Absolutely killer illustrations by Matthew Lyons. My first assumption was that these pieces were very old, and the work of a grizzled old artist, who had developed exceptional skill and craft over years and years of animation grunt work. I was incorrect. Matthew is actually a 21 year old student at his final year at the Loughborough University in England. He’s clearly a natural. Not only is his eye for color and composition spot on, he also clearly has a vast imagination. I want to get in my spaceship and explore each of the scenes he has presented.
One of the best live shows i’ve seen this year will be out in Europe this November. Benoit Pioulard who is a pretty popular musician that I post about on this blog will be hitting the road and playing one of the more beautiful experimental live sets you’ll ever here. If you live in France then it looks like you have like 5 chances to catch him, nice.
EU Dates
Oct 31 Museum d’Histoire Naturelle . Nantes, FR
Nov 3 Planet Claire (Radio Session) . Paris, FR
Nov 4 The Lexington . London, UK
Nov 6 Compilotheque . Brussels, BE
Nov 8 Cave 12 . Geneva, CH
Nov 9 Hans Wurst . Berlin, DE
Nov 12 Comptoir Général . Paris, FR
Nov 13 Les Musicophages . Toulouse, FR
Nov 14 Musée Fenaille . Rodez, FR
US Date
Dec 10 The Artistery . Portland, Oregon, US
Continuing our Dubstep Essential Series which has been exclusively for the blog we have part 2 from Guardian coming in at just over 54 minutes and about 37 tracks which keeps the flow of the mix really fresh.
I love the tempo of Dubstep even if I play it for a friend that doesn’t like electronic at all they always react in a positive/surprised way towards the tracks as something completely new, I mean who doesn’t like good heavy low end and dark spacey sounds that you’ve never heard before every once in a while.
Tomorrow a few friends and I are going for the first time to see BBC Radio 1’s Mary Ann Hobbs DJ some Dubstep at Dub Wars which should be killer. A little about Guardian, he is one of the best Dubstep producers I know, he’s from Detroit but lives now in Brooklyn, he is one of the best Dubstep DJ’s i’ve heard out too because of his range and he peaks out into rowdy tracks at perfect times but doesn’t rely on it and its more about track selection for him, hope to see him play around the US/UK this year.
TRACKLIST A Setting Sun – En el Mes de Agosto (Moodgadget) The Others – Hear Dis Style (Boka) James Blake – Air & Lack Thereof (Hemlock) Ramadanman – Blimey (Hessle Audio) Ike Release – Jenova (Infrasonics) Spatial – 90121 (Infrasonics) Millie & Andrea – Black Hammer (Daphne) Cyrus – Bounty (Tectonic) Loefah – It’s Yours (White Label) Pinch – Gangstaz (Tectonic) Headhunter – Prototypes (Tempa) Skream – Chest Boxing (Tempa) The Bug – Jah War (Loefah Remix) (Ninja Tune) The Bug – Jah War (Ninja Tune) Pressure – Money Honey (Hyperdub) MRK1 – Revolution 909 (Earwax) Guardian – Charm Dub (unreleased) Joker – Untitled_rsn (Tectonic) Martyn – Vancouver (2562 Puur Natuur Dub) (3024) TRG – Harajuku (Tempa) Ramadanman – Humber (Apple Pips) Spatial – 81012 (Infrasonics) Sully – Duke St Dub (Mata-Syn) Ramadanman – Carla (Soul Jazz) Martyn – Everything About You (Tempa) Pinch – Motion Sickness (Tempa) Martyn – Velvet (~scape) Untold – I Can’t Stop This Feeling (Hessle Audio) Ramadanman – Revenue (2nd Drop) Ramadanman – Revenue (Untold Remix) (2nd Drop) 2562 – Love In Outer Space (Tectonic) MRK1 – Borderline (Contagious) DJ Mujava – Township Funk (Skream Remix) (White Label) Pinch – Punisher (Skream Remix) (Planet Mu) Pinch – Punisher (Planet Mu) Pinch – Punisher (V.I.P.) (Planet Mu) Shigeto – Beat It Up (forthcoming Moodgadget)
We all have our dance mixes from friends stacked to our ceilings so instead of posting a mix of music to listen to while your getting ready to go out tonight I have dug up this mix by a good friend named Rob Theakston that made a mix for people to listen to for the morning after the rowdiness or New Year’s day. The beginning of Lee Ritenour’s “Is It You” is pure gold, definitely worth letting that song ride out. I’m sure i’ll be playing this tomorrow morning after tonight’s Warp 20 year party that i’m heading to now.
“Made this mix the other night, just a bunch of yachtness to help you get back into the swing of life…” – Rob Theakston
TRACKLIST Bobby Caldwell – Down For The Third Time (Clouds, 1978) Steely Dan – Black Cow (MCA, 1977) The Crusaders– Marcella’s Dream (MCA, 1980) Lee Ritenour– Is It You (Discovery, 1981) Larsen Feiten Band– Over (Warner Bros, 1980) Greg Phillinganes– Lazy Nina (Planet, 1985) David Sanborn – Let’s Just Say Goodbye (Warner Bros, 1980) Rickie Lee Jones – Night Train (Warner Bros, 1979)
As much as I love my Google Reader, I still prefer to get my design fix in printed form. In addition to providing the necessary dose of inspiration, magazines usually include insightful commentary and design criticism. I love this sort of writing on design and it seems like the best place to find it is still in the “unplugged” land of printed media. Additionally, with each one you get an actual piece of design to hold in your hand. It’s easy to forget how cool this is if you’re used to bouncing from blog to blog. After the jump, I’ve put together an overview of a the major players in the design magazine realm. Check out the list!
I couldn’t wait for the morning so here it is new Kings Of Convenience, if you haven’t noticed i’m kind of a big fan of Erlend Oye. You know there isn’t ever a disappointing note in a KoC song if you find the right moment to take it in.
Not only is there new Kings of Convenience but there is a new Atlas Sound coming out on 4AD featuring Noah(Panda Bear) from Animal Collective. The melody from the flute in the background is completely flooring, I want it to go on forever, this just song just made my year.
Planet Mu has been signing some consistent and interesting artists as of late, this new cut from FaltyDL has a unique way of doing an almost stripped down Garage track, heading over to check the record on iTunes to see how the rest of the LP sounds.
Gui Boratto might have the ugliest cover of 2009 but that didn’t stop me from checking out his album. When the vocal comes in i’m not too fond of the song but until then it reminds me of the good old days of Kompakt where you’d go to your local vinyl shop and check what this weeks Kompakt 12″ sounded like.
Alright, off to bed to watch Deadwood, I wish I could watch more than 73 mins on Megavideo before it says I have to wait an hour to use Megavideo again, ugh.
With GM in the news, I was thinking about Detroit tonight. Detroit was the city I grew up closest to. My father grew up here and his dad worked on the Mercury Zephyr line.
Growing up near the city, the musical influence was huge. On any given weekend in the mid-to-late nineties, late night radio would mix up everything from the classic Art Of Noise song “Moments In Love” to local ghetto tech beats and new drum and bass coming out of the UK.
Much has been made about the city and why it’s music sounds the way it does. The desolate beauty, the mechanized auto factories and even the isolated water-ensconced nature of the state. All if it is true.
Here are four tracks that give me that Detroit feeling. These not the more discussed and celebrated classics, but more personal favorites.
Psyche – From Beyond (Transmat)
[audio:frombeyond.mp3]
Carl Craig is a real legend and continues to impress. This song, under the Psyche alias is perhaps one of my favorite tracks ever. It has a crazy spell to it. It’s not quite techno and it pre-dates the breaks and jungle genres. It’s on it’s own planet. Pure late night driving music to roam the vacant freeways.
Cybotron – Cosmic Raindance (Fantasy)
[audio:cosmicraindance.mp3]
Note: Please play on a proper stereo or headphones as the bassline is what holds this all together. Juan Atkins (“The Originator”) is arguably the greatest groove maker of the Detroit techno school. Cybotron, his group with Richard Davis and John Housely is responsible for some of the most seminal cuts that have been sampled and re-interpreted endlessly. I remember driving down to the store Record Time in our friend’s Ford Fiesta, listening to this on repeat and his subs would rattle the entire frame. Simply majestic.
Drexciya – Digital Tsunami (Tresor)
[audio:digitaltsunami.mp3]
Drexciya is the most mythical duo of the Detroit techno school. The duo of the late James Stinson and Gerald Donald (also of Dopplereffekt, more on that later) made aggressive yet liquid odes to the ocean and it’s provence. This was a later cut, but got me into their brand of mutated electro. Their original pressings fetch a pretty penny on eBay and with good reason.
Suburban Knight – Collaboration Alpha (Peacefrog)
[audio:collaborationalpha.mp3]
As part of the vaunted Underground Resistance Crew, Suburban Knight racked up a Detroit classic with “The Art Of Stalking” and also co-wrote tracks with Kevin Saunderson for his seminal and wildly successful Inner City project. This is a more recent track, and not a “classic” by any means, but I chose it because it’s important to recognize that Detroit techno is not a vintage style, it’s a methodology and an ethos that will continue to exist.
So, you started Dwell Magazine in Oct. 2000 but your first full length as Hatchback was put out in Sept. 2008, I have a feeling you’ve had this album in you for awhile now but i’m sure Dwell takes up most of your day?
Right. Being the editor-in-chief of any magazine is time consuming, but with Dwell, I’m also working on our website, our conference, various brand extensions, and so on, so that keeps me fairly busy. Hatchback and Windsurf are what I like to do in my down time—mostly weekends, late nights. Sometimes I wish I could have a little more flexibility, for instance, I could wake up and say, ok, this morning I want to play Rhodes for an hour and then record a drum track, and then I’ll go to work. That would be ideal.
Can you list off 3 of your favorite pieces of furniture and 3 favorite instruments and one of each that you personally own? This list is pretty arbitrary, it would probably change tomorrow, but here:
Furniture:
Ultima Thule by Tapio Wirkkala, a 30 meter long sculpture of laminated plywood carved to look like a wind-blown glacial ice field made for the Finnish Pavilion of Expo 67.
The Sausage Chair by Nana Ditzel, mmm… sausage.
High Back Alcove Sofa by Erwan and Ronan Bouroullec, this piece has an Empire Strikes Back quality which I admire.
Instruments:
Roland Jupiter 8, they don’t make synths this sexy anymore.
Synthi AKS, I got to play with one of these once, I had no idea what I was doing, but it sure was fun.
Fender Rhodes, the creamy keys. Every song I really dig tends to have some Rhodes on it.
My favorite furniture I own is probably my Bertoia Bird Chair and my favorite instrument is the Korg MS-20
Does Dwell ever feature or use music on any level? Not really. Every now and then we’ll feature a home where the resident is a musician. I was able to include a rhythm ace drum machine in a caption once.
Who did the Hatchback album cover? Do you feel like the cover best describes your sound and does it seep into a design style that you like as well?
The design firm Non-Format did the cover for my album, and most of the Lo Catalog. They’re really talented graphic designers and certainly great typographers. I had envisioned something a little more handmade originally, and perhaps inspired by folk art from India or Mexico or pornographic sci-fi like Boris Vallejo, but ultimately I really dig what they did.
I think your sound is the future of slower tempo music with depth that can be listened to by a broad crowd, could you share who got you into this type of music? And maybe suggest a few records to ease someone new to your sound into it. I’m not really sure what style my music is honestly. Maybe I’m not a good marketer, but I tend not to think in genres or that I should make a slower trac or faster trackk. That said, I tend to listen to older albums and soundtracks—I’m usually the last to know about really good new music.
I think Vangelis’ Bladerunner soundtrack continues to have a huge influence one me. The synthesizers on that are so on point, and the songs have a really emotive quality. Its pretty much as genius as it comes. You should also check out the Bilitis soundtrack by Francis Lai and La Planete Sauvage by Alain Goraguer.
Can you go thru for us a busy day that would have you working on both Hatchback and Dwell? Dwell: 9 am – 7:30 pm Hatchback: 10pm-4am
If I had a best songs of 21st century list going i’d seriously include “Everything Is New”, do you ever share any of the music at the Dwell offices? Wow. Thanks! Yeah, the designers have all my older jams and keep threatening to release a bootleg one of these days.
What plans do you have for Dwell in 2009? Any style architecture that we should be looking into? We try not to espouse style per se. We’re more interested in the timeless quality of modern design and the relationship between a building and its context—how does a place influence the architecture and how does architecture influence a place. Right now, green design is coming of age and really becoming mainstream—but the best green ideas are often timeless notions of building that have either been maligned or ignored by trends of the last 100 years, things like solar orientation and natural ventilation. These are things we need to re-learn fast, and couple with emerging technologies. Buildings, not cars or anything else, are the biggest contributor to green house gases and consume roughly 70% of the energy in this country, so its going to be critical that architecture addresses the environment above all else.
As you’re going into your 9th year with Dwell, what directions have you taken the company that you never thought you’d be doing but your glad you did? Well, when I started as the editorial assistant (a job I found on craigslist in 2000) I never dreamed that 7 years later I’d be the editor-in-chief. I’m really proud of the magazine we make and just want to keep the quality level high and the content interesting while having it be an entertaining read.
Is Hatchback available for a Tycho remix? I’m sure we’d all love to hear that. I’m up for it. I just might have to take the day off.
