Com Truise – Wave 1


New EP from Com Truise that came out a week or two ago. There are a few hit and misses on this as the pacing is quite inconsistent throughout, but there are a few stand out tracks – Subsonic, Miserere Mei and Wave 1. I still hang onto his earlier glory days creating some seriously killer mix tracks for people back in the heyday, but it’s good to see how his current influences are taking him now.

Hear it via my Spotify playlist below, alongside the In Decay digital album from 2012, containing some great loose tracks.

Some of his older remixes below:

Shirts.

It has been a bit tricky finding shirt designs I like lately. The shops seem to be heavy on surf-inspired designs (fair call considering the whole beach and Bondi bohemian thing that’s happening), brands which kind-of… don’t have a point, and American-Street-inspired stuff which isn’t quite me.

Like all the literature out there on the topic, the t-shirt is a way for one to express themselves so if you can’t find it, why not create your own? I was inspired by my friend Sid who has a habit of just getting his own shirts printed and quickly mocked up a few of my own to play around with, looking at urban Japanese contemporary photography and geometric patterns.

Shirt_3_CharlieBrown

 

Continue reading “Shirts.”

I Accidentally Some Gashapon Vending Machines

//instagram.com/p/kOvcjuCoHT

I had one of those weird motivational/ beast-mode moments a few weeks ago; it kick-started a new weekend project for me.

I woke up and sourced some Gashapon vending machines, the idea which I’ve had in the back of my mind for years but never got around to. I’ve always had an odd relationship with those machines, or any vending machines for that matter. I was fascinated by how disconnected they are from human interactions, provided very simple but basic  services and the sheer mechanics of it. Like a giant toy for grown ups – the car is to the man what a vending machine is to me. It was the catalyst for starting my Pinin project over half a decade ago. They always pop up in my thoughts – a vision of a large fleet of vending machines like an army invading a country.

A quick website was put together: akibaalley.com. I’ve had this domain parked for a while; really liked the name, but never figured out how to use it. Next thing would be to customise them, maybe hook up some unusual products and find good homes for them 🙂

 

Hands – The Soul is Quick

Hands - Soul is Quick

The Field’s Axel Willner has just released his side project, Hands, on one of Kompakt’s smaller sub-labels, Ecstatic, for what seems to be even more left-field offerings. A far cry from his previous stuff Looping State of Mind and Cupid’s Head, Willner elaborates that it’s “a protest record for when you’ve had enough of how the world works. When you find yourself taking inspiration from human decay rather then brighter things.” Damn.

Support him by purchasing the limited vinyl from good record stores (Bleep or direct from Ecstatic), or listen to it via Spotify below.

 

Via Factmag

Slowdive – Pygmalion Demos

News of Slowdive’s reunion reminded me of a moment I had listening to their stuff one late night on the bus from UNSW when I was studying. I was listening to the Pygamalion Eras Demo album and I was getting seriously hooked. It was one of the first albums during my early music exploration phase which really did my head in. It also pushed me into this never-ending spiral of listening to mellow ambient music to this very day. Listening to Slowdive to satisfy my curiosity in shoegazer at the time, this particular album opened the doors to explore moodier sounds, eventually leading me to the likes of Aphex Twin’s back catalogue and Boards of Canada.

To this day, despite how awesome Souvlaki was as an album to be one of the champions of the whole shoegazer movement, Pygmalion was ground-breaking, left-field, daring and quite ahead of its time. The demos even more so. Nothing is more fantastic and satisfying than seeing a band evolve with each new album.

Some of my favourites:

 

 

This is my happy place.

Tribute to Hong Kong 80s Action Movies

Everything I love about the classic HK 80s film: the fighting sound effects, the space tracks, the old film look, even down to the font of the opening titles. What a time it was, and I’m glad I’m not alone in thinking that. I was inspired by Sarah playing some cheesy cover synth songs on her keyboard, which lead me to think about all these Chow Yun Fat melancholic bar scenes which lead me to the below – a subculture of people paying tribute to the iconic 80s HK movie.

And to compare: