Beamer turned me on to the new Akai APC40 last weekend. It was just announced at NAMM and looks to be a great alternative to the Monome for Ableton Live. Seems like a safe bet as a VJ app controller as well. More Info
A couple more brilliant works from one of my favorite designers, Jacqueline Casey. Images via Eye Magazine’s Flickr
Since we’re coming down to the final days for the ISO50 snowboard giveaway we thought it might be nice to do giveaways periodically. This one is simple, the first person to comment with all the correct artist names and song titles for all 4 songs below receives 2 free Tycho song of their choice. As for the image above, it has no relation to the post, just a photograph/invitation by Icecrasher on deviantART.
Please note iPhone app geeks: You can’t use Shazam!
[audio:dark1.mp3] [audio:ceros1.mp3] [audio:out1.mp3] [audio:girl1.mp3]
Adolphe Jean Édouard-Marie Mouron is one of my favorite commercial poster artists. Unfortunately, he went from running a successful advertising agency (Alliance Graphique who’s work includes the Yves St. Laurent logo), to losing it all and serving in the French army in World War II, to doing set design to get by, and finally suffering from depression and committing suicide in 1968. It’s very sad to think this was the fate of a man who contributed so much to design. You can find more information on Cassandre here and here.
Perhaps his most recognizable work, the Dubonet Wine poster is all but ubiquitous in vintage poster collections these days. This style of poster art is sort of a bittersweet thing for me. I really do love it, but once you start seeing something sold at Target it’s hard to take it seriously as art. I have a few old advertisement posters from this period around the house (all reproductions), but I really want to start focusing on later modernist stuff.
Images via Alki1
Digging thru promos can really mess with your head because you just want to find those collection of songs right away that you’ll listen to forever. So what do you do when you don’t find anything? you go back to old favorites or good suggestions from friends and this song by The Wake was the latest recommendation from 800beloved’s frontman Sean Lynch. You can just tell 30 seconds into the song “Man, these guys were probably great but they were definitely overshadowed by The Cure”. Where do you think John Hughes was when this song came out? this is perfect for one of his teen heartbreak films.
IDM I always felt was just a few steps away from being for really big but the majority of the fan base didn’t like to share or support, its like they wanted to keep their precious music to themselves and make it more obscure and not go to the shows to keep the musicians going. Mr. Projectile might of had a gem on his hands when he put out his album Sinking which featured a vocal by a girl named Amy Turany who I thought might of done more work but it seems like this is the last thing she ever sang on.
Montreal has always had a forward thinking music scene, I remember going to the Mutek Festival years ago and seeing electronic vinyl shops thrive, that definitely put a smile on my face. One man Marc Leclair also known as Akufen put an outstanding record together called Musique Pour 3 Femmes Enceintes which I highly recommend.
For how cold it is in Montreal, I always pictured Marc making this song 236e Jour by a window and he just felt the first perfect weather day of the year where the breeze is heavy and every window needs to be opened.
Grizzly Bear and Dntel on the same track, oh its a music bloggers dream to share with friends that come and visit. I really like the catchiness of this song after the breakdown, Dntel did such good work with the builds and sequencing of the 6+ min track. I couldn’t think of better voices to accompany his music than Grizzly Bear, yes even better than Mr. Gibbard in my opinion.
[audio:wake.mp3] [audio:mr.mp3] [audio:jour.mp3] [audio:fault.mp3]
Whatever your politics, we’ve got a big week going on here in the States. Thought I’d post these shots of Mr. Brain Wash’s MLK poster series. Bonus: A couple nice MBW takes on Robert Indiana’s iconic LOVE series stamps.
If you’ve got the day off, enjoy it! If you’re in San Francisco, go outside! It’s way too hot here to be January. Images via Tourist of Life
Apparently the Manifest Hope DC show was a big success with a great turnout. Theodor3 posted the pic above on flickr and Piecemaker has some up as well. Unfortunately, I don’t have any personal shots of the print as I didn’t get a chance to grab any before the framed version went out. The print sold so maybe the purchaser or someone else with shots from the show could send a full size head on of it. Notcot also has a lot of great shots from the show here and here. Thanks to everyone who came out and supported, wish I could have been there to see it for myself!
Jan Jelinek does many different styles of minimal electronic music, some under this moniker and also Farben. In 2001 “Loop-Finding-Jazz-Records” came out on Germany’s ~scape label which has artists like Portable, Pole, Deadbeat, etc. The record has so much detail yet sounds like its really small as if you could put it in the palm of your hand, It’s like peeking in and looking at all the gears that run an old expensive pocket watch. You can hear all these thousands of little pieces working away by turning and hissing. If you like “Do Dekor” then the whole album is worth picking up.
Christ. is unbelievable, this song is pretty much a well timed synth solo that is full of character, the synth has this muted oboe sound to it but maybe the reed is cracked, I know that might sound crappy but there’s plenty of charm all the way thru.
Vancouver’s Circlesquare has his own sound because of slow tempo that he makes all his music in and his singing style. This ends up being a great chance for him to get his name dropped when explaining music since I use it all the time when trying to explain a sound that is a little more then just dark, slow and lush. The breakdown at 2:42 and on is remarkable in my opinion, I know its super simple but perfectly written to bring back a song that might of not grabbed you right from the beginning.
*really quick side note: I wish you could all hear how loud the tuba music is downstairs from me while I try to write about Jelinek, Christ., and Circlesquare, its something to experience, I know I play music loud but the guy below me LOOOOVES tubas on a level that I can’t touch as a fellow music lover. Okay, back to this post…
It’s hard to know who’s going to be the next Broken Social Scene, Fleet Foxes, or any big indie folk act since there everywhere. My face sometimes feels so naked during a show since i’m the only one without a beard but i’m there for the music and also lets be honest the kind ladies that make it out to these shows. One band I want to see is Elm From Arm they just sound fun and have that Broken Social Scene build to their songs but with half the band members.
Circlesquare – Fight Sounds Pt.1 from Bienvenido Cruz on Vimeo.