Update: The single is now available, click here for more info.

The new Tycho single / b-side entitled "Adrift / From Home" will be out next Tuesday, May 27th, 2008. This marks my second release with Ghostly International leading up to the full album scheduled for next year. This single will be available exclusively through iTunes for the first month, and at all other online retailers thereafter. While Adrift is a brand new, unreleased track, some of you may notice that From Home was originally released as part of the Past is Prologue album on Merck. This is because as part of this series of singles, I’ve decided to include the extra tracks which were included on the Merck version of Sunrise Projector (renamed Past is Prologue) so that they are available individually for people who bought the original version of the album and missed out on the new material. I’ve posted a couple clips of the songs below, enjoy.

On a design note, this of course represents new ISO50 work. It’s the first album cover I’ve done in a while and I really enjoyed the process this time around. I wanted to evoke the feeling of a 45 record from the heyday of singles and go with a really reserved, minimal type treatment. It’s also meant to carry over the circle concept from the last single. Anyways, on to the music:

Tycho – Adrift

[audio:adrift_clip.mp3]

Tycho – From Home

[audio:home_clip.mp3]

More Info at Tychomusic & Ghostly International.

I want to introduce you all to Jakub Alexander, he helps me out with the day to day workings of ISO50/Tycho related stuff, is an A&R for Ghostly International Records, and runs his own imprint called Moodgadget Records. You may have guessed from his credentials that he’s well versed in all things music related so I’ve asked him to contribute some posts to the blog. He’ll be posting all sorts of stuff from now on, hopefully adding a little more variety to my own selections. So let’s give Jakub a warm welcome, this is his first post.

Hey everyone, i just wanted to start out with something i feel is really pretty on the melody end that is maybe the perfect balance of indie rock and electronic. Also, i wanted some warm saturated key work to share with all the people that come and visit here. I remember first hearing Mercury Program in 2005 from Benoit Pioulard and this song and Tequesta completely grabbed me because i have a thing for vibraphones which dominate Tequesta and keys on this track always relaxes me.

Mercury Program – You Yourself Are Too Serious

That last post (particularly the OEPBS Ident) reminded me of this bonus video from the Japanese version of Boards of Canada’s Trans Canada Highway EP.

WARNING: The end is somewhat NSFW.

A small collection of Network Identifications from the 60’s-80’s. I always loved the synthesizer work on these and the mechanical video effects are something you just can’t fake. The second one down is the OEPBS (Oregon PBS) sign off from the 80’s. The beginning is just the standard PBS ident, but watch until 0:35 and you’ll seen their own amazing logo animation complete with warbling analog synth melody.

This has me feeling a bit dated, I remember vividly each of these (with the exception of the Oregon PBS Ident).

Beautiful song from the heyday of IDM and Warp Records. I’m a bit lost with some of Autechre’s work but these sorts of tunes always get me.

Autechre – Slip

Hoffman-La Roche commissioned this ad featuring photography by René Groebli for the anti-anxiety drug, Esanin. At first glance I really didn’t grasp how amazing this composition is. If you really study it you’ll see some incredible typography and layout. I love the image, the various faces blending to create these almost psychedelic colors is very striking. Those crazy Germans, why do they have to be so good? You’re making us all look bad.

Via Alki1 on Flickr.

I’m at Continental Colorcraft in LA for the Obama printing. The proofing is complete and the presses are running at full tilt. As the title suggests, they aren’t playing around at this place, the press is the size of a small house.  Some really cool 80’s era industrial design going on, great knobs and dials (the first shot looks like a Moog Modular, can’t go wrong with that). Not trying to be a tease (as some of you commented on the last post) but you can catch a couple small glimpses of the print up above.

I came across a nice cache of Jauna Gaita cover scans on Mikus Vanags’ Flickr. Some of the scans are better quality than the ones on the official JG site which I posted yesterday.

I’m sitting at San Francisco International right now waiting to fly out to Los Angeles to proof the Obama poster. I’ve got the Epson soft proof in hand (pictured above) and it’s looking good color-wise; here’s hoping they can match that with the litho. I’ll be getting a lot of shots of the process while I’m down there and, from what the campaign told me, I’ll be able to start releasing pictures of the poster within a week as long as everything goes well today. I plan on doing an in depth study of the whole process with images from various stages of the production from concept to finished product, I’ll be posting that here once the print is finished and as soon as I get the go-ahead from the campaign.

Some more pages from Graphis 190 (1977/78) via insect54