Music / Duffy
Musically, Duffy, fits loosely into the ‘soul’ bracket, although the diverse talent strutting across her work makes it hard to truly categorise. Comparisons are most commonly drawn with Dusty Springfield: her voice is distinctive and astonishingly powerful, soaring out of the speakers and injecting the listener with a sense of nostalgia and longing. This is in part driven by the lo-fi production — courtesy of ex-Suede guitarist, Bernard Butler — which gives a timeless quality to the 23-year-old Welsh singer-songwriter’s music that both harks back to the pre-rock era, and yet feels perfectly at home in 2008. Rockferry [above], her first single, is laden with imagery and atmosphere. The song centres on the hackneyed story of broken love — incorporating elements of folk, country, blues and soul — yet is delivered in a mature and distinguished fashion: incredibly haunting yet lasting, and likely to stay in your head for a good while after.
Also by FRANCIS ANDREWS
If you ever happen to find yourself riding across the mid-west on horseback with an iPod jangling about in your holster, be sure to let these guys soundtrack the experience. Similarly, sticking a bit of Calexico on at any hour on any journey wouldn’t seem out of place. They’re cleverly fusing a range of genres, mixing some good old country with US indie, a bit of jazz and even, in 2003’s Feast of Wire, some smatterings of electronica. The end result isn’t a messy product in the slightest but very tight and soothing. Lead singer Joey Burns gives a healthy amount of cowboy twang and the soaring orchestral background and sweet country guitar licks add a real atmosphere to the music, while the pace and chord sequences are catchy beyond belief.
Listen to the Calexico song, Convict Pool.
It beggars belief how such a good sound can go unnoticed for so long. British three-piece The Shortwave Set have been dilligently crafting some very fine songs since 2005, yet are only gradually making a name for themselves. Read more
Bill Callahan Woke on a Whaleheart
Bill Callahan’s Woke on a Whaleheart is a little trip I take myself on every now and then when I’m looking to really sink myself into a piece of music. Read more
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If ever there were an apt description of our time, it would be that we are the ‘mobile generation’, in every sense of the word. We are a people of movers, we are offered choice on so many levels. And, in this way, we are far removed — both in ideology and practice — from those generations before us, who were generally more static and certainly less transitory. Read more
The incendiary energy of Canadian quartet, Tokyo Police Club is electric. We caught up with keyboardist, Graham Wright. Read more
I’ve been a big fan of Michelle Vandermeer’s work since I came across her Mini Majellen zines at this year’s Sydney Writers Festival. Describing herself as a doer — as in one of those people who are always doing or making something — Michelle’s work, which includes book binding, illustration, jewelery making and her zines, stems from an internal creative springboard and a double degree in architecture and graphic design. Her work is smart and succinct. Read more
In my next life, I want to sing like Frightened Rabbit frontman Scott Hutchison. Oh, and grow a lush beard, so I can play in their band. Better start cracking.
The young architect Junya Ishigami is pushing the boundaries of the weightless aesthetic stream of architecture. Here, for the Kanagawa Institute of Technology, he has designed a glass and steel pavilion with a roof that floats on a sparse forest of thin steel columns or ‘flats’. Read more
A new idea has emerged in Norway that we think could be the precursor to things to come in the way our societies interact and develop. The general gradual demise of traditional gathering places such as town halls, community centers and churches has seemingly gone in hand with a generational shift and sharp increase in online virtual communities. However, humans still need to rub shoulders at some point to get things done, until, say, we perfect the sensitive hologram. Read more
The Virtual Shoe Museum was initiated by Liza Snook in 2004. Once the idea was born, a long search began for designers, photographers and publishers connected to shoes. New friendships developed and their mailbox filled with loads of material on fantastic shoes, art and design on shoes. The Shoe featured above is the Electric Light Shoe by Strawberry Frog.
WE'RE POSTING / SOME OF THE BEST
Susan Rudat’s woodblock artwork
Susan Rudat’s pen and ink Moleskin artwork rules. Her lines are remarkably precise, and have the quality of old etchings and woodcuts. Read more
On the cattle ranch with Erika Larsen
Erika Larsen’s cattle ranch photographs have a surreal yet timeless quality to them. I would never have guessed that they were commissioned by a business magazine. We caught up with the New York-based photographer recently to find out about her time on the ranch. Read more
The Howling Bells on their big Bell Hit
The first time I saw Howling Bells play was a blustery Sydney evening a few years back when I’d gotten the word from singer Juanita Stein’s brother — Ari — that an ‘event’ was going down and I was to do whatever it took to get in to see it. Tired and feeling unsociable, I scrubbed up nonetheless and made my way down a winding Oxford Street to a small club just before the red light district of Darlingurst. Read more
With just a matter of days before one of the most anticipated and controversial Olympic Games in years kicks off in Beijing, Boston.com has cobbled together a bunch of surreal photos from the wires that depicts the hyper-sanitized, white-washed, and quasi-futuristic city Beijing has become. Read more
Ok, so I’m speaking from first-hand perspective here because as I type on this warm morning, with the faintest slither of sun creeping its way through the privacy blinds in my living room, I’m wearing the very same shirt that the dude in this photo is wearing. Yup, the same damn one. Perhaps I’m not looking quite as groomed as he is, but hey, it’s a start. Australian fashion label Das Monk is my new favourite t-shirt label and this shirt is more comfortable to wear that a thousand pairs of Ozone socks. Das Monk? Yes it is.
Thanks to our friends at Universal Music, we have three Beck 7″ vinyl Chemtrails singles, off his new Modern Guilt album, to give away to randomly selected Australian subscribers. Read more
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