A beginner’s Guide to Stereolab
…inside you are the sun, the moon and also stars…
Forget everything you’ve heard or will hear over the next few months about Stereolab [stereolab.co.uk] as they release their first album in like, forever. If you’re of the opinion that there is something weirdly monotone about the vast canon of music they have released over the years, then here a brief list of a few surprising entries. For the uninitiated, Stereolab have to be one of the most prolific, label-hopping bands in the history of music. Their discography is extensive and baffling. Consider this a ‘way in’…
The Light That Will Cease To Fail — from the Super 45 EP, later released on Switched-on Volume 01 / (He Held The World In His Iron Grip) — a special treat at the end of the slightly arduous, Elektro from the Low Fi EP / The Seeming and the Meaning & K-Stars — from debut LP, Peng! / U.H.F. - M.F.P. — from The Groop Played Space Age Bachelor Pad Music EP / Lo Boob Oscilator — from the Lo Boob Oscilator Single, later released on Refried Ectoplasm (Switched On , Volume 2) / Les Yper-Sound — from Emperor Tomato Ketchup / Brakhage — from Dots and Loops / Outer Bongolia — from The First of the Microbe Hunters EP / Escape Pod (From The World Of Medical Observations) — from the Cobra And Phases Group Play Voltage In The Milky Night Bonus Disc / Munich Madness — from Aluminium Tunes (Switched On Volume 3) / Nothing to do with me (with lyrics taken from Chris Morris’s Jam) — from Sound-Dust
That’s enough to be going on with, huh. For die hard Stereolab fans, why not check out ‘Turn On’, an album of largely instrumental tracks produced as a side project with Sean O’Hagan. Oh, you have? Pardon moi.
Lost Classics: Zeroville
In one of the more ‘irregular’ series of posts on Boicozine, we present another awesome film that has, through no fault of it’s own, been relegated to the dusty archive of forgotten cine classiques. Zeroville, or to use it’s correct Russian title, Город Зеро (Zero City) [iMDB] is a droll yet hypnotic film whose steady tone only highlights the escalating absurdity of the story and the bizarre mini tableaux (there is actually a number of scenes featuring a few literal tableaux) that populate it. Sadly, near impossible to find and rarely on the telly, you’ll have to make do with a handful of YouTube clips for now, like the one below, or you could check out more accessible films made by director, Karen Shakhnazarov [russia-ic.com]. If you get a chance to see this one either on telly or at the cinema, pop along (even if just for the scene in the restaurant when our main character is served a cake that bears a remarkable resemblance to his own head). There’s nowt like it.
What’s Up #35: Jarrik Muller
Typography is my aeroplane. I think it may be Jarrik Muller’s too [getbusyfoklazy.web-log.nl], in which case he ain’t never coming down cause this stuff is delirious fun. The image below is from a submission for Rojo [rojo-magazine.com] magazine. His foliosite is divided in two to separate out personal projects and study projects. Not so lazy then, really.
Stuff from above #4
Stuff from above for this month includes clockwise from top left (going in a sort of spiral motion): Dear Lulu book [lulu.com] by James Goggin [practise.co.uk] and students from Hochschule Darmstadt as an experiment to test the print limited of the Lulu.com POD publishing system. × The little patterned square is called ‘Arthur’s Weave’ and is a new Bunkum Replete print to be produced for Bon Bon Kakku [bonbonkakku.com] in the coming months × 25×4 [25by4.channel4.com] is a book produced to commemorate the 25th anniversary of radical british television broadcaster, Channel 4 [channel4.com]. Designed with appropriate vim and verve by Spin [spin.co.uk] × Great British Editorial [indexbook.com] is a weighty tome featuring a random assortment of… well, what it says on the tin, which hangs together surprisingly well, even with the omission of any sort of explanatory copy. × The Fever Zine sandwich is an ace little compendium of illustrations produced by Alex and Simon at Fever Zine [simonwhybray.com/feverzine] for this year’s V&A Village Fete [scarletprojects.com] × The little square here are Bunkum Replete prints currently available, again through Bon Bon Kakku × Athletes is a minibook / exhibition catalogue featuring illustration by Siggi Eggertsson [vanillusaft.com] as shown at the Vallery gallery in Barcelona [vallery.es] × Kasino A4 [wearekasino.com]. Why has it taken me so long to write about this awesome magazine? A curse on meself for not mentioning it earlier. It is ace. This is the family issue, which naturally features input from the editorial teams various family members (including some ace fashion shoots). Will give you the warm fuzzies. × I know many of you tend to turn your nose up at collectable designer vinyl figures but have a look at these [strangeco.com]. They’re so darn cute. They’re designed by Friends Like You [friendswithyou.com] and go by the name of ‘Wish Come True’. They… er… jingle too.
Assistance (Psst, Pass it on)
We need help: Press Publish, publisher of this here blog amongst other things, is looking for someone to help out with our many and varied activities. We need help writing and posting blog entries, answering emails, preparing artwork, attending events, documenting projects and generally keeping things moving.
All you will need: is an innate interest in any combination of editorial, design and publishing (hopefully all three). Experience not necessarily necessary. Enthusiasm and a finely tuned sense of fun (‘finely tuned sense of fun’… does that sound right to you? I’m not sure) will rank pretty high.
Register your interest and find out more by emailing michael[at]presspublish.info with the subject line ‘Assistance’. Include anything you think may be relevant. You can send formal CVs if you like, although we’ll probably be more interested in your interests and self-initiated stuff. Most jobs are boring anyways. :) Hope to hear from you soon… whoever you may be.
— The Management
All your back issues are belong to us
You can now pick up all four issues of the super lo-fi Fever Zine from their newly launched online shop [feverzine.co.uk]. Also, get yourself involved with their online network on myspace and facebook — they’ll soon be looking for all kinds of contributors for Issue 5.
And Freakin’ Shoes!
Yes, I’ve gone completely POD crazy. Did you know that Zazzle are now offering customisable canvas shoes? Madness, huh. I had to have a go utilising some of the designs I’ve been posting over at Bon Bon Kakku [bonbonkakku.com]. They’re not the most super stylish of models and trainer-heads are likely to sniff at them but when you can put yer own pattern on them… who gives a toss, really. POD it’s all about you… but mostly it’s about me. Me. Me. Me… sorry, we. We. We. We. See the latest bunkum replete prints on yer feets here (they’ll be posted in the boicoshop too eventually) [zazzle.com/retailfashions] and [zazzle.com/retailfashions].
Be Damned Again
I love a good independent publishing fair and this one is the daddy [publishandbedamned.org.uk]. What sets Publish & Be Damned apart from any other indie publishing fair is that this one is carefully curated. You can’t just turn up with a bunch of raggedy photocopies in yer hand. This is the creme-de-la-creme of zine culture. Turn up this Sunday to the Rochelle School in East London [afoundation.org.uk/rochelle], or be damned to spend the rest of eternity never knowing just how cool indie publishing can be. There’s a full list of participants (including the excellent Fever Zine [feverzine.co.uk]) on the website or look em up on [facebook]. You can see some pics from last year’s event on [flickr].
Need to Know Basis #3
Spanish design and style magazine, Neo2 has just launched a blog [neo2.es/blog] and it’s pretty darn ace. Be sure to stop by the typography section where you can download some adventurous experiments with various letterforms. ¶ Punchdrunk [punchdrunk.org.uk] make amazing, immersive theatrical experiences. Their shows are guaranteed sell-outs and once experienced you’ll agree that there is nothing else like them. For their last sell-out event, which used the Edgar Allen Poe story ‘The Masque of the Red Death’ as a starting point, saw them taken over most of the Battersea Arts Centre [bac.org.uk]. Inside you were free to roam the many themed and dressed rooms, watching impromptu performances and seeking out hidden treasures. To get the jump on their next extravaganza you can now become a friend of Punchdrunk and help support this unique outfit. ¶ Mike Perry’s ‘Over & Over’ [papress.com] is only slightly disappointing because it follows on the heals of the excellent ‘Hand Job’ [papress.com]. The problem is a lot of the hand drawn stuff just starts to look a bit ’samey’. Still worth checking out. The spread above features the work of Stefan Marx [livincompany.de] ¶ Neon Addict [rampub.com], on the other hand, is deliriously ‘active’ stuff. The theme: nothing Pantone Florescent inks. The contributors: Bright sparks from the Japanese (and International) creative scene such as Adapter [adapter.jp], Alexander Gelman [designmachine.net/gelman], collect.apply [collectapply.jp] and Namaiki [namaiki.com]. This bright little package is then wrapped tight by the design team behind the Japanese edition of Dazed & Confused [nmca], ASYL [asyl.co.jp] and Bluemark [bluemark.co.jp]. ¶ It’s the Graniph annual tshirt design awards again. Check out the winners and grinners at [graniph.com/award]. ¶ Magazine as ‘finely crafted artifact’. That’s how the creators of Popular Noise describe their ace, new(ish) publication [popularnoise.net]. I dare you to find a more elaborate periodic format than this. 3 x 7″ vinyl records are slotted into a concertina’d and letter pressed poster. Editions are understandably limited to 300 per edition. ¶ Cecilia Lindgren [cecilialindgren.com] is Art Editor, and the woman behind, last year’s refresh of the Architects’ Journal [architectsjournal.co.uk]. She dropped us a line to let us know about a musical compilation called Cortical Songs on Non-Classical records [nonclassical.co.uk] which she has lent her design talents to. Cracking line-up too.
BTW Note to indie (and major) publishers everywhere. Keep sending in any announcements you may have and we’ll keep try to post em but if you want images of yer projects up on Boicozine either send us a copy for us the photograph (we love free stuff) or some unique imagery we can use. Cheers!
— with love from The Management
100 Things: #004
For the Hakusan pottery company visit [www1.ocn.ne.jp/~hakusan].
[← Previous]
