Damn you, summer. I was really itchy to work in the studio today (top floor of a 6th floor building with a black tar roof and no AC for those of you playing along), but after being there for an hour and starting to feel really ill, I took out the photo chemical thermometer (which I know for a fact is very accurate) and it read 117. At 11am. This is the second time I've had to call off my own work due to heat this summer, I'm not amused. This is unreasonable.
I'm back in civilization for the remainder of the day with more pixels to push than I know what to do with, so all is well I suppose.
Speaking of pixels...
Cyberoptix Tie Lab officially launches today, shopping cart and all! All the ties are up, still a few more bells/whistles and lots of costuming work to add, but it is all up there for your consumerist desires. ;)
A huge thank you to everyone who came out for
Machines That Feel this weekend! Both
Spectral Mornings and
800 Beloved played incredibly well and sounded great - and the screening of
RELINE 2 went over smashingly. We were honored to be able to put together so much talent in on room for just one night, it was above all a satisfying creative success, thanks to everyone who participated (especially in the foul heatwave), especially Mike MacAdow with projection supplies and av/assistance. For those of you who inquired about purchasing a copy for
RELINE 2, it can be pre-ordered through
Microcinema, with a street date of 9.25.06. Hopefully pictures soon from Mr.Doyle, as my camera was unfortunately MIA.
Dethlab's final installment of the summer is Friday, August 4th. Dethlab teams up with Ghostly/Spectral Sound, smashing Vault and Sex & Sedition together for one monstrous affair.
[ huge poster ] by Mike Doyle.
B L O O D _ A N D _ O I L featuring:
MOTOR techno/industrial LIVE! (Novamute, London/Paris)
Brian Aneurysm acid/techno DJ (Spectral Sound, Barcelona)
with residents:
Ryan Elliott techno DJ (Spectral Sound, Detroit)
Dethlab electro DJs (Dethany+Doyle, Detroit)
10pm | 18+ | $10
OSLO: 1456 Woodward Ave, Detroit MI
This is so wrong. In Detroit's Eastern Market, the kitchy, psychedelic (and downright acidtrip creepy)
murals of animals made up of fruits and vegetables are being removed with the planned renovations to all sheds starting August 1. Although restoring the natural brick to it's early 1900's glory is an admirable idea, these paintings have symbolized the market for years and I'm pissed they're coming down. All in the name of progress and higher rents for the Market! Feh.
At
Machines That Feel, we will be presenting short films about Cranbrook Designer- in-Residence and performance artist
Elliott Earls' robotic/pneumatic drums which are reputed to go something like 2000 bpm!
Saturday, July 29th, 2006
midnight - 4am
The Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)
Machines That Feel is featured in today's edition of the MetroTimes:
image from "Drawdown" by Perry/SteinerDeth’s doorby Corey Hall
7/26/2006
In all its rusted splendor Detroit can still stoke the imagination — we're a city built of stone and chrome and sweat, a testament to the ultimate fusion of human and mechanical muscle that made the modern world. We are, after all, the city that created techno, so it's no real surprise that so many area artists over the years have been inspired by our industrial legacy.
That's the spirit that fuels DethLab's Machines That Feel, a one-night multimedia presentation at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit. As designed by co-curators Michael Doyle and Bethany Shorb (aka DethLab) the show combines film and live music performances that seek to underscore our relationship with the tools we create. Machines will mark the Detroit debut of Reline 2, 18 short films created by "next wave" video artists, and will also include live music performances from the inventive electronica duo Spectral Mornings and the spooky yet danceable proto-new wave pop of 800 Beloved. Also making waves will be the trendsetting work of Cranbrook designer-in-residence Elliot Earls, a rock star in design circles, who will screen a short film about his original robotic instruments.
Doyle says the show is "using technology in different ways — fetishizing it to an extent — but all of these artists are using it as an enabler for exploring broader ideas or more human emotions."
For Doyle, the evening is also a sort of culmination of more than a decade of pushing boundaries as a graphic artist, lecturer, music promoter and vanguard of both the electronic Dorkwave Collective and the burnlab.net blog spot. The event can be viewed as a logical progression of the club-oriented events Dethlab has presented in the past (like the recent Sex and Sedition V at Oslo) by carrying them over into a gallery setting.
Doyle and Shorb were originally approached to create a segment for the Link Festival — a larger, similar event — but as they developed the concept, they decided to spin Machines That Feel into a special one-off that could stand on its own thematic strength.
Saturday, July 29, at the Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID), 5141 Rosa Parks Blvd., Detroit; 313-899-2243. [
See feature at Metrotimes.com ]
"Dinner party music for the devil..."
MOTOR's debut album is finally released TODAY in the USA (Mute Records)
available at amazon, tower, i-tunes, etc. and from http://www.beatport.com
MOTOR will be appearing live in Detroit, Friday, August 4th, where
Dethlab teams up with Ghostly/Spectral, smashing Vault and Sex & Sedition together for one monstrous affair.
BLOOD AND OIL
featuring: MOTOR (live) + Brian Aneurysm
with residents: Ryan Elliott + Dethlab
OSLO
1456 Woodward Ave, Detroit MI
10pm | 18+ | $10
We've been hauling back in the TieLab - new colors, textures and fabrics have brought even more fun to the little ol' cravat.
The next few are a series of one of a kind ties based on victorian wallpaper patterns, all made with handmade fabric. The brown and pink ties below are appliqued with a twill where the motif has been burnt out by hand with a bleach solution, rendering each one completely unique. The edges are distressed adding more texture against the fine silk.
Baroque Burnout on 100% silkThis is from the same pattern as above, but the design is instead block printed onto antique damask with black and red rubber (not natural liquid latex which degrades).
Inkblot - custom made
Inkblot detailAnd finally here are some new takes on designs already seen here - the Heart Attack tie is now available on 100% black silk with red ink - $40.
Heart Attack (red ink) on 100% silkAnd we have afew new colors for the gas mask ties - charcoal, sky blue (shown) and a lighter olive green:
Bowtie Gasmask on sky blueSo we're pretty thrilled to be making all these new pieces, and are really looking forward to getting the site up and running, it's almost there!
DethLab presents
"Machines That Feel"(in association with the LINK Festival)
curators statement:Machines That Feel is a one evening multimedia exploration of the relationships between humanity and technology, curated by Bethany Shorb and Michael Doyle.
Machines That Feel proposes that nothing is more purely human than what we create with our own hands and imagination - that technology need not be seen as cold and synthetic, but is in fact our most sophisticated means of expression.
featuring:• Detroit debut screening of
RELINE2, a collection of short films by leading-edge video artists.
• Film featuring robotic instruments created by Cranbrook Designer- in-Residence and performance artist
Elliott Earls.
• Live performance by
800 Beloved.
• Live performance by
Spectral Mornings.
• DJ set by
DethLab, with video by
C-TRL labs.
the evening of Saturday, July 29th, 2006
midnight - 4amThe Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd.
Detroit MI 48208
313.899.2243
$5 evening membership fee
schedule (tentative):12am: RELINE2
1am: Spectral Mornings
1:45am: Elliott Earls
2:00am: 800 Beloved
2:45am: Dethlab
For tons more information: full press release, artist info/bios and samples of work
here.
On the matter of meat being the new black...
Taken by me, April 2006:
This is where I cry my eyes out, question all of my work, spout about the rampant unfairness of life, relinquish any social interaction because I will be throwing myself into my work even more than I already am (and probably think twice about ever posting "art" to flickr again.)
And this is where apparently the critique was dead-on, and I'd be one successful MF if only I could steal my models out of the eating disorder unit of the psych ward.
Glossy fashion mag, July 2006:
Shit.
Here's one quick photo from Solvent, live at Dethlab's sixth installment of Sex & Sedition:
Thanks so much for an excellent crowd! Detroit definitely knows how to get into a show and Jason Amm is one hell of a live performer. The party continued on late with Brendan (Ectomorph) keeping people daancing well after last call.
Many more pictures to come - from Sass last weekend and Dorkwave last night - I've been a little preoccupied with the onslaught of cravats taking over my studio.
We are beyond excited for more art and music this coming Saturday at CAID :
Machines That Feel.
Thanks to
Murketing.com for the great link and review on my ties:
Anyway, if I did have a reason to wear a tie these days, I’d consider one made by Detroit’s t0ybreaker, who I came upon by way of the Craft Magazine Flickr pool. I don’t know if I could really pull one of these off, but even if I just bought it and it stayed in the closet, I’d probably be happy.There is some other really well written design-oriented, flickr and consumerist content on
Murketing please do check it out.
Dear willpower,
Please don't let me go out to lunch and instead get this Dunny:
8" Mad Barbarian Dunny SILVER
Who are the
Mad Barbarians?A Japanese design duo with a love of all pop, rock, cute, and foolish. Their love is so great, they can no longer keep it contained and it ends up spilling over all sorts of art, album covers, cds, and (luckily) toys."
This speaks to me, man. Speaks to me. The little tie...the skulls...the RAWK!
I don't need to start a dunny collection...it started with one little evil icebat...
Solvent has a new promo photo!
(photo by flickr user slowmotionlandscape)Just look at how hot that MS20 is! Total synthporn.
Just two more days til Solvent appears LIVELIVELIVE at Oslo. This Friday night. 10pm til late. We are very excited if you couldn't tell.
Since I absolutely can not put this off any longer...New tease:
Welcome to the TieLab. Content this week. For serious.
Noooooooooooooooo! Gross! Make it stop!
"Retrosexual, Menaissance.." Sigh.
Solvent live at the Tastefest last yearJuly 21, Sex & Sedition, with
Solvent (LIVE!) +
BMG of Ectomorph - [interdimensional transmissions] (DJ) +
Dethlab[See a
large version of the flyer!]
S O L V E NT ... L I V E ..L I V E ..L I V E ..L I V E ..L I V E ..! This Friday night, at Olso!
Brand new from the TieLab (ok, a bit of a white lie, this was actually from Friday - 95 degrees with a bazillion percent humidity in an unairconditioned er..."penthouse" studio = not happing, no way. So instead I'm spending the day up in the great airconditioned north and plotting a proper web launch for this here tie biz, and getting together a slew of new ideas for future screened images. Think more antiquey and subtly political and a bit nerdy and geeky and militaristic...
At the Fourth Street Fair over the weekend, we ran into
Tim Caldwell who generously gave me some 1953-1958
Radio Electronics and
Radio & TV News issues which have so many strange and amazing scannable illustrations I can barely contain myself. Looking through ads from vo-tech schools around the Cuban Missile Crisis - "The Future is Wide Open in GUIDED MISSILE ELECTRONICS!" is certainly, um, enlightening. Of course the graphics are brilliant - little flying rockets surrounding by atomic symbols and starry skies...
cancelled Austrian stamp
image from "Drawdown" by Perry/SteinerDethLab presents
"Machines That Feel"(in association with the LINK Festival)
curators statement:Machines That Feel is a one evening multimedia exploration of the relationships between humanity and technology, curated by Bethany Shorb and Michael Doyle.
Machines That Feel proposes that nothing is more purely human than what we create with our own hands and imagination - that technology need not be seen as cold and synthetic, but is in fact our most sophisticated means of expression.
featuring:• Detroit debut screening of
RELINE2, a collection of short films by leading-edge video artists.
• Film featuring robotic instruments created by Cranbrook Designer- in-Residence and performance artist
Elliott Earls.
• Live performance by
800 Beloved.
• Live performance by
Spectral Mornings.
• DJ set by
DethLab, with video by
C-TRL labs.
the evening of Saturday, July 29th, 2006
midnight - 4amThe Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit (CAID)
5141 Rosa Parks Blvd.
Detroit MI 48208
313.899.2243
$5 evening membership fee
schedule (tentative):12am: RELINE2
1am: Spectral Mornings
1:45am: Elliott Earls
2:00am: 800 Beloved
2:45am: Dethlab
For tons more information: full press release, artist info/bios and samples of work
here.
EMS Synthi-E
Built in 1975, the Synthi-E was one of the first traveling synthesizers (yes, you can carry a keyboard just fine, but the fact that it is in a briefcase already so beyond rocks, and in a strange way foreshadows all the laptop music of today). It was a low cost version of the Synthi-A designed for schools and colleges, the unit is easily transportable as it is housed in a small briefcase and is battery operated. I've never heard the sounds that this thing makes, but it looks one hell of a lot cooler than a laptop...way more bond! The VCS 3 (later the Synthi-A) was used extensively on
The Dark Side of the Moon.
Check out some of their
old advertisements.
So now there are silkscreened ties for the ultimate synth nerd - Synthi ties! (Shown in chocolate and olive)
Thanks, for the mention and link,
MatrixSynth!
If you're in New York next weekend, our good friends Cowboy Mark and Lisa of
Enabler Network are throwing quite the event at Avalon (former Limelight):
flyer by Bethany ShorbPhono @ Avalon presents:
Scatalogics Label Showcase with
Håkan Lidbo (live) - Poker Flat / Lasergun / Shitkatapult
Ulysses - My Best Friend
DJ Unknown - Crucial Get Down
Holmar Filipsson (Mr. Negative) - Fine
with PHONO residents Cowboy Mark and Function
Saturday 7.22.06
Avalon6th Avenue at 20th Street
212.807.7780
$15 RSVP to addict@enablernetwork.org
photo: B. ShorbHappy birthday to
Ms. Sparklydevil today as she proudly and ungracefully ages herself into the Honorable Dirty Thirty Club.
May the supply of bacon and martinis be bountiful and the pasties stay glued on!
Tonight, Curtis Eller’s American Circus
as seen in Real Detroit:
Curtis Eller used to perform in the circus, then he decided that banjo music was “where the money is” so he formed a rootsy vaudeville-noir band. (Eller released a CD in 2002 called Banjo Music For Funerals.) On Thursday, July 14 Curtis Eller’s American Circus will put on their musical medicine show at the Lager House. Eller & Co. will also play Kalamazoo on July 14, Howell on July 15 and the Sunward Concert Barn in Ann Arbor on July 16...Dethlab will also be there, playing bizzarro American Gothic-esque records for your utmost listening pleasure.
"New grooves and Dorkwave’s queer little brother" "Servito hearts Doyle." Heh...nice picture too. Gotta love teh ghey!
[Saturday] it's Sass, a monthly event hosted by Nathan Rapport, Dorkwave and Untitled vet Mike Servito, collectively known as Coitus Interruptus. Servito says Sass is "Dorkwave's queer little brother ... but it's not strictly a gay night. Everyone is welcome: flashy dress-up kids, cute boys, bad girls, vampires, rock lobsters, everybody." Hear that? The night is held just for you, the third Saturday of every month at Oslo.
Also at Oslo, in semi-regular rotation is Dethlab's Sex & Sedition, a series hosted by Michael Doyle (another Dorkwaver) and Bethany Shorb (Toybreaker, god and his bitches). The sixth edition is July 21, when Toronto's Solvent returns to perform a live set. BMG of Ann Arbor's Ectomorph and Dethlab provide DJ support.
My ties are now featured at the
Cranbrook Art Museum Store, which is located on the lower level of Cranbrook Art Museum.
The Store at Cranbrook Art Museum proudly features merchandise designed by Cranbrook Art Academy alumni. Jewelry, textiles, messenger bags and men's and women's neck ties are items created by Cranbrook's graduated artists that are sold at the Store. Some of the items are one-of-a-kind while others are carried at various retail establishments throughout the country. The Store is excited to support their exclusive work and maintain the artists' connection to the Cranbrook Art Academy and Museum.Some new things going on at the Tie Lab - some one-of-a-kind ties screened multiple times:
Gas Mask Attack
It's all about the gloves...
PARIS, July 5, 2006 – Let us not be so prosaic as to ask exactly what Joan of Arc, Siouxsie Sioux, Botticelli, and the forties French film actress Arletty may have to do with one another—we’ve arrived in the parallel universe known as John Galliano’s Christian Dior... [
From Style.com ]
This show has been getting pretty thrashed by the media, honestly it is a little out there even for me (scary!) but some of the details really make it very worth it, and the black and red pieces are gorgeous. On the other hand, his stylist/MUA needs to be shot. Make the black stripe across the eyes and bad fake hair stop. Now. We all like the Bladerunner look, but it has been corrupted by every Hot Topic Mall Goth...I understand the tounge-in-cheekiness of it all, but last season's collection had an elegace and delicate perversion that this one does not. This one is unfortunately governed by the Lord of Tacky. But still, hot.
Friday, August 4th, Dethlab teams up with
Ghostly/Spectral Sound, smashing Vault and Sex & Sedition together for one monstrous affair.
B L O O D _ A N D _ O I L featuring:
MOTOR techno/industrial LIVE! (Novamute, London/Paris)
Brian Aneurysm acid/techno DJ (Spectral Sound, Barcelona)
with residents:
Ryan Elliott techno DJ (Spectral Sound, Detroit)
Dethlab electro DJs (Dethany+Doyle, Detroit)
10pm | 18+ | $10
OSLO: 1456 Woodward Ave, Detroit MI
Flyer and pre-sale info to come.
Dethlab presents:
MOTOR live! (NovaMute, London/Paris)
At the turn of the year we find the MOTOR duo of Mr. No and Bryan Black both firmly in the driving seat of their metallic, rust-coated rocket car. Not content with laying waste to clubland last year with the monstrous ‘Stuka Stunt’ and ‘Sweatbox’ singles they are now set to release their debut album, Klunk. Preceded by the single and album opener ‘Black Powder’, MOTOR are bracing themselves for a head on crash into the spot light this year with extensive worldwide tours, a revved-up three piece live show and the dancefloor muscle to deliver where it hurts.
Mr. No comes from the industrial wastelands of Paris, and Bryan Black from Minneapolis yet being truly international they met and formed in the smoky basements of Camden, London where Mr. No was playing drums and Bryan was watching on in awe. Bryan Black was seminal pop star Prince’s sound designer and programmer at Paisley Park Studios in the late 90s before setting off to London to pursue his own musical projects whilst Mr. No arrived in London in 1989 with a mission to turn drummers into drum machines.
The duo have remixed the likes of Marilyn Manson, Throbbing Gristle and most recently, Depeche Mode as well as remixing the theme song for the final Godzilla film, Final Wars, in a collaboration with Felix Da Housecat. The MOTOR duo are also known for their work under the alias XLOVER whose album, Pleasure & Romance, was released on DJ Hell’s Gigolo Records last year and their multiple collaborations with Felix Da Housecat include co-writing tracks off his last LP Devin Dazzle & The Neon Fever as well as producing tracks for Princess Superstar and Japanese rock god Atsushi Sakurai.
After releasing a string of raw, bold and innovative singles including the massive ‘Sweatbox’, MOTOR will soon unleash their debut album, Klunk. Packed with dark menacing grooves, corrosive industrial drumming and the pioneering spirit of acid house, Klunk locks into a swirl of techno-strobed hedonism and doesn’t let go.
Official
MOTOR web site |
Mute web site | Watch MOTOR Live in Paris
here | Watch the Black Powder video
here |
preview/download the Black Powder single on iTunes
Ghostly International presents:
Brian Aneurysm (Spectral Sound, London)
Bernhard Pucher has had nearly 10 years’ experience as a DJ, and his productions as Brian Aneurysm have appeared on labels such as Poker Flat, Sub-static and his own Iron Box imprint. Additionally, he has recorded under seveal aliases, inlcuding Confutatis and Echopilot which found release on Morris Audio Citysport and Traum Schallplatten.
Originally an Austrian, Pucher has lived in Texas since the late 1990s, where his musical palette has grown to include industrial and hard techno, the influences of which permeate his releases and his DJ sets alike. Having been exposed to the sounds of minimal house by a friend, he has been releasing his own music since 2002.
Spring 2005 brings Brian Aneurysm to Spectral Sound for the Das Element Des Menschen 12”. The title track builds on mechanical bursts, slowly becoming a dominating tech-house beast as a palpable, dark intensity pours from the speakers amidst the clanks and bass line whirs, making for a surefire dance floor destroyer. It is the most confident statement yet from Mr. Pucher, and an auspicious glimpse of what’s to come.
Brian Aneurysm official site |
Spectral Sound web site |
Listen to a clip from Das Element Des Menschen
with Vault / Sex & Sedition residents: 
Ryan Elliott (Spectral Sound, Detroit)
Upstart Detroit DJ Ryan Elliott has gained notoriety over the past few years by programming sets that are as well crafted and sophisticated as they are danceable. From ice cold minimal techno to summery house beats, Elliott has played both big rooms and martini bars with equal success. As a DJ, Ryan is adept in the late night hours, finding the balance between heavy floor tracks and elegant crowdpleasers. Utilizing three decks, multiple audio sources, and outboard effects are par for the course, and Elliott employs them with the utmost skill to keep crowds engaged.
With a fervent interest in the emerging international techno scene, he is a walking dictionary of artists, labels, and releases. Elliott held his Tuesday night events at Ann Arbor’s Goodnight Gracie with Matthew Dear from 2002 to 2004, bringing back energy to the city’s nightlife. Ryan Elliott was also asked to be a resident at Detroit’s weekly Untitled alongside Dear, Tadd Mullinix, Mike Servito, and Derek Plaslaiko. In 2005 he began a new residency at Detroit’s Oslo, and created a stellar 33-track mix for the 2xCD edition of the Spectral Sound Vol. 1 compilation.
Dethlab (Dethany+Doyle, Detroit)
The hyper-productive duo with a history for being two steps too far ahead for their own good, Bethany Shorb and Michael Doyle seek to define "the new black" with their Dethlab project, connecting the dots between trends in music, fashion, design and culture: mashing Ballardian reality with a romance for the glory days of postpunk and the cyberpunk future promised by Blade Runner. Like a modern day McLaren and Westwood, Doyle and Shorb are obsessive consumers, creators and curators of all things dark, innovative and beautiful... often with tongue firmly in cheek. Dethlab have brought artists such Vitalic, Solvent and Kill Memory Crash to their residency at OSLO, have performed with the likes of T. Raumschmiere, Chemlab and Ectomorph, have facilitated antics such as tea parties and period costumed croquet socials in abandoned factories, and have used nearly as much fake blood as GWAR since the project's inception one year ago.
Holding an MFA from Cranbrook, New York area native Bethany Shorb has dabbled and excelled in disciplines ranging from sculpture, to fashion and graphic design, to photography, to multimedia and music. She has performed around the country as Toybreaker and a member of seminal noise band God and His Bitches. As founder of Cyberoptix, she has designed a vast catalog of innovative couture, including the costumes for Skinny Puppy's 2004 world tour. Her work has been featured in magazines such as Make and Industrial Nation.
After living in New York during the rise and fall of both the dot-com bubble and electroclash, designer, lecturer, curator and obsessive blogger, Michael Doyle moved to Detroit and promptly co-founded the Dorkwave collective. Doyle coined the name and concise manifesto, "music for freaks", after one impropmtu night DJ'ing with Rob Theakston at the legendary UNTITLED parties. His design work can be seen everywhere from auto show exhibits and museums to record covers,
and his group blog Burnlab.net has been a favorite bookmark among taste makers for more than six years.
Dethlab's "Deth, FX and 666" treatments have turned the tamest of electro and microhouse records into thundering gnarz anthems, and their extensive collections of French electropunk and Belgian EBM records have both inspired and frightened audiences from Noir Leather fetish balls to the 2006 Movement Festival. The duo describes their sound as "the devil's disco", and lists a combined "ten years of art school" as their primary influence.
And we've been busy in the Detroit tie factory too!
Now available at both
Pure Detroit Design Lab and
Record Time in Ferndale. (And directly from me.) Go git 'em!
And a bit of a poll for the lazywebs - what colors would you like to see these available in? I've found a better supplier with more color options, I'm thinking of adding some sky blues and pinks and greys. What do you think? I love how the dark ink takes on a lighter base and I think a light tie looks pretty hot on a dark shirt...but maybe that's just me. Discuss. :)
July 29-30, The
Contemporary Art Institute of Detroit - Link Festival: A festival of art and music.
Just added to the Machines That Feel program,
Spectral Mornings will be perfroming live, along with
800 Beloved. We are thrilled to have two exceptional, genre-defying live acts make their debuts at CAID.
This will also be the Detroit debut screening of
RELINE2, a collection of work by ten artists who "investigate modern mythology, examine environments, explode form, and play with similes between machine and body. From buildings ripping apart by unseen forces to characters on strange journeys in wild imagined spaces, these videos explore the integration of technology into every strata of our lives."
Dethlab will be playing late!
Further information about CAID coming soon, including schedule and pretty flyer.
July 21, Sex & Sedition, with
Solvent (LIVE!) +
BMG of Ectomorph - [interdimensional transmissions] (DJ) +
Dethlab
[See a
large version of the flyer!]
Solvent has been releasing his unique brand of synthesizer-pop music since 1997, and is best known for his releases on Morr Music (2001's Solvent City) and Ghostly International (2004's
Apples & Synthesizers, 2005's
Elevators & Oscillators). Solvent has created his own unique version of electro-pop: too elegant and sincere for the electroclash set, too complex and contemporary to sound like it was recorded in 1981, and too seeped in the time-honoured traditions of melody, songwriting and hands-on synthesis to be lost in the overcrowded world of IDM.
Along with some notable remixes including Soft Cell, Alter Ego, and Adult., Solvent has also contributed standout tracks to several influential electronica compilations in recent years, including Putting
The Morr Back In Morrissey (Morr Music),
Disco Nouveau (Ghostly International), and
Misery Loves Company (Ersatz Audio). His songs have also been licensed to several high-profiles DJ mix CDs, including Sven Vath's
Sound of the 5th Season (Cocoon), Dr. Lektroluv's
Lektroluv 5 (541), and Death in Vegas's
Fabriclive 23 (Fabric London).
Destroy Your Powercenters
Interdimensional Transmissions is a label that not only releases records, it releases milestones. From the visionary From Beyond Series that debuted I-f's "Space Invaders" to the world, to the early Ectomorph relics that still set the standard, IT leads where other follow.
IT label head BMG has been pivotal in the reemergence of electro, from his early trend defining records as Ectomorph to his latest innovations and discoveries released through IT and many other distinguished labels.
Today, Brendan performs live laptop DJ sets that fuse many styles (electro, techno, house, disco, italo, synth, acid, rock, etc), providing a seductive context for cutting edge dance music with energy reminiscent of 80s Detroit Radio Mix shows. You might hear him play staples like Prince's 'Erotic City' or Laid Back's 'White Horse' weaved into his own beats. He often collaborates with traditional musicians, leading to impromptu shows with the likes of Ian of Perspects on Drums, Goudron on Synth and Sam from Tamion 12" on the mic. A chance meeting in South Africa resulted in a performance with both Patrick Pulsinger on 909 and Sal Principato of the legendary NYC outfit Liquid Liquid on congas and vox, leading to a lasting artistic collaboration.
Special Download! (with a stellar intro by the unmistakable Adamx). A 7mb mp3 recorded live at Oslo (Cannonball, 2004) - BMG DJ set with Sal P live.
grab it!
There is a metric craptonne of Dethlab news:
Thursday July 13,
Curtis Eller +
Dethlab, at
The Lager House.
"New York City's angriest yodelling banjo player" Curtis Eller brings his tales of pigeon racing, Coney Island, performing elephants, Buster Keaton and snake handling back to Detroit's Lager House next Thursday.
Additionally, Dethlab will be curating records in support with what may be perceived by some as a most unusual set. Putting aside the dancefloor rockers in favor of intricate, often melancholy selections from the likes of Cave, Waits, Costello, Casiotone For The Painfully Alone, Circlesquare and Joy Division, we will be exploring the exact same dark corners of contemporary culture, only without the constraints of the dance club setting. [Source,
- Burnlab]
A few choice lyrics from Curtis' new album,
Taking Up Serpents Again:
Hide that Scar
Johnny's down in the basement cutting off that angel's wings
Rusty scissors and wood glue...he's tying 'em on with wire and string
And you know you're never gonna hide that scar
Well you know you're never gonna hide that scar
There's dried blood on the concrete and feathers caught in the drain
By the time they figure out what happened it's gonna be too late
And you know you're never gonna hide that scar
Well you know you're never gonna hide that scarCurtis was amazing last time we had the pleasure if seeing him at the Lager House, it'll be even more of a pleasure this time to play some records we don't normally get to when we're out. :)
On soccer, seafood and the tragic lack of sun and swimming.
Some of you may be aware of the dirty little sporting secret in my past, and that is the rather absurd, competitive fondness for the game of soccer. With all this World Cup hoohaa going on over the past few weeks, it's had me itchier than a patch of poison ivy to get out and give the ol' ball a few swift kicks. Unfortunately it's also been a little longer than I care to admit since I have touched said round leather object, and a royal ass (of my ass) was made when we did finally get reacquainted over the past weekend. Perhaps the fact that it
was after 8am in a filthy 10,000 sq ft Williamsburg warehouse where this little game broke out did help in my demise, but the bruises sure are an impressive shade of deep black, blue, purple, yellow...green (ew) and cover quite an ample percentage of aforementioned three-letter word region. Pictures? No.
Anyway, the match was only watched today, no active mockery of the fine game was made by me, and France won (yay!) but is sure was a damn boring game. This will probably be the last time sports are ever spoken of here. Aside from watching soccer and burying my nose in books and catching up on the internets, consuming my weight in shellfish has been the norm here - tonights menu included Chesapeake and Malpeake oysters at the
Black Rock Oyster Bar. My plans of sun and swimming have been quashed by the Stormcloud That Will Not Go Away Over Connecticut. Indoors rather than poolside, I'm finally getting around to reading
Techno Rebels by Dan Sicko. I've gotten a few really great books over the past week and I plan to put a significant dent in them over the summer.
King crab legs from a few nights ago:
That's all. Huge show announcements soon. And I'm getting really antsy to get back into the studio.
Off to nyc in a few! We'll be there til' Tuesday, and I'll be lounging in Connecticut for a few days more, poolside with copious amounts of tasty shellfish. I must live up to my proper New England heritage.
Check this:
Blood and Oil.
