…the science fiction realities of the earth’s ends
Indeed. Swiss photographer Dan Holdsworth makes the somewhat normal look absolutely surreal. I chose to focus on the icy project above because it vaguely reminded me of a Minus the Bear album cover I love. Be sure to check out the rest of Dan’s portfolio as there are many other projects of equal quality but drastically different subject matter.
I guess today’s post is all about just synth soundscapes which features some new faces that I saw live recently and a legend that I missed, I could have kept going but these 4 felt right.
I heard Gary Numan played in New York last month and it didn’t sell out *sigh*
I’m really looking forward to this Stellar Om Source LP thats coming out next week, she definitely adds a finesse touch to the synth scene that seems to be growing day after day.
Innergaze has this vibe thats unexplainable, I’ve been picturing a pastel colored set on a public access channel and its 1983 or 1991 either or and on that set its just girls with big hair in teal exercise outfits acting unhappy playing with gems, don’t take that idea i’m going to use it for a video.
Forma didn’t have any merch at their show so I had to dig up a WAV off their soundcloud, really nice lushy repetition.
Project 33 has added some very inspirational pieces since we last checked in. Every time I see this kind of thing I want to sit down and design.
Source Project 33
I’ve had this synth line from Future Islands in my head since I woke up, does it remind you of Arcade Fire at all, the overall sound of this song?
What does disco/synth pop do in the winter? well it doesn’t hibernate, I think this style of those genres is perfect all year around, hope to hear more from Selebrities.
Deastro is a pure ball of energy that might be untouchable at times, this song should be towering over pop for all the kids in the new youthful generations, way more interesting than Owl City, Harry Potter soundtracks, WIll Smith’s daughters new single or whatever kids listen to these days.
Nothing will ever beat Pogo’s track Alice in my mind, here is his new efforts, too much nostalgia going on here, makes me feel all mushy inside.
Experimental Jetset are without a doubt one of the most talented and consistent design studios working today. Every time I visit their site I am awestruck by some project or another that I missed the last time around. 104 / Le Cent Quatre is one such project. As with much of their work, there’s something so familiar about the typography and layout yet it remains fresh and engaging. These guys are the masters of subtle perfection.
Be sure to check out our interview with them from earlier this year.
Since i’ve known Zach Saginaw aka Shigeto and saw him play live I had a feeling early on he was one of those guys that was going to give beat producers a run for their money, the man is a performer and can drum with more dynamics than any other producer I know. You can listen to songs like Look At All The Smiling Faces and get the understanding that this isn’t someone thats looking to just produce beats for fun, the man wants to do this as a living because he cares about the sound and was born to take this sound to the next level and not only on a album but more importantly on stage.
If you’re a vinyl head then this is your piece, the vinyl comes with a art sleeve by Mike Cina and the CD slid in there too, you can pick it up at The Ghostly Store.
Below is a quick run thru of the whole LP, just a few seconds of each song that was done by Alex Koplin aka H34dUp and who comments on the blog regularly.
I spent a good chunk of my youth destroying my knees in the name of skateboarding; first during the 80’s as a kid and later in college. The contrast between these two distinct stylistic periods was stark to say the least. Decks went from the curvy whale-tail style with garish neon graphics to the simplified, unidirectional kind you see more often today. The graphics changed a lot with the shape, but each era had a huge influence on my visual tastes. The stickers, the shirts, the decks; I was obsessed with the imagery. I guess it was one of the few instances where a suburban kid could be exposed to non-traditional art and design created by outsiders.
While digging around for some interesting graphics I came across this article at Unodos covering a few books that feature some classic skateboarding designs. There are some old favorites in there (the Powell branding is still about as good as it gets), but I missed Hook-Ups (which you’ll catch a brief glimpse of on the Skateboard Stickers cover) and Alien Workshop (two of my 90’s era favorites). Most of the images are from The Disposable Skateboard Bible which definitely looks worth picking up. The publishers have an online gallery featuring decks from various designers and artists featured in the book.
I also came across this Buddy Carr Pintail designed by Antonio Carusone (thanks for the heads up Derek. A great example of a contemporary design.
If you haven’t seen The Social Network yet, I highly recommend it. Initially I was skeptical—I mean how good could a movie about Facebook possibly be? The answer is, truly inspiring. There is something about seeing success happen that triggers the “let’s make things happen” part of my brain.
Not only is the movie worth the watch, the soundtrack by Trent Reznor and Atticus Ross is also worth the download. Luckily for us the sampler is available for free and the full 19-track album is only five bucks.
An oldie but a goodie, Madlib manhandles music from India into the heavy beat that I love in hip hop these days.
I had a good weekend night at Bunker in Brooklyn this past Friday, some great Detroit DJs showed up and that opened a tiny door back up in my heart for few techno classics to jump back into my life.
Some smooth workings by Diskjokke, let this ride out, it unfolds nicely.
Took a hour long car ride with Benoit Pioulard listening to this Grouper LP Cover the Windows and the Walls, this song couldn’t be written any better.
You may remember Teenage Engineering as the Swedish ID firm that’s developing the gorgeous OP-1 sythesizer. But while digging through their blog I came across another incredible design, something called the Syricon.
I can only guess what this beast is for; TE are tight-lipped about it except for what little info they divulge in this interview with Shift:
It’s a defense training machine! It’s a quite massive machine, built in water-jet cut aluminum sides, stainless steel top-plates, custom cnc’d plastics & alu details. We wanted it to look very custom and were inspired by pro line-array speaker systems + instrumentation seen in the air/space-biz.
We did everything from design, actual construction & building it, development of vector/3d graphics libraries, game development, circuit-boards etc. Crazy project, it was built in 1 month.
Not sure whether to take “defense training machine” as a joke or not. Either way I want one modified to function as a DAW controller.
Oh and then there’s this. These guys are killing it.
