My love for Swiss design just grew substantially. Up until now I hadn’t seen any swiss or international style design pieces translated into motion. But now Vít Zemčík has done it and he has done it well.
This was an educational project made during the International Typography Workshop in Czieszyn. The task was to translate a known print design piece into motion. If you’re not familiar with the poster Vít has used, it is by Josef Müller-Brockmann, one of the greatest Swiss designers.
Just caught this on NPR and was reminded of a couple great films: the William Shatner Narrated Trinity and Beyond (The Atomic Bomb Movie) and Nukes in Space: The Rainbow Bombs. Both were excellent docs that featured meticulously restored film footage from US atomic tests on land and in space (and also anywhere else they could make up a reason to blow up). The space tests are particularly (eerily) beautiful, the title Rainbow Bombs is very apt.
Happy 4th!
httpvh://www.youtube.com/watch?v=UnOZcEsamcM
I am about as big a fan of Tim Heidecker and Eric Wareheim’s work as exists on this planet. So it was a very, very pleasant surprise to see that [adult swim] (the network that features one of Tim and Eric’s greatest works: the Tim and Eric Awesome Show, Great Job! show) was running a bump featuring Cloud Generator and a shout for the Past is Prologue digital reissue after the show. If anyone from [as] is reading this, thank you!
adult swim has run some other bumps in the past featuring Tycho tracks, you can check them out here. Was cool to find all of those, I had only seen one and didn’t know the rest existed.
I missed seeing the Warm Ghost play the other night with School Of Seven Bells but luckily a friend turned me onto them via the magical internet. The lo-fi wobbly piano part is beautiful especially when its accompanied by the vox and it comes together like if The Doves did something with a Tom Waits that hits high notes. If you like this then you should check out their EP.
I can’t believe i’ve never shared any Ashra on here, this stuff is pretty much what i’d try to make if someone gave me a room of synths but i’d probably go even more New Age with it and obliviously i’d grow a ponytail as well.
One guy that’s holding down the Detroit sound is Black Milk, since he was like 18 people in Michigan swore he was going to be amazing, this track shows that he’s pretty damn amazing in my book, don’t miss the last 20 seconds either.
I know i’ve already post this song on the blog but here’s the video for Bicycle by Memory Tapes.
Yours Truly is a sort of video collective out of San Francisco who’s mission statement is to “discover and document” the bands and artists that inspire them (link to their full mission statement). They essentially craft short films about interesting bands; some are in-studio alternate takes of songs, others are live footage interspersed with interviews. All are thoroughly engrossing a must watch for fans of any of the bands they cover or anyone wanting to discover new music.
My favorite short of theirs has to be the Toro Y Moi in-studio of him recreating an instrumental version of You Hid from his last full length (see video below). Hearing the song in this new way was really something to behold; I have to say I’m partial to this version now. Another highlight is a session they taped of The Morning Benders. They filled up a studio with a bunch of local musicians and recorded a version of Excuses; the result is incredible and once again rivals the album version. Check both videos out below and check out a ton more at Yourstru.ly (do URLs get better than that?).
The Drums official LP dropped this week, i’ve been waiting for this for almost year I think. I had them down as writing my favorite song of 2009, definitely a perfect album to listen to while having fun with friends.
Washed Out is back and collaborates with Chairlift’ Caroline Polachek, a somber tempo and shows us that he’s on a great path of being able to make this sound something more than just a trendy genre, I hope to hear more.
Solvent’s new video debuted on Self-Titled’s site today and I had to share it with you, try not to fall in love with the characters that are playing the synths. I included the Vector Lovers remix below which is solid.
Shlohmo announced his upcoming EP called Camping which features a really nasty Shigeto remix, the EP also includes a remix by Baths and a few new cuts by the young talent.
FITC just released the highlight reel from this year’s festival in Toronto. The video was done by Stock Archive and features the most recent Tycho single, Coastal Brake as the soundtrack. I’m pretty sure the whole thing was shot with the Canon 5D MK2. I did an interview for the Stock Archive guys and they had a couple setups, one of which was the 5D on one of those body-mounted steady cam rigs. It was insane; the guy looked like a robot. Some of the panning shots definitely look like they were using it.
I’m really impressed with the editing, I’m not sure what I was expecting but this certainly exceeded it. I think as the quality of the 5D becomes ubiquitous people will stop being so blown away by the visual aspects alone and elements like editing and narrative will become much more important. Right now I feel like you could record a dumpster for 30 minutes with the 5D and it would be watchable.
On a side note, I will be speaking at FITC San Francisco this summer. I’ll be posting more on that next week, but just a heads up if you want to score some tickets before they go up in price (May 28th I believe).
Today I have some fresh picks, starting off with the very buzzworthy Baths who recently signed to Anticon. We need more Baths in the beat world so that the point of shows isn’t just all about playing the most hype track but more into the pleasure of hearing the artist perform their music, Baths definitely has some potential to help push this along if he hits the road hard, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.
I’ve heard Lorn’s name thrown around a bit by Mux Mool, this track Cherry Moon reminds me of a more mellowed out Ratatat track with strings, spot on production.
Bronze was recommended to listeners by DFA‘s Free Energy, their giving away their EP on bandcamp for free.
This last track is the video below, I love how the director did so much with a still piece, which brings me back to the point of it doesn’t matter the size of your budget you just need the right creatives.
IKONS – SLOW LIGHT from Service on Vimeo.
Sonar and Gravité by Renaud Hallee. Both are ridiculously awesome. Make sure to watch Sonar until at least 1:17, that’s my favorite part. Mega simple ideas like these are endlessly satisfying to me (especially when executed this well). I want to see more from Renaud! Both of these are almost a year old now, would love to see what he’s been up to recently.
