Petar Dundov made an epic piece that reminds me of those Sesame Street songs that were used when you watched something grow or being built in time lapse, always loved those songs.

Le Loup is very similar vocally to something that is on tip of my tongue but its not coming to me, any one know, its not Animal Collective or Grizzly Bear i don’t think but maybe it is. Either way the music starts off like something that Mum might of done then fills with claps and The Chap like melodies into a really catchy track that you might end up playing over and over like I do.

Theo Parrish demolishes an edit, untouchable, test it out yourself.

The label Rush Hour has been front and center this year releasing some of the best non vocal House records in my opinion. This Nebraska 12″ keeps that ball in the air even though its a reissue, the keys and how sweet the loop is just has me playing this song over and over.

Petar Dundov – Kanon

Le Loup – We Are Gods! We Are Wolves!

GQ – Lies (Theo Parrish edit)

Nebraska – Wordless Narrative

The heat is coming down hard out here in California so I decided to do a limited run of the 77 shirt on the new American Apparel Tri-Blend Black. It’s super soft and super light for those long summer days. You can check them out at the ISO50 Shop: Men’s Shirt | Women’s Shirt.

On a side note, these are the first product shots I’ve done with all strobe flash lighting. I picked up a Nikon SB-900 and SB-600 and have been loving them. I still have a lot to learn but I am really happy with the initial results (see above; used SB-900 w/ diffuser on camera and remote SB-600 on stand w/ umbrella). I’ll be posting more on the flashes this week.

So I picked up some Nikon flashes last week and have been having a lot of fun with them. I got the SB-900 and its little brother, the SB-600. I’ve been running the 900 attached to the camera (D80) and have the 600 as a remote slave using Nikon CLS. Using the multiple flash setup has yielded some really great results (see this post for some examples) but even with just one flash attached directly to the camera I’ve found it’s pretty easy to get great shots.

Just thought I’d post some random shots I got playing around to illustrate how easy it is to get decent stuff using a good flash. I didn’t do all the post-processing stuff I usually do so you could see the raw output (save for the first one which I color filtered inside the camera). These were all shot with NEF RAW in adverse lighting conditions, most in very low incandescent light. As you can see, just the single flash was enough to fully light the scene and balance the color. If memory serves correct they were all taken with the SB-600 attached the camera. Also check out Alex’s post on the SB-600 for some other examples. As I work with the flashes more this week I will post more examples and info.

When I have to explain to someone that I know deep down doesn’t give a crap about dance music or they file it under club music in their head it really gets me down right in the middle of the conversation. I usually try and speed talk thru and explain the sound as 90%(more like 96% actually) of dance music is awful and there is 10% thats gorgeous. Lawrence in my mind can make mix for a grandmother, a politician, a baby thats falling asleep, a clubby kid riding around in a Nissan Cube, a construction worker that watches alot of Everybody Loves Raymond and I truly think if they got to sit thru one of his sets they’d find out how good this music is, so whenever I find a Lawrence mix I usually ride it out until even the MP3 is worn down like a track shoe you’d find on the side of the road.

“The mix is inspired by the early hours of a deep club night, when the magic is going to be built up and everything is open. I selected old and new all-time faves, deep and danceable – just lovely music.” – Peter Kersten aka Lawrence

Resident Advisor has one of the best podcasts for dance music, so well thought out every week, I check who the guest is every Monday morning and usually it never disappoints.

TRACKLIST
Lawrence – Don’t Follow Me – Mule Electronic
Further Details – Another Time – A Touch Of Class
Theo Parrish – Heal Yourself And Move – Peacefrog
Mike Huckaby – Radiance – Deep Transportation
Christopher Rau – Ne Travaillez Jamais – Dérive
Mike – Oi Vai Voi – Sushitech
Leonid – Resting 2 – Statik Entertainment
Lowtec – Please Go Away – Playhouse
Norm Talley – The Journey – Third Ear
Rick Wade – First Darkness – Laid
Schatrax – Vintage Vinyl 1 – Schatrax
STL – Silent State – Smallville
Robert Dietz – Witness – Running Back
Loco Dice – How Do I Know ?! (Cassy remix) – Desolat
Q-Burns Abstract Message – Mess Of Afros – Glenn Underground Mix – SSR
Moodymann – U Can Dance If U Want 2 – KDJ
Christian Naujoks – Bloom (Lawrence Edit) – Dial Records

DOWNLOAD IT HERE

Lawrence – RA161 podcast mix

Awe inspiring work by French design collective Ill Studio. I really can’t get over the colors and texture in the Nike ad, absolutely incredible. From their About page:

The ill-studio is a French group of collaborators devoted to fine arts. Our goal is to bring ten individuals together, working in various artistic areas such as graphic design, photography, typography, illustration, video, motion design, etc.

The ill-studio is Léonard Vernhet, Thomas Subreville, Nicolas Malinowsky, Thierry Audurand, Sébastien Michelini, Pierre Dixsaut, Harold Urcun, Artus de Lavilléon, David Luraschi and Fred Mortagne.

Link

Loving this Egyptian Lover track, reminds me a bit of Twin Peaks at times.

Everyone has their favorite MJ song, this was mine, loved the crowd noise when I was a kid, makes me think about seeing video of Europeans looking at Michael Jackson perform live on stage and freaking out and getting dragged away crying because they loved him so much, to be honest when MJ passed I was thinking that Europe would flip out 10x more than the US and it probably did.

Sam posted some Drexciya a few weeks back, really minimalistic speedy synthy dark electro, perfect for a night speedboat rides.

For this Dam Funk track you really need to let it get half way through, Think Sonic the Hedgehog meets 2Pac if you aren’t into it so it at least puts a smile on your face, for the recent of you enjoy the heat this curious talent is giving off.

The Egyptian Lover – The Alezby Inn

Michael Jackson – Dirty Diana

Drexciya – Black Sea

Dam Funk – Sunset

Don’t forget to enter the Milton Glaser giveaway! We will be choosing two winners on Monday, so you’ve still got a couple days to get your comment in and have a chance at winning the signed poster and/or a copy of Glaser’s new book. Winners will be drawn at random and notified via email. Leave a comment on the original post to enter.

I got a chance to see To Inform and Delight on Thursday and I really enjoyed it. It’s not a big production by any means; just a simple portrait of one of the world’s greatest designers. The film does a great job overviewing Glaser’s career and you really get a sense of the magnitude of his impact on the field. Glaser is strikingly articulate and a pleasure to listen to as he describes his career, work, and perspectives on design and art. It’s still playing at the Roxie in San Francisco until July 2nd.

note: For you Bay Area folk, Objectified is making another San Francisco run this weekend. If you missed the premier a few months ago, try and get over to the Yerba Buena Center for the Arts before the end of the weekend.

Recently DFA’s new regular Woolfy released an LP and honestly I wasn’t feeling much of it compared to his singles but this track towards the end of the album caught my ear about 1:30 mins in and on, a definite keeper for the travelling record crate.

Here is great news thats worthy of your virtual scrapbook if you adore post rock: Sunny Day Real Estate is coming back together to tour this fall says Billboard. I’ve always had respect for the band but never really dove into their catalog like some of the diehards out there but this Pillars track is pretty gnarly.

With Michael Jackson passing away today this song title by Bill Withers might not be the best but it puts me in a better mood right away. My mom told me when I was growing up my 2 idols were Mike Tyson and Michael Jackson, that kind of sounds awful now because of legal troubles they both have had but back then it was fitting for a young kid that loved NES and dancing. Mike Tyson wasn’t too bad in The Hangover I thought, anyone see it? well anyways while everyone is blasting MJ i’m gonna take a backseat until I have a proper post.

I do get a lot demos recently to my iso50 email account and I usually don’t get to post a track but for the first time something really grabbed me by a band named Paneye, I hope to maybe get this song out on Moodgadget and produced a bit better but I do love the rawness of the recording and the guys voice.

Woolfy – Two Far Gone

Sunny Day Real Estate – Pillars

Bill Withers – Lovely Day

Paneye – Pasta and Chalk

After my narrow victory over Jason Koxvold (really should have at least been a tie, great match Jason) last week in the first round of the Layer Tennis Play-Offs I’ve advanced to the Semi Finals which will be played out tomorrow at 12 noon Pacific time. I won the 3D coin flip so I’ll be serving. Hope to see you all out there! Details:

LATE MATCH FRIDAY
2pm Chicago time (Noon Pacific, 3pm Eastern)
Scott Hansen vs Shaun Inman
Link to Match

Just a small collection of oil company maps I’ve found around the web; I wasn’t aware of this fascinating sub-genre of design. This is the sort of throw-away stuff that for some reason is the coolest thing to find in the garage drawer it’s been sitting in for 30 years. I think that Hawaii one is actually just a Casino Versus Japan 12″ cover. That German one is ridiculous; leave it to them to design a map that they give out free at the gas station that betters the collective output of United State graphic designers for the entire calendar year in which it was produced. Way to go guys.

Sources:
Shell Nature Lovers’ Atlas
Shell Deutschland Map
Mobil Travel Map
Shell Hawaii Map