What a perfect surprise from Bibio, listening to him form his sound over the years puts a smile on my face, so true and upbeat this one came out to be.

There is no surprise Chaz nailed the soulful end of the dance 12″ world, his Les Sins project is coming out wonderfully, reminds me of Osborne on Spectral Sound.

Baths is back with emotional bleeps, its like a IDM producer from 2002 is came back in 2013 with some vocal confidence.

Matthew Dear guests on the new DJ Koze album, Koze always mental pushes the boundaries and you can count on hearing something hypnotic and unusual joining hands.

With such stark contrast between the subtleties of the salt and the void created by cloth, at first blush, you’d think these were illustrations or oil paintings. Meet Shanghai artist / photographer Bence Bakonyi. There’s something so clever in how he twists your sense of medium & scale. Find more of his work on Behance.

With my love for trees and my love for prints I think Bryan Nash Gill’s Woodcuts are the perfect marriage. I love the complete organic nature of his prints. Be sure and check out the video as well, as it shows some of his process.

The Brooklyn / DC label that is brought us Solar Year & Bam Spacey puts together a playlist showing off their depth and a short story about each artist.

1. Young Athletes League “We Only Feed Ourselves”

Every label needs a first release. A 3 track EP from London’s Young Athletes League was ours. We found YAL through a Phil Collins remix he posted via MySpace which lead to discovering his original works. Thinking about it now I feel really old but MySpace is making a come back right? “We Only Feed Ourselves” is the title track as well as the closing track to that release — 7.5 minutes of lo-fi electronic bliss.

2. Solar Year “Lines”

This is one of my favorite Solar Year tracks. Everything just works here from start to finish. This track, and Solar Year in general, give off this underlining feeling of dread that is at the same time strangely pop leaning and warm. It may just be how I perceive it but it’s perfect in my book. It most likely has a lot to do with the contrast between Ben’s productions and David’s incredible high reaching vocals. The Waverly album is now re-mastered and sounding incredible, this is a stand out from the flip side.

3. Albert Swarm “Aging Out”

Actually haven’t listened to the first Albert Swarm EP in a while, it’s been Wake (his second release) 24/7. Was really nice revisiting this track when putting the playlist together. “Aging Out” is probably one of the very first songs I heard from the Albert Swarm project. I think the track really speaks for itself.

4. The Soft “Mori (Elysia Edit)”

This is where the playlist get a little warmer! Really excited about the upcoming EP from The Soft. Produced by Luke Abbott and David Pye who just did some production for Brolin. “Mori” is an immense pop track we released for free at the end of 2012, this remix was done by Henry from the band under his Elysia moniker. Without much snuff Henry took this track straight to the dance floor.

5. Prism House “Need You (Part I)”

The Prism House project is our very first NYC signing and we just released their debut Reflections EP on March 5. Love the variety of samples clicking in and out throughout this track as a desperate sounding bass line tries to find some sort of footing but Prism House aren’t really letting it happen.

6. Bam Spacey “Dessa brander”

Hard to choose one track from Bam Spacey. I really wanted to put up some of the unreleased/upcoming stuff because it’s brilliant but he probably wouldn’t be too pleased with that. “Dessa Brander” was the very last single we did from the Land EP. Imagery wise it sits somewhere towards the end of Blade Runner just before the end credits roll as Deckard is driving further and further away from LA and headed towards the horizon. This track plays right around that time and I’d like to think Deckard is taking his girl out to the beach because she’s probably never seen one before and romance ensues.

7. Glenn Jackson “You Too”

This has to be one of my favorite tracks we’ve put out to date. Glenn has a knack for pacing a track to feel just right and “You Too” is a beautiful example of that. One of the more positive and uplifting tracks we’ve done so far cause you know… feeling good is pretty important. The build is exceptional — you wait and wait for that drop and when it happens you’re cruising, shades on, not looking back.

Showcase show tonight in Brooklyn, Flyer by: Alex Koplin

We’re honored to be able to share Benoit Pioulard’s new album Hymnal on its day of release, he is probably the blogs most written about and loved artist for many years. Let this one play in full, my highlights include: Reliquary, Excave, Margins and Litiya. Enjoy.

TRACKLIST
01/ Mercy
02/ Hawkeye
03/ Reliquary
04/ Homily
05/ Excave
06/ Gospel
07/ Florid
08/ Margin
09/ Censer
10/ Litiya
11/ Knell
12/ Foxtail

Purchase the LP | digital

Roosevelt reminds me of chillwave without the lo-fi ala Washed Out & Toro Y Moi, but it goes beyond song writing skills, he knows his production well, he’s the perfect hybrid of how survive and what to make post Neon Indian, did you catch all my name drops?

Mirror Kisses sticks to his guns, keeps perfecting the sound he loves, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED!

Fujimoto Tetsuro fuses together that Sepalcure sound with that beauty of glitch done soo damn right, its funk its light its something refreshing.

Mark Fell’s new project for Editions Mego takes diva vocals into a future dark world being rained down on by icy thin harpoons from digital synths, has that Detroit flavor I love.

Mid May is the release of the new Small Black LP on Jagjaguwar, some might remember them as the backing band for Washed Out early on but we’ve always supported them and their music on ISO50, HIGHLY RECOMMENDED.

The end of Emeralds means plenty more music from each band member. Mark McGuire is back at prime form with this extend work of a track off the upcoming LP.

I can see Emma Louise working on a Tycho track, maybe its just the mood of the production that makes me think that.

The Purity Ring sound bubble keeps growing with followers and impersonators, I wonder what the rest of this record sounds like?

Been loving the collection of photos in Michael Light’s 100 Suns, showing the first few moments of nuclear bomb tests that took place in the 1950’s. If you haven’t seen this before, the science behind capturing these images is also a great read.

UK illustrator Neil Stevens a.k.a. crayonefire designed these beautiful prints inspired by vintage flight and baggage tags.

Also, check out his great set of cassette tribute prints titled Don’t Forget the Cassette, that Owen and I are drooling over.

The Sheats Goldstein house might be the most frequently photographed piece of property in LA (if you haven’t seen it on innumerable blogs like Curbed, or from the video walk through Charles posted awhile ago, you probably remember it from The Big Lebowski)—so obviously, I jumped at the chance to take a tour of the iconic house with architect Duncan Nicholson, who has been restoring and adding to the property since the ’90s. And as much as I tried to restrain my trigger finger, I took a ridiculous amount of photos to add to the home’s documentation—apologies for the seemingly endless scroll above.

Obviously, it’s an amazing house—but I’m most interested in its evolution through the ages. James Goldstein purchased the house in 1972, and then re-hired John Lautner to improve upon the house (and undo some questionable renovations)—the torch was passed to Nicholson, who has been carrying on the work to date.

Duncan started working for Lautner in 1989, and one of his first projects at the firm was to collaborate with James Turrell on his ‘Skyspace’ for the property. The corresponding concrete decks and walkways he designed that connect the house to the Skyspace take you on a near surreal procession through the rain forest-like gardens on the property.

He was also the project architect on the living room installation and designed most of the furniture, some of which was of course immortalized on film when The Dude sat there drinking his laced White Russian.

The plans for the most ambitious phase of the project, including a guest house, tennis court, nightclub and terrace, were shelved for almost 10 years after Lautner passed in 1994. Work on the project resumed in 2003 and has been ongoing ever since. Currently under construction is the nightclub that lives beneath what is arguably the most stunning tennis court in existence. All components of the addition make use of poured-in-place concrete, staying true to Lautner’s original aesthetic, one that somehow manages to make concrete feel warm and organic.

Thanks to David John for the introduction and many facts via his You Have Been Here Sometime interview with Duncan Nicholson.