The Sekretär Flatmate is one of those pieces of furniture that makes me think I’d somehow become 50% more productive just by having it in my house. That’s probably not the case, but it would look great either way. Anybody actually have one of these things? €990 seems a bit steep for me, but I could see how it might be worth it if you were short on space in some NYC studio or something.

Sekretär Flatmate via Swiss Miss

Been kind of obsessing over this video for White Denim’s Street Joy. Not sure how I missed this but apparently it’s been out for six months. Director Carlos LaRotta’s (Birds on Fire) treatment includes a healthy dose of Tim & Eric / Doug Lussenhop VHS style. It’s always nice to see a band not take themselves too seriously, even in the case of such a somber and reflective song. but in spite of the humor there seems to be a fittingly nostalgic undercurrent at work here that ties the whole thing together. Really beautiful stuff.

aiko__o

__shigeto

smyjewski

I like aiko__o‘s photos because the natural beautiful seems to show up every time. __shigeto takes a ton of pics especially right now while he’s in China & Russia which he makes you feel like your there in the neighborhood’s touring in. Smyjewski has great accuracy and a good eye, definitely a fun follow if you’re a designer and love organization, I love the comment he has for the photo above “Stupid trashcan“.

Here it is, my selection of most refreshing music to listen to that came out in 2011. It’s a collection of records that grabbed my ear and made me put my coat on and head to the record store. I’ll have my Top 50 singles of 2011 which include the Atlas Sounds, James Blakes, and all the other goodies from the indie world but this list less about the best of the best but more of what sticks to my bones, i’m sure everyone has their favorites of the year too, feel free to list them below i’d love to see them.

fyi: this list does not include any records I was apart of ala releasing or distributing. i.e. the Tycho album, Ghostly releases, and Moodgadget releases.

Enjoy the playlist, thanks for all the feedback, comments, “likes” etc. over the last year, always a pleasure reading what you all have on your mind.

Le Révélateur – Fictions – Gneiss Things – BUY

Nacho Patrol – The Africa Jet Band Album – M Division Recordings – BUY

Deepchord – Hash-Bar Loops – Soma Recordings – BUY

Eddie C – Parts Unknown – Endless Flight – BUY

Sepalcure – Sepalcure – Hotflush Recordings – BUY

Dirty Beaches – Badlands – Zoo Music – BUY

Hatchback – Zeus & Apollo – Lo Recordings – BUY

Warm Ghost – Narrows – Partisan Records – BUY

Oneohtrix Point Never – Replica – Software – BUY

Peaking Lights – 936 – Not Not Fun – BUY

The Field – Looping State Of Mind – Kompakt – BUY

John Maus – We Must Become The Pitiless Censors Of Ourselves – Ribbon Music – BUY

Beautiful renderings of the “iCam”, a concept created by Italian designer Antonio DeRosa. The concept case would add interchangeable lenses — along with various other features — to the iPhone 5. Very reminiscent of the Camera Futura concept. I would certainly be first in line for something like this; I love the idea of these modular devices that leverage the processing power of computing devices, like an iPhone, that you may already have. I know it’s a long shot, but let’s hope this makes it out of concept-land.

On a side note, still waiting to upgrade to the 4S (I think I can get it December 10th without getting gouged), can’t wait to check out the camera on there, seen some pretty amazing things from my friends who have the 4S already.

Antonio DeRosa – ADR Studio

It’s a reaaaaaally slow week for shows coming up but I definitely wanted to list a few things, if you haven’t been to St. Vitus I highly recommend it, i’ll be there tomorrow to see Scott Mou (half of Jane with Panda Bear) and a helpful and wonderful Other Music employee.

Fri. 11/25
NY: The Cure @ Beacon Theater
LA: N/A

Sat. 11/26
NY: Scott Mou (DJ set) @ St. Vitus
LA: Plaid @ El Rey Theatre

Sun. 11/27
NY: N/A
LA: N/A

Mon. 11/28
NY: N/A
LA: Cassettes Won’t Listen @ The Echo

Tue. 11/29
NY: Suzanne Vega @ Joe’s Pub
LA: N/A

Wed. 11/30
NY: N/A
LA: Boom Bip @ The Satellite

Thu. 12/1
NY: Future Islands @ Bowery Ballroom
LA: Boys Noize @ The Music Box

Here’s a beautiful 3 part vignette shot by director Riley Blakeway of Taj Burrow and friends in Fiji. Filming in a place like this, with surfers of this caliber, you’d expect it to look great and it does. Riley goes a little further to make it something else with the color and grain work, which I really appreciate. All three pieces have a great organic film-like grain and the color grading is spot. A feeling and look that you can’t just do with a plug-in.

When I first watched it, I was convinced this was 16mm and maybe super 8mm in spots. Here’s the kicker, “All of the surf vision was shot with the EX1.” says Blakeway. He also added that intros and outros were super 8mm. The camera is the Sony PMW-EX1, a type of camera that is similar to what a lot of us were used to shooting with before the Canon DSLR days. Not a 5D, 60D or even a RED Epic, which is great to see. I’ll try not to get into the technical too much on this, because it’s simply well shot, well edited and graded. His attention to detail is great on these, well done Riley.

You may remember San Diego based director / photographer Charles Bergquist from our post a while back on his projections collection. We’re all big fans of his work and through Ghostly and Tycho we have worked with him a lot over the past year. I am currently working with him on the new Tycho live visuals set and realized he would make a great contributor to the blog. Charles will mostly be doing video and photographic posts with a focus on process / equipment (like his soon-to-be-delivered Red Scarlet).

So everybody give Charles a warm welcome, his first post should be coming shortly.

Minehost

Navisphotography

Twopennykarma

Another fresh batch of Instagramers that we love to follow, some underdogs in here like Minehost who I love to follow, our very own Tim Navis and Twopennykarma who we met at the Tycho Colorado show.

“Play Pencil Pimp!!” is what I kept yelling at the recent Sepalcure show in NYC, today they got Pitchfork’s Best New Music on their debut Self Titled album, we’ve supported their sound from the beginning, I couldn’t be happier for them, you can buy their LP here. HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

Usually when you say Jose Gonzalez a girl in the room will scream and say “OMG I love him!” I do the same when someone says “its a Todd Terje edit of ______”. Blowing away the original is this edit, Todd you are a talent.

Always wanted to pick Evenings brains because I want to know if they were into IDM back in the day because they grab some great simple tricks from that genre that you don’t hear anywhere else.

Everyone needs a Star Slinger remix, he turns whatever you’ve done into a dancefloor bomb.