Australian singer/songwriter, Bertie Blackman, is one of the new breed of exciting talents bursting out of the thriving Sydney acoustic scene. Her latest album Black is sublime — full of catchy guitar pop. She tells us exclusively about it. Why Black as the album title? ‘It’s a word that’s extremely fascinating to me. At first glance it makes you stop, but then invites you into a world that is unpredictable and powerful. Black can mean death and life, sensuality and fear, rebellion, anarchy, nothingness and then everything. It has polar opposite meanings to many different cultures and religions. Its meaning is infinite and I like that’. It seems that for the length of your career you’ve always operated just below the surface of the mainstream — both in terms of the music you write and the audience who listen to it. Is that a comfortable place to be? ‘I don’t think I could be mainstream if I tried. It’s not something I think about much, but I’m comfortable with the fact that I am not ‘boxed’ in with everybody’. When you’re sitting at home and strumming on a guitar, what song are you most likely to be playing? ‘It’s usually my own’.
Also by ZOLTON
Crimea X is the coming together of two offbeat, disparate characters, DJ Rocca (Ajello, Super Sonic Lovers, Maffia Sound System) and Jukka Reverberi from 90s Italian glam cult rockers, Giardini di Mirò, who have often have been compared with the sound of Mogwai, Arab Strap, and Godspeed You! Black Emperor. We asked them about their favourite music and they started with The Smiths song, Ask [listen below] ‘I saw them playing live on Italian TV. It was during the 80s when I was extremely young, and I’ve never stopped listening to this song’. Read the rest of Crimea X’s Secret Playlist.

I love the curated selection of abandoned swimming pool photos on Feature Shoot today, featuring work by Carlo Van de Roer and Albert Jodar, amongst others.

Win a set of Sony personal audio prizes
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
YOU'RE SAYING (1)
HAVE YOUR SAY
The beautiful, minimalist and slightly irreverent design aesthetic that Barcelona’s Chic & Basic Born Hotel sets up with its stunning interior layout is carried through perfectly into its product packaging, which features cheeky, bold messaging in large, unadorned fonts. Read more
This mini-museum is right next to that shining fortress of New York’s MOMA and always has interesting shows, is never crowded, and the works are sure to inspire you. The Folk Art Museum is best known for putting now-popular outsider artist Henry Darger under a huge spotlight. And they’re showing some of his masterpieces yet again. Don’t miss it! Read more
Love your Converse All Stars? Well, designer Daryl Van Wouw has taken his obsession to the next level, creating an entire pant and shoe configuration. Yes, it’s a very interesting design. But practical? That depends entirely on the whims of the individual.
Ring the bells, we’ve recently launched a Facebook Fan Page. So now you can get your daily fix of cultural goodness and continue to make Mark Zuckerberg rich in the process. So please become a fan, then let us know which of the friends above you’ll be [psst, we bags the Tiny Dangerous One]
The work on the Buero NY website is amazing — it’s my art direction obsession! So much work, so many cool clients … what a fantasy.
I spent the formative first six years of my life in Wellington, New Zealand, a beautiful windswept city framed by a magnificent harbour in one direction and a stunning collection of green, rolling hills in the other. It was here, on a return visit many years later and deep amongst the clipped accents and ruddy faces of the weather-beaten locals, that I stumbled upon the vast catalogue of the then Dunedin based record label Flying Nun. And what a roster of acts they housed — The Chills, The Bats, The Clean, Tall Dwarfs, The Verlaines, and my favourite guitar-pop band, Straitjacket Fits. Read more
The Presets are a Sydney-based electronic duo, consisting of Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes. In September 2005 they released their debut album, Beams, to positive critical response. That same year Julian Hamilton and Kim Moyes also toured with The Dissociatives, which is co-fronted by Daniel Johns of Silverchair and Australian dance producer Paul Mac. Johns also played guitar on Presets single Cookie. Hamilton and Moyes are also members of Sydney instrumental group Prop.
Listen to The Presets song, My People.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST

Hong Kong-based illustrator Man-Tsun draws dark and beautiful painterly images that look like they are straight off a high-end Japanese animated film. Read more

Our celebrity-saturated culture makes many of us irrationally hateful of the faces we see on our TV screens and magazine pages. Good thing there’s Celebrity PunchOut to let off some of that steam.

Good thing Kris Kuksi channelled the trauma of growing up with an alcoholic stepfather, his disdain for ‘the typical American life and pop culture’, and his fascination with the macabre into obsessive, baroque assemblages, paintings, and drawings. Read more

I live the upbeat, feel good tempo of the new single — A Hundred Hearts — from Philly group, The Swimmers. Off their latest album, People Are Soft, this song is a strangely fitting anthem for the blustery day outside.

Trip out with Sparrow Vs Sparrow’s retro illustrations, I love their aesthetic, color use and sense of humor. Read more
Thanks to Sony Australia, four Lost At E Minor readers will win personal audio prizes, including the new 8GB Walkman S series video MP3 player and the MDRXB500 Extra Bass headphones. Read more
Warning at Work is a silkscreen mini-print from Sussex based illustrator Andy Smith which comes in a limited edition of just 50. Dimensions are 20cm x 15cm. We have them available through the Lost At E Minor store. Read more
DISCOVER MORE
SO...
SEARCH: Can't find what you're looking for? Do a search..
IS IT GOOD FOR YOU TOO?
We hope you're enjoying your time on Lost At E Minor, but it’s not over yet. Got something to share? Tell us about it and we'll look to publish it. If you want to have your work featured on the site, we'd love to hear from you. Pssst, we also have an online store stocking some of the goodies we feature on the site.
If you're a media agency and want to use this platform to connect with our readership, then drop us a line and tell us about it. Oh yeah, and we do digital consulting for cool brands that want to reach the sort of demographic that visits this site.














Dan said | 6 November, 2006
I love her press photo with the dogs. That must’ve been a nightmare to arrange.