Archive for September, 2010

The highlight reel from the recent FITC event here in San Francisco is out and it’s excellent as usual. Stock Archive did a great job shooting and pulling all the footage together — they even used a Tycho track for good measure. Also check out the reel from Toronto. If I recall, they were using a 5D MK2 for the Toronto stuff so I’m assuming that’s what most of this was shot with as well. If anyone from SA is reading, how did you get the aerials? Cool stuff.

Video Link

Lately it doesn’t get any better than the feeling I get after hearing Shades by Emeralds, it’s dizzying like my vertigo i’ve been having. Anyone else have vertigo? anyways, listen to how this track grows, its like watching thousands of ferns growing infront of you in time lapse film. iTunes

Vanilla Minus is off Gold Panda’s new LP, its classic Superpitcher in my eyes, beautiful loops and an explosive vibe. iTunes

If you read the blog you know I love what Ducktails is doing, he makes music that I couldn’t even dream up making, he has a new self titled LP out, pick it up if you get a chance. iTunes

Salem is uncanny, mashing together a haunted ghetto rap with stomach churning heroine induced electronics, its an addictive listen. Preorder LP

If you’re looking for a high end compact camera, the newly announced Nikon P7000 may just fit the bill. I’ve found myself leaving the full size SLR behind more and more lately so I’ve been thinking of filling the gap with something a bit more portable without sacrificing much in picture quality.

You can pick one up later this month for around $500. Plenty more info and specs over here.

Source Engadget

Hard Format has some great shots of the die-cut Orchestral Maneuvers In The Dark LP cover. The cover was designed by Ben Kelly and Peter Saville for the Dindisc label. Die-cut is always a good idea and I love the vibrations between these blue and orange shades, something about it absolutely works.

More info here, lots of other great sleeves at Hard Format.

These book covers are part of the Infamous Press book cover concept collection. Designed by Morton Iveland.

via Minimalissimo.

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Just hearing the name Volkswagen makes me think deep history. Especially now after stumbling upon a Volkswagen archive that has scans from Everett Barnes’ collection. It’s well worth checking out if you have the time. The collection starts from the early 1930s’ and goes all the way until 2005. It has nearly more images and spreads of brochures and random Volkswagen nostalgia than you can shake a stick at.

View the full archive

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I was just digging in deeper into the Wierd Records[its not spelled Weird, I triple checked] catalog and this song by Frank grabbed me over and over, the guitar line reminds me of some huge 80s hit, is it Dire Straits? no, I don’t know what it is but its buggin’ me, either way its pretty poppy for a cold wave label and thats what makes me keep going back to them.

I wanted to include Alice Cohen in my playlist I did for Olde English Spelling Bee but somehow she slipped thru the cracks, what a great spacey track, the magic here is that she made it so short, it makes you want to play it over and over, smart and talented this Alice girl is.

I’m not going to pretend I know world music, its something I wanted to get into but its a slippery slope, I could end up listening to alot of stuff I don’t want to hear for hours and be disappointed and hate that I spent the time but this song by Diakari Dia Diakite dit Dia almost puts me in a daze. The rhythm keeps me wanting more while his intensity keeps me interested on what the song is about and i’m going to quote Anchorman to end this post: Ron Burgundy: “I’m sorry, I was trying to impress you. I don’t know what it means. I’ll be honest, I don’t think anyone knows what it means anymore. Scholars maintain that the translation was lost hundreds of years ago.”

So maybe some of you want to know what the label 4AD is up to, well the last mailer I got this song by Broken Records, i’m on the fence about it, is it too alternative radio rock for the label? part of it grabs me but a good portion of the song pushes me away and worries about 4AD’s future BUT I trust them so I keep checking back.

I’ve really never been one to hop on an exercise bike, but this new concept called the Ciclotte, makes me want to. Although I’d much rather prefer actually riding a bike instead, but this could be fun and great to use on those mornings where work needs to get done.

The design is quite nice and utilizes carbon fiber. I’m not sure that is completly necessary but it does make it look a lot nicer. If I were to suggest an idea for this company, I’d say that they should create a unicycle out of it by removing the two floor stands.

In 2005, I started putting together a compilation of my friends music, my roommate at the time was Danny [The Reflecting Skin aka PhilistineDSGN] who did the cover art and also did a song with me under the name The Hexx which is still to this day the only song i’ve ever put out officially. I met a few others via the internet like Mux Mool, Wisp, Dafluke, and Ghosthunt on myspace or WATMM (an Aphex Twin/BoC forum) and the rest are mostly guys from Ann Arbor, MI my hometown. The compilation came out for under $10 and had 20 songs on it and still to this day its that much, sometimes we drop it down to $5. I remember when it went up on digital retailers, since iTunes doesn’t tell you what will be featured its always a surprise on Tuesday mornings for record labels, its nice that you can’t buy your way into a banner on the iTunes page. When I saw it up it was back when iTunes had 3 big banners up horizontally at the top and The Rorschach Suite at the time was just all fresh faces 95% all new names and we were sitting inbetween Junior Boys and Imogean Heap, it felt like a David and Goliath story. I hope you enjoyed this preview I grabbed a few tracks of some fan favorites.

Kim Høltermand emailed to let us know about his incredible new series Tuve. I would love to find this place and see if it’s as eerie in real life as it is depicted here. Out of context some of the rocks look like abstract 3D renderings floating in space. It’s hard to imagine water that still. Breathtaking and haunting as usual from Mr.Høltermand.