Hellen Jo

WE'RE SUPPORTING

Canadian illustrator Courtney Wotherspoon layers delicate image upon image to create the most captivating, colourful kaleidoscopes, an effect only enahanced by her trademark multimedia, everything-and-the-kitchen-sink execution. The result of this approach is particularly refreshing. We can rest assured that something wholly new and exciting will emerge from Wotherspoon’s studio each and every delectable time. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

Just a few days ago, Benjamin Verdoncke climbed out of the human-sized nest he’d been residing in for the past seven days. The Belgian artist took six weeks to build the nest, which hung fifty metres high against a skyscraper in Rotterdam. Read more

WE'RE WEARING

AJ Dimarucot is a Manila-based designer specializing in t-shirt graphics. His work is electric, bursting with colour and momentum, like something you’d see in the Big Bang section at the Museum of Natural History. Or something like that. Read more

WE'RE THINKING

Colorful is certainly the word when talking about the work of UK artist Simon Wild. It’s hard to be in anything but an upbeat mood after staring at all the swirling colors and bright shapes for even a minute or so.

WE'RE READING

Philly indie rock group Dr Dog recently compiled a crackling Secret Playlist for us which included props for songs by Cass McCombs, Thunderclap Newman, and the new time rag star, A.A Bundy, about whose track, Vice Rag, keyboardist Zach Miller wrote: ‘Good enough to be a classic old timey melody, except with more contemporary lyrical vices added. Great guitar playing’. And so it is [yup, the proof's in the audio below]. You can read more about Dr Dog’s favourite songs via the My Secret Playlist website.

Peter Nalitch is Russia’s answer to Manu Chao. His video for the song Guitar is a Borat-like jab at low-budget, post-Soviet awkwardness — absurd English lyrics, Eurotrash earnestness, bad wipes, and cheap subtitles. But its tongue-in-cheekness is quite apparent, and the song is disarmingly catchy and romantic.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

Anyone who thinks black metal is too rigid and narrow a genre to have room for innovation would do well to check out Lifelover, a Swedish band that defies every convention of black metal while still remaining miraculously kvlt. The sextet wafts between languid, hallucinatory grooves that channel Iggy Pop and latter-day Cure to unhinged freak-outs that sound as if they’re emanating from the deepest, coldest forests of Norway.