one small seed » ISAM | one small seed

#bottomrightcorner February, Week 02

one small seed — Fri, 10 Feb 2012 10:45:06 +0000

Featured on the bottom right corner of onesmallseed.com is a selection of music from around the world, from electronic to hip-hop to dub-step to rock. This is the selection for week two. If you have any tracks that you’d like to share with us, you’ve made or helped produce please email connor@onesmallseed.com or sarahclaire@onesmallseed.com. #welikeitlouder

Photograph © Xolali Joval

Afrojack (think ‘Take Over Control’) and Shermanology put together this party track. We’re giving it to you just in time for the weekend. Originally played for Pete Tong on BBC Radio 1. Download ‘Can’t Stop Me Now’ by Afrojack ft. Shermanology

Frankie Rose, Photograph: n0-data

Released by Slumberland Records/Memphis Industries and produced by Le Chev, Interstellar is the latest album from Frankie Rose. Rose comments: “I always have a big picture in mind,” Frankie reflects. ‘I knew I wanted a HUGE sounding record. Big highs, big lows, and clean. There is no fuzz on this record. I knew I wanted to make a streamlined, spacious record with big choruses that sometimes referenced 80s pop.’ (SoundCloud)

ScHoolboy Q, Photograph: thefader.com

Some new West Coast hip-hop for you – it’s Quincy Matthew Hanley aka ScHoolboy Q’s second full-length album titled Habits & Contradictions.

Amon Tobin - ISAM, Photograph: the needle drop

‘Re-drawing and blurring the lines between psychedelia and sci-fi, between art and entertainment, between sound design and melody, Amon Tobin has created the finest, most intense work of his very considerable career, an extension and refinement of everything he has achieved thus far, a crowning achievement in the process that he describes as “re-ordering the things around me.”’ (SoundCloud) Released by: Ninja Tune. Check out our post about a collaboration between Tobin and sculpturer Tessa Farmer.

'Sex, Money, Crime' © Tannhauser Gate

‘Sex, Money, Crime’ is a track from local guys, Tannhauser Gate. Len Cockcraft breaks it down a bit: ‘It’s a synth-based project based around analogue gear and trying to stay away from DAW’s and VST’s as much as possible. Inspiration comes from bands such as Tense and White Car, Cabaret Voltaire and Kraftwerk to name a few.’ They’ll be playing in Jo’burg and Pretoria on the 1st and 2nd of March. Tannhauser Gate are also in the process of remixing an exclusive for the Los Angeles band The Present Moment who are released on the legendary French label Desire.

Bilderberg Motel, Photograph: ahymn.blogspot © Bilderberg Motel

Bilderberg Motel – 12122011 – Live E.P. Recorded Live at Kill City Blues by George van der Spuy (Mixed by George van der Spuy). Cape Town-based band Bilderberg Motel are Adrian Day (Guitar and Vocals), Sean Gibson (Guitar), Brett Foord (Guitar), Trish Davis (Tambourine, Vocals), Matt Goodall (Bass Guitar), Jean Labuschagne (Drums). © Bilderberg Motel on all tracks.

MIIKE SNOW, Photgraph: Stereogum

Miike Snow is – are – in a playful mood. The second, somewhat orchatronic, album by the three-headed-band with the one-man-name and mysterious Jackalope symbol is called Happy To You. (Source: Soundcloud)

source: n0-data, thefader.com, the needle drop, © Tannhauser Gate, ahymn.blogspot © Bilderberg Motel, Stereogum, © Xolali Joval

Control over Nature: Amon Tobin & Tessa Farmer

one small seed — Thu, 09 Feb 2012 10:44:11 +0000

Put the work of a Brazilian electronic music pioneer and a London-based sculptor in one room and you will get a sensational exhibition… A supernova of the senses.

© Dazed and Confused

Sculpturer Tessa Farmer is respected for her dimensional work made from insect carcasses, plant roots and other found natural materials. Neyrelle describes Tessa Farmer’s work as ‘hanging installations depicting Boschian battles between insects and tiny winged skeletal humanoids.’ Amon Tobin is considered to be one of the most influential electronic music artists in the world. Signed under British record label, Ninja Tunes, Tobin has released seven studio albums since 1996. Despite his commercial success, many could say it’s his live performance that surpasses any in-studio production.

Farmer and Tobin… Two minds with the same vision found each other and an exceptional collaboration was born. A exhibition/project which was called Control over Nature.

We are both re-arranging natural materials to build imagined places and characters that inhabit them. Tessa builds vicious fairies out of insect pieces and I have this album based on invented instruments and vocalists built from the things around me. (Amon Tobin, Dazed and Confused interview)

© Dazed and Confused

Throughout the years Brazilian-born Amon Adonai Santos de Araújo Tobin aka Amon Tobin has developed his personal and complex sound design and right now he wants to push things further focussing strongly on the visual element in his music.

Listening to ISAM for the first time was like falling down the rabbit hole in Alice and entering dark fairytale world. I was enchanted. Or ‘fairy -led’. There was a wonderful moment of realisation ‘Oooh so this is what ‘my work/ my world’ sounds like’. The music adds another level to the imagined worlds and creatures that already exist in my mind. I made the pieces that the music conjured in my mind, trying to translate the energy from one form to another and maintain a narrative that fits with the whole album. (Tessa Farmer, Dazed and Confused interview)

Amon Tobin is an artist who finds satisfaction only when there is a prominent aesthetic aspect that comes with his sound. And not just any visuals. The stage he has built for his newest live show ‘ISAM’ resonates with his desire to beyond what the audience expects. We have learnt not to expect anything.

The exhibition ran at the Crypt Gallery in Euston, London in the summer of 2011. Brussels, Berlin and North America also had the privilege to display this remarkable collaboration.

The exhibition is going to tour the world so hopefully it will go down well and build future opportunities for us both. In any case I’d love to do an animated short with Tessa at some point. (Amon Tobin, Dazed and Confused interview)

© Amon Tobin

© Amon Tobin

© Amon Tobin

This is how it should be, two talented artists collaborating to push the public’s imagination, senses and inspiration to new heights. It might have been called Control over Nature, but the control of people’s senses comes to mind too…

The idea came up while everyone was trying to think of a relevant visual reference for the album. None of my music is made with visuals in mind so it always comes after the album is done. In this case I think I got very lucky. (Amon Tobin, Dazed and Confused interview)

I think Amon is quite brave to allow a visual artist to interpret his music. This is from my point of view as I’m a control freak! (Tessa Farmer, Dazed and Confused interview)

source: Dazed and Confused, Neyrelle, Amon Tobin, YouTube, SoundCloud