Post Docs: Talking Trash (Culture) with the Visualists Behind Double Dagger and Black Dice.

Last summer, Soundscreen Design debuted The Artist Music Journal, a limited-run book series. For each edition, a visual artist or musician puts together a 24-page book drawing inspiration from their connection to music. The two latest entries were made by Baltimore’s Post Typography (a.k.a. Nolen Strals and Bruce Willen, also of the band Double Dagger [pictured below]) and Bjorn Copeland, founding member of experimental noise outfit Black Dice. Here, Post Typography quizzes Copeland on his involvement in the series, his process, and the effect of his small-town roots.

Post Typography: What were you trying to create with your AMJ volume?
Bjorn Copeland: I was basically trying to paint a picture of the way I see my relationship to art and music. Black Dice has a lot to do with that. It’s been a 12-year project that has been the outlet for all of our ideas. I tried to make as much new imagery for it as possible. There are a few older pieces that seemed to fit, so that’s why they’re there.

Collage has been a part of punk and independent music since the beginning. Has this history had an influence on your own work, either in the choice to use collage as a medium or in the content?
As soon as I got into music, I loved album artwork. That hasn’t really stopped. Collage always appealed to me, especially all the Vermiform [Records] shit. I love the way their releases look. They all seemed to be snapshots of some bizzaro parallel world. It really colored the way I thought of the music. That seems like an opportunity that a lot of people shy away from.

Do you see a connection in the way you approach your music and visual art?
It’s really the same to me. Even when I work independently from [my brother] Eric and Aaron [Warren, also in Black Dice], the things that we talk about when doing band shit resonates in my head, and is a huge influence. I’ve really tried to keep a cohesion between the two.

Which books have been your favorites in the AMJ series so far?
I really liked yours. It’s fun to read. I kept searching for the poster you did for us, Melt Banana, and Heroin Sheiks at the Auto Bar. Remember that one? Maybe that was pre-Double Dagger. Still got that one. Black Dice has been talking about doing a flyer book with comment on each show. Not sure what I remember about a lot of them, but it seems like it would be entertaining to flip through. Though our visual output is really different, both of our work references or borrows from low-rent pop culture. We all grew up in small towns where that was about the only kind of culture that was offered.

What draws you to mundane objects/imagery as sources for your work?
I really like using things that are so familiar that you are almost numb to them. I also treat that type of source material a lot less preciously. Since I make everything by hand, it’s easy to fuck up in a way where you can’t fix it. You know, you can’t erase it, or unglue what you stuck together. I rarely go out and look for source material, I just sort of acquire shit over time. I love having a huge mess to work in. Wherever you look, you see something you glossed over before. The small-town culture you’re talking about happens to be the stuff we all were exposed to the most growing up, so it seems like an honest starting point.

Post Typography’s and Bjorn Copeland’s Artist Music Journals, #07 and #08, are out now on Soundscreen Design.

Lorn “Cherry Moon”

It’s a little strange that “Cherry Moon” comes from the final quarter of the debut album from FlyLo compadre Lorn; the track opens with a distant intro that slowly revs into a full-frontal assault of warped beats, thick motorik bass, and glowing synth and string melodies. The song could easily lead off an album. However, its more sullen—dare we say lovelorn?—tone fits the track’s resting place as the beginning of the end on Lorn’s forthcoming Brainfeeder release, Nothing Else.

10 Cherry Moon

Q+A: The Interview Issue

This month, nearly every feature within the issue takes the shape of an interview. Whether it’s our scribes getting the scoop from the likes of Trailer Trash Tracys and DaVinci or Warpaint sitting down with cover star Ariel Pink, the Q+A Issue gets up close and personal with a slew of the summer’s most blogged-about artists. The Juan MacLean quizzes Chicago house legends Virgo,Flying Lotus talks drugs and drums with new London dubstep queen Ikonika, Berliner Deadbeat meets Scuba, and even the boys of Blunted Robots go head to head. So get curious and read it all here, or view online at Issuu.

So Percussion and Matmos “Treasure”

Once we heard of the forthcoming collaborative album from groundbreaking duo Matmos and the experimental orchestra So Percussion, we assumed it would most likely be something as equally beautiful as it is strange. If “Treasure,” the first ‘single’ taken from Treasure State, is any indication of what the rest of the full-length holds, it seems we were right. Amidst a cheerful melody put together with bells, chimes, xylophone, guitar, synth, and piano, high-pitched squeals take center stage along with a sitar to balance out the classical orchestration with some of Matmos’ trademark noisemaking. Treasure State will be released on July 13.

01 Treasure

Ninja Tune Celebrates 20 Years in a Big Way

Come September 20, one of the UK’s premiere forward-thinking, independent electronic labels, Ninja Tune, will celebrate 20 years of releasing music. This is no milestone to let pass by unnoticed, so the two Ninja Tune founders, Coldcut‘s Jon More and Matt Black, have planned out a big celebration. First off, for each of the 20 weeks leading up to the label’s actual birthdate, Ninja Tune will be premiering exclusive materials on its special Ninja Tune XX website (no porn, however). Along with the free content, announcements of new videos, friendly competitions, and more details on the whole of Ninja Tune XX will be unveiled. And that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

Also in the works for Ninja Tune’s 20th is a 192-page book full of exclusive interviews, illustrations, original photographs, and fliers culled from their archives. A massive three-case boxset—which features, along with a hardback edition of the aforementioned book, six CDs and six 7″s of music from the likes of Amon Tobin, The Bug, Bonobo, Zomby, Switch, Autechre, Gold Panda, Toddla T, and Modeselektor, to name a handful—will be released on September 20. Live performances are also in the works for the dates surrounding Ninja Tune’s birthday in Paris, London, Berlin, and Brussels, in addition to the Ninja Tune Video Showcase—a screening of the label’s favorite music videos in a proper film theater—coming November 12. It’s hard to be sure exactly what else will bubble up amidst the large amount of party favors and celebratory shindigs, but whatever the weeks hold leading up to September 20, it’s sure to be purely awesome.

pictured Coldcut

Watch Illum Sphere Break Down His New EP on Martyn’s 3024 Label

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Before yesterday, almost the entire discography of Martyn‘s 3024 label was dedicated to his own work. Apparently, all that is about to change, as Martyn is expanding the label’s scope to include more boundary-pushing artists, starting with Illum Sphere (a.k.a. Ryan Hunn). The Manchester-based DJ/producer previously released a few things on his hometown’s Fat City imprint and remixed Martyn’s “Brilliant Orange,” but the release of his new Titan EP on 3024 should take the mild-mannered beatmaker to another level. Check out this exclusive video, which finds Hunn talking about his music and how he originally hooked up with Martyn. The video also features snippets of tracks from his new EP.

Listen to the New M.I.A. Song “XXXO”

Earlier today, M.I.A. officially unveiled “XXXO,” a track from her much-ballyhooed forthcoming new album, ///Y/. It’s a surprisingly pop-electro ditty, especially after hearing the Suicide-sampling rawk of “Born Free.” You can stream the song over on the website for her N.E.E.T. label, and “XXXO” is also available for sale on iTunes. ///Y/ was originally slated for release on June 29, but it has now been pushed back until July 13. It’s a safe bet that we—and seemingly everyone else on the internet— will be closely monitoring all of M.I.A.’s activities and utterances between now and then.

Podcast 136: Ikonika

As the sounds emanating from London continue to morph faster than people like us can slap a proper genre name on them, and the number of producers and DJs involved in this funky/garage/bass music movement continues to grow, it seems like there are very few constants in the UK’s electronic music scene. As a result, a label like Hyperdub—which has only been around for a shade over five years—serves as a pillar of stability, even as its roster and sonic output exist in a state of semi-permanent flux. So when Ikonika (a.k.a. Sara Abdel-Hamid) dropped Contact, Love, Want, Have, her debut album and one of only a handful of full-length efforts on Hyperdub (the others belonging to Burial and label head Kode9), it qualified as a genuine big deal. Later this month, Ikonika will be following up that big deal with another big adventure—a brief North American tour that includes a stop at this year’s MUTEK festival. In the meantime, she’s put together this exclusive XLR8R podcast that was mixed live and includes all kinds of dubplates and unreleased goodies. We recommend that you listen repeatedly and find yourself a way to get to one of those North American shows in the weeks ahead.

01 Jahcoozi ­ “Read the Books (Ikonika Remix)” (BPitch Control)
02 Martyn ­ “MiniLuv”
03 Braiden ­ “The Alps”
04 Optimum ­ “Storm Riddim”
05 Ikonika ­ “Dckhdbtch”
06 DVA ­ “New World Order” (DVA)
07 Kingdom ­ “Pathfinder” (Scion)
08 Endgames ­ “Ecstasy (Jam City Refix)” (Night Slugs)
09 Lil Silva ­ “A Million” (Night Slugs)
10. Blondes ­ “Spanish Fly (Brenmar Remix)”
11. Ikonika ­ “Aqueous Cream” (Hum&Buzz)
12. Ramadanman ­ “Glut” (Hemlock)
13. Optimum ­ “Chaos”
14. Ikonika ­ “Psoriasis” (Hyperdub)
15. Pony Pony Run Run ­ “Walking On A Line (French Fries Dub)”
16. Caribou ­ “Leave House (Ikonika Remix)” (City Slang)
17. Guido ­ “Mad Sax” (Punch Drunk)
18. Girl Unit ­ “Wut”
19. Addison Groove ­ “Nautilus”
20. J.O.H vs. The-Dream ­ “J.O.H Is A 10”

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XLR8R_Podcast_Ikonika_2010_05_11

Roska Rinse Presents Roska

For all the ink devoted to the rise and seemingly endless mutations of UK funky, the genre is notably devoid of full-length albums. Granted, the lightning-quick pace of London bass music doesn’t exactly lend itself to thoughtful, drawn-out masterworks, but other than Geeneus’ tone-setting 2008 LP, Volumes: One, there has been a parade of virtually nothing but singles and EPs, even from the biggest names in the scene. One of those names has undoubtedly been Roska (a.k.a. Wayne Goodlitt), whose steady stream of drum-heavy production, not to mention his ubiquitous “Roska Roska Roska” drop, bridged the gap between bottle-service clubs and the underground and played a huge role in putting funky on the map.

Now he’s released Rinse Presents Roska, and although it does include a few recycled tracks (“Hey Cutie,” “Wonderful Day,” and “Love 2 Nite,” the latter two with vocalist Jamie George), most of the album is new material, and not all of it is proper funky. DJs will undoubtedly gravitate toward the potent strings and big-room percussion of “Time Stamp” and “Tomorrow Is Today, the infectious synth squelch of “Burn in Flames,” and the whistles, stop-and-start beat, and oddball squawks of the already anthemic “Squark.” But those are matched with the compellingly chilled-out “Energy” and “I Need Love,” where respective guest vocalists Nikki and Aneesha lend the tracks a soulful garage feel, not to mention “Messages,” whose clicks, pops, and chirping synths chart a course that’s deeper than many funky artists are willing to go.

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