Posts by Collective

Christian Tiger School are an electronic duo from Cape Town. It has been amazing to watch how they have progressed over the last few years, and their forthcoming release, Chrome Tapes, via Tommy Boy Entertainment, promises to be a really exhilarating and fresh listen. Their first single, ‘Chorisolo,’ is a shape-shifting punch of electronic dynamism that comes paired with a really outstanding dog-championing video.

Post by: Elaby Mackenzie.
I am a music blogger/enthusiast from Cape Town, South Africa.
Co-founder of Bluishvoid and contributor at Platform Magazine.

Portland-based producer, Opaline, forms a mesmerising late-night synth drifter with his album, ‘Memory Drain‘. I’ve been sitting on this for a while, but have recently found it has taken up residency as my go-to late-night listen. Airy textures abound throughout, and he has a serious knack of instilling within his music this almost palpable energy. It’s a real stunner.

Post by: Elaby Mackenzie.
I am a music blogger/enthusiast from Cape Town, South Africa.
Co-founder of Bluishvoid and contributor at Platform Magazine.

Brené Brown asks – “What would you try if you knew people would never say ‘this’ about you?”

One of the biggest struggles for any creative is how to handle fear. The fear of criticism, comparison and scarcity. Some may think it’s best to ignore the chatter and just shut those people out. Instead Brené takes a different approach…

Step inside the arena and find out how she handles the critics.

– Chad Kamenshine

Tony Zhou’s Every Frame a Painting is a video series dedicated to the ‘analysis of film form’. His episode on Nicolas Winding Refn’s use of the quadrant system in Drive was the first video that drew me in. Each episode does a great job breaking down and explaining the little details that are sometimes overlooked. It reminds me of the first time I discovered the hidden arrow and spoon within the FedEx logo. When you finally realize it’s there, you appreciate the art behind what we see in front of us that much more.

Other videos that grabbed my attention were David Fincher’s “not what I do, but what I don’t do” approach to filmmaking and the different ways text messaging and the internet are represented on screen.

But it was an episode on Japanese film director and animator Satoshi Kon that got me really stoked. This was my first introduction to the world of Kon and his signature editing style. Inspired by George Roy’s Slaughterhouse-Five, Kon’s use of matching scene transitions has also inspired other filmmakers and their films – Inception and Scott Pilgrim vs. the World are two examples that immediately come to mind.

Before passing in 2010, Kon left us with one last gem – Ohayo. His final piece covers something we deal with every day; the dreaded morning wake up routine – illustrated in the most beautiful of ways.

You can follow the Every Frame a Painting series on Youtube and dive into the world of Satoshi Kon through the eyes of fans on Tumblr.

– Chad Kamenshine

Check out Hollywood composer and Devo member Mark Mothersbaugh’s synth collection. More on Cool Hunting.

-Chad Kamenshine

Johnny Jewel, the producer behind the label Italians Do It Better and the signature sounds of Chromatics, Desire and Glass Candy has been posting a ton of unreleased material and outtakes which you can dive into on his Soundcloud page here.

– Chad Kamenshine

Take a scroll down the page and watch the logo pulsate as if sound is radiating from the image. This comes from a clever collaboration between Sonos and Bruce Mau Design.

Read more about the project here.

– Chad Kamenshine

Do you remember when Microsoft first introduced the Kinect? It was one the first times where I thought to myself that The Jetsons way of life may actually one day be a reality.

Well things just got a little more closer to that reality with Microsoft’s HoloLens. Instead of products like Google Glass and Oculus Rift, which put the user in a virtual world – the HoloLens puts you in a virtual environment by taking elements from a digital world and making them an interactive part of your world.

Farhad Manjoo of the New York Times had a chance to use it with Minecraft:

“In one demo, a Minecraft scene was displayed over a real living room. A Microsoft minder asked me to select a virtual hammer (a tool in the game) and start smashing the coffee table in the room. She wanted me, in other words, to use a digital object to interact with a real one. I did so and was stunned by what happened: Before my eyes, the real coffee table splintered into digital debris, and then it was no longer there. HoloLens had perfectly erased the coffee table from the environment.”

Here’s what Nick Statt of CNET had to say:

“Using real photography from the Curiosity rover, Microsoft was able to re-create a Martian landscape and overlay a 3D-map around a small, conference-room-size environment. I can walk around, bend down and look at rocks. I can even see NASA’s Curiosity rover, which is larger than a standard motor vehicle.”

“With HoloLens, I’m not just able to see what it’s like to walk around on Mars, but I’m also able to interact with the contents on the surface. Using a finger gesture called Air Tap, the HoloLens lets me mark certain spots on the surface for investigation and even lets me talk with another floating figure and collaborate on examining the surface.”

You can read more about Windows Holographic and the HoloLens on The Verge.

– Chad Kamenshine

I first bumped into a bubbly CHVRCHES at Firefly Festival in 2013 on a shoot with SPIN Magazine. After this random encounter came countless live shoots and I even had the opportunity to spend a day with them in Brooklyn.

Throughout the tour, photographer Rachael Wright captured some great, intimate footage including a snippet from the Star Wars shoot that can be seen in the video for “Get Away” above.

As they head into the studio to record the followup to ‘Bones’ – here’s a look back at some of my favorite moments from the past couple of tours.

Check out and follow more of my work on Instagram and Facebook

-c

Lucy Salgado is an illustrator based out of Recife, Brazil. I first came across Lucy’s work when CHVRCHES posted an illustration she crafted of Lauren Mayberry on Instagram.

After trading emails back forth we talked about the possibility of collaborating on a project for The Artistree. We came up with the idea of illustrating elements from some of our favorite releases of 2014 and mashing them all together for what would become the imagery for our end of the year pieces.

Check out and follow Lucy’s work on Tumblr, Facebook and Instagram

-Chad Kamenshine