I love digital technology. I love the convenience, the economy, the permanence, and the instantness (yes, that’s actually a word….who knew). So I’m constantly trying to trick myself into believing that I don’t need film photography because digital can replace it. Then I see pictures like the ones above and remember that it’s never going to happen. There’s something going on here that I’ve yet to see captured in a digital image. Sure, I’ve seen incredibly beautiful digital photographs, and they stand on their own. But that’s all they do. They don’t stand over film and they don’t replace it. Film can never die or we will lose our ability to capture the beauty that hides behind the subtlety and nuance that digital seems to miss. There’s a tone, a separation and depth here that I think can only be produced by an analog chemical reaction. The grain is so beautiful it just begs to be blown up to wall-size.
So considering all the infinite hype surrounding it, I’ve finally been experimenting with Twitter over the past couple weeks and I have to say, it’s been surprisingly fun. I hooked the blog up so that all the posts are linked up on my Twitter page (using Twitter Tools) and it’s been an interesting way to communicate via a more direct route than is possible with the blog alone. I’ll be posting up giveaways, extras that didn’t make the blog, process stuff (pictures of the daily work), and random other tidbits here and there. It will also be the front lines so you’ll be the first to hear about anything useful or interesting before it hits the blog.
Dial’s new signing Christian Naujoks shows that the Hamburg based label isn’t just sticking to deep minimal 4/4 music, Naujoks album is full of exciting new sounds like Maladies which is just vibraphone and piano together and somehow it still feels like it fits perfectly on Dial, I should of turned my vibraphone techno demo into them in years ago, oh well.
Osborne(Todd Osborn) aka Soundmurderer aka Clutch aka TNT aka Superstructure(who put out Clone A which was a midi version of the whole Kid A album, its nuts) is one gifted man, i’ve only got to meet him a few times and every time i’ve been lost for words so it only gets weird hah. Todd has an array of unique things about him like building his own computers, instruments, and even a hovercraft. He is also one of the only people I know that has this many monikers but actually makes use of them and are needed since his sound varies so often. As for the song Fire i’m pretty speechless, its simple and classic disco but this is the same guy that puts out ragga-jungle and ghetto-tech, so it just makes me think about what else he has in his vault.
I think Swayzak’s Low-Rez Skyline holds a certain place in my heart for easing me off techno nearly 10 years ago, it was like Ritalin for my friends that only thought techno was for dancing. Its a pretty easy going and perfect song to put on for someone that you may know that needs help getting off club music.
I know i’m bookending today with 2 vibraphone songs but its Moondog a blind American composer who was a terrrific street musician and also built many instruments, he definitely needed to be in the same post as Christian Naujoks and Todd Osborn.
As for the video below, its for Osborne’s song The Count which is on the same EP as Fire, the footage is from The New Dance Show(Detroit’s American Bandstand) that was played on a Southeast Michigan public access channel in the evening on the weekend in the early 90’s if I remember correctly, I remember sitting infront of the tv watching it with my little sister.
Everyone knows the Black Panthers had awesome graphic design skills but who knew they could also paint emergency vehicles with the best of them? National Geographic aired a documentary about the Panthers tonight and in it they showed this brief shot of the most amazing ambulance ever, part of the original Panther’s “People’s Free Ambulance Service“. In reality, this was probably just a standard issue ambulance from the period, it simply had the Panther’s placard in the window. Still awesome. The cross enclosed in the square is classic and orange/black/white color schemes never go out of style.
Can anyone name the font? I’m guessing something like Akzidenz extended? Sound off in the comments if you’ve got it.
These shots by Carlo Van de Roer look like pure and unfiltered tranquility. I’ve never been to Iceland before, but this series captures what I imagine it would be like. It looks freezing and potentially dangerous, but still somehow soothing and comfortable. Probably the most immediately noticeable aspect of these images is the inclusion of the colorful floating orbs. Personally I love them, and I think they are the reason his work has picked up so much recognition. They are a unique touch that brings a little bit of extra magic to his already stunning photography. I’ve read he screen prints the orbs onto the photographs, but I can’t find any information regarding the concept behind the orbs. Perhaps it’s just an aesthetic choice, but I would imagine (and prefer) that there is some deeper conceptual reason for their placement.
My Sony R7 Reverb from eBay came today, dead. I replaced a dead battery tonight but that didn’t clear anything up, still just passing a dry signal and a dead rotary encoder knob. Not sure what the issue is, if anyone knows a good Sony tech let me know, I have the schematics. Also need a good Lexicon tech too.
Tim Heidecker & Eric Wareheim are comic geniuses and their show on Adult Swim is the best thing on Television or the Innernette. It’s basically a free-form public-access-VHS style collection of sketches with what seems to be a loose focus on late-eighties to mid-nineties culture. Beyond the immediate, viscerally comic aspects of their work there’s a deeper commentary going on and for me, that’s what makes the show so enjoyable time and time again.
Unfortunately, no one I know besides Jakub, Dusty, and Sam agree with me and over the past few years I’ve come to realize that Tim & Eric are rather polarizing figures; you either love them or you hate them. I’ve refrained from posting on them in the past just because it’s a little off topic for this blog and I doubt most of you come here looking for hilarious shows to watch. But today I came across Daniel Murphy’s Esquire article about the series of ads Tim & Eric and Zach Galifianakis created for Absolut Vodka and I thought it was an interesting look at how they approached the project from an advertising perspective. The three spots — which I consider to be some of Tim & Eric’s best work — came out last year as part of the Absolut World campaign. The vodka maker basically gave them an open ended commission; they could make whatever they wanted as long as they mentioned the product. I’ve never worked directly in advertising, but I’d have to imagine this would be a dream gig for anyone in the industry.
“It’s the incense, it’s the ferns.”
A Vodka Movie Pt. 1 – Watch
Esquire Article about Pt. 1 – Read
And the other two parts:
A Vodka Movie Pt. 2 – Watch
A Vodka Movie Pt. 3 – Watch
Went to my first Dub Wars a few weeks ago which is a monthly in New York that usually is mostly Dubstep, since then i’ve been hooked on the really low end heavy tracks like Lukid’s Slow Hand Slap, its hard to listen to if you don’t have good speakers because a lot of fun in listening to the songs is the ultra clean warmth the kick has.
Recently we hosted a mix that featured this Viul song Wound Cotton Wound which is out this week and includes a Benoit Pioulard remix. Viul is an ex-band member of Esmae which Benoit was the drummer and Viul played guitar. I love the control on the range in the static sound Viul makes, its more inviting to new listeners and half way thru he lightly eases in acoustic guitar and pulls back on the noise, a perfect song to listen to all the way thru for friends that haven’t heard of Fennesz.
I haven’t heard from Deadbeat in ages but he was one of the first consistent Minimal Dub producers around and released on the great ~scape label out of Germany. Organ In The Attic Sings The Blues cuts out the MCing and generic raggae sound and plays around in the more interesting yet always enjoyable experimentation of new sounds in a genre thats been around for ages.
Norway is pumpin’ out the slow disco producers left n’ right and they all have been pretty impressive especially Blackbelt Andersen who has a new record out that is self titled. Reminds me a little of what I loved about Swayzak’s Snowboarding In Argentina which i’ll post later this week.
On a side note I never get to thank you all enough for checking out the blog and the music daily that we get to share with you. It really means a lot to me when I find out any of you go out and support the musicians hard work by just buying a $.99 song or when you just find a new song here that you want to listen to over and over by just streaming it, all of you are a pretty amazing in my book.
