Yooooo, have you heard of Altın Gün?! It’s a Turkish psychedelic band from the Netherlands.
Last month I heard their music playing at Rooster Coffee House (one of Toronto’s best cafes), and it was so fresh that I’ve been listening to their albums on a loop:
Check out the track Cemalim, too.
My only previous exposure to Turkish singing has been through the band She Past Away. If a secret little goth heart doth beat under your lace undershirt, then you should be listening to them. It sounds like… if The Cure was a Harkonnen band.
Low-Poly Art
Did you know that you’re allowed to make physical airbrush art that looks like a glitched out Playstation game? I didn’t either!
I wanted to share the art of Sasha Yazov, but found enough similar artists that I got carried away and it became it’s own post for you to check out.
Heikki Lotvonen
Heikki’s Garden of Flowers made the online rounds in June – it is an exceptional database of typographical art (the moveable-type precursor to ASCII art).
This database is a staggering effort. I am not surprised that it took Heikki 8 years to collect the images he’d made available in that one place. I’ve done something similar, collecting all images related to the Victorian-era Printers International Specimen Exchange, and I’ll tell you that what Heikki’s Garden of Flowers is something really special.
I was particularly impressed by this image from a printer in 1870s Spain that inspired Heikki:
Keep in mind that the above image was composed of hundreds of pieces of lead, all arranged and held together in place under tension with other metal/wooden pieces. Aesthetically outstanding relative to what contemporary (and future!) printers would be doing.
DEFINITELY check out his “colly” thesis as well:
Speaking of typography, check out these specimen books of the French “Turlot” Foundry. Examples:
Chinese Republic-Era Calendar Posters
Let’s say that somebody got an all-in-Chinese book about Chinese advertising calendar art from the ~1930s and it’s been on their mind. Here’s a similar book with lots of photos (press the “PDF” button to download).
These posters usually featured attractive ladies, heartwarming domestic scenes, or folktales. Some were really well done:
Some of them are delightfully unusual – like ladies playing golf, or this woman out hunting with her dog (remember, this is 1920s-1930s China, not the British countryside!)
Some of the illustrations were hilariously bad:
Oh no, some of these cigarette brands…
I want to say that calendar advertising is some odd phenomenon from 100 years ago, but then… each year, my family eagerly awaits a pictorial calendar that our local dentists’ office sends out to the neighbourhood. It’s the only bit of advertising they do, and it stands out. Calendar advertising still has a place in modern day marketing!
Cleaners from Venus
Aside from Altin Gun, I’ve been obsessed with the Cleaners From Venus. It is a (mostly) one-man band from the 1980s. Martin Newell seems to be a bit of a cult home-recording and casette publishing hit.
Here are a couple of their tracks:
I personally really like “Only a Shadow“, “Mercury Girl” and “Night Starvation“. But there are sooooo many good tracks.
Someone may have bought his autobiography and paid more for shipping than the price of the actual book.
Something about Cleaners from Venus reminds me of the modern musicians Bickle and Oliver Malcolm:
Fictional Videogames
Check out these fictional videogame stills made by Suzanne Treister:
We’ve truly lost the ability to make beautiful computer art like that. All that I – a modern man wunderkind – could manage was Mr. Worm below. (made with HEAVYPAINT):
Baby Limbs
Could I interest you in marble carvings of the limbs of the royal children?
The Victorians were truly demented.
“I Dreamt of Kittens”
We’ll wrap up with a spread from a Zine that was made by students of Heikki Lotvonen using unusual graphic design tools from his list:
