Lost AT E Minor

The Dodos’ Visiter

Like a packet of perfectly seasoned pistachio nuts, I can’t put this album down until it’s well and truly finished: until every last morsel of taut, snappy percussion and hypnotic vocals have been digested. They’re like Animal Collective at the wind-down hour - slightly more stabilised and with the psychotic fits tempered into a soothing, trance-inducing pace. Somehow it’s also immediately catchy, laced with subtle hooks and soaring backing vocals. It’s the sort of sound that sucks you into their warm world, likely to cause you to miss your bus stop if your mind sinks too far into the rich chasm of tracks like Red and Purple [below] or The Ball. Listen closely, because this might well be one of the releases of the year.

Scour, a new way of searching the net

Have you heard about Scour yet? If not you will. It is quickly emerging as the most serious competitor to the Google search engine, with an approach based on votes and comments from users focusing on relevance. It delivers search results from Google, Yahoo and MSN, and the best feature is that each time you search, vote or comment, you receive points which can be exchaged for VISA gift cards. Sour gives you one point for each search, two points for each vote and three points for each comment. With around 6,500 points, you will receive a $25 VISA gift card. Not bad for doing something you’re doing now anyway for free.

Shadows and Dust

When it comes to making an entrance, nothing says rock star quite like a pair of leather pants. If you’ve tried this look at home, you’d know that finding a flattering leather statement piece is much harder than it looks. So it’s lucky for us that leather is Melbourne label Shadows & Dust’s specialty. Designer Stephen Jones sources skins from all over the world to create butter-soft ruffled jackets, skinny trousers, vests and shorts. And what makes this label stand out from the rest is that it takes three workers an entire day to create each unisex leather garment. In a society of mass manufacture, that’s what we like to call a rarity.

Jeff Luker

Seriously, nothing beats good old 35mm film. To me photography isn’t about capturing every pore in someone’s face, or even making slick, magazine-ready images. The imperfections in film put just enough distance between the viewer and the moment that allows room for an emotional and nostalgic response. Digital photos are generally so vivid that it eliminates all the mystery of an image. Check out Jeff Luker’s photostream to see what I mean. Read more

New Practical Heritage

Herzog and de Meuron, the Swiss architects, have led the way with this re-use of the existing building fabric of CaixaForum in Madrid. Rather than being slavish to the existing openings, the building has been cut away for a contemporary practicality. We think this is an example of heritage not getting in the way of progress. Check out a similar concept of a previous post re-using the city fabric, where we were dreaming of such thing.