I’m sure everyone’s on the Sorcerer bandwagon, but it’s too good not to post. I want to blare it from my rooftop.
Brainchild of Daniel Saxon Judd (part Call & Response, part Windsurf) he really nails the summer surf tunes.
Enjoy.
[audio:sorcerer-surf_wax.mp3] [audio:sorcerer-popsicle_orange.mp3]See Also:
Cover by S.Hansen
ISO50 Playlist 5 – Compiled by Aarnio
Track Listing:
Casino Versus Japan – It’s Very Sunny
Bullion – Caroline, No
Ducktails – Landrunner
Atlas Sound – Walkabout
THE DRUMS – Submarine
The xx – Shelter
Washed Out – Feel It All Around
Dam Funk – Sunset
Fleetwood Mac – Dreams (Mingus Rude edit)
Gold Panda – Quitters Raga
Fever Ray – Triangle Walks
Kings Of Convenience – Mrs Cold
The Radio Dept. – David
The Canyons – Apples and Pears
Bibio – Fire Ant
Burial & Four Tet – Wolf Cub
Manuel Tur – Stay Feat. Larissa Kapp
Adelaide – Bombardiers
Sorcerer – Distort Yourself
Lindsey Buckingham – Trouble
STL – Silent State
Broker/Dealer – To Hear the Fires
Coma – Sum
Fantastic album from Italian-based Baffo Banfi. Seems to be a mix of his previous albums “Ma, Dolce Vita” (1979) and “Hearth” (1981) mashed together for CD; but if anybody has better info than that, please comment!
Right at the time where Krautrock was morphing into the New Age sound, these albums straddle the fence very nicely. Very reminiscent of Manuel Göttsching at the time.
Released under Klaus Schulz’s new label at the time (Innovative Communication) – you can definitely hear his hand in it.
[audio:baffo_banfi-quelle_dolce_estate.mp3] [audio:baffo_banfi-dancing_on_the_ship.mp3]
Grain Edit has posted up a very nice Jazz mix by Mike Cina along with a short interview on his thoughts about record collecting and music. It’s always nice to hear what other designers are listening to and being influenced by; it often brings more clarity to my understanding of their work.
Mike also contributed the custom mix cover you see above and some shots of the album covers for the songs included in the mix (a few are shown below). You can check out the interview and download the mix here.
So, I’m sure most of you have heard of Delicious Library already, but the mastermind Wil Shipley released the iPhone companion this morning (iTunes link), along with v2.1.
Delicious Library has a lot of neat features that I simply don’t use, but the best use I’ve found for it so far is cataloging your vinyl collection. Unfortunately you have to manually enter everything, as well as find the album art yourself… but it’s really handy to have your collection in a lusciously designed searchable beast in your pocket.
It’s $40, but the demo let’s you add 25 items so you can play. The iPhone app is free.
Also, be sure to check out this fun stop-motion video introducing the iPhone app.
We all know Polish design is amazing, but every now and then you need a good reminder. Karl forwarded me a Wanken post on the Tonpress sleeves you see above. Tonpress was a government-controlled Polish record label in the 80’s and from the looks of it, they had some quality design staff hanging around. If you want to sift through all the links, lots more cover art is here.
Images via Wanken
P.S. Be sure to check out Karl’s blog, it’s got a new skin that’s dripping with minimal goodness.
My friend Danny passed on a Glenn Branca EP to me tonight, one that I didn’t have and we started talking about him. Glenn Branca seems to be the poster boy for all the experimental guitar bands that want to do something new these days but they don’t understand that they can’t repeat the past and pretend like their doing something groundbreaking. I don’t think anyone these days would be able to put out music similar to what Glenn Branca did during the time he was doing it, you’d only be doing it for the wrong reasons. This new wave of bands in the past 8 years or so are enjoyable but in my opinion just come off as “I need attention but don’t actually look at what i’m doing because i’m actually not creative at all”. Sadly these musicians today can buy their way into sounding and mainly looking like they have some talent. Walking up and down the streets of Brooklyn you can almost smell and see the fake talent, at first you can fall for it but then talking to more and more people you end up finding out they aren’t offering up anything pure or willing to potentially going mental to perfect their technic and sound. I just want people like Glenn Branca to get more credit because listing him off as an influence only is almost saying that your similar to him but you aren’t you actually have to take any of the time that you’re getting any attention and use it thank the originator.
Addled is half of Worst Friends and he loves his Boston Red Sox, sharing what great good house/techno records come out on Tuesdays, and most importantly making a variety of music. Recently he’s worked on music that was used in a Prada video and in the past he made some of the music for The New York Times. His first EP as Addled is one that follows the footsteps of James Holden and Paul Kalkbrenner but touches a new level of listening since its less clubby than both and is more on the deeper side and melodic side.
I feel like I post a lot of Paul Simon but really I don’t actually if anything I don’t post enough Paul Simon.
I always thought I liked Sam Prekop more than The Sea and Cake but then I listened to some more Sea and Cake and realized I was thinking crazy things. Whenever I have to deal with the rock guy that thinks electronic music is too repetitive than I just have to share with him The Sea and Cake and say Its not that you don’t like repetitiveness because obviously this is amazing, it’s just that the person doesn’t care for unique sounds or can fathom the idea a synth playing more parts than their are people on stage and that just ticks him right off.
[audio:lesson1.mp3] [audio:heartbreachno.mp3] [audio:thecoast.mp3] [audio:weekend.mp3]
Update: The L.A. installment of the show has been set for Sunday Mar. 8th. More info is on the events page, get advance tickets here.
Ghostly International’s 10th birthday is fast approaching and they’re having anniversary shows in San Francisco and Los Angeles to celebrate. I’ll be playing the first date on Friday, March 6th, 2009 at Mezzanine in San Francisco. As far as I know, the line up will be the same for L.A., but I don’t have all the details for that show yet. This should be a great night filled with a lot of great performances by the Ghostly crew. You can snag some advance tickets for $5 off here. Hope to see you all out, here’s all the details:
GHOSTLY and MEZZANINE present
GHOSTLY LIVE
10 Year Anniversary
1st Installment – SF!
Featuring LIVE performances by
TYCHO / ISO50 (live music & visuals) (set time: 12:20am)
CHRISTOPHER WILLITS
MICHNA
THE SIGHT BELOW
LUSINE
KATE SIMKO
DERU
ELIOT LIPP
LIVE VISUALS & NEW MEDIA INSTALLATIONS
Doors at 10 PM – 4 AM
Tycho set time: 12:20am
$15 Advance
$20 at the Door
Mezzanine
444 Jessie Street @ Mint
San Francisco, California 94103
Where do I even begin? Alan Parsons is beyond epic. He never leaves my turntable, car, or iTunes playlists. Always on repeat.
At 18, Alan had his hands on the Abbey Road tapes while working at Abbey Road Studios, and shortly thereafter engineered The Dark Side of the Moon. This guy was a machine.
Pyramid is my favorite release of the group, though AllMusic calls it “average,” and claims that isn’t a necessity. Shame on them.
Which one is your favorite release?
[audio:the_alan_parsons_project-what_goes_up.mp3] [audio:the_alan_parsons_project-hyper_gamma_spaces.mp3]A semi-related treat:
I definitely count The Smiths’ 1984 Hatful of Hollow as one of my top 20 all time. This is one of those albums that makes you want to post the whole thing but I thought it would be a good challenge to try to narrow it down to three songs. I posted the re-issue version of the cover—featuring a cropped version of Gilles Decroix’s now iconic image (layout/design by Caryn Gough)—as I prefer its design to the bordered original. I really like the overall visual style of their release art, that sort of duo-tone screen print thing that Belle & Sebastian later used to such great effect. Out of the three standout tracks I ended up choosing, at least one of them—This Night Has Opened My Eyes—would make both my top 50 songs and top 10 basslines list. I love that smooth 70’s DI tone, always amazing how good a lot of the older Peel Session tracks sound considering they weren’t studio recordings in the conventional sense.