A marvellous Jazz record produced by Madlib with classy artwork. Heavily influenced by late 60s, early 70s Jazz, some groovy and more experimental tracks... just great! A beautiful product and wonderful noise coming from the house of Stones Throw! Available exclusively from the label's website until worldwide release in April 2010.
Young Jazz Rebels 'Slave Riot' 18 Tracks produced by Madlib. CD: Thick cardboard, tip-on, gatefold, and inner sleeve. Vinyl: 2/LP, duo-tone sleeve.
The Lonelady vinyl album arrived today. Regardless the vintage touch this is really fresh music. Minimal instrumentation, great songwriting, an urgent voice... Following up on her three 7" releases, Manchester's Julie Campbell produces one jewel of a debut album.
The single 'Intuition' I received earlier was accompanied by a peculiar but fitting postcard promoting the 'Manchester Modernist Society'... Class!!
If he weren't too busy because of his newborn son, music writer Joe Muggs would probably think I'm stalking him. Truth is, I've been following him on Twitter for a while and realized we approve/disapprove of similar things in music (i.e. the music industry). I started looking up on stuff he'd written and music he'd recommended earlier, which turned out to be a very satisfying endeavor. It resulted in me listening to loads of new tunes, getting more background info on stuff I had heard before, learning new things and indulging in plain reading pleasure. The most impressive is maybe his Mary Anne Hobbsinterview... If it were in my power I'd bestow on him a prize for "best music interview" for said piece.
Luckily Joe Muggs is making some of his best work accessible on his websiteververymuch.com. Check this extract from his interview with Rob Gordon:
Rob Gordon: ...a good sound is hard to obtain these days. I’d like to hear a good soundsystem these days – there’s a lot of loud ones, but we have a few problems. The first problem was that Mosfet amps came in, they came in in the late 70s, and they were really loud and really cheap and whatever, but they had no warmth in the bass. Then the next stop was the disco mixer. The disco mixer had a crossfader on it but it was never going to sound as good as that custom pre-amp that you used to use, but everyone had to have one because it was the fashion. Then the next thing was the CD, that killed it. Each step you’re getting less emotion, and when you turn it up loud it sounds like a noise instead of beautiful music like you’re in heaven. It sounds like… earplugs! You see people in clubs now with earplugs! Back then you’d see people hugging the box – it’s different sounds!
What Joe Muggs does for us is a bit like digging through dusty records and reporting from cutting edge club nights at the same time. Urban UK music has been at the heart of my interest for over 15 years now. To impress me it takes someone with the ability to take in new movements and sounds with an open mind, while reporting those findings with knowledge and respect for what came before, - be it in 140 characters or across five pages. Joe clearly masters both.
I was struggling to stay creative and productive after the birth of our son, let's hope Joe has the energy to keep it up – and that he will get the sleep needed to stay on top of it! In that sense (but by no means limited to) I wish him all the best! ~
'Soundtracking': When images from an urban walk merge with the music on your headphones. Video by Sarah Huber / CUE 2004. Music: 'DJ Screams Medic Bonus' by the Shadow Huntaz (label: Plug Research). Track two: 'MES' by Murcof (label: Leaf)
Ras G's 29 minute show for BTS Radio is on heavy rotation with us since it was 'aired' on February 2nd. Ras G presents a super heavy freaky bass laden Hip Hop, Abstract, Sci-Fi, Dub journey you mustn't miss!
Infos and and download is available from the BTS Radio site.
Also check out his wicked album 'Brotha from Anotha Planet' released on Brainfeeder.
Six artists and a film crew went to an abandoned 1970s village on the west coast of Scotland to paint. The idea and the outcome are remarkable. Some eerie beauty here by the Agents of Change!
Image: Still from the video by Agents of Change
The Ghostvillage Project was created over 3 days on the west coast of Scotland. 6 artists - Timid, Remi/Rough, System, Stormie Mills, Juice 126, Derm - were given free reign to paint in an abandoned 1970s village. Working together on huge collaborative walls and individually in hidden nooks and crannies all over the site the artists realised long held dreams and were inspired by the bleakness and remoteness of the site. Drawing on the history of the village the artists' stated intent on completion of the project was to populate the ghostvillage with the art and characters that it deserved.
A very nice book from the swiss publisher Brikett.
If one overprints two colors in offset printing one gets a new color tone. This is experimental way to design is very popular yet also risky because you never really know what you get. This books shows 12 different pantone colors overprinted.
A good assistant for graphic designers but also a very nice book.
Shown are all the overprint combinations and all the tonal shades of
100%, 80%, 60%, 40%, 20% und 10% of the following colors: Pantone 464, Pantone Orange 021, Pantone 246, Pantone 806, Pantone 805, Pantone 340, Pantone 375, Pantone 3965, Pantone 305, Pantone 3005 und Pantone 286.
Three days ago Google presented their communication app "Wave" to developers. Wave looks good, I think I like it and apparently it is open source - don't know how much of it exactly... I'm thinking though - I don't want to put even more of my stuff on Google's servers, - not to mention all of my private and business communication, documents etc... If I could run Wave on my own server that would be something...
Irish author John Banville recently had an interesting article in the New York Times on Ireland's dark history of institutionalised child abuse, drawn on the authors own biography. A recommended read.
EVERYONE knew. When the Commission to Inquire Into Child Abuse issued its report this week, after nine years of investigation, the Irish collectively threw up their hands in horror, asking that question we have heard so often, from so many parts of the world, throughout the past century: How could it happen?
One great painting by Jean-Frédéric Schnyder: «Jungfrau», 1983, Oel auf Leinwand, 80 x 60 cm (Private Collection, Bern). This is the view from Mürren towards the Mountains opposite, Schwarzmönch and Jungfrau
