Archive for June, 2011

Its usually hard for me to trust the youth, sometimes I fear their going to take my medicine away that i’ll need when i’m 80 and laugh while they pour Mountain Dew all over it and then i’m stuck with Mountain Dew medicine, no one wants Mountain Dew medicine except for them, they love the idea of Mountain Dew flavored medicine….but Zack I trust Zack even though i’ve never met him, I think he’s 17 and lives in Denmark and listen to this track above he’s making stuff that is just as good as Mount Kimbie I think. If you like it check out the Shigeto, Beautiful Bells, and Danaet remixes or just grab this song for FREE.

I was just on iChat with Machinedrum, he moved to Berlin a handful of hours ago so anyone in Berlin please make this talented man feel at home. He can whip up a track better and faster than Emeril making a spicy omelette(don’t google omelette, they don’t look appetizing in photos). He just signed to Planet-Mu and has an LP on the way but before you wait for that release check out this EP with this song Listen 2 Me i’ve actually stopped typing a few times while listening to it so I could dance in my seat, its sort of an African influenced dance if you needed to know with a lot of bouncing, try it.

Alright time to slow the roll with Hotflush label owner Scuba, this track brings me back to Skam days, makes me think about Bola….*drools* too good. If I knew how to make that pulse-y deep airy sound I wouldn’t do anything else kind of like when you watch the summer olympics and they do the floor routine and you imagine yourself only doing backflips all the time like out the door and to the store because you can and you want to do it forever.

Samiyam is beastly here, just rough and raw, listen to that cymbal, its taking a beating, this needs to be played by a live band.

Erik Nitsche is a favorite at ISO50 (see posts here, here, and here), and I was disappointed when the Flickr stream compiling his work went down (mainly because I missed the chance to check it out). Luckily, Matthew Lyons and Galerie 123 (where you can purchase some of his original prints) are here to lend a helping hand.

Galerie 123 via Matthew Lyons

This week I had Loscil and Lusine interview each other and I should have it up in a couple days but until then I HIGHLY recommend you pick up Loscil’s new album Coast/ Range/ Arc, it came out today, download it here.

I finished a free EP under Heathered Pearls last night, download it if you want, all the donations keep my Netflix account paid for so I can watch American Dad with one eye open in my bed from my phone. #truth.

I need more oOoOO in my life, this EP is not enough.

Has anyone seen OOIOO live? can you share how amazing it must be? **sits down and puts fists on cheeks and waits for a story**

So I’ve been in Graz, Austria for the past few days getting ready for my ISO50 Springsessions talk today (which is in this amazing building btw) and the Tycho Springfestival set tonight. Although I’ve been very busy working on some finishing touches to the upcoming Tycho album, thanks to my recently-made-portable workstation, I was able to make it out for a couple hours to take some photos.

Most of these were taken on Annenstraße and Keplerstraße as I made my way to and from the Schloßerg, an incredible former medieval fortress perched atop a huge dolomite outcropping right in the center of the city. I took a lot of shots around there too but I’ll spare you the overtly touristic stuff and stick to the more design-y offerings.

I’m not sure how best to describe this city to someone who’s never been here. If I had to compare it to other great cities in Europe I would say it’s a nice mixture of the high points of Amsterdam, Lisbon, and Prague (although I guess that’s so broad it could be applied to a lot of places). While it has that “400-year-old-buildings” vibe of Amsterdam, it doesn’t feel anywhere near as commercialized or overrun by tourism. It’s so much warmer than I expected; I’ve got an entire bag full of jackets and scarves that I haven’t even opened. It’s downright muggy here. I checked the weather before I came out here but I guess this is what I get coming from San Francisco (where I was in full winter clothing the day before I left, this spring has been a joke) and not knowing how to convert Celsius to Fahrenheit off the top of my head. The crazy part is that I was walking around the Schloßerg thinking to myself how I wish I’d brought shorts and then I see a postcard depicting the exact spot I’m standing in covered in snow. It looked even more beautiful in winter.

This city has so much visual beauty, I really wish I had the time to dig in further. Hopefully I can make it back someday soon.

Oneohtrix Point Never’s other project Games has changed their name to Ford & Lopatin which I can appreciate more just for google search purposes since I hate not being able to find music by musicians I like. As for sounds in Channel Pressure i’m floored, you get these glimpses of Dire Straits guitars marrying these pitch bent red headed step child synths that no one would have touched 10 years ago, love it.

I love summer because all of this field recording based material starts to thaw out and has room to breathe like this newer artist Blithe Field, makes you want to go back to some older Bibio.

I dug really deep for this older Reuber track, he’s all over the place when it comes to style/genre but this one always stayed with me.

I thought CVLTS was some rock band that my ears probably couldn’t handle but after hearing this track I was put in my place instead i’m treated with kindness from distant dreamy reverb.

I typically start my designs in black & white, but eventually I reach a point where I feel like the work is missing something, and at this time I begin to incorporate some color. That’s why I’m impressed by design that succeeds in B&W, and Craig & Karl’s work for The Commons is some of my favorite yet. The fact that it is successful across an entire system is even better. Check out more pictures here.

Craig & Karl via Allan Peters

I was looking for texture inspiration for a new project when I came across the Flickr set of barbera*. I love the flat colors and geometric shapes of her photos; they remind me of Matthias Heiderich’s Color Berlin series.

See more on her Flickr.

Hype Williams is pure, its as simple as that. He makes music that most wouldn’t argue and start naming off artists he’s trying to be like, he doesn’t care what we think about it i’m sure, I feel like thats the best head space to be in right now for creating music.

Beacon is a Brooklyn duo that are heavily obsessed over visuals/videos and live performance, when I heard this song Rapture all I thought about was Underworld meets U2 Zooropa, 2 things I haven’t thought about in years.

I need a cut like this from Aeroplane, I thought they were going a little softy/pop on us, not too wild about the string choice but everything else is cosmic and has that drive to it.

When I read the description “…synth bounce anthems” as something that Sweden’s Sand Circles sound like I had to check it out.

Before I talk about the music, this image above made me laugh pretty hard, anyone know who made it?

Benoit & Sergio are writing the best summer jams from their DFA single Boy Trouble to this washy epic club monster, every time i’ve played its made the crowd happier than anything else.

I’ve been a sucker for everything Keep Shelley In Athens since I shared their first track on ISO50, I don’t know what it is but i’m soo hooked to it all and I don’t know anything about them and I like that, I just picture a faceless brunette girl and a guy from Greece working on music by a beach view window, sorry to share fake rumors.

Teeel shared this song with me by Stellar Door, another amazing FREE EP from a new artist, download it and support.

After all this electronic loveliness above enjoy this short psychedelic lo-fi song from White Fence, i’m off to fight this New York City heat.

One of these days I’d like to visit Sweden, and when I do I’m staying at the Treehotel.

Captured here by Mauro Puccini, the hotel has six rooms accessible through wooden ladders and ropes, and each features a unique name like the Blue Cone, UFO, Bird’s Nest, and their most famous room, the Mirrorcube.

Check out more beautiful images of the hotel here. Also see previous post on Linda Aldredge’s home for more treehouse goodness.