Spot the difference..

Pelican's latest album 'City of Echoes' i posted about recently landed on my doorstep quite expectedly this morning - a gift sent by an awesome girl from back up north (Lucy:D)
Aside from being an excellent instrumental album its a thing of beauty and wonder to hold, designed by Aaron Turner, possibly the smartest man in metal. His label(s), HydraHead (he also owns a share of Tortuga), has become the benchmark for quality in the doom/metal community, boasting a lineup that includes Pelican and Jesu as well as my favourites Cave In (who totally shred live). His design firm, Feral Pig, consistently pushes the boundaries of good taste/personal freedom with its art-as-crime scene manifest. And then there's the little matter of his band, Isis, kings of prog-metal.
So anyway, here's some quick pics of the CD in hand, City of Echoes, with always-delicious spot UV on matt stock...

Howies

Howies are one of those rock solid brands i think we've maybe come to take for granted. Having just spent a good hour reading everything on their website i think its probably time to give credit where credit's due. They always produce quality items and their award-winning design, packaging and point of sale is second to none.

My then girlfriend Aimee bought me my first Howies tee - an awesome design im not sure they've managed to better before or since. In saying nothing it gives the opportunity for us to say so much..

Judgement Day

Well... thats it i guess! All over. 18 long years of education came to a happy climax this rainy falmouth afternoon.. Somehow i wangled a First so im pretty stoked about that(!) BIG congrats to everyone who got results today - i hope you all got what you wished for and deserved. Let the celebrations begin! :D

Patchy memory

My parents travelled much of America before i was born and in most of the States they visited mum collected patches ... i rescued these from the rubbish heap.

Post-emo

A number of musicians from influential early post-hardcore/emo acts have formed a new band dubbed House & Parish.

The band features Jason Gnewikow (Promise Ring), Brian Malone (The Gloria Record), John Herguth (The Love Scene), and Scott Winegard (Texas is the Reason). I have been listening to a lot of GOOD emo recently (Christie Front Drive, Mineral, Jawbreaker, Hey Mercedes etc..) so i am particularly happy about this news!

You can find four songs on their myspace page. and you can download some of them here, kindly ripped for your convenience.

le 65ism

Buck is back!! new album come September 18th (Situation) and a tiny tiny UK tour in July - anyone want to go to London to see him on the 20th July? i want to go soooo bad. For those reading this not in the know, Buck 65 is a Canadian Hip Hop artist, MC and Turntablist, (although recently he has moved away from Hip Hop in a stylistic context, now attributing more of his sound to Blues, Country, Rock, Folk and Avant Garde genres). That said, his new direction is seemingly still underpinned by an extensive background in abstract Hip Hop, his trademark rhyme-phrasing and lyrical presentation even evident in his altered timbre vocal exuperations displayed in more recent releases. He is also outstanding live and one of my all time favourite artists. I am soo stoked for this album, 'Secret House Against The World' was pretty hit and miss for me, so im hoping for a another blinder like 'Talkin' Honky Blues'

One lick..

I'm basically living on ice-cream at the minute (yes, obviously by choice) and so i thought this was quite appropriate...
(haha or not)

Amazing Stories!

Amazing Stories magazine, sometimes retitled Amazing Science Fiction, was first published in April 1926, thereby becoming the first magazine devoted exclusively to publishing stories in the genre presently known as science fiction (SF). It is regarded as the world's first science fiction magazine.

Created by Hugo Gernsback, with many of its covers by the legendary Frank R. Paul, it featured a much-imitated logo of the magazine name in ever-shrinking letters. Amazing Stories was filled with stories of "scientific romance". All totalled, his magazine covers exceed 220. Check out this website for a fairly comprehensive gallery of AS covers.

I flipping love the logo, if anyone knows anything about it get in touch please.

This Was England

"This Is England is a snapshot of an era and a life that seems very dated now. It's about sticking up for mates and beliefs"



I'm super excited about this film. Most of my friends seem to have watched a downloaded copy, one even saw it on a plane, but ive chosen to wait and see it in the cinema first. Shane Meadows is an awesome British talent and i am expecting good things. You can read a short interview in the Guardian here.

TEAiM

This is pretty old, i did it a couple of years back when TEAiM as an idea was coming together. My stencil making skills leave a lot to be desired, as do my hand-letting and sometimes photoshop skills - but who cares. At the time i thought it was pretty cool. I keep toying with the idea of producing some branding for TEAiM / TEAiMWORK / TEAiM TALK but i kinda like the fact its ideas led and is bigger than one logotype could ever be. Remember people, there's no i in team..

Zee Germans

At our house we've just had the pleasure of entertaining a couple of lovely German girls for a week. That doesnt really relate to this post apart from the obvious nationality connection, but i thought i'd tell you anyway. Check out how gnarly this guy sounds!

Cherry picking

Jon 'Chez' Cherry has fast become a very important part of my life. He's been a very welcome breath of fresh air to the Falmouth scene and he's fast made it his own...im glad people like Chez will still bring the fun once my lot has left. He is of course an outstanding photographer aswell as being an outstanding individual. Check out his various work here. Or if thats too much hassle just check out below my selection of his Lomo shots. Love you chez x

f80 >

Holga >

Horizon >

LCA >

LCA >

Colour Wheel

Sometimes we dont need a reason for doing things.

Comical

I love comics.
I love comic book superheros.
Gambit is my favourite X-men character. (incase you wondered)

PELICAN

Eclectic metal instrumentalists Pelican have launched a full album stream of their highly anticipated new full length. The record is titled City of Echoes and is came out on May 22, 2007. The Chicago-bred foursome is a perfect fit for their label home of Hydra Head Records, which is owned by Isis guitarist/vocalist Aaron Turner.

You can check out the whole record right here.

Hydra head also have a blogspot blog

clickit

Seiz Matters

My university years have brought me into contact with many colourful characters - and they havnt come much more colourful than Gui Seiz. The hairy monster has kept me inspired and entertained for 3 years, and i will always be grateful for the help he's given me along the way. From the Friday night Fight nights sat in his kitchen watching the Contender, to font and book swapping, to nipple tweaking on the beach - Gui is rad. He also shares in part my love of the badge and has created some beauties im sharing with you here now... check out his portfolio to see more outstanding work. I think this guy might just be the one from our year to really make it big...

Terry's Barber Shop

Terry's Barber Shop in Falmouth, Cornwall is an old-school establishment that just walking past evokes memories of a bygone era - one i only know of through film and literature. In the window there is a wonderful collection of ephemera associated with Barber shops. I snapped a small selection today...

Creative Vandalism!

The city council of Glasgow has escalated a fight against illegal show flyers in a most mischievous way. Paid city workers are placing large stickers reading "Cancelled" across posters hung in prohibited areas.
An article in the Evening Times quotes a council source who commented, "We can be a complete pain in the neck to the people doing this because the money and time they spend is completely wasted. And there's no point getting in a designer to produce a fancy poster when it will soon be a mess that doesn't tell anyone anything."

Seems to me a lot of fly posters are a mess than fail to tell people anything anyway...

Got Ink?

I love ink stamps. I love the fact this ink stamp came on some printed board that looks like its been stamped itself.

Lord Bunn Lives!

A good few years ago now i stumbled across a bearded wonder in a great little shop in the Forum in Sheffield, called Fuse. This man i could tell was a creative behemoth, just from the shape of his brain. We have kept in contact over the years and exchanged some exciting cds, post and handshakes. I like him a lot. He is also an ultra-illustrator, having done some fantastic work for great people such as 65daysofstatic and the like. Royal Stock is the latest venture of his, and one i am more than happy to promote. His own site www.lordbunn.com is forever in a state of pending, so just go visit Royal Stock or his myspaz. Oh and Bunn, im ready for that Hüsker Dü vinyl...x

High Achiever

Those of you who know me might remember ive been to stay with my friend Sam in London a couple of times over the past year, and what a go-getter he is... He recently climbed Mount Everest by way of the Southeast ridge, the same route that led to the successful first summit by Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay in 1953. You can view his diary of the trip and see some amazing pictures he took on his way up. BIG congratulations to Sambo, i can only imagine how relieved Nicky (his fiance) is feeling. I know this is nothing at all to do with design, but i think we could all do with an occasional kick up the proverbial backside and improve productivity in whatever we turn our hand to. Sam is a guy who takes life and makes things happen - an example to us all.

Rhodes

My boy Richard Rhodes has received a Commendation as part of the 2006/07 YCN Design & Communication Awards for his Barefoot Wine project (which was pretty darn good).
Falmouth infact has SEVEN commended entrants! not bad going... check out the list here Big congrats to all the others selected, particularly Thexton who has mad animation skills.

Loudness

In August of 2006, music legend Bob Dylan made some controversial statements decrying the state of modern recorded music, particularly as relates to the overcompression frequently used by studios to make records sound louder on the radio.

A number of music producers have begun rallying to the same cause, noting that:
Record companies are competing in an arms race to make their album the loudest. The quieter parts are becoming louder and the loudest parts are just becoming a buzz. This could be the reason CD sales are in a slump.

Whole layers of sound are missing. It’s because record companies don’t trust listeners to decide themselves if they want to turn the volume up.
Britain’s leading studio engineers have launched the campaign to make records range in levels. To explain, dynamic range is the difference between the softest and loudest sounds on a CD. Using compression, producers can minimize this difference and the result is that albums sound louder, even at lower volumes.

Interestingly, due to technical limitations of vinyl, this kind of "loudness-based" mastering is not possible, and the records tend to sound better than their CD counterparts.

For more information on this, you can check out this article.