Lost AT E Minor

WE'RE SUPPORTING

If I had a third thumb, I’d give Kumi Yamashita three thumbs up. The Japanese artist creates stunning visual effects with lighting and simple forms, like letters of the alphabet, children’s blocks, and shoeprints. Yamashita finds the rare balance between beauty and brains.

WE'RE LISTENING TO

The coolest band in Indonesia? I think so. White Shoes & The Couples Company describe themselves as a small band that is ‘influenced by Indonesian movie soundtracks from the 70s and inspired by the acoustic spirit of 1930’s classic jazz musicians’. But I like to think of them as carrying the torch for artists like Benny Goodman, Tahiti 80, and The Cardigans, all at the same time.

Listen to their track, Super Reuni.

WE'RE THINKING

Sauerkids is Mark Moget and Taco Sipma, an artist team working out of Rotterdam, Netherlands. Their illustration work is ‘a combination of innocent childhood imagery and the mental confusion of everyday life’.

WE'RE WEARING

One of Cyberoptix most popular designs is now on some amazing hand-woven, Fair Trade silk scarves. As always, they handscreen them all in their Detroit studio. Read more

WE'RE TRAVELLING TO

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

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

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.