Lost AT E Minor

Pamela Dale’s work is full of intricate detail: ‘Generally I’m trying to get a feel of the walk-in paradise’, she says. ‘Because these are large scale, you actually walk into them in a sense. You can get sucked into one of the flowers, but when you’re creating them it is like an organic development of shape upon shape and it also has echoes of how nature creates itself, the replication. Read more

Mercedes Helnwein’s pencil portraits are hyper-realistic and expressive at the same time. She stays apparently faithful to her subjects, but utilizes poses and lighting to obtain dramatic and expressive images. Read more

The My Town In My Home collection of hand-knitted fashion by Yoshikazu Yamagata and Mafuyu was exhibited at this year’s Amhem Mode Biennale in Amsterdam. Sure gives a new twist to the saying, ‘wherever I lay my hat …’ [see also the Brain Bag by Jun Takahashi]

DJ Spooky — That Subliminal Kid — is just about the deepest crate digger around, trawling the barrels of long-lost record stores for choice vinyl to spin in his wickedly dubby sets. He gave us the inside word last week on his eight favourite songs right now via our sister website, My Secret Playlist. This is what he had to say about Lee ‘Scratch’ Perry’s Panic in Babylon: ‘If there’s anything that the twenty-first century has told us, it’s that dub is the real original hip-hop. Lee Scratch even had to make it clear in 1965 by adding “Scratch” to his middle name. Take that, Grandmaster Flash!’ Read the rest of DJ Spooky’s Secret Playlist.

Says Van She bassist and vocalist Matt Van Schie about the Bush Tetras track — Too Many Creeps — from 1982: ‘I LOOOVE this tune. It opens with a perfect snare roll, and then the counter bass and guitar rhythms make it so cool. The lyrics are even more valid today. They’re one of my favourite bands of all time, and so many people try to do what they did for real. What a time! I wish I was born back then in New York, hanging out with these kids. Ahhhh!!’

There’s a world-weariness about Two Gallants frontman Adam Stephens. It reveals itself in the Tom Waits-like raspiness that permeates his gin house drawl and in the talkin’ blues narratives that he weaves around his simple acoustic fingerpicking. They are the new superstars of the West Coast scene, majestic showmen in homespun rags.

Listen to the Two Gallants track, The hand that held you down.

[audio:thehandthatheldyoudown.mp3]

Too beautiful to simply pass by, this is the Ring House by young Japanese architectural firm, TNA. Read more