Yeti Ball

Last week, it was spring holiday in the south part of Holland. Spring was very invisible; we all had to bear with the rain and wind. But in between showers I found the time to go the the screenprinting workshop and make some long overdue prints.. just for fun!


This Yeti (his bark is worse than his bite) is a screenprinted version of a sketch I did for Bombay Showpig. This Amsterdam/The Hague/Leiden based band asked me to design stuff for their merchandise and website. Off course I was thrilled when I got the phonecall, because that would be the job of my dreams! I was extra happy when I heard the song below, because it reminds me of Pretty Girls Make Graves a little bit. More tunes and artwork will follow!

Bombay Showpig - Yeti Ball (demo) get it here (ysi).

Do it for Daan

Our (former class-/house-)mate Daan a.k.a. Botlek designed a t-shirt voor Threadless. We urge you all to vote for his design so it gets printed and he can pay off his debts! Oh and because it is FREAKIN' awesome! Do it here.

It's all I can Talk Talk about

So here I went... off to my favorite record store in The Hague for some very necessary vinyl. I wanted to find some female hiphop and some ragga. But before I went to the 'urban' section I went through a pile of low-budget records and found something that would soon become a bit of an obsession. It has been for four weeks now, but we're still counting...


This Talk Talk record It's My life was only 2,50 and I knew I hated Such a Shame, but I knew I loved It's my life, so I bought it. I generally try to ignore tracks that get airtime at Arrow Classic Rock because that is better for my reputation. But this early eighties album is a gem. This sound is filed under New-Romantic or Post-Rock. Which are horrible horrible words that I identify with dirty old men and dried flowers. Besides that, I recognize the brilliance and intensity of Mark Hollis's voice and the tastefull arrangements and production. I can definately see that this album could have been a big influence on personal heroes such as Chromatics, John Maus and Caribou. In which case post-rock turns into experimental psychedelic electronic music which sounds much more artistic and intelligent. But either dried flowers or avantgarde, this record has become my anthem and on that note I'm playing it AGAIN.

Talk Talk - Tomorrow Started Get it here (ysi)

Talk Talk - It's My life Get it here (ysi)

massive tunes on a mini disc

Does anyone remember the MINI DISC? For those of you who don't, it was (I quote wonderful Wiki here) "a magneto-optical disc-based data storage device initially intended for storage of up to 80 minutes of digitized audio. Introduced in 1992, the MiniDisc was targeted as a replacement for the analog cassette audio tape system. Despite having a loyal customer base (primarily musicians and audio enthusiasts), MiniDisc met with only limited success."


I had one and I thought it was the coolest thing.. As it were the mid '90s a lot of my little discs were filled with triphop and drum 'n bass type a stuff. For instance I had all the Massive Attack albums on MiniDisc. But at a certain point my precious gadget broke down and I never listened to Massive Attack again. Up until two weeks ago, when my friends from the Word Virus Essay asked me if I wanted to come along to one of the three charity gigs that MA was putting up for the Hoping Foundation, an organization in aid of Palestinian refugee children. The ticket wasn't cheap, but it was for a good cause and it turned out to be a show that was worth every penny..

The concert was held yesterday in nearby Newport (supposedly the worst city in the UK!), just across the water from MA's native Bristol. The venue was a leisure center with a tropical swimming pool, squash, etc. It had a faint smell of chlorine throughout and judging by the lines on the floor the main hall doubled as a basketball field. And when I got lost on my way to the toilets I ran into literally rows of old fashioned bubble gum machines. I bought a giant "jaw breaker", which I frantically tried to finish before the first beat dropped.

Anyways.. I thought the light (a giant LED light wall) and sound and band (including two drummers) were amazing. Best of all were the guest vocalists they brought with them: Horace Andy (the man is a legend!), Martina Topley Bird (who you also might know from her collaborations with Tricky) and Shara Nelson (who sang Unfinished Symphony and Save from Harm).

Their new album Heligoland came out this week and track number 4 has been stuck on repeat! "Tune, innit?"


Massive Attack feat. Horace Andy - Girl I love you. Get it here (YSI). But I suggest you buy it and play it properly over your sound system. Loud!

hark!

I realized it has been TWO MONTHS since I last posted some music here! Not good. But I've got loads of good tunes I want to force upon you after my recent session of what we call "harken" (= Dutch for raking) on the Hype Machine. On this website you'll find all the MP3s that are posted on music blogs, it's a goldmine!! Now HARK!

I start off with this sweet indie tune coming from musicwise-the-hottest-place-on-earth: Brooklyn NY.

The Drums - Let's Go Surfing. Get it here (YSI).
I came across loads of tunes with this fuzzy shoegazy late 80's/early 90's sound. If you like it have a listen to Liechtenstein, Dum Dum Girls, The Mayfair Set, Pomegranates and of course Vivian Girls and The Pains of Being Pure At Heart. Is this going to be the sound of 2010?? Hmmm...

Now a cross-over project that actually works! Blues rockers The Black Keys do it with some of the best rappers around, among which Raekwon, Mos Def, Pharoahe Monch and Ludacris. They even brought Ol'Dirty Bastard back from the dead!

Blakroc - Coochie Coo (feat. Mos Def and Jim Jones).
Get it here (YSI).

More great hip hop from Kidz in the Hall. This a track from their new album, which will be released in March. Via Squeegie.

Kidz In The Hall - Jukebox. Get it here (YSI).



South Rakkas Crew feat. Serocee - So It Go.
There is more where this came from! The nice fellows at Mad Decent are giving away South Rakkas Crew's new album The Stimulus Package for FREE! Get it here!

My dearest Schlachthofbronx teaming up with Playdoe's Spoek... this must be good. And it is. Love that drum band sound! May be not everybody's cup of tea, but definitely mine!!

Schlachthofbronx - Ayoba (feat. Spoek and Gnucci Banana).

Get it here (YSI).

The one and only Uffie's back, now f*ck off Ke$ha!!!!
Via Rutger, thanks!

Uffie - MCs Can Kiss (Original). Get it here (YSI).

Usually dubstep is a serious matter, dark and grim. But this spoof of Caspa's remix of TC's Where's My Money? is a good laugh. Via You Can Call Me Pelski.

Parker - Where's my monkey? Get it here (YSI).

kill your darlings

After just a couple of hours of bad sleep we woke up today (Sunday!) at 7.00 a.m. (again!) to continue working on the maquettes. But as they were almost finished we decided it was time for a radical change. Geeske decided to buy 60 kilos of plaster to flood the dreamscapes and Nanna's team let go of their material pieces and decided to go for something more abstract... With just a couple of evenings left and loads of work to do we predict more sleepless nights!

workshop Going Dutch (Dolls)

So here we are, snowed in in Amsterdam... Luckily we are stuck on the top floor of a beautiful old building, overlooking the big flea market at Waterlooplein with 22 talented and enthusiastic students from all over Europe.

While they are busy cutting foam and creating a little utopia out of matchsticks, vegetables, charcoal, straws, wires and jelly, we finally found some time to blog! Yesterday we started the workshop "Going Dutch" at the Amsterdam Academy of Architecture. We're coaching 22 out of the 150 (international) students to create their dream landscape the Dutch way. Which means there's lots of talking and debate about what your ideal landscape looks like and how this can become one big piece of land. Quite a challenge! It's all about the process, so we'll keep you posted!!