Friday ACID Post # 6 - It's Competition Time!

Fri, 03 Feb 2012 10:00:00 +0100

Because this is an AIAIAI x Spleen United joint, you have to answer two questions to get your hands on the 'Acid Rock' poster; the first is about Kasper's band and the second is about the infamous acid smiley.

T-shirt of The Week

Thu, 02 Feb 2012 16:00:00 +0100

This tee is so stupid that it does a 180 and becomes smart. And then it becomes stupid again - only to turn around again and become amazing. It takes a very special kind of person to pull this off.

Some people would say that this is also the kind of person who enjoys those novelty hats you can drink beer from and occasionally says:'pull my finger' at social gatherings. And we'll give them this: it's not the most sophisticated garment ever made.

Zomby in Sampling Struggles

Wed, 01 Feb 2012 13:00:00 +0100

Looks like one of the UK's bass music poster boys landed himself in some trouble. Zomby, whose album "Dedication" was easily one of the finest releases of 2011, has run into some accusations of sampling perhaps a little too creatively. At least that's what Brazilian producer reark argues after releasing what he claims is the original loop for "Natalia's Song" from Zomby's latest effort.

reark claims that he sent the loop to the semi-anonymous producer back in 2007, and that Zomby wanted to help him finish the track. After proposing the collaboration, however, the UK producer apparently forgot about the agreement as he posted the loop on his MySpace page and subsequently had it appear as one of the key components of "Natalia's Song".

Ad Hoc - The Future of Music Blogging?

Tue, 31 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

Back in the AIAIAI days of yore way before we had this brand-spanking new blog, we supported another Kickstarter project that was asking for donations to complete a documentary on the great, dissident, Chinese artist, Ai Wei Wei. That project turned out to be a huge success.

As a matter of fact, the documentary 'Ai Wei Wei: Never Sorry' just won the Special Jury Prize at the renowned Sundance Festival and the film that depicts Ai Wei Wei's life and corageous battle within the Chinese system is likely to screen worldwide. And now it looks like Kickstarter, the innovative, crowd-sourced fundraising platform, has more pleasant suprises up its sleeve.

Ad Hoc is essentially a coming together of the global music underground; At the helm of the project are Altered Zones bloggers Ric Leichtung and Emilie Friedlander and they've managed to enlist an impressive roster of everyone from Brighton Bloggers 20jazzfunkgreats to Berlin's No Fear of Pop in the efforts to build an 'underground music and visual culture publication created for and by a community of music lovers with a shared ethos: that of building the world you want to see using the materials at your disposal.'

Years Modified Turntable

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 13:00:00 +0100

The best ideas are very often the ones that make you go: 'Why didn't I think of that?'. Case in point is Bartholomäus Traubeck's Years Turntable, an idea that's actually so staggeringly simple that we dare say a child could have dreamt it up. However, the excecution and presentation are far from simple: using a turntable, a Playstation Eye Camera, a stepper motor and a computer running Ableton live, Traubeck has created a machine that plays slices of wood.

Years makes you rethink the relationship between the digital and the analogue and possibly even prompts you to reconsider the nature/civilization dichomtomy ever so a slightly. In the vein of artist Yuri Suzuki, who we mentioned earlier on this blog, Traubeck blurs the boundaries between the different media and makes a clever comment on our deep-seated perceptions of the world.

What's more, the music coming from the tree has a certain immediate gravity to it. When you consider the problems presently facing our planet, that's probably more than a little appropriate.

Interview: Jacaszek

Mon, 30 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100

Michal Jacaszek is Polish electroacoustic composer whose brilliant latest record, 'Glimmer', I highlighted earlier on this blog. Jacaszek has released 7 albums by now, and although I'm not familiar with his entire discography I've pretty much loved everything I've listened to up to this point. So when Ulrik suggested that I should have a little chat with Jacaszek I couldn't see any reason why we shouldn't do that. Here we are now, talking to Jacaszek about everything from how being a musician works for him, to his thoughts on being signed with Ghostly International, what music he enjoys outside of his own genre and what his plans for the future are. We had fun putting the questions together, so fingers crossed you'll like reading them.

Diana: I know that besides making your own music, you have other projects going on; working on a festival, composing theatre music... Do you, personally, find it easy/doable being a musician these days?

Jacazsek: I’ve never done anything else so it's hard to relate this to any other activity.. I think that being an artist is surprisingly more stable than any other kind of job in times of financial crisis. Many of my friends with "safe, regular jobs" in banksand companies are getting fired . I will continue to keep pursuing my music.

D: I have a thing for nifty, independent record labels and it's often that I go and search for music by labels, which is also how I found out about you. How did your collaboration with Ghostly start? Do you consider it a big success in your career to be signed with them?

J: Signing with Ghostly is a result of consequent work on music a couple of years ago. Yes this has been successful, but I dare to say that my music deserves it.

D: Your favorite artist, whose genre is considerably different from yours?

J: There is a lot of good music outside my genre. I love the Polish hardcore-punk band Armia, neo-country singer Sam Amidon, hip hop like The Roots and D’ Angelo. I listen to classical avantgarde (Messiaen), baroque chamber music (Bach, Purcell, Dowland) and many many more composers and artists.

D:It took me a couple of listens but now I'm completely infatuated with your music. I can't seem to put it into words, but there is something about the sound, the combination of the electronic and the acoustic, that just does the trick for me. Could you describe your creative process?

J: So far my music has been based on samples. I have my own library of sounds and chords taken from CDs, LPs, field recordings and more. I start with creating a sample using a keyboard and then trying to build a simple sequence or interesting sounding musical phrase. This is often enough to create a foundation for the future track – I loop the sample, I add another one, then I invite live musicians asking them to improvise to that background. This way I am gathering a material for further edtiting, manipulations, combinations etc. When the basic form of the track is ready, very often I ask musicians to play again, to add some clean instrumental parts to finalize the arrangement. This is my basic method, but I find it can be difficult to do this way. At the moment, I am working on expanding a live instrumental aspect of my creative process. I would like to minimize the electronic elements in my music.

Tribal Guarachero and the Tacky Boots

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

I was listening to Mudd Up the other day, a weekly show by DJ Rupture on WFMU, where Brian Degraw from Gang Gang Dance was the guest. Brian was playing a live set, which so far was the best thing I've heard this year. If you wanna give the show a listen, or ten, do it here.

Towards the end of the show, they talked a bit about what Brian has been up to these days, what his latest music obsessions include and so on, at which point I focused my ear as hard as I could hoping he'd disclose something fresh and dazzling. To my pleaseant surprise Brian's latest fetish for the past year or so turned out to be tribal or 3ball, music that originates from the Mexican ghetto.

3ball mixes pre-hispanic and African sounds with Cumbia basslines and an important part of its social impact are the pointed boots that came with the music. An entire subculture has evolved around this phenomenon. Guys having their own dancing crews, organize dancing competitions as well as competitions about whose boots are the longest. It's most likely the tackiest thing you've ever seen in your life, but this documentary would not be half as cool as it is without them. The style, combined with the music and the dance, reminds me of tecnobrega, or cheesy techno, music from northern Brazil, which besides the cheesy aspect ,has another thing in common with 3ball: the music distribution, from which the musicians/producers don't make any money.

Friday ACID Post # 5

Fri, 27 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

Having just realised that this whole acid thing might be a bit weird to people who don't really know that much about acid house, we decided to post the one track that's sure to stoke the fires of your acid obsession. This track is pure, upbeat yet sinister machine funk that leaves the acid competition dead in the water.

This is basically the 'Crazy in Love' of acid house. It makes any dance floor, any time, anywhere go batshit mental. And if it doesn't you're playing to a crowd that's utterly dead inside.

Interview: Leodoris

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 19:00:00 +0100

Kristian Rix and Erikka Bahnsen from Copenhagen are two rather exceptional human beings who make music together in the warped, electronic duo known as Leodoris. Big-bearded, grungy-haired Kristian takes care of the timelessly haunting, synthetic soundscapes and curly, charismatic Erikka supplies the soulfully frail, broken diva vocals to the house-y equation.

Leodoris - 'Run'

The Leodoris story is an interesting one: Kristian was on the brink of making it big with his former band Rio back in the the mid-2000s, but they disbanded just when they’d gained the support of Soulwax and BBC Radio 1. Erikka, on the other hand, has a past in the glossy world of high fashion where she worked within the inner circles of the Galliano Empire. As the dark mistress of house music fate would have it, the two creatives met a party where Erikka’s tipsy singing enthralled Kristian and made him want to provide the right dramatic setting for her off-kilter vocals. They quickly joined forces and released the single, ‘Run’, which became Guardian’s single of the week, made Copenhagen’s more with-it dance floors take notice and paved the way for a high-profile remix of avant-popsters Metronomy.

Metronomy - 'Corinne' (Leodoris Remix)

The duo are currently considering their next move amidst heated label interest and kicking out the jams, and if it all pans out 2012 should be the year where you hear a lot more of Leodoris.

We caught up with Kristian in his home studio for a chat about irony-free expression, the state of house music and Kurt Cobain’s hair.

AIAIAI: How did you first get into music?

KR: I actually have a pretty concrete memory of that. It was when I got a Kurt Cobain poster and saw his hair. That’s when I immediately told my dad that I wanted a guitar and he was kind enough to buy me one. And actually a few years later I brought a VHS tape with Stone Temple Pilots MTV unplugged to my hairdresser paused it and pointed on the tv and said “I want that!”. It was hugely expensive as it took three different hair colors. I shaved it all of a month later... but it was Kurt Cobain and his hair that first made me pick up the guitar. And then I played in high school bands – we played a lot of hard rock like Faith No More, Helmet, Pantera or whatever it took to get people stage diving.

A: And when did you start getting interested in other genres than hard rock?

KR: I’ve always listened to everything irrespective of genre tags, and a lot of pop music too, but I guess it was Roni Size’s ‘Brown Paper Bag’ that really opened my ears to the powers of repetitive music. Drum’n’Bass really clicked for me and that’s what got me further into electronic music and house. I would spend a lot of time in Loud (Copenhagen vinyl record store –ed.). And ever since I’ve been really focused on house and techno in all its many forms. 5 years ago I was in a group called Rio and we got released on a small Berlin-based indie label. We actually played at the legendary Berlin club also named Rio. That place was packed and had an amazing atmosphere, I was told it was because people were just drunk instead of being on drugs. Anyways, our track got support from Soulwax, it was played on the Essential Mix on BBC Radio 1 - and it was also featured on a few Ministry of Sound Compilations.

A: Wow, I had no idea.

KR: That’s probably because we broke up a month after we got aired on the radio etc. One guy moved to London and everyone except me had become dads, which made the logistics difficult. We just drifted apart because of practicalities, I think…

A: Yeah, it sounds like you split up just when it was time to go for broke.

KR: That was definitely the case. It was insanely stupid to call it quits at that time (laughs). But after we split up I did a lot of remix work for various artists kept dj’ing now and then and around a year ago I started Leodoris. Leodoris just sort of happened because we were sitting at a friends place, getting drunk and singing. I suddenly heard Erikka’s voice, which is by no means a schooled, traditional singing voice but it just had a certain something that made me excited enough to go:’wow, if those we can get to a point where a complete song is made out of all those beautiful fragments that were hidden between all the tipsy jamming errors we could really have something special’

A: So you’ve essentially built Leodoris around Erikka’s vocals?

KR: I guess you could say that, yes. I’ve always been interested in off-kilter vocals. A voice that’s teetering on the edge of falling over and hurting itself is interesting to me, and that probably has something to do with the fact that I’ve always veered towards the dramatic and the cinematic.

A: Have you always been dramatically inclined?

KR: I guess so. Even when I try not to! I mean Pantera is also pretty dramatic (laughs). But I think what it comes down to is that I’m seeking a form of expression, which is pure and above all honest. And that is very much what Leodoris is about; being honest in a sense that we want to make music out of what sounds good to us. To write songs that are heartfelt and build on sounds that we’ve picked because of their character rather than what genre they might originate from or what sort of referencing they make.

A: What sort of equipment do you use?

KR: Well, everything comes together in Ableton Live. My latest acquisition is this iPad dock, which I’m really into at the moment (plays a few synth notes). You get all these great apps that cost next to nothing and a lot of them sound great.

War - Brodermordet

Wed, 25 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0100

If you’re not Danish and it bums you out that you can’t tell what Elias is saying/singing, don’t worry: we haven’t the faintest idea either. These are yet more unintelligible, muddled lyrics that sound great in an intense, lo-fi context but for all we know they might as well mean:’ I’m washing the dishes and in two minutes I’ll be petting my golden retriever ever so lovingly’.

War is comprised of Elias Rønnenfelt from Iceage and Loke Rahbek from Sexdrome and the single ‘Brodermordet’, which means brother murder alludes to the biblical story of Cain and Abel. It also packs a bit of a poppy punch and sounds a little bit like a youthful Suicide getting a brain-freeze from their ice-cream onboard a merry-go-round in an English seaside town. This is a good thing.

Fragment: Mikkel Metal

Tue, 24 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

If you haven't heard of Mikkel Metal we urge you to check out his vast back catalogue on Kompakt and Echocord right this minute. Here he is talking about techno, technology and philosophy. Enjoy.

Review: The Big Pink - Future This

Mon, 23 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100

When The Big Pink ripped up the intersection between classic British rock'n'roll attitude, laid back hip hop beats, and cool electro shoegaze with 2009's 'A Brief History of Love,' the band rested comfortably in the slipstream of many a contemporary rock-out-with-your–Korg-out outlet. Fast forward three years, and follow-up record 'Future This' marks a venture into synthesizer territory over the guitar-centric sound that once defined the band.

"Forgive your lovers, but don't forget their names," muses Robbie Furze on opener 'Stay Gold.' Nope, this is not a record about slaying girls like dominoes. Still, The Big Pink's rhetorics remain anything but modest. Swooshing synthesizers and falsetto vocals are excellent for bold statements, and the duo relies heavily on both throughout the album.

Although the two seem eager to craft an album that is grand in every sense of the word, "Future This" leaves you wanting. For all their ambitions and good intentions, The Big Pink might have bitten off more than they could chew on this one. Every now and then, the duo's swing-for-the-fences instrumentation is matched by both lyrics and melody. Most of the time, however, that is not the case.

AIAIAI @ The NAMM Show

Fri, 20 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

And if you’re at NAMM tonight, you should most definitely come by for this here party that we’re co-hosting with our buds from Teenage Engineering and Stüssy.

The Teenage boys will be showing their latest innovations such as their new Musical Experimental Board and the OP-1 os update, and we’ll be unveiling our new TMA-1 Studio headphones aimed at producers, DJs and music professionals

Come and have a look and a drink and say hi!

Piquant Porcelain from CTRLZAK Studio

Thu, 19 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0100

Highlighting the mixing of aesthetics between Eastern and Western production, this is far from your average porcelain. This particular selection might seem a tad out of place at granny’s coffee table, but we have a feeling it would help create just the right atmosphere when the organic afternoon tea is served in East Berlin’s Prenzlauer Berg.

Some of us just came home from Berlin, city of all that is forward-thinking and ahead of the game, and we did scope quite a bit of colour and exotic pattern on the streets and in certain shops (BLESS, we're looking in your direction).

AIAIAI @ Capsule Berlin

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

The AIAIAI crew will be making our way to one of our favourite cities this week as the Capsule tradeshow in Berlin takes off and has cascades of brands, designers, and journalists descend on the German capital.

We’re looking forward to catching up with old friends and meeting some new ones, and if you happen to find yourself at Capsule from the 19th – 20th, you should come and say hi and have a look at the new Capital headphones at our booth. That’s an order.

Terje and The Arps

Mon, 16 Jan 2012 09:00:00 +0100

What happens when you pair a Norwegian remix and edit wizard with an ARP 2600 synthesizer? Well, if the artist happens to be Todd Terje, the delightful result is a three track EP on Oslo's finest Smalltown Supersound imprint. After killing it with last year's Ragysh EP (featuring, of course, the irresistible Snooze 4 Love), this release finds Terje exploring even weirder more playful soundscapes.

Despite his roots in the cold North, Terje has an impressive ear for bouncy disco house. On opener Inspector Norse - which just might rival the double punch on Ragysh as his finest work to date - a shamelessly funky 70s disco bass line flirts with bubbly synth waves. It's peak hour like peak hour is supposed to be, as you find yourself bouncing around with your hands flying around somewhere above your head.

Friday ACID Post # 4

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

In this particular ACID post, we're bigging up some local talent. We recently posted Brynjolfur's remix of Shanghai's 'Mine, Mine, Mine', which prompted the up-and-coming producer to send us more of his stuff. When the AIAIAI ministry of ACID discovered that the Copenhagen-based Faroe Islander shares our love of acid house, a tiny tear escaped the corners of our eyes.

'This kid's going places!' we said with trembling voices and moved hearts. His remix of Rosa Lux's 'Lose You' may not qualify as acid house in the strictest sense, but it is most certainly acidic enough for us.

James Friedman In The Mix

Fri, 13 Jan 2012 15:00:00 +0100

There was a time around 5 -6 years ago when DJ mixes were so dizzyingly eclectic that you began to question if they were actually DJ mixes. Maybe mix tapes would be a more accurate description of the sets from all those DJs who weren’t afraid to thrown in everything AND the kitchen sink to see if it would work in a dance floor context. Sometimes it did, sometimes it didn’t.

Firmament Party at Cookies in Berlin with Radio Slave and Portable

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 21:00:00 +0100

Are you doing anything on Tuesday? No? Then you should come to this bangin party that features good music, great company and good vibes. Put this in your pipe and smoke it: Radio Slave AKA Matt Edwards, the man who's been putting out an exorbitant amount of quality sound for more than a decade is playing.

So is Portable AKA Bodycode, whose subtly emotive techno has been a mainstay in the electronic connoiseur's playlist since he started producing in 2002. Mark our words, this will be a night to remember. And if you don't remember it, hopefully someone will have taken some pictures, or something.

'Shut Up And Play The Hits' Documentary Captures LCD Soundsystem's Last Stand

Thu, 12 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0100

Whether or not you like LCD Soundsystem or James Murphy, you can't really deny the crucial importance of DFA and that label's music nerdy boss when it comes to the overall aesthetic and sound of the 00s. If there actually was an indentifiable hipster movement in the past decade, we would argue that DFA represented the good part of said movement. There's nothing inherently 'snarky' or 'vacuous' about being extremely knowledgable about obscure punk or house music - and James Murphy just seemed like the kind of guy that you could happily sit around and discuss Captain Beefheart B-sides with for hours on end. LCD Soundsystem came off like a down-to-earth project from beginning to end while still keeping that all-important X-factor intact.

'Shut Up And Play The Hits' takes a look at how the band went out on a high note at their final show at Madison Square garden. The concert that apparently had all the reviewers in tears and left the participants screaming for more LCD Soundsystem. This trailer does look a wee bit melodramatic and overblown, but that's most likely because they're hoping to bring LCD Soundsystem to the wider public - and ultimately sell more tickets.

The Design Museum Nominates the TMA-1 as Design of The Year

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 12:00:00 +0100

Our friends at KiBiSi are nominated in the product category with our TMA-1 and we're thrilled, to say the least. This year's nominees are a particularly diverse bunch as: ' The longlist covers an eclectic mix of designs including the Olympic Torch 2012 for London, designed by Barber Osgerby, the Duchess of Cambridge’s Wedding Dress, designed by Sarah Burton for Alexander McQueen and a wind-propelled Landmine Detonator which cost $40 to produce. Nominations also include the Kinect for Xbox 360, the first ever Virtual Tesco Store, the Olympic 2012 Velodrome and a pop-up cinema (Folly for a Flyover) in Hackney, East London.'

The nominess in the product category are:
Ascent, London, UK
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby

pq Eyewear Collections A-frame and Corbs
Ron Arad

Botanica, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Studio Formafantasma

Carbon Black Wheelchair
Andrew Slorance

Defibtech Lifeline VIEW™ Automated External Defibrillator (AED), LLC Guilford, USA
Defibtech

Heracleum, Schiedam, Netherland
Studio Bertjan Pot

Hövding Invisible Cycle Helmet
Hövding

Jawbone JAMBOX, San Francisco, USA
Yves Béhar, Fuseproject

The Learning Thermostat, USA
Nest, Palo Alto

Mine Kafon, Eindhoven, Netherlands
Massoud Hassani

London 2012 Olympic Torch, UK
Edward Barber and Jay Osgerby

Orb-it
Black and Decker

Shade, London, UK
Simon Heijdens

Solar Sinter, London, UK
Markus Kayser Studio

Thixotrope, London, UK
Conny Freyer, Sebastien Noel and Eva Rucki of Troika

TMA-1 Headphones
KIBiSi

Totem, London, UK
Bethan Laura Wood in collaboration with Pietro Viero

White Collection, Finland
Ville Kokkonen

For the complete list of nominees at this year's Designs of The Year, check out: Designs of The Year

T-shirt of The Week

Wed, 11 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

We like our WACKY! ZANY! tees here at AIAIAI HQ. In fact, today, our art director, Mix, is wearing som kind of drooling Donald Duck on his chest and I myself seem to be wearing two scantily clad ladies getting it on within a Mickey Mouse shape. How do you like THEM apples?

In the spirit of our T-shirt love we bring you (cue trompets) the weekly T-shirt.

In this week's edition, you get to feat your eyes on the 'Fuck Yo Couch' tee by Amongst Friends. If you've seen the Chappelle Show sketch, you know what the deal is. If you haven't, check it out above. This is a classy tee, featuring classy people doing classy things. Get it here

Spleen United - Days of Thunder

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 18:00:00 +0100

How Kasper managed to cram so many Tracks into this video is a bit of a mystery. Or at least no one told me how it happened? Anyways,
This is the boys' first single from the album 'School of Euphoria' and and it's a bit of a winner. Spleen United have evolved into a better, more diverse band that incorporate a wealth of interesting influences into a sound that never becomes too retrospective despite its clear new beat and acid house references.

'Glimmer': Jacaszek's Winter Spell

Tue, 10 Jan 2012 10:00:00 +0100

It's been a while since I listened to classical stuff but I got into it again over Christmas. I guess it's because most of the music that have the classical ingredients, which I enjoy listening to is depressing, to some extent, and although it's the beautiful and sweet kind of depression, it's easier to endure that state of mind when at home in your own bed, with nothing to worry about - besides making sure you're gonna make mom happy by eating as much food from the fridge as you possibly can. It was also more winter-y back home than here in Copenhagen, so it just felt right. Classical, sombre music just goes better with winter and snow.

As I was listening to the new release by Polish musician Jacaszek in the comfort of my bed while watching the snow falling outside the window, it totally hit me: It's just the kind of album you want to listen to on a long gloomy winter night in a mountain cottage with a fireplace, alone. Fireplace is quite essential here. You should consider getting one before getting his newest Glimmer, really. I have a feeling it'll make a massive difference hearing the album with a crackling fire in the background. Well, that's the way I feel about this record, anyway. You may want to listen to it on different occasions, like when performing a voodoo ritual or going fishing, I don't know.

I'm neither a classical music expert and this genre is not something I enjoy on weekly basis, nor did I crap my pants listening to this album. But it did get a substantial amount of my attention, also because of the fact that Jacaszek as an Eastern European artist, was released on Ghostly International, an indie label whose name resonated forcefully in 2011. Glimmer goes on my list of beautifully depressing records, for sure. Its extensive use of harpsichord makes for the Gothic ambience and the music has an almost enchanting, atmospheric feel to it. The sadness of this record makes you feel something without bringing you down.

The TMA-1 Studio: Sneak Preview

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

Luciano, The Man, The Myth, The Miscreant

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 14:00:00 +0100

Aaah, Luciano. One day they’ll erect a platinum statue in your honor. Underneath it there will be an inscription that says:’ In the year zero of our Lord Luciano, the bejewelled Emperor of getting down caused a rupture in space-time with a single drop of a track and thus caused all of humanity to weep tears of infinite wisdom’.

If that doesn't happen, maybe they’ll just remember you as a really good DJ.

Björk Biophilia Residency in New York

Mon, 09 Jan 2012 11:00:00 +0100

You have to hand it to Björk. Throughout her illustrious career she’s managed to stay true to her singular vision while simultaneously morphing into spectacular new shapes and sounds. Her latest project is no less impressive and further cements her status as a one of the true innovators of the new decade.

The awe-inspiring Biophilia project is an ’app album’, meaning that it’s made up of a number of song-specific apps, which are all contained within one ‘mother app’. The system effectively allows users to interactively use the various parts and structures of her music to create their own version of Björks vision, as it were. Through creative remixing of Biophilia’s elements, Björk’s original material takes on eclectic new meanings.

2012, I Salute You Mix from Tomas Barfod

Sun, 08 Jan 2012 22:00:00 +0100

As it's previously been mentioned on this blog, our buddy Tomas Barfod is a bit of a multitalent who's got a million (good) projects going all at once. He recently moved to L.A. where the sun shines considerably brighter than here in Denmark at this time of year, and call us ker-razy but it feels like a bit of gauzy L.A. sunshine has filtered into the '2012, I Salute You Mix'. Even the techno is sort of warm and dreamy.

We're told that his solo album is coming along nicely, and to be honest we're impressed that he has time to record a quality mix between finding a place in LA, drumming for WhoMadeWho, working on projects for us and God knows what else. Well done, Tomas. And send us more of this stuff. We salute YOU.

A Drive With Johnny Jewel

Sat, 07 Jan 2012 16:00:00 +0100

If it's retrofuturistic, somewhat disco-inspired, and involves a range of moody synthesizers, chances are that Johnny Jewel is involved. Releasing music as part of Glass Candy, Desire, and Chromatics among others, Jewel has consistently pushed high quality music and secured himself a spot as the number one nu-disco posterboy (when that genre was still in vogue, of course).

While loyal followers of the Italians Do It Better imprint account for the majority of his fans, Jewel's fanbase has rapidly expanded recently. Among the newcomers is Danish film maker Nicolas Winding Refn, whose work includes last year's 'Drive.' Refn previously used a Glass Candy track for his 2008 movie Bronson and wanted Jewel to compose the entire score for 'Drive.' As a result, Jewel crafted more than three hours worth of music and was closely involved with the production of the movie. For reasons unknown, however, Jewel's score wax axed before the final cut. So, when you find yourself left with three hours of seemingly unreleasable music, what do you do next?

Capital - The New Headphones From AIAIAI

Thu, 05 Jan 2012 17:00:00 +0100

Capital was born out of a wish to create a pair of headphones that speaks to the inhabitants of the world’s major cities. People who want great sound that isn’t compromised by rain, snow or hail, who appreciate distinctive design and need flexible headphones that can take a beating.

This is why Capital delivers on all these fronts: Made out of nylon reinforced with fibreglass with a lightweight rubber-brace, the headphones are built to withstand heavy, everyday use in urban environments. It’s also tested to withstand the rapidly changing environments of the city while delivering clear and crisp sound from the protected 40mm driver. The materials have been handpicked for durability, and the design lets you adjust to your own perfect, comfortable fit. When you need to take them off, you just fold them right up and store them in the included carrying pouch. Simple as that.