Deckhead 2.0

Never been a huge fan of men in tights, but perhaps the fashion label The Twelfth Letter might change my mind. Something that never goes out of style in my opinion is androgyny, which is ever present in this collection ‘Something That is Born Must Grow’. The pieces appear to be easily transferable between male and female, in fact the two models in the photograph could swap their clothes and still look fantastic.

The cohesiveness of the collection is undeniable, as well as the versatility of each of the garments. The pull-cord jacket and vests are stand out pieces that would be the staple of any good outfit. The basic, yet immaculately fitted shapes of the undergarment ensures their longevity. As well as some of the tops having pockets, which is always a great and convenient detail.

This clearly is a collection conceptualised, driven and executed with artistic vision in mind. This body of work from The Twelfth Letter is a good example of a fine balance between artistic visualisation and real world practicality, which produces an artistically uncompromised result. It’s always great when you see young designers creating fashion that is firmly grounded in it’s concept and vision, where the pieces tell a story rather than being a superficial stream of fabrics.

As a brand, it appears The Twelfth Letter has found it’s nook in the design world, their distinctive style is communicated through this collection. The clothes are subversive in their ability to look cutting edge yet completely wearable with timeless shapes. Best of all these clothes look cool AND comfortable at the same time, really…what else can you ask for?

To see the full collection you can go to The Twelfth Letter website or their Facebook page.  You can also watch a small clip of the photo shoot on Vimeo.

Alyssa

What cannot be said about Central Coast DJ/Producer Aaron Lee North?

Well for starters he was a runner up on FBI’s underage sets for consectuvie years, he is already a big name in the Sydney music scene holding down residencies at Chinese Laundry, Moulin Rouge and Candy’s. His production work also hasn’t gone un noticed having been signed to Bass Kleph’s Vacation records and as a dj he is managed by the aweome Jam Music crew. I truly believe he is a man with a great future in this music industry. He has also formed a production/DJ duo with fellow Central Coast boy Benson the crew is well known as Brain Matters DJ’s and the spearhead of his own design company entitled Heres Johnny Promotions.

and to think he only just turned 20…

I guess I could write all I want about what he has done, and how good he is, but too be honest the truth is in the pudding. Northie has sent me a few of his latest tracks, on offer today we have a clever little bootleg sampling the Fresh Prince, a multi layered mash up and a remix for Melbourne band For Our Hero.

♪ Northie – Looking Fresh (Fresh Prince Bootleg)
♪ Northie – JSided (Jesse Rose, Justin Timberlake, Kelis Mashup)
♪ For Our Hero – Mr. Prozac (Northie Remix)

Bonus:

I think this is pretty much a match made in heaven, two of my favorite up and coming producers at the moment are Hey Now & Brain Matters, well I have just been sent through the Brain Matters remix of Hey Now’s epic track Bring That. Remember to get Hey Now’s debut ep simply type in “Hey Now Queens Boulevard”  into Itunes and you can purchase it for the low cost of $7!

♪ Hey Now – Bring That (Brain Matters Remix)

Northie links -
Myspace
Facebook
Twitter

If your a fan of the For Our Hero remix, check out their Myspace as they have some pretty cool tracks!

Jax

Superstar Hip Hop artist Bangs has been called a lot of things this week. It seems that he is the latest sensation to come out of Melbourne, however the question remains does he know it? Nobody can track him down, a Facebook fan page has been set up but it is has been created by one loyal fan, it would be interesting to see how Mr Bangs responds to his new found superstardom. This just in, Andrew Levins aka Sleater Brockman has actually spoken to the man, so he does exist !

Early today while singing some bangs lyrics I started wondering what would one get when you combine his catchy lyrics with the amazing work of (in my opinion) Australia’s best electronic producers the Bag Raiders? Well here is a little 30 second clip as to what Bag Raiders have come up with! Is there more to come? Only time will tell…

In other Bag Raiders news, they are slowly working on their debut album and have completed two tracks and working on a third, they also have their own wikipedia page.

To keep you happy here are some bonus Bag Raider jams !

This track was one of their first bootlegs that put them on the map

♪ K I M – Party Machini (Bag Raiders Remix)

Can the original shooting stars get any better ? In my opinion nope, but this jam goes pretty close

♪ Bag Raiders – Shooting Stars (Kris Menace Remixx)

Jax

On Monday I was lucky enough to be invited to test out the new DJ Hero game, after playing it for about an hour or so I decided it would be best to share my experiences here in anticipation for the games release. Before I continue I would just like to stress that this review will not follow the procedures of reviewing gameplay, story line etc. it is just my own writing about it.

The game comes with a turntable controller and plays a lot like Guitar Hero. Players hit three coloured buttons to play notes in time with the on-screen prompts, the turntable rotates 360 degrees for “scratching” and there is a cross fader and effects dial that players must use to recreate the mix. There is also an online multiplayer mode and 10 of the game’s tracks support Guitar Hero, allowing those who own both games to go head-to-head in DJ v Guitar mode.

Unlike Guitar Hero the tracks used in the game are tailor made for the game, there are 94 mash ups or original tracks which has been created from more than 100 original tracks.  The selection of artists and genres that were used were aimed to appeal to the masses and create some amazing tracks. There is a broad range of artists used anyone from The Killers, to Eminem and even Marvin Gaye are used. I only heard a few of the tracks used but the ones that are still stuck in my head include

• Somebody Told Me by The Killers vs Pjanno by Eric Prydz
• Robot Rock by Daft Punk vs We Will Rock You By Queen
• Intergalactic by the Beastie Boys vs Rapture By Blondie

The question remains if there will be a soundtrack to accompany the game, because I am sure Djs and music lovers alike will die to get a copy of it.

Another thing that stood out for me was the amound of Djs who have contributed to the game, whether it was the creating of these mash up or allowing them to be a playable character, some artists include; Daft Punk, DJ AM, Grandmaster Flash, Dj Jazzy Jeff, Z-Trip amongst many other famous names.

Now thats enough describing the game and whats it all about, time to give you my opinion about it all.

Over the years I was never a huge fan of guitar hero, I always pictured it as a game where wanna be musicians would be able to be superstars in their own bedroom. When I first heard the concept of a DJ Hero being developed I was a bit apprehensive about how the game would turn out, but once I heard the amount of people who would be helping with the development of the game I believed that the game would turn out alright.

The goal of each level or turn is about creating a live mash up or track rather than playing a traditional DJ set filled with transitions and many tracks. On the earlier levels you will only use two songs that have been specifically created for the level that you are on, one track will start and it is the players job to keep the beat going, after the first song has been playing for a certain period of time its time to bring the next track in, at first you will start sampling sounds from the other song, and then its time to use the cross fader to bring the next song in.

The skill factor comes in when its time to create your own live mash up, at certain points in the track you will have to use the cross fader to bring in samples of the other song or even cutting to the next track, or using the turntable to scratch like a superstar. The more successful players are at emulating the pro DJ performances, the more points they score, you also gain stars for more combinations that you can get. Basically you need to have great awareness of the beat of both songs and the timing of bringing the next song in, seasoned gamers will pick up this game much quicker than DJs as they have experience on similar games. 

A price for DJ Hero has yet to be announced (I think $170, including the turntable) it will be available on the Xbox 360, PlayStation 3, Wii and PS2, the game is due to be release by the end of this week (31st October). Overall I would say that it is one of my favorite games that have come out in recent times, you are able to play it by yourself or play it with a bunch of friends, its a game that will get you sucked in for hours of enjoyment. 4/5

Jax

This has been a bit of a twitter hit video in recent days! It comes courtesy of superstar hip hop artist Bangs, he was born in North Khartoum, Sudan. At the age of 11, he moved to Egypt with his family after his Father married another wife. He spent two years there before coming to Australia in 2003. He’s recently put together an album, Hard 2 Be Up, most of which you can hear on his YouTube channel

When I first heard this track I couldn’t help but having a laugh at the video and the almost ringtone beat to accompany his lyrics, a few hours I found myself singing the chorus to myself over and over. Hopefully Bangs can get some more publicity thanks to these blog posts and lets put him on the map!

Props must go to Melbourne producer Styalz Fuego who original discovered this superstar in the making, and of course to Ro Sham Bo legend Levins who hooked it up on the Mad Decent blog

Jax

Is it wrong of me to slowly be getting into baile funk? As a genre it has slowly been developing for the better part of three decades, and recently I have started building a better appreciation for it.

After an hour or so of researching, here is what I have come up with about the genre and just naming a few of the modern day pioneers of the genre in the mainstream world. The genre started out as funk inspired street dance music from Braizl, which has evolved over the years and has greatly influenced modern day dance music. The commonly used drum loop can be tracked back to Dj Battery Brain’s track 808 volt, which is commonly referred to as Voltmix.

The growth and development of the genre can be dated back to the 70s in Miami, thanks to the developing music scene there and also the proximity to Brazil compared to other developing music cultures. It all started when Brazilian record suppliers would base themselves there in the hope of finding out the next smash hit or genre, slowly over time they started to have a real connection to the local “black music scene” and this was warmly accepted into Brazilian musical culture.

Over time the music in Miami evolved away from funk into new genres such as Hip Hop, but the term funk stuck in the Brazilain vocabulary. The greatest influence to the Brazilian Funk sound was its emergence from Rio’s Favelas (festivals) and takes components from Brazilain Funk and early Hip hop. These Favelas played a very important role in terms of integrating the culture of the favelas with the culture of the city at large.

The genre first became popular in the 80s and from the mid 90s it was developed into a mainstream phenomenon in Brazil, where songs were sung about poverty, racial pride of black people, violence, social injustice and the list goes on, it was a way for locals to express themselves.

One of the early producers outside of Brazil who took advantage and commercialized this new sound was Diplo and his work with M.I.A on the successful Piracy Funds Terrorism mixtape, with a series of three tracks simply entitled Baile Funk One, Two and Three, as well as some other mash ups with the drum kick supporting them.

♪ Diplo/M.I.A – Baile Funk Two

♪ Diplo/M.I.A – China Girl (Diplo Mix)

It is not right to talk about the genre without talking about Edu K, he is touted as “Brazil’s #1 MC and pin up boy of the baile funk sound. The fact that he was born and raised in Brazil would have a great influence on his music production, in his early years he was utalising the growing popularity of the genre to establish himself as a producer, and over time his production has matured and developed into a more distinct style. In his early days of production he was very much a big funk producer and brought the genre a lot of attention when one of his tracks was used in a soft drink TV advertisement in Germany.

♪ Edu K – Bundalele Baile Jean

♪ Bumblebeez – Dr Love (Edu K Baile Funk Remix)

So basically that is a little history about the genre, based on my research. I’d love to get some positive feedback about some artists who are currently killing it at the moment, because as it stands most of the stuff I am hearing is pretty repetitive and not very innovative.

Tomorrow’s post will be a review of the new DJ Hero game, so stay tuned !

Jax

I’ve been really excited about writing this piece; it brings together the two things I love most – art and music. I’ve decided to share with you my personal favourite videos for both their artistic direction or ability to enhance a piece music. Unfortunately due to our lack of bandwidth I can only provide you with direct links to each of the videos. If you’ve seen them before, hopefully you’ll be able to share my enthusiasm. Please don’t watch the videos half-heartedly, it completely defeats the purpose and you’re better off not watching at all. I want you’re full attention on that video, preferably listening with a good set of speakers or headphones, deal? Deal.

My first video clip is a recent discovery for me. I heard this song quite a while back, but seeing the accompanying video clip really brought it to life for me.  Great colours, great location, and some fantastic fancy footwork.

‘Kiss of Life’ – Friendly Fires (YouTube – click HQ)

Simple. Effective. Great.

‘Crystal’ – New Order (VodPod)

To prove that I’m not just into cute boys with whacky dance moves, I’ve included this clip. Probably my all time favourite, directed by Martin de Thurah, a genius. I strongly recommend you go check out some other clips by him; I love the advertising campaign he did for IKEA called ‘Home’. Anyways back to this film clip; I have a fascination with things in suspension, so it’s no wonder I’ve included this clip.  The model levitates along the streets while floating houses pass overhead and the leaves are picked up by the violent winds, it’s like a more sinister take on the beginning of The Wizard of Oz. It’s such an intricate and enigmatic video.  An acquired taste, but I personally think it’s phenomenal.

‘What Else is There?’ – Röyksopp (Vimeo)

Next up is a video done by the Sydney design team MATHEMATICS. I remember when I first saw this clip I was completely blown away, the colours are so vivid its like candy, screen becomes lick-worthy. I love the composition of the frame with Luke on the bike just staring at the camera and Nick lying on the ground. It illustrates the main reason why I’ve included this video; it’s like every frame could easily be a still shot photograph, so beautiful.  On a personal note, finding out that MATHEMATICS – a leading graphic design company that works closely with the music industry, created this video as well as some other amazing work, has reignited the reason why I want to be (and am) studying graphic design, and that’s a big deal for me, so for that, I’m also grateful to this video.

‘Walking on a Dream’ – Empire of the Sun (Vimeo)

This clip, directed by Mark Romaneck, never fails to leave me distraught after watching it. While I do love Nine Inch Nails, I really think that Johnny Cash’s cover is better, and it’s video clip compliments it so well. It does the art of montage so perfectly that it leaves you in awe at the end.  The lyrics, the imagery, the pace… its heartbreaking to watch, but fantastic at the same time. To see the contrast between Cash in his youth and then to him now singing the song is really nostalgic. When the piano crescendos towards the end.. gfkoaifghieorhgirhre .. it kills me! Recorded just before his death, it makes the video and song almost sting you with pain.

‘Hurt’ (Nine Inch Nails cover) – Johnny Cash (Vimeo)

I’m sure there are many MANY more videos that deserve a mention, but that’s all folks.

Alyssa