The umbrella fell

WE'RE SUPPORTING

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.

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Fitting Forward is a new Hamburg based Concept-Store which shows what simmers secretly behind the scenes. Every two months a new headstrong theme world will evolve out of a composition of fashion, product, accessories and illustration. The platform of the shop is a deep black lacquered room-in-room installation. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

Ever get that perfect casual jumper, but wished it had a hood? Well, Coal Headwear has produced the opposite to everyone else: not a jumper without a hood, but a hood without a jumper.

WE'RE THINKING

Though artistic genres from the last couple centuries inform Marc Burckhardt’s style, he is not a period fetishist. The playful way in which he incorporates visual jokes and modern themes has a simplicity to it, making each of his images self-contained and elegant. Read more

WE'RE READING

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.

There was a time, many moons ago, when I would only listen to bands off New Zealand’s Flying Nun label. Yup, I would strap myself into a comfy chair, put my headphones on and, armed with a chunk of chocolate coated Peanut Slab and a can of L&P, soak up album after album of wonderfully self-indulgent low-fi melancholy. Read more

WE'RE LISTENING TO

There’s no shortage of bands channeling the surf rock and psych of the 1960s, but the Super Vacations’ sloppy vocals, drunken guitar riffs, and blown out production give them a knowing swagger that has as much in common with Beat Happening and Thee Headcoats as with the Pyramids. They seem to take pride in how bad they are live, but their debut record shows a lot of potential.