time being. However there are a number of frustrating bits that I hope they address sometime soon. First, there is no web component or ability to do anything at all anywhere but the phone. The website lets you…change your password, but I can’t direct you to my entire feed or anything. You have to download the app, search for me, then follow. An annoying process. Also, what’s the deal with the popular tab? It’s almost as mysterious as the frontpage of FFFFOUND. I would love some more powerful search, sort and filter capabilities. And I swear if they start charging $$ for additional filters…
My username is alexcornell if you can find me! Some of my first Instagrams are above.
In the early 2000s I was pretty much a downtempo DJ full time playing Wine Bars, Salons, etc weekly, doing my best to warm people up to electronic music beyond the general stuff like Thievery Corporation, Atjazz, Gotan Project and Kruder & Dorfmeister, that stuff was good but forgettable and wasn’t helping the electronic world grow. I liked the challenge of playing to a diverse older crowd that you knew if you played Boards Of Canada it would be too experimental and odd, if it was glitchy or 4/4 it would be no good and they wouldn’t get it, it if was ambient people would complain about falling asleep. Playing something like The Smiths, Air, or stuff like Nike Drake would just be too easy, hell you might as well just stream chill online radio. I did my best playing a lot of stuff that sounded like Yoshinori Sunahara, I can’t explain the sound that was happening at the time that sounded like this, it was the soundtrack to my early short lived graphic design career attempt. The backbone was Broker/Dealer and other stuff on Traumschallplatten and if you dug more into it this whole world opened up that sounded like 50s Scandinavian design meets instructoart in slow motion, thats how the Moodgadget logo was born actually, this Yoshinori Sunahara track takes my imagination back when Royksopp was good and helped me creatively make flyers, logos, etc. man I miss those days.
Moving right along to finding attraction in some darkness, this Holy Other song has me in vice grip, I can’t let go, the goth tone sits perfectly with me, I can only imagine scenes of pure despair but shot beautifully. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED
Keep Shelly in Athens has had my ear all year long, this is the first remix i’ve heard by them and i’m really impressed by the clarity and drive. For some reason people are rocking saxophones right now and i’m not complaining…………yet.
I think this Christopher Rau represents all of what house and techno should sound like in the winter time. If you only listen to house and its daytime and your just comfortable in your apartment then this what i’ve prefer to hear.
