Lost AT E Minor

Illustration / Try anything twice

February 22, 2006 | Illustration | by Zolton |

Fernanda Cohen

I’ve been getting into Catherine’s online journal this week. There’s all sorts of interesting musings on life, music and art up there along with a tasty little selection of her work. Speaking of which, anyone know a good recipe for a flan? Hmmm. You just never know when it will come in handy. Really! I do know that there’s some beautiful illustrations on Jillian Tamaki’s website. She’s a Canadian illustrator with a very distinctive style. She takes a few risks with her work and I’m a big fan because of that. We’re using one of her illustrations on the next cover of Riot Magazine. I also love Yuko Shimizu’s work. Her unique blend of traditional Japanese styled illustration with American pop cultured influenced visual hooks is truly amazing. She sits in that upper tier of the new crop of illustrators who are pushing the parameters a little in terms of the high profile editorial work they do. Locally, there’s a group show supported by Jeremyville called - ‘Plastic Pimps’ - on at the China Heights Gallery in Surry Hills, Sydney. Jeremy has a few works on display including a 60-inch Quee and a 6 metre long painting. Also worth checking out are the latest illustrations by Linzie Hunter and some very impressive fashion and illustrative work by Eugenia Tsimiklis.

Music / Knuckle down

February 22, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Ani DiFranco’s sound is so unique and her instrumental base so minimalist that she runs the risk every album of merely repeating the same songs with different lyrics. She has two speeds – the upbeat bouncy tracks that showcase her dexterous and rhythmic guitar playing and the minor key songs that tug at the heartstrings as she lyrically purges her soul. Such is Knuckle Down – a winding narrative of an album full of snappy acoustic guitar hooks, subtle basslines and DiFranco’s half-spoken, half-sung vocal delivery which flits dramatically from angry diatribes (’course, you’re the kind of guy who doesn’t lie, he just doctors everything … but you can’t fool the queen baby’) to gentle pathos (’tonight with every breath, I can feel my death’) with a touch of the confessional thrown in for good measure. DiFranco is nothing if not honest. And here she’s as prickly and acerbic as ever.

Music / Mr Jeff Buckley

February 22, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Although they hardly knew each other, the impact that Tim Buckley had on his son Jeff’s music is indisputable. Tim crafted meticulous, yearning songs that tapped deep into minor key sentiments and captured poetically the sense of mental and physical unease that he felt with the world. Jeff Buckley was equally as restless - a tortured soul whose most direct means of expression came in the form of epic falsetto driven songs that arched melodically through great highs and lows. This tribute album from some of the alt-music world’s brightest luminaries is a fitting tribute to a legacy which still carries on in the output of many of those featured here – Sufjan Stevens, Micah P Hinson, The Earlies and others. Thanks to Inertia we have five copies of Dream Brother to give away to random emailers with the album title in the subject heading.

Photography / Oh brother

February 22, 2006 | Photography | by Zolton |

A couple of great photos by my brother, and Lost At E Minor partner, Zac. These were taken during one of his many spells living and working in London. The boy sure has an eye for it.

Art / Fun anyway

February 15, 2006 | Art | by Zolton |

I interviewed Canadian songwriter, Kathleen Edwards, during the week. I love her new album (Back To Me), so I started off by asking what they were putting in the water in her part of the world to produce all these amazing artists. ‘Nothing, and that’s what helps. I think the Canadian scene is a lot like the Australian one. We have a large country with a small population and a lot of the mainstream pop culture comes from the U.K. and the U.S. Obviously there have been hugely successful acts from both our countries, but the fact that we are more isolated keeps things happening organically in the music scenes’. Q: Why the title Failer for your debut album? A: ‘It was a play on words meant more to be a self-deprecating kind of joke. I take myself seriously, but not very often. I never realized how naming my album that would be forever a topic of conversation. I just thought it was funny that we spell it with a URE and I liked the idea that messing up spelling failer failure was appropriate. Most of the songs are pretty personal and true to the changes my life had taken in such a short period of time. I went from living in the backwoods an hour outside of Ottawa to playing on TV shows and being in a van and seeing more highway lines than is normal for anyone person’. Btw, the feature artist is Jeff Gilligan, a designer, illustrator and all-round creative force from New York City.

Music / Signs of a struggle

February 15, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Mattafix’s new album, Signs Of A Struggle, is a tasty mix of urban beats and pieces, incorporating the disparate ethnic mix (Indian and West Indian) of the producers, Preteesh and Marlon Roudette, and blending lush instrumental touches which sit within tight structural parameters. This is superbly crafted with punchy basslines cutting through a thick sonic haze of synths and programmed drumbeats. The duo have been killing it in the overseas market with their fusion of r&b and hip-hop. In their bio, Roudette suggests that ‘the past two years have been spent trying to merge all of these elements into our own style of music. The creative process is not always clear and many of our breakthroughs have come about through coincidences and mistakes”. The single, Big City Life is about as polished and airbrushed as it comes, so it looks as though any mistakes have been well and truly ironed out.

Music / Outside the square

February 15, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Interview with Vladislav Delay of electro group, The Dolls. Q: One album by another producer that has made your jaw drop in astonishment? A: ‘The Roots, The Tipping Point’. Q: What is one special quality that each of the three Dolls bring to the project? A: ‘Antye Greie — curiosity and his ability to always challenge on a musical level; Craig Armstrong — his inner strength and musical knowledge; Delay — musical restlessness. Common denominator in all three? A passion for interesting music. Period’.

Another great electro-talent is Jimmy Edgar, who also moonlights as a designer. I asked him what elements the two creative mediums share. A: ‘Graphic design evolves more interestingly than music. The end result of a music piece is a design, a layout in time. An important process of how I work is alternating techniques and exaggerating ideas and emotions. I’m interested in creating work that evokes a new emotion’.

Illustration / Lilly Piri

February 15, 2006 | Illustration | by Zolton |

A couple of recent works by young Australian artist, Lilly Piri. Her work is so delicate and ethereal yet imbued with a strong sense of calmness and resilience. It’s been featured in Black & White magazine and Frankie amongst other publications.

Illustration / Bright neon payphone

February 8, 2006 | Illustration | by Zolton |

What is it with message related acronyms? Soon it will get to the point where we no longer communicate in real words but instead in abbreviated codes that require a thesaurus and a yearly subscription to the Economist to understand. Spare me. Read more

Music / Hardly broken

February 8, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Leftfield electro and experimental pop from The Broken Social Scene. Bee Hives is essentially a collection of outtakes and B-sides, but again involves the breaking down of traditional song structures; the movement away from melody and towards rhythm as the crux of the arrangement; and the mix of conventional instrumentation (acoustic guitars/percussion) with futuristic synths. These are songs that defy conventional parameters. They skirt the pop ethic - occasionally bursting through a thick haze of ambient sound with classic chorus hooks. But generally it’s more electro than anything else - reminiscent in parts of the work of producers such as Macromatics, Susumu and Godspeed You Black Emperor. It’s atmospheric and moody, dripping with pathos and thoroughly immersed in its own beautiful little world.

Music / Modern jazz

February 8, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Jazzanova have almost single-handedly revitalised the spirit of contemporary electro-jazz. Their dedication to unearthing, promoting and fostering new artists within the genre is legendary and this album of remixes undertaken between 2002 and 2005 features some of the acts that have piqued these super-producer’s ears over the past few years. Included here are Jazzanova-ed versions of tracks by Masters At Work, Calexico, Nuspirit Helsinki, Free Design and Eddie Gale amongst others on a compilation that flits delightfully between electro-spliced beats and straight playful jazz. Thanks to the good folk at Creative Vibes, we have five copies of this album to give away to random Lost At E Minor readers with the album title in the subject heading line.

Art / Aboriginal art

February 8, 2006 | Art | by Zolton |

The Ann Snell Gallery in Sydney’s Surry Hills is showing what looks to be a fine exhibition of works from some of Australia’s leading contemporary Aboriginal artists including Barbara Weir, Barney Ellaga, Kudditji Kngwarreye, and Lilly Kelly Napangardi amongst others. It’s all very vibrant and colourful work, drawing on the rich and inspiring hues of the great Australian outback.

Illustration / Slow baby dub

February 1, 2006 | Illustration | by Zolton |

‘Some people call me the space cowboy, some call me the gangster of love, some people call me Maurice, cause I speak with the pompetus of love’. The pompetus of love?! Really. I don’t know what the heck Steve Miller was on the day he wrote that, but I could sure do with some now. Read more

Music / Apollo Sunshine

February 1, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Psychedelic pop from Apollo Sunshine which conjures up the spirit of The Beach Boys, Flaming Lips, Ween and Ben Folds Five in equal doses to create a scattered and suitably tortured album full of leftfield instrumental and melodic twists and lashings of quirkiness. If the cover art isn’t confusing enough (it opens left to right. D’oh! Gets me every time), then the pot pouri of sounds, beats, and lyrical themes certainly is. It’s not an easy album to get a grasp on, flitting dramatically as it does between straight jangly guitar pop and awkward instrumental breaks. It’s either a work of complete genius or the fruits of a genuine madness. Either way, it’s compelling, the epic ‘I Was On The Moon’ the standout track amongst a rippling sea of jagged classics. Heck … that’s almost poetic. Much like this album.

Music / Sounds of navy

February 1, 2006 | Music | by Zolton |

Soulful and temperamental, this album from Mark Eitzel’s songwriting vehicle, American Music Club, is refreshingly unaffected by the current musical landscape. Eitzel is a storyteller. His music is deconstructed and ethereal, more excursions in sound than solid compositions. In parts it comes across like The Doves - the deliberately off-time vocals sitting above big beats and tortured guitar lines. It’s all dripping with resignation; a sweep of vocal melodies that steadfastly refuses to take on any discernible pattern. A shotgun snare drives through a thick wall of sound, providing the only constant in a realm of ever-changing dynamics. Eitzel is a gifted songwriter. His grasp of complex rhythms are wrapped up in a veil of achingly personal lyrics. He’s slightly raw in his expression but musically grounded enough to pull it off without sounding overtly insular.