Archive for August, 2012

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Rob Fissmer is new contributor to the ISO50 blog, he has been djing under the name Raeo which if you go to his site you’ll discover a large archive of mixes that he’s put together along the same vein as this collection above. Personally I love this package of songs, the downbeat instrumental sound that has IDM influences is some of my favorite and Rob grabbed some of the best most recent examples. Also another fun fact about Rob is that he’s a ice hockey goalie and a fine one at that, if Ninja Tune’s hockey team knew that he might get picked up.

Came across a huge collection of camera and lens manuals from the Soviet Union, all of them have that DDR/Cold War feel and look. Being born in communist Poland i’ve been shown a lot of this kind of design thru my whole life, I find a strange attraction to it.

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The first Tame Impala remix hits the internet, its soo respectful of the original I want every kid that produces to understand what a job well done sounds like, its fitting and feels like its not chasing fads and trends.

Ulrich Schnauss came back into my world by updating his Soundcloud with remixes, tracks that I missed completely. This might be the most delicate shoegaze drum n bass you’ll ever hear, its just gliding swiftly the whole time, a great rework.

Do you remember Output Recordings? Trevor Jackson brought the world Colder, Circlesquare, The Rapture, hell you could probably even say Four Tet, etc. you get the idea, without that label the beauty in darkness would be missing a good deal of warm and restraint without that label, I imagine if they were still around Jon Convex would fit perfectly on their roster.

We’ve supported almost every single off this DIIV album, its just the most proper summer record to come out of the east coast to capture what I want to hearing without thinking about what to listen to. Recently they called on Memory Tapes to make something dancey for them, works really well even though a Weird Tapes(same guy) remix would have taken it to the next level.

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Today we have a very special guest that you might recognize from Youtube, it’s Anthony Fantano from Needledrop. I really respect Anthony’s consistency and dedication of quality reviews he does on his Youtube feed. He always helps new listeners with describing what he’s listening to with plenty of references and adjectives, kind of like we do it here on the ISO50 blog but he takes it to full on video with characters and all. Enjoy his playlist he put together, its the first time we’ve ever had Metal on here in our 5 year existence.

1. Xibalba – No Serenity
Despite how much it irks some of my loyal viewers, I like to keep a somewhat (ir)regular flow of metal reviews coming. This Xibalba album really stopped me in my tracks with some massive, chugging riffs and the kind of primal ferocity that you’d typically find on a metal-infused hardcore album. I usually prefer my metal to be a bit more, uh, heady, but this was just too good to be true: A teenage favorite mixed with the kind of dense, low-end sounds that my adult self currently enjoys on numerous Southern Lord records. Plus, this is my current favorite workout record.

2. Matthew Dear – Ahead Of Myself
I’ve known Matthew Dear to put together some eerie tracks, but this is the first time he really struck me as being a tender dude as well. He’s got a few moments like that on his new LP, Beams, and I love ’em–especially this one. The watery synth chords on this track are absolutely intoxicating. It’s like they’re just about to fall into a slumber or something. Meanwhile, Matthew’s seductive croon delivers some mantra-heavy vocals.

3. Meridian Brothers – Salsa Caliente (Versión Aumentada)
This is a bit of experimental salsa from Columbian sonic experimentalist Eblis Álvarez. He’s got a new LP on the way titled Deseperanza under the name Meridian Brothers. The dude really took the art form of the genre and mutated it into something odd and subtly psychedelic. The lazy instrumentation, oddball melodies, and lightly tortured vocals add up to something that would sound perfect in a David Lynch movie, for sure. Definitely a strange experience.

4. TNGHT– Bugg’n
The musically savvy are too hard on bangers. Not everything needs to be this big, flowery, moving, significant thing. Loosen up, have fun, go nuts. When it comes to that, TNGHT is my jam. This is about at anti-elitist as you can get while still keeping your listening habits underground. What I like about TNGHT is that they create such visceral music with such experimental sounds. If “Bugg’n” were a movie, it would feature some of the most unlikely casting in music history, featuring the sounds of babies, spaceships, bubbles, and more.

Anthony’s Youtube Channel

“Car art” is always a contentious subject for me, there’s alot of cartoonish colored pencil stuff out there that Road & Track likes to pass off as “fine art”. If there’s one thing i’ve tried to showcase in my livery posts, it’s that the geometric body of the car itself makes for a great canvas.

Earlier last week, fellow car porn addict (although he gets paid for his addiction) Jim Lau sent me the innocuous “you’ve seen this, right?” message. Above are some examples of Ricardo Santos’ work, and I think they’re absolutely fantastic. You’ll notice some farmilar ‘faces’ from alot of the car posts I’ve done here on the blog, needless to say I’ve solved the problem of hanging up pictures of cars on my wall without looking pubescent.

These prints all come in a variety of sizes & formats, the stretched canvas is barking at me and the moths futzing outside my window will soon find a nice warm home in my wallet. You can find all of Ricardo’s works seen above over on his Society 6 page.

Reverse Of Volume was an installation by artist Yatsuaki Onishi commissioned by Rice Gallery, which ran from April 13 – July 27 2012. The suspended fabricated mountainscape is formed from two materials; plastic sheeting and black colored hot-glue. Onishi shaped the floating sculpture within the gallery space by first draping the expansive plastic piece over stacked cardboard boxes, then removing the piled components following the white sheet having been attached to the ceiling by the quick-drying adhesive. This creative process or method is known to Yasuaki Onishi as ‘casting the invisible’ and aids in his artistic meditation on the reality of negative space.

1. Initial photo (architectural feature)

2. Cropped and mirrored

3. Cropped and mirrored and layered in Image Blender

1. Initial Photo of some shadows in a corner (taken with Stilla)

2. Cropped and mirrored

3. Final Image layered in Image Blender

1. Initial photo of some stairs

2. Mirrored (you may notice a habit here)

3. Final image layered in Image Blender

The first photos I started using in my designs were simple textures. (we’ve all seen the explosion of texture sites out there) but lately I’ve been using photos to get shapes that typically I would have drawn before. This has been largely driven by having a decent camera in my pocket at all times, allowing me to capture random staircases or light hitting the corner of an architectural feature just right. I find the natural light and texture in photographs have so much more depth in the final product then what I can come up with in photoshop …and its much easier to get to the end result.

Posted by: Seth Hardie
Instagram: @hallwood

Now that most of us are familiar with logos both candidates are represented by for this U.S. presidential race in November, I wanted to take a second just to compare/discuss a few choices that were made. Below are links to their shops where a large collection of apparel, stickers, signs, etc. are available:

Barack Obama
Mitt Romney

**Please note, my views are strictly geared towards reviewing the merch/branding and nothing of the election, we are a design site and this post is just my opinion and not of Scott Hansen or any of the rest of the contributors.

“The Logo”

I for one am surprised by the Romney logo, its actually not awful, when I first saw it I thought it was too loose and it had weak traits that wouldn’t translate well once it started getting pressed on things and it didn’t hold well by itself. When you lay it on a shirt with an outline it turns to garbage like many things but on white it actually has some legs. As for Obama’s logo I think its been clashing too much with the Bank of America logo in my head but once I shake that thought its solid, if feels right any which way you put it. Its almost a self contained environment within an icon, he should be proud.

“The Designer”

Both sides see that there is reasoning in this day in age to actually put some thought behind designing a shirt for the people that are going to dish out $30 and actually wear the shirt because they like the design. Both sides came with something consciously stylized, i’m sure both candidates didn’t see these and approve BUT someone did. Both aren’t dreadful but Obama edges out Romney on this one as well and here’s why: Obama went after the goal/statment and makes you read it while Romney just threw something “retro” looking and the message isn’t there. From the “Keep Calm And Carry On” iPhone Cases to garbage like “Swag” tees, in my observations this years youth and shirt buyers want statements and type for the first time in a long time, its pretty shocking actually.

“Campaign Font”

I don’t think this is Romney’s “font” but it is landing on a few of the pieces he’s selling. I think its confusing or just overlooked. Why such a departure from the conservative look? who is it for? on the other hand Obama keeps it clean and uses his font well…but who needs a website anymore on a shirt? I mean come on? I do enjoy a small font sitting under the big font layout wise, there’s some comfort in it especially if you’re designing for the general public.

“The Don’t”

I had to add this section, I should have called it the “Head Nodding side to side” section. I mean COME ON! really? we’re bringing in Orange… “but its fun Jakub and the Latinos might like it”it’s confusing and throws a tiny wrench into the branding. The Romney yoga pants are just…blowing my mind, i’m not even laughing at them, its like I just swung myself over the swingset for the full rotation and landed hard. You don’t even benefit from someone wearing them, you hid the logo on dark grey on the hip, its joke by the merch team I get it, good work guys.

“The Classic Bumper Sticker”

Romney’s 2nd biggest failure in the merch department is the classic bumper sticker that every candidate needs… this thing is awful, its not 1988 and no one owns a Oldsmobile Cutlass Ciera to put this on. Obama’s is refreshing and more importantly brighter and only uses one blue and saved some cash by only printing with 2 colors which more cost effective, good choice.

I’m really loving the beautiful tranquility of Hungarian photographer Akos Major’s photos. I really admire photographers who can achieve such a crisp, light tone in their images. When I look at Akos’ photographs, I can feel the solitude and cold air in these photos and in some, I can almost taste the air. They remind me of the quiet winter nights growing up in Wisconsin. Still to this day one of my favorite things to do is lay out in the woods while it’s snowing and listen to the snow flakes pelt the fabric on my jacket and surrounding trees.

To view more of Akos Major’s work, check out the photographer’s website:

AKOS MAJOR

My friend Cameron Ballensky has been in town visiting for a few days, so we’ve been out and about shooting loads of film. Me, mostly 35mm, him Polaroid. After seeing some of the unpredictable results yielded by certain films he uses, I was really turned on by the idea of exploring this format myself (also two of my favorite photographers, Reuben Wu and Neil Krug, have inspired this in me as well). Cameron mostly get’s all of his film through The Impossible Project, a company that now produces Polaroid film, and as I was exploring their site, I came across the beautiful work of Chloe Aftel, a Los Angeles based photographer and film director.

Browse through her beautiful body of work on Flickr.

Chloe is also part of The Impossible Project’s launch of a new instant film material for 8×10 cameras (image below). More info can be found here.