Archive for May, 2008

Chicago’s Kranky Records is home to the music that soundtracks my day like Loscil, Stars of the Lid, Tim Hecker, and The Dead Texan which i will share in future music posts. In recent years they have gained probably most their popularity from young guys like Deerhunter and Atlas Sound but the one musician songwriting wise that sticks out is Portand’s Benoît Pioulard. The artwork and photography is done by Will Calcutt who is a great photographer out of Los Angeles and probably couldn’t of pushed this artwork in my opinion closer to perfection for this album. Hopefully this hits the spot to carry you into the weekend.

Benoît Pioulard – Ash In The Sky

Event poster for 50 Exhibition via Blanka Supersize.

I remember this 12″ cover art looking right at me when i walked into Etherea Record Shop in East Village, it was pretty much everything i wanted in a font and texture a few years back. This track reminds me of Erlend Oye right away, it feels like something he would sing over but his voice never drops in. If you get a chance check out this record label Eskimo Recordings, they have great art direction and some of the best slow motion disco out there.

Lindstrom & Prins Thomas – Suppegjok

Just a quick note to thank everyone for checking out the new single; Adrift is already at #17 on the iTunes charts.

Also a note on the iTunes exclusivity issue. Ghostly International, the label who releases my music, often grants iTunes exclusive rights to a single for a specified period of time. In this case, a month. But after that month, or possibly sooner, it will be available at all other online retailers as well as right here from The ISO50 Shop. I am sorry if this is an inconvenience to anyone, I will be sure to post as soon as the song is available via alternative channels.

Also, as Jakub pointed out in the comments, this is also available as iTunes Plus, meaning it is DRM free and encoded at 256Kbps, just the same as all the other retailers.

Purchase Adrift / From Home on iTunes (US)
For Purchase outside the US search "Tycho Adrift" on iTunes

Cover and pages from the 1974 Citroen Brochure. The cover is absolutely amazing.

These are just some of the major league(NHL, NBA, MLB) sport logos that i’ve enjoyed over the years. Most of them i like for different reasons some simply just the color scheme, clever layout, or unique shape. Some of these I thought could’ve be done a tad bit better like the Minnesota Wild logo one where the trees really struggle but the forest elements are all there in pretty creative way like the path for a mouth is pretty genius i thought. I also was missing good versions of the Philadelphia Phillies logo that was bold light blue and maroon or the old Houston Astros uniforms that a lot of people rip on but they’re abit of a guilty pleasure for me.

Logo identity from left to right and top to bottom: Edmonton Oilers, Colorado Rockies(the hockey one), Atlanta Hawks, Philadelphia Flyers, Hartford Whalers, Milwaukee Brewers, Denver Nuggets, Minnesota Wild, Quebec Nordiques, Seattle Supersonics

So if the last music post left you wondering what ever happened to Digable Planets here’s at least a small part of the explanation. My favorite member of Digable was definitely Butterfly, so when I heard he had a solo project called Cherrywine I was pretty excited. The resulting album is sort of middle of the road for me, but this single is definitely strong and while the subject matter is a far cry from the revolution fomenting intellectualism of Blowout Comb it’s still an enjoyable listen.

Back in 2003 when this album came out I was able to catch Cherrywine when they came through Sacramento. It was noticeably underattended, particularly considering the fact that the group was headed up by none other than Ishmael Butler. While it was sort of disappointing to see such a poor turnout, it ended up working in our favor as we got to meet Butterfly and talk with him after the show.

Cherrywine – That’s What I’m Talking About

[audio:cherry.mp3]

I’m probably posting this against better judgement, but here’s the raw footage from the FITC "Conversations" segment Si Scott and myself did in Toronto this year. I was under the impression this would be edited, but it just plays straight through, sort of funny. There are a lot of other conversations in the series, they can be found here. Some of them get pretty interesting, everything from pron to drugs…

Our conversation clocks in at 51:55 and sort of rambles all over the place, but Si Scott is an incredible artist so it’s interesting to hear his take on things. You can find Si’s portfolio here.

The new Tycho single "Adrift / From Home" is now available for purchase. Purchase Adrift / From Home

Tycho – Adrift (clip)

[audio:adrift_clip.mp3]

Tycho – From Home (clip)

[audio:home_clip.mp3]

If you cared at all about hip hop during the early 90’s, chances are you’re a big fan of the two albums Digable Planets released during theie brief but brilliant career (Apparently they are touring again, but I’ve yet to hear of a new album). This was way back when, just as rap was turning into the complete mess we hear today and before "what what what what what what what what" was an acceptable refrain for a song. I know, I know, it’s not like everything back in the day was great, and it’s not like everything now is trash; it just seemed like it was easier to come by a well thought out, intelligent hip hop album back then.

When Digable Planets released Blowout Comb I was a Junior in High School and I had spent the previous summer installing a ridiculous sound system in my car. I think I played this album about 500 times in a row the first week I had it; I distinctly remember blasting this particular song (9th Wonder) on repeat on the way to taking my S.A.T.’s that year. Strange how you can forget whole chapters of your life but somehow you remember something seemingly as trivial as the song you listened to on the way to a test. I guess that’s the power of good music. It seems today I consume most of my music through headphones on planes or coming out of computer speakers, neither of which do this song justice, this one has to be played through the 12’s in your trunk to get the point…the bass is massive.

As for the cover art, this was the sort of thing I coveted when I was younger. I wasn’t exposed to anything even approaching good design where I grew up so album covers were one of my only windows into the world of somewhat decent graphic design. I remember being blown away by the design and packaging of this CD when it came out. Now looking back, I see it wasn’t exactly perfect, but still well executed considering. The version on the bottom is the cover for the single, which I think I had in cassette form before I got the album on CD.

Digable Planets – 9th Wonder (Blackitolism)

[audio:9thwonder.mp3]