If you are a fan of 8 bit pixel art…and I most definitely am…then you will ♥ these pixel tiles from PixelsXL.
5cm x 5cm magnetic polymer squares in a variety of bright colours that affix to the wall via a Ferric paint basecoat. Like the best things in life, simple and brilliant.
I NEED some! 
Great little magazine I stumbled upon…full of the achingly cool, the bleeding edge of style and design and the downright fun. The original is in French although Google Translate does a good job of rendering it in English.
[edit] ^^^^ Really? Then I’ll think twice about saying how good your blog is and advertising it in future! W**nkers.
http://compulsivebehaviour.net/
I must admit I know very little about this photographer, I stumbled upon their page earlier, but absolutely fantastic work. Wonderful characterisations, quirky, original and provocative. They ask as many questions as give answers, a strange portal into a glamorous, seedy, erotic world. Occasional swathes of neon lit secondary colours like the morning sun blinding you after a lost night in Soho. It’s rare to come across something so original in the world of photography but these really do have a uniqueness to them I find utterly compelling.
As 2011 comes to a close, we’ve just played our final show of the year, it’s time to take a brief look back over the last 12 months.
On a personal level it has been an extremely difficult year which undoubtedly has had a major impact on my creative work…it has still been a very productive year if not quite the year I expected stood at the threshold. As difficult as things have been the experiences all shape you, mould you, make you who you are.
The EP and album are still being made. Partly that’s a bad thing for anyone wanting the new music, but partly that is a good thing because I think things have shifted up to a new level, in terms of my ability, in terms of what I am able to do as a musician, as an artist and from a technical viewpoint. I couldn’t have made the album I am making 18 months ago. Maybe not even 12 months ago. And the potential is there. As a perfectionist. As somebody who wants to push himself to do better I think it deserved the time. Kairos.
After ushering in the New Year with an amazing show in London, honestly the first time I’ve had to turn my on stage monitors up because I could not hear myself over people screaming, I outlined the Robots EP and started working on that and the evolution of Modulate as a band, it’s brand and imagery. The shift from what we were and what we were becoming. Moving to stand more by ourselves. Less caring about fitting in to any perceived scene and more and more moving into other areas that excited us.
The first real test of the new material was the Resistanz festival in Sheffield. A stellar lineup alongside a lot of artists who were personal favourites and who had inspired me, plus a very appreciative ‘home’ audience with a lot of friends. It’s always a little nerve racking to test new material ice cold before an audience, perhaps I was so far in the zone, lost in the lights, smoke and sound that I didn’t fully appreciate the show until I saw the footage back afterwards but it really was something special.
Then a lot of work pulling the rest of the tour together for Europe over the summer before heading off to Canada for the Kinetik festival in May. It’s been a while since we played to a North American audience and their passion and enthusiasm never ceases to amaze me. I wasn’t sure if they would still be hungry to see us or how they would react to the new material but they were rabid. I think we were the only band of the festival with a slam pit.
View from the stage @ Festival Kinetik, May 2011
Sadly a couple of shows ended up being cancelled in Europe but these things happen sometimes. After much stress the UK tour in July went fantastically well. Our first genuine headline tour in the sense of concerts that were not part of club nights. We would live or die by our audience and draw alone. It started slow in Southampton, but fresh territory with a small scene, we expected it. London has always been a good hunting ground for us, Birmingham was fresh turf for us and they surprised us all with their enthusiasm, a hometown show in Manchester headlining the Academy 3 was a real coming of age moment for the band. An upward trajectory all the way to Glasgow, ending on a huge high. We love playing there, no hang ups, no pretensions, solid passionate people who enjoy themselves, live to party and bring it every time.
September saw us head to Ireland for a great show supporting Covenant. Particularly enjoyable because I played a double shift, standing in on keyboards for Covenant as well as Modulate. Like Glasgow, I always feel at home in Dublin. Similar in brick as in people and all up for a good time. Over to Utrecht, DJ sets in Antwerp and Birmingham, then off to Athens to play with Covenant again at the turn of October. It’s always a pleasure to travel…one of the great joys of being a musician is to see the world, spend a little time in new places and do some sight seeing, take in the local culture. Thankfully this epic roller coaster has provided me with plenty of opportunity to travel more than I could have ever imagined.
The purple patch seemed to kick in creatively afterwards, October saw serious progress in the studio. New tracks taking shape, old ones being changed, torn to pieces and reassembled improved. Skills improving. Ideas. The creative impulse ebbing and flowing. It was definitely flowing.
To end the year for the live band, a few days in Lisbon, Portugal. Halloween is usually guaranteed to be a riotous night and this lived up to it’s billing. Horrible technical problems during the set with the mixing desk and PA but we ploughed on and made as best a triumph as we could out of the situation.
So now? Nearing completion on the EP, planning for 2012. Things on the horizon. Exciting times ahead.
Cool work from these guys, everything from visual installation pieces to stage and light design for from of the biggest artists on the world stage to innovative catwalk shows for the fashion industry.
Fantastic website from the artist Michael Najjar, visulising the links between reality and the data and networkings that underpin modern society.
http://www.gupmagazine.com/portfolios/215#
Sad to hear of the death of the artist Cy Twombly. With his scratchy, semi calligraphic style he influenced and informed the work of many later artists and graphic designers. There was a rawness, a viscerality to his work that I always enjoyed. You could see the emotions in the strokes, the lines, the great attacks of colour. Oddly, his work always seemed popular with musicians. There was something raw, imperfect but vital that seemed to strike a chord with many of us. It felt like there was something ‘coming out’ in his work, something essential that he had to wrench out, release, put down on canvas. A cleansing, purging. Similar in many ways to musicians wringing catharsis out of their instruments.
