Posts by Jakub

Spike Jonze is about to make the movie of a lifetime in my opinion. The music/movie director will be releasing my(maybe everyone’s) favorite childhood book Where the Wild Things Are onto the big screen. Just look at these shots, they’re golden, and I just want to see more. Rumors around the web say that there will be no effects just large puppets, I think as a fan I couldn’t of asked for more.

I hope everyone has fully recovered from their New Year’s Eve celebrations and had some time to rest yesterday. Yesterday I had some time to compare notes with some other site’s TOP 10 albums of the year and noticed what I didn’t add but I still think mine holds up nicely. Would you guys care if I put up my TOP 25 singles for the year? or is that just going overboard?

One way I look for tracks is by going thru DJs myspace’s and looking at their charts for upcoming months. Usually guys from Hamburg, Berlin, or even older Detroit guys have their finger’s placed nicely on the best new music pulse. One name that came up was this Petar Dundov who made some really nice dubby techno. “Oasis” chugs along nicely, seems like a song you could play for your parents and be like “hey, I know you think you hate techno but check this out” kind of a nice gentle way to ease them into the genre instead of playing some favorite of yours like “Spastik”.

I didn’t know much about Stel when I received his remix for One Of Them’s “Sometimes I Feel Like” but right off the bat it caught my ear. With the French vocal attached he takes a deep house song somewhere i’d like to hear lounge music go into in the future.

I found Montag a long time ago when I was obsessed with Carpark records putting out Casino Versus Japan and Marumari(oh those were the days). He has some great licensable tracks, I feel like him and Styrofoam would of made a better Postal Service than what Gibbard and Dntel did.

Everyone knows Iceland’s Mum here I hope, Scott posted a wonderful track months ago. I had to add this track to the blog because of how simple it is and it makes you feel like you grew up with the group under some moss covered rock that had toy train sets, hand voice recorders and xylaphones.

Petar Dundov – Oasis – Substance & Vainqueur Remix

One Of Them – Sometimes I Feel Like (Stel Remix)

Montag – Best Boy Electric

Mum – I’m 9 Today

So, I love Madvillian but I never noticed that one of my favorite tracks “Accordion” was just sampled from an original by Daedelus called “Experience”, check the similarities below.
Futuristic Hip Hop producer Dabrye has finally shown up this year with a mighty fine remix for King Midas Sound. This track took some time to grow on me because of the vox but the instrumental is pure gold since i’ve been on a huge dubstep kick.
One track that i’ve wanted to post for some time now is this Rustie track but I always thought it might be too rowdy for the blog but the more I listen its not too rowdy, right? You need to at least let it play to around the 1:37 mark so you can hear this muted sped up vibraphone melody. This Rustie kid is pretty amazing and he looks super young though but so do I (blows on nails) I hope he keeps up with this sound. If you like this Rustie guy you should also check out Bar 9, Starkey, and the BBC famous Wiley, they’re all on this rowdy dubstep tip.

Madvillian – Accordion

Daedelus – Experience

King Midas Sound – One Ting (Dabrye Remix)

Rustie – Response

So you lose all your music right? what are your go to albums to keep you sane during the rebuilding process? Well the first thing I went for was Arthur Russell because I knew I could grab all the songs I have on ISO50 second but what didn’t I have up here for you guys to hear was the question. My friend Fred Thomas aka City Center is suppose to get me some of the other essential Arthur Russell but this album “Another Thought” is just so refreshing when you listen to so much instrumental electronic thru the day.
I know everyone here probably has DJ Shadow’s “Endtroducing…” CD or LP but its probably not a go to day to day listening for everyone and that’s not posted on sites a lot. The key melody at 3:42 kills me every time in this song, does anyone know where he sampled it from? The album is in the Guinness World Records as being the first album created entirely from sampled sources so it has to be from something else.
One disc that I had the day I lost my hard drive was left to me by Peter Kersten aka Lawrence which had a lot of unreleased Dial Records releases. It had the new Efdemin EP on Curle which is simply gorgeous when played on a large system. One thing I noticed is this song reminds me of an Aphex Twin track, All that comes to mind is the Classics LP but nothing on that is it I don’t think.
If you ever go to a DFA party in New York you usually get the pleasure of hearing one of the 2 guys from Runaway DJ sometime during the night. I know it’s Monday but if you want to dance a bit in your sit to “Brooklyn Club Jam” its alright by me.

Arthur Russell – Keeping Up

DJ Shadow – Building Steam With A Grain Of Salt

Efdemin – America

Runaway – Brooklyn Club Jam

Pepsi stepped up it’s game in my opinon and simplified their brand really nicely (Please excuse the iPhone camera photos but I didn’t bring my camera to the grocery store like usual). Not only did they change the logo, but they’ve changed the swoosh slightly a bit for each variety of (i.e. Diet, Caffeine-Free, and Max). I was pretty impressed mainly because they had the new logos sitting next to the old ones which has these blue pixel explosions in the background and so much unwanted text. Stepping back and seeing a wall of the simple new blue pepsi 2 liters all aligned was pretty beautiful even though i’m a Coca-Cola fan. One other good layout addition was the abbreviation of the 0 calorie, carbohydrates, and sugar text aligned nicely under the logo. Don’t get me wrong though, i’m not a complete fan of the Microsoft gamer X in the font. Do you think this means Mountain Dew will get a new logo? Oh my there is a graphic design god and he cares.

In celebration lets listen to Aphex Twin:

Aphex Twin – Polynomial-C

Can I redo my 2008 best of list? So my hard drive completely died this week and most of my music wasn’t backed up. Now I’m piecing back together my iTunes library with the help of a lot of friends. My friend Praveen sent me this Lone – Lemurian LP this morning and my jaw has slowly been dropping throughout the day. It’s if Flying Lotus and Casino Versus Japan had a baby, I can’t stop listening to it. Maybe I’m overly passionate because of the hard drive failure, but I think this may be the real deal. Let me know what you think, I know there are some Boards Of Canada fans lurking around on the blog from time to time but Lone isn’t as dark as BoC, at least not from what i’ve heard. How unfitting is that cover though?

Lone – Interview at Honolulu

Lone – Koran Angel

Lone – Phthalo Blue

#1 Sten – The Essence (Dial)

Peter Kersten and his label Dial is my go to music when I just need to not fiddle with a playlist for an hour, nod my head with a smile, or just lay back and enjoy simple beautiful 4/4 deep techno. “The Essence ” is packed to the brim of exactly what I want to hear if every else was gone or if I made music.
Peter strips down songs to their essentials, he doesn’t rely on popular band instruments or lyrics. He just goes straight to what is deep and comfy like a rich man’s large living room couch. The Essence lets you have the option of focusing and listening to his songs and never needing your attention.

Sten – Daylight

#2 Studio – Yearbook 2 (Information)

Studio has become that band in my life that i’ll always check out no matter what, you can say it’s become my essential NPR listen for the Subaru Outback driving lady that’s heading to work at the recycle center. Listen to Rubies: Room Without A Key (Studio version).

#3 Flying Lotus – Los Angeles (Warp)

Not once this year have I skipped over a Flying Lotus song off Los Angeles when my iTunes is on shuffle, thats kinda huge if you think about it. Listen to Flying Lotus – Roberta Flack (feat Dolly).

#4 Atlas Sound – Let The Blind Lead Those Who Can See But Cannot Feel (4AD)

Bradford Cox of Atlas Sound brings me to my knees, If I listen to the track “Recent Bedroom” anymore right now i’ll end up putting it #1 for the year but I have made up my mind. Listen to Atlas Sound – Recent Bedroom.

#5 Benoit Pioulard – Temper (Kranky)

Whatever Benoit Pioulard does is magic in my eyes. If it’s printing limited colored 7 inch vinyl randomly thru the year to selling his polaroids. When I heard “Temper” this year it became that record that I wanted to give to everyone I knew, I wanted to scream about Temper from the top of a mountain but all I had was Scott’s ISO50 blog which will always do. Listen to Benoit Pioulard – Brown Bess.

#6 Hatchback – Colors Of The Sun (Lo)

Do you know anything about analog synth heaven? well, pack your bags tonight, empty your bank account and steal a convertible preferably maroon or that 80’s silver because you my friend need night driving music. You will be driving on the coasts and living the secret life now as Hatchback. Listen to Hatchback – Everything is Neu.

#7 Hercules & Love Affair – Hercules & Love Affair (DFA)

The disco group that went all out and did it right. Full band, dancers, horns, and not in your face just the perfect party starting music from start to finish. Listen to Hercules And Love Affair – Blind.

#8 VA – Cosmic Balearic Beats Vol. 1 (Eskimo)

The Balearic sound really showed its true colors this year, we had the very talented Eskimo label put out a nonstop slue of treasure and this continuous mix became a vinyl collectors best friend packed with a various amount of new Balearic tracks. Listen to Maelstrom – Petrichor.

#9 Omar S. – Collected (FXHE)

Even though the Carl Craig’s, the Kevin Saunderson’s and the Derrick May’s are flying around the world and enjoying the fruits of their labor by playing shows, there are still heads left that rock out proper Detroit Techno day after day and I have to support it because I adore it.

Omar S. – Day

#10 Cousin Cole & Pocketknife – Tambourine Dream (Flagrant Fowl)

The kids look like their 17 and their making slow disco edits of Bruce Springsteen, Feist, John Lennon and Paul Simon, how promising is that!

Bruce Springsteen – I’m On Fire (Cousin Cole’s Bad Desire Mix)

The Rapture – Echoes 2003

Maroon 5 – Call And Response: The Remix Album 2008

There is absolutely no excuse for this, I mean I see designers rip off other designers every day – we even get emails weekly about this sort of thing – but when you do an album cover in 2008 and you know everyone is going to see it, why go this route? I don’t do album cover design but even I can see there is no sense in this. Aren’t there plenty of obvious solutions for the Maroon 5 designer to choose from that aren’t completely forgeries? One of these three things would of sufficed, and i’m going easy: 1. A different color background 2. Not using band member photos that weren’t just from the shoulder and up floating around in the background 3. Don’t use the same colors, its as simple as that, why not natural colors? I could also throw in “don’t use any stupid effect over their faces”, I mean at least the echo effect made sense. I’m no expert but I just see pure laziness, and you know this designer got seriously paid.

2008 was a great year for music, so good that an honorable mention section is a must. Before I post my top 10 albums of 2008 here are 3 albums that didn’t make the list that should of if there was room.

#13 Portishead – The Rip

#12 M83 – Couleurs

#11 Deerhunter – Agoraphobia

The beautiful graphic design of Ken Garland and Associates, from storefront font layout to pamphlet covers these guys have been putting together solid work since 1962.